Mass Effect 2This post is 100% spoiler safe.

I absolutely loved Mass Effect 1. Not only was it one of the main reasons why I bought an Xbox 360, but it is on a fairly short list of games that I’ve finished.

With Mass Effect 2 coming out at the same time as Star Trek Online, I decided to hold off on buying the game for a couple of weeks. I knew I would be able to play both at once, and I wanted to get enough time in the headstart and get to Commander rank and qualify to captain an Akira class.

Also, I was a bit hesitant about whether or not the sequel would live up to my expectations. Quite a bit of the recent marketing for the game was hinting at a fairly dark tone. After trying to play Dragon Age: Origins and failing to get hooked, I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy a darker look at the Mass Effect universe.

After Bryn’s promotion to Commander earlier this week, I decided it was time to pickup Mass Effect 2. Plus, I didn’t want to wait too much longer to pickup and play it, because I have a feeling that it is going to be hard to avoid spoilers soon on the various blogs and podcasts, not to mention twitter.

So around 11:30 or so I unwrapped the box and popped the disc into my Elite.

I finally tore myself away from the game and staggered to bed around 5 am. At some point during the play session, I started looking at the clock on my phone and calculating how much sleep I really had to have.

All my concerns about the darker tone and disappointed expectations were forgotten in the first 60 seconds.

That’s all I’m going to say about the game right now, except you’re really missing out if you don’t finish ME1 first. I don’t think that I would be having the same emotional response to ME2, had I not already “lived” through the prior events in Sheppard’s life. I know a few people who are struggling a bit to get through it, but in my opinion the payoff is well worth it.

Then again, games are supposed to be fun. So if you didn’t like ME1, I can completely understand why you wouldn’t want to grind through it before starting ME2.

Mass Effect 2 is Amazing
Tagged on:     

6 thoughts on “Mass Effect 2 is Amazing

  • February 9, 2010 at 4:53 pm
    Permalink

    Oh yeah, I’m raving about Mass Effect 2 to everyone I know. I also tell them to play Mass Effect 1 first if they can, because it’s so much more fun when you “get” all the references.

    I think I’m about 2/3 of the way through the game now. I bought it the first day it came out, but STO has taken up a lot of my time and also, I’m trying to take it slow and drag out the experience for as long as I can. I think I finished Dragon Age in like 3 days, which was just overkill, and I don’t want to do that with ME2.

    • February 9, 2010 at 10:00 pm
      Permalink

      Getting the references is one part of it, but I developed a lot of emotional attachment to the characters from the first game as well and that has really increased my initial attachment to the second game even in the first minutes. It is a lot like trying to pick up a trilogy and reading the second book. Often there’s a synopsis of the first book to keep a reader from getting lost, but it just isn’t the same as reading the full novel.

  • February 9, 2010 at 5:07 pm
    Permalink

    It took me 42 hours played to get through ME2, so there is a lot of game in there. Glad you’re enjoying it so far. It really is a great game.

    • February 9, 2010 at 10:01 pm
      Permalink

      I’ll be really interested to see how long it takes me. I played all of the side missions in the first game, so I’m interested to see how much there is to ME2 beyond the main story.

  • February 9, 2010 at 7:19 pm
    Permalink

    ME2 is awesome, I thought it was much better than the first game.

    • February 9, 2010 at 10:03 pm
      Permalink

      I’ve heard that several times, it is way to early for me to have an opinion on that though. I’m not sure I’m going to do any kind of a real review but I’ll at least post both spoiler and non-spoiler follow-ups once I’m done.

Comments are closed.