Reviewing Games

One word to describe Mass Effect 2?

Disappointing

It's been awhile since I last played it so I can't really go into exact detail about the story and what not, which I guess is alright for this because we will be able to see what parts of the game had an impact and what things were just retarded. Here we go from roughly the start:

So after I get reconstructed to look like the balls stomping queen that I was in the first game (could not carry on my chick from the first game as that was 360, played 2 on PC) I wake up and shits going crazy in this Cerberus lab.
I pick up a gun and some ammo and see my first enemy - a Loki mech.

A Loki mech? Looks kinda like a Geth, but never mind.
STOP
Here is one of the major problems with Mass Effect 2 - There is no real enemy.

You will be fighting 3 different mercenary groups for some reason throughout the game. Who are these guys? One is called the Blue Suns, the other is the Blood...Pack? and I do not remember the other one apart from they wear yellowy armour.
One mission you will be fighting the Blue Suns for some random reason. Your next stop you could be fighting the Blood Pack guys for some other random reason.
There is no main villain in this game. The Collectors? Well yes, story wise they are the main baddies but just like every single group of enemies, the fights with these guys are dotted randomly throughout the game. After you've mushed some Blue Sun's mercenaries, the next place you visit you could be fighting a bunch of those Loki mechs again or THE OTHER NAMED MECHS.
The Geth too make an appearance but I cannot remember why exactly I seem to be fighting these guys at this particular point in time and space, except the time where I'm doing Tali's story mission.
The Geth especially are easily forgettable. They were a complete bitch in the first game and shit was getting hot, but now it's just random skirmishes in some random places. The story does say that there are only a few Geth around nowadays and the military have little skirmishes with them, but again they are so easily forgettable that they may as well not have bothered. Like I said before, those mechs you fight just remind me of the Geth and just feels like they are reskinned, which seems to apply for the 3 mercenary groups. I just don't know why I'm fighting any of these guys apart from the Collectors.

I guess I will lead into combat now. The combat is faster paced and looks impressive, although I do have a hard time thinking why these tech powers and biotech powers seem to look like engineered flying discs. I do like locking on to a target and then flicking my mouse well above the target and firing a tech power to see it fly through the air and curve down over the target's cover and burning them.
However it still is the same GET IN COVER, SHOOT SHOOT POWER COVER. Every time you see a small wall or two there will be a fight - so much for getting ambushed.
I also don't like how all the powers share the same cooldown. Why is changing my ammo linked to my biotic and tech powers? Why can I not do a force push and then fire an overload after that?
What is the point in being a Sentinal (half biotic half tech) when i can't freely chain these moves together? I have to bust a power and then shoot at it like a chump while i have to wait to use my powers again. How does that make it a specialist class?
Here's an idea, why can't these groups be separated. If you are worried about spamming powers and powers and powers then increase the cooldown for each set of powers.
Might not be the best idea but at least then changing my ammo type won't make me unable to perform anything else.
Overall the combat is faster and much easier to control. I suppose it is an improvement but still needs refining.

Characters:
I liked the characters in ME1, except Kaiden and Ashley of course. Garrus and Tali were probably my favourite and whoopie, they made it into 2. Garrus has gone off the rails slightly which if you followed his story from the first game, is quite feasible. Tali's bouncing around the galaxy doing whatever Quarians do and it is a pleasure to meet up with them both again.

Miranda - didn't make much of an impact on me, however i didn't mind her as a party member. Her story mission is...well i dunno, it's just something you do.

Jacob - Pretty sure as soon as i could have other members, Jacob never stood beside me again. His story mission was...er...not really interesting, more like shooting loads of monkeys ducktaped inside a barrel.

Jack - So you want a bad ass bitch in the game? Sorry Jack, that's me - Booshka Shepard. I beat up guys in custody, I smack news reporters in the face and I headbutt krogan. What do you do apart from bitch and whine about being a bitch and a killing machine? Her story is to blow up the facility where she was held as a child. You have her side of things and you find out the facilities side of things...and then Cerberus' real side of things and then the alliance side of th LOOK WOMAN I DON'T CARE let's just blow this shit up so i don't have to talk to you anymore.

Wre...er Grunt - Not really much to say about him, his story is pretty basic (kill some shit, prove you're a man...or Krogan). He was alright I guess.

Tali - Gotta love Tali. Her story mission was pretty cool too and we actually were allowed into the Floatilla (The Quarian home of ships because they have aids). Sadly i didn't have enough points in either paragon or renegade to get Tali off the hook so she was exiled. Still though, it seems this story was actually worth the time to do and learnt a lot from it.

Garrus - He's a bad ass now and his story is bad ass. If you let him, he'll blow a hole through a guy's face at the Citadel. Don't know how the dude or anyone didn't see him prone on a walkway with a sniper but never mind.

Erm, Drex or Threll or something? - The Drell assassin. Pretty interesting to talk to, seems like a nice chap. Story is alright, a little tedious though.

Asari - The Judicator. Not much else to say. Her story mission is quite fun to play through although getting all the way to the end of it to just have a cutscene where she owns her daughter seemed like a bit of a waste. Either make the cutscene awesome or let help her kill the daughter.

Legion - It was cool to find out so much more about the geth and his story actually seemed like it fit in with the galaxy and the motion of things. I would liked to have known more about his particular fascination with me but I didn't really mind so much.

Hmm...who else...

Ah yes of course!

Mordin - The Salarian scientist. A fantastic character. His level of detail for his character was great and was always a pleasure to talk to him. If only the other characters were up to his level. His story mission...something about stopped his apprentice from curing the genophage if i recall...Even though i don't entirely remember it, it was important to hear his views and what he had to say always about his actions in creating the genophage.

So a bunch of characters there, I'm sure everyone has a few favourites and tosses out the rest much like I.

Controlling Characters:
Stick them both in cover so they don't decide to run straight into the fray. Use their powers if you want, however the only time you'll really need to is when your class is completely debunked vs your enemy.

The story:
I was under the impression that this game would be quite epic like the first one, zipping around planets busting geth in the face and chasing down...Saron(?) all the way.
However it isn't. The Collectors are...collecting humans from human world for some reason. Don't worry about that though, spend your time helping out your squad mates with their problems.

...

There didn't seem to be much of a story at all. You don't have to help your team mates out so they are side missions. If you skipped all of them then that's a huge chunk of time saved. And if you decide to not visit every world and do the very few side missions then that's more time saved.
And if you decide to not bother find those few side missions of a few planets then you wouldn't have to explore every fucking planet for no damn reason except to mine minerals...

Apparently these Collectors are Protheans that are twisted and shit becuase of the Reapers. The reapers apparently make themselves but harvesting races and convert them into...Reaper...ships? If thats the case then they must have been harvesting a shit load of slugs because that's what they all appear to look like.

Another major thing for ME2 was that the story carries over from the first game as well as your actions. Sadly nothing really comes of these except maybe a conversation or side mission.
One thing that really sucks in ME2 is that you're just a nobody that follows orders. Whatever happened to becoming a Spectre and people actually give a shit for the FIRST HUMAN SPECTRE? Go to the Citadel YO WASSUP I'M ALIVE, WHERE'S THE COUNCIL OUT YO?
"Sorry they don't want to see the first human spectre after you've been dead for two years"
"Well how about the Alliance?"
"Sorry they don't care about you either"
"...I'll just zip around the galaxy following this Cerberus dude then...see ya guys...don't worry about me...or anything..."

As opposed to saving the Council in which...they still don't care about you or even grant you an audience with them...

It's a long way away from commandeering my own ship through the galaxy for an epic quest to stop this maniac that wants to bring back a race that wants to wipe out the galaxy...



Equipment:
What equipment? This pistol or that other pistol? This shotgun or the other shotgun?
This armour that gives like 10% more heavy ammo or this piece that gives me some randomly other pathetic bonus?
Barely any weapons or armour to choose from which is a HUUUUGE gutting from the first game.

Spells:
When you rank 4 a spell they mostly give you the option of making it more powerful or a bigger AoE. For some reason AoE on some spells just seem useless and there's no way to tell that unless you choose it, at which point you're gonna have to shell out some Element Zero for a respec.

ME1 had some problems but overall it actually felt like you were in this big universe bounty hunting your way across these huge planets. Even the plentyful of side missions on those planets and ships were SO much more interesting than anything ME2 has done.
This game just feels like it plonks you down on a set map and then you just shoot your way to the end of it for some random reason.
The only reason I decided to go for a second walkthrough was because my Tali died at the end of the first. If anyone else died apart from Tali and Garrus then I don't really care.

Story:
From playing ME1 many years ago I can still remember all the major plots and planets and some dialogues. From this however, it doesn't really matter if you give a fuck what's going on because the game doesn't either.
Getting the IFF and having the Normandy crew get owned is when the game starts to pick up but I really don't recall why all of my characters got on a shuttle and left the Normandy so it could get enslaved like that.

Graphics:
Pretty good I guess, biotic and tech powers look a little weird but are nice overall. Most areas seem so lifeless though, not because of the graphics but because every real aspect of ME1 has been gutted in some way.

Sound:
Voice acting is pretty good, guns make boom boom, geth always sound cool. It's not something that really sticks in my mind though.

Gameplay:
The best thing about this game is the new renegade and paragon options as well as the interactive "click to interrupt this guy with a bullet through his head". Those scenes are pretty cool and make if you feel as if you're really playing your own character. I heard the paragon ones are a little sucky though.
Overall gameplay is linear and boring and go here do that fly over there do this talkkkk toooooooooooooooo zzzzzzzzz

Replay Value:
I was on my third playthrough on ME1 until my 360 deaded itself.
The only reason I started a second playthrough on ME2 was because I didn't want Tali to die, however I just stopped playing at a point because I even didn't care about that reason anymore.
If you want to try out all the classes then go ahead even though they seem virtually the same except the poor weapon choices really buttfuck some of the classes so you have to spam the same spell over and over.

Overall the game is disappointing and you can miss this one out without having to worry too much when you get ME3.
If this were a number, I'd guess it were a 6 or maybe a 7, whereas ME1 would at least be an 8 or a 9 even with all it's tedious MAKO and exploring shit and clunky combat.

If you want to play this game, rent it.
7/10