Oh, hello. What day is it? Right, right. Kinda lost track of time. Spent quite some time locked up in my room. Hell, I haven’t seen sunlight for so long it feels like my eyes are burning up! Sorry? What have I been doing? Well, you see, there’s this awesome new game called Mass Effect 2…

Allow me to set up the story; it’s way off in the future, and you’re playing as Shepard, who, through a very nice plot point, can be manipulated to whatever class and appearance takes your choosing, whether you’re importing a character or not. From here on in, it’s up to Shepard to take on the evil alien race known as The Collectors. In order to do this, you must create a team of the deadliest, craziest people in the galaxy to take part in what is constantly referred to as a suicide mission. Sure, it’s not deep, but it’s pretty kick ass, and the story is delivered with a good amount of twists to keep it interesting.

Gameplay has been radically changed from the original game. BioWare have clearly decided to throw out most of the RPG parts of Mass Effect, and replace it with a combat system not unlike a certain blockbuster title that’s been ripped off numerous times before (*cough* Gears *cough*). The overheating system is gone, replaced with “thermal clips”, which are thankfully dropped by most enemies, so you rarely run out of ammo. The cover system is now much simpler, the bullets fly where you’re shooting, and everything is basically re-worked to be more action based. The biotic and tech abilities are still at your disposal, and these can now be mixed and matched to do even more damage. There is also more local damage, so shooting an enemy in the leg can slow them down, although basically it means headshots are really powerful now.

Outside of combat, the gameplay is largely unchanged. You’re still going to be going from planet to planet, talking to whoever you can and being as good or as evil as you like. At certain points in dialogues, you can interrupt the conversation with a press of a trigger (LT for a good action or RT for an evil one). This system is a nice addition, but there are times when, particularly if you’re being good, the only thing you can do is sit around and wait for the bad guy to finish their monologue. It would’ve been nice to have a good action as well as an evil one, although I suppose that might have made the system redundant in a way.

The ship’s navigation is now switched up a bit. Instead of merely selecting a planet and travelling to it, or pressing A to scan and gather resources, you now use a mini version of the Normandy to fly around the galaxy. When you reach any planet, you can scan it for resources that are used for upgrades to your ship or crew, or sometimes find a side mission to complete. Somehow, this never really gets dull, and it is actually good fun to investigate every single planet in the galaxy just to see what’s out there.

The graphics are pretty spectacular. The grain filter from the first game is completely forgotten, so the focus is on huge explosions and beautiful environments. The character models look amazing, and the facial expressions are sublime, so every conversation is a treat to watch. Each major planet feels alive, with more detail to the backgrounds and well designed areas that you don’t get lost in. Some could say that the environments are slightly over-designed, in that they don’t feel as though the environments could be real places, but for the player it makes progression more natural, so it’s no big deal.

The voice acting is superb, as in the last game. Each character is given their own personality, and the performances in this game are fantastically well done, with plenty of emotion and depth going into each voice. Even Michael Sheen as the Illusive Man manages to make his character seem amoral and intriguing, which is nice given that he could’ve just phoned it in, what with him being the only “name” in the game. Aside from the voice acting, the environment noises are well placed, guns sound meaty, like they’d really do some damage, and the orchestral score comes in at appropriate moments to add to the mood.

Basically, if you liked Mass Effect, you’re going to love Mass Effect 2. It’s no longer the RPG that many fell for, instead being something completely different and far more fun to play. Just make sure you’ve got plenty of time on your hands. You’re gonna be at this one for a while.

Score: 9/10

Preferred the RPG elements in the first game? Feel it’s too much like Gears? Let us know in the comments!