Starts off with a bang and in the end leaves you with your mouth wide open.......
Many people like me also considered DAO as the best RPG in decades. It was called the Mass Effect killer and blah blah.
But then Bioware had different plans. Mass Effect 2 literally caused a mass effect among the gaming industry in the early year of 2010.
Already a very strong sure shot contender for the Game Of The Year, ME 2 does things which ME 1 did not dare to do and Dragon Age barely managed to do.
Now let's face facts here. There are certain reviews in this site which absolutely berate this game compared to ME 1. And i gotta agree with some of their points.
So i am gonna come up with the bad points first compared to ME 1.
First off, this game no longer feels like an RPG. You don't have that vast array of weapons which you can choose any longer.
Experience points suck with meager increments of 700xp rather than in ME1 which required 100000xp points making it seem more realistic. Also MAX LEVEL is 30 in this game rather than 60 in the last game seeming it more like Dragon Age.
I got to say that Dragon Age Origins has had its influence in this game. Sex Scene is also like DAO. Bioware should have sticked to getting its influences from Mass Effect 1 rather.
Also weapons have ammo in this game from no where. First one had overheating issues (unlimited ammo) and WTF does finite ammo come from. But this is also rarely an issue as you keep getting ammos.
Also the shortcuts are disabled in this game for some reason seeming it to be a pure console port and not a PC port. You have to press Esc to get the Journal, Codex and other options.
I gotta say, personally i hated the MAKO of the first game. But that was merely because of the repetition and nothing else. Completely removing the Mako was unecessary. Maybe we should see the MAKO in ME 3.
Speaking of the Missing MAKO, its replaced by silly Scanner which you use to launch Probes into planets for scanning Resources like Platinum, Uranium, Element Zero etc. The Scanning is fun at first but gets too old too quickly. Infact in the end i avoided the scans because i was eagerly anticipating how ME 2 will end and i feel most of you would do the same :D.
Also you can't heal yourself using First Aid. Only your team mates. I can't get it, when you can heal your downed team mates why can't the downed team mates heal you? Also the upgrade system doesn't seem as right as ME 1. But certain upgrades like the Ship Upgrades seem to have Adverse Effects on your conquest.
All these points being said, you must be wondering where the 10 came from. That's what Bioware is so good at. Inspite of having some issues it does encapsulate these bad points with some Excellent points making you feel its a perfect game. Kind off like they did with Dragon Age.
Mass Effect 2 downright is the quintessence of Technical Perfection. I had called ME 1 as technically perfect. But it was a bit plastic.
ME 2 solves all that problem. Technical Perfection is taken up a notch and finally the characters do emote their feelings eg: Crying.
The story is outright amazing and in the end makes you feel and wish that Mass Effect 3 was right there on your hands. Story is outright connected to 1 and you feel that you are playing a direct continuation. Its been 2 years since the last game and the changes (eg: changes in Citadel) are very well reflected.
The Alternate Endings are so different from each other that you really feel like playing them again and again. And yeah ME 2 has more replayability than ME 1.
The gameplay is also stepped up. Though too Gears Of Warrish (which is great).... the shooting feels more intense than ME 1. The powers are also good here. The charge power and Shockwave power are my favorite.
The hacking is also good. Though ME 1 had its own charm, ME 2 has two types. One of them is the match the two duplicate symols typical kind of hacking and the other one is matching the code. Cool ways to hack but i can't say that ME 2's hacking is better or ME 1. They both are cool.
You also have the Paragon and Renegade interrupting option that make you shove a gun on someone's face or heal someone or console someone or punch them and tell them that their Balls will be sold to a Krogan (Wonder what a Krogan can do with us human's little balls).
You also get to meet the characters of ME 1 which makes you feel nostalgic. Also during the meetings the music of ME 1 plays which is so cool. So many developers change the music completely which absolutely makes no sense.
The best thing about the music as i said is that many of the themes of ME 1 are retained thus making it feel like Mass effect rather than some other game like most Sequels have done in the past.
The Graphics is OUTRAGEOUS. ME 1 seems like Playstation 2. ME 2 also has some of the best cinematics. Many PS3 owners call it Uncharted 2 of PS3 graphically though ME 2 is way more deep and superior overall than UC2 and ME 2 deserves 9.5 rather than UC2 (I have played UC 2 on my friends PS3).
Unlike ME 1, Bioware vastly improved with Decision making in Dragon Age Origins with small things having big effect. Though DAO IMO is still the king in Decision Making, ME 2 is definitely better than ME 1 especially in the end it makes a hell of a difference.
Overall, ME 2 for me has replaced ME 1 and Dragon Age as Bioware's Best and easily the Best RPG Shooter of this decade. This is a game which people immediately buy upon purchasing the Xbox360, a game which jealous PS3 fans crave to play and finally a game us PC fans are Privileged to have on the PC platform (Normally such great games are only for the consoles and PC is totally ignored). Bioware still is the undisputed KING when it comes to RPGs. I just can't wait for Dragon Age Awakening and ofcourse Mass Effect 3.
My only worry is that Mass Effect 2 has reached such unreachable level. Lets face a fact that even though ME 1 was at a very high level, we all knew that ME 2 could break that level and reach higher if Bioware was innovative and they did. But i fear a bit for ME 3 as it really has to do some work. Still some tips as a ME fan for ME 3:
1) Bring back the Mako
2) Better leveling system like ME 1
3) Bring back the vast array of guns.
4) Retain music like you did in ME 2.
5) Remove stupid scanning of planets or do some improvisation like actually visiting those planets using the small airship.
6) Have alternate endings like ME 2.
7) Ummm.... Better sex scene more like ME 1 and less like Dragon Age :D
8) Oh! The game still has the minor glitch of ME 1. Your character gets in the air when you bump any elevated object and you can't get back down. Only way is to reload a save. Please remove that minor glitch and ME 3 may also get a 10/10.
If you have played Mass Effect 1 this is a must Play. If you have not played ME 1, first get ME 1 play that, import your saves and play this. The funny thing is that inspite of being such a Great Game Mass Effect 1 had comparatively poorer sales. But because of ME 2 many are going and first playing ME 1 and then 2. Trust me if you also do the same it will truly be one of your Best Experiences in Gaming History. [GOTY for me]