Mass Effect 2 has arrived and has made due on what Mass Effect promised. For those who don’t know Mass Effect 2 is the second part in a planned trilogy.  This is hyper-dramatic space opera stuff people, so for those who hate that kind of thing, well, you ain’t gonna like this much either.

The storyline is rather dense but it goes a little something like this: it is the future and humans are living in (pseudo) harmony with a bunch of alien races throughout the galaxy. Suddenly this big bad ancient alien race called the Reavers show up controlling a race called the Geth. Craziness ensues, then our hero Commander John Shepard saves the day. But then the Reavers come back controlling a different race called The Controllers. And that is where Mass Effect 2 picks up.

Mass Effect 2, at its core, is an RPG. Not like a Japanese RPG like Final Fantasy, but more like one that came from womb of D&D…except in space. And unlike a normal RPG the gameplay is not turned based…but over the shoulder like Resident Evil 4/5 and the Gears of War series. Mass Effect 2 is designed by Bioware, maker of such games as Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, and the Knights of The Old Republic games….so if you’ve played any of them then you will probably be good to go.

Overall I think Mass Effect 2 is a HUGE improvement over its predecessor…which I didn’t even finish.  The game is just way more fun to play, especially the battle system which has been completely redesigned. If you decide to pick it up be ready for lots of fighting, talking, biotic (read FORCE) powers, and a lot of gameplay. This is also one of those games with a built in morality system and depending on your actions, the turnout will be completely different. Anyway, I thought it was pretty sweet, try it out for sure.

- Dr. Dinosaur