Mass Effect 2 - Review

Mass Effect 2. There's only two words I need to describe it: absolutely phenomenal.

I'm a huge, huge fan of the first Mass Effect. When I eventually get around to playing and writing a review for that I assume it's going to be one gushing love letter to the game. So when I say that I enjoyed Mass Effect 2 more than the original it's a big statement.

Everything that you may not have liked about the first Mass Effect? Gone or greatly changed. No more Mako, no more bloated item/selling screens, no more clunky gun and armor customization, no more long elevator rides. Remember those little QTEs that you had to do to open certain containers? They're now replaced with "mini-games" that feel a lot more natural in the game. Basically everything that you may have griped about in the first one will probably be completely different and almost always better in Mass Effect 2.

Sure, there were a few misses with the hits but they're few in far between. The new mineral scan mini-game can feel tedious at times, but overall I didn't have a huge problem with it. Occasionally the models (especially on Shepard and Miranda) can go a little wonky. Also the cover system would occasionally frustrate me, but for the most part I loved how natural it felt. Like any other BioWare game the characters dialogue trees occasionally wouldn't get anything new for quite some time, but even this is much better than it was in Mass Effect or even Dragon Age. Overall though the few gripes I have about this game are quite small and insignificant, especially when I compare those to the things that have been changed to make this game better.

Listen, I could go on for hours about how amazing this game is... but I'm guessing there's thousands of reviews out there that would be saying the exact same thing as mine: this game is amazing. I spent 64 hours beating it and loved every minute of it. It managed to keep the same feel that Mass Effect had, but at the same time changing so much and in the end making it even better.

If you haven't played Mass Effect do yourself the favor and spend the $20 and play it. If you have played Mass Effect before and some of the small stuff you didn't like is making you second guess whether you want to spend that $60 or not, trust me, it's worth it. It's a phenomenal game and an amazing gaming experience. Go out and buy it, you won't regret it.

Squid.