by AXIS of Reality

©2009 Alex Baldwin – Features Editor

By now you’ve read all the glowing reviews of Mass Effect 2, seen the praise showered on it and perhaps even played it yourself. I’m not going to tell you again what countless other reviewers have said. If you want read love letters to Bioware you can see the reviews from almost every other site on Metacritic.

Instead, I thought I’d try something different: I’m going to play the critic, dealing in criticism and nothing else. Don’t get me wrong, Mass Effect 2 is a masterpiece of narrative, character design and gameplay, but like any game it’s not perfect.

• And in 10 points, I’m going to tell you why.

• A comparison guide between the 360 and PC version is also included,

• As well as an overview of the Collector’s Edition.

• Note that the screenshots are from the PC version of the game.

#1: No room for newbies.

Bit of sticky area since it can be taken in both a positive and negative light, but Mass Effect 2 makes no apologies about being the second chapter of a trilogy.

If you haven’t played (and finished) the first, chances are you’ll be lost and confused within the first few minutes. What’s this Citadel they’re talking about? Who’s Saren? Why do these girls have blue skin and tentacle hair?

Bioware is assuming you know all the characters, locations and plot points of the original and will constantly refer to them without explaining anything for new players. Luckily this problem has a simple solution: just play Mass Effect before you dive into the sequel.

It’s dirt cheap on both Xbox 360 and PC, and really there’s no excuse for not being up to speed.

#2: If you’re new, you made all the wrong choices.

To get an idea of what new players would experience I started with a brand new character, using the default face.

Throughout the story you’ll see or hear the consequences of your major decisions in Mass Effect 1, which is fantastic in keeping it a singular, consistent universe.

Trouble is, Bioware seems to assume all new players want to be evil. I discovered that the preset decisions from Mass Effect 1 the game automatically uses for new players to the sequel are pretty much every evil (or ‘Renegade’ as they like to call it) choice you could do in Mass Effect 1.

It was kind of depressing to be told I’d sent thousands to die or killed someone’s sister when I was playing the goody goody.

#3: Unknowingly evil.

Bioware are great with the moral choices, making it popular in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic last generation and refining it through their next few games.

However, for the majority of the time there is a clear line between kissing babies and eating them. On several occasions however despite playing through the game as an angel I was informed I was receiving Renegade (evil) points along with Paragon (good).

Playing through those sections again I was stumped as to what I was doing that was bad, choosing all the nice answers and helping people out.

Since Mass Effect 2 does not use a simple slider and instead displays progression along both paths, those Renegade points will always be visible, even if Paragon bar is completely full.

#4: No Mako.

I quite enjoyed getting out and about in the bouncy ATV on the surfaces of unexplored planets in Mass Effect 1, which is why I found its omission in the sequel confusing.

While the unexplored worlds did tend to have quite empty landscapes, it was still a fun passtime and provided some good vehicular combat in missions.

That’s completely absent in the sequel, instead opting for a ‘drag the crosshair’ scanning of planets for mining.

But the strangest part? I played both the 360 and PC versions of Mass Effect 2 for this review, and for some reason it actually has a ‘vehicles’ section in the PC key bindings with the exact controls for the Mako, plus an additional ‘mine’ button.

Is this a remnant of cut content or have I somehow missed these mythical vehicle sections despite exploring every star system to 100% completion.

#5: Trigger-happy.

This time around Bioware clearly spent a lot more time getting the gunplay right. The cover system works well, battlefields are large and have multiple ways to push through and the gameplay is a lot more solid and fun.

I get it: you’re proud of your designers and want to show everyone how much you’ve improved. What this means however is that almost every mission is centred around combat.

Every unexplored planet with a side mission involves killing something, and every main mission involves killing slightly bigger somethings.

It’s great fun and all but I did enjoy some of the more conversation or exploration-based missions of Mass Effect 1, and would have liked to have seen a few more put in to give you a breather.

#6: Less is more?

Mass Effect 1 had a lot of weapons and armour. A huge amount. Every few minutes you’d have a new toy to play with and be checking new equipment out against your current stash.

This has had a significant overhaul in the sequel, with collecting new suits or weapons almost entirely gone. Instead, you ‘research’ new individual improvements using the resources collected from unexplored planets which are automatically applied without any visible change in the suit.

While you can change the components such as arms, chest, legs, etc from my entire first play through I only had between 1 and 3 different choices for each section. It’s lucky then that Bioware provides limited visual customisation of the armour, which is just choosing a base colour and a pattern (out of 2 possible) to overlay.

The weapons fare the same, with very few choices and most just ‘researched’ invisible stat changes. Hopefully Bioware can give us a few more varieties of weapons and armour in DLC packs later on. This could help extend the game length a bit too, which for me clocked in at around 30 hours including completing every side mission, so don’t go thinking you’ll be in for an Oblivion or The Witcher-esque life-stealing epic.

#7: Marcus Fenix would feel right at home.

That’s right, Mass Effect 2 subscribes to the crate and waist-high walls school of battlefield design.

Understandable since it uses the same cover system, but at least Epic managed to disguise them as environmental features or decoration in Gears of War 2.

In Mass Effect 2, 90% of the time they will just be lots and lots of crates.

#8: Sheppard has a creepy smile.

Seriously. Don’t know about the other facial options, but the default Sheppard’s grin is just plain creepy.

Usually he has that serious, brooding look going but on the odd occasion when talking to someone he does crack a smile that looks more like he’s undressing them with his eyes than enjoying their company.

But hey, who knows, that might be exactly what he’s doing.

#9: My fish keep dying.

One of the additions to the game is a captain’s cabin on the top floor of the ship.

To make it feel a bit more like home you can choose the music playing from the Mass Effect 1 soundtrack, buy model ships that sit in a glass display case and buy fish for the large aquarium in the wall. It’s this last one that was the problem.

Can I help it if saving the galaxy made me occasionally forget to feed the fish after every mission?

I’d get back to my room ready to try and see if I could paint my armour to be an even more inappropriately hot pink to find them all floating at the top of the tank with the only option being to clear them out. Whoops.

#10: …

Ok, so I can’t think of a tenth point.

Blame Bioware, they’re the ones who have managed to make one of the most brilliantly constructed game universes ever, with an incredibly compelling story and believable characters you can develop an emotional bond with (Thane is especially well designed).

And this time the combat works, the technical issues that plagued the first are almost all gone, and the climax is one of the most exhilarating endings to a game I’ve ever played.

Hey, that gives me an idea for a final criticism. Let’s try this again:

#10: It’s going to raise my expectations for every RPG to come after.

This is probably the biggest problem. How am I going to play all the RPGs to follow without expecting the same level of quality I’ve found here.

Luckily Mass Effect 2 has very high replay value so I guess I’ll dive back in. Providing your character survives the ending you can start a new game with your level and abilities all intact, or keep playing to continue any side missions you didn’t finish.

So there you have it. Ten things hopefully someone from Bioware will happen upon and have a think about as development on Mass Effect 3 commences. However, while a bit of a different format, this article is still a review of Mass Effect 2 so I’ve still got to give it a rating.

If you want to read the good points about the game, just look at any other review on the web. Or better yet play it yourself. If you played Mass Effect 1 chances are you’re already playing ME2, and if you haven’t, grab yourself a copy of the first to complete before entering the sequel.

9.5/10

Version Comparison PC/360

The visual quality has significantly improved in both the PC and 360 versions this time with both looking almost identical which is a great feat. Most people will be getting the sequel on the same platform they completed the first game, but there are a few things that should be mentioned for those on the fence about which to buy.

Firstly, controls. As accurate and well-mapped as the PC controls are I couldn’t help but feel the game was a bit more at home on the 360 pad, especially in regards to menu navigation and the cover system.

The very unusual decision that makes this more important is the complete lack of compatibility for gamepads in the PC version, so I was unable to use my 360 controller with it. Very very strange.

This may be to do with the HUD redesign. To Bioware’s credit, they have used separate interface designs for the 360 and PC versions which makes each feel more at home with the control scheme.

The PC version uses hotkeys for the biotic and tech powers which work great in the heat of battle and are reflected on the top-left of the screen, so my assumption would be that Bioware didn’t want to go through the trouble of optimising both interfaces for PC depending on which control type was used, keyboard or gamepad.

As for graphics, both make stunning use of the aging Unreal Engine 3 with little sign of the usual similarities games produced on the engine seem to have with each other. The super-shininess often attributed to UE3 games is not evident, and Bioware’s skill with lighting and surface shaders gives ME2 a unique look that makes it instantly recognisable in screenshots.

The 360 version runs much smoother than the original, especially in combat. I have to hand it to the PC version however, as while obviously able to run at a higher resolution the game runs exceptionally smooth even on lower mid-range PCs and laptops with maximum settings.

On my rig with dual Ati 4890s in Crossfire I was able to push the anti-aliasing up to 12x vsynced at 60fps with no stutters at all except in the Normandy (a small issue that is known and due to be patched). For those looking for the anti-aliasing options missing from the in-game menu, simply force it in your graphics driver settings. ATi Crossfire card owners will need to download the new Mass Effect 2 10.1 hotfix Catalyst drivers for it to work however.

EA has also removed the insane DRM that plagued the first game, with no internet connection needed to install or play and only regular disc copy protection used which is great. They’ve instead gone with encouraging registering your game with a Cerberus online account to get the large amount of downloadable content planned and available with preordering or the Collector’s Edition.

Important Note:

A very important point for PC version owners – I heavily recommend you browse to the following directory:

Users > [Username] > My Documents > BioWare > Mass Effect 2 > BIOGame > COnfig

Open the GamerSettings.ini file you find here in Notepad and add the following line under [SystemSettings]:

DepthOfField=False

This disables the depth of field effects which may sound like a bad thing, but it actually fixes a significant problem. You may notice when playing the game is extremely saturated and high contrast to the point where a lot of detail is lost and any dark object or shadowed sides of a character appears pure black.

Disabling depth of field fixes this unusual issue that the in-game menu brightness settings can’t, making the game look far better as suddenly the details are visible and everything doesn’t look extremely dark unless a direct light is on it.

It’ll also give you a small performance boost since depth of field blurring will be gone which is not a great loss.

Believe me, you’ll thank me once you try it. Characters in particular will look far better; for example Miranda’s hair will actually be more than a black blob that blends into her uniform and you’ll be able to see your customised armour far better. The screenshots in this article have this fix applied.

Collector’s Edition

For $20 AUD more the Collector’s Edition for both 360 and PC versions is available, although it’s a bit hit and miss. First impressions are great with much sexier packaging including a tin case inside with images of Sheppard and a Collector (see what they did there?) adorning it, and a separate cardboard case with the additional items.

The Collector’s Edition comes with a card for a bonus set of armour, a new gun and a new squad member, which is alright but nothing particularly special. These are available for download online, so if you don’t have an internet connection you’re out of luck.

The main draw of the Collector’s Edition are the bonus comic, art book and DVD. The comic is part 1 of 4 detailing some of the events that happen between Mass Effect 1 and 2, and is of a high quality in both art and writing, if quite short. The art book is quite interesting, with a focus on more diagramatic images of characters (both initial ideas and final), weapons and locations but it could be longer.

The bonus DVD is quite a disappointment. Holding off until I finished the game so it wouldn’t spoil anything for me, when I did finally see it I was presented with simply ME2 trailers, some wallpapers that are already available online and a making-of video only 20 minutes long. Halo 3 bonus disc this is not.

Unfortunately most of the making-of is simply videos of the game that I’d already played, along with some of the development team talking about how great they are with lots of self-back-patting and discussion about how no other game lives up to Mass Effect.

We know it’s a great game but I don’t think it’s necessary to show numerous different development staff for them only to confirm that it is indeed a great game with nothing about WHY or HOW it was made better. The brief seconds with Seth Green (voice of Joker and well-known comedian, actor and creator of Robot Chicken to name a few) and other voice actors are perhaps the most interesting parts. For a Making-Of video it’s interesting that there is no insight into the development other than saying “the combat is better” or “it’s more fun this time”. Shame.

It’s really up to you how much enjoyment you’ll get out of the DLC, art book and comic as to whether it’s worth the money. Not a terrible effort for a Collector’s Edition but by no means an essential purchase. If they’d thrown in a figurine of Sheppard, Thane or Miranda ala Assassin’s Creed 2 or Darksiders that would have made it great. (Ed- A little model space ship would have been cool imo!)

©2010 Alex Baldwin:

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