Gamebanshee reviews Mass Effect 2
Gamebanshee reviews Mass Effect 2
Review - posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Mon 15 February 2010, 22:06:47
Tags: BioWare; Mass Effect 2Gamebanshee eventually expressed their feelings towards BioWares latest masterpiece.
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">The tone of this review is mostly negative, but that’s not because Mass Effect 2 is a thoroughly bad game. It’s just a slimmed-down action game, which is disappointing to me -- and, I’m assuming, to anybody else who was hoping for an actual role-playing game. If BioWare is going to spend two years to create a game, I just wish they’d set their sights higher than what they produced in Mass Effect 2.
But the production values are once again excellent (and all of the voice actors from the original game returned to reprise their roles), the engine looks better and runs much more smoothly than it did before (saves and loads are almost instantaneous, and all of the interminably long elevator rides disappeared), BioWare did a fantastic job of incorporating characters and events from the original game into the new one (even the guy looking for a refund on the Citadel is back), and while the PC version didn’t receive quite the same amount of love that it did last time, everything still works pretty well, and the game didn’t crash on me once.
It’s just that the dialogue, equipment, character choices, game decisions, puzzles, and depth all took a big hit, and BioWare chose to focus on somewhat repetitive combat over everything else. Plus, the storyline isn’t great. Mass Effect 2 seems much more like a set-up for Mass Effect 3 than as a game that was meant to stand on its own.
And so this is going to be a mixed review. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t particularly like wading through dialogue, or sorting through equipment, or figuring out which character build makes you the most powerful, then Mass Effect 2 might be a good game for you. But if you’re more on the Dragon Age: Origins side of the role-playing game spectrum, then there might not be much for you in Mass Effect 2, unless you’re just looking for a change of pace.
Spotted at: Instant Classic Archives
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">The tone of this review is mostly negative, but that’s not because Mass Effect 2 is a thoroughly bad game. It’s just a slimmed-down action game, which is disappointing to me -- and, I’m assuming, to anybody else who was hoping for an actual role-playing game. If BioWare is going to spend two years to create a game, I just wish they’d set their sights higher than what they produced in Mass Effect 2.
But the production values are once again excellent (and all of the voice actors from the original game returned to reprise their roles), the engine looks better and runs much more smoothly than it did before (saves and loads are almost instantaneous, and all of the interminably long elevator rides disappeared), BioWare did a fantastic job of incorporating characters and events from the original game into the new one (even the guy looking for a refund on the Citadel is back), and while the PC version didn’t receive quite the same amount of love that it did last time, everything still works pretty well, and the game didn’t crash on me once.
It’s just that the dialogue, equipment, character choices, game decisions, puzzles, and depth all took a big hit, and BioWare chose to focus on somewhat repetitive combat over everything else. Plus, the storyline isn’t great. Mass Effect 2 seems much more like a set-up for Mass Effect 3 than as a game that was meant to stand on its own.
And so this is going to be a mixed review. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t particularly like wading through dialogue, or sorting through equipment, or figuring out which character build makes you the most powerful, then Mass Effect 2 might be a good game for you. But if you’re more on the Dragon Age: Origins side of the role-playing game spectrum, then there might not be much for you in Mass Effect 2, unless you’re just looking for a change of pace.
Spotted at: Instant Classic Archives
