The initial ten minutes are rife with chaos and emotion, as explosions threaten what is dear and devour a series hallmark. Mass Effect 2 is a cleaner and simpler RPG that stumbles ever closer to that ideal duck-and-cover Gears of War model.Īided by much-enhanced visuals (with little pop-in), the powerful presentation bolsters the darker tone. The core Mass Effect mechanics - the cover-based action, the dialogue systems, and galactic exploration - are still in place, but the RPG components have been tuned, refined, and, in some cases, even stripped. It’s a point of satisfaction: Shepard is no longer an invincible hero guaranteed to obliterate evil.īut winning does feel easier this time around.

What he does in this game is dangerous work that could kill him or members of his new crew. Shepard is no longer skipping through the intergalactic garden sowing seeds of virtue and splendor. The same late-’70s sci-fi dreariness still oozes from Mass Effect 2‘s proverbial pores, but there is a noticeably darker shift in tone that permeates the narrative.

Its sequel has now arrived, twisting the old foundation into something fresh, inviting, and titillating again.īuilding on its predecessor, you’ll resume control of Shepard and continue his quest to quash old and new cretins. In 2007, BioWare released the original Mass Effect, a stunning and colorful sci-fi RPG that had you saving intergalactic civilization from destruction - almost. Sparing intergalactic civilization from annihilation isn’t a new narrative construct - all budding sci-fi game writers and novelists must have soggy dreams about weaving this sort of epic - but the foundation isn’t exhausted just yet.

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