Review: Mass Effect 2 
So, hats long time coming, but slowly reveals the true inspiration to take up my blog, finally ready. I doubt that my output will be too constant, but every now and again (this way, time and muse for fit), I'll again let the pen tip clicking sound on the keyboard. One of the main reasons, besides Bioshock 2 (of which you here will get to read something), is the second part of Bioware's Mass Effect trilogy, next Activions new trip to Rapture for the first time since Halo 2 (!) That I I got a game on RELEASETAG at full price and did as much was taken on this front: It was worth it!
Today is not every day ... ... Shepard is coming back, no question. Unlike his comic counterpart, pink let the Commander of Normandy to be a little more time. And in two regards. On the one hand, for fans of the orignal three years waiting for the second part of the planned trilogy, on the other hand, was Shepard finally, two years ..., well ...
relative dead unexpectedly, the Normandy is being attacked by an unknown ship and destroyed, Shepard takes up just as unexpectedly, the familiar last duty captain. Now the thing that (they know fans of the first album to be fairly bad guys) a certain human body known as the Cerberus not make friends with the idea possible that the man who was instrumental Responsible for the destruction of the Sovereign and could be perhaps the last hope of humanity from the rest of the Reapers, just like the other side is left. Without further ado, an expedition is sent to collect the heroic dead and resuscitation purposes, delivered in one of the apparently numerous headquarters. Defeat two years later (thanks to God is not in real time) you're back to some extent alive and be of very opaque Boss of cerberus, just, well ... 'Known' as 'the unknown', asked to stop the collectors, for the complete disappearance without trace of human inhabitants of the colonies responsible meant to be.
characters? We have characters!
Indeed. The last paragraph refers to the core story, but one of the key elements that make the story of Mass Effect 2 so awesome are the characters. Everyone has their own background story that is one part in extravagant, but very interesting conversation and the other in the Loyalty enfaltet missions. Actually, you can imagine the story as a kind schience fiction version of Ocean's 11, it mainly involves the recruitment of a group to carry out a mission against the Reaper, which is considered by many to suicide. This is one of many, many places and where you realize that the story is the second part become darker. You look so even after the absolute professionals who are with their skills due to various situations are usually not really legal. Which in turn is no problem at all, as most places you attend any event be inhabited by beings of all kinds, to make laws to pee. Accordingly, we move with many decisions in an area that is not necessarily always refer to as law-abiding. However, it has always in mind that everything is ultimately the greater whole, namely the rescue of Meschheit and perhaps all life throughout the galaxy. And here is something Bioware for the first time achieved what no Developer has previously done: Instead of giving as in so many other role-playing the dashing hero, acting always in the sense of community and to the situation as best as possible to go, I'm in Mass Effect 2 not surprisingly many parts of the temptation to resist , reckless act, because it was often the one hand, under the given facts, in my view, the better decision, and secondly because it leads to incredibly brilliant scenes, when one just has a big mouth. So who told me that he played during the first games in the interrogation scene with the Thane good cop who has verklickt available or when either I can eternal laughter fell from me, hehe ...
Gears of role-playing sounds like a nice combination, and after the first fruits of a very, very close to come to my idea of an RPG with guns, part two of the nail has taken quite simply on the head. Dealing with the many - very well integrated into the story - mercenaries groups, organizations and peoples nasty controls like a dream. Bioware has the cover system was revised so that Shepard example, after a sprint to a crate is sliding away or take cover automatically slides over coverage, continues to run a play, then immediately move to the next cover. All this is with the space bar done, which is used outside of the struggles to speak and use. All in all the battles run very intuitive and fluid, some of the bigger opponents but should like to show some response to our attacks. Thus, for example, shoot a little opponents legs and arms (particularly effective for robots), the larger chunks, however, behave physically like a concrete block are called, will: the life bar goes down by fire, but the opposition itself appears in his advance otherwise completely unharmed be. It would be nice if we could meet in Part 3, for example, the gun arm of a large mechs, so this will not be destroyed, but a short Moment to page is thrown, which would allow the team the chance to own an effective counter-attack.
end when the cover system to change but not that Bioware has made the combat system. The most obvious is the new ammo system, or rather the fact that now at all is one. No waiting for the cooling of the currently used weapon more, is now reloaded instead of what should be done mostly under cover. Then, the meaning has changed the MediGels: Instead of healing troubled fighter they are now used to revive fallen comrades, recover vital energy and the sign now automatically, almost Halo-style. In addition, since even the biotic and technical skills as well as additional types of ammunition (used here as skills), their application in spite of a different design menus extremely good to the old Secret of Mana recalls. The only difference is that you are not using magic points, or the like must grapple, instead solves the ability use of a so-called Cool Down, during which the relevant character can not use his skills. The first are the most obvious changes that affect the combat system, but who has already gained experience Mass Effect does not need 5 minutes to go over the changes in flesh and blood and you are sure, Bioware here to congratulate you on successful changes to it.
Furthermore one has worked on the compilation of the opponents, who now have different characteristics depending on the type and characteristics and must be dealt with appropriately adjusted ammunition to get through barriers, shields, armor, and sometimes more to shoot at once. Instead of groups of 20 opponents of almost the same way you will usually brought to smaller opposing teams to which one should take account of their specialization.
We're not done yet! Those are the most striking changes that affect the fighting. What besides a certain fraction of the mechanics of its predecessor is are one part of the Mako, or rather its complete absence and the consequent shift to scanning of planets to the resource collection and find the hidden N7 missions, the total will be done on foot and offer some very original scenarios, as well as the strong decrease of the inventory . Again, one might think at first that there are none at all, but in the end here, the same tasks were packed in a different system. Instead of normal legacy is now available upgrade sketches that are explored aboard the Normandy and support improvements to ship weapons and group members, to obtain the weapons part, completely new models, but no new types of weapons, which is used in the fighting actually only stronger variations of the old acquaintance. Keywords Weapons: The developers offer us with the heavy weapons, a new type of weapon, and also the only one whose representatives differ significantly from each other. Thus one gets, among other things access to a rocket and a grenade launcher, a cold and a particle beam, particularly the latter sees himself in action in no way inferior, but nevertheless makes claims properly. All these improvements are the players of course, not simply thrown to the virtual space boots, it takes resources from the planet at the beginning of the paragraph mentioned scanning to explore it all. It can be on any planet undergo a corresponding mini-game, in which scans the mouse and some AOn on the right side of the screen surface. Once you have found something, shoot a probe to the planet and the collected materials migrate into your cargo hold. Actually, the work is monotonous in itself, but somehow Bioware got it right, that you start at some point so to think about small tactics ("If I shoot only probes, if at least so many element zero at the point where I could with the probes I get ready for perhaps two planets have ... "and so on), and since the scan anyway is only a small part of the actual game, you get so amazingly relaxed clear.
Then there's the way how to deal with the statistics. Experience points you get mostly only following orders, like many of the rewards. For main mission is happening now even on their own final screen. Unusual, but in the end no particular difference, as you continue to make still at the point where you were. There are the classic stages climbs, but as far as I can tell, these are only to increased life. In order to pimp the skills, you can buy (only for main contracts) so-called group of points you can distribute at will. The system is in contrast to a much easier part, but it offers a little bit Free space for specialization. A final point worth mentioning is the fact that there are fewer options for outputting the points because, for example, flattery and intimidation no longer be treated as passive skills, but develop directly through your deeds.
My jaw hurts ... Well Mass Effect 2 is not just from lead-or high-energy exchanges of fire with all manner of thugs and riff-raff, but also and especially from a huge proportion RPG, also in view of the raised skill share is clearly the gameplay technical star of the game. In particular, the call with team members and NPCs are the absolute Wow factor of the game and who intends to get through as quickly as possible, will miss a lot. This also applies to people who play through the games usually only once, because Bioware has the promise to give so many development studios for half an eternity: The decisions you take are actually a huge impact on the coming events and situations, and the thanks to the great idea of how the games are over, even between the individual parts. Characters that have blessed the temporal predecessors in diving, such as on. All this does not affect the overall story of the collectors, but up to the mid-sized story elements, it is the player, as he carves his way the details of the world. Some obviously important questions from the predecessor, such as the Rachni Queen dive, but only marginally, but something (maybe a tip from the loading screen, hehe) tells me that such things will unfold in the third part. This together with the decisions we take here, plus of course new decisions will beat me to the thought of how often you play the pieces in a row probably would have to have really seen everything.
And you should have seen at least some in this game. The many conversations are peppered with ground and usually well-spoken dialogue, small and ingenious jokes (Will still krogan a fish from the lake to the Bureau?) And generally absolutely cool scenes. Something stylish like the first appearance in Aria in the equally brilliant staged Afterlife Club Omega has been seen rarely. But that applies to many places in the game, the days of people standing still in talks are over, everything is durchinszeniert and recalls now using the intuitive Konversationsrad more of a real conversation from a movie than a video game.
What matters
The Bioware seems to know the technical aspects as well as in narrative. Whereby not only the technical aspects are vital to it, but mainly the design and production quality. You can clearly see that for example in talks, the faces and eyes of the people as well as their movements were the focus of efforts, and this decision has paid off. The facial animations are probably the best I've ever seen in this respect. As well as you can see that the faces have received donated a very large proportion of graphics power, in contrast, the clothing of the NPCs sometimes slightly pixelated and washed out. Where you do have to say that we have to look a bit genaus and ultimately faces the people really give them character, so that there can hardly complain really. The environments are created relatively affectionate, an equivalent to the simple copied In addition to job sites of its predecessor, can not find one. From time to time may be seen in the fields recycled objects, but that's hardly worth mentioning. Otherwise, provide the environments strongly sophistication.
The sound is consistent and appropriate, with striking effects, a nice space opera-regular soundtrack and the aforementioned proper speakers. The voice that reads the key code of messages has changed, what was said earlier by the German voice of Scully from The X-Files, now takes over a male colleague that I have ever heard anywhere.
Operation Successful It took a full 12 years, but after 1 1 / 2 steps I'm fairly sure that Fallout 2 must vacate the throne as my favorite game of all time. In the end, not the end, I think, for Mass Effect 2 makes correct at least for me everything. Exactly the right tone in the story, great characters, a great combat system, the list goes on. As was gematrailers.com 9.7, was heard shouting the first comments, the score was purchased. With all the improvements that were known in advance, but I was' convinced that this assessment could fit me perfectly, and it does. If you have not tried Mass Effect, and even remotely what you can do with future stories, you will be safe here be entertained. And for a while, the first play through was with me took about 40 hours. Just one more tip for last: Make sure that you also have the first, because then you understand the one hand, some of the insider in the talks and the other is the feature with the Accept the decisions just great!
