WARNING: CONTAINS HUGE ENDING SPOILERS AT THE END.
Commander Shepard died, but then she got better! Now I have a new ship and a new crew and technically work for an alien-hating human supremacist group called Cerberus, but only because we both want to stop human colonies from being attacked.
So I'm going to go walk to my console next to that orange hologram over there and use the ship's starmap to set a course for adventure.
THE INFINITE MAJESTY OF SPACE, NOW WITH ARCADE-STYLE CONTROLS!
The galaxy is made up of sectors and the sectors contain solar systems (like the one you’re looking at now). Solar systems contain planets, and sometimes fuel depots and mass relays too! Travelling between sectors is as quick and free as travelling between planets, I just drive up to the nearest mass relay, choose where I want to go, and I’m there. One side of the galaxy to the other in a click of the fingers.
Travelling between solar systems on the other hand, require using my ship’s own FTL drive and that needs fuel, so exploring outside the green circle will always cost me money. Typical, I’m working with a billionaire to solve his problems and he’s leaving me to foot the bill. At least I can't permanently strand myself anywhere.
Plus everything on the map is labelled this time so I know exactly where to go, and in space there are no random encounters. But when I try visiting an uninhabited planet I get a bloody scanning minigame!
Gotta stripmine them all!
Actually no, that’s a terrible idea. Gotta stripmine only what I need to fund my research projects back on the Normandy’s lab and get new upgrades. Because you really can scan every planet everywhere in this game (save for the main quest worlds and Earth) and it’s enough to drive a completionist absolutely space-crazy. This is the only time you can ever grind anything in Mass Effect 2 and it really gets old fast.
I'm going to fly to another sector instead and show off the other thing sitting in the Mako's place.
Right now I’m jumping between rocks in this small area of a volcanic world, trying to ‘scan research’... which mostly involves keeping the Hammerhead hovering within these circles for a few seconds each while it tries to shake itself clear. I must have skipped the part which explains why it hates circles so much, but I’m getting pretty tired of them too myself.
The Hammerhead is also very fragile in combat compared to the Mako, but on the plus side it’s entirely optional so I never have to use it again! In fact I won’t even have picked the thing up at all unless I figure out what button ends the mission. It’s telling me to press ‘F’ but that’s a bloody lie, as I remapped it to something else. I'm going to have to reset to defaults to figure this out aren't I?
When I eventually get back to the ship I'll be setting a course for the Citadel next, to get some shopping done! And let people know I'm alive.
LATER, AT THE CITADEL.
The thing about the Citadel space station though is that it's a city with a bigger population than... Tokyo, so I get to run around a different part of it in every game. I don't recognise any of this from Mass Effect 1 and man I spent a lot of time here back then.
The Citadel was pretty much the only real 'town' in the first game, and the developers put it at the start and packed it full of sidequests. Not a great way to encourage a player to go out and explore space. This time though the Citadel is one of several small towns scattered around the galaxy for me to divide my attention between, and the pacing is far better for it.
Oh, I just remembered that I need to get some shopping done for the crew while I'm here. Not for weapons or armour, that’d be too much like an RPG. No Doctor Chakwas asked for some Serris Ice Brandy, the mess sergeant needs some groceries, and the comedy double act down in engineering need some T6-FBA couplings. Kind of brings attention to the fact that no one but my squad ever leaves the ship (my sidekicks are still tagging along even in town, we shop together as highly trained military unit).
It helps that they gave me a store discount for endorsing their souvenirs shop. In fact I got one from pretty much everywhere, so now whenever anyone on the station goes out to buy something, they'll hear “I’m Commander Shepard and this is my favourite store on the Citadel,” playing from a speaker. I don’t know why this can possibly still be funny to me, but it kinda is. Also weirdly that was the Paragon option.
Oh, I should also drop by the Citadel Council and see if I still have my job as a Spectre. They're definitely going to want to hear all this stuff I've learned about the Reapers.
Well at least I was able to convince him to let me have my job as a secret agent back, which isn't actually a sure thing in this game. In fact whether I'm a Spectre or not affects next to nothing in Mass Effect 2 seeing as I'm not operating in Council space, but it matters to me.
Okay I think I’m pretty much out of reasons not to get on with the third person shooting now. I'm heading out to Omega station to start recruiting characters for my mission.
3 HOURS INTO THE GAME - RECRUITING MY FIRST CHARACTER.
But the rest are going to be a bit more involved, so I’ll go through the process for getting Archangel, the Sniper Batman of Omega.
Actually her base is in a nightclub so first I looked for somewhere to dance, but second I asked her for info on Archangel, and found out that he’s hated by pretty much every mercenary group on the station due to his enthusiastic vigilantism. The mercs have him cornered in a house, but he’s good at sniping bad people and very good at not dying, so they're recruiting freelancers in order to storm his hideout.
So my next step is to go and sign up to be cannon fodder with the others.
How Shepard plans to do that I have no idea, but the blue Paragon symbol has appeared on screen, so if I hit the mouse button fast enough I can interrupt the cutscene and take action! What’s the nice guy way of resolving this going to be...
Oh, turns out it’s to grab him, smack his gun ‘til sparks come out of it, then tell him to go get his 50 credits back. I suppose the Renegade way of dealing with it is to let his dumb ass get killed.
Before every level I get an opportunity to choose my two sidekicks, spend skill points and choose their weapons. I was going to show a shot of the weapon select screen but really there's no point. BioWare have dramatically stripped back the amount of guns compared to Mass Effect 1 and there aren't even any stats or charts. The description mentions whether a gun is better at taking down shields or armour, but the only way I know that one gun's straight up better than another is when it literally states that it's an upgrade of the previous weapon.
AT THE MERC CAMP OUTSIDE ARCHANGEL'S BASE.
My trio joined the others in making a run across a bridge towards Archangel’s front door, and against all odds we survived the incoming sniper fire to find that Archangel is...
--- SPOILER ALERT ---
Everyone loves Garrus, he’s Shepard’s brother from another planet. I also love that modulation they’ve got on his voice, especially now he’s loosened up and become less of a one note Dirty Harry wannabe. The guy’s somehow able to talk about things like "saving the galaxy" in a way that doesn’t sound ridiculous and even Keith David has been struggling with that.
Anyway getting in was easy enough, but now we’re stuck here with him, fighting off waves of the mercenaries we were hanging out with a minute ago. First by sniping them out of the window as they cross the bridge (with my pistol). Omega is a 'Star Wars' kind of place: chasms and bridges everywhere.
This is actually a really atypical mission for the game, usually I’m making a lot of forward progress down a linear map against very finite enemies that need to be cleared out along the way, so… uh, sorry for the terrible demonstration. I’ve got my head behind a box at least, that’s very much part of the Mass Effect 2 experience, at least for this class.
Oh I’m sure he’ll be fine later. They won’t kill off a main character before I’ve recruited him. Nope that’ll happen in the Suicide Mission at the end, when I make a bad decision and get him cooked alive in the vents or something. That’s likely why so few of the original characters rejoin the team in this game, so players don’t end up killing them all off before Mass Effect 3.
With the gunship destroyed and Garrus in bad shape, I get the Illusive Man's mission complete screen and the game cuts straight to Shepard hanging out on the Normandy again. No long walk back to the ship required. It’s good to be back on the Normandy, because it means I can check my email (Shep doesn’t have a smart phone).
There’s no story branching in Mass Effect 2 really, but choices do affect the people you run into and the relationships you have. I’m altering the details, and that’ll be carried through to the next game as well.
The game throws a lot of recurring characters and concepts at you from the first game, so it’s likely not the ideal place to jump into the Mass Effect universe. Then again if you start a new character a lot of those people simply don't turn up.
7 HOURS INTO THE GAME - GETTING MY RESEARCH AND UPGRADES.
I’ve found recruiting him to be a bit tricky though, as I kept getting caught inside scenery and eventually walked right out of the level and into the sky. Or what passes for sky in Omega.
Weapon and armour upgrades can be found on their own (in shops for instance), but sometimes I find a weapon to scan, and that data needs to be analysed in the research lab before I get the benefit. Upgrades affect everyone in my team, but they don’t come free. First I need the resources for them, which means scanning planets. Joy.
I’ve got a choice of what to research, but there’s no way I’m leaving any out. There isn’t a decision to be made here, there’s no trade-offs, just more scanning work needing to be done. Plus when the Ship Enhancements page opens up I’ll need all of them to get through the ending without losing crew members.
Speaking of the ending, as I put more hours into the game I'm going to end up spoiling little bits and pieces that you might not want to know about, so if you want to skip to my spoiler-free final thoughts at the end, here's a link:
CLICK HERE TO SKIP THE REST AND JUMP TO THE CONCLUSION.
8 HOURS INTO THE GAME - THE PRICE OF SOMETIMES PICKING RENEGADE.
I’m here to complete Zaeed’s loyalty mission on this free DLC jungle planet level, or at least that was the plan. The Prince of Revenge went and put innocents in jeopardy so now I have to choose between staying on his good side or doing the right thing. A proper moral dilemma! Though I’ve got plenty of Paragon points saved up from only ever picking the nice guy options in dialogue, so there’s a good chance I can do both. I just need to pick the blue option at the end of the stage and everything will go my way.
This is why the Paragon/Renegade system really doesn’t work, as it rewards consistency over role playing. To open up the best dialogue options you're encouraged to pick the same responses in every conversation, and that's a real shame as sometimes weaving between the two can lead to the funnier outcome.
10 HOURS INTO THE GAME - I GOT DRAGGED INTO A MANDATORY MAIN PLOT MISSION.
I’m not the only one with shields and armour though, so I have to be mindful of what I’m shooting at as certain powers don’t work on certain layers of defence. It’s hard to see, but my Overload power on that bar on the top left has turned red because I’m pointing at an enemy protected with armour. It just won't work here. My Incinerate power on the other hand is good to go!
The thing is, Harbinger is actually the main villain of the game making a personal appearance! Well, semi-personal, as he’s possessing the enemy I’m shooting, so if I kill him he’ll just leap into another goon and supercharge him up instead.
This is a tense survival level, as we're holding out here until the Normandy's AI can calibrate the anti-starship guns around this human colony we're saving. Could be worse though, I could be waiting for Garrus to calibrate them. That guy has been camping out by the guns ever since we brought him to the ship and refuses to chat with me because of all the calibrating that still needs doing.
16 HOURS INTO THE GAME - BIOTIC POWERS, MIRANDA'S ASS AND THE DARK SECRET OF THE ASARI.
The game is really eager to share its lore and I love how even some NPCs chatting around a dancer help fill in the universe a little better. The fact that people from three different species are hanging out together after work says a lot on its own. Though it does kind of point a spotlight on the fact that the asari are mono-gendered and all look female, while you only ever see male turians, salarians, volus, elcor, drell, batarians, etc.
Anyway I'm here to help my Cerberus-affiliated friend Miranda out with her problems, which is almost certainly going to involve a shoot-out in an office or a warehouse, or both.
SOON, IN A WAREHOUSE.
Here I’ve asked Jack to encourage these gentlemen to let go of their attachment to the floor, so that they’re an easy helpless target. But some powers interact with other powers, so I’m going to ask Miranda to use Warp on them while they’re floating. Warp on its own usually damages health a bit, but in this case it’s going to detonate Lift to blow them to pieces, along with anyone hiding around that corner. Strategic choice in team members + tactical use of their powers = fun times in sci-fi warehouses.
It actually reminds me a tiny little bit of those old first person dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder where you control a whole team from one screen. My squad likes to hang back behind me, so I don't really see them all that much in a fight unless I've given them somewhere specific to stand. I sure hear them talking a lot though.
AFTER THE MISSION, BACK ON THE NORMANDY.
Like in the first game I can run around my ship and chat to people between missions, but this time I’ve got Yeoman Chambers in CIC to let me known when someone wants to speak to me! I don’t have to go around everyone each time just to make sure I don’t miss anything. I still go visit Garrus though, to see if he’s finished calibrating those bloody guns yet.
Sadly they still mostly just hang around in their own rooms and never interact. It’s funny how Shepard can romance half the crew this time but they never show any interest in each other. I’m just glad my new team isn't so quick to jump to the wrong idea, as it’d was awkward enough letting two of them down gently in the first game.
At this point I’ve got their alternate colour schemes and bonus powers unlocked for good (increasing their available combat abilities from 2 to 3!) But if I lose that loyalty then that increases the chances that someone’s going to die in the Suicide Mission at the end of the game. And even if they survive that, they’ll likely end up getting killed off in Mass Effect 3!
Thankfully this can be avoided by picking the blue option, and everyone’s happy. The red Renegade option would likely do the job too, but it’s ghosted out right now because I haven’t got enough bastard points. Or, to be more precise, a high enough percentage of the total possible number of morality points available to me at this time. If I don’t involve myself in enough NPC conversations main characters can die, that’s the situation I’m dealing with here. Even with a maxed-out Paragon bar I’ll never be free of this enforced consistency.
25 HOURS INTO THE GAME - THE GRAPHICS BREAK AND THANE IS A BIG LET-DOWN.
Oh, now that Thane’s finally shown up in one of my screenshots I want to talk about him for a moment. The game’s got a bit of a problem, in that it keeps introducing characters in cutscenes showing off their awesome close combat martial arts skills or massive biotic powers, and then in fights they’re just a regular soldier with a gun and a couple of typical powers. I feel like like a victim of false advertising.
30 HOURS INTO THE GAME - ONGOING STORYLINES AND A RANT ABOUT QUARIANS.
These quarian folks are basically the human survivors in 'Battlestar Galactica' a few generations along, still living in a fleet of ships after being exiled from their homeworld due to a cylon uprising (which in this are called the geth). My old friend Tali has being accused of treason, but really this trial is more to do with disagreements between the admirals running the fleet. They’re split on whether to destroy the geth, control the geth, or find a way to coexist with them and... that particular issue isn't going to get resolved until the next game.
You know it just occurred to me that the quarians are one of the few races to have both genders show up, though you never get to see what they actually look like due to their tinted helmets! Hang on, we’re on one of their ships right now, why are they all wearing suits still? I thought they had weak immune systems because they spent most their lives living on sterile sealed starships. It would've been cool to see them out of their suits at home, and Shepard's team being the ones with masks on to keep the air germ-free.
You can bet that there’s some good explanation for it somewhere, Mass Effect explains EVERYTHING, but it’s kind of a shame that they have to in this case.
GETTING A BIT SPOILERY NOW.
CLICK HERE TO SKIP THE REST AND JUMP TO THE CONCLUSION.
33 HOURS INTO THE GAME - 400 ANGRY WORDS ABOUT THE SURPRISE INVISIBLE COUNTDOWN TO DOOM.
I don’t just mean the aliens invading the ship and killing off all my crew, though that is unusual I admit, I mean the fact that Shepard has ran off without me! I am Shepard in this trilogy, there’s no character switching, so the fact that she suddenly chose the next mission herself, flew off in a shuttle, and left me playing as Joker instead is a bit of a surprise.
This is one of those ‘follow instructions and look at the scripted events’ levels that I usually hate, because I end up turning left when I should’ve turned right and get game over’d, and that ruins the drama entirely (fuck you Call of Duty 4!) But this time I’ve been given clear direction in the form of a trail of lights along the floor, so I know exactly what role I have to play here and I'm able to enjoy the scenes playing out.
Eventually (after some of the best lines in the game from Joker and EDI) Shepard and team come back to an empty ship and she wants to know what the fuck. Now I have to head straight for the final Suicide Mission or else some or all of the kidnapped Normandy crew members are going to die! There's a surprise invisible countdown to their doom and it ticks down every time I do another mission. This is kind of a problem as I'm supposed to be completing loyalty missions and getting my ship upgraded so I can finish the final battle without my team getting slaughtered!
Mass Effect 2 is a pretty chilled out game really; an anthology of different space adventures in the grittier corners of the universe, all about killing mercs and cracking jokes. No matter how urgent characters have made things sound, there's never been any penalty for putting missions off... until now. Suddenly the rules have changed without warning and the game hasn't even bothered to let me know!
Fortunately I already understand how it works because I've played the game before and the internet warned me about it the first time. I made sure to get all my important business resolved before departing for the 'Reaper IFF' mission, because once you've finished that, the next mission you complete will trigger this raid on the Normandy. 'Reaper IFF' basically begins the final act, which would be absolutely fine if the game actually gave you the information you need, so you know when to trigger it and what the consequences will be. But it doesn't.
It's kind of crappy game design in my opinion.
BIG ENDING SPOILERS NOW FOR REAL, SCROLL DOWN TO THE CONCLUSION IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE ABOUT THE LAST BOSS OR THE EVIL SCHEMES OF THE REAPERS.
OR JUST CLICK HERE TO JUMP PAST IT.
35 HOURS INTO THE GAME - THE SUICIDE MISSION
I'm still commanding a three man squad, but I have to make choices along the way about what specialists I want to trust with certain jobs. Bad decisions will lead to deaths, even ME1 heroes Garrus and Tali aren't safe, but fortunately the selections are fairly obvious if you know your team. It's a more character focused ending for a more character driven sequel. (I still lost Legion on my first playthrough though because I'm dumb).
After fighting through several sections of the Reaper base, I picked my final team and left the others behind to cover my back as I went to take on the final boss and end the abduction of human colonists.
And the final boss is...
I suppose it’s pretty standard as video game bosses go, shoot the weak point for massive damage and all that, but… it’s a giant metal skeleton, in Mass Effect! It shoots lasers out of its mouth! I think it must have gotten lost on the way to a Star Fox game.
The thing is designed to be a surprise (and it really really was), but the game does give it a bit of a set up when you discover why the Reapers have been raiding human colonies. The trouble is that the set up’s even more insane than a sapient spaceship baby that looks like a Terminator. You see the reason that the Reapers have been kidnapping people during the game is because… they were liquefying them alive and pumping the goop into this framework to create this new Reaper. Because something something genetic material… I don’t know, it’s all bullshit.
But fortunately the Suicide Mission finale is still pretty great I reckon, as all those ship upgrades come into play during a long space battle cutscene and once you're inside the lair smart choices lead to suitably heroic moments and lucky escapes. And bad choices can get everyone killed.
Now that I'm at the ending again, it occurs to me that the game doesn’t actually push the overall Mass Effect story forward much at all. It ends with Shepard and her loyal crew on the Normandy once again (or dead), with the genophage still in place, the quarians still exiles and the Citadel Council still ignoring all warnings of the giant Reaper invasion force on its way to wipe everyone out. But it's got its own story to tell about a new set of characters and gives them all a degree of closure, and for this game that's all I care about.
CONCLUSION
Mass Effect 2: Friendship is Magic is basically what I want in a game, though it definitely ain't perfect. It improves the parts that worked in the first game and streamlines what didn't, and the end result is an RPG that feels more like a story-driven third person cover shooter with opportunities for a bit of a chat along the way. Or a visual novel with shooting maybe. It's way more restricted than a Deus Ex or Fallout game for sure, and lethal combat is very much non-optional. Even with the tactical pausing intact, this has moved way beyond the old-school Infinity Engine games the series evolved from.
Fortunately it's actually a very strong third person shooter, definitely a step up from the original Mass Effect, and I found the conversation side of it to be far less dry and serious this time around. Most of the antagonists you meet are amoral mercenaries, conniving businessmen or treacherous crime lords, with personalities and agendas, and they're way more fun to deal with than an army of mindless interchangeable robot monsters. You can never be entirely sure what Shepard is going to do about a tense situation until after you make a choice, but it usually made me smile, and the game is not short on opportunities to be a dick to people who deserve it.
The characters joke around a lot more this time as well, with your squad often finding reasons to add their own particular insight into the dumb situations you get into. It soon becomes a game about getting to know your crew and helping them out with their problems, and this stronger focus on character makes the conversation side of gameplay more satisfying. Plus it definitely doesn't hurt that the cast is fantastic. It’s a shame that the Paragon and Renegade system is still the enemy of role playing, but if a game absolutely has to include some kind of QTE, then those interrupts are definitely one way to do it right.
Also that art design man… lens flares and numbers all over everything, just as sci-fi is meant to be. The game plays in the grittier side of the universe without ever being grimdark, and it has you fighting the Grimdarklings from Beyond Space without being too cheesy... for the most part. It’s got the right tone, atmosphere, everything to appeal directly to my tastes, and no matter where I went in the galaxy I couldn't find any endless tedious elevator rides this time!
When it comes to modern ship based sci-fi RPGs there’s really very little to pick from right now, so the Mass Effect games practically have an open goal here. In my opinion there’s nothing better out there at doing what it’s trying to do, and that’s not likely to change until my wish comes true and Alpha Protocol 2: A Space Odyssey enters production. So I have to give it my very shiniest trophy:
Thank you for reading all of my words. I apologise that I cannot present you with a clue to the next game this time as I must now collapse face-first onto my desk.
P.S. leave comments.
Hmm, don't remember anyone asking for a space hamster
ReplyDelete"We are all heroes; you and Boo and I. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!"
WHAT'S NEXT GAME? PLEASE TELL ME!
ReplyDeleteThere i scream at comment.
Very sorry if this makes you inconvenient
I hate, hate, hate Mass Effect.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, it's not an rpg: it's a mixture between a poorly made third-person shooter, and an equally poorly made dating sim.
Second, it's so unbelievably sexist. So-called feminists should understand that games like Dead Or Alive or Bayonetta are NOT sexist, as they don't make it a secret that they are just displaying some harmless male fantasies. But games like Mass Effect are very sexist! Because they're supposed to be "deep and serious" videogames aimed at every audience.... but there is a race made exclusively of sexy alien babes whose purpose is to bang anyone, but the non-sexy aliens are only males, but, worst issue of all, my femShepard had lesbian sex TWICE for... no reason at all!
No, really, I tell the blue alien prostitute that she's a stingy jerk, and somehow it leads to a lesbian sex scene. I decide I don't wanna date Kaidan and the game decides it leads to a lesbian sex scene with Liara, who I have mistreated the entire game (if my Shep had to be lesbian, couldn't it have been Ashley?).
Long story short, Mass Effect is HUGELY overrated.
....Oh wait wait, and what about when the mysterious alien chick, Tali, turned out being a STOCK PHOTO of a generic babe???
Delete(Yeah, I know stuff about Mass Effect: as I always say, you can't hate something if you don't know it first!)
By definition, Mass Effect is a RPG although it not follow some canons of the traditional RPGs. The gameplay is not great, but the goal is to tell a good and playable story, reaching this goal. And Liara is a character that I find charming, how she changes from a naive librarian to a warrior who can cross the limit of legality.
DeleteThis was one of my favorite games of the PS3 era, but looking at these posts I feel like maybe I overlooked a lot of the downsides. It's due up for a second playthrough at some point so I'll find out then if I like it as much as I think I do.
ReplyDelete