Since the title credits rolled on Mass Effect 1, you’d be hard pressed to find a gamer who didn’t immediately want to find out what happens next for Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. Personally, I enjoyed the first game so much that as soon as the aforementioned credits stopped, I started a new game and went through it all again. I don’t usually do that, specially for a game that took 25 hours to run through the first time.

The story of Mass Effect 2 picks up just over two years after the events of the first game. You are Commander Shepard and once again are up against impossible odds and tasked with a suicide mission which will hopefully save all mankind. Technically you don’t have to complete the first game to play this one, but I’d recommend not starting here. Playing ME1 will give you plenty of backstory and motivations, and the interactions that take place between characters will certainly have more impact if you’re already emotionally invested. The primary antagonist race is a group of aliens called the Collectors who are going around the Milky Way abducting humans en masse. Instead of working for the Alliance, Shepard has been recruited by a shadow organization called Cerberus. Lead by a stupidly-named figurehead, the Illusive Man, you need to figure out just what the Collectors are up to.

At the start, you’ll get to choose whether to import a saved game from the first, or just start a fresh game. While giving you an overview of some of the more important decisions you made previously, importing a game will also include some minute details that you may or may not pick up on depending on your memory. There are characters that will recount past events if you run into them, and you’ll get updated on what has transpired in their lives since. While not important to the story, it’s this type of attention to detail that helps raise the bar and gets you sucked in. If for some reason you don’t choose to import a game, those decisions will be made for you.

In an attempt to answer many of the complaints people had about the first game, BioWare has retooled a bunch of stuff here. There’s barely any more pop-in textures, no more load-time elevators, combat has improved greatly, and the framerate is steady most of the time. The Galaxy Map will point out which nebula you should go to based on what open quests you have in your journal. Most importantly, you won’t spend a minute inside the Mako driving over some desolate, repetitive looking planet trying to find minerals that didn’t do anything or some establishments that all looked alike. Instead, you can scan planets from above for minerals and if a planet has a settlement of some sort (all of which feel separate and significant), you’ll know right away. Oh yeah, they’ve removed the inventory too.

Wait what? Yep, there’s really no more inventory system. While the menus in the first Mass Effect weren’t great to begin with, you’d often spend time outfitting your squad members with specific armor or weapons and that just isn’t here this time around. You’ll still pick up weapons around the universe, but once you do it’ll be added to your armory and you can just give any number of that weapon to whoever can use it at the start of a ground mission. If you decide you’d like a different shotgun or sniper rifle, you’ll have to look for a specially designated terminal or return to the Normandy. Upgrades are handled by a research station utilizing the minerals you’ll find through scanning and exploring, and go across all party members. This significantly streamlines things and greatly reduces the amount of time you’ll be staring at a menu. This, as well as the addition of “ammunition” style pickups in the form of heatsinks, is very indicative of BioWare’s shift away from Mass Effect being a traditional RPG and more towards a story heavy action game.

All those RPG elements aren’t completely gone though, you’ll still get to pause the action and issue squad commands as well as improve skills after leveling up your character. You’ll still get to purchase some armor customization too in the form of gaining percentage bonuses to your skills, but equipping those is all handled through your ‘closet’ on the Normandy and a couple of sliders. They have added the notion of loyalty into the mix as well, and while in theory it sounds great, it’s just a toggle flicked when you do a crew member specific mission. Loyal crew members get to wear a spiffy new “I’m Shepard’s Lackey” outfit and gain an additional ability. It’s a decent incentive, but it feels like it could have been utilized a bit better.

Combat is very much like Gears of War or any number of cover based shooters on the market. You’ll spend most of your time stuck to a wall or barrier, peeking your head out to take your shots. While in cover, you can order your squad members to perform certain actions through a radial menu, which when activated, pauses the action. You can also assign three actions to buttons on the controller to use them in real time. Unlike its predecessor though, Mass Effect 2 actually feels really good in combat. Considering the amount of time you’ll be gunning down bad guys, this is a great thing.

In general, all of the changes made help keep things moving and prevent the downtime that can present in traditional RPGs. Instead of spending a ton of time walking (or driving) around rather mindlessly from point to point, you’ll actually be interacting with the world in meaningful ways. You’ll spend plenty of time fighting mercenaries or mechs, scanning planets to improve your gear and ship, or just straight up talking to people.

The conversation system from the first game is back and hasn’t changed much at all, but there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ll still get up to six dialog options on a radial wheel that can be chosen before the last line of dialog is spoken, creating a very fluid and awesome interactions between yourself and NPCs. It works as well as it did in the last game, and is still as impressive. The single bit they did add is a new interrupt system. At specific (and somewhat rare) times, you’ll be able to hit the left or right trigger to alter the conversation, shifting the flow towards your good or evil side. Yes, you can consider this a quicktime event, but it’s optional, give you ample time to hit the button, and it’s just another way to interact during the conversation.

One thing the conversation system shows off is just how great this game looks. Faces are well defined and have some serious depth to them, particularly with some of the alien races. My personal favorite was newcomer Thane and his double eyelids. Also, when you spend a crapton of time staring at people, they better animate well, and luckily they do. Lips are synced well with the exceptional and somewhat Hollywood infused voicework, and the consistent cinematic camera angle cuts keep things fresh. Environments and worlds are all unique, unlike those palette swapped worlds from the first game. Some are tropically lush, some are sparse and dirty, and others are complete wrecks. There’s plenty of beautiful variety throughout the universe.

Mass Effect 2 is quite honestly everything you would hope it would be. An epic story full of interesting characters within a huge universe with all the problems from the first game fixed. Whether you’d rather go prospectin’ for some minerals on planets or just stick to the game’s story, there’s plenty of content to keep you busy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a second character to import while anxiously awaiting ME3.

Score: 5 out of 5

The Good
A complete, beautiful cinematic experience.
Huge universe with plenty to do; side quests feel tangential instead of completely unrelated.
All the issues of the first have been addressed in thoughtful ways.

The Bad
A bit too action focused.
The character, Subject Zero.

The Ugly
I can already hear the nerd-rage about BioWare ‘ruining’ Mass Effect.

Writer’s Notes
First Playthrough Length: 24h25m
Favorite Squad: Shepard, Thane, Samara
Squad Loyalty: 10 out of 10
Alignment: Primarily Paragon (with some Renegade thrown in for fun)
Sex: Oooh yeah.

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.