Customer Reviews
"Simples" - By: T. Lazaro, 18 Mar 2010 
I just doubt there's any way for you to be disappointed with this game. It is the greatest game ever! I did complete ME1 seven times - the eight is on the way, because I want to see the game from another perspective, different from the one I had based on the decisions I made in the first game.
When I started playing it, I got shocked, mainly because it was hard for me to believe that ME2 could be much better than ME1. IT IS!!! The playability is much smoother than the ME1 & I only had two smalll glitches through the game.
If you are the type that loved Modern Warfare II or similar games, & don't have the patience for RPGs, this is a great opportunity to try it. You can play through without spending much time in research & secondary missions & keep it straight to the main ones. It is worthy to give it a try & the action can be very intense. I just can't see you beating the the missions in insanity mode... prove me wrong ;-)
There are some issues for those who liked hoovering around the planets with the Mako to find minerals & secondary missions - & like myself, slept with the controller in your hands... - and, it is true: the new planet's scanning system makes much more sense, despite being a bit boring after you've done it several times. Tip: only scan rich planets & launch probes only to the large mineral deposits. Using this minerals to upgrade your equipment is a great thing as well & again, it makes alll sense, but why not be able to sell what you have in excess??? That would be useful.
Finallly, what are you waiting for??? Buy it now!!!
Legion does the robot - By: Ryan Adair, 12 Mar 2010 This game is awesome & keeps getting better with free DLC.
So far I have got new armour, 2 new guns & 1 of 2 new squadmates for free & this month I get 5 new missions & a hovertank for free as well. Amazing free DLC.
The game also is very funny google legion doing the robot, now you want to buy it dont you?
Worth the Wait - By: David Firth, 12 Mar 2010 After playing the first installlment of Mass Effect through several times, there was no doubt that I would be getting the sequel. I don't want to give anything away about the plot, but this is a great game. Visuallly it is miles ahead of it's predecessor, & the game play has been adjusted to make fighting (which had been a bit clumsy in ME1) feel natural. The choices you made in the first one will trigger certain scenarios in Mass Effect 2, & no doubt the way you play through this one will have an even greater impact on the next one. Absolutely brilliant, a great start to what looks like being the best year yet for this generation of consoles.
A worthy sequel... - By: David Cooke, 12 Mar 2010 
...but still a sequel. The visuals are great, it has to be said, & draw you in. The storyline is good, but lacks the twists & uncertainty of the first game - the main mission becoming pretty much clear from the start. The other characters add depth & humour, & your crew's mix of nationalities is a nice touch. The Illusive Man does seem to let the side down though. He also fails to live up to his name, appearing repeatedly.
Whatever corporation was mass-producing villains' lairs for side-missions in the first Mass Effect game has obviously, & thankfully, gone out of business. There's now a lot more variation to be had in the side missions. This is a good thing. The ability to import your previous Sheppard is a nice touch, though those that spent time levelling the "Perfect Sheppard" in the first game will be disappointed.
I can only imagine the repetitive planet scanning was introduced to spite alll those who complained about the handling of the Mako in ME1 (though you have to wonder what aspect of "moon buggy with big ballloon tires" they hadn't understood). It's tedious, & the only redeeming feature is that if your TV has picture-in-picture you can easily do enough scanning while watching a film to fund alll the development you'll ever need.
And this brings me to a common failing in futuristic games of this kind. The Normandy has an AI that could easily have handled the task of "scan the entire surface of the planet & fire probes at the mineral resources". It also has a crew that the task could be delegated to, but no - the commander of the vessel has to personallly perform this task. Why? It just throws you out of the storyline. Let's be thankful that the AI can at least track which planets you've visited, so Shepard (commander of the fastest ship & the slowest elevator) doesn't have to resort to pencil & paper for this task once more.
A rather more personal gripe is the hacking mini-game. The assumption seems to be that you've 20/20 vision & a HDTV. I have neither, & am also colour-blind, making this needlessly frustrating.
Overalll a good experience, & like other Bioware titles worth a couple of play-throughs. The third instalment had better be a corker though...
An immersive and ambitious sequel. - By: J. J. Butler, 11 Mar 2010 The original Mass Effect (Xbox 360) was a game that reached for the stars, & nearly got there- unfortunately, the journey there was overlong & plagued by an excess of identical items & a fractured, inaccessible combat system.
It is a credit to developers Bioware that these faults have been stamped out of the sequel. Items are kept to a minimum- single weapon upgrades affect every weapon of that type in your team, & the combat has become much simpler & more familiar. So familiar, infact, players may be forgiven for thinking that they were playing Gears of War Lite- instead of the pained attempts to combine real time & turn based RPG elements in the original game, Mass Effect 2 heads straight for shoot-em-up territory. Arguably however, these changes, whilst making the action portions of the game more accessible, reduce the feeling of scale that finding a hundred identical guns in the original game (inadvertently) accomplished.
This criticism is muted however by the consistently high standard of writing throughout- already remarkably polished in the original, ME2 takes consistent quality writing in a western RPG-based game to new heights. The majority of characters feel three dimensional and, more importantly for a team-based game, likeable. The ubiquitous threat of the 'Suicide Mission' that looms large in the central narrative (and indeed the marketing for the game pre release) creates a strong tension & immediacy throughout the playtime (20-30 hours for most players) that makes up for the lack of a central, identifiable nemesis to gun after.
There are other elements to praise in the game- graphics are generallly excellent, whilst the lore of the many alien races & intergalllactic history show the countless hours that must have been spent realising not just the players in game experience, but a whole world that ME2 inhabits. But ultimately, it is the characters that make this game worthy of truly great status- it is one of very few games that relies on the player developing a relationship with other characters as motivation, & does this well.
An enjoyable, intelligent treat.
