Mass Effect 2 was largely considered to be the greatest of the first three Mass Effect games. It featured a captivating tale, a dramatic universe, excellent voice acting, and one of the most effective gameplay overhauls in the history of video games. After the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, fans could not help but compare the quality of the two games by the same creator.
Sadly, many of us Mass Effect fans are dissatisfied with the way Andromeda was handled. Mass Effect: Andromeda has a less engaging protagonist, weaker acting, and widespread clunkiness, excluding the terrible facial animations. The worst aspect was that it featured the finest visuals and breadth of all four Mass Effect games, making it impossible to return to earlier titles. However, it is always possible to re-skin older games, especially Mass Effect 2. Thanks to the PC gaming community, your Mass Effect 2 gameplay experience may be vastly enhanced, which is tough for a 10-year-old game to do. Here are the necessary modifications to make it so.
Updated on 25 August 2020 by Meg Pellicci: With recent speculations that Bioware is remastering one of its games, many fans are hopeful that the Mass Effect brand will get some love, particularly since the franchise’s previous instalment, the poorly rated Mass Effect: Andromeda, ended on a terrible note. The original trilogy remains a masterwork that deserves to be performed today. While fans await a remaster, there are a few modifications that can breathe fresh life into older games, bringing them into the present day. Check out these top-recommended modifications for Mass Effect 2, which, like other games, has a variety of mods available.
1) ME2 Improved Bun Textures
These are among of the most realistic haircuts for a female Shepard, despite the fact that more aesthetically pleasing bun hairstyles do not often have a significant influence on the experience.
While the original buns are messy tangles of hair with an odd hairline, these textures by user LiasFfalenn make it seem as if FemShep took the effort to brush the hair before putting it into a bun. It is more natural and really worth the download if you’re interested in enhancing ME2’s appearance.
2) Hide Helmet Tweak
Despite offering a helmet toggle option in the original Mass Effect game, Bioware deleted this functionality from Mass Effect 2 for unknown reasons. This is especially annoying for gamers who have spent hours designing their avatars, only to have their faces covered for the majority of the game.
However, the Hide Helmet Tweak hack enables players to conceal their helmets while retaining their equipment’s attributes. Now, gamers may once again appreciate their well-crafted protagonist while playing.
3) Quick Startup
Quick Startup by Cxyrtax is one of the first modifications you’ll want to install if you’re new to ME2 modding. It only eliminates the opening cinematic and the “Press Any Key to Continue” screen before to the game’s Main Menu.
Manually skipping them takes minimal time. But given how often you’ll restart ME2 to test out your tweaks, the time you save rapidly adds up. Moreover, is there any need to maintain these items?
4) 4x Faster Loading Screens At 60FPS
The fact that Mass Effect 2’s loading screens take an excessive length of time is certain to irritate the vast majority of players. This is particularly annoying considering that current systems would load the game’s portions in a flash.
With this mod, loading screens are not only less annoying to see, but they also pass rapidly. This helps players to appreciate the game better by getting to the heart of the action sooner rather than later.
5) A Lot of Videos (ALOV) for ME2
Mass Effect 2 was first launched in 2010, therefore it is not surprising that the game’s age is apparent in a number of its components, including the cinematic sequences. Fortunately, the A Lot of Videos (ALOV) patch for ME2 provides these moments a much-needed graphics facelift.
This patch sharpens the pre-rendered cutscenes used throughout the game, as seen by the comparative photos above. This mod is really useful for modernising the appearance of Mass Effect 2.
6) No MiniGames
If there is one aspect of Mass Effect 2 that the majority of gamers have disliked, it’s the abundance of superfluous minigames. These are dispersed across the game’s landscape and are often irritating, delaying the gameplay.
This mod takes care of all these bypassing and hacking minigames with ease. In the meantime, a single probe is sufficient to do the laborious work of planet scanning.
7) A Lot of Videos (ALOV) for ME2
Most current players will not appreciate the compressed nature of the bulk of Mass Effect 2’s pre-rendered cutscenes. The contrast between the primary game and these pre-rendered segments might be startling. Thankfully, the ALOV modification eliminates these problems.
Observing these upsampled 4K movies at 60 frames per second may not seem like a significant issue. However, this mod integrates these movies into the main game perfectly. Those searching for the most immersive Mass Effect 2 experience must have it.
8) Remove Shared Cooldown
Mass Effect 2’s abilities are far more enjoyable than its predecessor’s in several ways. However, there is one aspect of these abilities that some players find irritating: the common cooldown duration for each of these skills.
Thankfully, this mod gives each ability its own unique cooldown. This makes each of Shepard’s abilities seem more distinct and fun to employ, hence enhancing the entire experience.
9) 4X Faster Loading Screens
I’ve always like loading displays that strive to keep you entertained while you wait. Interesting facts, great concept art, and even the animations in Mass Effect are all excellent examples. The issue is that ME2’s loading screens stop not when the game has finished loading, but when the animation has.
It wasn’t a problem when the game was initially released since the loading screens were deliberately scheduled to run about as long as the usual loading time… but times change. And this mod by R0B0LUT10N just speeds up the animations to 60 frames per second by making them more fluid, making them play four times faster. Both parties win!
10) Better Galaxy Textures
The many galaxies and systems in Mass Effect 2’s galaxy map are re-imagined versions of Hubble Space Telescope photographs, with slight modifications.
Even though the quality of these graphics was drastically decreased to increase efficiency, 10 years is a very long period in the game industry. Modern gaming hardware can handle HD graphics without issue.
CreeperLava, a capable ME2 mod der, tracked down each of the original, high-quality Hubble images and utilised them to create new textures for the game.
11) ME2 Graphics Tweaks
BioWare has always made intelligent use of lighting and effects to make their games seem far better than if every texture were exposed to the sun. However, many modifications significantly enhance the game’s graphics, and it makes no sense to conceal them after so much effort.
This mod by ArJed, for instance, simply eliminates many of these impacts. On vanilla, the game seems washed out. However, when combined with HD textures, it will appear better than before.
12) Mass Effect 2 Cheat Console
Skyrim mod veterans and other mod aficionados know there are few things as handy as a dependable console that allows you to level up, generate goods, and do other useful things.
The Mass Effect 2 Cheat Console by modder Avatar1971 does precisely that. It’s a mod that enables you to collect endless ammunition, equip soldier-class weapons regardless of your true class, and even alter your Paragon/Renegade levels by simple command-line input.
13) Natural Eyelashes
As previously said, Mass Effect 2 is a ten-year-old video game; its release so long ago is a sufficient explanation for its robotic character models. However, due to the Natural Eyelashes mod, you are no longer forced to bear such deficiencies.
As the name suggests, the patch replaces the outdated eyelashes of Mass Effect 2’s character models with more realistic and gorgeous ones. This should make the characters seem more current by today’s gaming standards, particularly considering that a substantial amount of the game consists of dialogue screens that zoom in on the characters’ faces.
14) Increased Maximum Fuel And Probes
Some fans are unwilling to cheat at the generally loathed planet-scanning minigame. Nonetheless, they want to alleviate the annoyances associated with this mechanism. This modification is the ideal solution for these gamers.
The Increased Maximum Fuel and Probes mod raises the maximum fuel limit from 1,000 to 7,000, and also increases the maximum probe limit from 30 to 500.
15) More Hair
One of the finest aspects about Mass Effect games is the degree of personalization players have over the main character. In the original trilogy, however, Commander Shepard may be transformed into anyone the player desires. However, it is still an outdated game with obsolete customising possibilities. Therefore, Additional Hair partially addresses this issue by introducing more hairstyles.
Notably, some non-player characters (NPCs) in the game already sport these haircuts. The modification only makes them accessible for selection on the character creation screen. It seems to also work on squadmates.
