Mass Effect 2: Prelude to E3 – Dissection

Never anger a Vanguard, even if you /are/ out of shotgun range.

I am a self confessed Mass Effect fan, as has been demonstrated in the GamesAreEvil Show Pilot. I have the Collector’s Edition of the game, and the book which detailed why Anderson was never chosen for the Spectres. So, with Mass Effect 2 getting to the point where it can be shown to the consumers (at the revamped E3 first), BioWare have released a video with a few snippets of action, a few soundbites from the makers, and of course many questions. So having watched the trailer, let’s take a look at some of the conclusions:

First off, the graphics have been nailed. One common complaint with most gamers and reviewers alike, was that this game couldn’t hold a steady framerate. The draw-distances, coupled with the special effects and constantly changing texture files, dependent on the distance between the camera and the object, were brutal. The game couldn’t hold a good framerate to save it’s life. Assuming that the rendering in the background was from a debug console, and not from a PC that they were working on, it looks like this has been sorted. There are significant improvements to the look of all the races, with the Geth obviously being the more noticeable. Of course, there are few shots of Shepard, because of the game’s core dynamics, but this is more than forgiven when you see a Biotic power sucking a Geth Trooper in the direction of what can only be described as a momentary black hole.

Combat has been added to a lot, it seems. More varied types of weapons, rather than the add-ons that we saw in the previous installment. I saw at least another three new weapons, although these could be one-offs (a la comparing the Redeemer to the Rocket Launcher in Unreal Tournament) of the four that we had last time (namely Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle). The effects looked great, and it appears that we also have a reload time for some weapons, as was demonstrated at 00:50 with a brief pause in fire, and reaching for something on the uniform. I doubt this is anything more than a levelling measure for one-hit-wonder weapons, but it could bring about different core concepts of weapons (like Too Human’s Slug, Plasma, and Laser weaponry). Of course, there’s the obligatory limb-removal, and subsequent changes of combat style, speed etc (if you take a leg off, they’ll crawl after you), but this looks like a natural progression despite the unnatural enemies, so therefore it is awesome.

Remember this ship? You won’t remember it looking this bad.

Let’s consider the bread of the RPG sandwich; the story. Mass Effect was touted as a game that you could truly control the ending of, who survives and who doesn’t. You chose between who to save (and if you had romantic interest in them through the game, boy was that a tough choice), the actions in dealing with a certain rogue character, and many other, less meaningful choices. What’s great, is that it carries on through to the sequel. If you had a character killed, they don’t come back. And from what I’ve seen, it is an educated guess that the ending you chose will determine whether Shepard lives or dies. Already, I’m seeing a multi-disc title, and I’m itching to play it. The only certain things are that the Reapers are coming, the Geth are going to be more plentiful and powerful now that their ‘gods’ have arrived to cleanse the galaxy of life, and somewhere along the way, the Normandy gets torn to pieces.

The trailer obviously doesn’t lend itself well to debuting the sound, and the soundtrack seemed to be identical to the OST that was released a while ago. It’s a beautiful soundtrack nonetheless, but no doubt BioWare have something up their sleeves with the scores. So long as the same group of performers and composers create it, I cannot see it becoming anything less than a masterpiece, and an accompaniment to the visuals in all manners. The sound effects lacked bass, apart from the demonstration of the Biotic power, but it’s still early days for something that can be readily changed.

Outside of the obvious (new enemies, new weapons, new story) this game still has a lot for those that played the last game. There’s lasting consequences that you’ll have to deal with, there’s a deeper, darker atmosphere now that the shit really has hit the fan, and there’s what looks like a full-scale invasion by the Geth. But for those that didn’t play it, I’m honestly unsure as to whether it will attract new people. It’s almost like The Empire Strikes Back without watching A New Hope; the first feature lays the groundwork for the second to develop on.

All in all, it’s still looking like a Game Of the Year for me, and Amazon love me; I already have my pre-order down, and will probably trade it in for the Collector’s Edition. Just like I did last time.

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