Dan Mead's Useless Site

My copy of Mass Effect 2 arrived yesterday from Amazon. Since I loved the original so much I decided to shell out the extra $10 for the Collectors' Edition. It comes in very nice packaging along with a making of DVD, a first edition of the Mass Effect Redemption comic book, and a Mass Effect art book. Not bad for a few more bucks.

Other than watching a few of the trailers for the game I went in without knowing much about the sequel. The first thing I did notice was that it is a two disk game. I really hope that means that it has some length and detail to it. At the very least I hope it has some more varied side missions. The ones in the first one got a little repetitive after a while.

My first advice for this game is that you really should play and finish the first game before you jump into it. It isn't absolutely necessary to play it, but it will really help you understand some of the background and countless references to the first game in ME2. Plus it really does continue the story of the first one extremely well and, in my opinion, will let you enjoy this game even more. Second bit of advice is that you keep your saved data from the first game. Not only will the new game import your character, but it will import game data so that it can reference some of the decisions that were made in the previous game. It really does have the feel of a proper sequel.

If you have played through the first game then you should be fairly familiar with the controls in this game. The overall look and feel of the game just seems to be one of the best that I have seen on the 360. The transitions between game play and cut scenes are very fluid. The sound is top notch. Like the first game there are plenty of background conversations that you can listen into as well as news broadcasts that I assume will open up some side missions like they did in the first game.

So far this game has not disappointed. Once I play through a few more missions and do some of the side tasks I will post a bit more on the game play and story.

Buy Mass Effect 2 at Amazon.

Update on Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 4:40PM by Daniel Mead

After playing for a few more hours last night I have to say that you really do need to play and finish the first game before you start Mass Effect 2. Don't think of it as a separate game. Think of it as Mass Effect: Part 2.