Day 26: Mass Affection

Quite a few people this week have asked me about Mass Effect 2, and whether or not it was worth getting.

Problem is, it's a really complicated answer - which is why I haven't replied to any of you. Sorry.

The thing is, there's clearly only one type of person who'd ask if Mass Effect 2 is worth getting - and that's someone who hasn't played Mass Effect. If you've finished the first game, Mass Effect 2 is pretty essential - not only does it continue the flipping brilliant space adventures of captain Shepard, but it basically appears to have taken everything unlikable about the first game and thrown it in the airlock.

First up though , a little about the type of series Mass Effect is - basically it's a space captain simulator, packed to the brim with believable characters, grey morality, and difficult decisions. It's also got a lot of shooting aliens in it - although this is handled with much more finesse in the second game. If you're someone who's open to the idea of not skipping through dialogue in games as long as it's beautifully voiced and genuinely interesting, you'll be in for a treat. If you're consistently intent on skipping everything to get to the next bit of shooting - it might not be your kind of tea party.

Part of me would love to tell people to just skip the first game and play the second one off the bat, avoiding the mildly ropey combat and incredibly slow start in favour of jumping straight into the polished action thrills of the second part. You get a brief synopsis of the first game when you start up a new file, and effectively I'm sure you could get by without knowing all that much about the original.

But this would be an awful waste. The second game plays a lot off your previous knowledge of the incredible universe and characters, showing you how things have changed since you last saw them knowing full well it will evoke an emotional response. It's what Bioware do - and as always - it's executed with a stunning degree of excellence.

Because of this, unlike other sequels where you can read between the lines and quickly pick up the pace, Mass Effect 1 can't be summed up with a fact sheet - because it's all about your experiences, and your perception. I could tell you about all the events, revelations, and characters in Mass Effect, but it wouldn't help in the slightest. When old characters appear in the sequel - it's rarely a case of "Oh COOL! It's THAT guy!" but usually more a sense of "how the hell have you been?" or sometimes - unfortunately - "What on earth happened to you man?"
This is of course amplified by the fact that you can transfer your save file from Mass Effect over to Mass Effect 2, taking with you the decisions - and consequences - of the choices you made in the first game. This blows the whole experience wide open - if a character you know is pretty fucked in the second game, it's not because of a rudimentary decision made by developers - it's probably because of something you did.

So yeah guys, hate to pull the shiny carrot away from your nose - but if you want the same kind of treat that i'm having this weekend, you need to put a bit of time into the first game.

BUT DON'T PANIC - I've created five brilliant tips for how to make your jaunt through the first game much more enjoyable:

DON'T GIVE UP: The first few hours are slow. Awfully slow. But stick with it, seriously - before you know it the drama will have been ramped up to 10.

TAKE IT EASY: The combat is rubbish, and you'll die unfairly all the time anyway. Put the difficulty on easy and this happens much less, meaning you can run around blasting people with shotguns like the mega space captain that you are.

STAY ON THE ROAD: Chances are if you're driving the space buggy around a planet, you're in the wrong place. Mass Effect was infamous for padding out the length of the game with hundreds of planets to explore - all of which were pretty much exactly the same, and far from rewarding. Of course, most of us didn't notice this until we'd spent about 10 hours driving round mining stuff on the blasted places. Throw in a few sidequests if you fancy, but if you start to get bored just get straight back to the main story, which is a total blast.

TAKE YOUR HANDS OUT OF YOUR POCKETS: Avoid the inventory system whenever possible - it's a frustrating mess. This works best when playing on easy - as you'll only have to upgrade your gear once in a blue moon to keep up the pace.

DON'T THINK ABOUT THE ELEVATORS TOO MUCH: Ignore them, seriously - you'll go fucking insane.

I hope the above is useful, and just remember - it really is worth sticking it out. Enjoy.

Oh, and it also lets you swagger about the universe banging chicks in space - but they didn't write that on the back of the box.