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Mass Effect 2; Game Review

2010-02-05
hey guys LP here from TechnoBuffalo welcome back for another very very exciting game review and it's time we give PC gaming some love because after all I do most of my gaming with my trusty old PC I plead the first Mass Effect on a PC a couple of months back and truthfully I was a bit bewildered by the freakishly high review score the first one received I have to admit while I like the first game I was slightly disappointed the story was good but overly political most of the characters were a bit boring and technically also the first game had its issues but the game did pull me in enough to get me excited about the sequel the second part of the trilogy pulls you in from the very first scene with a Normandy is destroyed by a surprise attack by the Reaper recruited collectors commander shepard goes down with the ship the game gives you the possibility of importing your character from the first game so all the choices you made in the first Mass Effect good ones and bad will be transferred into the new adventure and once again you can choose to play as the good guy or as the badass renegade but some I don't know maybe it's because I'm a bit of a goody two-shoes but some I always tend to take the high road my conscience starts to get the better of me when I start punching innocent game characters in the face well at least most of the time two years have passed and Shepard is revived and were built by a pro human organization called Cerberus led by the elusive man 4.click by Martin Sheen not unusual for people who know what you and I know the elusive man is a character that commands respect and come on you really can't say no to Martin Sheen whether the mission is to save the world or slaughter some babies that one man one very specific man might be all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat of our brief existence the Reapers good to see your memories still intact anyways the illusive man sets you on a mission to put together a team willing to risk their lives and capable of taking down the evil collectors who have been abducting entire colonies of humans in the outer rims of the Milky Way so you set out to the four corners of the galaxy to recruit a motley crew of misfits and some old friends as well you will encounter other members of your old team in different parts of the galaxy who have moved on with the careers and lives after the commander Sheppard's rumoured demise the story of Mass Effect 2 is very much character driven and the actual character development and individual stories of the characters are what said Mass Effect 2 apart from the first game a large credit to the characters is the excellent voice talent you've spent too much time fighting thugs who think custom-painted armor makes the professionals while I still think the voice actor playing commander shepard is a bit stiff the game itself features a star-studded cast the likes of which has never been seen in a single video game Seth Green is back as the new Normandy sarcastic pilot Joker here you know this is really nice edie took up the slack in every department I could get used to this kind of help and Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica voices the ship's built in artificial intelligence eating I have the capacity to a comment the slacking of any number of productively suspect humans Shepard that was a joke Yvonne Strahovski from the TV series Chuck plays the sultry Cerberus agent Miranda Lawson and I had to see that the character of Miranda is one of the best game portrayals of a real person the likeness is impeccable down to the teeth earlier discussion I think we're crazy but I haven't forgotten assuming you're still interested oh I'm definitely interested glad to hear it I'll be by the next time things are quiet carrie-anne moss plays a mobster queen and michael hogan from Battlestar Galactica plays the chief of seasick police at the Citadel this isn't the Presidium all they have to worry about our protesters outside their free speech zones or someone's poodle crapping on the grass we also find the excellent Adam Baldwin and a great cast of other recognizable voice talent it's simply the best ensemble cast that I've seen and heard in a single video game and it's very cool to see games finally starting to attract even the most respected actors we tried to keep you as intact as possible we need Shepherd just as you were when you defeated sovereign the individual storylines of the team members this time are genuinely interesting and you actually end up caring whether most of them live or die and in Mass Effect 2 the choices you make may end up getting your crew members killed in the end and this time upgrading your weapons armor and ship will play a part in this and the game truly does reward you immensely for leveling up and exploring the galaxy the first game did not immerse me enough to get me exploring random planets but in Mass Effect 2 side missions are more interesting and more than just skin deep and speaking of skin you probably remember a couple years back all the talk about the sex in Mass Effect and yes in Mass Effect 2 you can develop a romantic relationship that may or may not lead to you putting on some Barry White luckily the scenes are done with very good taste but still it's not a kids game so parents take responsibility the pacing of the game has been tightened up to great avail the missions are just the right length to keep you interested and this time you don't need to backtrack from where you came after completing a mission in the first game developing your characters it was a bit confusing and mostly unnecessary I basically finished the first game using the same squad with very little help from biotic and tech skills but the skills play a much larger role in the second game enemies attack in more numbers and without biotic and tech skills who will not survive I played the game with the new Vanguard class which truly suits my aggressive style of playing had not the type to shoot from afar I like to take my enemies head-on and the Vanguard class offers some very cool new skills for this style plane including the charge but you can customize your character to suit your own style playing there are some puzzle elements of the game in the form of hacking and opening locked doors and containers is frequent business in Mass Effect 2 but luckily hacking feels authentic enough and the challenges become routine in no time to upgrade weapons and armor you need to mine for minerals and Mass Effect 2 this is done by scanning the planet in launching a probe the mining has been getting some criticism from Xbox gamers but on the PC scanning the planets with your mouse is pretty straightforward but Mako land vehicle from the first game is now gone and I have to admit while it was fun driving around with a Mako for about five minutes in the first game the driving sequences were overly long too easy and utterly unnecessary you'll also be glad to hear that the excruciatingly long elevator rides are now gone and the loading times at least on the PC are reasonable the story of Mass Effect 2 takes you to all four corners of the galaxy and beyond and the game lasted me about 23 hours having finished all the character during side missions as well without spoiling the ending after the main story is completed you will have chance to go back to the Normandy and explore the galaxy and complete all the side missions and smaller quests so the game is good for about 30 hours if you want to explore every star system there's also a great deal of replay value because the game will be a different experience if you decide not to take the high road gameplay why is the first game on PC was mediocre at best sometimes even awkward luckily Bioware has taken the complaint seriously for Mass Effect 2 as the gameplay mechanics are refined to the point where every part of the game is now a pleasure to play combat mechanics especially are now spot-on and the characters do what you want them to do graphics wise Mass Effect 2 is gorgeous the old Unreal Engine 3 has been tweaked to the extent the truly breeze life into the several year old engine despite the PC version being held back a bit by the limitations of the Xbox 360 the graphics on the PC version look awesome the possibility of running the game at a higher resolution on the PC and the 60 multiple of anise tropic filtering makes the game look even better than its Xbox 360 counterpart there are a few soft textures here and there but still everything looks great and more importantly feels real the game has a very cinematical style which is nicely complemented by the depth of feel effects in different scenes I ran into a few bugs here and there like nothing game breaking and in a game of this scale of magnitude a few bugs are expected I got it I've been serving here eight years I've never seen anyone have this and stay on their feet artistically the game is also beautiful it's got a lot of influence of movies like Blade Runner and any Star Wars the different worlds in Mass Effect 2 are worth exploring it's only based on the visual Splinter I played Mass Effect 2 on myself build gaming PC which is kind of ancient in PC years it's over a year old you can see the specs on the screen I had all my settings at max with the resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels and the game actually runs smoother than the first game on the PC which was a nice surprise I played through massive ik - in Windows 7 without a single crash or issue which isn't always the case for some games on the PC overall it's hard not to be impressed by Mass Effect I had a lot of complaints about the first game but Bioware outdid my expectations in almost every aspect of Mass Effect 2 the storytelling the character the gameplay the graphics the whole experience is vastly improved from the first game and every self-respecting gamer who either has the xbox 360 or PC needs to play Mass Effect 2 so toss your iphone games in the trash where they belong and play a game that is worth every second of your time Mass Effect 2 is an epic and cinematic gameplay experience that pushes the boundaries of modern gaming Bioware has raised the bar very high for single-player role-playing games which hopefully bodes well for future alchemy RPGs while I might have given the first game in 8.5 Mass Effect 2 scores a 9.5 and that's about it for my review catch you later and follow me on Twitter LP signing out
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