Well I have just played through my first whirlwind run of Mass Effect 2 and overall I am impressed. Bioware really listened to the fans of the first game and cleaned up some of the minor issues that tended to niggle away at you while playing the original Mass Effect. Combat has been tightened up, tedious running all over the shop has been eliminated as much as possible and the very samey side missions have been done away with. Like the original it is like being in control of a Science Fiction film, scenes have a that feel of being directed by someone who knows what they are doing rather than being simply functional and everything just feels high quality. As you would expect after playing the original the game has an awesome plot and is well scripted and acted. The voice cast is enough to make a geek cry with delight.  Yvonne Strahovski, Tricia Helfer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Michael Hogan, Seth Green, Martin Sheen, Claudia Black and Adam Baldwin just to name a few. The full list is here. And the character Yvonne Strahovski plays take its looks directly from the actress too, though they have inflated her bosom somewhat for the character. Shame the characters never interact the same way as they do in Dragon Age though.

The game carries on from the original game and you can import your character. Beware though as Bioware have seriously fucked up this process on the Xbox 360 by hiding away the file you need so unless you have the original memory/hard drive you saved onto you will not be able to import your character even if you kept your save games. If you still have the original Mass Effect to hand you can play through the final battle again and cause the game to recreate this hidden file so you can import your character, otherwise you are screwed. How Bioware managed to make such a hash of this I don’t know. Luckily I managed to locate my original 20gb hard drive. After a semi-interactive opening sequence the game takes a 2 year game time break and sends you off on another mission to save the Galaxy. Naturally even Commander Shepard can’t save the galaxy all alone so your first task is to recruit a new team. Some characters from the original game return, mainly as NPCs but a few can be added to your team. Seems in Shepard’s 2 year absence they have carried on with their lives. As before you can go on side missions (which are thankfully more varied than Mass Effect), help out your companions and indulge in romance with your team members.

My Commander Shepard

Some of the changes that have improved the game play have sadly had negative consequences. Everything in the sequel seems that little bit smaller and less epic than the first. Partly due to the difference in the plot and partly because game areas have been reduced in size to minimise running backwards and forwards. It feels odd that the enhanced Normandy now feels bigger than some of the game locations and if it wasn’t for the some times spectacular background vistas the game would feel very small. Shoring up the combats seems to have made the game much easier and I would recommend laying at a level of difficulty one higher than you would usually play. The final battle alone is way to easy and feels a bit of an anti-climax after playing through the game. However the set-up for the Mass Effect 3 more than makes up for the lack of epic-ness of this title. It also seems a little short compared to similar recent titles like Dragon Age or Fallout 3. I blew though it the first time in 36 hours, I did the main plot, some side quests and all the team member missions. I still have some star systems unexplored so I doubt I have covered everything but still.

Mass Effect 2 is more polished than its predecessor but the side effects of this polish make it slightly less in some areas than the original. It all comes out in the wash though and I think the two titles are pretty much on a equal standing in the end. I look forward to a second play through and the DLC. I give 4 out of 5 just like I did Mass Effect. A very good game but not as good as Dragon Age: Origins. Bioware are still the kings of RPGs in my book.