Mass Effect 2 Review

Mass Effect 2 is one of those special games that you never want to see end. Partly this might come down to its structure, allowing the player to wander through the bulk of the game at their own pace, but always with the impending pressure of the much hyped ‘suicide mission’ that makes up the final act of the game. From the moment that you gain control of your ship, maybe an hour into the game if you take your time, the ‘mass relay’ that will carry you into that final act sits there on your map, a constant reminder as you travel the galaxy building your team. But with that glowing, red icon on the map, there always seems like there must be just one more thing to do before moving through to the endgame. One more thing to make sure you are prepared….

Mass Effect 1.5

In the years since I first played Mass Effect my save game has vanished into the ether, joining what by now must be a vast archive of virtual experiences. Normally this isn’t a problem, but with the impending release of Mass Effect 2, it has taken centre stage. The game’s much publicized character import feature has caught my attention — something that I’ve been interested by since Bioware touted the option in the move from Baldur’s Gate to Baldur’s Gate 2. Of course, in that case I never managed to get it to work … besides which, with all the advances in the character creation system, why would you?

According to Bioware, it sounds like Mass Effect handles this much better, and could enrich the story in interesting ways. Indications are that players can tweak their character from the first game, re-specing them with the additional tools that the second puts in front of them, solving the old problems. But, now I need a save game. My save game. The collection of bits that made up my female Shepherd and all the decisions that shaped her over the course of the game. Mass Effect was notable for how well it conveys this sense that you are guiding and developing a person, leading them though a series of life-changing events. It would seem too strange to play the second game without the weight of those decisions behind it. So what to do?

I’ve started playing through Mass Effect again. This makes for something of a strange experience. Rather than making an original set of choices, I find myself intentionally recreating the choices that I made last time around. The physical appearance of Shepherd is as close as I can make it from memory. In the moment by moment gameplay, obviously my accuracy isn’t quite spot-on, but to the best of my recollection I am trying to do exactly the same things over again. Every decision is subject to the question, ‘what did I do last time?’ Was this the dialogue option? Did I take this quest? Side with this character? This playthrough is the COPS version of the game — the dramatic recreation. Shepherd acting out the memory of something already determined.

For anyone who may have read my musings on time in games, this is clearly an interesting situation. What tense is this?

An interesting twist to this is that I am playing Mass Effect on a Macbook via Boot Camp. Performance wise, the Macbook far exceeds my expectations. The frame-rate is smooth even with all settings on their highest options, outperforming the iMac I played it on last time. Except for one little issue: It gets hot. Very hot. The fan blows harder than I’ve ever seen it. Not dangerously hot, as far as I can tell, but hotter than I would like. This has been shaping how I’ve been playing: my longest session so far might have lasted a bit over half-an-hour. Now, I don’t usually play for too long at once, but longer than that.

The game now has a built in ‘do you have anything else to do?’ warning in the blast of that fan. It makes for slow progress through the game, but then again, well, I do sort of have other things to do….