What I Played Today: December 12

Mass Effect 2

I played a lot of Mass Effect 2 today, getting into the main mission and walking around the revived Normandy, making friends with the crew. I like that Joker and Dr. Chatwas are back, and the new side characters seem like organic characters, although man am I sick of Shepard feeling obligated to ask pretty much everyone why they would work with Cerberus. Mighty surprised that nobody answers, “What the fuck does it matter to you?” or “Why? Is that a big deal?” I also like that Shepard can unabashedly flirt with his secretary, and she is totally into it. Best/Worst part: these options are in the spot on the radial usually reserved for paragon-aligned responses. The game implies it’s polite and appropriate to do so, rather than sleazy and unprofessional.

I went to the Citadel and am saddened by how much of it is locked down now. I can’t even visit the Council, because they think I’m weak sauce now, and the rest of the level is self-contained into a single ward, with some stores but not much else except a lot of references to events of the first game. I can’t visit the Presidium, which sucks because I wanted to talk that dang secretary again, check up on prophecy lady. (The game does mention her in a news brief, in which is turns out she’s apparently planning on leaving the Citadel due to accusations of information leaks.)

So it was time to do the mission, collecting a crew to do something. First to the usual cesspool of alien misery that is the mining planet, complete with a dramatic overlord, various gangs of toughs, squalid living conditions and so much alien racism. My first recruitment mission saw me running through a slum under quarantine to get to a doctor working there. I can’t really think of anything specific to say about it…it sure felt like a mission, that’s for sure. I guess I’m glad to see a mission in Mass Effect that isn’t “unique alien nobody’s ever heard of tried to kill you.” No wait, hang on, it’s revealed that is what’s happening after all. Boy, there are sure are a lot of murderous unknown races in the Mass Effect universe.

Also did the second mission in the area that revealed that one of the people I’m trying to recruit is, in fact, a former teammate! I really shouldn’t have been surprised, especially when the identity of the target was so long shrouded in secrecy (also the fact that his name appears in a DLC description), but it was nice to see him. And the premise of this mission was awesome, in which the teammate has been holed up in a building while three gangs throw their entire arsenal at him. It’s a neat mission, very straight-forward but with a lot of potential, but now I’m stuck, because in doing “the right thing” by leaving one of my crew behind to help the recruit guard the roof, I now have to clear out the basement with a man down. Ick.