Back in my pre-Xbox 360 days, my only real exposure to RPGs were the Kingdom Hearts series and the various Mario RPGs on the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance. To me, RPGs were anime-esque Japanese games that culture gaps didn’t allow me to enjoy. But the dominant RPG experience on the 360 has been the western RPG, like Fallout 3, Fable 2, and the original Mass Effect. The original remains my favorite game of all time, but my heightened expectations for Mass Effect 2 didn’t dampen the experience it all. Simply put, Mass Effect 2 is a worthy follow up to the original.

 

Mass Effect 1 was excellent for a variety of reasons; the story was excellent, the dialog options were stellar and ahead of their time, and the RPG and shooter elements blended well to make an action-packed game. It wasn’t without its faults. The side missions on unexplored planets were basically copied and pasted with almost no changes, the inventory system was unintuitive and messy and the Mako handled terribly, occasionally getting caught in the level’s surfaces. Bioware listened to all of the complaints, and basically hacked the bad things out of the game. The Mako is gone, the side missions are fewer and far between lending to more variety, and the inventory system is basically gone.

 

Side missions are now accessed by probing unexplored planets for minerals, and finding anomalies on those planets to check out. The minerals will play a big role as well. Instead of buying new guns, armor and modifications, you research them on the Normandy. The probing system won’t be for everyone, and it can take a while to fully strip a planet. The process will wear on some gamers, as it’s necessary but isn’t the most intuitive system.

 

 

If that last paragraph didn’t exactly point this out, the RPG elements of the game have been stripped back a decent amount to make the game more accessible (which worked, 2 million copies sold in one week). In the first game, like most RPGs, you earned experience for every enemy slain, so you leveled up a lot. Mass Effect 2 only doles out the experience when you beat a mission, which normally only comes in the form of beating an entire level. So leveling up, and thus upgrading your character, is much less frequent.

 

It is odd though, because the characters and their specialties are more fleshed out. Each character has their own niche, and it’s rare that one character will be outshined by another. The strategy of what characters to bring on each mission plays a bigger role than the original, even with 3 or 4 more NPCs to bring along than in ME1.

 

The story isn’t as strong as the original’s, but the characters are more developed on every level. Some of the new characters, Thane and Jack in particular, stand out as some of the most interesting characters in the whole series. Even the side characters, like Joker, get a more developed story. The story takes a backseat to letting you get to know the characters, which makes prepping for a suicide mission so your favorites don’t die key. The story takes off at the end, setting up the end to an epic trilogy and leaving you more attached to everyone in the process.

 

The story, from recruiting new team members to just general saving the universe actions, take you to every side of the galaxy. All the races from the original - quarians, turians, geth - return, but the enemies are much more varied this time. You'll fight geth again, but you spend a lot of time fighting mechs, krogans, and the new main nemesis, the Collectors. The new enemies provide a wider experience than shooting geth on every planet.

 

 

The strengths of Mass Effect have stayed strong. The wheel of dialog remains great, with plenty of memorable conversations and choices to be made. The game features Hollywood talent like Keith David, Carrie Anne Moss and Martin Sheen. Bioware also added paragon and renegade actions to conversations. Let’s say you’re in a cutscene where a teammate of yours is going to shoot someone. With a high enough paragon rating, you can hit the left trigger and stop them. Or if you’re a sick bastard, you can let it happen.

 

Bioware also didn’t rest on their laurels. Gone from Mass Effect 1 are the elevator rides from hell and the Unreal Engine texture pop-ins. The combat has also been improved with more guns, new ammo types and new powers for the biotics. The game now plays a bit like Rainbow Six, a third person shooter with an emphasis on flanking and cover. Getting in and out of cover works well, but vaulting over barriers can be a bit wonky. Also, there's no ability to blindfire while in cover, which does not work well. You can't use suppression fire while your shields regain, which is a step backward from most third person shooters.

 

Overall, the game might turn off diehard fans of Mass Effect, but everything comes together to form a new experience that still stays true to the original. As long as you keep an open mind, you won’t be disappointed. The emphasis on character development will make sure that you won’t want to leave any man, or this game, behind.