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Reviews, Xbox 360

Mass Effect 2: Arrival – Review

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Dr. Amanda Kenson has made a remarkable discovery regarding the arrival of the Reapers.

The final piece of downloadable content for Mass Effect 2, Arrival, leads directly into Mass Effect 3 and explained away some of the confusion I had after playing the demo for the trilogy’s finale.

Admiral Hackett reaches out to Commander Shepherd and asks him to undertake a rescue mission solo. An agent of Hackett’s has been working in Batarian space and has uncovered substantial evidence relating to the arrival of the Reapers. She has been apprehended by the Batarians however and is currently in prison. The Batarians and humans have a frayed relationship and if Hackett sent in a squad, this would cause turmoil; much like the relationship between the USA and Pakistan when a special forces squad took out Osama bin Laden. This relationship is why Hackett is asking Shepherd to go it alone. Hackett explains that it’s better for the operation to be viewed as the act of an individual rescuing a friend, rather than an act by the Alliance itself.

So, Shepherd sneaks into the prison and rescues Dr. Amanda Kenson and the two then battle their way out and back onto the asteroid that houses Dr. Kenson’s base. When they arrive Shepherd is shocked to see what Dr. Kenson has found – a Reaper artifact, and one that’s out in the open. Shepherd is immediately worried that everyone on the base has been indoctrinated as Saren had been in Mass Effect; Dr. Kenson claims that’s not the case and they begin discussing the importance of her find.

What Dr. Kenson has gathered relates to the Reapers arrival through the mass relays. Her crew had developed a plan to crash the asteroid her base resided on into the nearby mass relay, preventing the Reapers from entering the solar system. However, they had a change of plans because they had been indoctrinated. They overtake Shepherd who wakes up days later as his window of opportunity to save the day is shrinking. Shepherd proceeds to blast his way through the indoctrinated Alliance members until he reaches a lacking conclusion.

One of the hallmarks of the Mass Effect games has been the ability to shape Shepherd and the universe around him through key decisions. Arrival finishes in a way that seems (almost) ideal for a chance to make hefty moral decision but whimpers out, in spite of an explosion.

Ramming an asteroid into a mass relay has dire consequences for those in local space.

Arrival leads directly into Mass Effect 3 (despite the two year gap between games) and explains away my confusion over the soon to be released finale’s opening. Arrival is heavily combat skewed and not having Shepherd’s crew is pretty lame. It’s probably ideal to play Arrival to fully understand Mass Effect 3, but compared to the three other DLC packs for Mass Effect 2, it’s my least favorite. Plus I’ve explained much of the DLC anyways so go figure.

In Between Posts

In Between Posts, February 26, 2012

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I played the final piece of downloadable content for Mass Effect 2 last week, Arrival, and I haven’t had the time to write about it yet. It was decent, but didn’t grab me as much as the other ones I’ve played. I will push an article out in the coming days as I should have more time to write.

Other than that, gaming last week was pretty sparse. I played a couple hours of Skyrim plus the weekly co-op session of NBA  Jam: On Fire Edition that I’m used to, but school and work took up the brunt of my time last week. Oh, and I played a little bit of Phantasy Star.

Also, my girlfriend and I played through the first world of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I don’t have much to say about that. It was fun to play a Mario game cooperatively and it seems like a really solid platformer.

In Between Posts

In Between Posts, February 19, 2012

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I am stoked for Mass Effect 3! Playing the demo reminded me that I don’t have to wait much longer for it. Playing the demo also reminded me that I still had two pieces of Mass Effect 2 DLC I needed to play. I grooved on Lair of the Shadow Broker a few nights ago and will write a review of it soon. It’s solid though; of the three “main” pieces of DLC, I’ve enjoyed it the most and find it the best deal, and that’ll probably be the case after playing the final piece – Arrival, which I’ve read mixed reviews of.

I made the decision early last week to discontinue playing Phantasy Star, not because I completed it but because I figured I’d gotten what I wanted out of it. I played enough to get about halfway through it and thought the time I’d have to dedicate to it (another ten hours?) wasn’t worth it. I then changed my mind later in the week. It’s light enough that I can listen to a podcast and zone out before bed, plus I’d really like to complete it after reading it’s Wikipedia page and seeing that it’s garnered much praise over the years.

And of course, I’ve continued playing Skyrim, last week focusing more on the main quest.

First Impressions, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Mass Effect 3 – Demo Impressions

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I will drop Skyrim to play this game. Then I'll probably jump back into Skyrim haha.

Of the games announced for release this year, Mass Effect 3 is easily the game I’m most looking forward to. It’s a series I only fairly recently began playing – I completed the first two games in early 2011, but it’s a series I’ve quickly become infatuated with.

After a minute or two of customizing Commander Shepherd, the game proper began. Shepherd watches as a young boy plays with a toy before he is quickly ushered to speak with important political figures. Having not played the final piece of DLC for Mass Effect 2 (Arrival) I was a little confused on why Shepherd wasn’t in the position of power he formerly was. Whatever happened in Arrival, Shepherd stood trial for it and Lieutenant Anderson had a role in defending him. During this meeting, the Reapers land on Earth and begin causing havoc. Shepherd was brought in for a conversation on what to do and there were a few more times during the demo that I had conversations, although my options in these were very limited.

This demo see the return of a few familiar faces as well as someone new.

This stage sees Anderson and Shepherd fighting their way through groups of the zombie-like husks in order to reach the Normandy and escape. Anderson’s plan is for Shepherd to return to the Citadel and convince the other alien races that the Reapers are here and the only way anyone is going to survive is to work together. During this scene, Anderson and Shepherd battled husks and scaled destroyed buildings as the enormous Reapers launched attacks. It took about twenty minutes all in all and at the end, Anderson decided to stay on Earth and lend a hand to the fight on Earth. This stage had a strong subtext that the heroes were not going to be able to save everyone and I imagine there’ll be dramatic outcomes to the choices Shepherd makes throughout the game. As Shepherd flies away, he watches the young boy from earlier board a doomed escape vehicle.

The demo had another stage, this one farther into the game. It allowed me to upgrade Shepherd and his party of Garrus and Liara from the ground up, choosing which stats and abilities to upgrade. The gang arrived on the Salarian home planet in order to rescue a female krogan – an important concept for anyone familiar with the series. This stage had many familiar faces including Wrex, back in cahoots with Shepherd, and Mordin, the brilliant Salarian doctor. This stage was totally action-orientated and reintroduced me to Cerberus. Cerberus, for whatever reason, is trying to get to the female krogan, and it seems like they’re going to be a constant pain in Shepherd’s butt. This stage had many more weapons than the previous one and allowed me to use my party’s abilities. It didn’t take long for me to develop powerful combinations and become the Spectre I once was.

 

Cerberus will have to throw more than foot soldiers to stop Shepherd and his squad.

 

Mass Effect 3’s combat was really responsive and fast-paced, and blending my party’s weapons and abilities is still super fun. Even though it’s not an improvement, the information I got from targeting enemies was still super helpful; knowing their health and shield levels was vital to developing combinations of weapons and abilities. It seems like there’s a multitude of ways to spec Shepherd and his group still and I can’t wait to dive into the full game and end the trilogy when it releases March 6, 2012.