E3 ‘09: Mass Effect 2 impressions

If you thought the story of Mass Effect was over, think again. In the wake of the events of the first game, humans have begun disappearing all over the galaxy, and Shepherd and his crew have signed on with a black ops agency known as Cerberus to find out what’s happening — and discover the new evil power behind it. BioWare calls Mass Effect 2 a “brutal descent into the darkest parts of the Mass Effect Universe,” and from what I saw, that could be an understatement.

Perhaps the biggest (and best!) news out of E3 about Mass Effect 2 is that all of your saved game information from the first game — your customized character, the characters on your crew that survived, your weapons, upgrades, everything — can be imported into Mass Effect 2, so that the story continues exactly the way you left it. BioWare intends to continue this philosophy for the third and final game in the trilogy as well, so that the whole thing is not just Shepherd’s story — it’s your story. But the game has also been crafted to allow for newcomers to easily pick it up and start playing, too. The twist is that Shepherd can die in ME2 — if your instance of Shepherd doesn’t survive, you won’t be able to import him and continue his story in ME3. (Presumably, you’ll start from scratch with a new Shepherd instead.)

A lot of buzz has been building about how ME2 ups the ante in the game’s shooter aspects, streamlining the RPG elements to keep the action coming fast and furious. What BioWare describes as a “new, precision shooter feel” has been added to the combat, making it a more rewarding experience. There are tons of new weapons and new enemies — and new enemy races, as well.

The exploration aspects of the game have been beefed up; no longer will planets be generic, non-terraformed rocks. Many planets now include vegetation, bodies of water, and indigenous life forms. Some even contain entire civilizations. Conversation trees have been streamlined too, and you can even interrupt conversations at various points and take action instead of just standing around and talking all the time.

The demo I witnessed showed off a major spoiler as an example of the new, darker tone of the game, and it’s too big and too heartbreaking to ruin for you here. It’s always been a goal of the ME experience to generate emotional responses in the player, and the ME2 demo I saw was successful in causing that reaction in me.

I can’t wait to follow Shepherd as his adventure continues!

Images: Copyright 2009 ©BioWare.