Mass Effect 2 Deconstructed, Part One

Now that everyone’s had more time to spend with Mass Effect 2 and the 100% review scores are distant history, the articles pointing out the game’s flaws are starting to surface.  Here’s another one, courtesy of Critical Gamer:

The story the collection of big cataclysmic events that rock the galaxy in Mass Effect 2 is disappointingly hollow. The set pieces accompanying it are fantastic, encompassing the best moments of the entire game. But the story can be pretty much summarised in two or three lines and in sufficient detail. Let’s give it a try : Nasty Aliens being controlled by Nasty Robot-Aliens kidnap humans to make Nasty Human Robot Aliens. Hero puts together a team of intergalactic specialists to combat aliens and despite a slew of personal problems plaguing his team, eventually goes on to stop Nasty Aliens. The End.

OK, so Mass Effect 2 is in the middle of the trilogy, its purpose is to bridge the gap between the first and third games. But if the third game in the trilogy is similarly lacking in storyline depth it could do major damage to our retrospective opinion of the series as a whole. A space opera needs its twists and turns and we can’t help but wonder if Bioware had scrapped the over-large roster of companions (bye bye Jacob!), then perhaps the story could’ve been fleshed out a little more. Furthermore, the Collectors contained none of the intrigue or personal incentive of Mass Effect’s villains. Matriarch Benezia lent pathos and mystique to the first game, whilst the treacherous Saren gave us a worthy foe to pursue across the galaxy. The Collectors may have been equally as diabolical in their scheming, but there was no real focal point and no-one to personify their machinations. Instead it seems their purpose was simply to distract us from the Reapers, who are presumably being saved for the final instalment of the trilogy.