Comments (0)

By Michael Charge, 01/06/2010 11:16 pm

Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Gearbox
Year of Release: 2009
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

Ah Borderlands. How different a game could be, just based on its art style. When they first announced this post apocalyptic shooter way back in the days of yore, it still had the same grimy brown look as used in every other Unreal Engine 3 game that has ever been made. A few months later, and after a full on rebellion  from the art team, we instead got a new “concept art” style of graphics. Oh and a witty change of humour.  And yes the game is also good if you didn’t know that by now.

Borderlands is set on the planet of Pandora, a wasteland world covered in desert where it is rumoured that beneath the planet there is a vault full of advanced alien technology. As usual with all these treasure hunting stories, many people do not believe in its actual existence thinking it to be a trap to lure people to the planet. However, you arrive on the scene as one of four treasure hunters (Mordaci the hunter, Brick the berserker, Lilith the siren and Roland the soldier). You then proceed to travel around this world, through each of the differently styled areas in search of the keys to the vault, doing quests for various people and wiping out most of the criminal leaders on the planet. To be honest, the story is actually a little crap – the whole “guardian angel” side of it is rubbish with some terrible dialogue. She pops up every so often to simply say “well done, but you haven’t faced you hardest challenge yet” and at one part uses a line from Bioshock that stands out a mile away.

Borderlands is a combination of RPG and FPS, focused more on the shooting dynamics side as opposed to turning it into a combat system closer to the dice rolls that were blatantly behind the combat in Fallout 3 and the pit of eternal horror that was Hellgate London. The shooting is solid; feeling slick like any other modern shooter should do but also showing its RPG roots by the numbers showing damage amounts flying off enemies and a big red critical flying off an enemy when you hit their weak point. On top of that, the game also has various elemental damage systems which add some benefits, such as extra damage over time and rather excellent effects when you kill.With quest completion and kills you level up as you’d expect, which grants you more action points to upgrade you abilities. The different characters you choose at the start are actual the different classes. The Hunter is effectively the sniper, Brick the tank, Lilith the mage and Roland the healer/support person. The classes are brilliant, not limiting you to a certain weapon type but rewarding you for playing in a certain style. Each class also has a special ability, such as the turret from the soldier. These abilities are most useful when playing as a team when they combine together. Pairing a soldier’s turret to heal and attack while a siren uses phasewalk to sneak behind an enemy allows masses of enemies to be mown down. In fact, the game has several moments where it simply throws masses of enemies at you to deal with which sometimes may be best thing ever. However at other times when every enemy is at level 30 it can be a little bit frustrating. However, death holds no terror as if there are some enemies around you at low health. If you manage to take one enemy down then you receive a second wind, which brings you back to life with full shields and half health. This is a brilliant feature that helps to get rid of some of the frustration of this sort of game.

A brilliant feature of Borderlands is its massive number of guns. I’ve done around 2 playthoughs and can back up with the fact there are many guns. How many I hear you say? BAZZILIONS!!!! Many admittedly are only simply stat changes, such as swapping out a scope in exchange for a damage boost, but the system can lead to some surprising setups. One weapon I found is a revolver with only two rounds in a magazine but has a scope, does fire damage and each round does 300 damage before the effects of fire. Another weapon is a shotgun with massive amounts of damage when fired or used in melee, but has no accuracy – meaning of course you need to be in an enemies face in order to use it. This system means each weapon feels slightly different from the last. However, there is one issue. It is quite possible that you may go through a play through and pick up weapons that aren’t actually that good. On the other hand you may, like me, find a weapon that is over powered and then use it through the rest of the game and possibly take it into the second game.

The graphics of Borderlands are awesome. If you liked the look of Crackdown, this has taken it to the next level by rendering a more organic landscape with this method. It really suits it, especially in the design of the enemies. The skags, small dog like creatures (not the female members of Eastenders), are among just a few of the many enemies model who despite fitting into several groups, still each feel unique. The characters all looks like they are straight out of a comic book, with pencil lines bringing out every last detail. The only slight disappointment is that although there are millions of guns, nearly all of the same type look exactly the same with a few changed parts based around the same basic model. This good sense of art design is coupled with a stellar piece of sound design. The voice acting is excellent, but unfortunately you don’t get very much use out of it. Apart from your characters, or the enemies, little quips (“Critical Biatch!”) and the occasional story section there are no long sections of dialogue which is probably to the developer’s credit. The game also has a brilliant sense of humour. Some come through in the dialogue, but many are simply from little things. Fans of Firefly will rejoice when they reach Jainynestown while Mad Max fans will be seeing references flying out of the screen. The game introduces with a snappy grindhouse style character intro, giving each a tag line. This includes the first boss Nine Toes. I won’t spoil it for those few of you who haven’t played Borderlands yet but believe me, it actually made me laugh so hard the first time I dropped the controller. You won’t laugh a minute like in Brutal Legend, but it will still give you a chuckle.

Finally the other important things. Borderlands was designed to be played in co op and supports it 4 players online and 2 players in split screen. When played in co op, the game feels more like an MMO than a simple co op game which does means it’s disappointing when it misses out several features. First of all is that the trading system is based upon dropping items and letting other players pick it up. This works fine with trusted friends but as soon as you play online, it does not work. You can’t trust 90% of the players online, and if you trade with them something important you won’t ever see it again most likely. However, don’t let that put you off trying it out. Another minor fault is for a game that is packed with millions of cool pieces of equipment, there is no storage system in the main game, leaving you to bid farewell to any kit you don’t use. Finally, the achievements are a very good mixture of things you would find normally just by going through the game such as discovering area alongside others which are a little bit strange. My advice is to try anything – like getting on a boat.

I do need to also make a quick mention of the PC version. It runs really well on low end PCs while the higher resolution textures also means it looks a lot better than the console alternatives. You can also export the details of any excellent guns you find as JPGs allowing you to brag to your friends about them (if that floats your boat.) However, the UI isn’t changed from the console version, making it feel a little clunky when controlling with a mouse.

Borderlands is not the world’s most perfect game. But it has all the best parts of an MMO in a competent shooter and one of this year’s greatest co-op experience. This is one game which really did need to get away from the usual grime of Unreal 3 and into a new and almost unique look.

DLC

Borderland’s three DLC packs all add something else to the game as all good DLC should do. However, you shouldn’t really feel you need to buy all three of them as they each have their flaws. I have written about this before in this article but I’ll reprint some of my thoughts here.

The first pack, The Zombie Island of Dr Ned, added more of the main game, with a whole extra set of missions outside of the normal story. It takes place on the aforementioned island, where the ministrations of a certain doctor (who isn’t just Doctor Zed from the main game wearing a moustache) have lead to no one dying and instead wondering around pissing off the Jacobs Corporation who own the island. It is the basic zombie fighting story (discover zombies –> fight zombies –> find out main villain –> ??? –> Profit!) which also threads in werewolves and claptraps shooting each other. What’s not to like? This pack also ramps up the comedy – some of the character descriptions are even better than last time and the tannoys throughout the island have some of the best instructions for how to deal with zombies.

Although it is pretty good fun, it is just more of the same play style you’ve had from the start of the game. But it feels like something that wasn’t 100% finished when the game was getting close to release and so had to be delayed.

Unfortunately, the second pack is not quite so good. Mad Moxxi’s Underdome shifts the focus to the combat in a simple arena which is not quite the way to go. The arena mode takes some inspiration from Halo with its differing rules each turn, such as your health constantly dropping or certain weapons being more effective. It does make the action slightly more challenging. However the round system is retarded. 5 stages per round and 5 rounds per starting game. Each match takes ages with no chance to properly rest between fights making the achievement for finishing all the matches a pain in the backside to complete. The pack also ruins the aim of the game by removing the rpg elements. When the game is focused on drops, xp and stats this change does make this pack only for completionists.

The final pack, The Secret Armoury of General Knox, adds on a load of extra things to Borderlands. These range from new vehicles and weapons to quests, but the best part is the new increase of the level cap up to 61 (turning it up 11 extra levels). It takes place after the end of the main game, with the evil Atlas Corporation sending General Knox after you, much to his displeasure. You have to work with your friend Scooter and a rogue Atlas employee to stop him and discover the secret armoury. Along the way you deal with Mad Moxxi and a bunch of midgets riding skags.

The DLC is great fun but my main issue is its design. The base game could easily be played by yourself and online – either way it was still fun. However, the DLC is next to impossible to play by yourself due to its difficulty as it seems they have turned the scaling off. Bit of a shame when you can’t get a group of people to play properly. Also all the new vehicles and enemies only turn up in the new area, so you can’t drive the new 4 person car in the main game.

Overall, I recommend buying the Zombie Island of Dr Ned for definite as it as some of the best bits in the entire game in it. The others are less so good unless you have a group you can work through all of it.

Comments (0)

By Michael Charge, 27/02/2010 7:00 am

The star of Bioshock wasn’t Jack, the Big Daddies or even Andrew Ryan – it was Rapture, the underwater city that acted as a living backdrop to the dramatic events of the first game. It was such a brilliant setting but still most treated the news of a sequel with contempt, thinking of it as unashamed cash in (a situation not helped by certain 2K executives talking about milking Bioshock for all its worth). I was less than interested in it and didn’t even think of picking it up despite the promising previews. Well, I finally caved, picked up a Steam copy and have to say I was glad I did.

Bioshock 2 takes place in 1968, eight years after the events of the first game. This time around you aren’t playing as an outsider coming in, but instead as one of the Big Daddies the gentle protectors. However, you aren’t any of the normal kind but instead you’re one of the Alpha Series, the prototypes before the designers decided that maybe it was a bad idea to give these madly devoted bodyguards the ability to throw fire and/or bees when they feel that their Little Sister is in danger. You have a very special bond with her which is slightly ruined when you are forced to blow your own brains out on New Year’s Eve 1959.

A large amount of the plot is based around the bond between you and your linked Little Sister, Eleanor. Throughout the game she is constantly in contact, offering you advice and leaving little gifts of plasmids and tonics lying around along with a jar of fireflies. However, Eleanor is the daughter of the new supremo in Rapture, Sofia Lamb (and before anyone shouts spoilers, this is revealed in the first 5 minutes) and Sofia is not too happy to see you back. There is a lot of times where Sofia, just like Ryan in the first game, berates you over the radio for coming in and wreaking the world and also pulls the stunt of locking you in a place and almost killing you (to a point, I wonder if Rapture included an “evil methods of revealing your identity” course). Lamb doesn’t quite have the same personality as Ryan or even Frank Fontaine (who has some brilliant audio diaries once you find his office) so you never feel like she is a major threat, she is just some crazy with a radio. Its also a bit weird that you only find audio diaries that mention Lamb in the areas in this game, when you are told that Lamb’s ideas spread through the whole of Rapture. That said, the diaries featuring socialist Lamb squaring off against capitalist Ryan in several debates are among the best sections of plot I’ve ever heard.

The areas of Rapture you’re shown this time around are all new with no repeats from the first game. It is mainly the pleasure areas, such as Lamb’s own garden where her and her bunch of crazy artists hung out thinking revolutionary thoughts (until they met a watery end) or Siren’s Alley, an area that went down hill until it became the Red Light district of the underwater city. They show a different side, yet they still share the look and feel with the cobbled together turrets, Circus of Values vending machines and the ever present dripping water (including a smart thing where if you stand under a drip you hear it clanging off your suit). The real standout is Ryan Amusement’s, a museum setup to explain the principles of Ryan to the children of Rapture. Its also a good place for those who never touched the first game to get some of the history of it, as well as be a little ironic. It shows just how good the level designers are when you wonder round the gift shop and notice the little details.

As well as loopy Lamb and Eleanor, you also meet some other new characters. The best of these, and one of my favourite characters from both games, is Augustus Sinclair. You may recognise his name from Sinclair Solutions, the makers of the plasmids. He is you characteristics southern gentlemen, whose entire goal seems to be to make money. He holds quite a few secrets about Rapture, Ryan and you and seems to drip feed them as you go along. He also acts as your guide through Rapture while also reminding you of your goal. He is a brilliant character and his eventually fate, while not upsetting, did leave me in the “Fuck You Lamb” frame of mind for the ending. Yet he is but one of many characters who you have to deal with, including two of Lambs lieutenants. I do have to say that the Bioshock guys know how to introduce their characters as pre splicing version before you enter their area – for example, one character is a priest so in the area before you see him, you find an audio diary of one of his sermons. This method is brilliant as it leaves you mind open to consider just what may have happened to the voice of the past you hear. Similarly to this is some of the audio diaries that relate to the previous game and Project WYK. Its a little thing that helps to link it to the previous game while also revealing some more of the goings on behind the scenes of Rapture

Your trek through Rapture also brings up several moral choices. As well as the Little Sisters, you also meet three major players in Lamb’s rise to power and have the option weather to spare them or take your revenge. Each of them also has a link to you, either back to your mysterious past or having just spent the last level trying to kill you. The choices are included but they feel a little bit manufactured. The fact a cowardly character simply stand in front of you as you walk towards him with a drill kind of ruins the effect – you’d think he’d be backing away as fast as possible. However, these moral choices do affect the ending in a way that is really really good. I can’t tell you exactly what’s its like as you have to see it. But the good one had tears starting to appear as it was just what you wanted.

So that’s all the plot line, but Bioshock 2 is still a first person shooter at heart. It’s the exact same mechanics as in the first game, with a selection of weapons and plasmids to use. There are a couple of tweaks such as the ability to dual wield weapons and plasmids which help to make the gameplay a lot quicker and faster paced. The new weapons (all designed to be similar yet different to the first games selection) feel a lot more powerful so gun battles play better. In fact the combat overall is just slicker, making it more fun and less of the chore it was first time around. Similarly, health and eve (aka plasmid juice) are handled in exactly the same way. Hacking (or plumbing as it was the first time around) has been changed to be a slightly easier way of simple button presses. The aim is to land it in the green or blue areas but landing it anywhere else ends with either 1000 volts or a flying drone wanting to put a couple of .45 rounds in your arse. Now I had no issues, but many people who are colour blind have complained about the choice of colours which can lead it them being unable to differentiate between items galore or face ventilation. Researching is also back, but now in video. The idea is the same (do research to get bonuses) but now you take a clip instead of a still. In the video time you have to use a mixture of guns and plasmids in order to gain the best results. It works better then turning you into a photography but it would be better mapped to a single button as opposed to being a separate weapon as you can end up selecting it by accident mid-firefight

The ending of the last game majorly fucked up when if brought in the escort mission for the Little Sisters. This time, the system is a lot better. After offing a fellow Big Daddy and adopting his Little Sister, you then have a chance to set up some defences around a corpse before gathering your very own ADAM. Of course this makes the local splicers go ape shit before descending on her in an attempt to take the precious. So you need to stop them (via bullet, drill or electro-spear.) Various tonics (gained by rescuing the little tykes) can help out making her gain more ADAM or do the deed faster but after two collections you have to drag her to a vent to either rescue her or get the munchies and harvest the slug from her. Luckily, when you are moving her around, she climbs on your back so there is no dragging around or waiting for her to work out how to walk AROUND the wall. Additionally the sound guys have worked out how to make

In terms of enemies, the Splicers are the most abundant. They have really gone downhill in terms of genetics, with all of them covered in grotesque tumours or with malformed limbs. However they are exactly the same when it comes to combat, although the grenade spammers have been kicked out. Instead they are replaced with the new boomers. These rather large gentlemen are basically like a gorilla, getting close to you and punching or throwing large chunks of the scenery at you. They feel like weak version of the Bouncer Big Daddies but are great fun to shoot up especially when they turn up in tuxes. The Rosies and the Bouncer versions of the Big Daddies are once again protecting little girls, but they are now joined by the Rumbler, who has a nasty habit of throwing turrets and RPG rounds at you. There is another Big Daddy type, but I won’t reveal them as they first turn up in a awesome moment. The fights with these tin cans are still as good as they were, having to plan out areas to trap before funnelling them into your killing zone. Finally, there are the Big Sisters who turn up once you have cleared out an area of Little Sisters. These fights are the true stand out, really having a feeling of terror when you hear the music and your low on ammo.

I do have one or two faults with the gameplay though. The first is the fact that despite being a massive clunking lump of metal you fall prey to a splicer with a wrench is a tiny bit wrong (what’s he doing? Unscrewing the leg joints?). I didn’t die very often but the deaths I had just felt cheap, with no real reason why I had to go back to the vita chamber. This game also lacks the whole “Oh No I’m going to die" fear just like the first due to the chambers but it does come with an option to turn off them if you like the whole permadeath thing. The other thing is the combat and most of the gameplay is simply dragged over from Bioshock 1. Its alright but it would be nice to have a few more changes seeing as you’re a rather different character to the simple human that Jack was.

The graphics and sound are both amazing. Its the exact same engine as the orignal so don’t worry about it not running on your PC if the first one was fine. It still looks as good as ever, with the water dripping and running across the ruined surfaces. The effects of the plasmids are pretty cool, as are the new guns with their ornate decorations on some while other look like some crap thrown together. Bioshock 2’s graphics are not techical as good as Crysis but the art direction is a lot better – every think has the same art deco look the first game got to a tee. Want to see art deco skyscrapers under water? Go for it! Similarly the music, a key part of the first game is back and as good as ever. The orchestrated soundtrack is perfect for the setting, with some songs that just help to add to the tension and bring it to a level where you’ll be absorbed into the game. I still love the old 50’s style music. There is that innocence in them that is in contrast to the ruined setting around it. Though I swear to go, the song “Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Boogeyman” has quite literally drilled a hole in my head and is now stuck in their.

Now, I’d be pretty happy at this point with the single player. But Bioshock 2 also has a multiplayer option (made by Digital Extremes who took part in UT2003 and UT2004) which is interesting to say the least. Its a basic COD4 style setup (kill dudes with guns, gain points to gain levels and new guns, rinse, soak, repeat) but with a change or two. The use of plasmids changes it up slightly and you can hack turrets in the levels to bring the pain, booby trap vending/health machines to make enemy players hate your guts or snap a picture of a fallen foe in order to gain a damage bonus. Or alternatively snag the Big Daddy suit and introduce your misguided enemies to a rivet flying at high speed. Game modes include the usual deathmatch and team deathmatch (complete with 1 life mode for both of them) as well as a few new ones. There is Adam Grab (in either solo or team) where each player attempts to grab hold of one of the little sisters for as long as possible, Capture the Sister (where one team aims to take the Little Sister from the defenders) and Turf War (effectively Domination, with Team Atlas squaring off against Team Ryan). So far, so normal.

What is different is the multiplayer has a story. You choose one of 6 (8 if you preordered) character, each with their own back story. The multiplayer battles are in fact part of plasmid testing for Sinclair Solutions. In between each level you can go back your apartment where you can change your loadout of plasmids and guns, choose your character customisation options or listen to a set of audio diaries that reveal a little extra about the world. Its a nice idea, but some missions that play directly into the story of Rapture would be rather cool. Imagine playing in the battle over the Kashmir Restaurant in 1959. The setting of Rapture is too good to just simply have battles with no more story then fight. The areas are all pretty good though, bringing back fond memories of the first games amazing settings. The multiplayer also has a bad case of the gremlins, which can lead to freezes, crashes or simply major lag. I also worry about the population on all three platforms due to the elephant in the room of MW2. However, the game does have multiplayer achievements that should guarantee at least a small amount.

Bioshock 2 is not a poorly made rip off sequel. It feels natural, taking the story on with a new insight into the mysterious world of Rapture. Its not as written as well as Bioshock but that’s like saying that 1984 isn’t as well written as Wuthering Heights – it is still miles ahead of an industry that brought us such crap as Rogue Warrior. The gameplay is better, it has multiplayer but it just feels familiar. And that’s a good thing. If you have played the first, play this to remind you of the good bits. If you have never been to Rapture, play this as well. You may miss a few references (WYK Project!) but its still a good intro to one of the best settings in games ever. This has to be a must play.

Ah, well I killed everyone and harvested all the little girls. BEST. GAME. EVER.

Comments (0)

By Michael Charge, 24/02/2010 1:07 am

Before I get into this let me say that Borderlands is a brilliant game mixing the genres of RPG and shooter into a fun co-op experience. It was my number 1 game of last year. However, I feel Gearbox may have dropped the ball on the 2nd and 3rd DLC.

So Zombie Island of Dr Ned was pretty good. Nice new area, some pretty cool enemies (Were-Skag! In a Straw Boater!) and more of the Borderlands humour. It felt like a true deleted scene, something Gearbox had in the drawer while they were making Borderlands but wasn’t quite there when Randy Pitchford came down and told them to get the thing sent off to be printed to disks. Its just a continuation of all the cool things that made Borderlands good. I wrote my review on the old site and it was reprinted on geeks.co.uk.

Mad Moxi’s Underdome was just a catastrophe. It was just stupid – focusing on the combat which isn’t quite Borderlands best point (its the RPG and loot-lust thats the main bit). On top of that, all of the challenges are not only really, REALLY hard (just ask Giles) but also monotonous. Its simply a hard slog to get through all of the parts in order to get the achievements. I still haven’t gone through this DLC pack due to these reason, and Giles only got through it via godlike patience and by utilising the split screen mode to lower the difficulty. Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb also found issues with the pack, giving it two stars out of five and saying:

“These are nice benefits, especially for players who have hit the level cap and are looking for something–anything–that will let them advance. But everything in the Underdome is a total hassle, and that gets old fast.”

So onto the Secret Armoury of General Knox and at first glance it seems to have all the required features – level cap increase, new cars, new guns and more quests. And those parts are pretty good. I’ve only really done the first couple of quests but it was a serious pain. In the first area, before you really seen much, you encounter your first set of new enemies, the Crimsion Assassin’s. These girls were hard to take down in solo play, even as the basic versions. But its the named boss that is among them that is the true pain – I actually had to trap her on a piece of scenery before slamming a load of grenades on top of her to kill her. Later on you have to fight through a road block, which almost made me turn off the game due to the difficulty. In solo, the difficulty is far too high leading to some very frustrating sections. I just hope that co-op is better.

The thing is, the rest of it is actually brilliant. Scooter, one of the best characters from the main game, is back and in the spotlight. In fact the entire thing is funnier even after 5 minutes play. Its just a shame the first taste is just a bit bitter.

Comments (0)

By Michael Charge, 15/02/2010 3:44 pm

(Warning: This Contains Spoilers That Are Apparent In Any Trailer Released By EA or Bioware)

Lets get this out of the way. I started Mass Effect 2 with a Mass Effect 1 character. Becca Shepard, Renegade Soldier, Saver of Wrex and Killer of Alenko (he was a bit shit). I had a fling with the blue alien and saved the council. I already had an attachment to my character, who may I remind you kicked the galaxy’s butt. It sounds weird to hear her voice coming from other female Shepards. But I digress…

Bioware’s latest Sci-Fi epic starts basically at the end of the original. Despite having saved the galaxy from the Geth and Saren, Shepard is left for dead after an attack that rips the Normandy into little bits (as well as providing a Dead Space style vacuum sequence which was pretty good). Two years later, Shepard awakes on an operating table inside a facility which is having 10 shades of crap blown out of it by its own security while simultaneous someone over the radio is guiding you out. For an intro, this is one of the best. Between the whole “death in space” sequence and waking up, you have a chance to edit an existing characters (such as from Mass Effect or a previous Mass Effect 2 play through) or to create your new one. It makes sense, with you having been basically rebuilt from the ground up yet keeping the same memories. The face editor still makes it hard to create good faces, but you can now share you characters face layout by a little number string in the top corner. You also get a chance to remind yourself of what happened in the first game later.

So after arming up, killing a few bots, shooting a couple of guys and meeting with two friends, you finally get to meet the Illusive Man, Mr Charlie Sheen himself. He must have the coolest office in the universe overlooking a Neutron Star (which changes colour depending on his mood) and seemingly empty apart from a chair where he sits doing nothing but acting snarky to people and chain smoking like there is no tomorrow. He informs you about the fact that human colonies are going and then the usual stuff (only you can save us! Go see for yourself!).

The main meat of the game isn’t actually fighting the Collectors (who are the ones taking the humans on a little trip) but instead recruiting and earning the loyalty of a team of elite people to use against the Collectors. Each character (apart from Mirranda and Jacob who you pick up in the starting area) has two missions linked to them and these are nearly always brilliant. Be it fighting through a quarantine zone to rescue a Salarian scientist or pretending to be a merc in order to meet up with an old friend, all the recruitment missions are fun. There are one or two exceptions but these are made up by their loyalty missions which are some of the best I have ever seen in any RPG yet. Not only do them help you in a gameplay term but also illuminates the flaws or defects in a character. Thane, a Drell Assassin, is foremost among these with a second mission that was tugging at the heart strings by the end.

The characters in Mass Effect 2 have seen a massive improvement. In the first game, many of them felt quite flat to say the least, but in the second this feels fixed. I gained an emotional link with most of them, apart from one or two such as Samara, an Asari justicar with some of the most annoying dialogue I’ve ever heard. Many other people who have reviewed Mass Effect 2 say the Salarian scientist Mordin to be their favourite character (and he is hilarious – especially a reference near the end of the game) but I still have a soft spot for Garrus, the Turian agent from the first game. Not only is he now a badass, but he also shows the change in the two games. In the first, he was the slightly naive agent, who normally represented the Paragon leaning in any circumstance. Now, he is a bit more rogue cop, down and dirty and more than happy to to shoot people in the face in order to get what he needs. He is just another part in showing the darker route Bioware has taken the game.

In fact, the new Paragon/Renegade setup makes a lot more sense. Its now more of a focus, instead of the hodge podge it was in the the first game where only specific things very rarely counted towards either value. Now nearly every conversation will end with a smattering of points into either value. I admit sometimes it does end up with some bizarre things (“YOU DIDN’T SAY THANK YOU? RENEGADE POINTS!!”) but overall it makes sense. The main improvement to this system is the new interrupt which just make sense. The first game was filled with moments where you just wanted to interrupt a long speech with a punch to the face. In the second, most conversations (though still too few) include an interrupt which occasionally helps the gameplay. The ones most speak about are throwing people throw windows or punching someone, but the best one is early in the game. You notice an engineer fixing a gunship. After a long briefing talk, you get the opportunity to shock the guy with one of his tools, which halts his work. It show two of the good things about the new system – it helps you later on yet it also allows you to play the supreme space badass, like your very own Mal.

Another improvement I love is the trimming down off the inventory system and RPG elements. The first game’s inventory was clunky as hell. To swap an upgrade out, you had to pause the game, go into a menu, find the weapon, swap out the upgrade system and then rejoin the fight. It totally threw off the rhythm of the combat as well as making it hard to deal with a large number of items of varying kinds. The second game cuts this down – upgrades are out totally instead replaced by research done on your ship. On top of that, all the weapons you carry are chosen at the very start of a mission or in weapon boxes along the way. This system feels more like a mission based shooter rather than a free roaming RPG and makes the game a lot more playable. Similarly the long complicated levelling up system is replaced by a more focused one. There are only 30 levels to rank up instead of sixty, but there are fewer skills to be unlocked. Each rank in a skill feels like its making a difference to combat, instead of the simply tiny stat bonus you sometimes see in RPGs. Instead of the eight skills each character had in the first, Shepard has six while everyone else only has four (three at the start with the last being unlocked via the loyalty missions). These skills range from old favourites (such as warp or pull) to new ammo powers to replace the upgrades. I really, really like the new systems. As with the conversations, it makes the game infinitely more playable and it just flows.

The new combat is also a huge improvement. First up though – the guns in the first game were basically unlimited ammo but limited by an overheat. In this they have been replaced by more conventional magazine based firearms. Its a slight shame as the old system allowed you to be less worried about missing shots when fighting but it does mean you have the cool effect of magazines littering the ground after combat. However it is outweighed by the new heavy weapons which have been added in. Unlike other weapons, these are usable by all classes and help to equalise the numbers when your shooting up mercs or geth. They vary in usefulness from the destructive but ammo eating nuke gun to my personal favourite the flamethrower but each and everyone is fun to use even if it is just to see the effect. There are 5 heavy weapons in the main game as well as two DLC ones (compared the the two or three of the other weapons) and their are what you expect from a Sci Fi shooter. Actually the limitation on the number of weapons makes tooling up for a bit of shooty shooty a hell of a lot easier. Overall, the combat has been tuned up based on the lessons of the great cover based shooters. It feels as though Bioware is leaning more to the action side of action-RPG. Oh, and the bloody Mako is gone, replaced by a shuttle system. Thank god.

Finally, the Normandy 2 should be mentioned. After your last ship was ripped into strips of metal, your employers thought it would be funny to give you a new ship with almost exactly the same layout. It did have a feeling of the background to it being simply “Because We Can” but it was pretty funny to walk round the new Normandy thinking, “Wow this place looked shit last time”. The Normandy has a variety of functions. The most used is getting you from place to place which is a little different. You don’t just jump into one system that has one planet – instead there is a mass effect relay in one system in every cluster and so you must fly between them. Its basically dragging a cursor, but you now have a fuel meter to look at. If it runs out it starts to drain into your mineral fund. These are used normally to research new upgrades for you guns and so loosing them is a bit of a pain, primarily because you have to play more of the stupid mining game. You basically scan the planet from orbit until you find a spike in a mineral’s concentration then fire a probe down. Its the most boring part of the game and so unbearable I ended up doing it while I watched episodes of How I Met Your Mother. It is less time consuming than travelling around to the planet but its just crap. However, it has to be done in order to get the upgrades need to get the best ending to the game. I prefer the idea of researching new stuff rather than having to go out and buy it, but the games mixes the two. You can buy the rights to research things from a shop, but if you find it in the field then it is automatically upgraded and usable. You can view these from a new private terminal that helps to flesh out the world along with your own private cabin. As well as various things such as an armour customizer (much more interesting than the preset armour suits of the first game) and a way of looking a your achievements, the cabin can be filled with stuff related to your ongoing mission. You can find your cracked helmet from your time in space, or buy model ships, fish or even a space hamster. The cabin also includes your own Personal Assistance who not only alerts you to new messages but also helps to cut down on time wasting by alerting you to when various members of your team wish to talk to you.

Right, time talk to technical. You can rave all you want about a game but you still need to mention the flaws at some point. So, the game has a few gremlins in it. Occasional sounds problems (such as clips stopping abruptly, cutting off sentences) and odd graphical glitches do slightly mar an otherwise excellent visual and audio presentation. It is bandied around a lot but Mass Effect 2 really does decisive to be considered cinematic. All the way through it feels like your playing through a strange combination of Star Wars, Star Trek, Blade Runner and Firefly all crushed together. Part of this has to be the amazing voice cast. As well as Martin Sheen, it also stars Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin (both from Chuck), Michel Dorn (Warf!), Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galatica), Shohreh Aghdashloo (her of creepy voice from Flashforward) and Carrie-Anne Moss (if you don’t know who she is, get the hell out) are added to the cast. On top of this, Seth Green and Keith David return from the first game and Shepard is once again voiced by Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale.

It isn’t really a major part of Mass Effect 2, but an important thing to include is EA’s new way of force feeding you the concept of DLC. In every new copy of Mass Effect 2 is a Cerberus Network Access Card. This is then attached to your EA account and it adds you to a stream of free content. Already (2 weeks after release) there are three sets of DLC on there. They are small pieces (with a whole new character being the largest) but they are however completely free. If you buy Mass Effect 2 second hand you can pay to join the network for around $15. Its a nice idea, but it can slow down the game starting as it has to login to a separate network.

So Mass Effect 2 is a brilliant game. If you’ve played Mass Effect then this is essential -  its the continuation of the story and a brilliant second part. If you have never touched an RPG before this point, Mass Effect 2 is a perfect introduction. Finally, if you’ve never played games before, Mass Effect 2 (if played on easy) is a pretty good introduction, with a good story and a pretty good introduction into both third person shooters and RPGs. If own a Xbox 360 or a PC, this is a must play and a must buy as the game has some serious replay value. It has multiple classes, loads of achievements and a load of decisions to try and tweak with. Play it and enjoy.

Lawson = Hot. Like to use my “mass effect” on her… (what the hell? seriously? that’s the best you could come up with?)