About the game
Mass Effect 2 is a 2010 action role-playing game developed by BioWare. Microsoft Game Studios and Electronic Arts published it for Windows and the Xbox 360 in January 2010, and a PlayStation 3 version followed a year later. It is the second Mass Effect game. It takes place in the Milky Way in the 22nd century, where humanity is threatened by an insectoid alien race called the Collectors. You play Commander Shepard, an elite human soldier who has to assemble a team and win its loyalty for a suicide mission. A completed save from the first game can change the story in many ways.
It is a single-player game played from a third-person view. You pick Shepard's gender, look, background and class, and there are six classes, for example the Vanguard for close combat and shotguns and the Infiltrator for stealth and sniper rifles. Quests are reached from a galaxy map, and your ship is a base where you talk to the squad, customize armour, travel and scan planets for minerals that pay for upgrades. Compared with the first game the shooting is more central, with limited ammunition and health that regenerates.
Combat is squad-based with up to two squad members beside you. You can pause the action to pick targets and powers, and enemies are protected by health, shields, armour, barriers or a mix of them, each with its own weaknesses. Conversations use the Dialogue Wheel, and a new interrupt system lets you step in with a direct action at certain moments. Paragon and Renegade points unlock special dialogue, and what you do during each squad member's loyalty mission decides whether they survive the final fight. Endings range from the whole team surviving to everyone dying, Shepard included.
BioWare wanted optional missions to carry as much weight as the main one, which led to a story about recruiting a team and earning its loyalty. Designers polished the shooting first and added role-playing features afterwards. The game was built on Unreal Engine 3. Jack Wall returned as composer with a darker, more mature sound, and Martin Sheen voices the Illusive Man.
Mass Effect 2 came out for Windows and the Xbox 360 on 26 January 2010 in North America and 29 January in Europe. Microsoft published the Xbox 360 version. Alongside the standard edition there were digital deluxe and collector's editions. The collector's edition had different packaging, an art book, bonus in-game content, a behind-the-scenes DVD and one issue of the Mass Effect: Redemption comic. The game was the second best-selling game of January 2010 with 572,100 copies, and its font size drew complaints on standard-definition TVs. It became playable on Xbox One through backward compatibility in 2016.
New copies came with a one-time card for the Cerberus Network, a service that unlocked bonus content and news, so used-copy buyers had to pay for it separately. Downloadable packs ran from January 2010 to May 2011 and ranged from outfits to full missions. Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival matter most to the series story, and Zaeed, Kasumi and Overlord add squad members and missions. Genesis, released on 17 May 2011 for Xbox 360 and Windows, is an interactive comic that lets you set the first game's big decisions.
Critics gave it acclaim for its presentation, cinematography, characters and improved combat, though some disliked the simplified role-playing and the planet scanning. It won Game of the Year at the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and Best Game at the 7th British Academy Games Awards. Mass Effect 3 followed in 2012, and the game was remastered in 2021 in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 96 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Metacritic 94 out of 100 (PC). Metacritic 94 out of 100 (PS3). Individual reviews: Edge 9/10, Eurogamer 10/10, Famitsu 36/40, Game Informer 9.8/10, GamePro 4.5/5, GameSpot 9/10, GameSpy 5/5, GameTrailers 9.7/10.
Extra content
The Xbox 360 version does not include the story packs on the disc. Microsoft closed the Xbox 360 Store to new purchases on 29 July 2024.
- Zaeed – The Price of Revenge: A mercenary squad member and his loyalty mission, part of the Cerberus Network.
- Kasumi – Stolen Memory: A loyalty mission and squad member, the thief Kasumi.
- Overlord: Five new missions.
- Lair of the Shadow Broker: Shepard helps Liara T'Soni track down the Shadow Broker, an information dealer.
- Arrival: Shepard investigates evidence of a Reaper invasion, a story that leads into Mass Effect 3.
- Genesis: An interactive comic at the start of the game that lets you set the first game's major decisions.
Good to know
- The Xbox 360 achievement list has 62 entries worth 1,355 Gamerscore. The base game has 50 worth 1,000, and the other 12 come from Zaeed, Kasumi, Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival.
- Unlike the Xbox 360 and Windows versions, the PlayStation 3 version includes the Kasumi, Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker packs on the disc.
- Importing a finished Mass Effect save carries earlier decisions over and gives starting bonuses. The Long Service Medal achievement is for finishing the game twice, or once with an imported character.
- Insanity, for finishing on the hardest difficulty without changing it, is held by about 12 percent of players.
- New copies carried a one-time Cerberus Network code. Used-copy buyers had to pay for it, which drew criticism from some fans.
- The text and colouring were criticized as hard to read on some standard-definition TVs. BioWare called it a design choice and could not fix it.
Made by
Director Casey Hudson, Producer Casey Hudson, Producer Jesse Houston, Producer Nathan Plewes, Lead designer Christina Norman, Designer Preston Watamaniuk, Programmer David Falkner, Artist Derek Watts, Writer Mac Walters, Writer Drew Karpyshyn.
