The more time I spend playing Mass Effect 2 the more I am impressed by the quality of writing on display (and the voice acting as well for that matter). I can’t remember the last time I have been so enthralled by dialogue in a game and I have laughed out loud many times already, and I’m not even all that far into the game yet! Of course, this level of quality is hardly surprising considering Bioware’s reputation, but even then I feel that they have truly outdone themselves this time.
What’s been especially unexpected for me is how engaging/amusing the exchanges between the NPCs have become, NPCs you would normally ignore as you continue on your mission. Not only do I find myself stopping to listen to the conversations, I have also gone out of my way to trigger every single stage of a group’s exchange which basically requires you to move away from them a few feet before moving close to them again. I whole-heartedly recommend seeking out these amusing talks as you play through the game and also make sure to check all the points of interest, such as the often amusing advertising kiosks on the Citadel station; it really helps to reinforce the notion that this is a living, breathing universe, which I feel that Bioware has captured better than anyone else to date.
Now, that’s all well and good, but that’s not really why I’m writing this post. Rather, I wished to share a truly facepalm worthy moment (a good facepalm though) that I encountered mere minutes past.
First, the setup: much like in the first Mass Effect you can spend a great deal of time exploring strange worlds via the Galaxy Map. The big difference this time is that surveying celestial bodies for resources has become a great deal more involved this time around, which is refreshing. Essentially what you need to do is choose a planet to survey then begin scanning the planet’s surface with a cursor, keeping watch on a display on the right side of the screen that indicates the presence of precious resources. Once you stumble across a sufficiently bountiful concentration you can then launch a probe to that spot on the surface at which point you will receive a quantity of the detected resource. It can be tedious, but you aren’t forced to do this (though it is a primary source of materials for use in researching group and ship augmentations) and it just feels a great deal more appropriate than the system used in the first game.
Anyways, I found myself exploring the Sol system (our own solar system in case you have no idea what Sol is) and was working my way through the outer planets when, naturally, I hit Uranus. Being in possession of a terribly juvenile mind I immediately started giggling: I was going to probe Uranus. So I begin surveying the planet and start scanning. Upon finding a suitably large concentration of Iridium I proceeded to launch a probe. Now, normally your ship-board computer chimes in with, “Launching probe,” “Probe launched,” or something along those lines. I got something a little different this time however…
“Really Commander?”
At first I thought that maybe it was because it was such a small patch of Iridium that my computer thought sending a probe down there was a waste of time. After all, all scans were showing that Uranus was basically Depleted, and reading through the planet info wherein it is stated that Uranus is a primary source of resources for the Human Systems Alliance, such disdain from my ship-board AI would be perfectly understandable. In any case, after I received my bounty I proceeded to hunt down some more, only this time I was going to be a little more discerning. I found some Platinum and launched another probe…
“*sigh* Probing Uranus…”
Have I mentioned how much I love Bioware lately?
That’s awesome, I almost literally rofl’d I cannot wait to get this game haha