LogFAQs > #906011833

9/10: Mass Effect 2

The process that led to this 9/10 is a similar process to what led to Rayman Legends being my 10/10. Legends is a game that surpasses its genre and series to become something fantastic regardless of where it came from - whereas my 9/10 pick here, Mass Effect 2, falls a bit short of that mark. That is to say, Mass Effect 2 is effectively -the- definitive Mass Effect game - it sums up and expands upon the niche that Mass Effect fills almost perfectly, to the point where it doesn't have to be the best game of its genre. It's still very much the best Mass Effect game, and that's fantastic.

The funny thing is that I prefer the first game to this one in a lot of aspects. I like Mass Effect's story, themes and tone - it feels very Silver Age of Comic Books, kind of goofy and endearing, but it also has a genuine heart - and it's pretty endearingly optimistic. It was a good way to start the series, storywise - the gameplay was clunky, and the Mako was a bit rubbish (though I like it more than most), but it was a bold first step in the right direction.

Mass Effect 2 works so well to begin with because it instantly subverts the first game's tone. You started the first game with a slow, dialogue-heavy exposition dump about this weird mission that you're about to take. It sets up the story arc of the game, and it sets up the universe at large - human-alien xenophobia, the council, the Alliance, the SPECTRE program etc. I like it, but it's not for everyone and that's okay.

So how does the second game start? The ship you spent the first game using is destroyed in an attack. Your crew scatters, some crew members are killed, and Shepard is thrown into space where they ultimately die.

If Mass Effect 1 is Silver Age, then Mass Effect 2 is very much Bronze Age if not Dark Age. But that's not a bad thing.

I've always had issues with arbitrary tone shifts in gaming series. I hate the 7th gen Bionic Commandos and Bomberman: Zeroes of the world, and I spent a lot of time disliking Jak 2 for how it changed the Jak and Daxter series into a decent, but not great, GTA clone. But Mass Effect 2 really resonated with me.

The first game had dark themes, what with the human supremacist terrorist cell Cerberus and the option to commit genocide against the Rachni. But Mass Effect 2 really dove into some messed up shit. We have Jack, a powerful biotic who was experimented on as a child and who spent most of her life as a slave, merc or drug-addicted space pirate - a hardened criminal who knows nothing but torture and anger. We have Mordin Solus, a character who essentially inflicted a genocide onto another race and feels little to no remorse over it due to logistics. We have the Collectors, who kidnap people while they're still conscious and use them for nefarious means. Pair that with locations like Omega and the planet you go to for Jacob's loyalty quest, and you have a game that's willing to get pretty depressing. The tone shift is played absolutely straight, and it works incredibly well.

The gameplay is also fixed up significantly. Everything about the combat has been revamped, for better or for worse - I much prefer how combat works in this game, but I dislike the use of thermal clips. The new characters can be hit or miss, but I like them. I especially like the returning characters, with some of the game's finest moments being scored to the main theme from Mass Effect 1 - it creates a real sense of nostalgia and peace, breaking up the occasionally upsetting tone of the game with some moments of levity.

Mass Effect 2 is a game that managed to amplify the best aspects of the first game by contrasting them against darker themes. It shifts the direction in which the series goes while staying true to the first game in many regards, and it forges its own identity as a game and steers the series beyond that. It has its issues, but Mass Effect stands as a great game of its time and arguably as the best game of its series.
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