Mass Effect 2 Review

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Publisher: Bioware
Platform: Ps3 and 360
Multiplayer: No
DLC: Yes

First thing, if you have never played Mass Effect...Play it. It's a sci-fi universe, much like starwars. The first game is only for xbox but when the 2nd game starts you get a detailed description of what went down. Theres many races of aliens and planets. Theres also a galactic council consisting of 1 Turian, 1 Salarian and 1 Asari (differen't races). Humans are looked at as a baby race that can't take care of themselves but are also ruthless and shouldn't be trusted.

Story: In the mass effect series you play as Commander Sheppard. After the climatic first scene of mass effect 2 you find out that 2years have passed since then and humanity is under attack. The Alliance you once served turned their backs on you and refuses to achknowledge that human colonies are vanishing without a trace. Theres also intelligence that these attacks might be connected to the reapers (an ancient race of machines that harvest all living things every 50,000 years. You learn about, discover and fight a reaper in the first game. Their the series main antagonists). In your constant quest to stop the reapers you agree to help a shady pro-human organization. Along the way you have to travel to different worlds and recruit the most advanced warriors and specialists of all different races to be apart of your team. Theres new badass characters like the high sercuity prisoner Jack and the tank-breed Krogan Grunt. Theres also returning teammates such as the sharpshooter Garrus and tech expert Tali. The bonds you make with each teammate will determine if they and you die or live.


Gameplay: The thing that makes the Mass Effect series so unique and gripping is how you control Sheppard. You control the dialouge and actions of your character. You can make him an asshole, nice guy, or guy who just doesn't care. Every action you choose has a different consiquence and it's not little things either. For example, if your team lives or dies and if YOU live or die. It's an over the shoulder shooter very much like gears. Take cover, pop up and shoot. But your character can do tons of different things. Make your guy a soldier where u special in all weapons, a tech major where you can hack geth (robots) and make little turrents, biotic where it's like you have force powers or a mix of everything and be the ultimate war badass. Heres the coolest thing, everything you decide to do in the first game effects what happens in the 2nd game. If your playing on ps3 you get a chance to choose what would happen at key times during the first game so it's not pre determined for you.


DLC: Theres alot of dlc for this game some are good, some are boring and some are amazing.
The normandy crash site and firewalking packs are pretty useless and waste of money.
Zaeed the Mercenary and Kasumi, stolen memory are pretty fun and intersting. Also they each add a new team member you can use throughout the game.
Arrival, Lair of the Shadow Broker and Overlord are pretty freakin sweet. Tons of action, great stories and hours of gameplay. If your going to buy DLC buy these 3. Or just get the game of the year version. It comes with all dlc except arrival. Which kinda sucks cause Arrival has a big importance to the actual main quest of the series.


Likes: Everything that was so-so in the first game has either been highly improved or taken out all together in this game. The fighting is great and alot of fun. But what makes the mass effect series one of my favorites of all times is the in depth story and HUGE character development. Also this game has some of the best cinematic cutscenes i've ever seen. Better then alot of movies.
Dislikes: Alot of the game isn't focused on the main quest intil the end cause your mostly going world to world getting new members. This isn't really a setback cause you learn alot about each character and get really connected to them but for some people it can get kinda tired-some. Then you decide to not get to know them and they end up dying because u were lazy and ur left there saying fml while your teammates head gets blown off by a rocket. Theres also LONG loading screens. Atleast make the loading screens intersting with little facts like in skyrim.

Final Rating: 9.5. This is truly one of the best games i've ever played and is epic in every sense of the word. Go get this game.....NOW