Mass Effect 2 (Gameplay #1) - Back in Black
2By RPG standards the original Mass Effect included a pretty stylish and cinematic opening, but ME2 ups the ante dramaturgically by first starting with a bang in the form of a daring act of heroism on Shepard's part, and then following that up with a rather disquieting death scene as well as a creepy resurrection part which makes good use of the dark ambiguities inherent in the Biblical episode it references.*
This is my third playthrough of Mass Effect 2 (although it's also my first using the PC version), and despite being very familiar with all the story beats and mechanics there are still parts of the overall experience which manage to genuinely impress me. Apart from a lingering overreliance on dry exposition (always the weakest link in a Bioware production), the professional use of dialogue and cutscenes in this game is still second to none. The characters move around and/or gesture expressively when they talk, and there is plenty of great camera work which makes for a seamless and satisfying dramatic experience. This attention to detail makes the boring static "talking heads" of most other video games seem downright rudimentary by comparison, and Mass Effect 2 set a standard for story-oriented RPG immersion in 2010 which has yet to be surpassed more than two years after the game's initial release.
* Note: Just in case there are viewers who haven't actually *played* ME2, it should perhaps be added that only a tiny fraction of the game's lengthy intro has been included in this short video.
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