Broken Computer/Repaired Heart

Well the Dragon Age modding tools have officially destroyed my save files. With Dragon Age now left virtually unplayable I was determined to be mad at Bioware for a while for releasing a set of modding tools that can destroy your game WITH NO WARNING that it could do so; however, I found myself unable to be angry for long as Mass Effect 2 was just around the corner.

Let me get my fanboyism out of the way for a moment. KOTOR was probably my favorite game for a long time. The story, characters, and the control I had over the adventure kept me enthralled even though the game repeatedly crashed my PC. I unfortunately missed out on KOTOR 2 when my PC died sometime before its release and fell into playing JRPGs for solace (the horror). I actually missed Mass Effect's release and didn't even hear about the game until a friend brought it over for me to play. Long story short: I fucking loved it. The interesting (if fairly generic) story, the well developed characters, and the fun of kicking ass and taking names as Shepard reminded me why I loved Bioware so much. Plus, as my friend put it, there is a class that is basically a Jedi with a shotgun.

Now with the advent of Mass Effect 2 I have come to a startling and wonderful realization. Mass Effect 1 was kind of crappy. All my favorite parts were the story so I never thought too hard about the gameplay, but looking back at it now it seems archaic and kind of stupid. It was so liberating to have a combat system that made me excited to go into battle instead of wanting to skip the boring shooting sections so that I could get to the talking. It's a vast improvement.

But, Mass Effect 2 does more than improve the first game, it makes old game mechanics feel new. When I first picked up the game I thought it was so cool and added such tactical depth to have to change your heat sink. Then I realized that it was just reloading, but ME2 forces the player to pace their use of thermal clips and make sure that each weapon is getting the ammo it needs. The weapons too have a cool level of tactics. SMGs and assault rifles take down shields, heavy pistols and sniper rifles tear through armor, and shotguns... well shotguns are still a little OP, but hey, Jedi with shotguns! ME2 combines action and RPG almost perfectly. The shooter action keeps the combat heart-pounding, and the RPG elements allow for more strategic depth as the player has to know which characters to take when, and how to use them. This installment in the ME franchise has brought the combat up to the level of the story and made ME2 a strong candidate for my favorite game ever.