Mass Effect 2 finished. Thoughts?

The Terminator? No, it's a human reaper.. Or a reaper human?

It was an intense fight. Don't use the Cain for increased difficulty.


Pretty much. All weakpoints are very obvious.

I was on the Paragon road to be greatest hero in Mass Effect 2. I finished the game with half of my teammates gone for good. Somewhere beneath the Bioware forums, there's a strategy on how to bring every teammate out of the suicide mission. Miranda was gone too.. I lost Miranda's loyalty and she did not get fresh with me (I wished she would though, she's just about the most attractive among the teammates).

So the suicide mission, wasn't that suicidal at all. The teammates died a ridiculous death. Don't anyone use Medi-gels anymore? Why couldn't Shepard just use Unity to revive them? Is Mass Effect 2's advanced technology not advanced enough to revive a thermal-shotted victim but advanced enough to revive Shepard from his/her death, although I recalled Miranda saying that revival technology was very expensive. Oh well.

The final battle was easy as hell. Of course, don't use the heavy weapon Cain. It just makes it so much easier but less fun. I kept something which the Illusive Man wanted and gotten Renegade points. Damn, I should have destroyed it.. The Illusive Man wasn't that friendly anyway.

For the whole game, collecting resources from umpteen planets was never this stressful. Moving the mouse aka the scanner around is stiff as hell. It feels rather good to extract resources at first, then it gradually depletes, and then you would rather find it a nuisance. Gameplay showed the most improvement from its predecessor, the first Mass Effect. Taking cover was comfortable and sensitive. Using thermal clips instead of the infinite ammo from the first Mass Effect felt more realistic and forces you to salvage clips every now and then, especially if you're using a Sniper Rifle. Overall, the gameplay difficulty have been stepped up but survival isn't an issue because you regenerate health overtime, unlike the excessive usage of Medi-gels from the first. It's definitely a huge step up from its predecessor.

The environments in-game are all carefully designed and every detail shows the amount of work put into the game. Unlike most games (Fallout 3, Oblivion, The Last Remnant etc), environments are not recycled frequently in the game. Almost every place you visit, every anomaly you discovered are different in many ways. This easily kills the boredom you get from exploring. Every new discovery, is a new adventure. Quests are aplenty in the game, which should occupy you with enough time to prepare until the suicide mission. Most quests are not generic at all as most of it comes with a believable story.

The dialogue, voice acting and character design are almost flawless. The fact that the character textures in Mass Effect 2 are lower in quality from its predecessor doesn't cut you off the game. It still looks amazing from far and affects the game in no negative manner.

The whole game is a new blast. The mechanics are fresh, with a smooth learning curve. The game still contains the same occupations. Weapons are not acquired from killing enemies but salvaged from various locations. Still, it's easily overlooked anyway. The only things I hate is resource scanning and the final battle could have been a bit more harder, because it's a huge ass robot for God's sake.

Game Score = 9/10

John