Mass Effect 2 Review - Xbox 360

8.5

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Audio: 8
Innovation: 7

The first Mass Effect which launched in 2007 brought us a new angle on the science fiction role-playing genre. Sure, we had seen similarities before in BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic, but Mass Effect was different. Traveling throughout the galaxy, landing on dozens of different planets to extract minerals and collect valuable resources, Mass Effect was more than just a lengthy campaign, it was an expedition. Mass Effect 2 sets the stage to continue the story in 2010, and with most of the main characters making some sort of appearance throughout the game, it’s a sequel not to be missed.

Gameplay

Mass Effect 2 kicks off where its prequel finished. You are John or Jane Shepard, a lieutenant commander who has saved the galaxy from a certain doom, and must now save the galaxy again (as all heroes must do every few years).  As you begin, you can choose to import your Mass Effect character or start fresh. The all new facial design features allow you to customise how Shepard looks, and the attention to detail is much better than what the first game was capable of. Firstly, you need to choose your psychological profile and your class. There are three psychological profiles: Sole Survivor, War Hero and Ruthless, and they will affect certain missions throughout the game and how much paragon/renegade points you gain. Choosing your class is as easy as scrolling through a quick menu with information about which class has proficiencies in which skills. Once you choose one of the six classes, you’re placed in to the actual game and a galaxy becomes available to explore in your very own revamped Normandy spaceship. As you play through the game, more star clusters become available and there are over a hundred different planets to ‘explore’.

The basic gameplay of Mass Effect 2 is split in to three acts, act one has you building your team, act two has you performing missions for your crew to gain their loyalty, and act three is Shepard VS. a giant alien force, with the winner gaining boasting rights of the galaxy once again (news flash: it’s you!). The plot is fairly standard, and there aren’t any twists that you’d expect in most other games these days. The new exploration system in Mass Effect 2 means you can no longer land on planets to extract their resources. This is disappointing as it shows the developers got a bit more lazy and couldn’t be bothered mapping out all the planets for us to explore. For a game that lets you explore an entire galaxy, there are some star clusters where you can do little more than probe planets.

The new probing system is a much faster way to gain vital resources for upgrading your ship/crew/weapons. As you scan a planet, it will detect when your radar is hovering over resources and you can then choose to launch a probe which will somehow retrieve the resources back to the ship. Every planet in the entire game (over 100) ...