After the massive success that was the original Mass Effect, it was no surprised that we got a new and improved sequel to continue Commander Shepard’s spacefaring epic.
With much better controls, more combat-focused gameplay, and even better dialogue, ME2 quickly made its way into the hearts of many fans who continue to play it from time to time.
But no need to stick with the outdated vanilla version when you’re just a couple of clicks away from better visuals, faster loading times, and more responsive controls.
For those of you interested in making this game the best it can be, here are my picks for the absolute best mods you have to check out.
While something as specific as better-looking bun hairstyles doesn’t normally have a big impact on the experience, these are some of the most realistic hairstyles for a female Shepard.
While the original buns are low-quality tangles of unkempt hair with a pretty strange hairline, these textures by user LiasFfalenn look like FemShep actually took the time to brush that hair before tying it up in a bun.
It’s more natural, and definitely worth the download if you’re interested in beautifying ME2.
Now if you’re the kind of person that can’t help but worry about the smallest details, consider Holograms HD by JimbobJeffers.
This add-on simply complements other visual enhancement mods by taking care of the minor but ubiquitous details of holograms in the game’s futuristic locales.
What use is having hyper-detailed faces if the holographic controls of your ship look pixelated?
Another great mod for saving time as you play through Shepard’s second adventure is No Minigames by creator Dybukk.
Whether you want to get through your tenth playthrough of the Mass Effect Trilogy as fast as possible, or just can’t stand the silly minigames for hacking and bypassing, this easy install will get rid of them altogether.
It’s a bit lazy, but there’s no time to waste doing things you hate this day and age.
Mass Effect 2’s many galaxies and systems are based on pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, re-imagined with some minor changes for use in the game’s galactic map.
While these images were greatly reduced in quality to improve performance, ten years is a long time in the gaming world. Your average modern gaming rig can handle HD textures without a hitch.
Proficient ME2 mod creator CreeperLava took it upon themselves to track down each of the original high-quality Hubble pictures and used them to make new textures for the game.
Skyrim mod veterans and other mod connoisseurs know few things are as useful as a reliable console that lets you level up, spawn items, and good stuff like that.
Modder Avatar1971 offers just that with the Mass Effect 2 Cheat Console. It’s a mod that lets you acquire infinite ammo, equip soldier-class weapons regardless of your actual class, and even change your Paragon/Renegade levels just by typing in some simple commands.
In conclusion, this adds cheats to ME2 and its DLCs. Check it out, lots of fun to be had.
Do you feel like mapping the galaxy and scouring every planet is already hard enough? Especially considering limitations like lack of fuel and not enough probes.
Well creator Bluechief6 feels this way, and they’ve shared their solution with us through the Increased Maximum Fuel and Probes mod.
All it does is increase max fuel from 1000 to 7000, and max probes from 30 to 500, greatly streamlining the process.
You could probably do this with the ME2 Cheat Console as well. But this mod makes the whole process much simpler, and you won’t need to do it all over again every time you boot up the game.
If you’re anything like me, you love customizing your characters in RPGs as much as the system allows.
Well thanks to modder Fudgyduff and their humorously-named Massively Effective Color Palette, you can now access up to 200 armor tint colors, which enables an insane amount of color combinations across your Shepard’s outfit.
From hyper-saturated options to more pastel hues, you’ll find just the right style for you. Variety won’t ever be an issue again.
As you gather new weapons in ME2, choosing the right loadout for each mission starts getting more and more complicated.
Especially considering there’s no way of actually comparing weapons side to side.
Modder Theludd offers a pretty nifty solution with their Weapon Stats mod, which simply introduces an informational graphic you’ll see under every firearm in your weapons locker. It’ll include useful data such as damage, rate of fire, and clip size.
It’s so well-done that you’ll feel as if it was always there. Once you get Weapon Stats, you’ll never go back.
I’ve always loved loading screens that attempt to entertain you while you wait.
Interesting factoids, cool concept art, and even Mass Effect’s animations are all great examples. The thing is that ME2’s loading screens don’t end when the game is done loading, but rather when the animation ends.
It wasn’t an issue when the game first came out, as they were carefully timed to last about as long as average loading times… but things change.
And this mod by R0B0LUT10N just speeds up the animations to 60fps, making them play four times as fast by making them more fluid. It’s a win-win!
If rather than a huge-scale change to the game’s visuals you’d rather just get some more detail out of the galactic locales, then this mod by Thrive4 might be just the thing you need.
As previously stated, vanilla Mass Effect 2 uses many effects to make the game look better by obscuring low-quality details.
All this mod does is rebalance brightness in the game’s settings, revealing previously unseen details. Especially if you also install the HD textures add-on.
Other BioWare games such as Dragon Age: Inquisition, ME, and ME3 feature an option to hide helmets in combat to better appreciate your character’s visage.
So much time in the character creator couldn’t go to waste!
Regrettably this feature is completely absent from ME2, forcing you to choose between a helmet’s juicy stats and your party’s faces.
Unless you install Hide Helmet Tweak by NexusMods user Tarshana. This might be pretty obvious, but this mod doesn’t apply to Tali.
Whether you’re used to playing on consoles or just prefer the feel of an ergonomic controller in your hands, you may be disappointed by the lack of native support for gamepads in Mass Effect 2.
Luckily modder Dybukk has an easy-to-install fix.
This will let you use your Xbox controller to play ME2 on PC without a hitch.
Just remember that you’ll have to uninstall it if you ever decide you’d rather enjoy the precise aiming offered by the traditional control scheme. So it doesn’t support both at the same time.
And since we’re discussing the control scheme, why not go all the way and overhaul it with the Intuitive Controls Mod by NexusMods user N1fucal.
It’s a tried-and-true way to get rid of the somewhat unwieldy controls present in vanilla ME2. And it’s made by a creator with plenty of experience bringing more responsive and comfortable controls to BioWare games like DA: Inquisition and even Mass Effect 3.
If you’re having trouble adapting to ME2’s controls, this is an option you shouldn’t ignore.
Few alien races are as interesting (and quite frankly appealing) as Mass Effect’s blue-skinned beauties, the Asari.
Modder BlueJay9 is a total Asari aficionado. And he took it upon himself to create high-resolution textures for every blue lady in ME2.
This mod adds a lot more detail to the Asari’s skin and face markings, and also makes their faces a tad more human so their facial animations look more natural.
For obvious reasons, Liara gets special treatment. Her entire body is re-textured from head to toe. Even her tongue and teeth!
Once you’re done with the Asari, you’ll slowly realize you can’t have just one race of HD-ladies while the rest of your aliens walk around in their low-quality skins.
Creator GoldenSkans9 graciously offers Alien Aliens, which replaces all of the alien NPC textures for more detailed versions with a higher resolution.
This mod is available for each of the games in the Mass Effect Trilogy, so consider installing all versions for a more uniform experience if you plan on playing through Shepard’s entire adventure.
Originally, only male Commander Shepard has any chance at romancing Miranda, the super-sexy Cerberus operative introduced in ME2.
However thanks to modder BryanB3218’s efforts, you’re one quick install away from getting it on with this femme fatale as the feminine version of Shepard, with voice lines taken from other scenes in the game and re-arranged into a pretty competent romance.
It’s a bit wonky at times. But I’ve always played as a female Shepard, and this mod gave me a chance to know one of the best gals in the series a lot better, if you know what I mean.
But why stop at an all-girls pajama party with Miranda?
This incredible mod by creator Rondeeno allows both Tali and Thane to be romanced by both male and female Shepard, including fully-voiced scenes ripped straight from the game’s files.
It also fixes issues created by modded-in same-gender romances with Kaidan and Ashley original Mass Effect, letting you continue your journey across the galaxy as a proud and out Shepard from start to finish. It’s as if BioWare intended this mod to be made…
One of the best options to enhance your game’s visuals is this ENB by creator Carinth01, which endeavors to bring more vibrant colors and an overall brighter ambiance to Mass Effect 2.
It’ll take away the washed-out look that some areas in the game suffer from. Plus it’ll re-balance excessive use of shadows and give your gameplay a much sharper look.
The best part is that this mod will run perfectly in any gaming rig that runs the base game at virtually no performance cost. It’s a must-have!
It may be no Mass Effect: Andromeda, but Mass Effect 2 has its fair share of bugs. Even after several official updates to cull their numbers.
This mod by Moho25 not only fixes a ton of these small errors, but patches up bits of broken lore with new information from ME3 and other content, restores some cut material, and turns ME2 into the best version of itself.
It’s used to update a lot of stuff so I’d definitely recommend giving it a try to see what you think.
Replacing textures in your game for better ones is as easy as running a search on Google and copying some game folders. But what about pre-rendered cutscenes?
Hard-working modder Audemus chose to manually enhance every frame from ME2’s 720p cutscenes by running them through Gigapixel AI, a sophisticated program capable of up-scaling images without perceivable quality-loss.
Then with this mod you get all those HD videos automatically put back together into glorious 1440p versions.
Not only is it an amazing improvement over vanilla cut-scenes, but the amount of work and ingenuity put into this mod is frankly astonishing.
Mass Effect 2 is a pretty darn good game that just hasn’t aged that well.
The engaging gameplay and exciting story are still there, but the graphics slowly get left behind by modern standards.
Well modder CreeperLava has made a massive contribution to keeping ME2 fresh with their ALOT mod, which changes a gargantuan amount of textures for much more detailed versions without changing the game’s vanilla art style.
Mass Effect 2 has never looked this good, and being so easy to install, there’s no excuse to pass over this one.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
