Mass Effect 2 PS3 Reviews

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Written by Brother None on January 30th, 2011

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So, as one of the major features of the PS3 port, it's probably a good idea to cover Genesis. The art is done by Dark Horse comics and it's narrated by either the male or female version of Shepard (this comic book starts up after you pick Commander Shepard's gender and do the intro level), and it generally does a good job covering the major decisions you could have made in the first game. Unfortunately, some of the choices you could have made were left out, like Conrad Verner, but I don't blame BioWare as the comic does get pretty long. With only a few dialog wheels to select various story choices as the only real interaction, the comic still takes a good 15 minutes or so.

We should probably talk about what some sites and forums have called the (Mass Effect 3 engine) that the PS3 port of ME2 runs on. It's important to note that both games and all ports run on Unreal Engine 3, so all you're seeing is a few tweaks to how it runs. You will definitely see some moderate improvements in texture quality and lighting over the Xbox 360 version of the game, but it's important to note that the PC version is superior when it comes to outputting the sharpest resolutions and smoothest frame rates. Even a modestly-equipped gaming PC built in the last couple years should be able to push out 1080p graphics at nearly 60fps in ME2, and while the PS3 port still has marginally better shadows and lighting overall, I think the PC version gets to hold onto the image quality crown.

The first and most important order of business is the interactive comic book, accessed via online code provided within the retail packaging, that summarizes the plot of the predecessor and allows you to make five pivotal choices that will carry through to the game proper. Those who have played the first Mass Effect, however, will keenly note that they're tens, if not hundreds, of decisions that actually carry over. And really, the comic is an extremely cost-effective but short-sighted alternative to porting over part one of the trilogy, which you must experience to truly understand part two. It's like reading the The Two Towers only after glancing through the SparkNotes for The Fellowship of the Ring; understandable, maybe, but blasphemy nonetheless.

Just what was Mass Effect 2, many of you might ask. (What was all the hype about?) Well, I'll tell you what it was. Mass Effect 2 was simply the best game to have been released last year, and possibly one of the best games we've ever played. Yes, it was that good, and those of you who have played it will most probably agree. It had an awesome storyline, great characters, great gameplay and awesome graphics. Brilliant production values all around made it seem like an awesome high budget space opera feature film. Many might even call Mass Effect 2 the Empire Strikes Back of video games.

A lot of people even hated ME2 for turning into a TPS rather than an RPG, but what they didn't understand was that after all, Mass Effect never had been about the gameplay, or what genre the game was. Even Mass Effect's core gameplay, the shooting and the cover mechanics, were severely flawed. Mass Effect had always been about the story, about the character cast, about the weight of the choices we made. And while Mass Effect 2 did almost everything it attempted rather perfectly, it was only this area the game showed how immersive and brilliant a game can be.

And now, this legendary Role Playing Game, or Third Person Shooter, or whatever it was, has made its way to the PS3. The question is- is it good enough? Does it up the ante as far as BioWare games are concerned, or does it disappoint all those who had been expecting the same experience that the Xbox 360 and PC owners got treated to last year? We'll find out in this review.

Hybridization is kind of the rule in games these days. You've got your action/RPGs, your puzzle/shooters . . . hell, there's probably a survival-horror/kitchen-sim somewhere. ME2 isn't so much a hybrid as a hydra, or maybe a chimera, a triple-headed threat in which every element could stand fully on its own. If it were just a role-playing game, it would be one of the most satisfying. If it were just a third-person tactical squad shooter, it would be one of the tightest and hottest. If it were just an interactive CGI sci-fi film and conversation simulator, it would still be the best by default, because nobody's really doing what BioWare does. All three aspects give and take from each other, one experience informing the next to create a relentlessly engrossing whole.

On opening the box you're greeted by a manual so sparse that you could be mistake it for one of those scraps of paper that have information on customer care lines and you wouldn't be far from it. It's a loosely stapled bunch of papers that have the dope on your warranty, the PEGI rating system and all other things most of us don't care about. All done because the publisher would like to be seen as environmentally friendly. Quite ironic given that there are two double-sided full color adverts for Dragon Age 2 and the Mass Effect 2 Cerberus network occupying the same area (all pictured below). You do get the full manual in-game though.

And it gets worse. As you all know the PS3 supports mandatory installations onto your hard drive. We were greeted by almost an hour long installation time for barely 5GB of data. But according to some sources, the more free hard drive space you have, the faster it installs almost to half the time it took us. Looks like Gran Turismo 5 isn't the only game around with a painstakingly long installation period. But the trauma doesn't stop here.

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