Eye of the Storm

Mass Effect 2 PS3 Review

Tuesday, February 08, 2011 By Zachary Piggott

Mass Effect 2 is finally on the PS3. The acclaimed sci-fi shooter RPG makes a solid debut on Sony’s console, giving PS3 players the chance to play the suicidal mission given to Commander Shepard. Each action the player chooses could mean the end of Shepard and his crew. However, it is a risk worth taking if it means stopping the Reaper threat and possibly saving millions. The first problem many have with the game is that it is the second in the Mass Effect trilogy. Microsoft owns the rights to the original, so PS3 players won’t be able to play the original, unless they buy a XBOX 360 and the original. This is the first problem; the game retells the entire story of the first game through a cut scene. The game doesn’t go that far into detail about the specific people he met, or the actions. I had to go online and ask friends about what happened to understand why he was fighting the Reapers, the main antagonist of the trilogy. However, the game looks amazing, using the same graphics engine that Mass Effect 3 will be using, which makes this one of the best looking games on the market. The game play is still solid from the XBOX 360 version, with cover fire and ordering your allies around easy to do. However, the one game mechanic they kept that I hate is the mining. Mining on planets gives you more money, but it so boring; I actually fell asleep while they were mining. The story though is still intriguing, as you must figure out why people are being kidnapped, and by whom. This all cumulates into a final boss fight, which is easy, especially if you maxed everything, and it doesn’t help that the final boss looks like a Sentinel from X-Men. Overall, the game is a great port of a great game. Also, the PS3 version is the best version for one reason: most the DLC released for the 360 version so far comes on the disc for free, along with the Cerberus Network, meaning PS3 players can get new allies without paying for it. Though it is hard to understand the story, especially with a terrible cut scene to explain what happened, and the mining is still terrible, Mass Effect 2 is still one of the best RPG’s out there, and Bioware deserves the recognition they’ve gotten. With Mass Effect 3 coming out Christmas time, it’ll be interesting to see how Shepard’s story ends. Mass Effect 2 gets a 9.5 out of 10.