Mass Effect 2: Choices don’t matter
Let me first say that Mass Effect 2 is a great game. The game did a lot of things right, but every game has its weaknesses. I’m not going to say that Mass Effect 2 sucks or something like that because it would be stupid to say so about this game.
So what’s my problem with Mass Effect 2? Before I begin, I have to say that I had spent over 40 hours to finish it for the first time. Yes, I know that’s a lot of time for a first play-through. But if you consider that I had completed every mission (including side missions) in the game and the fact that I had spent a lot of time scanning planets for resources, you will see why it took me so much time to finish the game. Also, I was enjoying my time with Mass Effect 2 so I wanted to get the most out of it.
Here’s the problem: I don’t have any motivations to play it again! Why, you ask? I’m not excited to see the story once again because the moral choices in Mass Effect 2 don’t impact heavily the events that occur in the story like the moral choices in the original game did. I played the first Mass Effect three times and I still remember many of the choices I made because they were critical. On the other hand, I can’t think of any critical choice I made in Mass Effect 2.
Your decisions in Mass Effect 2 do affect minor things like which character you want to have sex with? Will you do this mission or not? Will you help your squad mates in their personal missions? Which abilities will you be upgrading? If you had played the first Mass Effect, I think that you remember at least two choices that impacted the story of the game. Do you remember Wrex part where you have to decide if you want to kill him or Convince him? Do you remember when you have to decide between rescuing the council or saving humans at the end of the game? Sadly, choices like those don’t exist in Mass Effect 2.
If you managed to upgrade the Normandy enough before going to the final mission (suicide mission), you can finish the game by losing some of your squad mates or you can finish the game without losing anyone. And the final decision you make at the end of the game will be affecting only what will happen in the final game of this trilogy, Mass Effect 3. And that’s it. I agree that your experience differ from my experience in Mass Effect 2 because the game gives the player the opportunity to import his save files from the first game which proves my point that the decisions that will be impacting the story in Mass Effect 2 were originally taken from the first game. Not the decisions you will make in Mass Effect 2.
Let me talk about another great game made by Bioware which did moral choices in a better way than Mass Effect 2. In Many times during my time playing Dragon Age: Origin, I found myself putting the controller down for over five minutes just wondering which choice I want to select. Why? Because choices do impact the story of Dragon Age: Origin.
That’s how I feel about the game now and that’s why the game isn’t perfect in my point of view. I miss the powerful choices that made the first Mass Effect such a great game. The folks at Bioware have concentrated too much on improving the combat, side missions, the graphics, squad mates stories and they forgot about making choices matter.
Hottest Articles
Games we recommend
Polls
Loading ...Share & follow
bleh , have yet to buy the game and try what u said in this article.
Posted on February 5th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
The choices you make in Mass Effect 2 will greatly affect what happens in Mass Effect 3. I mean, it’s the middle of the triology. It can’t exactly be way more epic than how Mass Effect 3 is going to be.
Posted on February 5th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
if you play your cards right, you can finish the game without loosing anyone!
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 12:15 am
I politely disagree, good sir. The suicide mission alone tops every choice in Mass Effect 1 in terms of resonance. It’s subtle, it’s not obvious like “let wrex or the citadel die” and “ashley or kaidan”. You have to choose carefully based on relationships and the personal ability of your characters. It is possible to lose basically everyone on your crew if you make bad decisions and I am sure it will effect ME3 greatly. Until we play 3 you can’t really say the decisions you made in 2 will have no merit or effect on the outcome of the universe.
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 12:45 am
We all have our own opinions guys. He played the game and loved it. I have to agree that the “big” decisions seemed to be lacking in Mass Effect 2, but that was only because the decisions that you make are much more subtle and nuanced. This wasn’t a deal for me and if you read the article it wasn’t for the author. He simply doesn’t have the want to play it again. I have to agree with him based off the fact that I have played through the title once and am having a hard time going back to it. It just doesn’t seem like there is that much (other than who will be alive in 3) that will make a difference. Now a playthrough of 1 and 2 again on the other hand…
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 12:58 am
@ Duncan:
I have never said that the choices you made in Mass Effect 2 won’t be effecting the story of Mass Effect 3. you missed the point here. The game gives you the feel that you’re recruiting a crew for the suicide mission and that’s it. The core story remains the same which makes the story predictable. That’s the problem here.
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 1:05 am
The chioces in mass effect 2 have a huge impact on the story, all of the loyalty missions basically give you a choice were you either do what is best for your team or best for you. Some missions you have to consider if this one act is more important then having your entire team up for the final mission. As well Bioware had to ensure a certain continuity into the next game, if all of the decisions had a massive impact on the story and game, they wouldn’t be able to import your decisons again, there would just be too many variables to deal with.
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 1:11 am
I’ve got to disagree with you here. Just because the game doesn’t have as many decisions as the first one doesn’t mean they aren’t there. You’ve got to keep in mind that the decisions in the first game are, for the most part, setups for ME3, which could be said even more so for ME2. Just because the effects aren’t as visible throughout the game in this one doesn’t mean they don’t affect anything. In fact, the decisions throughout the first two games were primarily setups for ME3. One last thing… while your decision may not appear as major in this game, the progressive decision made through the whole game will have the largest effect on the third game.
Example A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZY-sXrQeh0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5pESyYgJLk
Example B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ6rtXRrrXI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luKRJHOK6BI
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 1:41 am
did you destroy the geth base or rewrite the virus? did you let garrus kill his target or convince him not to? did you help tali or did you get her banished from the fleet? did you awaken grunt or legion? did you choose between samara or her daughter? did you destroy the collector base or leave it for Cerberus to study? im sure im missing some, but come on. either you have serious memory loss or you didnt play the game. there are plenty of choices.
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 3:16 am
Did you kept the cure for genophage or not?? Thats one of a *big* choice to be made.
Oh, and by the way, what about the geth war?? You told the quarians to stop thinking about it or go fight right away?
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 3:33 am
The author’s take on the game’s choices is very simplistic. There are many decisions made in Mass Effect 2 that may seem subtle… but I’m sure Bioware is crafting those seemingly insignificant choices that may or may not come back to bite you in the ass in ME3. That is the genius of the team at Bioware. Their imagination is limited only by budget and hardware constraints. I have no doubt that choices made in the second part of the trilogy will be brought to fruition for the conclusion. And I cannot wait to see the ramifications. Also, there are many decisions that I found to be profound during the campaign, so much so that I had to pause and actually reflect on what I was being asked to decide because I really did want to make the “right” decision for my personal Shepard. Whether these were simply decisions about who should live or die, or decisions with larger implications I found it fascinating in how the tale was crafted. I cannot remember a game that has made me actually care about the characters like the mass effect series. I absolutely had to have miranda, tali, jacob, garrus, ashley, and liara survive to the 3rd game. I would feel incomplete if that did not occur. Also, while I chose to sleep with miranda (she was too smokin hot to turn down), my heart is with tali… which means I need to have a save game where I choose her as my love interest. There are many small decisions such as this littered throughout the game, as well as the large ones mentioned by others in this post. Good job Bioware. Tremendous gaming experience.
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 3:55 am
SPOILERALERT
U can get shepard killed and u can get all the others killed too. Or save them all.
U can chose to save the enemy shis or destroy it. Allso all those ghenophage choses. So i would say those are pretty big things to alter the story
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 11:03 am
@erkki @ rob
Those choices will change what will be happening in Mass Effect 3, but I didn’t see any choices that could change the base story of Mass Effect 2. Most of all decisions you made in Mass Effect 2 were geared towards the outcome of mass effect 3.
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 11:12 am
“If you managed to upgrade the Normandy enough before going to the final mission (suicide mission), you can finish the game by only losing one of your squad mates.”
^All of my team survived.
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 11:48 am
the choices affect whether shepard and other characters will live or die , because un the end of mass effect 2 almost all of you characters can die including shepard and that will have a huge effect on mass effect 3
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 11:51 am
@ eadwinn:
Ok, but you are missing the point of this article. I need choices that changes the core story of the game, not who lives or who dies. If you played Dragon Age: Origin you will understand what I mean.
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Hmm, since i have not finished the Suicide Mission by now i can’t say about the end of Mass Effect 2 but so far i personally think, if it were not “Mass Effect” and “Bioware” had nothing to do with it, it would be nothing special and would drown in many other good games these days …
or the scene with the Prothean-Technology where you get this strange Vision from the Reapers (which you saw multiple times in ME1) and on the end is a Collector …
I played Mass Effect with all Characters Classes, each of them have now Level 60 and i enjoyed every one of them (except the crapy Pineapple Station(?) arena matches) but for now, my first playthrough with Mass Effect 2 is not the intense RPG Experience i enjoyed in the first one…
Plus, if you ask me you have to play ME1 prior to ME2 there are a lot of things in ME2 which are not making any sence without the knowledge from ME1 … (*SPOILER*) my wife asked me all 5 minutes in the scene with the Collector-Ship
(*SPOILER-ALERT*)
Is every Crew-Member having problems with his/her son/father/family or is this just me??
Yesterday i recruited the Asari Justicar and her “loyality-mission” was to stop a Asari with a little problem, that kills everyone who “sleeps” with her thus making her stronger/faster/better … and then, the unbelievable twist … IT’S HER DAUGHTER OMG … like i didn’t see that coming a mile away … this is nearly the same for Thane, Miranda, Jacobs and Mordin … only Jack, Grunt and Archangel “Garrus” have a different background, but it all comes down to “recruit -> talk with them after each mission -> help them -> loyal” … in ME1 i talked to them because it was interesting to find out more about their background and the race background … in ME2 they merely talk about anything interesting and you also can’t ask about something they said … i still don’t know how Miranda got enhanced (deeper information is a no-go in ME2)
And the last thing now: the Codex in ME2 is a joke … there are no real informations compared to ME1
Well, before you all flame me down to a tiny bit of ashes, i have to say i got ME2 on Monday and played it each and every day from 8 in the evening until 4/5/6/7 in the morning
since i have family i can’t play earlier 
It is a realy good game, but compared to ME1 it is a way weaker experience…
Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Hi all
Interesting reviews about the game, i have played it for just a few hours an really liked the experience….but after playing it i wondered whether i should have played ME1 before in order to have a better understanding of the game, its choices or the importance of upgrading the ship(which i still havent figured out yet..:) )…but since i know that i would eventually finish the game..i still feel that when i finish it, i would probably regret of the choices that i made or what if i could do things differently..what if i reach the suicide mission and i do not have the necessary ship upgrades..or probably wrong characters recruited!!! But my point is would i have the energy to play all over again!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on May 29th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Add your comment