{"id":499,"date":"2010-01-31T12:43:43","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T02:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/?p=499"},"modified":"2010-01-31T12:44:18","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T02:44:18","slug":"mass-effect-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/2010\/01\/mass-effect-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass Effect 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, I’m only writing this because I’m not playing. And the reason I’m not playing is that I’m at work on a Sunday. There’s a bunch of other posts I need to get out quickly too. Hopefully, I won’t lose momentum, and you’ll see those soon.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Mass<\/p>\n

Mass Effect 2<\/em> picks up several years after the first game. Commander Shepard has joined the shadowy Cerberus network to continue his fight against the Reapers, a race of sentient machines that raise galactic civilisation only to destroy it.<\/p>\n

BioWare’s normal plot archetype is to introduce the player to the setting and over-arching plot, then give them a series of missions to be played in any order that will provide more information and allies.<\/p>\n

This time, they’ve changed it up. The first act of the game is focused mainly on the NPC allies; recruiting them and then gaining their loyalty so they will go with you on a suicide mission through an unmapped Mass Relay. Interspersed through this are a number of “must do” missions handed down by Cerberus’ commander in chief, the Illusive Man.<\/p>\n

Most of the allies from the first game are unavailable, having taken on new responsibilities in the past two years. That being said, it’s inevitable that you run into them and they can help you with your fight against the Reapers.<\/p>\n

One of the features of ME2 is that you can import a character that has completed the first game. You don’t get to keep his weapons or powers, but you do get to keep the decisions you made, his appearance and character background. This has a direct impact on the way certain NPCs deal with you during the course of the game. It certainly helps ME2 feel like a continuation of its predecessor rather than your standard video game sequel.<\/p>\n

There’s also a tiny quicktime mechanic that allows you to take dramatic decisions at certain points in the game. These can include killing an enemy in the middle of his monologue, or stopping an ally from killing the friend who betrayed her. Awesome stuff that takes the plot from being just a dialogue tree.<\/p>\n

Visually, the game is stunning. It’s amazing to see that developers continue to push five-year-old hardware to new limits. I mean, seriously, look at these screenshots<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I love the look of characters, effects, and levels. Level design itself can be a bit confusing. When on a mission, there’s generally no need to double back, which is a good thing. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not wandering the same areas again and again, but “civilised” areas are difficult to navigate, even with the in-game map.<\/p>\n

They have inserted two new minigames for hacking and bypassing security devices. They feel much more integrated with the feel of the game than the old button-pattern used in the first game.<\/p>\n

One of the most common complaints about Mass Effect<\/em> as released on the Xbox 360 was the horrid inventory management. BioWare heard us and fixed the problem by basically taking away the entire nuisance. Now, you can find or buy blueprints for upgrades to various parts of the game (guns, armour, the Normandy<\/em>) and then you have to use the resources (Element Zero, precious metals, etc) to purchase the upgrades you want.<\/p>\n

For the most part, upgrades are just applied across the board when built. No fiddling with individual upgrades to individual items for individual characters. Very nice. Occasionally, you may want to customise Shepard’s armour, or choose a different weapon set for the characters, but the defaults generally work fine.<\/p>\n

The exploration minigame has also been revamped so it’s all done from space. No more MAKO (yay!). Instead, you fly from planet to planet, scanning for precious metals from orbit. When you find something you want, you send out a probe to get it for you. That feeds back into the upgrade research\/purchase system, nice and neat.<\/p>\n

So, I’ve tried not to spoil the plot for you. If you enjoyed the first Mass Effect<\/em>, then the second one takes out a lot of the stuff that made the first one a drag, and builds on it in such a way that the story is seamless, the visuals are stunning, and the gameplay is what you wish the first had been all along.<\/p>\n

I highly recommend it. And when my shift ends, I’ll go back home and play some more. Hopefully I won’t be so burnt out when I finish it that I don’t want to write about the second and third acts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, I’m only writing this because I’m not playing. And the reason I’m not playing is that I’m at work on a Sunday. There’s a bunch of other posts I need to get out quickly too. Hopefully, I won’t lose momentum, and you’ll see those soon. Mass Effect 2 picks up several years after the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[160,391,13,392],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p149Qe-83","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}