NOTE: Some issues are only on the PS3 version.
The Good:
- Great story.
- Great visuals.
- Great setting.
- Great voice acting.
- Memorable characters.
- The few RPG elements are nice.
- Combat is fun for the first half hour.
- Choosing dialogue lines is nice.
The Bad:
- Boring and repetitive combat makes up most of the game.
- The less said about planet scanning the better.
- Poor level design.
- Long loading times.
- Save corruption issues.
- Little replay value.
- Lackluster character creation options.
- Included DLC is plagued with glitches.
In Mass Effect 2, you once again play as Commander Shepard, the game starts off with a cool opening sequence involving the Normandy being shot down, the story then takes lots of twists like the first game and every character is memorable, what's even better is that you can choose the dialogue in cutscenes.
When you first load up Mass Effect 2 you get to create your own version of Shepard, either male of female, unfortunately, the creation options are lackluster and extremely bare bones. Unfortunately the story is about the only good thing in Mass Effect 2, when it comes to the core gameplay, which is third person shooting, Mass Effect 2 is an exercise in endless repetition. most of the time the environments lack variety and are extremely linear with boxes and fences conveniently placed for cover and the weapons just are not that fun to shoot. There are less RPG elements that the first game and this is a shame because aside from the few RPG elements in this sequel and the combat, the only other thing is planet scanning, and it is as boring as it sounds. The elevators from the original Mass Effect are now gone and have been replace with loading screens, long loading screens. The PS3 version comes with 6 hours of bonus content, the only problem, it's plagued with bugs, this is particularly noticeable in the vehicle sections where you constantly clip through terrain and notice textures that would look bad last generation.
Visually the game looks great, sure it's no Uncharted 2 or Just Cause 2, but the overall art design looks really good.
Voice acting is also great, making the already believable characters more believable.
Overall if you are after a great story of just want to see Commander Shepard's story continue, Mass Effect 2 will satisfy there, but the main role of a GAME should be it's GAMEplay and MAss Effect 2 does not satisfy with it's gameplay. Mass Effect 2 gets a mediocre 5/10 (a slightly above average 5.5/10 for the Xbox 360 version).
