Retro Review: Mass Effect 2

<p>Okay&comma; I know&period; <em>Mass Effect 2 <&sol;em>isn&&num;8217&semi;t THAT old yet&period; However it had a huge impact and helped form the current gaming landscape and with <em>Andromeda <&sol;em>on the way&comma; I felt like it was time to take another look at the sequel that was heard around the world&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also worth pointing out that no matter how recent you&&num;8217&semi;re thinking <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> came out&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s older than your memory will lead you to think&period; It released in January of 2010 which was the year I graduated high school and here I am having to pay utilities and buy groceries&period; It has been a while and a lot has happened in the industry&period; Most of the changes were likely a result of the great game design and improvements <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> brought to the table&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The original <em>Mass Effect<&sol;em> was a literal game changer&period; It was a flawed game but the impact and positives it boasted absolutely held their own against the issues it had&period; Many people &lpar;myself included&rpar; were worried when we learned that some RPG elements were being scaled back a bit for its sequel but we&&num;8217&semi;d later see that BioWare knew exactly what they were doing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Mass Effect<&sol;em> had a great universe&comma; story&comma; and we all just wanted to get lost in its vastness&period; The combat damaged the perfection that almost was&period; We may not have been willing to admit this at the time but <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> would help get us to admit the previous game&&num;8217&semi;s flaws&period; <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> brought better combat&comma; a better narrative&comma; more characters&comma; different worlds and left the Mako in the junk heap where it belonged&period; <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> is a perfect sequel in that it kept all that we loved and fixed all that we disliked&period; BioWare listened to fan feedback and also fixed things that were probably bothering them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117566" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117566" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117566" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;26184319&sol;1249362-screenshot&lowbar;076&lowbar;o-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Mass Effect 2&comma; EA &lpar;Giant Bomb&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117566" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Mass Effect 2&comma; EA &lpar;Giant Bomb&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The story is much more epic and I won&&num;8217&semi;t dare go into any details in case someone reading hasn&&num;8217&semi;t experienced it yet but I&&num;8217&semi;ll touch on the surface a bit&period; <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> opens with Shepherd&&num;8217&semi;s death and the aftermath that&&num;8217&semi;s left in the void&period; Shepherd stirred a lot of things up that some wanted gone and others wanted to focus on&period; You either believed the fate of the galaxy was hanging on a thread or didn&&num;8217&semi;t want to think about it&period; The  &&num;8216&semi;Cerberus&&num;8217&semi; organization was usually focused on humans only politics&comma; however the fate of the universe definitely got their attention&period; Within the first minutes of the game&comma; we learn that they spent an untold fortune and thousands of hours bringing Commander Shepherd back to life to save the universe with the A-Team they would help Shepherd assemble&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are countless optional quests that will actually impact the middle and end of the game&&num;8211&semi;and the fate of the universe&period; The decisions that you will need to make will impact those around you&period; BioWare created a compelling world with believable and meaningful characters&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll care about those around you and you&&num;8217&semi;ll want to save this universe&period; If for some reason you don&&num;8217&semi;t have a heart for the story then the combat will pull you in and keep you playing for sure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The combat has a <em>Gears of War <&sol;em>flow to it with the addition of biotic powers &lpar;read&colon; the Force but with a technology basis&rpar; that you&&num;8217&semi;ll use to destroy anything that stands in your way&period; You have a major threat you&&num;8217&semi;ll face&comma; known as the Reapers&comma; but there are also smaller enemies along the way that are related and unrelated to the Reaper threat&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll acquire a different arsenal of guns&comma; learn new abilities and powers&comma; and add many different allies to your squad&period; BioWare does a great job of having the drive of the story feel compelling from a gameplay perspective as well&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll feel more powerful as you add to your crew&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll feel like you can save the universe as you and your squad grow more powerful&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not just some story gimmick that you&&num;8217&semi;ll shrug off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117567" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117567" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117567" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;26184359&sol;mass-effect-2-9&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Mass Effect 2&comma; EA" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"501" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117567" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Mass Effect 2&comma; EA<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The world of <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> sounds wonderful&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s an epic and emotional musical score that will push and pull you across this incredible journey&period; The sound effects help add to the atmosphere as well&period; Shotgun blasts sound blistering and are simply satisfying and the rush of &&num;8216&semi;Pull&&num;8217&semi; and other biotic powers sound like you&&num;8217&semi;re playing through a story set in space&comma; a space opera perhaps&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> is one of the games from last generation that I have the fondest memories playing through&period; It really is a world that feels alive and it has aged so well in the past seven years&period; The voice acting really adds a lot of life to it as well&period; I would highly recommend playing it as &&num;8216&semi;FemShep&&num;8217&semi; as well because Jennifer Hale did an incredible job adding emphasis and tone in all the right spots&period; I have honestly probably put at least 600 hours into this game and I know it will join <em>Ocarina of Time<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Fallout 3<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Super Mario Bros&period; 3<&sol;em> and all the other gaming classics that I replay every year or two&comma; just to experience their greatness and appreciate their impact again&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s so much to love about this game and if you haven&&num;8217&semi;t played it then I&&num;8217&semi;d recommend getting a few days off work and just get lost in this world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117568" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117568" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117568" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;26184451&sol;79625700001&lowbar;l&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Mass Effect 2&comma; EA" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"539" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117568" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Mass Effect 2&comma; EA<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>BioWare honestly created a masterpiece with <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> and while I may have a few complaints with <em>Mass Effect 3<&sol;em>&comma; Bioware has really shown that they have the formula to a damn good action RPG whenever they want&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t wait for <em>Andromeda<&sol;em>&period; BioWare utilized the available gaming technology for <em>Mass Effect 2 &amp&semi; 3<&sol;em> in ways many of us didn&&num;8217&semi;t even realize were possible&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m anxious to see what they&&num;8217&semi;ve done with all the advancements that they no doubt helped inspire with the newest consoles Sony and Microsoft have given us&period; I personally think that <em>Mass Effect 2<&sol;em> is an achievement in game design and will stand the test of time along with classics like <em>The Legend <&sol;em><em>of Zelda<&sol;em> and <em>Super Mario Bros&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;