Gone are the boring side-missions from the first game that people dreading wasting time on, Mass Effect 2 is all about building a top-notch team of soldiers and gaining their loyalty on an individual basis to Commander Shepard. If you aren’t progressing through the main story you are travelling to countless outer-rim planets in an attempt to gain each one of your team’s loyalty – and these side-missions are fantastic, both in design and execution. Never once did I find myself bored with Mass Effect 2, even flying to unexplored planets and firing probes off in an attempt to discover rare materials (used to upgrade guns, armor, and your ship) was a fun and interactive experience. Mass Effect 2 feels like the most complete video game experience that I have ever had the joy of putting my hands on, and watching Shepard live out this science-fiction tale is something every gamer must experience. The Renegade/Paragon choices are back with the ability to choose in mid-cut scene, which results in one of two different actions taking place (from saving someone’s’ life to punching a bad guy in the face).
By the end of my first play-through Commander Shepard’s face was showing extreme signs of war, and it was obvious that the tough Renegade choices I was putting him through were wearing him down physically and emotionally. Graphically Mass Effect 2 is leaps and bounds above the first game; character models look at a minimum twice as good and the lighting effects throughout the game are simply stunning. People that don’t even appreciate quality graphics will see ME2 and comment on how ultra-realistic the game looks; Bioware has created a top-notch looking game that can compete with any other title on the Xbox 360. The combat reminded me more of Gears of War than Dragon Age and for a game like Mass Effect it just seemed like the correct evolution. The RPG-esq wheel and upgrade system (although not nearly as confusing as ME1) is still there and the amount of strategy that goes into playing the game at a high skill is astonishing, even though it seems like a bunch of cover and shoot style gameplay. At the end of the day Bioware’s second outing in the Mass Effect franchise resulted in one my personal favorite video games ever created.
My journey with Commander Shepherd opened up a new view of what this form of entertainment can do, and allowed me to emotionally connect (and care) with the virtual characters on my television screen. The dialogue, story progression, graphics, soundtrack, controls, and presentation are all well above what so many other games of this genre are offering these days. As of now there is already free DLC available and Bioware has promised more to come, as well as the guarantee of a third Mass Effect game sometime in 2011-2012. I will undoubtedly be going back to Mass Effect 2 at least one or two more times because I will get to experience something different than I did the first time. This game has me so excited for what the final game in the sci-fi trilogy will bring that I found myself dreaming about Reapers and Cerberus last night. PlanetXbox360.com has never given a perfect score, until now; Mass Effect 2 earned every bit of a perfect 10 and for the first time ever I don’t have to think twice about awarding a game such a score. There is no reason you should not pick up this game when it’s released tomorrow; Mass Effect 2 is the end-all of role-playing games, the best in its class – a perfect 10.
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