My Thoughts on Mass Effect 2

I picked up Mass Effect 2 yesterday and spent a couple hours playing the intro and beginning sections of the game, and I was blown away by the entire experience.

From the beginning, I imported my character, which game me a bunch of bonuses like starting at level 2, and a lot of resources in the form of bonus credits and research materials. The intro also played according to my choices from the last game, and allowed me to reconfirm some of the actions I took. For example, when recalling memories, I could either confirm the previous game action or remember it differently, and I assume that would actually change the fact for the future of the game. The memory recall really brought a lot of the game back and helped cement your place in the world, and was a great reintroduction to your character and the universe. It's great to feel that the game wraps itself around the decisions you've made and will continue to make.

The gameplay is similarly stellar. I was worried a more shooter-y feel would ruin it, but I really prefer it. Controls are sharper, weapons feel better and more impactful, and the visual cues to damage you give and take are great, from the energy bars displayed to blood spatters and reactions to the force of a grenade or shotgun blast. You really feel like you're doing some damage. Now, I was a little disappointed in the "hide and heal" health mechanic. Similar to Modern Warfare health, if you hide and don't damage, you heal up. When you take damage, you apparently grow really gross red veins around your monitor, like it's alive. Very strange. Can I just have a health bar please? It would make medipacks relevant, which I still haven't used yet.

Apart from the core gameplay, the dialog sessions and mini-games are engaging and engrossing. Being able to meet up again with characters from the past and having a drink with them, or the new renegade and paragon options where you can interrupt conversation with an action really pulls you into the world and puts you in Shephard's shoes. The characters here feel like they bow and bend to your will, like you are some incredible force of gravity that warps the world around you, and that's exactly how you should feel, being the star of a game. Of course the voice acting is top-notch, with Martin Sheen putting in an incredible performance and all the other characters bringing a depth and malice to their roles. I've also had a lot of fun with the hacking games, a kind of pattern matching exercise against the clock to either find specified code segments or connect circuits against the clock. A big improvement from the "frogger" recreations in the previous installment.

Only a short way into the game, I can tell this is going to be a fun ride. Although I know the ending will of course be a setup for the already announced final episode in the trilogy, it will be a great time getting there, even if the conclusion won't really be that. But, of course, when that does come, you'll have an even greater wealth of history and decisions to fold into the final chapter.