Feature Review: Mass Effect 2

The other half of Mass Effect’s gameplay is its extensive third-person-shooter element. For every mission, Shepard must choose two crewmembers to form the away-team. Sometimes a particular character is a mandatory inclusion for a specific mission. To be perfectly honest, the actual shooting aspect of Mass Effect 2 is rather bare-bones compared to thoroughbred shooters – it’s just that Bioware is good at making up for it. Shepard and company can only move within very strict boundaries and mantle a few items of a particular height. However, this pushes the focus entirely onto cover-based shooting and the use of each character’s special abilities, and it works beautifully.

Most players will quickly learn that running around in the open in the middle of a gunfight is a very bad idea. Your characters take a lot of damage from gunfire, especially since entire groups of enemies will concentrate their fire on anyone who exposes themselves. Careful use of cover, taking advantage of breaks in enemy fire to return fire or advance, or use of special abilities is the key to winning battles. Carefully observing the kinds of enemies in any given battle also has great tactical benefits. For instance, some enemies have strong shields, so you’ll want to deal with them using weapons or abilities that take down shields quickly, or order a team member to do it. Some enemies have strong physical armour, and the best way to deal with that is to hit it with fire-based attacks. Some enemies have both strong shields and physical armour — a real problem that requires a tactical orchestra of attacks to take them down before they become too much of a problem.

The weapon system in Mass Effect 2 has also changed a bit. Rather than buying weapons, Shepard and the team have to find them hidden in secret areas or dropped by fallen enemies. Once a weapon is found, it can be duplicated aboard the Normandy and freely equipped on every crewmember capable of using it. Shops don’t seem to sell weapons at all. What they do sell is upgrades to the different weapon types and the occasional schematic for a new weapon. Shepard can purchase these items and invest resources — which can be mined from the galaxy’s many, many planets — in researching them to make the benefits available to the whole team. For instance, if Shepard researches assault rifle damage or decreased Biotic regeneration time, those benefits become available to the whole team.

The concept of weapon ammo also sees its share of change. Weapons now use thermal clips which are basically the same as ammo clips in other shooters. There are three types: blue ammo, for smaller weapons; red ammo for primary assault weapons; and heavy weapon ammo, for rocket launchers and other unusual weapons, like the Collector disintegrator rifle. The first two types of ammo are dropped freely by enemies, but the heavy weapon ammo must be found in specially-marked heavy-weapon crates and is very limited.

Mass Effect 2 comes on two discs, so you can expect double the epic-ness of the first game. Among other improvements are two I was really hoping for: a fluid, stable frame rate during those big battles (Xbox 360 version, to be specific) and reasonable load times. The visuals are nice too, with dramatic lighting and much more cinematic conversations. Basically, if you’re at all a fan of the first game, you really don’t want to miss this one.