It’s a shame that we’re not a month before 2010 and only a month beyond 2009 as it seems a little unfair (but entirely justified) to introduce Mass Effect 2 as the most anticipated game of the year. Whilst we are blessed with a healthy looking release calendar this year (Diablo III, Bad Company 2 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 to name but a few), the buzz surrounding Bioware’s Action RPG has us all disk-twitching in our consoles (Where you just can’t play anything for longer than ten minutes because it’s not Mass Effect 2). In the run up to the game’s release, I was graciously afforded the opportunity to sit and play through the first two hours of the game thanks to a very anonymous and very well rewarded source.

I must issue a very obvious and fair warning that this article features un-restricted commentary on the game’s plot and those of a very sensitive (and much respected) ‘spoiler alert’ nature should look away now. To those still reading, undecided about just how far down the rabbit hole you’re willing to go, know that what I have learnt is worthy of your attention and can maintain the sanctity of the first game and protect you from another ‘Raiden’ episode. I do this because I care.

But before I delve into Mass Effect 2’s prologue, allow me to get the technical impressions out of the way. The most striking change on the part of the developers is the departure from the first outing’s cinematic, grainy display. You know the look, it’s where the shiny £40 game on the wondrous £200 console, routed through the £600 television is made to look like you mistuned the television your Nan refused to throw out. Whilst many will be disappointed that this has been removed, the colour that the sequel offers is fantastic and does credit to the 360 and your precious HDMI connection. I personally believe the developers should have retained the option by including it in the pause menu in the same way the first offered you the ability to turn it off as it added a wonderful, dark and ‘dead of cold-space’ feel to the game. However the effect is popping up just about everywhere these days (I saw a production of Cats the other day in the theatre and they were using it. That or my eyes were trying to commit suicide) and the style is slowly losing its magic.

Bioware retain the accolade of providing an excellent score to the series on a more positive note, delivering the most from a full orchestra and providing top quality sound effects. The C list of celebrities (and Martin Sheen; he’s on a list of his own) who signed up to lend their voices to the game appear absent for the most part of the opening (though this is in part owes to the way the game begins, as will soon be revealed) though there are some recognisable voices to the British gamer with Mass Effect 2 making a notable expansion beyond the series’ particularly Hollywood heavy dialogue to incorporate other accents and present a more diverse setting. Controls have been streamlined and the HUD redesigned to lure in some of the more casual crowd. The often uninformative radar style mini-map of the first Mass Effect has been removed, along with all other HUD elements, leaving only a simple D-pad selection in the screen’s bottom left corner. As previously mentioned, the games new visual style really benefits from the de-cluttering on screen and whilst information is key to any RPG fan, you really do become lost in the luscious view.

And so if Bioware are pushing out parts of the quality we know and love, why have I encouraged you to read on this far? What can possibly keep you away from the stores this week and stop you from picking up that copy you’ve had on pre-order for a solid year? I stress one final time, if you prefer to shy away from the opinions of fellow gamers and forge your own, un-tainted opinion, move on to another article here on GamingLives.com. Those who are willing to read on are brave indeed.

A major focus of the games marketing campaign was the emphasis on how your Mass Effect 1 save would have a direct impact on your experience in Mass Effect 2. Giddy with excitement at the prospect of being amongst a very select few around the globe to get a hands-on play through of the game, I forgot to erase my existing save file and so may have experienced a slightly different introduction than newcomers to the series. Having imported over Amy Shepard (Yes, I played a chick. Never have been able to break that habit) from my level 49 twice completed save, Bioware delivers straight away with its promise of past decisions affecting the sequel, though I had to load double check a little later on to see if I was confusing myself with another RPG. In the initial Mass Effect character creation, players are asked to select a background for Shepard which promises to have only a conversational impact on the game. Way back when I created Amy, I opted for the ‘Earthborn’ history, gifting to her the commonplace Sci-Fi back-story of an Orphan trapped in a life of petty crime and underworld gangs (Which must be fairly insulting to the Underworld Gangs. The crime may be petty but I’m sure they’re capable of a lot worse, something society should be very grateful for.) Had I have known that Mass Effect 2 was even on the cards back then or that the seemingly meaningless selection would decide the entire opening sequence, I would have opted for a more interesting past.

Mass Effect 2, for me, begins by rewinding the all of the clocks, all the way back to Shepard’s childhood. I find Amy living in the slums with only her older sister for company, both unable to live on much longer without any money or food. Now I’m sure that Bioware were aiming to restore the bond players developed with Shepard during the first game by creating an environment where the gamer feels sorry for Shepard, but truth be told, I really couldn’t give a crap. Mass Effect 1 had us by the reproductive organs by throwing us in the dramatic deep end and telling us that the ‘poop just got real’ on Eden Prime. Having waited with proverbial insects in my underwear for the follow up, I was hoping Bioware would have gone one better than the excellent Malcolm Reynolds, no bullfunky, run and gun prologue of the first game. Instead I was barely 30 seconds into ME2 and already I was paranoid Miss Marple herself was going to give me the tutorial.

I never have understood the need for tutorials in sequels. Surely it’s accepted that most of the sales will come from those who have played the first game, who have already sat through the obligatory ‘Pull RT to shoot’ and who were pretty annoyed at the Windows Vista hand-holding back then. Those that haven’t, still have the long forgotten instruction manual to fall back upon; you remember the one… it used to have a Code Wheel or a Colour Card tucked inside it. To those that argue that tutorials in sequels encourage more sales by inviting newcomers to the series, I propose that by leaving out a patronising lesson in things you already know, you’re actually encouraging the gamer to buy the original and give that a good play through to familiarise themselves with the series before they return to Mass Effect 2 (That’s a pretty sweet weekend right there. Someone call MiB, I require the use of the shiny thing with the red LED).

Sadly, logic is lost for the first time on Bioware. Granted the tutorial is well masked over a series of basic challenges which teach the gamer the skills you will need over the game, but it seems awfully condescending all the while. Your sister, a forgettable character named…Daisy or something like that, leads you off into the middle of the town where a travelling merchant is selling his wares. Being an Orphan, you’re unable to purchase anything, though remain free to browse his wares. Having identified the item which holds the key to escaping the slums, you’re now tasked with acquiring enough cash to pay for it. Sadly the option to steal the item isn’t given, an odd feature for an RPG game –How can you really sink your teeth in if you’re not truly free to make decisions?

So with the main goal of the prologue established, the inevitable trials of the warrior opens up asking you to complete a myriad of minor quests to earn the cash you’re told you need. Along the way, the game retrains you with everything you need to know, forces you to make more seemingly innocent moral choices and introduces the new Melee mechanics of ME2 along with the auto-lock combat camera.

My favourite of which was a quest where you’re tasked with saving a small animal from the torturous abuse of a known thug. In the first game it’s likely that the Conversation Wheel would have taken care of the events for you if you decided to get involved. For Mass Effect 2, you actually get to pound on the bully for a while before the game intervenes and stops you from killing him. Now whilst I disagree that Bioware is right to intervene (this is an RPG, my RPG and my story as far I’m concerned), it perhaps would raise too many questions if Shepard was established as a killer so young in life, but the dark side within me would happily have gone for the kerb stomp.

I find it difficult to uncover any positive aspects of the Mass Effect 2 Prologue that really get your tongues wagging and your tails moist. It’s a fairly bland experience with some rather annoying English ‘Country-bumpkin’ voice acting and comes across as an incredibly watered down RPG experience. You’re confined to only being able to interact with other characters through a series of basic gesturing, replacing the rather more sophisticated Conversation Wheel of the first game. Melee combat feels basic and almost Legend of Zelda-like, again distancing ME2 from its predecessor in a particularly dumbed down format. The promised ‘Empire Strikes Back’ magic is also missing with the game feeling more Pantomime than Space Opera. Quite why the developers opted to break you in with such a childlike ‘Nintendo rendition of a popular idea’ is beyond me and where I want to trust Bioware (as I always have, right back to the days of Minsc and Boo), I can’t help but feel quite betrayed.

The prologue ends in a domestic tragedy that you never saw coming (Please attach more Irony –Ed.) and I’ve already stopped caring. I know that beyond the introduction lies the main game whereby I’ll return to commanding a more mature (Don’t go there, I rolled a chick because…yeah alright then) Shepard, but for all the new changes Bioware have made, it hardly seems worth bothering. If Mass Effect 2 is anything to go by for 2010 – the year of the sequels, we’re in for a very bland year, readers.

Oh wait…My editors just informed me that this wasn’t Mass Effect 2! Why that was Peter Molenyeux’s ‘Action’ RPG, Fable 2! And to think that there was once a time we waited for that sequel, let’s hope that Bioware never suffer this same fate.

 

To think that this whole enterprise cost me my last Rolo.

Last five articles by Adam

• Party Pooper
• Battlefield 3 - Review
• Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad - Review
• Burnout CRASH! - Review
• Dead Island - Review