Mass Effect 2 Review

Post by Dan @ 11:48am 29/01/10 | 41 Comments

Capping off an unusually big January for triple-A games is BioWare's hugely anticipated RPG-shooter Mass Effect 2. Now available worldwide for Xbox 360 and unlike the first Mass Effect simultaneously launched for Windows PC as well.

Mass Effect 2 continues the epic sci-fi tale that puts the player in control of decisions with galactic consequences. With well over 20 hours of gameplay, this is a game game that deserves a real in-depth critique and that's precisely what we hope you'll find in AusGamers Mass Effect 2 review.

mass effect 2 review

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Latest Comments

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Spook
Posted 11:51am 29/1/10

ive started it this morning, its f*****g awesome.

sheppard looks exactly like me!

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groganus
Posted 12:19pm 29/1/10

Awesome game, alot of hard choices to make later on, some have made me really s***** with myself after making the choices, especially the way it autosaves straight after you made the choice, and if you wernt smart enough to save prior to that then your f***ed.

Other then that the story is way better this time around and you can feel the effects of what happened in the previous game quite well through out the universe...

i just wish id played mass effect recently and kept my save file so some of the choices i made were still in effect in mass effect 2, in saying that though.. all the choices are made were pretty much what had been made with the default chacter in mass effect 2, so its not a huge loss.

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Mantorok
Posted 01:41pm 29/1/10

Yeah, I managed to piss off that Aussie chick for good when she had a fight with another crew member, didn't have the paragon/renegade score to settle it peacefully. Everyone else is happy with me though.

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Spook
Posted 02:04pm 29/1/10

yer, i wish i had my save game still too :(

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konstie
Posted 02:09pm 29/1/10

so is this the "empire strikes back" of the series?

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groganus
Posted 02:41pm 29/1/10

Yeah, I managed to piss off that Aussie chick for good when she had a fight with another crew member, didn't have the paragon/renegade score to settle it peacefully. Everyone else is happy with me though.

Thats the instance i was talking about
Spoiler:
however i reloaded my game and decided to take miranda's side instead of jack's... best thing ever.. cause now if i work my paragon up i can convince her i was just saying it to come off cool

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Mantorok
Posted 03:02pm 29/1/10

so is this the "empire strikes back" of the series?

If you mean "sequel that's better than the first", then yes.

groganus: Well... Spoiler:
The same is true with Miranda, I've just been unable to raise my paragon/renegade score enough to win her back. I'm pretty even for paragon/renegade, need to be closer to the extremes

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konstie
Posted 03:09pm 29/1/10

how did u guys buy it? steam? how big is the download?

"props" to ausgamers for listing all the prices on the "buy it now" tab

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groganus
Posted 03:11pm 29/1/10

Mantorok - i nearly have full paragon and im yet to recruit the last member of my squad and complete grunt and that dumb lab dudes personal missions or thanes.

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Bah
Posted 03:54pm 29/1/10

Yeah i pissed miranda off too, not quite full paragon yet, so i can't win her back, but in the meantime i have been working on tali, but she wont give it up yet because she is afraid of syphilis or something, but she has that burqua mystique thing going on and i'll find out whats under that mask even if it kills her.

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Mantorok
Posted 04:40pm 29/1/10

Kelly (the personal assistant) is pretty easy to flirt with.

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Chuckeh
Posted 05:12pm 29/1/10

where is this 'buy it now tab'?

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trog
Posted 05:14pm 29/1/10

http://www.ausgamers.com/games/mass-effect-2/buy/ yo!

Note: gamelane is apparently a grey importer; they are getting dropped from our list soon pending further discussion about how to deal with them.

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Methz
Posted 07:06pm 29/1/10

Loving this game atm.
Such a vast improvement over the first.

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Methz
Posted 07:10pm 29/1/10

Btw the d/l was 11gb on steam

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shrapse
Posted 11:22pm 29/1/10

Whose crazy idea was the price list?

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Pinky
Posted 11:23pm 29/1/10

Skipped through all above posts to say that me and a mate are just playing through the original now. We're behind schedule...enjoying it though.

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Thundercracker
Posted 12:00am 30/1/10

I never played the first so I feel like I have missed a bunch of back story, but I'm still really enjoying this one. It has a great cinematic quality to it.

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konstie
Posted 02:13am 30/1/10

sold. downloading now.

mad idea with the "buy tab" trog, quick and easy way to see a price comparison.

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Khel
Posted 02:28am 30/1/10

Its so cheap on steam, but my savegames are on my 360 :(

Without spoiling ME2, can someone who's played through it tell me how much impact the choices you made in ME1 actually change the game, if you import your savegame?

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Bah
Posted 04:56am 30/1/10

I didn't import a save game, but there were parts in me2 where someone who i saved in me1 was dead which i guess is fairly noticable, but for a lot of the references it was just "oh yeah i vaguely remember blowing something up" because i played the original aaaages ago.

I guess one of the major plot points at the end of me1 was whether or not you saved the council, without a save from me1 the game assumes you let them die (which i did anyway, c****), wonder what the difference is if you saved them in me1? Probably something cheesy like humans taking control anyway, and the game plays out the same way?

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Raisty
Posted 10:02am 30/1/10

I imported my save game, and so far I've encountered loads of people/things I saved in ME1 (went full paragon path in ME1). Its pretty cool, it seems to have a fairly big impact on the way the universe is setup. I'm only 7hrs into the game too.

I also recall in an interview on majornelson podcast they said that some of the results from your choices in ME1 wont be visible until ME3, so well worth importing the save game.

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Mantorok
Posted 10:32am 30/1/10

Mass Effect Saves for PC

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groganus
Posted 12:13pm 30/1/10

Without spoiling ME2, can someone who's played through it tell me how much impact the choices you made in ME1 actually change the game, if you import your savegame?

standard mass effect 2 character...
note* dont read if you havent played mass effect one
Spoiler:

wrex is dead.
kaidon is dead.
you f***ed ashley williams.
you let the council die and an all human council now exists.

pretty much the grunt of it.

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konstie
Posted 04:54pm 30/1/10

ahh "grunt" of it.

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Ivonin
Posted 09:28pm 31/1/10

Already clocked up 27 hours and 37 minutes. The missus just kicked me off so she could play the Wii when she found out, hahahaha.

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Pharcyde
Posted 09:41pm 31/1/10

So let me get this straight - if I never finished ME1, I could still happily enjoy ME2? It fills in the blanks quite nicely from the previous game?

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neffo
Posted 09:47pm 31/1/10

Playing the first one is a good idea, a lot of the character reference don't make much sense other wise. Like how Saren was your father and that.

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groganus
Posted 11:52pm 31/1/10

Already clocked up 27 hours and 37 minutes. The missus just kicked me off so she could play the Wii when she found out, hahahaha.

WHAT! completed 100% in 25hours and 40minutes..... thats with doing every quest and going to every planet, and getting every upgrade *well all thats available with one play through*

Brilliant game.

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konstie
Posted 09:02am 01/2/10

have any of you guys had trouble loggin into cerberus in the menu?

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Khel
Posted 10:05am 01/2/10

WHAT! completed 100% in 25hours and 40minutes

Spose it also depends how fast you move through the game though, and if you're reading all the codex entries, etc. Like I've heard people who played Dragon Age and completed all the quests and stuff on their first playthrough and did the game in 30 - 40 hours, whereas for me it took almost 70 hours for my first playthrough. I guess I just stroll pretty casually through rpgs :P

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groganus
Posted 12:56pm 01/2/10

i wouldnt say i rushed, i took my time playing it... i cant say i read the codex though... some things i wanted to know more about.. but not everything.

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deadlyf
Posted 01:30pm 01/2/10

I'm glad I bought this on PC instead of keeping with the xbox despite losing my saves. The game play is 100% better, plus it looks fantastic.

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Spook
Posted 02:38pm 01/2/10

plus it looks fantastic.

i thought it looked pretty much like the first one

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konstie
Posted 02:57pm 01/2/10

plus it looks fantastic.
i thought it looked pretty much like the first one

+1

also, someone make a thread so we can talk about spoilers.

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Bah
Posted 03:02pm 01/2/10

Don't romance tali, you get gipped by the gypsy.
You don't even see her face, i'm not going to spoiler that, i consider it a public service announcement so people don't waste their time.

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reload!
Posted 03:10pm 01/2/10

You mean I've been trying to f*** that 3 toed sloth for nothing!?

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Bah
Posted 03:15pm 01/2/10

Unless she is going to give you the shocker with those three toes, then yes.

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deadlyf
Posted 03:31pm 01/2/10

i thought it looked pretty much like the first one

I'm comparing between Xbox and PC. I have no idea what Mass Effect 1 looks like on PC or what Mass Effect 2 looks like on Xbox, all I know is that Mass Effect 2 looks much better on PC than Mass Effect 1 did on Xbox.

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Khel
Posted 03:57pm 01/2/10

Yeah, I ended up buying it on Steam last night, couldn't justify spending the $40 - $50 extra to get it on 360 just to carry over my saves. Only played it for a little bit last night, but so far it seems most of the choices are the same as what I made in ME1, except I f***ed the blue chick, not the racist b****.

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Mantorok
Posted 04:39pm 01/2/10

deadlyf - Comparing PC to PC it looks better.

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