Despite coming more than a year after the 360 version and completely missing the first game in the series. Mass Effect 2 has finally hit the PS3 in all it's paragon loving, Asari bed-hopping, renegade inducing fashion. You are Commander Shepard a character completely made by you. Were you an Earthborn survivor who went on to earn military honours only for you to be the only survivor in a difficult mission? Or were you a ruthless sergeant in the Alliance, where cold hearted decisions saw you rise through the ranks after being born on a human colonised world? By the way, you haven't even started the game yet. Mass Effect 2's character creation system is so deep you could spend hours perfecting your ideal character. In many ways what you put into Mass Effect is what you get out of it. Only interested in being a badass? Using renegade options during a chat with Blue Suns Merc would see you pushing him out of a skyscraper window to his impending death. While a paragon (good) approach could see you negotiate with him to get the information you want and perhaps earn some extra currency in the form of Credits for coming to a peaceful conclusion.
Decisions and how it affects the story, not only through Mass Effect 2 but from Mass Effect right through to the conclusion in Mass Effect 3 is what makes the series so special. Bioware has done an excellent job of including a 15 minute comic to help you understand the story from the first game and allows you to make decisions for the second or perhaps even the third game.
It is a shame PS3 owners won't get the first game but I can't stress enough how well it does at bringing you up to speed with events. Even if your not satisfied there is literally a whole Encyclopedia of the Mass Effect universe in the code at the pause menu with hours worth of reading on every planet, battle and race in this amazing intergalactic universe Bioware has lovingly created.
Mass Effect 2's story centre's around the disappearance of human colonies in the Terminus systems by a strange race called the Collector's. After being revived by shady human organisation Cerberus, Shepard sets out to build a team to take the fight to the Collectors and to find out what the non-organic universe destroying Reapers who were discovered in the first game have got to do with everything.
Not content with just the main story, each member of the team you recruit will have there own problems that you can help with. Each one with differing locations, characters and solutions that really help to develop an emotional connection. Especially going into the final part of the game. This is something a lot of squad-like games fail at, developing this sort of bond between the player and the story's lead protagonists whether they be playable or not. (See Halo Reach for how not to care about a squad.)
Continuing with the idea of developing relationships Bioware has upped the ante and included 'love' relationships, in simple terms you get the opportunity to have sex with on of your crew members provided you have gained their loyalty and trust throughout the mission and yes you can fulfil your sick dreams of intergalactic sex, you sicko! I can see you sniggering at the back.
Bioware not only gave us a great story and dialogue system we also got great gameplay! The third-person gunplay is very Gears of Waresque in what it does. The cover system works well and the RPG element of upgrading your weapon is nice and fluid and doesn't bog you down with endless XP grinding. Where Mass Effect 2's gameplay really sets itself apart is in combining biotics and guns. Biotics is essentially energy/telekinesis powers. It allows you to pull an enemy out of cover and have him float in the mid-air while you can order another member of your team to land a concussive shot and then render the target obsolete. With each character potentially having up to 5 biotics it leaves a lot of room for combinations and really affect's the way you approach some of the more challenging battles in the game.
While the idea of continuing a story throughout different games and carrying item's isn't new, Shenmue set the benchmark previously. However unlike Yu Suzuki's classic, Mass Effect will see a conclusion this coming winter with the third and final installment. With many different branching paths in two your going to want more than one play through to see where the story heads off in different directions.
In conclusion Bioware have delivered one of the best games of this generation. Only rivalled by Uncharted 2 for me, if you haven't already bought it I implore you to do so now, it is one of the greatest of all time.
10/10
You can catch Craig on twitter @craigshields9 or on the PSN: Xieldos
You can catch Craig on twitter @craigshields9 or on the PSN: Xieldos
