Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 was a roller coaster of experience, both in-game and out. I was a bit late on the boat with the first game, as I picked up on the cheap and fell in love; the game was around 30 hours (was it?) and I must have blasted through it in a week or two. The addiction ran so deep, that I may have required counselling. It was like having a second full time job for a week. Perhaps one of the ways you can define an addiction is when it starts affecting your life and people around you. I'm pretty sure I was missing in action for a week, although I still went to work so I should be in the clear.

My excitement reached a peak when I picked up Mass Effect 2 just after launch day and delved right into it. I wouldn't go as insane with this one - spreading my time throughout a few weeks. Unfortunately my time with the game would keep spreading thin as something strange was happening. My interest just wasn't there. The missions were different; there was less involved in this game. I'll go into some more detail in a bit, but the point immediately is that I was twenty eight hours in and I stopped playing. This has happened in the past before, sometimes with disastrous results. In some cases, I just never pick the game up again. Other games, I try playing again and it fails: the game goes incomplete. In even further cases, I restart the game from the beginning and blast though in entirety.

My friends and I were concerned: what would happen to ME2? Well, I tried easing my way back into gaming. I played some Rock Band, some Super Mario Galaxy and a little online play with Left 4 Dead and more recently, Resident Evil 5. Saturday morning around 10:30am I wondered over to my collection, and without thinking, opened ME2 and put it in. This was going to happen.

The game begun and I couldn't remember where I left off. I wasn't sure what all the controls were. I was nearing the end of all the loyalty missions and hence, the end of the game was coming near. I had to be up to speed, and happy to report, I went right back into it like riding a bike. You just don't forget how to play ME2. So, it was time for business and I was really enjoying it. Finished up the loyalty missions and it was onto a few side quests before tackling the Omega 4 relay. One of the reasons this game went unplayed for so long was because of these loyalty missions, and specifically: Tali's. It was boring, and I found myself skipping large sections of dialogue. So, I was happy that the rest of the missions I had left were pretty entertaining: perhaps it was just the break that made them that way, but I had a blast going through everything.

The side quests were a bit more interesting, but I didn't feel like there were as many of them. There was a huge lack of weapons and upgrading. I wanted more armor changes. I don't comprehend that by the end of the game, I only had a choice between two or three sub-machine guns. It turned into more of an action game than a role-play, which I don't mind, but give me some more items. The same problem plagued Oblivion. You get to a certain level and you can breeze through the remainder of the game. Perhaps its my playstyle, but this tends to happen in action-RPGs like this, Fable and Oblivion. Grind away early to get the good stuff, then breeze through the rest.

One of the focuses of these games are the relationships you build within your squad. You can take it to the point of intimate romance, or you can treat them like garbage to the point where they no longer become loyal to you. The decisions you make have an effect later on in the game, and supposedly into the next one as well. And this brings me to the end of the game, so if you haven't played I would recommend skipping the next paragraph.

First, all of my squad was loyal. But still, one of them died: Jacob. I chose the poor fool to crawl through a pipe (or something) and presumably, sacrifice himself in doing so. This is fine, except he makes it out of the pipe and starts fighting with us, only to get shot in the head and drop right there. Perhaps I chose the wrong guy to go. Everybody else survived without a problem, except half my crew, and they were the good half! I blame this on the game itself, as I understand it, if you don't go into the Omega 4 relay immediately after they are kidnapped, your crew will simply die. The longer you wait, the more you lose. So, I ended up losing Kelly (who was great) and the two engineers, which made me very sad. I cared more about them than half my squad. But the problem is, you get your last squad mate during the last missing just before the suicide run. They want to install some Reaper thing on your ship, and I guess I said go ahead. I saved the game, then finally found Legion, and to give him the best odds, I did his loyalty mission, but this all happened after the crew was stolen. I reloaded the game but it turns out I'm too far gone. Either way, it was upsetting, but I was very happy with the relative ease of the end "boss" and final level. It seemed very fitting for the game.

So, end of spoilers there, and end of the game.After thirty four hours total, I finished it pretty late at night and had trouble coming down off it: pretty sure I was going to dream about it a lot. And I know that I have to move quickly onto another game or else I'm going to start a new one here: it would be nice to have a couple of different characters as options to bring into Mass Effect 3. Unfortunately I didn't get to import my character from the first as during my move between Xbox systems, my save data became "corrupt." For all my complaining there is a lot of greatness to the game; it really is an interactive movie. I love the mythos they are building: the universe it's set in, the races and the attention to detail. I want to spend more time there. Will the series end at the trilogy? I hope not; and I hope that if it goes on it doesn't become diluted. You could very well see an MMORPG, or an RTS and FPS, or even a cart racer, all bearing the Mass Effect name. But in the end, I will have recognized playing one of the best series of games that have ever come out.