Saga’s laws are immutable. Science-fiction saga’s laws are irreversible, cruel and merciless.. but so very very epic and spectacular! And a soft, magic and natural first part is always followed by some dark, complex and bringing suspense second one. This is the way the ideal movie sequel to Star Wars «The Empire Strikes Back» was created, the same is true of the perfect second part of the Mass Effect game. Moreover, if to take into account the fact that vector of setting has greatly changed its direction towards noir, darkness and epos, the heritage of Mass Effect hasn’t been lost. You can import save files from the previous title; familiar design, favorite characters and music recognizable from the first chords – all can be found here. Of course the music has changed so as to match the grown sequel but it hasn’t lost its charm and a slight flavor of space naiveté.



As the game starts with (attention!) the protagonist’s death, so nothing joyful both from the plot and from the accompanying music should be expected. There’re much more thrilling, dramatic and merely controversial moments in the sequel, which automatically influenced both the gameplay and the music. Electronics faded into the background and begun to back up a very expensive orchestra canvas, and purely electronic themes just vanished without a trace disappearing in a black hole. Now strings, winds and so loved by Jack Wall keyboards rule the show.

A theme called The Illusive Man, in which all these instruments are trying to bring the listener down, sets the overall mood of the disk. Light electronic music serving as a background adds a slight flavor of futuristics and mystery to a melody. In short it’s all what is needed. In Humans are Disappearing there’s a bit more drama and less futurism. But here both the context and the name of the track are the compelling reason. It sounds like a pure requiem with an element of ambient skillfully woven into the overall fabric. This music catches and makes you feel the moment. The same compliments are true of those few calm tracks that are on the album. Almost each of them carries a little bit of sadness, an element of universal melancholy and at times even sincere concern. Though so as to feel every bit of it to the full extent it’s preferably to play the game at least once (and better more).

It’s action tracks that changed dramatically - a lot more Hollywood music clichés, lengthier tracks (8 mins vs 3 mins in the first part) and somehow more expensive sound. As for the clichés, the first one is that all the tracks carry a slight echo of a leitmotif from the main theme of the first part of Mass Effect that serves as some bridge across the trilogy. On the other hand this method greatly works in 6 parts of the movie-you-know-well, and it perfectly fits into Mass Effect. The second cliché is that almost all tracks have grabbed more instruments and started to sound significantly faster. Due to this they became a lot more pathos. Suicide Mission, for instance, causes a tremendous desire to find the nearest office of military recruiting station and flee to protect the galaxy. Also another favorite of Wall’s sheet music is a chore, which has completely unexpectedly stolen in Mass Effect, giving even the well-known pieces of the melody some new, deeper and more epic sound.



Everything could be great but a lot of action themes became more faceless. Moreover they’re difficult to mutter under the breath, that’s also a kind of a disadvantage. But here a common sense should be used. Considering the incredibly mad pace of Mass Effect 2 gameplay, privately, I think it’s very doubtful that viscous-sticky electronic and chip-tune motives of the first part would match the sequel.

Several references to some other sci-fi works were added to the soundtrack either. In The Attack you can clearly hear the motives of a Reaver theme from Firefly, some reminiscence of the series soundtrack can be also heard in a long track called Samara (that’s the name, not the city). But it’s a mere trifle. If anybody is still quoted then it’s Wall himself with his Myst soundtrack. And that’s hardly a bad thing.

But what’s really offending to the ears is that there’s no credit song in the OST. Still it was pleasant to hear a hit M4Part II by Faunts in BioWare game itself. And this very song sounds very unusual and canonic particularly in Mass Effect context.



It would have been very strange if Mass Effect 2 OST lowered the overall bar of the very game, which is already somewhere outside this galaxy. It would be very naïve to think that such author as Jack Wall could lie down on the job. And it would be fundamentally wrong to say that music from the first part was much more better, beautiful and original. Not at all. It’s nothing but the first part turning into a saga according to all laws of the genre. And together with it the soundtrack has made a step forward. It has a lot of old leitmotivs, a bit less of the wow effect of the first part, and it doesn’t draw all attention to itself. In other words it doesn’t steal much of the show from the parent game. Whether these facts are drawbacks or merits – it’s up to you. But again, it’s difficult to criticize the “Star Wars” for a complete predictability, isn’t it?