Mass Effect 2

STATUS: COMPLETED (twice)

RATING: 5/5

After many of my friends telling me to play it, and being disappointed in me for NOT playing it, I sat myself down, and finally told myself that I was going to play through Mass Effect 2, whether I liked it or not. I say 2 because at the time, I may or may not have owned an XBox 360, and didn't care to attempt (for probably the 3rd time) to play through the first one. The PS3 version helped a ton with that, because they gave you an interactive comic that summarized the plot of the first game. So i made my choices in that, and went on with my first playthrough.

Playthrough 1 - Having little experience with shooters in general, (aside from my Uncharted 1 and 2 playthroughs) I went in being pretty terrible at the combat. Luckily I quickly got used to it, and started to greatly enjoy the game. Honestly, there wasn't a lot I DIDN'T like about it.

I decided that I was going to be nice-ish the first time I played the game, and while it made for some pretty good dialogue, I found that I usually wanted to make the "bad" decisions. I saved that for the next playthrough though. I definitely enjoyed some team members' story-lines than others, but I feel like that comes with any story-heavy game.

This was the playthrough that I obsessed over the most, even without my ass-hole conversation choices. I went to ALL of the planets to do my probing (hehehe), and did as many side-quests as I could find, minus the DLC (again, saved that for later).

I think the silliest part of the game, was when it came time to "romance" one of the team members. I love the shit out of Garrus, so clearly, that's who I chose, and it was the best. He was super awkward about it, saying things like "I'm going to do some research to figure out how this is going to work." I tested his reach, and he tested my... flexibility. I LOL'd.

In the end, I only lost one party member, and it was because I did her loyalty mission too close to another's, and she ended up hating me. But I thought "whatever, i'll just make sure everyone stays alive during my next playthrough."

Playthrough 2 - THIS was the fun one. I decided to be the jerk that everyone loves to be, and go full Renegade. Kicking people off super tall buildings, punching stupid reporters... Who DOESN'T love that?! I didn't get super obsessive this time, since I just wanted more. I DID, however, play the DLC, minus "The Arrival." (I'm still working on it... leave me alone.) While "Project Overlord" was fun, I was WAY more into "Lair of the Shadow Broker." The story was just more well done, and left you with something to work with when Mass Effect 3 comes out.

While I loved MOST things about this game, there was something that made me want to throw my controller every time. THE FUCKING HUSKS. I don't know what it was, but every time i came upon the buggers, I died multiple times. Whether it was just my lack of coordination, or the classes that I picked, the bastards killed me, over and over. Oh well. I still conquered them. :D

All in all, I loved this game, and will play it again, in preparation for the next one.

-KT