So, I finished Mass Effect 2 for the second time over this past weekend, and having been through it, twice I feel I can at least put my thoughts in order about the whole thing. Fair warning, this post will probably contain some spoilers, I'll try to keep it nebulous, but some of it will be avoidable. I'll try to mark what will be spoiler-ish and you can skip past it.

Ok, first, let’s get some spoilers out of the way.

Firstly, you owe it to yourself to play the first game and import your save into the new game - for the simple reason that if you don't, what you'll be playing probably isn't your story. For whatever reason, Bioware chose to make the "canon" story be one that had Shepard be the hugest dick imaginable. Not only did he romance Ashley (i.e. racist bigot chick) but also he sacrificed the council AND he killed Wrex. Seriously, what a douche. Who liked Ashley? Seriously? Granted Alenko wasn't much better, but he was better than Ashley was >_<. Anyway, as I said, this probably wasn't your story. We all know everybody romanced Liara anyway.

What?

Ok, that's it for the first game spoilers...probably...

Now, if you played the original on the 360 this is easy, just load the game, import and away you go. But if you're like me and hate the 360 with a fiery passion and switched to the PC either you'll need to buy the first game (it's only $20 on steam now, less if you catch it on sale) OR you can go to the online repository for saved games here and find a game similar to your original play through and download it. You'll be missing...not a lot of things, but certainly, you'll have a less fulfilling adventure because there are maybe three dozen choices from the first game that will show up in your play through. Moreover, all your choices will carry over through ME2 into ME3, so you'll probably want things to carry over simply for that reason. Plus you'll start out with some nice experience and crafting bonuses (for example, if you finished at level 50, you'll get enough starting exp to start out at level 3, if you finished at level 60, you get enough to start at level 5). They're not huge, but they help.
Now, that out of the way let's get down into the meat and bones of the thing and talk about Mass Effect 2.

If I were to list my all time top 10 or so games, the list would probably look something like this.

1. Xenogears
2. Mass Effect 2
3. Skies of Arcadia
4. Mass Effect
5. Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64)
6. Uncharted 2
7. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time
8. Final Fantasy X
9. Uncharted
10. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
11. Starcraft
12. Dragon Age
13. Knights of the Old Republic
14. Knights of the Old Republic 2

A bit of background here. The games near the top are up there because either I can sit through and replay them multiple times, or because I can sit and invest hour after hour into them (like FFX...I think I have something like 140 hours of game play sunk into it). However, the top 2 (used to be just top 1 until ME2), are there because they hold a very special place in my heart. Xenogears made such an impact on me that it is the bar that I will - probably forever - hold all other games to. I'm not going to say it's perfect by any means, there were a lot of things that bugged me about that game, most of them starting on the 2nd disc, but that's not why we're here. Consequently, when I say that I like a game *almost* as much as I like Xenogears that should give you a good bar to judge that by.

Mass Effect 2 *is* that game. I can't explain in very simple terms what it is about the game that draws me to it. Some more background here.

If you'll notice, there are several Bioware games on my list. I am an unashamed Bioware Fanboy. There are very few other studios out there that have so drawn my loyalty. I discussed this in a previous blog entry, so I won't rehash old tales. Something about how the stories in their games are constructed and how memorable their characters are just come together into such a complete and wonderful package, that the RPG fanboy in me squeals like a little girl anytime I hear they're making a new game.

I got into the Mass Effect hype very early. Back when I first heard about the story, the whole hook of it just drew me in. I grew up on Star Trek and Star Wars, so sci-fi space stories make me happy, so when I heard that Bioware was making their own IP based in space I got very excited, and everything I read about the story got me more and more excited. I bought the novel tie-in they released a few months before the release of the game and read it through so I knew what was going on when Captain Anderson said he had a history with Saren, because I'd already read it - I was attached to the story. Starcraft does the same thing to me. I've read practically all of the extended universe novelization tie-ins. I eat this pulpy goofy sci-fi shit up with a spoon.

Because I had this attachment, ME was more meaningful to me, I was familiar with the characters and the world going in. I bought the second ME novelization sometime last year (I think, maybe it was the year before? anyway), and was introduced early on to the Collectors. I also know why the Quarians hate Cerberus. I read that book. Once again, going into ME2 parts of the story were already more meaningful to me. It also helps that Shepard was *my* Shepard, it was *my* story. There are only so many ways for me to play through my story, to do so otherwise would feel like a betrayal. But I'm starting to get far a field here. Going back to my hopes of being able to quantify my love for this game is going to come up against an impossible wall, but we'll try.

Ok, we're getting into spoiler territory here, you've been warned.

The story itself is rather simple. There's a great evil out to destroy the galaxy, and once again, the only one standing in the way of certain death is Shepard. The first 10-15 minutes of the game start out with a fantastic hook and does a wonderful job of explaining why you're not starting out at level 60 with a super powered Spectre trained warrior. I hesitate to spoil it here, so we'll skip it. Once you get control of your character, you're thrown immediately into the thick of things. Human colonies are disappearing, and the Collector's are the prime suspect. There's no real dilly-dallying around like there was in the first game. In ME1 you spent a good 4-6 hours (probably) running around the Citadel doing random quests and picking up some party members, and then you wandered around the universe trying to figure out what was going on. Not so here. You know you're going after the collector's, you need to get your team together, find out how to get to their base (you already know it's beyond the Omega-4 relay) and you have to take the fight to them.

Much of the side quests in the original game are now gone. I don't particularly miss them; they were a lot of busy work. Not to say there aren't side quests this time around, but the vast majority of them take 5 minutes to complete, or involve running through a planet or a secret base to complete some one-off mission that takes at most half an hour. Gone are the annoying days of driving your stupid lumbering Mako around fighting to climb up impossibly steep cliffs to get to some question mark on your map. Instead you scan a planet, drop a probe and land in a shuttle DIRECTLY WHERE THE MISSION IS. This right there wins sooooo many points in my book you have no idea. I hated that fucking Mako.

But back to the story. Ok, here's the thing. When it comes to a game, I'm a very big fan of everything in the game being integral to the whole while at the same time, not forcing something to be done to complete the game. While I'm Ok with doing some side missions, they need to tie back into the game itself in order for it to "fit in" with the rest of the game in my book. Outside of collecting your party members, it is entirely possible to skip practically everything in the game. Here comes the biggest spoiler in the game. You can play the game in such a way so that not only does every member in your party die, but Shepard will die as well, and it will make perfect sense in the context of the story. But that very much is the "bad ending". You're essentially NOT playing the game as intended and in the end you suffer the consequences because of it. You don't get a good ending. This is an amazingly wonderful design choice. This ties back into lack of superficiality in games and trimming away of the fat. To compare, the game that does this best is Final Fantasy X. Everything in that game ties into something else even if large parts of it are completely optional. Like playing Blitzball or doing the Monster Arena. You don't have to do it, but if you do, you get something related to the game because of it. Blitzball nets you Wakka's ultimate weapon. The arena nets you Auron's, but even more so you get to fight bosses that give you stat increase options that make you even more powerful. You can still beat the game without any of this, but doing all these extras nets you so many cool extras that finishing becomes more meaningful to you.

But what I really think pushes ME2 up very high into the upper echelons of gaming is the characters. I don't know if any of you have read anything by David Eddings, but he is very much the same. His stories aren't necessarily the most original of things. Half of his books are almost exact copies of the other half of his books, but he writes the most memorable characters. Bioware very much does the same thing. Now granted their stories are much better than a lot of what else is out there, but they're not grand sweeping operatic things for the most part (don't confuse this for thinking that I think their stories are bad, far from it). However, their characters are amazing. I spent probably as much time just talking to all my crew members and learning their stories as I did doing the rest of the game. I wanted to know these characters; I wanted to relate to them. I became attached to them and felt like I was a part of their lives.

This is what games need to focus on, interactions, building meaningful relationships [within the context of a video game], not fancy graphics and pretty FMV's (though those are fun too, and Bioware is no slouch by any means in this department). This is what keeps you invested in a story and wanting to come back for more. It's something Xenogears had in spades and very few games come close to matching it.

But what I really think pushes this game over the top is the last hour or so while you play through the climax. I don't think I've ever played through such an awesome ending. The final battle with Saren in ME1, was kind of annoying. You ran around this tiny enclosed space trying to shoot at this stupid little fucker who wouldn't hold still and was only difficult because he had far too many hit points and wouldn't stay still. The cinematic that was going on at the same time while everybody was fighting Sovereign outside was more exciting than the battle against Saren. But this ending, Mass Effect 2's ending, is amazing. Your group of 12 (or 13 if you have DLC) makes their last stand in the heart of Collector's territory. Never have I ever been so attached to a group of people than I was during the last hour of this game. Watching these people willingly stand before the impossible for you is a moving feeling. I don't want to spoil any of this, but suffice it to say I had chills going down my back for practically the entire hour. And that says more for the game than anything else I can say.

There was no question in my mind I would play through this game multiple times. I've completed it twice, and have finished my "perfect ending" with how I want things to be. While I want to play the game through more times, I find it difficult to do so, because to play it any other way would seem like a betrayal to my party - to my Shepard. I'm a goody-goody, and played through the game full paragon mode (though I did take a few renegade interrupt options XD), but I kind of want to play through it as an evil heartless bastard...but like I said, that would feel like a betrayal.

I think that says more about the game than anything else does. Playing the game in any other way than the way you want it, is a betrayal.

And I think that's all right in my book.