Mass Effect 2

The sequel to the best game for the XBOX 360. It improves on every flaw, perceived or real, from the first game but introduces a handful of new ones.

Rating: 9/10

Expected Rating: 10/10

Pros: Another amazing soundtrack, terrific voice acting, good story with interesting twists, fun gameplay

Cons: Weapons have been 'upgraded', inventory system basically removed, resource system makes gathering resources into a pain and can be quite restrictive, text (especially smaller fonts used for codex/journal) are almost unreadable on SDTVs.

This game is a good follow-up to the original Mass Effect. BioWare truly listened to it's consumer base when creating this game. The main villain of this game makes appearances through-out, there are no tank missions, the elevators sequences have been removed in favor of load screens, the inventory system was cleaned up (and by cleaned up, I mean removed, more on that in a minute), landscapes are tremendously different, there has already been a greater variety and amount of DLC with promises for even more in the future, the combat system was also revamped.

While all of those things are great, the game still is not quite perfect. Among the combat system revamps are the introduction of limited ammunition for weapons. They explain this as an upgrade, and reading through the codex entries one can discover that research was done which indicated battles were often determined by who could put rounds down the field fastest. Further research determined that fighters who were permitted to fire as fast as possible and had to reload were able to put more rounds down field faster than those who had to moderate their firing to allow the weapon to cool down. That might be plausible, but if I was a soldier in a small squad situation that often involved running gun fights, I'd rather have a weapon that never ran out of ammunition than one I could fire slightly faster.

The user-unfriendly inventory system was removed in favor of a system that uses far less inventory. Armor, outside of DLC, now consists of a modular unit for which you can purchase upgrades at various stores. Through DLC and various special offers, you can/could have acquired several other sets of armor with various beneficial bonuses, but none of that armor seems as good as the basic set with a few upgrade purchases. There are more types of guns in this game, but only 2-3 varieties of each gun meaning you won't be upgrading your weapons very often. Add this to the fact that you only get experience for quest and mission completions, and I often felt that I wasn't being rewarded as strongly as I was in the first game for the effort put forth.

The biggest problem with the game, and believe you me if this is the biggest problem a game faces, it's in good shape is the resource mining system. With the XBOX 360 version you orbit a planet and start up the scanner. Once that's done you must hold down the left trigger to keep the scanner actually working, when you find a resource deposit you pull the right trigger to launch a probe and collect the resources. These resources are the required currency for researching upgrades to weapons, armor and the ship. Unlike the first Mass Effect, credits can be incredibly hard to come by. After my first playthrough, as complete as I could make it considering the DLC and original material present I was unable to acquire enough credits to purchase all upgrades that could be found in stores. So if you're preparing to play through this game for the first time, make sure you focus on the upgrades you really want as a priority before purchasing more.

Other than those small things, the game is still incredibly good. The story moves along well, pointing out a flaw one might not have even noticed in the original; that it skipped a bit much. There are far more vital missions to be had in this game versus the original, allowing for smaller plot jumps with each mission completed.

There are also more squad members to be recruited in this game, and they all have as much or more to say than their compatriots from the first game. This game also makes you feel as if you have even more control over the results of the game. Earning the loyalty of your squad and upgrading your ship are just two of the things you will have to do if you want to survive the mission that everyone tells you is suicidal from the very beginning.

If you liked the first game, if you even saw potential in it Mass Effect, or if you love a good story Mass Effect 2 is a great game to play.