5 Niggling Things: Mass Effect 2

Since its release, Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 has gone down not only as the best entry in the original trilogy, but also one of the best role-playing games of all time. I’ve played through it at least 6 times over the years and recently having gone through it again, it’s time to give it the 5 Niggling Things treatment. While Mass Effect 2 nears perfection, a few noticeable flaws hold it back.

Be warned as there are NUMEROUS SPOILERS for the game throughout.

During this scene on Freedom's Progress in the first act of ME2, the sound cuts out as the heavy mech enters

1. Framerate dips and out of sync audio on the PlayStation 3 version

Releasing one year after the original Xbox 360 and PC versions in 2011, Mass Effect 2 on PlayStation 3 did receive slightly lower review scores on release with many critics pointing out the version’s technical problems. While some of these (including a glaring save glitch which deleted your files) were patched out, the version still has problems that affect the game’s overall immersion. The game’s sound, particularly in cutscenes often won’t sync up with the action taking place. This is especially noticeable in the more intense moments, almost as if the game’s audio has trouble keeping up with the proceedings. It’s a small hiccup that doesn’t affect gameplay too much, but in a title that desperately wants you to become immersed, having these inconsistencies can muddy the waters a fair bit.

2. Kasumi and Zaeed’s basic dialogue and interactions

As characters placed within DLC packs, the sly thief Kasumi and all-around angry mercenary Zaeed were always going to have a difficult time gelling with the existing crew members in Mass Effect 2, but their disappointing aspects stem from a lack of consistency; both characters receive loyalty missions from the moment they’re recruited and once you complete these, both characters retire to the crew quarters and engineering decks respectively. From here, their contributions to conversations (outside of mission dialogue) are relegated to simplistic lines that often repeat, with the occasional new lines coming in depending on the player’s actions. It’s a shame that Bioware went through the effort of giving both characters their own loyalty missions but didn’t follow through with the production value to make them feel like complete parts of the crew back on the Normandy. This makes them stick out for the wrong reasons, particularly when in Mass Effect 3, the missions Kasumi and Zaeed are involved in have enough production value to keep you interested.

3. The Collector Invasion plot hole

For the most part, Mass Effect 2’s story is exceptional, transporting the series into darker territory while delivering a more urgent threat in the form of the Collectors. The sole plot hole in the entire game occurs shortly after finding the Reaper IFF. You’re almost set to launch your assault on the Collector base and EDI says: “I suggest you take the shuttle to access your next destination”. So, taking all 12 squad members with them, Shepherd leaves the ship to go… somewhere… Meanwhile, on the ship, the player finds themselves in control of Joker as Collectors invade the ship, abducting the entire crew in the process. It’s an incredibly creepy scene and a strong prelude to the game’s fantastic endgame sequence, but the plot hole does diminish things a bit. Where did Shepherd and company go? How did all twelve of them fit on one shuttle? My best guess is that they headed down to a backwater planet for a kind of team-building exercise to get the squad working together cohesively. But even after the Commander returns to the ship, there’s never a full explanation, which could have been easily rectified with a line of dialogue or two. It’s the only real issue I have with the story at a glance.

4. The final choice (and its ultimate lack of consequence)

In Mass Effect 2’s final moments, Shepherd and company head to the centre of the Collector base, finding the source of the human colony abductions in the form of a gargantuan human reaper under construction. Say what you will about the final boss of the game; my issue is with the final choice the player must make. Either destroy the base completely or trigger a radiation pulse to kill the Collectors and leave the station intact for humanity’s own use. There isn’t much in the way of build-up to this decision over the course of the game; you learn a fair bit about the Collectors and their goals over the course of the game, but the pieces don’t all come together coherently. Instead the Illusive Man pops up on a transmission at the critical moment to quickly drop the choice on the player’s mind. The game could have used more build-up towards this moment and this lack of impact continues after the end of Mass Effect 2, with characters delivering basic reactions, not to mention the minimal impact it has on Mass Effect 3.

5. Legion’s back-ended conversations and lore

Towards the end of its 30+ hour adventure, Mass Effect 2 drops one of its biggest surprises; a lone Geth trooper, coming to be known as Legion, can join the squad; after killing hundreds of the vicious machines in Mass Effect 1 (eloquently summed up by Shepherd’s renegade line: “Every other Geth I’ve met tried to blow my head off”), the shift catches the player completely off guard. The avatar of the Geth’s artificial consensus is a fascinating character, with an excellent amount of effort put into his backstory, especially his ultimate fate in Mass Effect 3. When you first meet the ambiguous Geth trooper, you want to learn everything about him but because you don’t recruit him until the final act of the game, there isn’t much time to explore his character before you complete his loyalty mission, get the aforementioned invasion of the Normandy and subsequently blast off to the Collector home world to take them down. Patient players can uncover a great deal of information from Legion regarding their war with the Quarians and their overall hegemony, often operating collectively to achieve peak performance in both combat and bureaucracy. Many players will miss these intriguing nuggets shortly after finishing Mass Effect 2, especially if they proceed straight on to the final act of the trilogy. Bioware could have included more options after the loyalty mission, but before the Collector invasion to balance this out a bit more.