Mass Effect 2 (2010) Review

After playing through the first Mass Effect game, I knew I had to get started on Mass Effect 2 and mainly because of my enjoyment of this franchise, I have completed Mass Effect 2 and here is my review for the game. The premise of the game sees the return of Commander Shepard where he must recruit a team to take down The Collectors who are the agents of The Reapers. 

Characters

Once again I played as a Male Shepard who is voiced by Mark Meer and I loved playing as his character. He is just a great lead character and even though I played as the paragon character I still enjoyed the Whitty banter and the heroic nature of Shepard. 

There are a huge amount of characters in this game, there are 12 squad mates and other characters so I obviously won't be able to talk about them all but just know that pretty much every new and returning characters are great (apart from Jacob Taylor who sucked)

Miranda Lawon is Shepards new second in command played by Yvonne Strahovski and she was a great character. She is obviously meant to be the attractive female character but there are real layers to her character and you see the complexity to Miranda and why she is so interesting. 

Garrus Vakarian makes his return voiced by Brandon Keener and he is excellent here. He is so much better in this game and you really feel the chemistry between Garrus & Shepard and their banter is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. Garrus is way more hardcore here but there is a story reason for it and it really fits his character. 

Tali also makes her return played by Ash Sroka and she is also so much better in this game and much more fleshed out. She comes across as less naïve and more adult and I liked how she is more confident in her ability and that her relationship with Shepard has developed. 

Mordin, Grunt, Jack, Thane, Samara, Kasumi & Zaeed are also really fleshed out characters with distinct personality and these are some of the best squad mates in any game possible. 

Story

The story is amazing in this game and I think that is because of the stakes that are put on it and that the game constantly reminds the player of the threat of The Collectors. As I said before, the characters are fantastic and their unique personalities makes this a way more interesting group of people compared the previous game. The final mission is possibly the greatest final mission in video game history and utilises all of the characters so well and makes the tension feel massive and that you want to keep all of the characters alive. 

Side Content

This game has fantastic side content. There are a bunch of loyalty missions that further expand all of the characters and makes you truly care about them and their personal issues. My favourite ones being Garrus, Tali & Miranda. There are other lesser important side missions and they are fun and probably overall better then the previous game. 

Gameplay

This is probably the part of the game that is most improved from the previous game and the action flows so much better then the previous game. There are so many different weapons and they feel really different and unique that makes gameplay enjoyable every time. 

Graphics

Just like the first game, I played the legendary edition of Mass Effect 2 so the graphics were vastly improved from the original game but even then the game looked better then the first Mass Effect game and the planets were way more unique and showed the different cultures that populated this universe. 

Overall

Overall, Mass Effect 2 is an epic game and a huge improvement of the first game. This is one of my favourite games ever and I just love this universe and the cast of characters that are introduced here that really improve this game. 

Rating - 10/10