Mass Effect 2 - PC

I am simply addicted to this game! So far, I have made five Commander Shepards, three males and two females, and played through the games many times. Why? You make ask. Well, because this way, I am able to explore the multiple classes, dialogue options, team compositions, endings, combat styles, difficulties, romances, and armor layouts the game has to offer! I can also replay the game as a Paragon (hero), as a Renegade (villain), or a combination of both. I went a little crazy with the DLC (such as buying Dr. Pepper caps on an auction site to get the special helmet codes) but they were worth it! Before I ramble further with my fan boy praises, I listed below my pros and cons of the core game: PROS 1. Engaging Story. The story continues where Mass Effect 1 left off. It may not feel as epic as the first one, but playing through your teammates' stories creates more depth and connection. Also, don't worry if you didn't play the first one, as the game does a nice job of catching you up with what happened before. 2. Awesome graphics and voice acting. At certain times, it's feels like I'm watching a really good Sci-Fi movie. It utilizes the Phys-X engine, so Nvidia is the better card to run this game on. However, the game runs great on my ATI card. 3. Streamlined game mechanics. Control is more intuitive than the first game, while commands and powers are easily executed. Teammates are more useful too, but tend to stay behind you and let you do the dirty work (which is not a bad thing I guess). 4. Six different classes. The default class is soldier. It emphasizes weapons as your main strength. The most difficult to play is Vanguard, which emphasizes close quarters combat (melee and shotgun). But it also offers the most fun as you barrel into enemies with Biotic Charge. I'll let you discover the rest of the classes for yourself. 5. Dialogue Interrupts and Skips. Conversations are more dynamic by giving you the option to interject with a heroic or villainous action and/or dialogue. Also, you can skip dialogues and scenes with the spacebar, minimizing replay annoyances. 6. Heavy Weapons. The M-920 Cain=Armageddon. Enough said. 7. 10 teammates! 11 if you buy the game new. 12 if you purchase the Kasumi DLC. CONS 1. Cerberus Network. EA's solution to the booming resale market is to devalue an used game by locking certain content to initial game purchasers. This means if you buy this game used, you will not have access to Zaeed, the Arc Projector heavy weapon, Firewalker missions, a crash site, Inter-Stellar news feeds, and a Cerberus armor and weapon. However, you can purchase the above contents as a DLC. 2. DLC economy. I don't mind paying for quality work, but the fact that I have to convert my US dollars to specific amounts of BioWare (BW) points is ridiculous. It's another ingenious idea concocted by Microsoft to maximize profits. 3. Level cap at 30. I really wanted to max out all my skills, but it's impossible with the level cap. I understand the developers did this in order to balance the game play, but sometimes I just want to kick butt! The following list of DLC is ranked, 1 being the best and 11 being the weakest. 1. Lair of the Shadow Broker. Additional missions with unique game play and environments. You get to have Liara as a teammate as she tracks down her arch nemesis. At the end of it, you get multiple rewards, like resources and the ability to change teammates' skill distribution points. 2. Firepower Pack. Obtain three additional weapons. My favorite is the Geth Plasma Shotgun. It's an amazing weapon that has very good range and damage. Also, you can charge it up to shoot 2 rounds at once! 3. Overlord. Additional missions with unique environments and a story that leaves a haunting image in the end. 4. Kasumi - Stolen Memory. Gain an additional member and weapon. She's a good compliment to a Vanguard class Shepard, but otherwise quite useless later in the game. Her weapon, the SMG Locust is a great gun to have early on. She does have an engaging and heart-retching story (it can be quite sappy for some). 5. Blood Dragon Armor Set. It is simply the coolest armor set in the game. Basically, you get to wear medieval style armor in outer space! However, you'll need to buy a new copy of Dragon Age in order to obtain this DLC. 6. Alternate Appearance Pack. Three alternate costumes for three different teammates. My favorite is Garrus' 7. Dr. Pepper Promo Helmets. You can obtain up to 3 different helmets. The recon hood is my favorite. The promo ends in December 30, 2010. 8. Aegis Pack. Gain an additional armor set geared towards melee combat and a sniper rifle that rips through shields. 9. Equalizer Pack. You get two helmets and an armor set. One of the helmets is hideous to look at. While the armor set looks like a red version of the Cerberus assault armor, it does look good on my renegade Shepard. 10. Alternate Appearance Pack 2. Three more alternate costumes. This time, none of the costumes stood out to me. 11. Arrival - The last DLC mission released for this game. It had Shephard solo'ing to rescue a scientist caught in Batarian space. Without giving the ending away, I find the conclusion to be rather unsatisfactory, while the character development to be minimal and rushed. This is one DLC you can skip buying. *Collector Weapon and Armor. The armor and weapon are wonderfully designed. But the only way to obtain them at the moment is through auction sites. Right now, they're going for about $45! *Terminus Weapon and Armor. Once again, this can only be obtained through 3rd party reseller or auction sites. It is cheaper than the above DLC by about $10. Additional Comments: *I personally did not obtained the Collector or Terminus DLC. That's why I didn't rank them, but I can tell you they look really cool in screen shots! Also, if you play the game at hardcore difficulty, you'll have the chance to obtain the Geth Pulse rifle!

Mass Effect 2 is one of the greatest games ever. It reminds me of KOTOR and Fallout 3, but more hands on and better graphics. Most of your travels will be with 2 npcs, whom you get to pick for each mission. One of the many great features is that they all get xp, so you don't have to evenly use them to keep them up to date. Pretty much all of them are useful and have decent AI. Combat is clean, easy to command your npcs, and is pretty much an over the shoulder shooter where you can hide behind the environment for protection. Personally I don't like shooter games, but this combat engine works great. It's also easy to get your people to use bionic powers, switch ammo types, switch weapons, heal, etc - all mid combat. This is one of the best combat designs I've seen in years. Role-playing and storyline are a big part of the experience. Many twists and turns, lots of options on how to handle things, and a tracking system where you can improve your ability to pick special "charm" or "coerce" options. ME2 also has an option once in a while to use the charm/coerce to interrupt an NPC and do a special move/action... which is quite entertaining. Another great design is the ability to manually pick which skills to work on for each NPC. If you don't like doing that, there is an auto-level button. You also get to specify which weapons each character uses, which is nice. There are hundreds of planets that you can visit. In general terms, you go to a specific planet to do a mission. The game feels very open-ended, because you can visit any system/planet you want and do missions in any order. The game manages to keep the difficulty where it should be, regardless of what you do first. And it's certainly nice to have your own ship and explore as little (or as much) as you want. Missions are clearly labeled on the map, so you can easily move the game forward if you want to. Replay value is decent. This is because you can bring different members along on a mission and get different dialog/reactions. Interesting to experience them. Also, the second time through, you and your npcs keep your experience and equipment (although NOT research), so you aren't starting from ground zero. Second time through it's easy to just do the main plot missions, since they are always well labeled. I thought the music/soundtrack was done well. Also, special effects and the sense of impending-danger (like running through an exploding ship) were very well done. There were many times when I jumped in my chair or found my pulse beating fast. There's some pretty furious action in this game. Another nice feature is the ability to import your Mass Effect character, which gives you some good starting bonuses. Also, if you play Mass Effect 2 more than once, you can import your first play-thru of Mass Effect 2 into your second run of the game. Both really nice features. There aren't any major bad things to say about this game. Design is almost perfect. Some minor downsides that I found: 1) Limited ammo. Rarily ever a problem, but it does seem somewhat silly. Why carry around 5 different weapons and limited ammo instead of carrying just a couple weapons and more ammo? 2) Having to remember to buy fuel/probes if you want to explore a lot. Most travel doesn't require fuel, so not much of a problem. You don't need probes, but scanning planets and gathering resources allows you to do some upgrades. 3) A very rare bug (maybe 5 times in the game) where you get stuck on furniture (by explosions/getting hit) and you can't get back of it, forcing you to load from the last save. So save alot and rotate slots... although the game does a really good job of re-loading part way thru the mission if you get killed. You usually won't have to redo the entire mission, which is a great feature. 4) Even the easy level can get an inexperienced player killed a lot. However, overall the easy level really is easy enough for people like me who don't play shooter games. So don't let this frustrate you, because you'll learn how to survive. In conclusion, this is a fantastic game (as was Mass Effect), which is why it's up for some big awards. If you like a mix of role-playing AND gun-based combat, this game will be a fantastic experience.

The game play is brilliant. The environments are engaging, If you like the sci-fi genre than this game is perfect. The graphics are far ahead of the xbox.

If you desired to play games which are full of action so Mass Effect 2 is one of the best option. Because it is a game in which you will enjoy action and adventure in every moment of play

ME2 is a fantastic game. Played it many times and always enjoy it. Mass Effect 2 - Standard Edition

awesome game, amazing graphics, nice story

Great game!