I'm sure you've all been waiting for this one given my comparison between ME1 and Dragon Age. So here it is.
I'm going to start off with how they perfected all the flaws in ME1 with ME2. First off one of the things I hated the most about ME1 was all the needless amounts of armor, weapons and ammunition. This is part of the whole RPG element in ME1 that made me absolutely hate the game. They scrapped all of that. Its more simplified and user friendly. No more figuring out if you should be carrying around synthetic piercing bullets or bullets that explode on impact, they solved this problem by allowing you to easily switch between certain types of ammo by including them with your powers. Need incendiary rounds? No problem press 3, your character presses a few buttons on the weapon and poof! You're firing incendiary rounds! Uh oh enemies with powerful shields, NO PROBLEM! Press 4, look you are firing disruptor bullets! 10 easy payments of just $49.95 we accept all major credit cards must be 18 or older to call! I no longer have to fish through the menus figuring out what guns I want to keep and what ones to sell or reduce to resources. You do pick up guns as you go along but there are very few of them. Most of them come when you recruit a new member to the team and in the description it tells you what gun it is an upgrade for but also tells you if you are sacrificing power for accuracy. They've introduced a new upgrade system into the game. Rather then finding so many different weapons as you go along and if you do some searching around you find research data. You take this data back with you and if you have found the right amount of resources from scanning planets and releasing probes and also meet the prerequisites you can upgrade your armor, weapons and even your ship (THIS IS IMPORTANT!)
*****Spoiler***** Upgrading your ship is dire to your mission. The game has so much more of a "Mass Effect" in your decision making capabilities. I've played the game only one time through and I can tell you if I did not make the smart decision of upgrading the new, yes I said new, Normandy with extra armor, shields and weapons. The ending of the game would of been catastrophic and likely not in my favor.
***End Spoiler***
Armor, well I've watched some videos and have seen people running around in different sets of armor. From what I understand is there is more armor in the game with different styles and such but not a lot. I bought the collectors edition which actually came with a cool piece of armor that got me through the entire game very well. This is also something that annoyed me in ME1. The countless amounts of armor you would pick up for all the different species and races that did so many different things. They simplified this too. Only Shepard (you) can get new armor. They also let you customize the appearance of your armor and if you want to always be wearing that cool helmate that resembles a power ranger. I chose to wear the helmate
Exploring planets. Ahhhh ME1 exploration in the MAKO. It sucked, it was boring and frustrating. They solved this too! Now all you do is enter the orbit of planets from the star map and run scans of its surface. If minerals are found when the cool little graph that reminds me of a heart monitor in the hospital goes nuts you drop a probe on that location and collect said resources. They didn't entirely get rid of planet exploration though. Sometimes you will find anomalies and when you do you drop a probe and are given the option to land and explore on foot. Keep in mind probing planets is the only way to gain enough resources to afford all those upgrades for your weapons, armor, abilities and your ship.
COMBAT! I put that in caps for spite against dragon age. The combat in ME1 was awesome. No lock on targeting, free reign aim with an assortment of special abilities and the ability to control my team immediately and directly by pointing and pressing a button. Also able to tell them if I want them to use an ability. In ME1 it seemed to rely more on the user to tell the team what to do. This got annoying very fast and was a bit frustrating. They solved all this in ME2. You still have the option to aim at an enemy, pause combat and tell your teammate if you want them to use a concussive shot. This doesn't even seem needed anymore (I didn't do it anyway). The Computer AI is much better. Your team uses their abilities intelligently and the more their loyalty raises with you the more often they will cover your ass. The enemy AI has seemed to of gotten smarter. They utilize cover better and actually try to make attempts to flank you rather then just waiting you to figure out where they are and get some shots off. I have to say the combat in ME2 is more streamlined and refined to keep it fast pace, strategic and even make the adrenaline start to run through your veins. The music helps with this. There is also an addition of more classes. Stealth classes now and some classes that mix biotics with commando type play style that looks promising. Each character has their own type of special ability that really diversifies them and the classes. Combat in ME1 was fun. Combat in ME2 is intoxicating. Well done BIOWARE! Well done.
****Spoiler Alert****
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Now I will start with the story. I loved the story in ME1, alliance type federation trying to fit in well with an already established alien society mixed with many different types of species. I also loved the fact you could choose the gender of your hero or heroine. I preferably enjoy watching a girl jump into the fray and just completely destroying the hopes and dreams of some unfortunate poor soul who happened to get in her way. So I chose a female "Shepard".
The story of ME1 ended with you having to make a dire choice. Let the council die or save the citadel. The Citadel being this huge space station that housed billions of people and was the core headquarters of the council. ME2 actually picks up right after that. You are on a recon mission to find out why 3 other ships have disappeared from a system in the past couple weeks. The second you arrive there you are attacked and the Normandy is destroyed. You race to get your crew to the escape pods but while doing so your ship is hit again and you are blown out into space. All is good you have a distress beacon out and you are just floating in your space suit waiting to be picked up. Ooops a piece of Debree hit your air hose. I was astonished...Shepard dies...I watched as she suffocated and then was pulled in by the planets gravitational pull and plumeted to the surface and ended up just a burnt piece of meat in an impact crater.....
The game roles into some credits and video, you see doctors running around and some cool 3d renderings of a skeletal system. Then come to find out....you're alive! This was how they introduced the character creation for the game for people who did not have a saved ME1 game to integrate into ME2...yeap you can bring your ME1 character into ME2. I did have it but I uninstalled ME1 awhile back so I had to recreate my Shepard. In ME1 you fought against this group called Cerberus. Well how about this, they're the ones that recovered your body and have spent an unimaginable amount of money on this project called Lazerus to reconstruct you and bring you back to life. You were 2 years in the making but holy shit! You're alive!
So blah blah blah you get the run down of why you are alive and why Cerberus did it. The story gets more Riveting and intense as it moves on. The choices you makes really do effect what happens on later in the game way more so then they did in ME1. Your Renegade and Paragon actions are critical and really have a direct effect on the game. So decide wither you'de like to do the right thing, the mean thing or be split personality and do both here and there because it will effect how the game plays out. I kind of went with the whole split personality thing but more towards renegade. I let myself get into the story and the characters and then decide if I really felt they were deserving or not...kinda cool lol.
You spend a lot of the game investigating issues, finding old friends and even reuniting with some of the characters from ME1 who were your old crew. Garrus is back, Tali is back but the other characters are there just doing other things in the game. So you get an entire new line up of possible teammates and if I may say much more then the first. You can still only take 3 with you on missions though. So you find all your teammates and then to gain loyalty with them you have the choice to help them out with some favors they ask you for. Loyalty ensures they will stay aboard for the final mission and also save your ass more often in combat.
The main story missions are lengthy and all the side missions make the game even better. I found myself intrigued and enveloped in finding all the research items and upgrading everything to its fullest potential. I do believe I got most if not all the side missions done. Couple together with the main story line mission the game lasted a bit over 30 hours for me. I am pleased and was thrilled it hasn't been like most other games lately and only lasted about 10 hours.
****End spoiler****
Another cool thing that ME2 offers as mentioned before with the ME1 character integration is its downloadable content. Just because you beat the game doesn't mean its over. You have to check the network for updates and see when new missions are able to be downloaded. Which also brings me to another point. When you beat the game you are given the option to restart it with the same character at the same level and all your current equipment and abilities. Pretty cool, gives you the chance to continue building your character up and possibly a chance to explore other parts of the story you may have missed due to choices made. So you can steer the game in a different or complete opposite direction if you want to. Also the game gives tips when missions are being loaded and I came across this one.
"Decisions made in Mass Effect 2 could have dire ramifications in Mass Effect 3!"
So yeah this tells me they plan to implement their character integration system more in depth in Mass Effect 3. Instead of just your characters looks being integrated the choices you made in ME2 will have a direct impact in how ME3 starts and ends also including your choices made in ME3. Yeah, just to cool. I can't wait already. The story had me on the edge of my seat the entire time in ME2 and I am already drooling over ME3.
Well its about 4am and I know this review may be a little sloppy for now but I will fix it up a little later. This gives you the run down though on how much more they improved ME2 from ME1.
Mass Effect 2: 9.5 Mongeese bites.
