Regardless of how you feel about the direction BioWare took with the sequel relative to its predecessor, there's no denying the impact that Mass Effect 2 had on the scope of the franchise, BioWare's perception amongst fans, and the public appreciation for their work. For the original's humbled but troubled begginings (troubles I mainly correlate to being an early Unreal Engine 3 title), Mass Effect 2 saw the series spawn into something far larger.
Critically lauded and commercially a huge success, Mass Effect 2 remains of (if not?) BioWare's most acclaimed titles, the Xbox 360 build sitting at 96 Metacritic and the year of 2010 ending with numerous Game of the Year awards. It is often cited as not only a favourite within the four game saga, but for many one of the best games they've ever played. And, while this is a totally subjective perspective, I cite Mass Effect 2 as one of those "everyone is talking about it" moments in gaming, where I distinctly recall public advertisements front and centre, cover stories on numerous magazines, and just being one of those games everyone who played games seemed to know about. With this aggressive marketing approach from EA and the general hype surrounding the game, for many Mass Effect 2 was their very first introduction to the series.
Where Mass Effect 1 saw a prequel novel and two (including one rather mediocre) DLC packs, the expanded universe content for Mass Effect 2 exploded. Mass Effect: Ascension would continue the original novel's arc and begin bridging the gap to Mass Effect 2, while Retribution would cover some details post game. Mass Effect: Redemption was a four part comic series acting as a character prequel into Mass Effect 2, and before Mass Effect 3 dropped BioWare would produce additional series including Invasion, Evolution, Incursion, Inquisition, and Conviction.
For interactive content, BioWare launched Mass Effect Galaxy six months prior to Mass Effect 2, an iOS game introducing Miranda and Jacob. And finally, Mass Effect 2 is home to some of BioWare's largest single player DLC output, including several gun and armour packs, but mainly mission content such as Zaeed's Price of Revenge, Firewalker, Operation Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Broker, and Kasumi's Stolen Memory.
While the series was primarily home on Xbox and PC, PlayStation only gamers would finally get a chance to see the series a year later as the game was ported to PlayStation 3. Nintendo fans have Mass Effect 3 on Wii U and err....yeah.
And so that's that. Happy 10th Birthday to Mass Effect 2, a game that for some spelled the end of BioWare's traditional design approach to role playing and bastardised the potential of the Mass Effect series, to others an experience that remains one of the absolute best they've ever had and often cited as a favourite of all time, and everybody else falling somewhere in between.
