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[Tombsoldier]

*Move this to the Campaign if you want, I don't really want to go through the trouble of registering (for the third time) a game I bought

Well, review of Mass Effect 2:

Mass Effect 1 is tied for my favorite game of all time. It remains firmly in that place.

Starting off Mass Effect 2 one does get the idea that every last complaint from the first game was listened to and thought out. This is commendable. At the same time it removed what made 1 great in the first place.

Perhaps the least effective design decision was to make the game less of a seamless rpg and more of... I don't even know what to call it. Modern fps games have no such thing, they are more seamless than and immersive than what was presented. Mission ending screens, long and frequent load screens, giant glowing buttons that tell you the "mission is over". All but the loading serve only a purpose to the helplessly inept, as if the designers believed those playing the game were not intelligent enough to glean such information for themselves. As for the loading screens, loading is pause any way you look at it. The elevators in Mass Effect 1 seemed silly, but repetitive loading screens were if anything more boring. In the end all of this only served the vast majority of players in reminding them that they were playing a piece of computer software rather than being transported to another universe.

Losing control of a game (in this case your character), for any just about any reason whatsoever, is design idea that I do not support. When your in control, when you have things to do, then you are playing the game. If you are not, then you are a passive observer. You are not playing a video game. ME2 is guilty of taking away control many times over. Mission ending screens, filled with useless information one can look up at any time by pressing pause. Cinematics used to create excitement you aren't apart of. Long and frequent loading screens. All take away your ability to play the game.

The level design went from Mass Effect 1's average effort to a lot of streamlined environments obviously designed to be part of a video game. Doors that locked behind you for no reason, tight corridors that conveniently lead you from one challenge to the next. Glowing green markers there for... I don't even know what reason. The levels weren't even great for fps play, in fact most high level shooters are fairly good at combining layouts that are both interesting and support the context and story. Mass Effect 2 fails at both, leaving us with random cookie cutter corridors and a large convenient supply of crates to hide behind; without any particular notion that we are fighting somewhere specific.

Tied equally for the worst design is the story. At first it appears that you are doing nothing more than what you did in the first game, except with no surprise twist since you already know of the enemy. For reasons that are ill explained Shepard is killed in a deus ex machina via a giant ship appearing out of nowhere; after which another deus ex machina appears when Cerberus, the ruthless pro-human terrorist organization which tried to kill you the previous game spends enough money, by there own admition, to fund an entire army. Apparently you are going to go an stop a mysterious race from wiping out human colonies. Why just human colonies? This is never explained, nor does it seem a mystery anyone it really interested in.

At this point you might ask what the rest of the galaxy is doing about this. But it's never explained, a hand wave is all you get from the Council, if you could call it that, and the Alliance is just entirely missing in action, garnering less than a sentence of explanation. Which conveniently leaves you to be the hero. Apparently you are to go around collecting the best the galaxy has to offer so you can go in a single ship and kill an entire advanced alien race yourself, all funded by Cerberus. Why you are suddenly willing to trust them (despite many in the game saying not too) or alternately just look for a more rational solution is, again, never explained.

Not that Commander Shepard explains much. As a character Shepard becomes much the archetypal fps hero, with seemingly no free will nor feelings of his own. Upon learning that he's been dead for two years he barely so much as blinks, any friends or family are completely disregarded in order to fulfill his primary need of shooting as many things as possible. While most humans, or one would assume many intelligent creatures, might wish to ensure their loved ones are alright Shepard has no response whatsoever for them. Fortunately through another series of Deus Ex Machina he comes to meet them again anyway, the galaxy it seems, is a very, very small place.

Then there are the characters you recruit and their motivations for joining you. In the first game these were quite well thought out except for Wrex. Your two human soldiers were under your command, Garrus saw your cause as one of justice as well as a chance to ditch his frustrating job for tagging along with someone with power similar to what he's always dreamed of. Tali is ambitious Quarian looking to find information on the Geth and complete her pilgrimage, and Liara is an archaelogist who's mother you fought/will fight and you are studying the possible extinction of her main subject species.

On the other hand we have some of the Mass Effect 2 characters. Mordin comes along after about 5 minutes of work that could have been done by any mercenary band. Jack and Grunt, both supposedly unpredictable and violent just agree too stay onboard for reasons that aren't explained instead of jumping ship wherever they wanted too. Samara even has a reason not to go, off on a 400 year hunt that's she's obsessive over. Fortunately another deus ex machina comes up, and she quickly agrees to drop her hunt (which is nearing completion) in about half a second to go with you.

Finally we have the ending. It seems most pretext of a legitimate hardcore sci-fi game went out the window with the sequel, because right at the end you fight a giant construct from a 1980's metal band nightmare. I haven't been that disappointed in a games ending since... well Borderlands sadly wasn't that long ago. At this point I went from shooting through waves of repetitive enemies with low ammo in the hopes that the end would be better, to giving up all effort at being engaged in the game; and slogging through a 1996 era boss fight with no ammo just for the sake of ending it.

Despite all this I didn't hate the game. Once you got past their motivations the characters were very well written, and the mechanics of actually shooting stuff was enjoyable. At times the game came together very well, and even hummed along incredibly well despite bumps and uneven pits coming up far too often. But even before the end there was always something taking me out. Always an obvious flaw, something that told me I'd had enough for now and it was time to take a break. For me it was an above average title, a B-. To me Mass Effect was a great game in spite of it's flaws. It tried to a lot of things never done before, and even if it didn't do them perfectly I was more than ready to forgive what shortcomings it had in the face of it's sheer ambition. Mass Effect 2 is in almost every way a lesser game, trading ambition and nerve for mechanics and cliche was, in my eyes, not a good tradeoff. While not doubt the praise and accolades from many were because of this reduced and "streamlined" game design, I think perhaps if they had tried to see what I saw in the first game they would feel similar to how I do now, a vast disappointment. Not in what specifically was accomplished, but in what could have been. I had wanted, or at least desired, something more ambitious. Something that pushed what games could be out even more than the first. What I had expected was a Mass Effect 1 with improved mechanics and smoother gameplay. This is not what I got.

A list of quibbles:
"Ranking up" in renegade/paragon to open up knew options is not a good way to encourage actual roleplay, but a way to encourage people to powergame, play the system so they get the results they want rather than thinking of the decision solely on the grounds presented

Spreading out the equipment instead of having it on a single screen is just annoying, assuming the player is too untintelligent to work an unified inventory and replacing it with several specialized ones doesn't seem like an improvement

When I set down to find Grunt I had no context for who I was going after, how or what was going on. I just dropped off and started shooting guys, which wasn't interesting in the least.

"Streamlining" the character customization left it feeling hollow, there was particular decisions to be made as I could get most of the powers all the way up for all characters.

Cover doesn't work right. My Shepard keeps popping every once in a while in order to get me killed.

Buggy, party members not respoding to commands, a lot of other little stuff.