Sci-Fi gaming at its best
Bioware has finally graced us with the eagerly awaited sequel to Mass Effect. From the beginning the team at Bioware always said that the Mass Effect universe would form part of a trilogy (however they haven't ruled out going beyond three games). What this sequel has accomplished goes far beyond the scope of the first game.
Beginning near the end of Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 quickly moves to two years later. Before Shepard has the chance to comprehend what is going on he/she is thrust into the service of the shadiest organisation that operated in the first game: Cerberus. Cerberus appearing to be interested, and invested, in saving humanity lays on the shoulders of Shepard and the mission to discover why human colonists are disappearing from far off corners of the Milky Way, and just what the Reapers' end game really is. During Shepard's search towards a solution, he/she recruits a team of some of the best operatives the galaxy has to offer in order to bring forth an answer to humanity's, and every other sentient species in the galaxy's, woes.
Those who have not played the first game will not have the same level of understanding of the back-story of the franchise, and the same commitment to the character of Shepard. In fact, without having played the first game there are many interactions and pieces of story that will be unavailable or the uninitiated will not understand. Yet the chances are that if you are considering purchasing Mass Effect 2 then you have already got the original game somewhere in your collection.
Mass Effect 2 sees a substantial change from the abilities, weapons and equipment settings and options of the first game. Though combat remains almost exactly the same, how abilities (such as Biotics and tech skills) are deployed is similar yet now players are able to quickly unleash waves of abilities from Shepard and teammates in order to bring enemies to their knees. Such abilities recharge a great deal faster than they did previously, and have been simplified so that the only abilities you need to worry about levelling up are combat based ones. Where the first game had you keeping an eye on several different abilities between yourself and your teammates so that you would be able to open up secure containers and hack computers, now players are able to just rely on their own skills of perception to perform those tasks. Also charm and intimidate have been removed from Shepard's abilities list, and are now solely represented by Shepard's Paragon and Renegade scores.
