Mass Effect 2 improves on what it's predecessor did by leaps and bounds.
Stopping the Collectors however, is more of a background story. Shepard's main goal lies in gaining and uniting a loyal team in order to survive the suicide mission on the other side of the Omega 4 relay. While Mass Effect 2's story suffers from being the second game of a trilogy and only exists to set up the third game, it still shines from Bioware's excellent writing. Gaining everybody's loyalty and watching how it all plays out alongside the choices you make during the suicide mission is very exciting. Whether everybody lives or dies, you won't be disappointed with your ending. What will really stand out though are the numerous decisions that carry over from the first game with an imported file. They don't change the course of Mass Effect 2's story but it's pure nostalgia when you run into Conrad Verner or see what your old friends and enemies are up to.
Anyone who has recently played Mass Effect in order to get their universe shaped the way they want them to will immediately notice the enormous changes that have been made to the gameplay. This can be a good or bad thing depending on how you view an RPG. After creating or tweaking your imported your Shepard, you'll wake up in a medical room and be introduced to the game's ammo system. To avoid ruining the game's lore, they're called heat sinks and serve to replace the old cool down system. Personally, the old system is what made the combat stale especially later into the game. Some fans of the first game may disagree but, the new system will keep you thinking about how you approach battles. Cover is still a strong aspect of the gameplay though and it's certainly been improved since it's predecessor. Shepard and company can now vault over objects and sprint behind them which is very useful when you're moving from cover to cover. Pressing A will now make Shepard snap to cover instead of trying to push Shepard into cover like in the first and will feel very familiar to anyone who has played a shooter before.
The A.I. has also received an upgrade. Issuing squad mates individual orders also adds onto that layer of strategy especially if your squad lacks offensive biotics. Enemies don't rush your position blindly anymore screaming the same things in repetition. While your squad mates still run around like chickens with their heads cut off, telling them where to go is quick, easy and very efficient. One of the downsides however is that your squads abilities are mapped to the same direction on the d-pad your squad mate is and sometimes the game will think you're telling them to use their ability instead of moving. They'll also occasionally take odd routes through an ocean of enemies to get to the spot you've ordered them too which is a little frustrating considering Medi-gel is now used to revive your allies instead of healing their wounds while they're alive. The paragon and renegade system from the first is still around but the new interrupt system makes it a whole lot more interesting. A renegade interrupt may cause Shepard to shoot a hostile or smack some poor sap around for info. Paragon interrupts are a little more… Diplomatic. For example, Shepard may pull out a gun and threaten someone like a gentleman or holler at a group of miscreants who were giving an innocent Quarian a hard time. The interrupts certainly lead to an interesting outcome no matter how you decide to play.
There's a wide variety of tech and biotic abilities this time around and each is suited for certain occasions more than the other. With the right ammo ability players and their squad mates can tear through shielding, armor and biotic barriers as well as stop certain enemies from regenerating health. Once an enemies shields and armor are gone, biotic abilities can be combined to have devastating effects. Pull and throw can rocket enemies away from the battle for example. The six classes have received a make over and each class has their own special ability. Adepts can create singularities, Infiltrators can cloak predator style and Sentinels can use their tech skills to create a suit of armor to add an extra layer of protection. Players no longer have to dump tons of points into weapon skills either and classes skilled in specific weapons can only equip those weapons until a certain option appears later on in the main story. You and your team mates only have three to four skills to choose from this time around too. This may seem disappointing to some but it's not so bad considering your squad is pretty efficient at using their abilities on their own and your abilities evolve when you've leveled them up enough.
Certain elements from the first title also didn't make the cut for the second game. For instance, players will no longer have to run to a vender after missions because Bioware stripped away the inventory system. Weapons are no longer found or purchased but instead they are upgraded through research and researching upgrades is done with minerals you get for scanning and mining planets. Did I mention the Mako didn't make the cut either? That's right, no longer will you have to drive across barren palette swaps to get to your destination. This time, you'll be scanning planets from orbit and launching probes to scan for minerals and anomalies which start up the N7 missions. Scanning planets is a step up in the sense that it's a lot less frustrating than the jittery controls of the Mako. It's a step back in the sense however, that it's not entertaining at all and becomes very monotonous after you scan your first planet. Experience points are no longer earned from killing enemies right away either. Instead, when you complete a mission you'll get a certain amount of experience points depending on how many enemies you defeated and a summary of all the resources and upgrades you found. The N7 missions feel a little anti-climactic as well. Bioware made them more cinematic this time around but they lack dialogue and a reason for doing them outside of getting a small amount of experience points and resources.
Graphically, Mass Effect 2 has improved drastically from the first game. You'll notice how much better the textures look in general. Cutscenes have also seen some improvement which really attributes to the suicide mission. Even though there's a lack of texture blurring like in the first, you'll certainly see it pop in here and there to say hello especially during certain cutscenes. Bioware managed to put together an excellent crew of voice actors for Mass Effect 2 and there's plenty of celebrities on board as well like Adam Baldwin and Carry Ann Moss. The sound effects are also well done. There's nothing hearing the sound of an ejecting heat sinks after a huge shootout with the Collectors. However, the audio seems to randomly cut off from time to time. It usually happens when another piece of audio begins to play and often cuts off dialogue that may fill you in on what's going on.
All in all. Mass Effect 2 is a wonderful addition in the trilogy. It suffers from being the second game but that doesn't mean it's pulling a Matrix: Reloaded. The game also makes numerous improvements over the first graphically and the gameplay by leaps and bounds. Even if you didn't like the games predecessor or have a saved file to import, Mass Effect 2 is definitely worth adding to your gaming library.