Before we popped the discs into the DVD drive and clicked the install button to the tune of the iconic Mass Effect ‘ping’, we paused and considered. We’ve played the first game, read both Drew Karpyshyn’s Mass Effect novels, drawn parallels between those characters and events, watched all the Mass Effect 2 teaser videos, obsessed over them a little, visited BioWare Edmonton twice (half hoping that someone would dress up as Tali for us), got the t-shirt and we’re currently drinking hot tea from a BioWare Thermos we were kindly given.

Combat has received an all-important boost

Alberta is insanely chilly this time of year, and we’re told all of the Mass Effect team drink their hot beverages from these flasks. We’re as ardent Mass Effect fans as you’re likely to meet, if not BioWare fans, so there’s not a snowflake’s chance in Hades Gamma that we could review Mass Effect 2 with more journalistic objectivity than slavering fanboy-ism. But for the sake of a more balanced piece, there was a cooling-off period leading up to this review when we didn’t consider why a Geth would be wearing a blasted suit of N7 armour, or what relation Subject Zero had to the Illusive man and Cerberus.

Unpause, place the EA-branded master review disc one into the tray, install and play. Most wouldn’t jump into the second book of a trilogy without reading the first, and if you want a full appreciation of Mass Effect 2 then we’d advise playing the original game and reading both Revelations and Ascension, which form a fascinating periphery to the science fiction BioWare has created. But even if this is your first time playing Commander Shepard, the path leading into Mass Effect 2’s snaking plot is easily trod. References are made to Saren, the Geth and the Reaper ship Sovereign from the opening cinematic onwards, but while having first-hand experience of dealing with the Reaper threat is a more absorbing context, there’s no tangible gameplay advantage to having it.

Any relevant information is fed to you by NPC dialogue in small and palatable bites, backed up by a fully fledged codex, so if you are new to the series you’ll be brought up to speed without breaking a sweat. If not for the background, then play the original Mass Effect first to appreciate what BioWare has done with some of the fundamental gameplay mechanics in Mass Effect 2; it’s all very well having the bleeding edge of light-speed capable drive technologies but, as you’ll find out in this sequel, that alone won’t save you in a fire fight. No-one in their right mind could slate Mass Effect’s plot, but it was easy to pull at threads in the game when grafting from planet to planet in the vast spiral of the Milky Way, or making tactical combat decisions with the limited party AI.

Mass Effect 2's visuals offer a slight enhancement over the original

BioWare has listened to its fans and resolved these issues, and we’re pleased to report that it’s to our great satisfaction. The major criticism about combat was that Shepard would snap to cover automatically with a degree of uncertainty, making on-the-fly tactical manoeuvres difficult. This was further complicated by the fact that your small squad had an infuriating habit of standing directly in your line of fire. We’ve no idea why BioWare didn’t opt for a full Gears Of War system in the first place, but that’s more or less what you’ve got in Mass Effect 2 and it’s much more effective. Combat environments have been deliberately populated with cover zones that your party, the enemy and, most importantly, you can take advantage of.

… continued