Mass Effect 2 Review

I have gone through Mass Effect 2 twice now. Once with a ME1 Male Vanguard (20th) and now with my ME1 Female Adapt (60th). Let me begin by saying that you do not start with any of your abilities, level, or stuff from the first game. The opening sequence will tell you why.. Bioware did a fantastic job on this game and it is huge. Much larger than the first game, at least it feels that way. The combat system, inventory, and even travel is completely different. You can command each member of your squad individually. There is no inventory system, like the previous game. You have to buy or research (or both) to get more abilities for your weapons, armor, and abilities. This means that you need to mine planets, not just scan them.. But, you have to probe areas to extract the needed materials. This is cool, but very time consuming. You can easily spend several hours running around to the different solar systems to mine ore. This brings us to travel. There are still Mass Relays.. However, you actually fly your ship. Say you jump from the local system (our solar system) to somewhere on the edge, there may be 2 or even 3 other systems you can visit outside the jump system’s ring. This means that you will have to make sure that you are carrying fuel (yes, you burn fuel to go from one system to another) and probes. Both of which you can upgrade, with enough ore…

Combat is still point and shoot, but if you are bionic, you will be able to use powers, similar to those in the first game. However, you can use your abilities to arch around corners or walls. This is very handy when you are ducking behind a box and launching powers against someone’s shields.

With all of this said, I only have a couple of criticisms.
1. Max level is 30, which I achieved about half way through the game.
2. The Citadel level is really small. I would have really loved to be able to walk around more the old haunts, even if there was construction going on.
3. Can’t believe that Ash or Liara will not join your team.. I mean.. come on...

Overall, LOVE IT!!! I have played it more than Dragon Age (another Bioware product)

Oh.. Yes, there is romance and some sexual themes, after all it is a Bioware Game! I will now have to try it without importing a character to see what the differences are.