VideoGame Legendary Edition: The Same Game in 4K
Of the trilogy, this game received the least changes in the LE. If you've played the original version, you know exactly what to expect here. If you haven't, I'll give you the run-down.
ME 2 took a lot of the criticisms towards the first game to heart. The inventory management system is gone, every map you visit is distinct from the others, and the combat has been completely overhauled. If it weren't for the setting and returning characters you could be forgiven for thinking this was from a completely different series. This has pros and cons.
On the positive side, the game is more exciting to play. Combat feels faster and more dangerous, requiring you to take cover and make calculated use of your powers. In the first game it was generally a good idea to have a more generalized build in your party makeup, but here it's often better to tailor your party to specific missions. For example, if you know the mission you're going on will have a lot of robot enemies it's a good idea to bring squad members with tech-based powers. Powers feel much more impactful here, as they play a crucial role in stripping away enemy defenses.
The various types of guns have more strengths and weaknesses as well. Gone are the days of Pistol supremacy. Instead each type is better at taking down certain defenses, with their range and accessibility also playing a role in your choice. The new guns you find throughout the game are rarely straight upgrades either, but instead offer different strengths and weaknesses. For example, the first sniper rifle you acquire pack an incredible punch, but has extremely limited ammo. The second has much more ammo and greater shield-breaking capability, but it deals less damage overall. Which is better? That's up to you.
Another good pivot was in giving each class their own exclusive power. Further customization is offered by each power having a branching evolution upon reaching rank 4. Between that and the varying gun availability no playthrough of the game is likely to feel the same unless you choose to make it that way.
On the negative side, the lack of an inventory management system and introduction of a universal upgrade system do take some customization out of the game. ME 2 leans far more into the action side of Action RPG during combat than it does into the role-playing part. In addition, some firefights can feel like wars of attrition, where you're forced to wait behind cover until you have a free shot at your enemies. From a lore perspective, the addition of ammo (technically thermal clips, but really it's ammo) feels like a step backwards, even if it does make the game more exciting to play. A change I did notice between the LE and base version of the game is that ammo is much more plentiful in the LE. It still drops in the same spots, but you get more of it when you pick it up. YMMV whether that's a positive or a negative.
The story takes a very different approach from the first game. ME 1 was very event-driven and focused on finding out the Big Bad's plan. You're in the dark and solving a mystery that has galactic implications. In ME 2 you know the basics of what the villains are doing and where you need to go to stop them pretty early on. Instead the focus is on building a team and acquiring the resources needed to storm their base and take them down. There's also a major shift in tone. ME 1 was fairly balanced between light and dark. The galaxy is dangerous, but you're a capable hero backed up by a team of specialists who are dedicated to the mission. You have the backing of both Earth's and the larger galactic government, and the public admires you. In ME 2 things are more dire. The governments that were once your friends now view you with suspicion, your main backing comes from what's effectively a terrorist organization, the parts of the galaxy you visit are seedier and overrun with corruption, and your team is now a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who have various hangups and issues that need to be resolved to focus on your main mission.
That last part in particular is important because the game ends up warping around it. In ME 1 the characters are a part of the story. In ME 2 the characters ARE the story. The vast majority of story missions revolve around recruiting them, and each one comes with their own Loyalty Mission once they're recruited. You get to know these people on a very personal level. The game wants you to build a connection with them, so that when you finally decide to begin the final level it hits with the most impact.
That final level is also a major part of the game's tone. It's established almost at the beginning that attacking the villains base is a Suicide Mission. And while plenty of games might try and make that claim, ME 2 is dead serious about it. Your choices will decide who lives and who dies. You can save everyone, lose your entire squad and your own life, and anything in between. BioWare did not pull any punches with this level. That's why the character focus of the game was so essential, because when they die it hurts. Not just because you care about them, but because it's your fault. You made a mistake somewhere, and they paid the price. On the flipside once you figure out how to save everyone and pull it off you feel on top of the world. You plunged into the heart of darkness and came out the other side victorious.
There are some cons to the approach the game took with this narrative though. The story can often feel disconnected to the greater plot of the Reapers from the first game, and so can the world. The galaxy-changing decisions you made in the first game don't seem to matter much this time, nor do your actions this time have the same far-reaching consequences. Some of this is naturally due to the constraints of the medium and hardware, but it does still feel like things should be more than cosmetically different. Some of this would be corrected in the next game, but certain element couldn't be.
Overall, I believe that ME 2's strengths vastly outweigh its shortcomings. It's combat is more fun than the first game's, it's characters remain as nuanced and complex as ever, the world continues to be expanded on in interesting and exciting ways, and the finale is one of the greatest ever offered in a video game. As far as this series is concerned, ME 2 continues to reign as king.
When it comes to the LE I would still recommend it over the original, but with less emphasis this time. The biggest thing it does is compile all the DLC together so that you don't have to purchase it for yourself. Beyond that very little changes. The biggest reason to get this version is because the rest of the trilogy is included, meaning its easier to import your save files from ME 1. This provides some in-game bonuses and determines whether or not certain recurring characters live. You can use the Genesis comic to customize the world state, but it has a more limited utility. Alternatively you can start a new game fresh and have the game decide that ME 1 Shepard was a full Renegade jerk. That can be amusing. Bottom line, the LE is the better version to get.
VideoGame All you need to know about Mass Eff-DIRECT INTERVENTION IS NECESSARY
I really liked Mass Effect 2, and I-ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL. FEED YOUR RESOURCES TO THIS STUDIO AND PURCHASE THIS EXCELLENT TAKE ON THE FUTURE OF YOUR PATHETIC SLAVE RACE.
VideoGame Mass Effect 1, turned generic
After having played Mass Effect 1 and then jumping straight into Mass Effect 2 (bought both at the same time), I was first impressed by the amazing visuals ME 2 provided.
And then the gameplay ended up being... the standard modern console shooter. To put this into perspective, Mass Effect 1 had a neat system of unlimited bullets and overheating. Choosing the right weapon and firing in controlled bursts would prevent overheating, and certain skills overheated weapons (thus, temporarily disabling them).
This system was replaced with the "thermal clip" system, which is the standard generic ammo system in every other shooter, even if it doesn't make sense in-universe. Why do heatsinks not cool down outside of battle? Why are they not reusable? Why do heatsinks contain bullets?
The second change to gameplay was the "cover" system, popularized by Gears Of War. Unfortunately, they decided to use the same key for "Sprint" and "Take cover". And the game REALLY seems to prioritize the "take cover" command, so I invariably end up sticking to walls when I don't want to. This was particularly egregious on the level where the sun is so hot it damages you- half the time when I sprint towards shade, Shepard ended up sticking her back to a nearby wall in full sunlight. The combat style also results in forcing me into a narrow play style- despite having 6 different classes, all of them have to fight the battles the same way. In ME 1, there was a massive difference between an Adept and an Infiltrator, for example. Now, everyone seems to be primarily a duck-and-cover gunner- all special skills are on the same timer, so you can only use one at a time. Your main damage will always come from firing your weapon.
Given how much emphasis there was on the universe created in ME 1, and how much additional information was available in the codex, I think it's pretty sad that they pretty much abandoned almost every gameplay element that made the Mass Effect 1 universe unique to appeal to the masses.
A few things were streamlined, like "exploring" planets and Paragon/Renegade dialogue options, which is nice. Still, there's no big surprises in the story (other than the prologue).
VideoGame Flaws Are To Be Found, But A Good Game All Around
The Pros:
- Combat doesn't feel as clunky and awkward as the first did. A matter of preference perhaps, but coming to it with little knowledge of the games or even the genre I still found it easier to play through this game than I would Mass Effect 1 years later.
- The majority of the main characters are interesting and have time spent to give them depth and development. Your interactions with characters is greatly expanded, with Loyalty missions available for all and the number of team mates available has been doubled from the first.
- The new powers available to several classes are welcome and do a good job of making you want to play as them.
- The new Interrupts make scenes a bit more interesting and give some much needed opportunities to gain Renegade or Paragon points.
- The music and visuals are excellent for setting the mood of the mission, ranging from tense music from a horror game to triumphal and uplifting.
- The story is, in general, fascinating and manages to avoid being weighed down by its grimness.
The Cons:
- The story in general might be great, but it doesn't take long to find some new idiocy that led to my saying "ME authority figures are idiots" with them lacking even basic competence. Stories should not resort to lapses of logic to create drama.
- The Paragon and Renegade system often lacks logic, forcing me to wonder if even the writers knew what it was. How is a choice to murder a team mate and recruit their serial killer daughter be both Paragon and Renegade? More similarly ridiculous ones can be found throughout the game.
- The hacking and mining mini-games are fun for one playthrough, after that they lose their appeal and are just something to pad the game.
- Team mates are occasionally idiots and have more than once forced me out of cover, also getting me killed.
- The fact that choices from the first game seemed to have little impact on on either gameplay or story should have been a warning about what was in store.
- Several characters were just bland and some costume choices (and blatant ass shots) completely ruined what were supposed to be emotional scenes.
However even with all the flaws mentioned I still found this to be a very enjoyable experience. As this was my first ME game there may be bias may be present, but I would always recommend this as long as you can show some patience.
VideoGame Fixes nearly all the problems with the first game.
Mass Effect 1
was a good game with a solid concept, but with shaky execution, especially in regard to the gameplay. Mass Effect 2 fixes nearly all of those problems, and takes very few steps back, and those are minor.
The Good:
- The gameplay is enormously streamlined. The aiming and shooting feels much more intuitive, and the cover system works much better. You don't have to mess with unusable weapons.
- The worldbuilding is as solid as in the first game, and the multiplicity of hub worlds gives an even greater sense of a full universe.
- The characters are, as always, fully fleshed out, and it's quite interesting to get to know them.
- The sidequests are greatly improved, with unique maps for all of them, as well as additional story material in the recruitment and loyalty missions.
The Not-as-Good:
- The characters are great, but there are so many of them (especially with the DLC), and they unfortunately don't get to interact with each other very often.
- There's less of a sense of urgency than in the first game; it basically has a few story relevant missions, and the rest of the time you can just go and do whatever. ME 1 did that to a degree, but unlike the geth, who were a universal presence in the first game, the Collectors don't actually show up very often. They're absent from nearly all the side missions and loyalty missions.
- Some of the recurring areas feel a bit small. In particular, the Citadel feels much more limited when compared to ME 1. The presidium is limited to one room, and it just doesn't feel like there's enough to do there.
- The "heat sink" system is basically an ammo system, which is a step back from the overheating system of the first game. That said, the other improvements to the gameplay more than outweigh the issues.
Basically, most of the problems from the first game have been totally fixed, and the new issues are all pretty minor. All things considered, it's a giant step up from the first game and makes much better use of the potential that the first game had.
VideoGame A great game, a good sequel.
Mass Effect 2 is fine gameplay wise; the new ammo system has its faults (I would've preferred they stick to the overheating mechanic) and Charm and Intimidate are no longer upgradable skills, which can make resolving conflicts difficult or outright impossible, sometimes affecting the entire rest of the game.
Story-wise, there are a lot of pros…but also some cons.
The good: Watching your old squadmates continue to develop as characters (especially Wrex, as his fate depends on what you did in the first game) is a great experience, and the new squadmates are a colorful bunch themselves. Most of the sidequests you may have completed in the first game are referenced here in various ways, depending on how they were resolved. It really enforces continuity and the feeling that your choices make a difference, however minor.
The bad: There are a few extremely annoying glitches that result in some sidequest resolutions being followed up on incorrectly. Shepard's death and resurrection at the very beginning is rather clumsily handled; the suddeness of it was so jarring I thought it was going to turn out to be a nightmare at first. The game's whole atmosphere is much darker than its predecessor, sometimes so much as to feel like a different series altogether, and the Reaper threat, while looming visibly in the background, isn't the main conflict of the story.
So while Mass Effect 2 is excellent on its own, as a sequel it's rather flawed (although as mentioned above, the Call Backs and Character Development are handled extremely well). If you liked the first game, definitely give it a shot.
VideoGame Quite possibly the best game ever made
What can be said about Mass Effect 2 that hasn't been said a million times? It is perhaps the defining game of our generation. The Super Nintendo had Donkey Kong Country, the PS 1 had Final Fantasy VII. And now we have Shepard. Outside of maybe Arkham City one of the best games ever made, mixing the best from Call Of Duty, Gears Of War and Halo. A bold statement. So what makes this game so great? Let's examine some of the noteworthy tropes within.
- Action Girl
- Bad Ass
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: You rack one up every ten minutes if you have to wait that long.
- Doing It For The Art: One of the reasons why the game is so good is the level of detail in the smallest...details.
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Fan Service: From sexy outfits to oscure shout outs to hard science, the game has you covered.
- Good Is Not Soft: the trope could honestly be renamed The Shepherd without missing a beat.
- Hotter And Sexier
- Immortal Hero
- Jerk Ass: Your target practice.
- Knight In Shining Armor
- Living Legend
- Magnetic Hero: You are that magnetic hero.
- No One Gets Left Behind: The Golden Ending. Heavy risk, but the priiize.
- One (Wo)Man Army: This is canon for your character. It is so satisfying.
- Press X To Not Die: This tropes gets an upgrade in that they are optional, yet lead to some of the best moments in the game.
- The Quisling: The Convict's recruitment mission has you run into one. The result, well...
- Remember When You Blew Up A Sun: Yes the character you play as is just that awesome, and this trope is even subverted in Arrival.
- Saving The World: The game makes no bones about placing the fate of the entire galaxy in your hands. Better get to it.
- To Win Without Fighting: Unlike Gears Of War it's not all shoot shoot shoot. Multiple opportunities await to get out without fighting.
- Undying Loyalty: Most of your crew.
- Video Game Caring Potential: To quote most fans, if you mess up and don't go back to do it right you have no soul.
- We Do The Impossible: Yes, yes you do.
- Xanatos Gambit: Bring Shepard back to life to fight the Collectors so the Reapers can be controlled is merely the biggest one.
- You Shall Not Pass: And they are glorious.
- Zero Approval Gambit: The Arrival mission.
Half these tropes apply to you, nuff said.
VideoGame Mass Effect 2- Trimming the Fat, But Also the Meat
Mass Effect was an excellent hybrid of RP Gs and shooters with some unfortunately tedious parts. The sequel manages to remove much of the tedium (collection quests and driving around), but also some of the RPG elements that set Mass Effect apart from other shooters and made it entertaining.
The story is considerably darker than the first installment; your victory in the first game only earned the galaxy a brief reprieve, and with your most powerful allies oblivious to the threat of the Reapers, you must associate with less than morally pure individuals and make difficult decisions to fight your enemies.
The game focuses on building a team, gaining their trust, obtaining the equipment you need for your battle, and ultimately fighting a climactic and well-designed final mission where your teammates' lives depend on your decisions prior to and during the mission. This adds another dimension to the decisions you make on your "loyalty missions," as you sometimes must also consider whether your squadmates will accept them.
The game has an impressive number of choices carried over from the first game, showing the long-term and often unexpected consequences of your previous decisions; people you saved might help you at a crucial moment, or they might betray you. Unfortunately, it can also serve to punish those who are only getting into the series with this game, as the default decisions are the ones that could be considered the worst.
The dialogue system benefits from the inclusion of the “interrupt” system, which adds a level of snap judgment to the system, forcing you to decide whether to let the conversation play out or force things into another direction.
Unfortunately, the level of customization in your abilities and equipment is reduced; you can no longer choose upgrades for your weapons (apart from purchasing increases to the effectiveness of a type of weapon) or change your armor, and you only have four levels of skill per power, although being able to choose two variations for the fourth is a good touch. While your character can improve over time, you have less choice about how you can improve.
While the decision to discard some of the RPG elements that made the first game an effective hybrid of RP Gs and shooters is unfortunate, Mass Effect 2 is still an excellent combination of two genres and an highly enjoyable game.
VideoGame A Masterpiece
Mass Effect 1 was good. Mass Effect 2 ups the ante in almost every way possible. More characters, deeper characters, improved combat, interrupts... The list goes on and on. A few things were removed, but they were mostly the bad things. I'm going to skim over the game, giving highlights on my favorite points.
First, the inventory was removed. While some may say that makes it less of an RPG, the original's inventory was horrendous, with little to no sorting whatsoever, and samey weapons. While ME2 only has 4 or 5 guns per class, each one feels and acts differently. For example, the assault rifle class:
- Avenger - fully automatic, decent damage. Standard.
- Vindicator - slightly more damage, three-round burst; headshot-happy. Significantly less ammo; skills needed to keep ammo count high.
- Revenant - uber-machine gun. High damage and rate of fire. Inaccurate, though; lots of recoil.
- Geth Assault Rifle - only found on Hardcore or Insanity. Good damage. Rate of fire variable; determined by a sine wave.
This time around, characters have hidden depths, and are more developed. However, one of the characters I think is the best written is the one I like the least - Jack. She's a psycho, but as you talk to her, it slowly become apparent that this is her way of dealing with what she's been through. This character development reaches a head in her loyalty mission, where you can persuade her to show mercy - maybe for the first time in her life. If you romance her, she shows how broken she is inside, and she becomes very respectful when you gain her loyalty.
Power use is very streamlined, allowing for much neater usage of powers. Up to three powers can be accessed instantly, compared to ME1's one. This also allows for easy power combinations - say, pulling an enemy into the air before blasting them with a concussive shot. The way powers work has been tweaked, allowing you to, with some powers, attack an enemy behind cover.
With all these improvements, Mass Effect 2 is an Even Better Sequel in every sense of the words. I'm Tera Chimera, and this is my favorite game in the world.
VideoGame The good, the bad, and the rest of it.
Over all, it has a whole lot of good stuff about it. The characters are all likable once you get to know them, and the new Normandy is pretty fun to walk around in. All of the environments are really detailed and give you a unique sense of culture every time you step onto a planet. The AI seems pretty smart, and the way they've streamlined the weapons means that you no longer have to go screwing around in your inventory for weapon upgrades or worry about buying a more powerful gun after every mission. The upgrades being available on the Normandy make it a lot more convenient than having to switch in the middle of a mission. The bad: Planet scanning. It may be helpful, but it's extremely boring. You'll probably have to drain a whole system of minerals before you're able to buy an upgrade. The rest: All in all a really good game, despite the sort of Anticlimax Boss. Can't wait for the next one.
VideoGame As a stand alone title: Bad game that you really MUST play and love
Have never played Mass Effect 1.
The story is almost non-existent. Evil aliens who you will barely ever see (and are only pawns of the evil aliens from the first game), are trying to kill lots of people. You must destroy them. There are no twists and there isn't even really a villain apart from generic alien species. Several people will refuse to join you in your aims for tiny undeveloped reasons and the only problem in the plot is presented by a ridiculous example of railroading. The plot has no impact on either prequel, or sequel except for something that's treated almost more as a throw away fact, without impact on what's happening. Monster of the Week is perfect for this
The combat isn't ever quite frenetic enough to be a shooter, nor really has the strategical depth for an RPG. You can choose from a few abilities, micromanage the position of you're allies and on normal you really should only die once or twice in the entirety of the game. The few times my squadmates decided standing on top instead of behind cover was a good idea, I found it simple enough to finish off the rest by myself (including what I felt was the hardest boss fight of the game). Combat is cover based and most problems can be solved by time and caution. The last boss fight doesn't even need that. Despite this, the actual missions are varied and excellent.
Dialogue/decisions show you which is the ruthless and virtuous decisions and allow you to choose between the two but not much else. You can know the outcome without even reading what will be said. If you're evil or good enough red/blue options become available that will always solve the problem. (Two team mates trying to kill each other? Select the blue option and they will agree that they're both in the wrong and immediately learn to co-operate.)
The crippling of the choice system removes all effort and reward from building relationships and solving the very clever moral problems. It's made worse, instead of understanding a character, all you need to earn a team mates loyalty, is complete a side quest. Emotional attachment not required.
But despite this and the setting is detailed and the game can be moving and heart pounding. Mass Effect is more enjoyable than it has right and you would be mad to miss one of the ultimate gaming trilogies. The genre is addictive and only Bioware really makes games like it.
VideoGame Game wise, Awesome. Story wise, sucks.
- Review has been revised since intial post*
When it comes to the actual gameplay part of this shooter, it's a step up from Mass Effect 1, with more intense shooting, a more responsive cover system, vastly improved A.I, and better level design.
In addition, the main world maps are more varied with more NPC's around to help them feel more believable environments, with less of that grey colour that occupied the last game, and the copy and pasta locations a thing of the past.
When it comes to the story and characters on the other hand...
Most of the characters introduced for your party this game are without a doubt some of the most dull (Miranda, Jacob, Samara) and annoying (Grunt, Jack) characters I've ever come across in gaming, I'm assuming the majority of Biowares good character writers were working on Dragon Age because these characters you could mostly fully explore in four conversations, and two of the likeable characters are hold overs from the first.
The main story itself holds up no better, being a step down from the original, with a simplistic story "Colonists have been kidnapped by Collectors, are you a bad enough dude to save them?" that holds none of the intrigue or mystery of the first game, I'm restricted word wise, so I'll sum it up some of my major gripes with bullet-points.
1) Sole Survivor, why you're never allowed to bring this backstory up to any of the Cerberus characters is baffling. 2) The romance paths are very rushed and clumsily written, feels like they were thrown them in to make shippers happy. 3) Nothing is done with the fact that Shepard CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD, all she/he does is make a few snarky lines and the companions are no better. 4) 95% of offworld quests have you killing things, with the most complex story being "BLUE SUNS BASE! KEEL", at least them copy and paste missions kept some interest with it's varied stories and dialogue. 5) The circumstances that allow your crew to be captured at the endgame are blatant railroading if I ever saw it. 6) The final boss looks like the Terminators idiot half brother and is really tedious.
On the whole, while Mass Effect 2 improved the originals gameplay in bounds, it's story and characterisation suffered big time, ultimately, it depends on whether a bad story ruins a game or not.
VideoGame DLC Mini-review
Compared to ME 1 there's a lot more DLC this time around. Instead of 2 sets there were now 8 narrative sets plus nearly a dozen extra weapons and skins for your squadmates. Since the weapons and skins don't really have much of an impact on the story or particularly tip the gameplay either way, I'm going to focus on the narrative ones. I'll rank them all from worst to best and give some brief thoughts on them.
8: Firewalker
The only ME DLC I would've preferred to lose over Pinnacle Station. Firewalker involves you taking a new mobile tank, the Hammerhead, to various planets to search for missing scientists. The Hammerhead is decent at exploration but terrible in combat, and the 'story' of this mission is bland and completely inconsequential. Skip this one.
7: Genesis
The oddball of this selection, Genesis doesn't actually have any parts you playthrough within ME 2 itself. Instead it's an interactive graphic novel based on the first game. It was originally released to provide PS 3 users with a way to change the world-state of ME 2 from the default, as ME 1 wasn't released on the PS 3. It gives you the major choices of that game, but many of the smaller parts get lost in the shuffle. For example, you won't see Conrad Verner in ME 2 using this method. It is a decent substitute for importing an ME 1 save, but by now it's pretty obsolete. The only real reason to use it is if you don't want to play ME 1 again and are fine with missing out on the smaller details.
6: Arrival
From here we've crossed the threshold into what I consider to be the good DLC. Arrival is sadly the weakest of the bunch, but don't take that to mean it's bad. You're sent on a solo mission to rescue a scientist who's discovered evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion. Once you rescue her, it's a race against time to stop the invasion. The biggest fault of this DLC is that you spend too much time on your own. It was an interesting gimmick for an hour, but after 3 it's worn out its welcome. Storywise this is the most impactful DLC for the entire trilogy, but it's not the most fun to play.
5: Overlord
A step up from Arrival, but not a big one. A Cerberus scientist was experimenting on ways to control the Geth, only for the VI/Human hybrid he created to go rogue. Shepard and crew must stop they hybrid from escaping the facility and shut down this dangerous experiment. This mission pack has a good start and a good finale, but the middle feels pretty padded out. None of your squadmates have any dialogue here, so it's mostly just shooting a bunch of Geth interspersed with some Hammerhead segments (oh joy). There are some neat horror elements at various points, but for the most part this pack is really remembered for its ending. You can skip this one if you want, but I would recommend at least one playthrough.
4: Normandy Crash Site
It's short, simple, and free. There's no combat this time, you're just exploring the wreckage of the original Normandy for the dog tags of its casualties while having some brief flashbacks. It's not exactly fun, but it does a lot to make the world feel a little more real and hit on the tragedy of the loss of the SR-1. I often like to save this as the final mission I do before transferring a save over to ME 3. It feels appropriate to give the past this one last tribute before heading on to the finale. You can skip it if you don't care about this sort of thing, but it's worth it for fans of the series.
3: Zaeed - The Price of Revenge
This pack includes a new squadmate, Zaeed, who comes with his own loyalty mission. Recruiting him only takes a conversation, so its not as involved as the other recruitment missions. Zaeed is a ruthless mercenary with a reputation for surviving the most impossible jobs. That's obviously a hot commodity for Shepard in this game. His loyalty mission is interesting, as it has multiple outcomes depending on your choices. If you complete it after finishing the main game you can even leave him to die. He doesn't have true conversations aboard your ship like the base game squadmates, but he does have things to say after each mission. He's a good character, but not one of my favorites. Still, you can get a flamethrower from the loyalty mission, and that's pretty awesome.
2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
One of the most popular DLC packs in the series, and for good reason. In the base game you meet with Liara and learn that she's hunting the Shadow Broker, a ruthless information seller. This DLC picks up on that thread, and lets you temporarily have Liara back in your party. You can also pick up on your romance with her if you did so in ME 1. There's a lot of fun banter throughout, and once you complete the mission you can return to the Shadow Broker's base for some cool unlockables and interesting information about the various NP Cs of the series. Learning that the very robotic Legion is a trash-talking gamer in its spare time will never not make me laugh.
1: Kasumi - Stolen Memory
The second of the DLC squadmates, her recruitment and loyalty mission follow a similar structure to Zaeed's. Kasumi is a master thief, and her loyalty mission is a heist. It's a neat shake-up, and the game manages to balance the tone of it very well. It doesn't have the varying outcomes of Zaeed's mission, but it's more fun to replay. Kasumi is a very playful and fun character, and is probably the most well-adjusted of your squadmates. She made a great addition to the series, and her loyalty mission is one of my favorites.
That covers ME 2's DLC, but I'll be back soon for ME 3's. See you there!