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Every aspect of the game that makes the first Mass Effect has either been removed or improved, making Mass Effect 2 a much better version Overall Score 9.2 Gameplay 9 **Spoiler's Alert for those who haven't played the first Mass Effect** Mass Effect 2 sets two years after the Saren's defeat. This time, Shepard is teamed up with Cerberus; A large, rich, and powerful organization that tries to save the humanity. The way Cerberus do things is very different than the alliance government method which causes them to fight among each other. Don't expect too much help from the Alliance and even some of your previous crew members from Mass Effect 1. Your current main objectives is to find out why the collectors, a bug-faced humanoid, kidnaps several human colonies. As you progress through the game, you will gain new friends and uncover stories little by little. **Spoilers end** As you start playing the game, you will immediately be forced to arm yourself and engage in battles with unidentified androids. You will notice that the shooting gameplay has been significantly changed and improved. The fluidity of duck and cover while shooting bad guys are top notch. Incoming barrage of bullets and biotic powers are much more stimulating compared to the previous Mass Effect. The tensions and the violence are intensified as you bring down wave after wave of enemies. You won't feel bored in Mass Effect 2 combat even after you're nearing the end of the game since you won't be fighting on the same planet and same environments all the time. Hearing the sound of bullets penetrating through Krogan thick armors or robotics AI is very satisfying. The elusive man, which is your current boss, will assign you to investigate the existence of collectors and to recruit new members from different galaxies. You will be exposed to the beauty of alien world far away from your homeworld.
May the force be with you The monsters, enemies, beasts, main villains, are much more aggressive with "less-talk, more fight" attitude. You will die many times in Mass Effect 2 because the enemies will kill you faster and doesn't leave enough room for forgiveness nor allow you to reload your weapon peacefully. While you're not in the battle, you can gather your resources which is used to upgrade your weapon, damage output, and overall equipments to make you more resistant from bullets and biotic damage. Gathering resources puts you into mini-game where you visit uncharted planet and find resources by scanning and dropping the probe to extract resources. It is a nice change of pace from high tension battle. Companions in Mass Effect 2 are Voice Actors on every characters are excellent and each represents unique type and memorable personality. Except The Vorcha which sometimes can be very annoying when hearing them grunting and speaking. Mass Effect 2 still uses very small words on the codex information and can be hard to read if you’re not close to your screen TV, assuming that you have regular box-sized TV. Reading close to the TV screen can be very bad for your eyes. In addition, the interface shown after you acquired items, minerals, and credits quickly disappear from the screen which leaves you guessing what and how much do you receive.
Very Elusive Mass Effect 2 is all about choices. A decision that you make may adversely affect the way the game will progress through the end. As you reach to the end, you are forced to make tough decisions that will effect the life of your crews and millions of people in the galaxy, possibly alter the story for Mass Effect 3. You may end up choosing bad decisions that may kill many people and even your crews, but the possibility of how much destruction you want to see from the choices you make can be very tempting. Talent points after level up are significantly fewer to spend so players must spend their points wisely. Spending points on the talents that you realize you will never use later in the game can be a big waste since the talent points can be reset right after half of the game completed and it requires large amounts of resources and there is little room for mistakes which is frustrating when you DO make one. Graphic 10 Mass Effect 2 is visually stunning. No longer you will see the choppy graphic of the character's face. The lightings and the dark environment of the Mass Effect 2 universe reinforced with the smooth cinematic-like graphics enhances your desire to explore every corner of the galaxies, wishing you are part of the society. Your new ship, which is also named Normandy from previous Mass Effect; are getting upgrades both visually and more space to explore. Although moving from one floor to another forces you to go to a loading screen which can take a very long time, but considering the interesting crews telling stories about their private lives and interesting dialogues from your companion makes you forgive the loading screen problem.
Enemies you encounter are graphically realistic, other than aggressive. Biotic powers you or your companion unleash delivers stunning performance especially when it hits the enemies, not the crates. Many huge monsters, aside from high tension battles, are incredibly huge and intimidating thanks to the impressive graphics. All in all, Mass Effect 2 is delivers unquestionably exceptionally stunning graphics that makes Mass Effect 2 universe even more beautiful and memorable. Sound 10 There is no doubt that Bioware company always makes games that has superb voice actors. Mass Effect 2 is no exception. Every companion has unique personality and their voice can be so convincing that you always think twice which decision you want to choose. The sound of battle war intensifies your experience and tickles your adrenaline rush. Boss fights is where the epic moment sets in as they intimidate you while trying to kill you. Some of the characters' voices are so memorable that the voices will helplessly get into your head even while you sleep. Replayability 8 When you first play Mass Effect 2, you are so excited as to what to expect, what kind of interesting companions will you be recruiting, or what the universe will turn out if I decide to be good or bad? As you explore through the grandeur universe of Mass Effect, your questions are answered one by one. As you finish the game, you're wishing to come back to see what happened if I chose being the bad guy from the good guy? Your excitement isn't as high as the first play through, but you're still excited nevertheless given the many classes specialization you can choose from the beginning to the stunning world you're exploring. However, planet scanning mini-game will be a major drawback to your second-play through experience because you don't want to spend another 30 minutes looking for resources, unless you're into that kind of thing. Mass Effect 2 only tastes great after you played it twice, but after that, you can't even bare to think of doing another planet-scanning.
Quarian left, Krogan right. Stunning vision and improved gameplay mechanics are the hallmark of Mass Effect 2, making Mass Effect 1 a prehistoric game. Krogan's world and Quarian's world are one of the few planets that you will be visited. There are many more planets and the galaxy waiting for you to explore and tap their resources or busting geths' behind. Given so many surprises beyond our expectations, it is clear that Mass Effect trilogy are jam-packed with a blast. It seems the developer still have many tricks up their sleeves only to be revealed on the epic conclusion of the Mass Effect trilogy. We can't hardly wait.
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