Last May, I finally got around to finishing the original Mass Effect. This was mostly so I could do a write-up on the game for WingDamage.

Boy, am I ever glad I did. As I mentioned in that review, I was very interested to see how things were going to shake out in the sequel. Bioware had mentioned that you would be able to transfer your save file from the original game into Mass Effect 2. What I thought that meant was that your character would look the same and maybe a few key decisions would carry over. The reality blew my mind.

In Mass Effect 2, you once again take on the roll of Commander (Insert Name Here) Shepard. Only this time, he/she is not just some random space adventurer trying to save the galaxy. This time, if you brought over your character from the original, it is your Shepard.

"Coletrain Shepard"

I don’t want to get too much into the story, as fans of these types of science fiction are the kind that will burn you at the stake for giving away spoilers. I will say that even minor story events from the first game will be referenced in either small ways or with major consequences in this one; much more so than I was expecting. It will also lead directly into the third game. They even handled your character being returned to level one in an interesting way.

It seems that every gripe I heard about the first game was resolved. The Mako, your ground vehicle with spotty controls, is gone. You now take a shuttle directly to your destination. The massive piles of gear with a disorganized inventory system has been removed. You now find a few upgradable weapons. The upgrades work across all the guns in a category for all characters. Special bullet types are now powers that you gain through leveling up.

Another huge improvement over the original is the combat. Rather than having your accuracy based on a dice roll, your third-person shooting skills will be put to the test. Leveling your character will add powers and increase your health. This aspect of the RPG elements have been minimized quite a bit. Each character only has a few categories to spend your points on, rather than the original’s ten-ish.

Some have argued that the changes have made Mass Effect 2 less of an RPG than it’s predecessor. I say this is just a different kind of role playing. Rather than being stat driven, it is story driven. You play the roll of a space marine that can save the galaxy by doing whatever it takes, or by taking the moral high ground. All roads may lead to the same place, but each of them tells an interesting story.

What makes Mass Effect 2 really shine are the characters. Like any modern media, critics will nitpick what aspects of the character and story are “borrowed” from other sources. It all comes down to using those elements in fun and interesting ways, which Bioware has done exceptionally well. Even characters that I hated at the beginning of the game became vital members of the crew by the end. The addition of each party member’s personal quest helped a lot with this. It really allowed them to flesh out each of the characters. Near the end, when you have to make the difficult choices and characters can permanently die, you will find yourself thinking hard about each decision.

I normally don’t spend a lot of time going on about graphics, but in this case it should be mentioned how much better Mass Effect 2 looks than the original. The texture popping, which was horrible in the first game, is almost completely gone. Everything from the textures to the lighting effects have been revamped in amazing ways. This is one of the prettiest games I have ever played.

If you haven’t played the first Mass Effect, you will probably be a little lost in the sequel’s story. I recommend tracking down a copy and playing through it first if you want the full experience. If you really hated the first one and just want to skip to the much improved sequel, I suggest tracking down the key scenes in the first game on YouTube. Either way, play this game.

We all have those games that we miss the first time around. With the busy release schedule of modern gaming, no one has time to play everything. That is why we at WingDamage present to you “Fashionably Late Reviews“. This is our series on games from the current generation of consoles that we may have missed on their initial release, but have gone back to experience now.

Bioware has a history of making very deep role playing games in a variety of settings. Ever since Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), many fans have wanted to see what they could accomplish in a science fiction world of their own creation.

Mass Effect is the result. Here they have created their own sci-fi mythology, complete with political intrigue, cool alien races, space ships, and the imminent end of the universe.

You take on the roll of Commander Shepard, a human soldier. You can customize your gender and appearance and there are a few options to set up your character’s back-story. This will change some of the dialogue, but not the overall story. They cleverly get around the ability to give your character whatever first name you’d like by having all other characters refer to you as “Commander Shepard”.

You can also choose what type of combat to focus on. Physical combat makes you better with guns and able to take more damage. There’s also biotics and engineering, both of which give you special abilities that act in a similar way to the Force powers in KOTOR. You can do any combination of the three, but I found it easiest to focus Shepard on physical attacks and round out the party with at least one biotic or engineer sidekick.

There are a few areas where this game really shines, namely, the story and dialogue. Like other Bioware games, you can choose to be good or evil, or in this case, Paragon or Renegade. These choices will effect events later in the game and even which dialogue options become available to you. Near the end, there are major choices that will change the Mass Effect universe greatly moving forward.

The secondary characters and party members are well fleshed out. If you take the time to talk to them, you will learn a lot about them, why they have joined your fight, etc. There are even a few romantic interests possible. This aspect of the game was horribly over-hyped by the mass media and plays a much less significant roll in the game than most expected.

The main complaint for most players is the combat. Rather than the traditional turn based combat, Mass Effect is a combination of a third person action shooter and behind the scenes RPG stats. This makes the gun-play a little awkward at first. When you are starting out and are a low level, your shots will not be very accurate. Near the end of the game, when you are a high level, this works in your favor and auto-corrects your shots to an extent. You can also use the bumpers on the controller to freeze the action and bring up a menu where you use your special attacks, healing, etc.

Once you gain control of your own ship, you can choose to either continue on the main story line, investigate many of the side-quests on other worlds as they pop-up, or even just land on a random planet and drive around in the Mako. The Mako is an all-terrain vehicle that can be dropped from your ship to the surface of planets. Once on the surface, you control the Mako directly. It has a machine gun mounted on the top and a cannon you can fire by hitting the right bumper.

The controls of the Mako leave much to be desired. It likes to veer off in odd directions and try to flip over when going over bumpy terrain. Fortunately, there is no way to permanently flip the vehicle. The game also does not tell you about the cannon, which is the Mako’s most useful weapon. Many gamers I talked to did not discover it until very late in the game. If they keep this vehicle around for the sequel, I hope they tweak the controls… a lot.

I found the side-quests much too distracting on my first play through and decided to just finish the main story. Once you have completed the game, you can start a “new game plus” where you get to keep all your experience and equipment, but return to the start of the game. This is one of those few instances where I am excited to go back and play through a second time.

Bioware recently told fans to keep their Mass Effect save data, as it can be imported into the sequel and actually affect events in that game. I, for one, can’t wait to play it. Even with my minor gripes here, I can’t deny that I had a blast submersing myself in the ME universe.