There isn’t a single game from Bioware’s announced trilogy that has any serious fan withdrawal, there may be some distastes of style, but there’s very little apprehension. And there’s no exception with Bioware’s highly successful series with Mass Effect and the upcoming Mass Effect 2.
This game has had drips and drabs of information fed to us, anyone who has been watching sharply would know that not only are we seeing the return of Shepard (yeah, sorry, he isn’t dead!) but a new sinister and dark plot follow alongside. There hasn’t been much that’s been revealed about this either, but we can surely confirm that from what we’ve played it’s definitely dark and sinister in tone as well as in literality.
It was unfortunate the part of the game we actually got to play was of the already revealed footage of E3 and the re-directed trailers we have seen.
It starts off with Shepard, and what seems to be a familiar face, flying in a ‘jet-car’ through the ever so darkly lit citadel city heading to an obscure, but all the more serious, mission. At first it is easy to mistake this cinematic as just a simple prologue, however that would be forgetting what Mass Effect is all about, Immersion. The cinematic is interactive, and you’re answering questions in real time. The interface for this is exactly the same as the original, with the circular analogue selected short conversational summaries at the bottom, and then the rest of the screen being in-game.
Once we actually got into the action, we were fumbling with the controls trying to remember how we play this not so simplistic RPG, as the demo really does throw you into the thick of it. Almost all of the character movement controls are exactly the same as Mass Effect; you have ‘A’ as the generic action button, you use it for cover and sprinting, ‘RT’ for firing, and ‘LT’ for secondary fire, and then the infamous sphere interface with ‘LB’, ‘RB’ and the thumbstick for directional weapon or power selection. It can all be a bit fiddly, and we didn’t get used to it during the demo at all. This not being a complaint though, as the real-time action mixed with team commands is a complex match to deal with. Once we figured out the basic movement, shooting, and cover mechanics, we were awkwardly making progress.
Moving onto the noticeable changes, most of these were to do with the visuals and AI interactions. The game looks sharper than the original, and the technical issues for the Xbox version looked to be resolved – at least we didn’t notice and pre-loading textures, and the framerate was rather steady throughout. As mentioned earlier, it’s a lot darker; the style is definitely using less vibrant colours, and instead swaps them for the gloomier and dim shades of the same bold colours. This though might have something to do with the mission being set at night; however there definitely was a difference to the setting and models making it all look sombre as well.
The AI has been revamped, they evade and take cover more often than not, and this goes for your allies as well as the enemies - of which I know was a frequent complaint in Mass Effect ending up with you ordering them to stay behind just so they wouldn’t die. Controlling them works exactly the same we found, the D-pad giving basic defend, attack, and grouping commands. The difference now being that you can issue these commands without as much worry, as the AI seems to figure out the rest themselves. what's more you can send your two team mates to two separate locations rather than having the two send out to the same place, which is great for tactical manoeuvres.
The whole mission spans a single introductory cinematic, a familiarly set-out, side-building fight, which is over within about 10 minutes, and then a conclusive cinematic with our found objective inside the building. It feels if not a little anti climatic in length, yet leaves us wanting more with the impressive film like cinematic at the end.
Other than glimpses of a much darker narrative, a multi-sided character set, and a gloomier style to match this, we didn’t get any real taste of any copious change. It is I know tough with a game renowned for its in-depth story and expansive universe to get an idea of any additions to this in a 15 minute demo. It is a likely summary that we felt the demo wasn’t the best representation of what Mass Effect 2 could be all about, but we can definitely sense it heading the right direction.
Mass Effect 2’s release date is January 26th 2010 in North America, and January 29th 2010 in Europe.
Preview By: Lee Burton
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