Mass Effect 2: 10 Reasons It's Overrated As Hell

As we enter 2020, everyone is running out to declare their greatest games of the last ten years, if not all time.

Mass Effect 2 is such a title, and it regularly appears near the top of so many of these lists. The game is lots of fun, its combat streaks ahead of Mass Effect 1, and it didn't have Mass Effect 3's multi-colored ending (although there were problems with 2's finale, which I'll will discuss later).

That doesn't mean that it was a brilliant game, though. Its story fluctuates between absurdity and banality. Boring mechanics and watered down choices are some of the reasons why this game doesn't deserve the universal praise it so often receives.

In many respects, Mass Effect 2 marks the watershed moment where BioWare started to transition from the developers of epic, story-driven RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins, Knights of the Old Republic etc., to the creator of second rate shooters with role-playing elements.

Sound like hyperbole?

Let's take a stroll down memory lane as I dissect everyone's favourite darling, Mass Effect 2.

Don't get me wrong, the opening moments of the game where your character dies are shocking and extremely moving. However in a move straight out of the JJ Abrams playbook, your death is overturned in two minutes.

See, Commander Shepard is killed in one of the most horrific ways imaginable - obliterated without much of a body, yet it can be rebuilt with new technology.

Surely Cerberus have better things to spend their money on?

The resurrection of Shepard creates further complications for the game's continuity. If your character can be resurrected, why can't everyone else? What stakes are there in a suicide mission, when people can be brought back from the dead? Kill the citadel council in the last game? Why not just resurrect them?

While we are at it, why would the Illusive Man invest a fortune into resurrecting Shepard as the ultimate leader of humanity, only to place him in constant danger?

Surely an asset of such absurd value is not someone you place in the front line of all of the most dangerous quests the universe has to offer? This crazy premise sets a tone for the rest of the game.