Product ReviewsMass Effect 2 (PC, 2010)

It could have been better

Mass Effect 2 was not as great as the first one. Instead of sticking with the original keyboard settings, they altered them which made game play difficult initially, even knowing the keys. In addition, they removed the shortcut keys for the journal, codex and squad screens, making it take more time to access those screens.

The combat in Mass Effect 2 was actually pretty cool, sort of. The problem with the combat system was that you didn't have a visible hit point or shield gauge. Instead, the only way to tell you are taking damage is the edge of your screen turns red, and then it begins to look like blood vessels around the edge, and it gets darker red and you hear a heart beat. Healing is MUCH easier though, because all you have to do is take cover and you will heal up. Medi-gel is used for Unity, which you use if your allies are killed in battle.

The skill system is fairly straight forward, but kind of limited in my opinion. Each character gets 4 skills. 2 of them are available at the start, the third is opened by reaching a certain level, usually 2, in the first skill. The fourth skill requires you complete the loyalty quest for that ally. Once a skill reaches level 4 you get to pick what path the skill takes, such as the ammo skills being "group" or more powerful, or the ally's class skill going for better offensive capabilities. I suppose the limited skill system has to do with the change in combat and the lack of inventory, which brings up a new topic.

The lack of inventory is replaced with the weapons locker, which allows you to select your weapons, and the armor stylization menu. My problem was I couldn't find a way to compare weapons, and in reality, the weapons you got were better than the previous ones, and the only real way to improve them was to do research. The armor customization was okay, but it really seemed limited...actually seemed is inaccurate, it was severally limited. You had only a few choices of upgrades, which you had to buy. I think I counted about 3 or 4 per slot.

The research system was nice, but it was also annoying because it required you to survey planets, which introduced a whole new confusing "mini-game". I refer to surveying as a mini-game because you spent hours surveying planets, and you had to do each planets carefully in case you miss something. Granted I was very thorough in my searches, mainly because costs of research ranged from fairly reasonable to a bit more than what seemed logical. Of course, research also plays a big part in the endgame as well, as you will get numerous upgrades for the Normandy.

In all, I think the game seemed like it was rushed to put together, and the story was short, even with the side quests for the allies it could probably be finished in under 24 hours.

To put it simply, the game does not live up to it's predecessor, but despite all it's faults, it's still worth playing, especially since it will allow you to transfer characters to Mass Effect 3 when it goes live.Read full review...

Some stuff right...other things not so much

I liken this game to winning a trip on the Titanic, Sure you're excited when you first see it but the closer you get to the end the quicker you just want it to all be over. First off, the story is well done, voice acting is ok (way too much cursing for the sake of cursing), graphics are incredible. The down side is everything else. Sprinting to invisible walls often had clipping issues which left me stuck floating and having to restart a mission, Taking cover behind a low wall often lead to accidentally leaping over said wall and into something that usually killed me, and the Firewalker DLC (more on that in a sec), and the horrible way they managed to make a mouse and keyboard seem clunky and awkward. However, the biggest issue by a mile is the "probe mining" you must do to get enough materials to do upgrades. I have no idea why the makers of this game thought that abruptly stopping any notion of excitement to have to do hours of mining was a good idea. Seriously, it's bad enough you even have to do this but you only get 30 mining probes at a time (I guess only getting 20 in the beta testing lead to too many suicides) which seems fine until you get to a planet that can take as many as 15-20 to completely harvest. You then have to head back to the closest fuel ship. That's right not only will you spend hours mining you'll spend just as long flying your insanely slow space ship back and forth buying probes and fuel (For it being the future your ship is suprisingly not very fuel efficient). This litterally grinds the game to a halt and if you think you'll just mine what you need then you better have a great memory because there is an insane amount of planets to harvest. Now to the most clearly untested part of this game the Firewalker DLC. I'll start by saying I have Windows 7 and a Sapphire TOXIC 5850 and this DLC did not like that apparently because over the course of doing these missions my PC locked up quite often. I have no idea why but it only happened while doing the missions for that particular DLC. It also didn't help that the collision detection while trying to do any missions in the Firewalker was almost non-existent. It's almost like trying to push a shopping cart with 4 broken wheels. Trying to do the "collection" parts of the mission was rediculous because the Firewalker moves around on it's own way too much and it leads to more frustration than fun. There are also 2 ways to play as the Firewalker, the run in and die or just sit out of range of the baddies and just fire your target seeking cannon. Seriously, this things armor must be made up of aluminum foil and yarn because any more than one thing shooting at you and you're toast. In the end it wasn't a bad game, it was a good game with too many bad elements that broke the momentum way too often. I prefer my games to be fun, or at least consistent, the whole way through and most of the time it was. I recommend getting all that pain in the ass mining out of the way before you really get to the heart of the game. Other than the several problems listed it was very addictive and I enjoyed the parts of this game that worked. It's just a shame that a little more time and effort didn't go into making a good game great. Hopefully Mass Effect 3 will fix the issues of Mass Effect 2.Read full review...

Works fine

My son really likes the game....just has a problem with freezing just before the end of the game....but now has just gotten used to it

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: the_tcg_guyz

Love this game

THE GOOD: When it comes to pc games, I like the progression of the story more than the shooting. So setting my level at easy was nice. I liked being able to make my character female and customizing her. The graphics are great and I love the different decisions you can make, like choosing weather or not to shoot someone or let them go. I like that you can carry over your character from the fist game to the second and so on. I can't wait until ME3 comes out.

THE BAD: Even though I had my game set to easy, the zombie creatures where a real pain to kill, they come at you very quickly and in packs. They were hard to kill, you really needed to keep your distance with them. There were times I became so aggravated, I just wanted to throw the computer out the window. Thankfully you didn't come across them too often. Also, I would have liked to see more hair options for the female character. I know, I'm a chick and all we care about is hair, makeup and clothing choices. I wanted to transfer my original character to ME2 and change her hair and makeup a bit. Unfortunately, you can't do that. You can transfer your character and stats, but if you want to make any changes to their appearance you have to start from scratch (you do still keep all your stats) SO more hair and clothing options would be nice. (this is EA games, think SIMS 3) That's just the girl in me. The choices for a romantic interest for a female shepard were pretty bad to. One human male, one female and an alien or two. I choose to not have her get involved with any, hoping that M3 has better choices. Also, having to wait 2 years for ME3, wish we could get it sooner. Love the game, wish I could find more like it.Read full review...

Great game.... nice graphics...

Fast pasted and great graphics. Looks awesome on my UHDTV !

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: wonderbooks

Great game, like the original

The Mass Effect sequel has some minor changes to it, but that doesn't stop it from being a great game. The characters and weapons are far less customizable, and whatever class you choose for your main character sort of pigeon-holes you into a particular role. However, there are more characters to chose from, so this helps combat the lack of customization. Importing your character from ME1 really only brings in the result of some of the choices you made in the first game, and doesn't determine any stats. Without giving too much away, they managed a believable way for you to re-roll your character into a different class. The resource gathering has been slightly improved, and actually serves a purpose now, but I kind of miss driving the 6-wheeled rover up 85-degree inclines on uncharted planets. The end mission is also very well designed, with a lot of branching choices leading to interesting consequences (without giving too much away). They kept a lot of the good stuff, cut some of the tedious stuff out, and made a lot of bold changes to the way character development works. They all made the hack/bypass mini-games a little more interesting (but not much). Just don't expect this game to be an expansion on the previous game; for better or worse, it's a standalone sequel, and even better if you have a saved ME1 game to import in.Read full review...

9.5/10 Must buy!

Biowares latest game Mass Effect 2 is one of the greatest rpg's to date.
With ME 2 Bioware took the game to new levels greatly improving over there first installment Mass Effect.

Some of the improvements are:
Greater and more responsive character control.
More of a first person shooter aspect. (fps)
Smarter AI (artificial intelligence).
Better functionality for your good vs evil decisions, including chat options.
Better functionality for leveling your character and squad up.
More expansive universe with more to do.
Better bio tech and easier to control.

Like Mass Effect, ME 2 uses the unreal 3 engine. The engine has been greatly improved so the graphics are a bit better then Mass Effect.

ME 2 also has great voice acting including a large cast of familiar actors:
Martin Sheen ("The West Wing", "Apocalypse Now"two and a half men)
Shohreh Aghdashloo ("House of Saddam"),
Seth Green ("Austin Powers, robot chicken, buffy the vampire slayer)
Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin ("chuck") Adam is also from firefly.
Keith David ("Crash")
Michael Dorn ("Star Trek: Tng and Deep Space Nine") Warf
Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan ("Battlestar Galactica")
Carrie-Anne Moss ("The Matrix")

Sound 10/10
Graphics 9/10
Game play 9.5/10

Bioware also made these games:
Mass Effect
Balders Gate
Dragon Age Origins
Fallout 3
Star wars knights of the old republic (kotr)

*This game is also available on the xbox 360*
*Be aware this game is rated "M" 17+ *
*Average game play is 30-40 hours*Read full review...

Great sci-fi RPG worth trying and completeing...and then repeating :)

I was actually recommended to try this product from one of the great (geeky) guys at GameStop. When I told him that I'd played the Fable series, Red Dead Redemption, GTA, Halo, and the Assassin's Creed series, so the guy recommended I play this. I was tentative to try but, I figured it was only $10 and worth a shot. Besides, with GameStop's "you can return a used game within 7 days no questions asked" policy, I figured I would try it out and, if I didn't like it, return it.

Well let me tell you - I tried it out, and I was FLOORED. I loved the interaction between the characters alone, they build the story so much. And the combat is great, working with your team to take down the thugs. I've gone on now to play Mass Effect 2, and have ME3 preordered even. This game has become, by far, my favorite game over all time. And all thanks to a little employee at GameStop - I should send him flowers.Read full review...

Fun exciting

Good game to play lots of quests to do and good characters to meet. Lots of action

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: natfo-29

What a great game and series

Good pc version... the whole franchise is great, have all 3...good story line that continues through all 3...would prefer more action myself, but a good mix of multi-choice conversation topics and various enemy fighting and weapon choices none the less....quite intricate pc versions take forever to get through...Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: wonderbooks