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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  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!!
Page:

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
See all critic reviews »