Mass Effect 2 - A Much Bigger Adventure Into Space

As I continue my most recent playthrough of the Mass Effect series (inspired by the release of the Legendary Edition of the trilogy) I find my enjoyement of the series continuing to change and evolve.

Want to check out my first blog in the series? Click here.

I remember the first time I played the game with the DLC to get Zaeed on my squad. I thought he was an incredibly cool guy - a badass and a dickhead. Seeing him now though, he is just a piece of shit who is willing to let innocent people die just so he can get revenge on one dude. Even worse than that their deaths are caused directly by his actions!

The gameplay in Mass Effect 2 is leaps and bounds ahead of what it was in one, and the Paragon/Renegade quick time events are pretty cool, although it sucks not knowing exactly you are agreeing to do when you hit that button. Mind you some dialogue options are totally out of left field compared to what their little hint says.

The replacement of the Mako is an excellent change, but the Hammerhead still feels lacking.

Planet exploration and resource mining is very cool, and it makes it way easier to go after ship and weapon upgrades without having to keep an eye out for crates and other supplies while out on a mission.

The game itself is fun, and the universe feels much more fleshed out than it did in Mass Effect 1. There are however, definitely issues in the game in terms of the content.

Just like in the first game, squadmates (particularly those that are popular with the fans) continue to do actively terrible and harmful things in game. After Shepard's death at the beginning of the game, Garrus heads off to Omega because it is easier for him to just shoot people there than deal with red tape on the Citadel (a place that was likely in need of all the help it could get after Saren's forces attacked it). I am sure that many of the people Garrus kills have done terrible things, but not certainly not everyone. Take the kid who you can talk out of joining up as a freelance merc. Is going out and buying a gun with the purpose of joining a gang like the Blue Suns an awesome idea? No. But, that doesn't mean that the kid deserves to be gunned down by an angry space dude for that.

Then there is Mordin Solus who literally created a genetic genocide - or rather helped recreate one that was already starting to work its way out of the affected population. That is totally fucked up - and reasoning it away because they are dangerous ?!? Like dude you are literally killing unborn babies by the thousands with the goal of population control of a sentient species. That is absolutely sickening and uncomfortably close to events that have actually happened in our timeline.

Bigger than even that, I would argue, is the fact that the whole game focuses on helping Cerberus - a group of human supremacist terrorists. Most of the time when you are confronted by this issue Shepard brushes it off explaining how they're not really that bad or that the group people are thinking of is a splinter cell that didn't operate with the Illusive Man's approval (whether that is true or not is mostly irrelevant considering how frequently these splinter groups operations commit what amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity in space at some point you have to consider the type of people your organization attracts). Hell, if she survives ME1 even Ashley who is a pretty big alien hater thinks working with Cerbererus takes things too far.

Now, I am not the type who thinks that video games (or art/entertainment in general) should "stay out of politics" or avoid issues like this, but I also think that (especially in an interactive medium like an RPG) giving players the freedom to push back against these problematic elements would be great. They do allow this to some degree, but especially when it comes to Cerberus I feel like it is lacking in that department.

I do really like the loyalty missions, which is something that wasn't that relevant in ME1 (you could collect Wrex's family armour and that sort of thing but it didn't impact the game to the same level). There is also just SO MUCH MORE in this game than the first. To begin with you have so many more squad mates than the first, and it is a lot more work to get them all (unlike ME1 where everyone but Liara was on the Citadel). It is a bummer how little time you get to rock out with Legion on your squad though.

There are some really cool unique missions though that truly stand out. Kasumi's loyalty mission for example was great. It was a lot of fun going to the party and sneaking around like that. I wouldn't mind more like that in whatever comes next in the Mass Effect franchise.

The mission arrival is pretty unique too in that you don't have your squad there to support you. That being said it also forces you to kill 300,000 people which is not a very paragon move - even if it is for the greater good. I mean honestly all it does is slow the Reapers down by 6 months to the start of Mass Effect 3, and considering no one believes you until the Reapers are literally attacking Earth that time was not used wisely.

The game's final mission is also really cool, getting to use your whole squad for the first and only time. Your success depending on whether or not they are loyal and if you make the right choices on who should take which roles. I wish there was more of this throughout the series, or at least more missions where you need to choose more than just two people to come with you. It would encourage players to use more of their available companions and, in my case, give everyone who isn't a Krogan or a Turian the opportunity to get off the Normandy once and a while.

My biggest issue with ME2 is the project Overlord mission. Trigger Warning: discussion of terrible sickening treatment of an autistic person.

Playing this mission was the first time I had ever heard about autism (that I can remember anyway). The depiction of David and more importantly how he is treated (by his fucking brother no less) was incredibly traumatic to watch as a young teenager. While I am completely aware that I was playing a game intended for an older audience it is still incredibly sickening even now as an adult. The worst part, the part that I take issue with the most is not how Dr. Archer is portrayed or even that there was sensitive content like this (it wasn't handled well but if it was done properly with appropriate warnings, utilizing sensitivity consultants, etc. I think it could've been ok). I was incredibly tempted to skip this mission in my current playthrough, but I couldn't stand the thought of leaving someone (even a made up person in a video game) in the clutches of their disgusting brother, Cerberus, and that horrid machine they placed him in.

Overall, problematic and sickening elements aside, I do still enjoy ME2. It does feel like a little bit of a slog jumping across the galaxy for everyone's recruitment and then loyalty missions at times, but they are enjoyable for the most part. With that being said, my enjoyment is definitely tarnished compared to my feelings a decade ago.

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