OXCGN's Mass Effect 2 Second Look Review

OXCGN:

Like its predecessor, Mass Effect 2 is a game that is so good the only real fault to find in it are squandered opportunities to make it even better.

Technically, it is superior to its predecessor on nearly every level. However, in streamlining the game to enhance the role of combat, BioWare missed out on some of the majesty of aimlessly roaming the galaxy looking for adventure.

[BadCircuit]

This is by far my favourite 360 game.

[Bubbles_Kitty_Cat]

Yup, it's in my top 5 games of all time.

Actually, top 3, now that I think about it.

[BigPappaPump]

I had a blast and I'm looking foward for 3. I hope there's a cat fight between ashley and miranda.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Game is simply amazing.. My GOTY for 2010 so far..

[cornfedgamer]

It certainly is a great game, but the year is but a child. There's plenty of good stuff coming out of the chute.

[gaminoz]

Looks like most people were very impressed with ME2!

[XboxOZ360]

Has to be right up there this year for GOTY, unless something else comes out that really stretches this to its limits.

I think Red Dead Redemption will have many surprised though, it just doesn't have the marketing budget that this has, sadly.

[BadCircuit]

Mass Effect 2 had the hype of Mass Effect 1 so more people had heard of it but Red Dead Redemption is a new game so that's why it probably won't beat Mass Effect 2.

[Akagi]

It doesn't need to. Rockstars fanbase is huge and all the marketing department has to do is: "From the makers of GTA, Bully, Manhunt," etc.

[QuantumWake]

Mass Effect 2 is a very strong contender for GOTY 2010. Everything from, story, character development, gameplay, and even visuals make ME2 one of the best games I have ever played. Well done BioWare! Happy Gaming! Cheers!! :D

[gaminoz]

I wonder if come GOTY time these early games will be remembered.

Then again, what is coming out at the end of the year again??? I guess E3 will enlighten us.

[champ21]

Bioware has been awesome this gen.

First Mass Effect which was pretty good
Dragon age was just epic (130hours played on it, 3 play throughs)
Mass effect 2 was an improvement over the original though i liked DA better.

I am gonna be playing Dragon age awakening in Eyefinity will be awesome.

[Gun_Senshi]

but I love this game. I found it better then Dragon Age :x

[RagTagBnd445]

It was ok, the first one was still way better.

[callahan09]

I don't know, I was way more enthralled by the original than this one. The story, characters, and universe were new and fresh, the dialogue mechanics were brand new and innovative. I didn't like in the sequel how you had to go to fueling stations and load up on fuel and probes all the time in order to get places and in order to scan planets for minerals. Found that part tedious. Though not nearly as tedious as actually scanning the planets for minerals. But the combination was ridiculous. Buy fuel and probes, travel to a planet, scan it until you run out of probes, then have to use the rest of your fuel to get back to a fueling station to buy more fuel and probes just to go right back to the planet I was just at and continuing the tedious process of scanning. It's an absolutely ludicrous gameplay mechanic, and eventually I just stopped doing it and let the upgrades come slower. The mako exploration in the first game wasn't perfect by any means, but compared to what they replaced it with in the sequel, it was much better and I actually missed it in its absence. And frankly speaking, I preferred the elevator rides to the loading screens. They both amounted to the same thing: a waiting screen, but the elevator rides didn't completely take you out of the game the way loading screens do.

The sequel does a lot of things better, too, like the shooter mechanics, and the way that your choices are reflected in consequences, but I was more impressed by the originality, the freshness, of the original than I am by the sequel.

[cornfedgamer]

How does such a well-written and thought out comment make it in the Open Zone?