RETRO PLAY-THROUGH | 'Mass Effect 2' Part 4
With 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' to be released in three days, David Nolan is more than ready! His play-through of 'Mass Effect 2' continues here, as the Normandy approaches the human colony of Horizon...
We are shown Kaiden dealing with distrust from the colonists just before the Collectors attack. There’s little sign of a resistance or colonist as the Collector swarms reach is immediately immobilised; this means that Shepard’s team needs to hope that Mordin’s countermeasure works as intended.
Fortunately, it does and Shepard’s team lands, quickly getting to work fighting through the Collector forces toward the gun batteries Kaiden was helping the colonists install.
A few more interesting elements in fighting the Collectors are introduced in this level. The first is that occasionally the Reaper Harbinger will take 'direct control' of one of the standard enemies, transforming them into a very potent threat with devastating abilities; this is a clever design choice as it forces the player to treat each enemy as far more dangerous. However, the trick winds up being used a little too often, dragging out some of the firefights too long, especially on higher difficulties.
As they move through the colony, Shepard’s team comes across the frozen colonists. It’s a very disturbing image to see a person frozen in place but still very conscious. When the team enters a bunker, they come across a mechanic who locked himself in the building when the attack began. He is strangely standoffish and refuses to help until Shepard pretty much makes it clear he doesn’t have much choice.
On the other side of the bunker, a new enemy starts appearing: the Scion; this creature is a fusion of multiple husks and carries a very annoying gun that will cause a lot of damage if you let it hit you. It’s a cool design and foreshadows the final boss of this mission.
When Shepard reaches the controls for the colony’s defence guns, there are a number of Collector troops to defeat. However, the main threat in this area is a Praetorian - a massive fusion of husks with beam weapons and regenerating barriers. On higher difficulties, this is close to the hardest fight in the game as husks will swarm over any decent cover you try to camp behind. However, the fight takes place in a very well designed arena and is a very satisfying victory. The defence cannons force the Collectors to retreat, meaning that while some humans were taken, the rest were successfully protected.
The mechanic isn’t happy with you 'just letting them get away', but he is chastised by Kaiden, who initially seems happy to see Shepard but quickly changes his tune when he realises that they are with Cerberus. After an uncomfortable argument, Shepard and her team leave Horizon.
Back on the Normandy, the argument continues when Shepard confronts the Illusive Man. It turns out that the Cerberus leader leaked Kaiden’s presence on Horizon to try and encourage a Collector strike there; this is one of the most obvious moments in the main game that Cerberus isn’t exactly working in the best way. The Illusive Man isn’t perturbed by Shepard’s criticisms and sends a bunch of new dossiers of squad members to recruit. One of them is our old friend Tali so she’s the first we’re off to get.
Tali is apparently on a mission for her people to investigate a dying star near a former quarian colony. However, the geth are there and have already ambushed the quarian marines, putting Tali at risk. The star superheats the world the mission takes on and standing in direct sunlight causes your shields to drop quickly. It’s an interesting idea but since the game’s combat is already built around cover it doesn’t affect gameplay significantly; this is a shame since it’s one of the only interesting parts of this level.
For a mission on a former quarian world, there’s little evidence that anyone has ever lived there. The architecture is generic ruins and there’s no art depicting the quarians’ culture. Some of this is later elaborated on in Tali’s loyalty mission but its absence here is still a disappointment.
Most of the mission is spent fighting geth forces, but the last fight is still a highlight: you'll meet Kal’Reegar - a quarian marine fighting a geth Colossus stationed between you and Tali. Though he is wounded, he will insist on fighting. Paragon Shepard won’t allow this though, telling him to provide some cover fire while they take care of the giant machine.
There are plenty of geth troops taking shots at you and the Colossus needs to be fought from the high ground. The sun’s rays mean that carefully picking the right time to move through the arena is crucial to this fight and showcases the game’s cover system. With the exception of occasional slip-ups, it works fine.
The big machine is defeated and Tali is ready and willing to join the Normandy again. Kal is still alive and will take the data they were after back to the fleet. Aboard the Normandy, Tali is very distrustful of the Cerberus agents and is only putting up with them for Shepard’s benefit. There is a nice character moment when Jacob mentions the AI EDI: Tali’s reaction is an excellent conveyance of all her emotions in that one moment, a great piece of writing and direction.
The other two dossier missions are both on the planet Illium - an asari world designed to be beyond the reaches of most laws: sounds like the sort of place for nice people to be... When the Normandy lands, Shepard is told that Liara helped pay their way onto the planet and would like to catch up. When Shepard walks into her office, Liara is using language very similar to her mother, a very deliberate decision by the writers. The formerly reserved historian is now a hardened information broker hunting the infamous Shadow Broker. We’ll come back to that later, but for now she offers information on the two people Shepard is looking for, so Shepard heads off to follow through on those leads.
The first lead is for a drell assassin named Thane Krios. Apparently he is hunting a corrupt asari businessperson who Shepard may or may not have helped kill their sister in the first game; this mission takes place in two interconnecting skyscrapers currently under construction. It provides a lot of nice views of the city skyline, and plenty more combat with one of the three biggest gangs in the galaxy and those mechs that pop up everywhere. There are also a number of construction workers who the gang are trying to eliminate for unknown reasons that Shepard steps in to help out. Along the way up the buildings there are hints as to Thane’s presence and skill.
After a fun fight across a bridge connecting the two buildings, Shepard finds herself in the office of the corrupt asari. There is a standoff as the asari thinks that Shepard is the intruder that her guards have been worries about just before Thane appears and eliminates all the guards and then the asari, his actual target. The drell kneels to pray, begging forgiveness for his murder.
After finishing, Shepard offers him a place on the Normandy. The drell, suffering from a terminal illness unique to his species, considers it an opportunity to fight for a more just cause and maybe earn some forgiveness from the galaxy before he dies. He is welcomed aboard for what he intends to be his final mission.
The last recruitment mission on Illium is for an asari justicar named Samara. Justicars are apparently extremist agents of asari justice that obey only their code while serving. They are naturally treated both reverentially and cautiously by both the asari at-large and the local authorities who would very much like for Samara to leave before causing an incident.
Shepard heads to a crime scene where Samara was last seen investigating the crime. The police officer there is under orders to arrest the justicar but knows that would lead to a fight she would not win so is more than happy to aid Shepard in getting her to leave; this is one mission where some if not all the combat could be removed. The first half has little at all and the sole ambush before Shepard first meets Samara is needless.
When Samara is first shown, her biotic abilities are on full display as the justicar easily overcomes the couple of mercenaries who try to resist. She’s wary of meeting Shepard as she doesn’t normally deal with non-asari, but when she hears of Shepard’s mission she’s interested in joining. However, she must first complete her investigation here: she needs the name of a ship and Shepard can get it for her while she waits at the police station.
The information she needs is hidden in a nearby gang base filled with biotic empowering drugs. The fighting here is nothing special apart from the slight change that the drugs might provide to biotic specialists but there are a couple of nice encounters with side-characters.
One is with a gang member who pretends that she is innocent (which is later proven to be false) that Shepard can either kill or let go; the other is with a volus who believes himself to be a newly-born biotic god who will take his revenge on his former employer. He is sadly mistaken and Shepard can disabuse him of that through two pretty funny ways. The Paragon way is to knock him over so that he realises he still very weak and will skulk away. The Renegade way is to encourage his delusions of grandeur and yell “Charge!".
Either way, the head of the local gang will be Shepard’s to deal with. She’s not the weakest boss in the game but nothing too bad for an Act 2 boss. With her eliminated, Shepard has the information and can recruit the justicar. Samara will swear an oath to follow your orders while serving aboard the Normandy, though noting she will have to kill you if you make her break her code, and join your crew.
With a full deck, Shepard now has a lot of side quests and loyalty missions to complete.
But before we get to that, we'll board a Collector vessel and recruit a geth squad member. After that, it's all down to cleaning up said-side quests and loyalty missions before taking the Collectors down for good.
Stay tuned as we edge closer to the game's completion!
Catch up on previous 'Mass Effect 2' play-throughs HERE!
