Mass Effect 2 delivers a decent story in an immersive world filled with interesting characters and important choices.
First, the story of Mass Effect 2 is probably the only thing about the game that I felt was pretty average. The Normandy gets destroyed and Commander Shepard is put into a coma for two years where he is slowly being built by Cerberus, a company that resurrected Shepard to save humans. Shepard now is put to the task to recruit a crew that is capable enough to travel through the Omega 4 Relay to fight off the Collectors which is thought to be a suicide mission. That's the story in a nutshell. Its basic but it works. Along the way you'll meet every member of the original Normandy crew and maybe even be able to recruit them. I found it neat that the creators were able to bring back the characters even though only a few will actually join the crew. Even though the main story is a bit lackluster, I found most of the stories of your crew pretty entertaining. So it makes up for the basic storyline of recruiting and going on a suicide mission.
The world of Mass Effect is huge and booming with things to do. There are some pretty big planets that have a ton of missions to do. Many times I found myself attempting to complete a side mission but in the process I obtained another 3 other ones at the same time. Each character on your crew also has a loyalty mission that gives you alot of information on that particular characters backstory. It also gives you a chance to use every character instead of the two that you normally use for regular missions.
The graphics and sound are definitely two of the highlights in the game. The graphics look very nice and they do not cause any technical difficulties that the first game was known for. Character models are rendered very well and the in game scenes are noticably better than the first game. The sound is also a bright spot. The original music in the game is done really well and there are some nice soundtracks that I really enjoyed listening to.
The gameplay is where I found Mass Effect 2 had really improved. The first game I felt very bored playing but I can not say the same about this one. Maybe it was because I had the experience from the first game that helped me understand better how to play the game this time but I think the main reason was because Bioware really refined how to play. They made it alot simpler to play and because of this it made it easier for me, a not so big fan of Western RPGs, enjoy it more. Also, the gameplay was improved because it looked at Gears of War and Uncharted 2 for how to do the over the shoulder third person shooter style properly. Levelling up and adjusting character statistics was made so much easier. Theres only 4-5 things you have to upgrade and theres not even alot of weapons (which I found was a good thing) so its easily playable for the average player. Hardcore fans may be disappointed but I found it easy to pick up and play.
Mass Effect 2 certainly took great steps in becoming a stand out franchise. The door is left open for a sequel which we all knew anyways because the story of Shepard is known to be a trilogy. Overall, Mass Effect 2 had a decent story that had its fair share of problems. Besides that, it delivers a great experience that all players will be able to pick up, play, and enjoy.