Mass Effect 2

 PC
User Score
8.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5738 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5,081 out of 5738
  2. Mixed: 426 out of 5738
  3. Negative: 231 out of 5738
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  1. Lupa999
    May 12, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. 2 steps forward, 4 steps back right bioware? What I cannot fathom is how this game has earned the title of one of the best pc games ever made. Mass Effect 2 feels much smaller than mass effect 1, which was part of its charm. Mass effect 1 really did make you feel like you were exploring planets and galaxies, hell even an entire universe. Many areas of mass effect 2, while are unique unlike mass effect 1 copy and paste room and hallways, just take away from the game. Remember the HUGE citadel embassies, C-SEC HQ and the Upper and lower wards with the casinos, bars and shops? ALL GONE. Instead you explore some place called the zakera wards on the citadel and there is less things to do and people to talk to than in the first one.That is all you can do in the citadel. The game removes all of the RPG, And I do mean ALL of it apart from a dialogue wheel. Inventory? gone. Meaningful progression? gone. Exploration? Gone. Hacking and looting? I don't even need to say it. This game has fallen into a generic TPS and anyone else who disagrees is mentally challenged or a Fan boy .

    The main story had potential, but is riddled with plot holes. Why did Walter activate the mechs to kill everyone? Why the hell did the reapers want to build a human reaper? both of these and many more are unexplained. Why was the writing this poor? to give the story needless and senseless drama. The collectors were building a human reaper out of humans....why? it makes no sense. Its shocking and interesting and makes no sense. This game is not an rpg. This is a TPS with a dialogue option.    … Expand
  2. gyamtso
    Sep 21, 2014
    6
    I've played Mass Effect I enough to say that the sequence isn't worth the grandiosity of its predecessor.

    The sequence has its qualities and I really want to write a fair review here. The graphics are nice, the soundtrack its still good, the combat is more action based than the first, but the plot and the dialogues suffered a great loss. This first big let down is the plot and the    I've played Mass Effect I enough to say that the sequence isn't worth the grandiosity of its predecessor.

    The sequence has its qualities and I really want to write a fair review here.

    The graphics are nice, the soundtrack its still good, the combat is more action based than the first, but the plot and the dialogues suffered a great loss.

    This first big let down is the plot and the sensation that the game is pretending that I can change things when, really, it's just a soap-opera that wants to deceive people to get their audience.

    It just sucks. All the choices in the first game, the difficulties because of the *right* path, turned into ashes. It just doesn't matter. If you chose the "A" path, they put some different dialogues, if you chose the "B" path, they change a bit in one or two scenes to pretend that they aren't lazy to make something worth.

    The game was a complete let down for me. Luckily, it didn't spoiled my experience on the first game, but I don't want to play mass effect II for some time. On other side, I'm going to play the first again, for the sixth time.    … Expand
  3. dabyd1304
    Jun 15, 2020
    6
    El principal problema de secuela es que su trama es totalmente innecesaria, no aporta nada.

    El juego sigue teniendo esa riqueza en la creación de su mundo y sus matices. Pero quizá estos se muestran con misiones secundarias obligatorias para avanzar en la historia. Y solo por esta decisión de diseño aberrante, no puedo tomarmelo en serio. Aun así, 100% aconsejable si uno es fan del    El principal problema de secuela es que su trama es totalmente innecesaria, no aporta nada.

    El juego sigue teniendo esa riqueza en la creación de su mundo y sus matices. Pero quizá estos se muestran con misiones secundarias obligatorias para avanzar en la historia. Y solo por esta decisión de diseño aberrante, no puedo tomarmelo en serio.

    Aun así, 100% aconsejable si uno es fan del original, como es mi caso.    … Expand
  4. Demon2017
    Jun 10, 2022
    6
    Хороший сюжет, прикольные напарники, замечательное кинцо, ужасный геймплей и диалоговая система.
  5. Gorbunov2004
    Aug 1, 2021
    6
    Игра хорошая но все портит тупые локации и отсутствие нормальной карты и мини-карты. Стрельбу сделали лучше.
  6. CraigL
    Mar 2, 2010
    5
    All I can say is - it's NOT an RPG. Not even nearly an RPG. It's like Gears of War more than an RPG. Ther comes a point when so much that makes an RPG what it is is removed, and you can no longer call a game an RPG. ME2 is the game that takes the p*ss in this regard. It couldn't see the outline of the word RPG with a telescope attached to a pair of binoculars. If you like All I can say is - it's NOT an RPG. Not even nearly an RPG. It's like Gears of War more than an RPG. Ther comes a point when so much that makes an RPG what it is is removed, and you can no longer call a game an RPG. ME2 is the game that takes the p*ss in this regard. It couldn't see the outline of the word RPG with a telescope attached to a pair of binoculars. If you like on rails shooters like Gears of War, then this might be for you. If you were looking for an RPG, don't get conned. This is most definately NOT ONE, I give it 5 because I got it for B/day, played demo night before,(finished demo twice) then took original back to shop unopened (seal intact) and 5 is an average. Why does every game have to become more like "generic shooter 37b" soon they might as well just have one game, and call it "slightly better shooter than the last one 88b" Sad days… Expand
  7. J.M.
    Apr 7, 2010
    5
    I have been finding more and more of the same thing in this new overrated games, repetition. The weapons are awfully generic. The missions either involve hours of duck and cover clunky repetitive movements or convincing some person to do something through 20 different conversations. Mineral scanning was cool at first but after the first planet of just using some fancy tool to find high I have been finding more and more of the same thing in this new overrated games, repetition. The weapons are awfully generic. The missions either involve hours of duck and cover clunky repetitive movements or convincing some person to do something through 20 different conversations. Mineral scanning was cool at first but after the first planet of just using some fancy tool to find high readings of minerals, it just gets annoying. The game is incredibly one dimensional; either you talk or you do missions. Some of the missions are so pointless I thought it was a joke. Hacking objects took little to no effort and I found myself getting the newest upgrades in no time. The story line was a little interesting in my opinion but as an overall "epic" quest line I was not impressed at all. The level design is so poor that it looks that they used the same boring silver color on every material. The cities and towns I discovered were so bland it was annoying to look at. The environments had so much potential but was sadly a huge disappointment. You find laptops and things here and there to get credits which did not feel like a challenge at all. These objects that gave you goodies like money and upgrades were practically shown to you like a baby. There was no challenge what so ever during the combat. The bosses were all so easy that I thought they were just some mini boss. The RPG elements have very little depth. Every decision made a difference which was, in my mind, was the coolest part about the game. There is a type of karma system; paragon meaning sympathizer and renegade meaning bad ass basically. The system was a little interesting giving you options later based on your level of either paragon or renegade. The game does have skills or "biotic powers" which aid you in combat. The game overall was half of my expectations landing a 5 at best. I would not recommend this game to anyone except the fans of repetitive, one dimensional, clunky, and overrated games… Expand
  8. PopeR.
    Jan 28, 2010
    5
    Mass Effect 2 for PC has shockingly bad gameplay. The movement controls make it feel like your wearing mittens. There is no way to change the mouse sensitivity. You can only sprint in perfectly straight lines. There is absolutely no smoothness to the interaction with the environment. You would think that there have been no advances in computer games since ME1 came out. I love the Mass Effect 2 for PC has shockingly bad gameplay. The movement controls make it feel like your wearing mittens. There is no way to change the mouse sensitivity. You can only sprint in perfectly straight lines. There is absolutely no smoothness to the interaction with the environment. You would think that there have been no advances in computer games since ME1 came out. I love the characters, the story, the setting. I guarantee you'll never see a demo of ME2 for PC, because nobody who tries it for an hour would ever buy it. Maybe the console versions are better, but the PC version is a horrible disappointment.… Expand
  9. Alex
    Jan 30, 2010
    5
    A good game, but nowhere near the same caliber ME1 was. They stripped away almost all RPG elements so it's pretty much a straight up shooter with a good story. No inventory or loot, lack of sidequests, no freedom, no exploration, very linear, barely any use for money, dumbed down leveling system, lack of skills, lack of variation in armor/weapons
  10. poor
    Feb 16, 2010
    5
    Having removed all the rpg elements as mentioned, this is basically a straight up shooter with gameplay akin to Mafia or Godfather. As a shooter, I've seen £10 russian games be more fun. The only reason this deserves any marks at all is the cinematography, story and production value. Having said that, you might as well read a book. This is pretty much just dross.
  11. anonanon
    Feb 18, 2010
    5
    This isn't an RPG, it's an FPS. Stop trying to convince yourself it's not. If you want an RPG, go play something also by BioWare, DA:O or KOTOR1. BioWare is smart, they target all ends of the spectrum. They release FPS's disguised as RPG's for people like you, who gave this game a 10/10, so you can feel smart. Try this game on "Insanity" as a Soldier/Vanguard. This isn't an RPG, it's an FPS. Stop trying to convince yourself it's not. If you want an RPG, go play something also by BioWare, DA:O or KOTOR1. BioWare is smart, they target all ends of the spectrum. They release FPS's disguised as RPG's for people like you, who gave this game a 10/10, so you can feel smart. Try this game on "Insanity" as a Soldier/Vanguard. It's pathetically easy. ALL your abilities are "make me shoot better" or "make me not die". Story? It sucks. But what can you expect, it's the 2nd part in a trilogy, it always sucks. Companion missions are a joke. Try failing them, I'm pretty sure it's impossible. Weapon variety: none. You can get upgrades that have zero visible difference. All they do is make the game even easier. Replayability? What's the point? It's going to be the same **** again. And this brings up another point. During some sections of the game (no spoilers), it literally does NOT matter what dialogue options you pick, the outcome is the same. Even when one is paragon and the other is renegade. This system of illusive choice feels more like a lie then "RPG freedom". If you're not going to use my input, don't make me sit through 2 minutes of dialogue. Redeeming qualities: everyone likes being over powered. The ability to directly sway conversations with the paragon/renegade interruptions was creative as well. Score: 5/10 because it's not an RPG, it's way too easy, has low replay value, insanely linear, and almost no variety in terms of what your abilities do (kill enemy type A B or C). No, I'm not a troll. I actually do think this.… Expand
  12. DaveG
    Mar 5, 2010
    5
    It's not bad. It ain't an RPG though, and that's what's bummed me out more than anything. 3rd person shooter with a few choices of weapon. If this game had called itself a 3rd person shooter i'd have given it 6 - maybe 7. but I felt cheated cause it called itself an RPG, and it just aint an RPG at all. If even bioware don't do rpg's anymore, and now It's not bad. It ain't an RPG though, and that's what's bummed me out more than anything. 3rd person shooter with a few choices of weapon. If this game had called itself a 3rd person shooter i'd have given it 6 - maybe 7. but I felt cheated cause it called itself an RPG, and it just aint an RPG at all. If even bioware don't do rpg's anymore, and now FFxiii turns out to be another on rails shooter. well there just ain't no single player rpg's left is there.… Expand
  13. RickS.
    Mar 22, 2010
    5
    They stripped out almost every RPG element from the first game. We pretty much don't have stats anymore neither does our guns and armor, can't change squadmates armor, you use the same gun from the beginning to the end of the game, you have like 6 skills and your squadmates have only 4! I bought it expecting a sequel from ME1, not a reboot. If I wanted to play a pure TPS I would They stripped out almost every RPG element from the first game. We pretty much don't have stats anymore neither does our guns and armor, can't change squadmates armor, you use the same gun from the beginning to the end of the game, you have like 6 skills and your squadmates have only 4! I bought it expecting a sequel from ME1, not a reboot. If I wanted to play a pure TPS I would buy a pure TPS.… Expand
  14. TerrymcG
    Mar 13, 2011
    5
    Mass Effect 2 really is a mixed bag. One the one hand, one can't help but be impressed with the quality of the audiovisual presentation. The voice actors are probably the best in the business and they are able to create an atmosphere unlike in any other games. Especially Jennifer Hale as the female Shepard deserves a lot of praise for her work. The modelers, animators and texture artistsMass Effect 2 really is a mixed bag. One the one hand, one can't help but be impressed with the quality of the audiovisual presentation. The voice actors are probably the best in the business and they are able to create an atmosphere unlike in any other games. Especially Jennifer Hale as the female Shepard deserves a lot of praise for her work. The modelers, animators and texture artists are incredibly talented as well and their work is impressive to behold. Most of the dialog is well written, which is pretty rare for a computer (or should I say video?) game.

    But on the other hand, the actual game play is somewhat clumsy and even boring. Bioware (or perhaps EA?) essentially dropped almost all of the RPG elements and tried to go for a Gears of War type of game play. How ever, they couldn't pull it of. Gears of War is far more fluid and the game play in that game is high octane adrenaline rush. Where as ME2 game play is something from the previous decade. It's unresponsive , repetitive and dull. Duck and cover, point and click. The less said about the embarrassing mini games, the better.

    Bioware prides itself in being able to tell great stories. And while the method of the story telling in ME2 is nice, the actually story is almost non existent. It feels more like a collection of side quests, rather than a really story.

    In the end, one gets the feeling that Bioware is trying to reach out to new gamers. And in doing so, they have decided to ditch the traditional RPG elements. Whether this strategy works for them, I can't really say, but for my part, I will no longer associate the Bioware brand with high quality RPG's. Mass Effect 2 is really an interactive movie with a shoddy fps game. And because games are incredibly expensive, spending money on a mediocrity is simply not worth it. Spend your money on good books or movies instead.    … Expand
  15. Duderoth
    Feb 24, 2012
    5
    I'm sorry I just don't get it. I don't understand how anybody could like this game better than ME1. I guess the visual style was sleeker? People thought the controls and fighting mechanics were better? Here's what I've come to realize. Mass Effect was a great RPG, with some action/3PS (3rd person shooter?) elements mixed in. Mass Effect 2, was an action game at heart, with someI'm sorry I just don't get it. I don't understand how anybody could like this game better than ME1. I guess the visual style was sleeker? People thought the controls and fighting mechanics were better? Here's what I've come to realize. Mass Effect was a great RPG, with some action/3PS (3rd person shooter?) elements mixed in. Mass Effect 2, was an action game at heart, with some pretty shoddy RPG elements. Gone are the multiple tiers and classes of armor, with corresponding types and tiers of upgrades. Gone is any tactical setup of your squad for combat. Just spam all of the abilities you can at the enemy. Gone is a much more detailed and better implemented leveling point system. And gone is planetary exploring, which I think would have been cooler if they fleshed it out instead of getting rid of it entirely. People say the combat in ME2 was better. Not to me. I read all the codex. What they had implemented in 1 made sense with the lore. Didn't like overheating? Too bad, get a *better weapon* or *better upgrades*. Jesus it's called customizability. That's what an RPG is all about. There were some *really* cool things they implemented in 2, however. So here is the good part of the review. Just the plain fact that you could actually continue a character on from 1 was amazing to me. However, I thought ME2's characters were better than 1's anyway, so I'm glad you got to work with an almost entirely new cast. (Although they kept my favorite Quarian :D.) Planet scanning was also way better than that side quest to find minerals from ME1, and I appreciated that you could actually integrate resources you find into your ship and customizing your character. Although once again, I would appreciate more options. Finally, there were things I thought were better and worse about the story. I really liked the loyalty missions, but I think it would have been better to have a central questline instead of making the loyalty missions the central component of the game. The problem here was that the story lacked focus, as there was literally no plot up until the end when you finally did the suicide mission (which was awesome!!!) ME1, by comparison, had an extremely focused central questline, but lacked in detailing the side characters perhaps a little bit more. So that's pretty much it for this review. Overall, I think what really got to me was that they took what was supposed to be an RPG series and kinda did away with all that. I didn't appreciate that very much. But since I am all about story, I will say that Mass Effect continues to have a strong story and character design, just perhaps not at the same time. I am still looking forward to ME3.… Expand
  16. Balobam
    Jun 2, 2011
    5
    Let me start of by saying I don't hate the game, I enjoyed it, for about 4 hours, then I didn't.

    I'd heard a lot of good about this game, so I figured, I'll give it a shot, so I did, and I wasn't disappointed, it had shooting, RPG elements, and some fun psychic moves that let me throw people about, can't complain with that. And I played it, went into one room, hid behind a box and    Let me start of by saying I don't hate the game, I enjoyed it, for about 4 hours, then I didn't.

    I'd heard a lot of good about this game, so I figured, I'll give it a shot, so I did, and I wasn't disappointed, it had shooting, RPG elements, and some fun psychic moves that let me throw people about, can't complain with that.

    And I played it, went into one room, hid behind a box and dispatched the enemies in numerous ways, changing cover now and then. Then the next room, I hid behind a crate and dispatched enemies in numerous ways, changing cover now and then. And again, and again. It never changed, it is at heart, a cover based shooter with some RPG elements, even so, the RPG elements are pretty black and white, "Will I shoot this hopeless orphan with my firey kitten gun? Or will I donate all my limbs to the children in need program? Or perhaps I shall remain in a state of permanent apathy and bypass all these mundane problems.".

    That's not good choice making, it's just saying to you, will you be a bad guy, good guy, or neutral? And it even blatantly tells you which is which, "Say this to appear as a rogue who does his own thing, or say this to appear as Jesus himself".

    I played it for several hours, about 10 I believe, before I realised the gameplay wasn't going anywhere and I was essentially playing Gears of War or Rainbow Six under pretence of an RPG in a 3rd person angle, which is my least favourite kind of shooter regardless, the only game I've played that has done it well is Resident Evil 4, even then I couldn't move whilst I shot.

    The story however did, for the 10 hours I played it, seem good, it may have got better, which wouldn't surprise me, it was honestly memorable and I can see why people enjoy it, but it tried to present itself as more than it was, like a dog that claims it can talk and ride a unicycle, whereas it can only ride a tricycle and has no speech mastery. Impressive for sure, but it's not what I was expecting, and there are other games that do it better.

    My last gripe with the game is Jack, I rescued her from prison where she completely breezed through hundreds of robots and guards alike with not a scratch on her, she was truly unstoppable and I couldn't wait to get her on my team, then when she WAS on my team, an aggressive looking shrub would be enough to subdue this once feared God of a woman. My point here is, don't sell me Wonder Woman and then give me a generic horror film girl who lasts about 3 minutes before deciding to "See what that masked figure wants to talk about".    … Expand
  17. fastblood
    Mar 6, 2012
    5
    Though expanding the universe and bringing in more colorful characters, the overall story falls flat on its face when it comes to wrapping the game up. The cheapness and lack of interest from the team during the final moments is almost palpable. There is a decent amount of character customization, but far less when compared to the previous installment. Exploring the different planets is aThough expanding the universe and bringing in more colorful characters, the overall story falls flat on its face when it comes to wrapping the game up. The cheapness and lack of interest from the team during the final moments is almost palpable. There is a decent amount of character customization, but far less when compared to the previous installment. Exploring the different planets is a fun affair, but lacks solidness.

    Also, the fact that the game is bogged down by countless DLC snippets of storyline leaves a bad taste in this gamer's mouth. I am all for more content, but the majority of it felt as though it were being ripped out from the main game on the disc. The days when video games were video games, instead of constant sources of income for companies that already have billions of dollars are long, long gone.    … Expand
  18. JMDubya
    Mar 10, 2012
    5
    Mass Effect 2 is the definition of hit-and-miss. Story-telling is great while the story itself was barely satisfactory. Fighting the various Geth incarnations was thrilling, where swatting the husks on the Collector's ship was frustrating. That mission is at best a fly swatting simulator, at worst, the laziest level design I've ever seen. If you want Sci-Fi story, watch Fire Fly. Grab ME2Mass Effect 2 is the definition of hit-and-miss. Story-telling is great while the story itself was barely satisfactory. Fighting the various Geth incarnations was thrilling, where swatting the husks on the Collector's ship was frustrating. That mission is at best a fly swatting simulator, at worst, the laziest level design I've ever seen. If you want Sci-Fi story, watch Fire Fly. Grab ME2 if it's in the bargain bin.… Expand
  19. SoManyGames
    Mar 11, 2012
    5
    My review for this one is similar to the first. Gameplay: Walk slowly down hallways, aim slowly at bad guys, press a button to take cover as they slowly walk and aim at you. Like every other console third person shooter, only especially slow. The story; you are a space marine fighting an alien force bent on destroying life. Sound familiar? It should, and I shouldn't have to list theMy review for this one is similar to the first. Gameplay: Walk slowly down hallways, aim slowly at bad guys, press a button to take cover as they slowly walk and aim at you. Like every other console third person shooter, only especially slow. The story; you are a space marine fighting an alien force bent on destroying life. Sound familiar? It should, and I shouldn't have to list the HUNDREDS of examples. The definition of average. The one thing this game has over similar titles is the speech options and customizations that allow you to feel like your game is special. It's not, but at least they pull off the ability to make you feel it is. Mass effect 2 has one issue in particular that I feel should be discussed. Many of the things you attempt are oddly limited, despite the games hinting towards your ability to accomplish such things. For example, the second time I played the game, I played as fem shep, just so I could totally lez out (Im a typical 20 something bro). The game seemed like it would allow you to do whatever (or whomever) I wished, but then at the end, denied. So I just figured girl on girl action just wasn't in the game...until I found out later that is was, only with specific characters. One of those characters is NOT the girl who says shes slept with women before! Say what you will about gay stuff, but that's just bad game design. A good game will either flat out tell you something is impossible (fable will show you if a character digs chicks before you even talk to them) or never present you with an option to waste your time (halflife has no romance). A bad game design will let the player waste his time doing something it hints towards being possible, only to punish them later. We play games to get away from that crap. Many aspects of this games choose your own adventure style play are bad game design, even more so than the first.… Expand
  20. bosnian
    Apr 6, 2012
    5
    After completing ME1 and enjoying it quite a bit, the expectations were very high for the sequel. First game laid some great foundations on which the sequel could build on while at the same time the few annoyances from the first game could be improved on or removed, thus making this game a true masterpiece. After watching every publication give this game 9+/10, and in general higher marksAfter completing ME1 and enjoying it quite a bit, the expectations were very high for the sequel. First game laid some great foundations on which the sequel could build on while at the same time the few annoyances from the first game could be improved on or removed, thus making this game a true masterpiece. After watching every publication give this game 9+/10, and in general higher marks then the first game, excitement was high. Well, it took me over a year since purchasing the game to complete it, and not because it was particularly difficult, but rather that I would have to take some serious time away from the game every time I was dissapointed, and there were quite a few of those moments throughout.
    First, the good.
    Cut sequences are longer and better than in the first game. Music, the atmosphere during these scenes are on par with any major movie production and it can be quite breathtaking.
    No more vehicle levels. The biggest annoyance with the first game was the grind that one had to endure while driving the vehicle around for 10-15 min at a time (but it felt like hours).
    There is certain epic feel to the game, that you are a part of a grand story. Writing/action/feel of the main story line is very good.

    However, negatives are many.
    It seems that Bioware took the first game and decided to dumb it down in every aspect. Character build went from 10-18 unique stats to 4-8, depending on the class. Weapons have no stats. Weapons can't be moded (other than generic "all rifles deal +10% damage"). Game truly does feel like a less polished Gears of War with few dialogue options and illusion of choice.
    Main game itself is very short. Maybe 3 hours total? The rest is spent assembling the team (and waiting for the timed event to allow you to finish it) and doing very short and straight forward side quests... and mining. Mining replace Maco levels from the first game and its fun for about 12 seconds. You need to mine to upgrade weapons/armors/gear/ship, thus you need to keep doing this. And it ain't fun at all.
    Finally, the illusion of choice. Your actions from the first game don't matter. Your romanced Liara or Ashley, yeah you get 4 seconds of different interaction and that is about it - you still get to do everything exactly the same. Wrex lived in the first game? Little different dialogue, but still the same game with 100% of the options available. Also, while ME1 may have been somewhat revolutionary in a concept of an adult romance story, in ME2 you are on a ship with bunch of single humans and aliens that at the same point in time will let you make a move on them and every love story is exactly the same arc with cut scenes that are little different (with the exception of the Asaris).
    Finally, the final level, while intense and fast moving, ends with a boss fight that gets introduced to the story in the last 3 minutes of the game. It seems that they felt the game needed something massive at the end and so they created this lame and relatively easy fight against something big.
    Overall, not a bad game. It just is not an RPG, let alone a great RPG. Its a dumbed down ME1 with the same epic feel and few brilliant moments, but less of everything that made ME1 so good.    … Expand
  21. Amig
    Jun 19, 2012
    5
    This game is like high budget action movie. Exciting and visually orgasmic, but only the first time around. After that, you see past the special effects, notice it's flaws and decide it wasn't that great after all. The worst part is that ME2 looks exactly the same on every playthrough. Freedom of choice or non-linearity? Forget it! The only choices you can make are whether you want Shep toThis game is like high budget action movie. Exciting and visually orgasmic, but only the first time around. After that, you see past the special effects, notice it's flaws and decide it wasn't that great after all. The worst part is that ME2 looks exactly the same on every playthrough. Freedom of choice or non-linearity? Forget it! The only choices you can make are whether you want Shep to be a jerkass or a slightly nicer jerkass when talking to people. Even paragon Shepard isn't really someone you'd want to meet. The only thing I really liked about ME2 were the squad members - while they aren't exactly nice people, they're all well written and generally likeable. Overall, ME2 is a dumbed down ME1 (which was hardly a complex cRPG) stripped of it's non linearity and fitted with better graphics and a more Gears of War style combat system. Good for one go, but no more.… Expand
  22. grazr
    Sep 13, 2012
    5
    The game is good and a must play for ME fans, but the move from non-ammo count firearms to ammo seems almost nonsensical as it completely changes how one sees the unique futuristic weapons. Scrounging for ammo is one of the least enjoyable aspects of shooters. Game was kinda ruined by the constant purposeful delaying of the final mission and the environment (galaxy) seemed so much moreThe game is good and a must play for ME fans, but the move from non-ammo count firearms to ammo seems almost nonsensical as it completely changes how one sees the unique futuristic weapons. Scrounging for ammo is one of the least enjoyable aspects of shooters. Game was kinda ruined by the constant purposeful delaying of the final mission and the environment (galaxy) seemed so much more claustrophobic for some reason. Due to the above issues the game feels more of a grind than the first.… Expand
  23. stern
    Dec 31, 2013
    5
    The whole experience in Mass Effect 2 feels like a high budget hollywoodian action film or as an Assassin's Creed game, specially wen compared with the first iteration, when Bioware obviously had more time to put things together and less expectation to deliver quality. This means that while some parts of it are truly brilliant and amazing, as the characters loyality mission- Tali comes toThe whole experience in Mass Effect 2 feels like a high budget hollywoodian action film or as an Assassin's Creed game, specially wen compared with the first iteration, when Bioware obviously had more time to put things together and less expectation to deliver quality. This means that while some parts of it are truly brilliant and amazing, as the characters loyality mission- Tali comes to mind- in others moment the game appears to be written by complete different people, with complete different ideas of how things should be done, and gosh, how these parts are bland, generic and dumb, feeling more like you are playing the singleplayer campaign of a generic shooter than a scifi rpg.
    And what is said in others reviews isn't exageration or extremism, the game is a hell of an example of why people despise DLCs, with whole parts of the main plot, relevant to the game and the lore- Lair of Shadow Broker for example- being made into DLC. If you don't buy DLCs, several rooms of your ship will be locked for you with no explanation; it's like they, Bioware/EA, want you, they require you to buy those expensive and sometimes silly DLCs in top of an already expensive game to full.
    Another aspect also mentioned in previous reviews is the diminishing rpg experience, it's like they heard some people complaining about the poor inventory management in ME1 and thought "why not cut this altogether? why not throw the inventory away?". This minimalism was behind every aspect of the development: they removed separated cooldowns for powers, they removed heating for weapons and added ammo, they removed free roaming/open spaces, the removed non-combat utility of tech, they removed planet exploration and they pretty much removed non-council races from any relevant plot in the universe.
    This means that (1) every space is a corridor and sometimes you can't even go back, every city you are exploring is disappointing and boring, and an awful lost potential, for example, imagine what could have been to walk and explore the Migrant Fleet, to see how the Quarians lived in this crowded and ever nomadic space... When you go to the Citadel you'll understand what I am saying; (2) playing as an enginner or adept is horrible, even your companions seem tailored for a soldier or vanguard class; (3) they could make the impossible, they made space exploration even more boring and repetitive, now you are left sending probes into planets like a robot, even worse now that discovering gasses and minerals is a necessity; and finally (4) they lost many chances of exploring non-coucil races, for example Ilium would fit perfectly as a volus world, but all you see in the game is an even narrower landscape that you saw in ME1.
    The story is told in a rail-road, forced fashion: you are supposed to believe unplausible things, to accept unidimensional characters such as Jacob (clearly created to cater to what EA believe is a black young audience) and Miranda (clearly a fanservice wankery), and to consider as villains beings who are never openly understood or expressed. Only mid-game things get interesting and by that point you already saw all Blade Runner, Star Wars, Asimov and general scifi inspiration that Bioware immersed itself to create the game. The ending doesn't answer any of ME1 open questions and doesn't even progress the plot, it's just action and action and action.
    All in all, like I said before, there are clearly amazing moments in ME2, such as the quarian zionist congress, I mean, the quarian audience and these parts were written by creative people. It's a game worth pirating.    … Expand
  24. Herbis
    May 9, 2013
    5
    One word to describe this game would be: betrayal.
    In order to round up a greater audience for the game, they made the game as similar to any other game out there, mainly Halo.
    RPG elements-removed, no-ammo-removed, planet exploration removed. Mass Effect 1 wasn't a pure open world game, but hey, compared to Mass Effect 2 you could call it just as open as GTAs. I mean Mass Effect 2 is    One word to describe this game would be: betrayal.
    In order to round up a greater audience for the game, they made the game as similar to any other game out there, mainly Halo.
    RPG elements-removed, no-ammo-removed, planet exploration removed.
    Mass Effect 1 wasn't a pure open world game, but hey, compared to Mass Effect 2 you could call it just as open as GTAs. I mean Mass Effect 2 is so linear, so that a monkey with a controller could complete this game on easy (you'd have to teach him to shoot and collect ammo if you'd want him to beat harder difficulties).
    Don't get me wrong, the story is great and all, but the gameplay is awful at this point. The second time I played it I used mods to make it feel more like the first game.
    Another annoyingly stupid thing is the DLCs. There are too many of them. Ok, maybe that's not the biggest problem point. They are to expensive for what they are. You wont get more than 2 hours of gameplay with each of them, but they sure cost like if they were at least 10 hours of gameplay. And the fact that the characters got released one by one after release, you had to replay the game over and over again, if you wanted to have the full experience with each of them. It's just frustrating, if you want to know every little bit of the story, which is the best part of the game.
    Essentially, this game was a big disappointment for me, and didn't feel like a Mass Effect game, at least gameplay wise. The removal of all the best stuff from Mass Effect 1, was the worst part for me, that really hurt the franchise in my eyes.    … Expand
  25. Kalfear
    May 18, 2013
    5
    In short to keep with game play ability length. Mass Effect 2 is a Action third person shooter first and foremost.
    ANYONE thinking ME2 would continue on the deep and compelling Universe and story lines set up in Mass effect will be greatly disappointed. Even the save game transfers from ME are mostly meaningless as all the carry over choices (with exception of 1 but ill not ruin that    In short to keep with game play ability length. Mass Effect 2 is a Action third person shooter first and foremost.
    ANYONE thinking ME2 would continue on the deep and compelling Universe and story lines set up in Mass effect will be greatly disappointed. Even the save game transfers from ME are mostly meaningless as all the carry over choices (with exception of 1 but ill not ruin that here) are minimalized and finished off with NO future adventure or interaction (beyond a short conversation here and there).

    In short the Open World Storyline design of Mass Effect is removed and replaced with a singular Linear Third Person Shooter design.

    now none of that is terrible (well other then short length of game, thats unforgivable), if thats what you went in expecting. Sadly EA marketted this game as the spiritual and RPG expansion of the first to up box sales at release. Typical EA.

    Mass Effect 2 is a Sci Fi third person shooter. Its has semi interesting characters and you even get to decide who you romance (WOOT, from choosing if a alien speices lives or dies in ME1 to who you get a black screen with in ME2).

    In the end, If you like the Mass Effect Universe and like shooters, you will like this game
    Just dont go into it thinking your getting the next installment of the original Mass Effect RPG. That franchise stopped production after #1    … Expand
  26. WyattTheAwesome
    May 30, 2013
    5
    Mass Effect went from being a wonderful, epic RPG that was very unique, to a poor cover based shooter. I don't hate cover based shooters, but Mass Effect 2 did a terrible job with it. The enemies are predictable and do the same damning thing every time that it just becomes boring! I can't recommend this game, but it doesn't mean it was bad. Just very disappointing if you played the original.
  27. Sirik_Matak
    Jan 11, 2016
    5
    The second game in the series is the middle ground between the mediocrity of Mass Effect 1 and the fu... bad work of Mass Effect 3.

    The writing is significantly worse, and the whole game is one big DLC-quality content. I remember when after the final mission against the Collectors I was thinking "now, the game starts", only to see the ending credits. What? Fortunately, the gameplay    The second game in the series is the middle ground between the mediocrity of Mass Effect 1 and the fu... bad work of Mass Effect 3.

    The writing is significantly worse, and the whole game is one big DLC-quality content. I remember when after the final mission against the Collectors I was thinking "now, the game starts", only to see the ending credits. What? Fortunately, the gameplay improved, meaning the game is a straightforwardly mediocre TPS, with really badly designed levels that don't even try to disguise themselves as another "pop-a-mole" arenas.

    And that's it, really. There's not much to talk about this game, because it's literally some filler quests of day-caring your handicapped companions who can't wipe themselves off after using a toilet.
    Wait, there's one of the best **** in the history of writing. Well, at least it was until Mass Effect 3 was released. It's the Harbringer - writers turned the already weak (with the ending of Mass Effect 1) premise of the Reapers as something really "outworldy", and before they've turned them into dragons with armies of zombies (ME3), in ME2 their leader is some kind of comedian controlling the Collectors, that keeps dying and dying after one headshot (on the highest difficulty setting) from a sniper rifle, spitting out some BS like "you feel the pain Shepard", "you will loose", etc.
    What they forgot to implement in the final version is the line of "I WILL GET YOU NEXT TIME, GADGET!"

    It's a considerable doze of pop-a-mole action for 1€. Well, 5€ is the maximum amount I would pay for this title.    … Expand
  28. COMThing
    Jan 17, 2014
    5
    An excellent story and dialogue/cinematics to go with sub-par combat, way too basic of an inventory system and the removal of most RPG elements that the first game had. Overall the game is good for 1 playthrough due so you get the story.

    The Good: - Excellent story and dialogue (although sometimes pretty monotonous) - Best missions of the series - Best Citidel (main hub for stores    An excellent story and dialogue/cinematics to go with sub-par combat, way too basic of an inventory system and the removal of most RPG elements that the first game had. Overall the game is good for 1 playthrough due so you get the story.

    The Good:
    - Excellent story and dialogue (although sometimes pretty monotonous)
    - Best missions of the series
    - Best Citidel (main hub for stores and non-combat things) of the series

    The Bad:
    - Least interesting and most basic combat of the series; lacking in weapon choices and customisation, abilities don't seem to have much of an effect most of the time. Not to mention the crappy shotgun with 20 rounds total
    - Lack of almost all the RPG elements that made the first game fun and interesting including the inventory system. If anything this game has less customisation than the first.
    - Bad GUI; clicking through the numerous menus can be a chore and lacks basic keyboard navigation such as ESC to go back or ENTER to accept.    … Expand
  29. marc5477
    Jan 11, 2015
    5
    Its not an RPG. Its an action adventure like Zelda minus fun puzzles but with a complex story. Its not bad as an action adventure game but unfortunately they bore me to tears. The big problem is that I have played so many games that no story has felt even remotely original since KotOR. Since then, that story has been redone a few dozen times (Atlus I am looking at you lol). Since storiesIts not an RPG. Its an action adventure like Zelda minus fun puzzles but with a complex story. Its not bad as an action adventure game but unfortunately they bore me to tears. The big problem is that I have played so many games that no story has felt even remotely original since KotOR. Since then, that story has been redone a few dozen times (Atlus I am looking at you lol). Since stories are no longer original, I depend on RPG elements to give me something to enjoy. Without them, I get bored quickly. Even Mass Effect 1 felt like RPG lite to me but it was still good.

    That said, let me point out that there is some good here for an adventure game. Voice acting was fine, graphics look good, combat was fun (relatively speaking from my perspective) and there is a lot of content. The bad news is that without heavy RPG elements it felt like a FPS MMO (hollow). Characters didnt really have a lot of "character." Quests... well we have seen them all so nothing new here. Areas were too static and nothing from ME1 seemed to change anything important in ME2. I felt especially bored and dreaded going to the citadel. Other areas are linear which was nice for me because I didnt want to linger out of boredom.

    Overall, its a good game. It is highly overrated but sales numbers speak louder than words.

    ME1 (new IP) - 3.6m (on only PC and XBOX)
    ME2 (riding ME1 reputation) - 5.2m (on PC, PS3 & XBOX)
    ME3 (riding ME2 reputation) - 5.3m (almost no change)

    Clearly, by looking at the above. The franchise became stagnant as of ME2. If there is an ME4 I would expect sales to drop.    … Expand
  30. moonlight_shado
    Apr 24, 2016
    5
    They stripped down all rpg-related mechanics. Gameplay become consolized. Story is OK but has nothing to do with previous part. The choices from ME1 also doesn't matter much, it's mostly cosmetics. So, instead of bigger and better rpg we were given shooter game with choices, that pretends to be role-playing game but it's not. Thanks for making us idiots EA/Bio!!
  31. godunow
    Mar 22, 2016
    5
    Very mediocre, boring game.

    Production values - best character animations and voice acting I saw - closer to AAA movie than a game - but the story is really lame and shooter gameplay bored me to death. Halfway through I deleted my Origin account to never see this again.
  32. MillersWeeb
    Nov 16, 2018
    5
    Ну тут за жопу Миранды один балл накину. Думаю лучшая из частей. Можно играть за псайкера.
  33. bancandrei
    May 14, 2020
    5
    Combat is even more of a shooter and story is streamlined, or less important. Or rather more character oriented since it is mainly composed of recruiting party members and doing their loyalty missions. As such it cannot achieve the epic proportions of the first and is a downgrade in pretty much every way
  34. vova22379
    Jan 22, 2023
    5
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  35. SnowChicken
    Jan 20, 2021
    5
    Very mediocre. The gunplay feels very nice, but the story is full of artificial filler missions
  36. Crimson9
    Dec 3, 2022
    5
    Probably the most overrated game of all time. Mass Effect 2 doesn't add to the RPG elements, story, lore, world design and so on of its predecessor, it dumbs it down. Truth be told, it also streamlines it, and so you have a sleek, casual game instead of a clumsy, ambitious one.

    But honestly, theres nothing much to see here. The story is woefully cliche. Even compared to the cliche    Probably the most overrated game of all time. Mass Effect 2 doesn't add to the RPG elements, story, lore, world design and so on of its predecessor, it dumbs it down. Truth be told, it also streamlines it, and so you have a sleek, casual game instead of a clumsy, ambitious one.

    But honestly, theres nothing much to see here. The story is woefully cliche. Even compared to the cliche stories of most RPGs, this takes the cake. It is 80% 'gather your party' and then 20% the end battle. How original.

    The combat is an improvement from the previous game, but as I mentioned earlier, every other aspect of the game is a step backwards.

    I get it though, this game seems like the game version of a Marvel movie. Devoid of any depth and yet inexplicably a critical and mainstream darling. But I fail to see much merit to it. Its a mediocre game at best.

    People have mentioned that after this game, Bioware started going downhill. However, I wonder if its because of the success of this game, and the audience embrace of streamlining and casualization that Bioware went in that direction in the first place.    … Expand
  37. ZachS.
    Feb 8, 2010
    4
    This game is fun for the first playthrough -- only 14 hours on hard for me | and I did all the side-quests I could find, personally I think that there was a lack of those. I very much loved the first ME, it had a very good RPG replay value for different loot and different armor types. In this one, that value is non-existent. You only have one armor "type" which you can upgrade, no armor This game is fun for the first playthrough -- only 14 hours on hard for me | and I did all the side-quests I could find, personally I think that there was a lack of those. I very much loved the first ME, it had a very good RPG replay value for different loot and different armor types. In this one, that value is non-existent. You only have one armor "type" which you can upgrade, no armor or shield value differences really, you only get to choose between two different weapons of each type, one of which is obviously superior in all situations. It really posed no challenge to me, and I'm really surprised that Bioware would dumb down this series the way that they did. The AI is all-around stupid. Your teammates look like they are in pre-school compared to your enemies. I wish I could actually find someone besides Garrus and Legion who know how to shoot a gun correctly. The storyline is like this - gather your team - do their sidequests - have sex with one of them - then go destroy the collectors. Not really an RPG in my book, which was what I was expecting when I bought this since it was in the category of RPG.… Expand
  38. RoyP
    Feb 20, 2010
    4
    I was very dissapointed with this game. I was expecting a RPG/TPS hybrid like the first one, not a Gears of War with a dialogue wheel like this game. They removed almost every RPG element it had: there is no more looting,there is no more inventory, there is like 2 weapons of each kind (about 20 in total), there is no more weapons/armor stats, there is no more weapons/armor mods, you I was very dissapointed with this game. I was expecting a RPG/TPS hybrid like the first one, not a Gears of War with a dialogue wheel like this game. They removed almost every RPG element it had: there is no more looting,there is no more inventory, there is like 2 weapons of each kind (about 20 in total), there is no more weapons/armor stats, there is no more weapons/armor mods, you can't change your squadmates armors... Even the story and dialogue aren't very good, the mainplot is too short and the squadmates run out of dialogue very quickly. I hope Bioware bring back the RPG in ME3 otherwise I will not buy it.… Expand
  39. PaulusM
    Feb 7, 2010
    4
    I was massively dissapointed by this game. Having played the first I expected it to be an interesting follow up, all the perfect reviews didn't exactly lower my expectations. Don't get me wrong here: This isn't a "I was dissapointed so this gets a 0 review". I'm not a massive fan and I have no hard feelings toward the developers or critics or whoever. The first game I was massively dissapointed by this game. Having played the first I expected it to be an interesting follow up, all the perfect reviews didn't exactly lower my expectations. Don't get me wrong here: This isn't a "I was dissapointed so this gets a 0 review". I'm not a massive fan and I have no hard feelings toward the developers or critics or whoever. The first game was rough but visionary. Instead of refining these rough edges, Bioware decided to cut them off and remove them altogether, thus making the outcome a bit more polisher but shallower in almost every regard. It hardly feels like an RPG anymore. Here's why: Since stats are removed there isn't any sense of character progression or standard that you can measure your progress with. Enemies don't give XP thus removing the sense of accomplishment when killing a horde or boss. The cities are bleak, small and entirely pointless. No stores, hardly any upgrades and the little there are have no real progression. For example if you upgrade the assault rifle its characteristics change dramatically. Level one is inaccurate, powerful at short range and lots of ammo. Level two is accurate, little ammo and good for range. Level 3 is basically like level 1 of the rifle again. What? Why not choose the characteristics you want and then upgrade accordingly? This system is pointless. Bioware has fallen in an annoying routine of RPG development: Step 1: Assemble your crew Step 2: Please your crew by doing them or side missions that reveal their shocking past Step 3: Climatic finale where you have to sacrifice a few members and usually get a sex sequence (see step 2). Pacing is terrible, you never get a sense of immediacy and the game drags quite a bit halfway. As of now the game feels like a slow-paced shooter with an extensive dialogue system. It's a mere shadow of the athmosphere and new concepts of the first one. Buy at your own discretion and don't trust the reviews.… Expand
  40. DesmondL
    Mar 3, 2010
    4
    Most disappointing game, the graphics and story great!! But this is not RPG anymore, this game is looks like action-adventure or third-person shooter with bit RPG elements!! I played this for 3 hours and i don't see any pure RPG system, only a experience points and talents system!! I feel this sequel is not fun as Mass Effect, not only remove feature from the original game such armor Most disappointing game, the graphics and story great!! But this is not RPG anymore, this game is looks like action-adventure or third-person shooter with bit RPG elements!! I played this for 3 hours and i don't see any pure RPG system, only a experience points and talents system!! I feel this sequel is not fun as Mass Effect, not only remove feature from the original game such armor equipments and its also not same as original game gameplay system.… Expand
  41. HomeCritic
    Jan 10, 2013
    4
    Mass Effect 2 has the worst continuation of story in any sci-fi. It destroyed the lore of Mass Effect 1, made main antagonists into brain dead morons, and it actually serves no point, because we didn't learn anything really important in it, for example, how to stop the reapers or how to unite a galaxy against this threat and so on and fourth. The beginning just happened and later on noMass Effect 2 has the worst continuation of story in any sci-fi. It destroyed the lore of Mass Effect 1, made main antagonists into brain dead morons, and it actually serves no point, because we didn't learn anything really important in it, for example, how to stop the reapers or how to unite a galaxy against this threat and so on and fourth. The beginning just happened and later on no further themes of this "revival" weren't addressed nor the whole process explained. Shepard died and got resurrected, just to serve the plot, it adds no meaning nor change to main characters character, Shepard seems to be just a static brick. Overall, the storyline was not good, at all.
    Other problems contains game mechanics and oversimplification of RPG elements and lore breaking transition from unique concept of weapon mechanics to general ammo clips. Exploration is also dumped down to boring planet search minigame. Customization was improved on some parts, but overall it was also majorly oversimplified and generalized. They really tried to push this game to general audience, which they shouldn't have been doing in the first place.
    ME2 marks the beginning of the complete wreckage for the whole franchise, ME3 being the second mark on that path. This game shows how lack of attention to the detail and story can destroy the potential of interesting and engaging lore.    … Expand
  42. KannedFarU
    Dec 17, 2010
    4
    This game obviously has the taint of a product acquired by and developed under EA. It seems undercut, uninspired and super linear and super short. Mass Effect 1 was really a great game and this was deprived of all the things that made ME1 fantastic:
    * Great story
    * Unlimited Ammo * Large selection of stuff to buy * Really cool ATV * Tons of side quests that kept the game interesting The    This game obviously has the taint of a product acquired by and developed under EA. It seems undercut, uninspired and super linear and super short. Mass Effect 1 was really a great game and this was deprived of all the things that made ME1 fantastic:
    * Great story
    * Unlimited Ammo
    * Large selection of stuff to buy
    * Really cool ATV
    * Tons of side quests that kept the game interesting

    The only things that really give merit to ME2 is:
    * Customizable equipment
    * Weapon Proficiency

    If you want to swim in ME1 nostalgia go ahead and buy this game, it seems to have the aesthetic theme. But you will be upset with the result. This game is almost as boring as Dragon Age: Origins, at least I get to move around and shoot things. Adds some interest...    … Expand
  43. Juiblex
    Feb 8, 2011
    4
    I liked the story and combat but that's about it. The RPG element isn't there, the characters are pretty limited in abilities/weapons, the programing isn't all that good either. I get stuck in the air and in cut scenes characters would be spinning, and there was a fair deal of crashes to desktop. I cant say that this is a good game but it isn't completely worthless. Play it once throughI liked the story and combat but that's about it. The RPG element isn't there, the characters are pretty limited in abilities/weapons, the programing isn't all that good either. I get stuck in the air and in cut scenes characters would be spinning, and there was a fair deal of crashes to desktop. I cant say that this is a good game but it isn't completely worthless. Play it once through and be done with it, I don't see what big hype was with this game, it's average at best.… Expand
  44. guinevere2
    May 21, 2011
    4
    I do not want the rpg genre to follow the mass effect direction: oversimplifying every rpg aspect: starting from character creation, through the party management, exploration, combat and storyline part of the game. On top of that the game is ridiculous short, overuses same planet/building over and over again and has no replayability value at all. I also found the loading time between zonesI do not want the rpg genre to follow the mass effect direction: oversimplifying every rpg aspect: starting from character creation, through the party management, exploration, combat and storyline part of the game. On top of that the game is ridiculous short, overuses same planet/building over and over again and has no replayability value at all. I also found the loading time between zones to long. It is a scheme to milk as much dollars from the players as possible with shiny, superficial games full of meaningless pseudo - minigames… Expand
  45. idoge25
    Apr 24, 2011
    4
    * A Good Sci-Fi story, in a rich Universe (with good characters)
    * A crapy "on rails" third-person shooter
    * Even crapier time-based minigames, with no possibility to regulate their difficulty
    * Terrible level design, which breaks the suspension of disbelief...
  46. syrik
    May 6, 2011
    4
    This game really has to get two scores. If you play on normal difficulty, like I did my first play through, then it's great. Great story, game play, action, character depth, pretty much does everything right and it earns a solid 8. Play it the second play through on Insanity difficulty and suddenly its a game riddled with bugs and as such id score it a 1. Buggy games drive me crazy andThis game really has to get two scores. If you play on normal difficulty, like I did my first play through, then it's great. Great story, game play, action, character depth, pretty much does everything right and it earns a solid 8. Play it the second play through on Insanity difficulty and suddenly its a game riddled with bugs and as such id score it a 1. Buggy games drive me crazy and I think far far less of an otherwise good game for having them. What causes this discrepancy? On the top level of difficulty the enemies hit hard, really hard. This means you have to act fast and use cover, always, every time. Two problems pop up, first when you turn quickly your character will have a tendency to become detached from the game world and float in the air or suddenly get stuck on top of objects. This doesn't happen all the time, but enough to be called repeatable and definitive. Second problem is cover. While on normal the few times you ducked and hid it probably worked fine. Now, you are ducking and hiding everywhere, fast and frequently. This causes the many surfaces to reveal their true nature where your character will not hide completely and you'll get shot through an object, or your character won't lean out the correct direction and you'll be left open to get shot. There are many many glitched cover surfaces that cause a variety of issues with game play. Besides that there are also a few other bugs present like quests that you can't complete that don't end up affecting anything and also a game killing bug where your game will have a critical crash and close if you change your ability hot keys in combat (there is a quick hotkey UI with bad programming). These very prevalent bugs cause the game heavy problems because they get you killed when you should otherwise be alive. So, all told id give the game a 4. Great story, so so game play that is very dependent on the difficulty setting as to how decent it is and released, yet never fixed, with a repeatable bug that will cause a fatal error.… Expand
  47. themrchook
    Sep 2, 2012
    4
    Mass Effect 2 is a sequel that has been stripped of everything that made the first game enjoyable for me. Reduced to a simple, linear cover based third person shooter with token rpg elements and mini games. The story is the only thing that holds this game up, but it is still a tattered, sorry flag.
  48. North
    May 26, 2011
    4
    Hmm, how should I begin? ME1 was a blast. The story, inventory, choices, teams, exploration...and now in ME2, all the stuffs that made ME1 terrific has been disposed. And all those big gaming magazines praising this sequel with 9/10, 94/100 like scores. >.> I wonder if Bioware actually bribed them to give high scores to ME2... That's why I never read their criticisms. You gotta search forHmm, how should I begin? ME1 was a blast. The story, inventory, choices, teams, exploration...and now in ME2, all the stuffs that made ME1 terrific has been disposed. And all those big gaming magazines praising this sequel with 9/10, 94/100 like scores. >.> I wonder if Bioware actually bribed them to give high scores to ME2... That's why I never read their criticisms. You gotta search for the actual gamer to have a good introspection. And majority of the PEOPLE here would probably agree with me, as I agree with their comments. ME2 is far away from being an RPG game. And I give it 4/10, all for the sake of ME1. And the mixed comments about gameplay, graphics, characters and such are pretty much similar elsewhere. Mine too: the game is short, the story is not well developed, inventory is poor, choices of Shepard does not necessarily have effects within the game, but expected to have effects in ME3? You see how Bioware gets away with this? Thus what I will add to those nagtive and mixed comments is also gonna be my criticism of Bioware's hardline capitalistic policy in robbing people's money and stirring a "mass" anticipation for the third ME game. Now, they promise that if we buy those DLC games additionally, we'll have an idea about ME3 - DLC PRODUCTION HAS BECOME THE VILEST TACTIC IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY. Keep the game short and dully, and release some DLCs and stir up more anticipation. Surely, gamers will "buy" it! With additional cash flowing in Bioware accounts.....

    Should I say don't buy ME2? I don't think I can, cos now you already played ME1, you liked it, and now you want to see the end of it. You're surely gonna buy ME2, no matter how linear and mediocre it is. Because it is a bridge to the final game that is expected to have very high climaxes. And Bioware will have the cream of the business while experimenting RPG and FPS with ME2. ME2 is thus a rather experimental game and I hope that Bioware takes these negative criticisms into account, since they're mostly given by seasoned, experienced gamers!    … Expand
  49. Stylus
    Mar 19, 2012
    4
    Mass Effect was never a clever game but in this sequel it takes a turn for the dumber. RPG mechanics are stripped out but not properly replaced with good TPS mechanics, there was no sense of urgency (which is unforgivable in such a linear game) and the main story was underdeveloped (to be specific it felt like the writers wanted it to be like a movie heist such as Ocean's Eleven but thereMass Effect was never a clever game but in this sequel it takes a turn for the dumber. RPG mechanics are stripped out but not properly replaced with good TPS mechanics, there was no sense of urgency (which is unforgivable in such a linear game) and the main story was underdeveloped (to be specific it felt like the writers wanted it to be like a movie heist such as Ocean's Eleven but there was never any pay-off after assembling the team and nobody had a coherent plan). . As I mentioned before the shooting mechanics aren't particularly good; comparing this game to Gears of War would be an insult to the folks at Gearbox. There are little things like being forced to slap the spacebar all the time and bigger things like the lack of interesting enemies that force you to change your play style. The only redeeming aspects of the game were the little call backs to your saves in the original game and the side characters and squad mates who provided all the game's interest. Unfortunately the small joys provided by the characters aren't enough to offset the fact that most of the time you will be playing an uninspired shooter. Two stars.… Expand
  50. Doctective
    Jun 3, 2013
    4
    As a person who's played Mass Effect 2 both on the PS3 and PC, I have all rights to say that with me being a dedicated fan to the franchise, this never stood up to be the proper sequel to Mass Effect 1 everyone wanted to be. Sure it's good compared to Mass Effect 3, but let's forget that disaster for a moment and get down to what Mass Effect 2 had, and what it shouldn't have had.

    First    As a person who's played Mass Effect 2 both on the PS3 and PC, I have all rights to say that with me being a dedicated fan to the franchise, this never stood up to be the proper sequel to Mass Effect 1 everyone wanted to be. Sure it's good compared to Mass Effect 3, but let's forget that disaster for a moment and get down to what Mass Effect 2 had, and what it shouldn't have had.

    First of all, the PC Port is pretty bad. I mean I am glad that aiming with the mouse works as it should, but binding Sprint/Interact/Cover all to the same button? What happened to the special treatment Mass Effect 1 got for PC? None of that is there, and the game really suffers greatly from having sprint and cover on the same button as you find yourself locking into cover while trying to retreat from the enemies, leaving you completely exposed to their gunfire while you go through the animations of getting out of cover again. Mass Effect 1 had you just pressing against cover without the need of button presses, and allowed you to crouch in cover too. What happened to all of that?

    Now the removal of overheat and grenades are for balance, I can understand that and honestly I wasn't bothered by it as much as I could've been, however, the in-world explanation is just so damn stupid I can't imagine how BioWare managed to laugh up the fact that it would be a good idea to choose that over the overheat system.

    A lot of missions are repetitive, which is something all three entries suffer greatly from. While Mass Effect 2 at least varies its' environments, half of the loyalty missions and sidequests consist of nothing but mindless shooting with 2 minute long cutscenes at the start and end trying to justify why it made sense to enter a gunfight, and sadly here Mass Effect 2 doesn't fare any better than any other third person shooter. If you were dumb enough to play as Soldier, you're gonna get the bore of your life as this game is all about biotics and tech, so there are some classes which are absolutely boring to play as compared to others. My personal favorite was Vanguard, which I think was amazing to play as and I had a good time playing through the game.

    Dialogue wise, it was outstanding, the story is well told and executed surprisingly well looking at the state of gaming back then. The interrupts were a great addition and you can't criticize Mass Effect 2 for its lack of dialogue. This game executes its characters really well and does an excellent job immersing you in the story and making your personal morale affect what choices you make in the game. Top notch!

    Last but not least, the save game system, which was meh at best. You'd get some letters from people or extra dialogue, however you don't miss a lot not having a Mass Effect 1 save game ready.

    Overall though, this game is really flawed in comparison to Mass Effect 1. A 4 is the brutally honest rating I'd give this game, because as far as it fares against its predecessor, it's cons largely obscure its pros, merely for the fact that Mass Effect 1 offered almost all of that too.    … Expand
  51. micic00
    May 12, 2018
    4
    A dumbed down Mass Effect 2. Corridor shooter, so few RPG elements that it's actually FPS more than RPG. A teen game with lame dialogue and occasional flirting wtih sex. Main story game is decent, graphics great for the time. Overall skip if you're looking for an RPG/grownup game, play if you don't like thinking and are just looking for shooting/running/following an objective marker.
  52. DoesntMatter
    Dec 24, 2012
    4
    What I expected: More from what I got in the first game. What I got: A dumbed down, consolized game with bad game mechanics and a terrible UI. Good things first. The presentation (graphics, animations, voice over) works great, pretty much like in the first game, and the story is nice. Unfortunately, that's where the good things end. The decision that guns now require ammo is something IWhat I expected: More from what I got in the first game. What I got: A dumbed down, consolized game with bad game mechanics and a terrible UI. Good things first. The presentation (graphics, animations, voice over) works great, pretty much like in the first game, and the story is nice. Unfortunately, that's where the good things end. The decision that guns now require ammo is something I can accept and would even prefer. But why does my boss spend billions on a star ship with an advanced armory, yet doesn't have enough cash to buy me some ammo? That way, I have to rely on the ammo I find from dead enemies, which don't always drop the ammo I need. Great, but that's one of the minor flaws of this game: Before I started playing, I had to fix several bugs with the mouse speed and colorization of the game. Many players are complaining about this on forums, but Bioware never bothered to patch these things themselves. Then, I can hardly enjoy anything in this game, because the user interface is so *** **** bad. You can't double click in menus, always need to "click item", then "click ok button". It's not even possible to confirm with ENTER, you have to click the button. Every time. Same goes for the star map. On top of that, there are no shortcut keys to get to the important menus, you have to hit ESC and then click the menu you want to bring up. You can navigate there with the arrow keys, but for some reason unknown to anyone in this galaxy, the controls are reversed. Left goes right, down goes up. Doing simple things takes forever, because the interface is just such a damn mess. Also, every time you pick something up, a message about the item will pop up and fill about half of your screen. They got most of this right in the first game, then changed it to this to "improve" the game for gaming consoles and didn't bother to change it for the PC version - but not only is it bad for PC players, it's also an insult to console gamers. They must really think you're stupid when they dumb down a game like that. Then again, maybe many console gamers are.… Expand
  53. KaienShiba
    Oct 8, 2015
    4
    This very loosely an rpg, it's more of an fps action/rpg. The game itself has very few flaw, but most glaring one are your so called team mates which you have to keep a close eye on and near you, because your Shepard is the main target for enemies. The other glaring flaw is your view point which is behind and slightly to the right of your character, and while it works for games like swtorThis very loosely an rpg, it's more of an fps action/rpg. The game itself has very few flaw, but most glaring one are your so called team mates which you have to keep a close eye on and near you, because your Shepard is the main target for enemies. The other glaring flaw is your view point which is behind and slightly to the right of your character, and while it works for games like swtor or skyrim it does not in fps. Skyrim has the best pov in a game since you can choose your pov. It would been better if this was a true fps.… Expand
  54. Pendra
    Jan 16, 2017
    4
    It is so far away from the feeling of Mass Effect, that we can call it a Reboot.

    It is not a dungeon crawling RPG anymore. The inventory management was "streamlined" to oblivion. Same goes to the stats. The maps still look nice but they are absolutely linear, COD style.The designers even removed the map function altogether in case of combat maps. If you hit M, a compass will point to    It is so far away from the feeling of Mass Effect, that we can call it a Reboot.

    It is not a dungeon crawling RPG anymore. The inventory management was "streamlined" to oblivion. Same goes to the stats.

    The maps still look nice but they are absolutely linear, COD style.The designers even removed the map function altogether in case of combat maps. If you hit M, a compass will point to a direction and that is it.

    The combat system was changed for the worse. I absolutely hate the ammo system. The overheat system of Mass Effect 1 was way better to control the damage output. I run out of ammo from the primary and secondary weapons frequently because the enemies seldom drop anything.

    The story is smaller, less interesting and somewhat forced. It doesn't feel too connected to the events in Mass Effect 1. Some background stories of the characters were nice, but the character development doesn't really fit a 2nd part. Mass Effect 2 story would have worked a whole lot better as Mass Effect 1. Then the story of Mass Effect 1 would follow.

    The ending is very weak compared to ME1. You spend 60+ hours to build up the team for the heist. And then, it is over in 45 mins. Whaat? And the last enemy is just silly. I can't find a better word for it. If it was ME1, then it would be OK. However, after ME1 ending, it pales in comparision.

    The replay value is still low. I know I will not force myself through the storyline as a renegade just to see some slightly different plotlines. The game is just too long to redo it for 10-20% difference in the outcome.

    The interface is worse than in ME1.

    The planetary exploration interface slightly more useful. However I would rather have a mix of ME1 rover maps and ME2 scanner minigame then just this or just that.

    All in all, I don't know what the idea was with ME2, but it doesn't do service or add improvement to the fans of ME1 on any level.    … Expand
  55. Shmorgan
    Mar 20, 2017
    4
    Mass Effect 2 is the second best entry in one of my favorite games. Fantastic writing and gameplay.

    Pros + Storytelling + World + The gunplay and engaging in combat seems a lot more improved than in ME1, is more fun and doesn't feel stiff. Cons - Dialogue wheel, I prefer to see texts in sentences to select. - The item management in your inventory is a bit terrible.    Mass Effect 2 is the second best entry in one of my favorite games. Fantastic writing and gameplay.

    Pros

    + Storytelling

    + World

    + The gunplay and engaging in combat seems a lot more improved than in ME1, is more fun and doesn't feel stiff.

    Cons

    - Dialogue wheel, I prefer to see texts in sentences to select.

    - The item management in your inventory is a bit terrible.

    - No looting like in ME1.

    - No open planets to explore and no vehicle to drive around on the planets.    … Expand
  56. Goekhan
    Feb 2, 2010
    3
    Mass Effect 1 was a challenge. And the results are an unique game. But Mass Effect 2 scraps and gets rid of many things that made Mass Effect 1 unique. If ME2 was the first game, not a sequel I mean, I'd be giving it a 10, but seeing how they "destroyed" the game, for sake of graphics, atmosphere, and sound effects, only deserves a 3.
  57. Shaitan87
    Nov 2, 2010
    3
    I was extremely disappointed by this. The story is very linear and boring, there are almost no sidequests at all. I find the gameplay very repetitive, every battle was the same, and even on high difficulties they were trivially easy. The end of the game left me a bit shocked, it seemed to do nothing for the plot of the series, you know about as much about the story at the end of theI was extremely disappointed by this. The story is very linear and boring, there are almost no sidequests at all. I find the gameplay very repetitive, every battle was the same, and even on high difficulties they were trivially easy. The end of the game left me a bit shocked, it seemed to do nothing for the plot of the series, you know about as much about the story at the end of the game as at the start.… Expand
  58. srdrkrm
    Jun 4, 2011
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It's been a while since I've played newer video games (as in, the last time was in highschool when I owned a N64), and this series seemed well-regarded. I tried to get into it, browsing through the books, comics, trying to get a sense of the whole expanded universe they tried to create. It's sad to be disappointed. Sure, I'll play the third one, just to see how they will tie it up, but I my hopes are not up.

    The first Mass Effect was tedious, but had some charm; this game is really the same, though the source of both the tedium and it's charm is different.

    Really, the only thing I liked was the opening sequence and some of the writing, which was miles ahead of the really uninteresting story. The opening held some promise (the space you could see out of the top of the ship, the emergence of the secret group from the first game.), but quickly squandered it.
    I liked talking to Joker, but I hated going on with the story. Every possible dramatic moment (characters dying, etc.) is so obviously avoidable, it was tremendously boring. It was also kind of weird! how cold the relationship between Shepherd and characters from the previous game were, as in, they act cold around each other. Considering that many of the players of this game spent at least a bunch of hours with these characters in the last game, you'd think the developer would consider this. I also despised the way the worlds were divided into mission and non-mission areas: it's true, it was lame how almost every other bass in the first game was one of three designs, but taking dividing combat and "talking" areas is a really horrible idea that makes everything really boring. It takes out the element of surprise that a fight could break out any minute and makes it a much more uniform experience.

    Also, I know BioWare already acknowledged this, but I don't know how anybody during the conception of the game could think that the planet mining parts was permissible gameplay. Ugh.

    Sure somethings were better in this round: the fighting did feel a lot better, and the actual fighting levels I liked. Again, the actual writing was a bit better, though it was still in b-movie land. The worst part is, considering how singularly boring this plot is, there is no way I can trust any professional reviewer who has claimed that BioWare is the king of "epic storytelling" or something. You obviously have not read enough books, or movies, or music or anything to say such a thing. Unless you mean in video gaming, which means that video games still is a child primarily raised by meat-heads. Well, there goes my first video game review. Alas.    … Expand
  59. Zonerider
    Jun 29, 2012
    3
    3 points for graphic and storyline. The game is a nice action adventure, but not a RPG. Wolfenstein from 2008 is more a RPG than Mass Effect. With 3 team members your avatar wipe out all life in the galaxy in 2 long weekends, than you have get the maximum player level and when you have all the upgrades, perks, abilitys and items the games ends abruptly, you can drop your lovely leveled3 points for graphic and storyline. The game is a nice action adventure, but not a RPG. Wolfenstein from 2008 is more a RPG than Mass Effect. With 3 team members your avatar wipe out all life in the galaxy in 2 long weekends, than you have get the maximum player level and when you have all the upgrades, perks, abilitys and items the games ends abruptly, you can drop your lovely leveled avatar in the trash and start a new game. For me the game is only a stand alone graphic patch for Star Wars KOTOR. Extreme potential wasted!… Expand
  60. beefcake124
    Mar 16, 2014
    3
    they wont add gamepad support because they dont care about consumers. This would have been a good game to i think but mouse and keyboard do not work with my 3d hdtv and couch
  61. aeroslimshady
    Jul 29, 2022
    3
    This is easily the most overrated RPG of all time. Mind numbing cover shooter based combat, idiotic dialogue system where none of your choices matter and you're forced into a path from the very beginning if you want to fully benefit from paragon/renegade points or whatever they're called. Super lazy side quests, awful writing that pretends to be more mature than it really is, drollThis is easily the most overrated RPG of all time. Mind numbing cover shooter based combat, idiotic dialogue system where none of your choices matter and you're forced into a path from the very beginning if you want to fully benefit from paragon/renegade points or whatever they're called. Super lazy side quests, awful writing that pretends to be more mature than it really is, droll overused companion system where they swear their unyielding allegiance to you after exhausting their dialogue options. Most of the game is literally just pointless boring side quests disguised as a main quest. I couldn't finish it. I'm glad WRPGs have been in rapid decline and people are realizing how terrible these games actually are.… Expand
  62. PaulC
    Mar 2, 2010
    2
    YOu meet some baddies. You press some buttons. It doesn't really matter which ones you press. Keep pressing them till the baddy is dead. There are other characters that you control, but they rarely do what you ask them, and often just stand in your way. So press some more buttons. Even on the PC this game REEKS of console. It has the depth of spit puddle and the gameplay you would YOu meet some baddies. You press some buttons. It doesn't really matter which ones you press. Keep pressing them till the baddy is dead. There are other characters that you control, but they rarely do what you ask them, and often just stand in your way. So press some more buttons. Even on the PC this game REEKS of console. It has the depth of spit puddle and the gameplay you would exepct by a game developed to be played with the massive limitations of a joypad. I'm told that this is a great console game. I wish it would have stayed on the consoles, becasue it's a very VERY shallow PC game. OS developers! If I'd wanted to listen to hour after hour of spoken cutscenes - i'd a have rented a DVD not bought a game. "BANG BANG BANG MC Fly - Gameplay McFly" ..it's a GAME..The clue is in the genre game = gameplay not hours of listening to an annenoidal retard mumble through hours of text. I don't suppose we'll ever see a game like Baldurs Gate 2 again. Just shallow twitch games like this junk… Expand
  63. JayL
    Mar 17, 2010
    2
    The graphics look quite nice but that's about it. A few of the old characters are back from ME1 but the acting is very wooden and the things that wowed you graphically (like realtime rendered cutscenes) from ME1 just dont cut it now. The game itself is appalling; They've expanded on the really lame things in ME1, you pretty much pick up everything you can like fallout3, you have The graphics look quite nice but that's about it. A few of the old characters are back from ME1 but the acting is very wooden and the things that wowed you graphically (like realtime rendered cutscenes) from ME1 just dont cut it now. The game itself is appalling; They've expanded on the really lame things in ME1, you pretty much pick up everything you can like fallout3, you have no freedom on character advancement. It's all so linear and just an attempt to squeeze a few quid out of some existing code and a title which could have been much better. I can't give this a 0 because it loads and runs ok, but i'm not going over 2 because this game really does have no fun in it at all.… Expand
  64. OliverGrau
    Feb 13, 2012
    2
    First things first it's no RPG, the quests are boring as hell, they're always the same, shoot some idiots with no brains and at last there's a boss. I've really tried to play it since I spent 5 euros on it some months ago, but everytime I've plaid for 20 minutes, I just quit, it's so boring. Worst 5 euros ever spent.
  65. Skie
    Feb 3, 2015
    2
    The user score here surprised me so much I had to write a review.
    First, it has the worst gameplay in the saga. Most RPG elements got removed, and it became a straight forward action game with pinch of other elements.
    Second, the story is between horrible to non-existent. It starts with deus ex machina, continues with ruining the Shepherd character, and ends without making any sense or    The user score here surprised me so much I had to write a review.
    First, it has the worst gameplay in the saga. Most RPG elements got removed, and it became a straight forward action game with pinch of other elements.
    Second, the story is between horrible to non-existent. It starts with deus ex machina, continues with ruining the Shepherd character, and ends without making any sense or impact what so ever. From the saga over arching plot point of view, it spends minimal amount of time to foreshadowing events that in the end aren't even used or appear in the next title. Basically, a joke of a game.
    If you're looking for a shooter action game, it could be a fun game, but don't expect anything else.    … Expand
  66. sfsf
    Feb 2, 2010
    1
    The most undeservedly over hyped game of the month award. It's also a strong contender for the 'most boring gameplay in years' award. Not that it's a surprise really, it's pretty much a regular thing now for the entire games industry media to suck up to the game developers in order to get that vital advertising contract/payola. Did I really just give this game a The most undeservedly over hyped game of the month award. It's also a strong contender for the 'most boring gameplay in years' award. Not that it's a surprise really, it's pretty much a regular thing now for the entire games industry media to suck up to the game developers in order to get that vital advertising contract/payola. Did I really just give this game a 1? I guess so. You see the reality is, there are good games out there. Even ones that get hyped up (Uncharted 2 for example). What I object to is the almost blanket '10/10 review' style anyone who likes a game feels the need to give it. Why should I care? Because of course it's up to us as players to counter the 'paid websites' and the 'shill reviewers' with the truth. The truth, as far as ME2 goes, is that it's one of the single most boring games in relation to it's 'stunning' reviews in some time. Other games (popular/hyped ones) that I've given very low scores to (Bioshock - terrible game play/all flash) (MW2 - no explanation needed) I did so because they plainly sucked on so many levels and yet were getting universal praise from professional critics. ME2 is similar except, it is actually far worse in many ways than those 2 games I've just mentioned. While it it certainly 'everything you normally require' in a game, it is also extremely 'space opera by the numbers'... dull, clinical, lacking soul, lacking fun game play. It's all about the ME universe (and it's fans), it's not about striving for gaming nirvana or exciting the player with immersion and empowering interaction. On a number of levels this game is extremely dated, from level design to texturing, from boring dumbed down RPG elements to mediocre shooting mechanics (Hey they TRIED to copy U2, Gears of War etc but failed badly.. here it just feels clunky). A review is just another opinion, so if hearing 'my' version of the truth offends you please down rate me and go back to enjoying your 'game'. I won't play along with the industry hype machine when a game this 'massive' and well reviewed is a bona-fide snooze fest to play. The problem is all the cut scenes, while well intended, are just lacking in emotion so anyone with half a brain ends up bored of them, thinking 'yes yes we've been told this particular cliched story a hundred times before in both games and movies now please let me play'... and then when you do play you find an extremely dated linear style corridor shooter. Seriously there are B-grade FPS games from 2002 that feel more fun to play than this. The mini games (hacking/scanning etc) are beyond tedious... did these developers not read about how mind numbing that kind of stuff is when looking at reviews of other games that contained them? It's 2010 and this over hyped thing is using mini game cliches still? Overall the game lacks a certain focus, and a heart. It's dull, it's not that it does anything extremely 'wrong' it's just a very very 'safe' game for a very average audience. The fact it's action portion feels like a poor man's Gears/Uncharted2 only serves to highlight that my time is better spent playing other games. I'm certain a massive amount of people who lap this stuff up only do so because of the 10/10 ratings, then hate to admit to themselves it's not actually any fun. The feeling I got from playing this game is it's a cold, by the numbers, play it safe game that doesn't have a true identity. It's neither good RPG nor good action shooter, in fact it's a really bad one of either of those. Mixing 2 bad attempts at different genres will not cancel out the badness... in my opinion it just amplifies it. If you want a TPS that rocks and has tight gameplay then look elsewhere, if you want an RPG that immerses you and excites you, look elsewhere, if you want an epic space story that feels involving and dramatic (and not overdone) look elsewhere, if you want great level design and beautiful art direction.... look elsewhere. If you want to have fun, for £40+ do yourself a favour and LOOK ELSEWHERE.… Expand
  67. TheUnicorn
    Mar 12, 2011
    1
    The gameplay was a serious disappointment from the first Mass Effect. I am an RPG player and loved the first one so much that I snapped up the second without thinking to find that I had an FPS. While I enjoy a good FPS every once in awhile, I don't look for one titled as an "RPG". They got rid of the dynamic tutorial which reflected key remapping, dropped the small battle map, which IThe gameplay was a serious disappointment from the first Mass Effect. I am an RPG player and loved the first one so much that I snapped up the second without thinking to find that I had an FPS. While I enjoy a good FPS every once in awhile, I don't look for one titled as an "RPG". They got rid of the dynamic tutorial which reflected key remapping, dropped the small battle map, which I loved, brutalized the story (Did they actually play the first game?), and made the characters into cardboard cutouts. Spike VGA gave this game the award og "BEST RPG of 2010" according to the Mass Effect 3 news release. Clearly they were incredibly high on something.… Expand
  68. MeritCoba
    Nov 28, 2015
    1
    (I changed my review and changed my score to 1. Mass Effect 2 is a terrible badly written story)

    The story continues. Not where Mass Effect 1 left off, mind you, but with a clear break because Shepard and his/her famous ship Normandy get zapped to tiny bits by the latest threat to the Galaxy only to be reconstituted by the nefarious Cerberus organisation, headed by that sinister    (I changed my review and changed my score to 1. Mass Effect 2 is a terrible badly written story)

    The story continues. Not where Mass Effect 1 left off, mind you, but with a clear break because Shepard and his/her famous ship Normandy get zapped to tiny bits by the latest threat to the Galaxy only to be reconstituted by the nefarious Cerberus organisation, headed by that sinister individual called the Illusive Man for gargantuan amounts of money.
    This little trick is needed to make sure that the new enemy isn't dealt with at once, because with Shepard's powers, high reputation, influential Spectre status and team of experts the end mission could have gotten underway from the start. So instead, Shepard is killed and Shepard is resurrected to start the game with a clean slate so you can gain it all again. Unfortunately someone must have listened to Sympathy for the Devil once too often and and hooked up the hero of the galaxy with the biggest evil organisation of the galaxy for no reason at all. Yes, it is that bad: as in writing as well as in situation.

    The story is dreadful. A big flaw is how it fails to uphold its own moral system. ME2 uses Kotor's light side/dark side system translated into paragon and renegade. It reduces decisions to 'right' or 'wrong' options, depending on what the creators deem is 'right' or 'wrong' in a given situation. A third option does not afford any awards. Just like with Kotor: being neutral is the worst state to be in.
    An example how bad this is handled in ME 2 is the scene were you run into a bunch of looters, lecture them about stealing from the dead while you ransacked apartments down the corridors before and will do so after. You actually get rewarded for being a hypocrite.
    Another example: you get rewarded for convincing a company to buy a slave, even though that company is against slavery. Well done.
    I do not advocate a moral compass, but ME2 insists on it and it makes a mockery out of it. This is what makes ME2 at the core a flawed story.

    But the issues run even deeper.
    You are forced to serve one of the worst organisation in the galaxy whose methods and tactics haven't changed much as far as you can tell, but now you happen to be working for it. Your fellow crew members have no moral problems serving a criminal organisation, one that is known to have experimented on humans including children, not because out of loyalty for you - because everyone though you were dead - but because of any lame excuse that can explain away their lack of integrity.
    When it becomes clear that the human colony Horizon was offered as bait by Cerberus, without the Illusive Man informing you beforehand, you don't even get the option to leave. And if you are tricked again by him with the Collector Ship mission, you still can't leave the organisation.
    The writers of this game did the most terrible thing one can imagine on a player, they stripped the player of the illusion of freedom of choice. After the collector ship, neither a renegade like Snake Plisken nor a paragon like Aragorn would have stayed. Nobody would have been take for a ride twice, but for you, because the writers force you to.

    Piss poor writing is at every corner. Take Miranda's personal quest. In her quests one of her trusted friends betrays her to a bunch of mercenaries merely because she wasn't upfront about her sister to him. Years of friendship down the drain by one single incident. And he doesn't even confront her with his feelings first, but instead sells out her sister to someone he doesn't even know. Because that is how people think in the skewed world of Mass Effect.
    Terrible terrible terrible writing..

    Without a good story what is left is a game that allows you to fight spawned monsters with a team of three. For those who like shooters it will feel like a drag, especially as there are no fast buttons to switch between weapons or no way to dash. At higher difficulty levels you run into ammunition shortages, which means that you have to rely more on powers, which makes battles last longer and drawn out. At least one avatar becomes useless at higher levels because her powers don't work on armored or shielded enemies. And they all are. The AI is terrible. Enemies consists mostly of three kinds. Small ones that swarm, normal ones that hang in the back and big ones that charge at you to use their overwhelming firepower to hammer you down.

    The fun part is perhaps to try out various combinations of powers and team members in various settings and to explore the personal missions of some, if not all of your team mates. But don't be surprised if you forgot what it all was about as it doesn't really matter. And don't worry: there is always a big sign pointing which way to go. You can't miss it. And even if you do miss it, it will force itself on you eventually.    … Expand
  69. argo2001
    Dec 5, 2017
    1
    Самая переоценённая игра в истории.
    Именно с неё началось падение Биовар, она заложила те основы, которые сделали игры Биовар всё хуже и хуже с каждым новым выпуском.
    После почти шедеврального МЭ 1 Биовар выпустила крайне унылый почти безсюжетный шутер с отвратительным и совершенно однообразным геймплеем. И тот факт, что эта недоигра была хорошо принята общественностью - сыграло с    Самая переоценённая игра в истории.
    Именно с неё началось падение Биовар, она заложила те основы, которые сделали игры Биовар всё хуже и хуже с каждым новым выпуском.
    После почти шедеврального МЭ 1 Биовар выпустила крайне унылый почти безсюжетный шутер с отвратительным и совершенно однообразным геймплеем. И тот факт, что эта недоигра была хорошо принята общественностью - сыграло с разработчиками и издателем злую шутку.
    Единственный плюс МЭ2 - это финальная миссия, но до неё игра уже успела вызвать к себе ненависть и презрение.    … Expand
  70. EptaEpt
    Sep 13, 2022
    1
    Sorry, but positive feedback is not available in your region. At least until your leadership changes the two-faced policy in their actions and statements.
  71. Piruz
    May 7, 2020
    1
    i feel so much cringe when i listen all this reviewers and game experts. Especially when it is about ultra overrated bad projects like Mass Effect 2. If you really need arguments about this position, you should work on yourself
  72. LanceW.
    Feb 1, 2010
    0
    Dull, dull, dull. This is the same old boring Bioware pap, with one dimensional characters, and a completely unimaginative story. For anyone who's ever read a book (even one book) this game is fairly insulting and anti-intellectual. You'll yawn, and you might even cry at how dire it is. I'm just glad I played this on a friend's computer and didn't buy it. Avoid. Dull, dull, dull. This is the same old boring Bioware pap, with one dimensional characters, and a completely unimaginative story. For anyone who's ever read a book (even one book) this game is fairly insulting and anti-intellectual. You'll yawn, and you might even cry at how dire it is. I'm just glad I played this on a friend's computer and didn't buy it. Avoid. One day, Bioware might get a stable of half-decent writers, today isn't that day.… Expand
  73. JennyF.
    Jan 26, 2010
    0
    Commander Shepard still has a monotone voice, which seems to be the worst voice actor for a game with such great performances. The level design is average, the gunplay has been done to death. It's slightly average. What's great is the cinematic part of it. It's better than the original, however it seems to be quite tedious and repetitive with the gameplay and the boring Commander Shepard still has a monotone voice, which seems to be the worst voice actor for a game with such great performances. The level design is average, the gunplay has been done to death. It's slightly average. What's great is the cinematic part of it. It's better than the original, however it seems to be quite tedious and repetitive with the gameplay and the boring searching for money parts of the game. Choices can matter, some characters are interesting, story is cliche, but told in a good manner, besides the annoying main character. The AI is ok, the enemies are ok, the game just seems to not really have anything to call its own unfortunately.… Expand
  74. MikeS.
    Jan 27, 2010
    0
    The characters and story are far weaker in this farther cliched sequel. The gameplay is better, but that just brings it to average now with the terrible level design. At least it's not a terrible TPS anymore it's average. Gathering resources is boring, weapons don't pack a punch, it all gets repetitive pretty soon. The last boss in another disappointment, the AI is The characters and story are far weaker in this farther cliched sequel. The gameplay is better, but that just brings it to average now with the terrible level design. At least it's not a terrible TPS anymore it's average. Gathering resources is boring, weapons don't pack a punch, it all gets repetitive pretty soon. The last boss in another disappointment, the AI is terrible, the direction is meh. Ultimately Mass Effect 2 is obviously more cinematic with higher off the roof production values. However, the story is pretty lame this time around as well as the characters.… Expand
  75. polysix
    Feb 1, 2010
    0
    Ok it's not a ZERO, that is ridiculous. However, I for one am SICK of seeing every 'massive name game' getting 10/10 from the sheep players and the shilling reviewers. This has happened to almost all the big name games recently (ok.. for years) and I'll keep on giving zero to games that are getting 10s when they are worth '8' at best... on a good day, if you Ok it's not a ZERO, that is ridiculous. However, I for one am SICK of seeing every 'massive name game' getting 10/10 from the sheep players and the shilling reviewers. This has happened to almost all the big name games recently (ok.. for years) and I'll keep on giving zero to games that are getting 10s when they are worth '8' at best... on a good day, if you squint really hard. Now to the game. For all the hype and praise I was badly let down. I almost fell asleep during the first few hours play. The initial opening scene was nicely done, very good (if you want 'interactive movies' rather than games), it seemed to go downhill after that. When you compare this to the quality in for ex Uncharted 2, it shows so much lack of flair, lack of care, lack of finishing touches. The textures throughout the levels were bland, reminding me of 'poor man's FPS' from the past such as Chaser and all that crud from the early 2000s. Seriously the design is poor, lacking originality, lacking artistic direction and relying on the age old 'generic space theme'. Design was boxy, levels (so far) linear and poorly paced. It was like bioware tried to hybrid this game a bit too much and have ended up removing anything that was cool about it (the RPG depth) and making, frankly, a 2nd rate Third person shooter with clunky controls, poor interface and worst of all EXTREMELY BORING GAMEPLAY. If you play Gears of War or Uncharted 2... or even Resident Evil 4 on the GC.. THAT is how you do '3rd person' properly. This game and it's predecessor were obviously made by a team who don't truly understand how to make a tight addictive 'action' game, and instead rely on the so called 'depth' and vision of the story and concept. It doesn't wash with me. I honestly can't recall a time in recent years I've been this BORED while playing such a 'massive' game. I'm trading mine in asap while the price is still good (If I can) if not looks like I really should stop taking any review site seriously. Ask yourself, while playing this, are you genuinely feeling 'fun'? are you feeling that there is more to pull you through the game than some lame (though nicely scripted and pretty looking) cut scene? I certainly did not relish getting back to the so called 'action' (wooh more shooting with an underpowered and clunky set of weapons) I guess most of all I was astonished at the number of cliches this game spews over the player while being heralded as the second coming of gaming nirvana. I lost all connection with the game because of it's clinical delivery, it's 'by the numbers' action gameplay, and it's robotic characters. The female is annoying, often repeating her lines once too often during battle (it's 2010 people, I thought that kind of thing had been fixed in games these days?). Of course lots and lots of people are still going to buy this, just like the brainless sheep (even worse) who made Modern Warfare 2 the 'beacon' of a once proud industry. Nothing I say will damage Bioware's sales, or stop you from buying it if you are hyped up for it. For me however, it all felt like it was trying too hard to be 'something' it wasn't, with no clear, punchy definition of it's own. It's borrowed ideas and innovations from other games and mixed it up into something that lacks soul or reason to play (other than because the reviews said you should). Ahh just another game in a long line of stupidly overhyped AAA titles that are keeping the industry rich through collusion and payola with review sites. Next up? I guess we'll have Bioshock 2 being 'the greatest thing ever' according to the mags/sites... Just like they did with the first game (which was also overhyped and had terrible gameplay, as bad as I thought it's gameplay was it was actually ever so slightly more fun than ME2's gameplay so that's how bad ME2 is!). There are good 'hyped' games out there, Uncharted 2 is one of them, not perfect but it's solid, addictive and feels compelling. It's art direction and animation are worlds beyond the basic '1999 style' generic corridor shooter we see here. I know i'm picky, I can't help it... I can't help noticing things in ME2 like the lazy texturing (check out the ramps up to the outside buildings in the first levels, many have misaligned textures with no 'trimming' just stopping dead at the end of the mesh - even if it means the texture is cut in half)... that kind of thing was frowned upon way back in user created maps for games like unreal etc so why are pro devs getting away with this lazy 'mapping' and getting 10/10 for graphics/art? Ok a sum up of the bad points ( I won't list the good stuff as there's thousands of 10/10 reviews doing that if you care). .Linear to the point of boredom (Just 'working your way though cos you bought it not cos you are having a blast') .Generic level design .Bad texturing (sky/clouds even feature stretched and flat 'clouds' again say hello to 1999!) .Tiny/Bad UI - blocky and unintuitive .Abrupt level ending. No finesse, just 'map after map' with some cut scenes tacked on. Again check Uncharted2 for one example of how to do this right with 'flair' .Boring and unsympathetic characters. The complete opposite of the great work done in games like Half Life 2 (and again even U2). .Shine on everything, they like them shaders at bioware and they are using them on everything - some may think that makes for 'great graphics' but it doesn't. It looks stupid, it's still a boxy empty lifeless environment that is no pleasure to be in .Clinical to the point of feeling like numb .Ill defined gameplay - is it one thing or the other? neither, it's a mess in terms of gameplay. .Story? Hmm, probably it's strongest side but again it's nothing special, been done to death, they just changed the name of the 'baddies' ... yawn .Overhyped. When a game is overhyped such as this, it better be damned near perfect. Even with flaws it's ok but this is so lacklustre in so many areas it's a crime against videogaming to be calling this 'the best game of the year' so early. I for one hope we'll get more games on all formats this year that are at least 10x better than this. btw: IMO and YMMV. Thanks. If forced to play this or ME1.. go for ME1, it was flawed but at least it had some 'character and soul' (still not as much as other games though).… Expand
  76. DavidN
    Jan 29, 2010
    0
    I hate the scanning and the boring minigames. This sequel is no fun with a capitol N. No Journal or Map keys. Fighting is so frustrating. No crouch key. Gun sounds are rather tinny. Story weak. This was rushed out and dumbed down for the $$$$. PC version is a terrible disappointment. Not even worth even 1 point so I've given it ZERO. Bioware are catering to console users and the PC I hate the scanning and the boring minigames. This sequel is no fun with a capitol N. No Journal or Map keys. Fighting is so frustrating. No crouch key. Gun sounds are rather tinny. Story weak. This was rushed out and dumbed down for the $$$$. PC version is a terrible disappointment. Not even worth even 1 point so I've given it ZERO. Bioware are catering to console users and the PC version was just an after thought for the $$. No attempt was made to make this any fun at all.… Expand
  77. Lindell90
    Oct 4, 2013
    0
    it is a terrible PC port, typical average console game...
    dont buy it if you want to play an FPS on your computer. clunky, dumbed down controls, MASSIVE (hence the name i suppose) amounts of cutscenes, boring combat, weak role play, no physics engine, dull graphics, no options to gameplay, stupid achievements, dumbed down game play, the list of goes on and on
    no idea why this game had    it is a terrible PC port, typical average console game...
    dont buy it if you want to play an FPS on your computer. clunky, dumbed down controls, MASSIVE (hence the name i suppose) amounts of cutscenes, boring combat, weak role play, no physics engine, dull graphics, no options to gameplay, stupid achievements, dumbed down game play, the list of goes on and on

    no idea why this game had such good reviews that made me buy it, to my dismay    … Expand
  78. post_no_bills
    Mar 11, 2018
    0
    OK, so why such a bad score? Is it fair?

    I want to be clear about one thing. This is NOT a review based on how much I loved the game ORIGINALLY. It is a review of the game as it is NOW. Why the difference? The game is still for sale on Origin, which, in my mind, confers a responsibility on the part of EA to ensure that it actually works on modern systems. IT DOES NOT.    OK, so why such a bad score? Is it fair?

    I want to be clear about one thing. This is NOT a review based on how much I loved the game ORIGINALLY. It is a review of the game as it is NOW.

    Why the difference? The game is still for sale on Origin, which, in my mind, confers a responsibility on the part of EA to ensure that it actually works on modern systems. IT DOES NOT.

    Specifically, there are game ending bugs associated with both the Liara and Kasumi missions. Game ending. As in, no way past.

    I have wasted quite a bit of time on this, and I heartily regret my decision to repurchase this game (my original purchase was via CD, and it was too scratched up to reload).

    Buying this game in 2010 was a great idea. Buying this game today is a complete waste of time and money. Given the spectacular incompetence typically shown by EA in almost everything they do I probably should have expected it, but I didn't. So shame on me.

    Edit: I spent 3 hours online with EA technical support. Three (3) different people. Their technical support is singularly inept. End result? It is a BUG. They could not figure out a way around it. It is a top of the line system that I play tons of games on without any problems. It is SHAMEFUL that they are selling old software that they know probably won't work.    … Expand
  79. Stopdumbingdown
    Mar 18, 2020
    0
    if you are one who likes rpgs and thought the next mass effect would take what was great about the first game and add it into the mechanics of the next game, you would be wrong

    this game is standard bioware Regressivism and, its not a rpg werd to accessibility and cinematic presentation tho for those who dislike actual rpgs and, like handholding, boring companions, bottom    if you are one who likes rpgs and thought the next mass effect would take what was great about the first game and add it into the mechanics of the next game, you would be wrong

    this game is standard bioware Regressivism

    and, its not a rpg

    werd to accessibility and cinematic presentation tho

    for those who dislike actual rpgs
    and, like handholding, boring companions, bottom feeder storylines, dimwitted romances and regurgitated Regressive politics

    0/10    … Expand
  80. CesarV
    Jan 26, 2021
    0
    overhyped boring game that owes all of its success to a crazy fan base who tell a good game from a bad one and were the sole responsibles for the death of the franchise.
  81. Johnobudiman77
    Jul 1, 2020
    0
    Gw sangat merekomendasi Mass effect 2 bagi kalian yang suka game rpg, shooting, maupun adventure. Mass effect 2 dikeluarkan pada tahun 2010 yang mempunyai story yang bagus dipadu grafik keren, penyuara karakternya mantap. dan gameplay yang lumayan mudah kalo udah mulai terbiasa. Wajib lah menurut gw kalo lu lagi bosen trus nyari game yang bagus. Gile sih EA tahun 2013 kebawah. mereka punyaGw sangat merekomendasi Mass effect 2 bagi kalian yang suka game rpg, shooting, maupun adventure. Mass effect 2 dikeluarkan pada tahun 2010 yang mempunyai story yang bagus dipadu grafik keren, penyuara karakternya mantap. dan gameplay yang lumayan mudah kalo udah mulai terbiasa. Wajib lah menurut gw kalo lu lagi bosen trus nyari game yang bagus. Gile sih EA tahun 2013 kebawah. mereka punya game yang bagus-bagus dengan storyline yang keren. Eh kesini-sini malah DLC dan microtransaction.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best PC Game of 2010
3
#3 Most Discussed PC Game of 2010
4
#4 Most Shared PC Game of 2010

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 55 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 55
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 55
  3. Negative: 0 out of 55
  1. Vandal
    96
    Mass Effect 2 resumes with pride the path opened by the first game. This sequel is a lesson of how things should be made.
    Read full review
  2. AtomicGamer
    96
    Mass Effect 2 delivers a story that's deeper than what many novelists are capable of, and its action is better than what most Hollywood directors are creating nowadays. It's an addictive, engrossing experience that many gamers will replay over and over while they hold their breath waiting for the third game.
    Read full review
  3. PC Games
    88
    A brilliant mix of shooter and role-playing, filled with great characters, excellent design, lots of action and clever dialogue. It's a shame though that Bioware did not improve the inventory and skill system of the first game, but actually reduced it even more. I really wished there were more customization options, more ways to develop and gear up my characters. But all these are merely small points of criticism, since there is so much to feel and experience in this game. Mass Effect 2 is a thrilling, emotional ride and ultimately every bit as good as its predecessor.
    Read full review
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