I have to admit I picked up on Mass Effect rather late with the initial play causing me to turn off after a very early death, returning to it in middle of 2009 during a quiet review period and ending up loving every minute of it, even the lift and rover parts that everyone seemed to have got hung up on. From what I have played this is just as epic with loads of familiar places and faces reappearing plus loads of new elements to keep everyone happy.

 

 

Mass Effect 2 is set a couple of years after the events of Mass Effect with the Normandy searching for remaining Geth, after a stunning space battle you are able to create your main character, Shepard. Once you are satisfied with the look (you can transfer your character from the original game here and still alter as you see fit) you need to decide on a class. Each one is quite different from last and compliments your play style, so do take time to read the pros and cons of each. In short you have the Soldier who has a good selection of weapons, Infiltrator who can use stealth, Vanguard is good at close quarters attacks, Sentinel has heavy shields, Adept has plenty of Biotic powers and finally the Engineer who has use of a combat drone. On the first game I played as a Soldier so thought a change of pace and a chance to play with some Biotics would be fun, finally opting for the Engineer class who also has some pretty cool fire ball and shield distorter Biotic powers.

 

Once you’re happy the game starts in earnest with Shepard finding himself teamed with a group called Cereberus, headed by a man only known as "The Illusive Man". These guys are known throughout the galaxy as extremely pro-human so Shepard is a little suspicious of their current actions to save the Alliance; but sticks with them to build a new team and tackle a new threat, The Collectors.

 

The story is epic, taking two discs to tell the whole tale, after 10 hours of play I had escaped from a space station, met up with some old friends, been poisoned, saved a whole colony from a killer virus, escaped from a prison, mined a few planets and I'm was still on the first disc. The varied amount of missions available offer days of gameplay with the main missions revolving around you gathering a team together and trying to locate missing colonies captured by the Collectors and the side missions include locating some booze, finding ship parts and search and rescue missions. It's these side quests that will keep you playing as they are dotted all over the galaxy, some pop up automatically whilst others require a certain action or a chat with someone.

 

Worth a mention is the use of save games from the first game, though you can play the game without the addition of a previous save it does have a few perks like extra starting cash and an extra rank and whilst it does not have any drastic effect on the story, it is worth it for those who enjoyed the first game.

 

There are also plenty of mini-quests that will aid you in bettering your weaponry, team and ship. Early in the game you are able to travel to other galaxies by thruster jets with their limited fuel supply or the Mass Effect relays, each is populated by a few planets for you to mine for raw materials. This is done by moving a radar around the planet and once a graph peaks you send a probe to gather whatever is underground. With the raw materials you can improve the shielding for the Normandy, create new weapons like rocket launchers and increase the power of your Biotics, as long as you have the correct schematic.

 

Controlling Shepard is tighter than before with action being more 3rd person shooter based with the bumper and Y buttons assigned to special moves, while pressing left and right on the dpad allows you to split and position your team. The running and the cover system is also infinitely better than in the previous game. Gone is the mid-action weapon swapping, this time around on the Normandy and at well positioned junctures are weapons lockers, so choose wisely before going into battle. The interaction is just as easy as before, with multipoint answers and questions easily picked with the control stick and paragon and renegade options appearing depending on how you play.

 

 

What surprised most is how much better the game looks, the first game was impressive to look at, with a sci-fi movie feel to it allowing many a moment just to stop and soak in the atmosphere, well Bioware have upped their game considerably with even more varied and beautiful environments. The first game suffered from lots of similar looking levels, especially the prefab units on the smaller planets, thankfully this has been altered to make each world unique in Mass Effect 2 and it looks stunning.

 

Of course any decent piece of sci-fi needs a good soundtrack and Mass Effect 2 is spot on with a very dreamy Vangelis (Blade Runner) feel which will creep in during action or cut scenes. When not playing there are plenty of atmospheric effects and of course hours worth of speech too, with each line delivered with the commitment of a Hollywood movie.

 

Mass Effect 2 is everything a sci-fi fan could dream of, space battles, gripping stories and a little space romance. It has improved on what was already a great game. There are a few things that will be sadly missed (such as the Mako), but overall this game is an amazing experience and the first must have of 2010.