ME2 DLC To Tackle the Shadow Broker

As a series staple, the Shadow Broker has played a background part to most of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2.  The mysterious information network even held Commander Shepard's body for a time after his death at the start of Mass Effect 2.

For whatever reason, representatives of the Shadow Broker have been merely side characters.  Management types have been conspicuously absent.  Upcoming DLC will rectify this, as Liara T'soni will be joining Commander Shepard and his team to confront this shady organization in The Lair of the Shadow Broker.

I have to admit, I'm a little behind on the ME2 DLC front.  I have yet to purchase the Overlord DLC, but a second pack would certainly justify a 1600 point card dedicated to adding these experiences to my current Mass Effect 2 playthrough.

Emotional Investment

More and more about Mass Effect! What else will they tell us? What other tricks are up Bioware's sleeves?

I think Mass Effect 2 was an obvious advancement of the RPG genre. Much of what made it an RPG is veiled behind action packed shooting, streamlined leveling, and absolutely NO GRINDING. If that isn't an advancement of role-playing games, I don't know what is.

Obviously now that the dust has settled around that title, there's obviously more to learn about what Bioware is doing to make games like these. Kotaku's Stephen Totilo took an opportunity at GDC '10 to bug Bioware general manager Ray Muzyka about certain levels of "emotional engagement."

"There are lots of emotions you can have interacting with other characters in a game: hatred, love, loyally, friendship, remorse, sadness, grief — all kinds of different interesting emotions. As long as you're engaging people in that level, we think that's a more compelling experience."

I think this quote speaks directly to what Bioware did with Mass Effect 2. Looking at that game, you have the same layers of character interaction as you did in Mass Effect, but you also have entire missions dedicated to individual characters and what makes them tick. Obviously, vested interest in the characters means you're going to have vested interest in the game. Why do you think people talk about their interactions with characters in Mass Effect in the first person so much? When you take the role of "Shepherd," Bioware wants you to fill those shoes as completely as possible.

I'm interested to see, or hear or whatever, how Bioware furthers that kind of experience, that kind of connection, with the characters in the video game.

Playing Mass Effect Again

I finished Mass Effect and immediately jumped into Mass Effect 2, as I had planned when buying Mass Effect with refund credit around Christmas time. The effect was, to say the least, massive (*ahem). The plot passed by at a blistering pace, characters and elements of the story flowed smoothly, special thanks to transferring my save file from one to the other.

Still, I felt like I was missing out. I played both titles as a paragon character, always ethically and morally "good." I was left wondering. Way did I miss by not being bad? What did I miss by flying through each title and not taking in as many sights and sounds, especially when Bioware's galaxy had so many stories to tell.

I immediately jumped back in to Mass Effect (the first), deciding that I would take in the scenary this time around, play as a renegade, and mop up some achievements, of course. I've now found out that I'm not so motivated by the story telling, certainly not in the capacity I was with the first time around.

Mass Effect weaves a grand tale of heroism, danger, and politics, wrapped around a galaxy as far and wide as a big stretch of the imagination, but what happens when you know how it ends? Where does the imagination go?

I don't think the imagination is gone, so much as there are so many other games to play. I have this problem with RPGs, Mass Effect is just the same as Fallout 3. As much as I may enjoy the games, I have trouble staying involved. I have a high threshold for the hooks any given role playing game can sink into me.

How long do I need? With Fallout 3 I had to have at minimum a full hour of playtime before finding any level of involvement. Mass Effect took about half an hour the first time around. Now I find ME's brand of role playing to need about 45 minutes to an hour on the second run. I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs so much time to play an RPG. In fact, I heard repeatedly that several people needed an hour to get into Fallout 3.

How long does it take for you to get into an RPG?

REVIEW: Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 (ME2) is a good book. The player is sitting alone, media held firmly between two hands, and every time one chapter ends, it only drives the player to keep playing. ME2 is a real page turner. If the action doesn't drive the player, then the character drama does, or maybe the overarching galactic spanning plot.

First, a perquisite: if you care about valuing your experience in ME2, a playthrough of the original Mass Effect will be an investment paid back 10 fold. Reuniting with old friends will mean nothing without it, neither will some of the political issues running in the background of ME2's dynamic plot.

Once you've completed a stretch through the original, you'll be able to notice the subtle but saving improvements ME2 makes over its predecessor. The yawn-inducing vehicle sections have been surgically removed, and any problems you had with cover or combat have been streamlined into a more Gears of War kind of experience, minus the football playing lunkheads.

Ultimately that makes every little RPG experience the player is drip fed with that much more nuanced, precious, maybe even yearned for. What are the RPG experiences? The Paragon/Renegade system and talent building and character bits. I don't think anyone will be able to resist constantly heading to the next story mission, yearning to see what happens next. Of course it helps that a lot of side missions involve running from point A to point B delivering information or lost items. Not much can be missed when there's so little to care about on the sidelines.

ME2 is another game in a long strain of narative renaissance gaming seems to be going through. The dialogue branching, morality, and character development really launch ME2 into some kind of new generation in story telling. The gameplay has been dialed back, maybe refined, and then shot through a cannon, towing a much wider swath of the gaming population with it to the final battle with the Reapers.

All of these elements make ME2 the kind of roller coaster that doesn't scare people away, but still thrills those used to the more dangerous thrill rides. Is this where the RPG is headed? Mass Effect (the original) already differentiated itself and established the RPG genre with all of the shooting and western influences the Japanese RPG has been confusing western audiences without, but ME2 goes one further and allows those too scared of the leveling, grinding, and general work (oh no!) of RPGs to go ahead and jump right in. There's no work at all. My initial playthrough took a round 25 hours, and if you really get into upgrades, the scanning of planets will absorb several more hours. For an experience that will take the everyman gamer 4 times a typical Modern Warfare 2 campaign, ME2 retains a brisk and motivating pace. Now if only Playstation 3 gamers could get in on the experience and fund the Mass Effect 3 development cycle.

PLAY READ WRITE / REVIEW SCORE : 5 out of 5

Mass Effect Vs. Mass Effect 2

It seems like Bioware took much of what was criticized of Mass Effect and focused on that until, in the end, they ended up with about as refined a product as you could possibly get. That means all of the lackadaisical driving sections and a lot of the RPG elements have been replaced. Powers have been mapped to individual buttons, and genre sections have been removed altogether.

Even hub worlds are more streamlined, and the narrative is given greater focus. Most of the time, combat portions of missions will take you away from the hub world, and transfer you back once you've wiped out all the get or mercenaries or whatever. I don't want to give too much up front before completing and reviewing the game, but his aspect of hub world and off shoot keeps the player from ever getting lost. While I haven't had any first hand experience with Final Fantasy XIII I have a feeling that experience will be shaking hands with much of what Mass Effect 2 does.

This finely funneled narrative is really what will make all the difference in RPGs in the future. What is the evolution of the RPG? How much of an RPG do you really enjoy? Does anyone really love random encounters? How about an over-world with no real direction? Do you like grinding so you can beat a boss that's standing between you and the end of a dungeon, the continuation of the narrative? Personally, I only really enjoy the story, the narrative, the world, the characters, and those things don't make 20 spare hours of grinding and leveling worthwhile to me, especially when other genres are getting fully competent at telling stories within their gameplay parameters.

I'm nearly done with Mass Effect 2 and a review will be up soon. Suffice it to say, I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience thus far and I will purchase any amount of DLC that is released. Much like Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed II, I just can't help but get enough of the world Bioware has created, or enough of the gameplay either.

I guess I've decided

Well, I suppose I was already leaning towards Mass Effect because Bioshock 2 comes out a little after Mass Effect 2, but the following Launch Trailer really seals the deal. It seems like more and more game companies are getting a handle of how to put together a Hollywood Blockbuster style trailer that really sells a game. Of course, that means nothing if the content in the trailer is never really reached in the game. How much control will gamers have over the action packed into ME2's launch trailer? We'll just have to wait and see. Until then, check out the launch trailer (courtesy of GameTrailers) below.

Video Games | Mass Effect 2 | Launch Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock 2?

I have two games that I haven't finished, and both of them having sequels releasing in the next month. This is quite the dilemma.

I've had Bioshock since its release, originally on PC, and later on Xbox 360. Owning two copies of the game doesn't really guarantee that I ever finished it though. Maybe it was the prospect of starting it a second time (or third or fourth if you count my playthroughs of the original demo), that never really got me through. Something about the combat or the way I'm constantly running out of ammo, or the scare tactics just turned me off from the game. I was definitely in to the plot, and I know I wanted to keep playing to see what happened, but it was just taking so long to get through. I'd get lost, or run out of money, ammo, or health (or all three at the same time), and get frustrated. Then of course, something else came out and I stopped playing Bioshock. With the sequel on its way, and my having already played through a healthy chunk of the opening act, my interest is piqued, but there's a challenger on the horizon.

Mass Effect found its way into my hands, specifically because of its impending sequel. I had never played the original, but after seeing a demo presentation of Mass Effect 2, my interest skyrocketed. When I had some walking around money at Gamestop, I picked up a used copy of the first ME and have since made my way through the first two planets. Of course, having to back track due to failures and not saving or the game freezing on me has certainly made it difficult to pick back up and finish. With Mass Effect 2's release on the very near horizon, I'm wondering if I want to pick up the original and get through it to enjoy the next installment. Of course, it hasn't helped that I've been spending a lot of time on MW2's multiplayer in an effort to get to level 70, or that I've also got The Ballad of Gay Tony and Bayonetta to play through.

So what'll it be? While I'm in southern California, and before school starts up again, I'm determined to beat one of the originals to 2010's anticipated sequels. If you're reading PLAY READ WRITE today, let me know what you think and drop a line in the comments.