Mass Effect 2 = trophy wife game (pretty, but no substance)

I have invested 32 hours thus far into Mass Effect 2, the sequel to the game I blogged about back in March of 2008.  The gameplay is very similar and nothing seems really novel to me; however it remains a fun game.  Only part that is truly disappointing?  I deleted my Mass Effect 1 savegames so I could not import my character which gets you crazy bonuses.  I suppose it makes the game more challenging (I am doing the first playthrough on Insanity difficulty), but I will not make this mistake again.

In terms of the plot, I think it could have been better, although admittedly I am only likely 70% of the way through the game so I haven’t seen the dramatic twists that (ironically) typically arrive at the climax.  Much of the game is retrieving team members, which after 4 becomes pretty boring.  There is also one enemy type, a YMIR Mech, that is just a pain to fight and typically causes multiple restarts if there are 2+ of them at once.  It is not fun, does not add to the plot, and just is irritating.

I’m also disappointed with the depth of character customization and leveling.  Your main character has a max of 6 powers that have 4 different levels each you can build up.  On the fourth level of each power you get 2 options to further specialize, typically going for power or endurance/duration/recharge or affecting just you or the entire square.  It’s very surface level and is upsetting that I can’t customize more deeply since the rest of the game is so deep.  Team members are worse, only having 4 powers to level up.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, the options for armor and weapons are even worse.  Rather than finding hoards of guns and selecting the coolest/most powerful one you like, you gather 2-3 versions of each weapon class (Pistol, SMG, Sniper, Rifle, Shotgun) throughout the course of the ENTIRE game and then just can pay to increase its damage up to 50% and add extra damage against shields/barriers/blah… Armor is much the same way, but you only customize your own armor (not teammates’) and you find even fewer pieces of armor during play; i’m not actually even sure where I got the extra armor pieces since you never actual “FIND” it while exploring.

So I guess overall, i’m not that happy with Mass Effect 2.  It is aesthetically pleasing, and consumes a great deal of time, but I think once I’ve earned my 1,000 achievement points i’ll send it back to #Gamefly and never think of it again.  At least until Mass Effect 3 comes out and I am pleased to find out I still have my ME2 character to import.