Mass Effect 2

So I finally got around to playing and finishing the sequel to everyone’s favorite sci-fi RPG franchise: Mass Effect.  And yeah, everything I heard was true, it’s a damn good game that goes to great lengths to address a good majority of the clunky gameplay mechanics that marred the first game.  Cover is a help rather than a hindrance, combat is fast and satisfying, teammate AI is actually competent and mapped abilities increases the flow of combat.  It really is an improvement over the original title in just about every way possible.

As for the story, it’s good, typical sci-fi space adventure fare with a good dose of philosophical musings.  The premise starts off rather weak, mostly because the game has to find a reason to strip Shepard of all the awesome that she was in the original title.  (Yes, I play as female Shepard, because Jennifer Hale, that’s why.)  So she’s killed off right in the opening sequence and brought back to life by ME’s resident shady corporation, Cerberus.  Brought to life at the request of some dude calling himself the Illusive Man, which seriously has to be the most on the nose retarded name in the history of anything.  It’s no wonder majority of this universe’s population distrusts Cerberus, it’s a shady corporation led by some fuck called the Illusive Man.  What, does he work with General Grievous and Admiral Warcrime?

I know, it’s sci-fi, roll with it, but I seriously can’t get past how stupid this is.  The eventual revelation that he’s kind of an asshole isn’t all that surprising.  He’s as obvious as a fucking Disney villain.  He has creepy eyes, a weird fuck name and he smokes and drinks scotch all the time.  The least they could have done is given him the title as a sort of spook story, Keyser Soze, type deal.  You know, make him out as this mysterious legend that everyone outside of Cerberus knows nothing of?  But no, none of that, that’s just his actual handle.  Might as well have just called him Shady Antagonist Man.  It would’ve been just as reasonable.

Okay, ridiculous names and bullshit “strip you of your powers” plot points aside, Mass Effect 2 is quite the trip, with some pretty heavy themes and solid writing.  It’s not going to be winning any awards for its deep compelling plot, but like weightier sci-fi/action stories like The Matrix, Mass Effect 2 has a little more under its spectacle and action.

Basically, the game’s main story deals with the whole synthetic/robot plot that’s been tossed around from the above mentioned Matrix to Terminator and I, Robot and dozens of other titles.  Mass Effect focuses on the Singularity.  The idea that an advanced AI will be so far ahead of human comprehension and intelligence, that it will have universe shattering repercussions.  Though, taking a neat little twist on the idea, Mass Effect posits that the sentient AI that will lead to our destruction has actually been around for millennia and have purged several advanced civilizations several times before, the last being the ancient race known as the Protheans.

It’s a pretty neat premise that has a great deal of room to explore different themes, such as the meaning of life, existentialism, etc.  The series thus far, tackles these themes, but to no great groundbreaking conclusions.  It’s there to be explored in the narrative and to give the player some food for thought.  It’s no 2001, but it’s definitely not stupid either.

This go ‘round, Shepard is tasked with stopping a race known as the Collectors from, who’d have guessed, collecting human colonies for experimentation or some such.  Of course, this all leads back to the Reapers (the above mentioned AI overlords of doom) and some attempt to create an organic/synthetic hybrid or some such.  At least that’s what I think they were trying to do, I was kind of maybe a little intoxicated during the twilight hours of the game, so I may not have gotten all the information proper.  But that’s at least the gist of it.  I guess they want to create a “best of both worlds” monster mash or something.  Why they didn’t do this the first, however many, times they wiped out all life is in question.  Unless I’m missing something, in which case, I guess I should’ve paid more attention.

As good as the gameplay is and as good as the story is, there are indeed some problems I had with Mass Effect 2, the biggest being the lack of RPG in my RPG.

Yes, I know, people defend it with the whole “You level up, make choices and have conversation trees, therefore it’s an RPG” argument, but honestly, it still doesn’t really qualify as a full on RPG proper.  If that’s the case, Black Ops II is an RPG because you level up and make choices.  Just because leveling up or choices etc. are present, does not make a game an RPG.

What makes an RPG an RPG is choice, and no, not the A or B kind of choice, I mean character building choice.  You pick a class and you have a tree of stats and abilities that you can allot points into.  You pick specialties and focus upgrading those trees.  You want to wear heavy armor and boost rifle accuracy, you slot upgrade points into either of those trees.  The biggest selling point to an RPG is the level of customization; you build your character to fit you and your playstyle.  And while Mass Effect 2 has skill trees and classes, it’s mostly just obligatory RPG elements, rather than full on RPG proper.  The soldier class, rather than having stats for each weapon, combat proficiency, etc. now only has ammo types and a bullet time mode.

Everything’s been stripped down, to focus more on the action, which I can understand, given Mass Effect’s clunky combat mechanics stem from the RPG elements.  But, the least they could have done, is gone the Deus Ex: Human Revolution route and given the player a myriad of options, without sacrificing the action or the RPG.  It’s kind of a letdown to go from an RPG, to a game with RPG elements.  Even Alpha Protocol managed to pull it off and that game had some pretty big issues in the gameplay department, issues that were made all the more obvious because of the RPG elements.  

On top of that, the Paragon/Renegade system is the same pointless black and white crap that it was in the original.  It just feels like an afterthought, rather than an actual game element.  Especially now, since you’re arbitrarily given Paragon/Renegade points and Paragon/Renegade options now only popup occasionally.  The system is relegated to the occasional quick time event or a dialogue option later down the line.  When in dialogue, the Paragon/Renegade options take the place of charm/intimidate options that were once just stat trees.

I know the game rides on the whole choice thing, but none of it seems really all that weighty.  None of it seems to make a major difference to the plot, maybe a character will die here or there, but it’s relatively the same regardless.  While the series is great and some choices to have a mild impact, BioWare would do good to learn from Obsidian and everyone’s favorite auteur David Cage, when it comes to implementing choice and consequence in their video games.  Obsidian and Quantic do it right, where BioWare does what everyone has always done; given us black and white stances, a few mild game changing options towards the end, maybe a few alternate endings and mild cosmetic changes in the dialogue or character models.

Even Metro 2033 and Silent Hill 2 pulled this off in ways that Mass Effect can only dream of.  On top of that, the choices were organic, few players went into either installment knowing that there even was a choice system in place.  You didn’t have the option to pick A or B, good or bad; it was all based on player behavior and actions.  The game basically reads you and gives you the appropriate ending through organic choices and actions.

Could've also done without the massive popup boxes that inform you of what small feat you accomplished, but I did get used to those after an hour or so of gameplay. So it's more of a nitpick than anything else.  Anyway, aside from the underdeveloped choice Paragon/Renegade system and the lack of greater RPG elements, Mass Effect 2 is a fantastic title and deserves every bit of its praise.  It’s one of those games that just works, regardless of its faults.