random_script » Reviews » Mass Effect 2 (2010)
View Store Page
View Community Hub
Find More Like This
1 person found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 38.7 hrs on record (23.4 hrs at review time)
Posted: 9 Jan, 2019 @ 3:55am
Updated: 9 Jan, 2019 @ 3:56am

The good:
  • The missions. In ME1 the focus is on the main missions for the story line and the rest feel just like leftovers, but in ME2 it feels like all follow some kind of good quality standard (and honestly most of them were quite interesting). In the end this quests are one of the strongest points of the game and part of what makes it stand out.
  • The main story is a bit so-so, but overall good.
  • The characters this time are very well done. Is the same formula than KOTOR 1 and 2 and ME1, but with a bit more depth and care. The quantity of dialogue is not too many and not too few. The only character that I could not stand was Miranda (the Cerberus cheerleader).
  • The chance to take parangon/renegade actions during cinematic events. It rewards you for being paying attention, and is cool.
  • The weapon selection and research systems. In ME1 you buy stuff in vendors and there is the random element for the shop in your ship and by the end you have tons of junk and money. In ME2 you find weapons and researches in quests and also can buy research's from vendors. At the end of the game you should have pretty much everything without clutter and not a lot of credits, so you have to manage your resources, which is why they exist. The way to select weapons feels off at first coming from ME1, but latter it makes sense to change the mechanics of the weapons instead of just the numbers and have a few instead of tons (a bit like what FROMSOFTWARE did in Bloodborne).
  • The balance among weapons. Each has it uses. Once you get used to them the combat is just a matter of knowing when to use each. In ME1 most of the weapons types are useless.
  • Is great that you can adjust the difficulty in game without the need to start a new character. At first is best to start in Normal and when you get comfortable change to a higher difficulty, which are really not that hard. If you die there is probably an auto-save just before the beginning of the combat where you died.

The bad:
  • A bit too cinematic.
  • Minigames and scanning planets for resources gets boring.
  • Parangon/Renegade choices and rewards some time don't make sense. I would say is better than ME1 and KOTOR1 but way worse than KOTOR2.
  • Changing weapons is slow and annoying.
  • The combat still feels off, but not so much as ME1. You can command your squad better but still you have to be either very good or pause in combat to do it right.
  • The romance is still a bit odd (but not so much as ME1) and you can have your way with several characters in the same run.

The ugly:
  • Way too much non-skippable content, eg loading screens and cinematics (without mods)
  • The user interface is not intuitive at all in most cases and you don't get explanations about the basics, but you do for useless things. It feels like things were rushed or it was done without user input, just coding without design.
  • The default controls feel bad, at least for the first hours, even more coming from ME1.
  • Moving the ship in a system.
  • You can get stuck in walls.
  • The key to skip dialogue is still the same for selection and sometimes the selections are available before the end of the dialogue, so you can select a chat option without wanting to when you try to skip something.
  • The DLC and Cerberus network. This should be in the game downloaded with Steam by default.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
Comments are disabled for this review.