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Note: This review contains mild spoilers for Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 is the first of the Mass Effect series to appear on PlayStation 3 and consequently many players will want to be brought up to speed on the storyline and characters before getting stuck into the game. On top of this, the Mass Effect games are known for their ‘imported save’ feature, which allows PC/Xbox 360 players to import a completed save-game from Mass Effect straight into Mass Effect 2, carrying over character traits and consequences of actions performed in the first game – this is clearly not possible on PlayStation 3 as the original Mass Effect game has not and will not ever be released for the console. The result of this quandry is Mass Effect: Genesis, an “Interactive Backstory Comic” that tells the tale of Mass Effect while allowing players to make choices that will have consequences in Mass Effect 2 (and probably 3). It’s not as good as playing through the original game but it’s interesting and it does the job well – it’s also a very quick way of trying out different consequences of your actions in Mass Effect without having to play the whole game through each time. There are a few side storylines that get left out but pretty much all the main choices you face in Mass Effect are repeated in the comic.

Strangely, the game doesn’t start with Mass Effect: Genesis but actually starts with the demise of the Normandy, your space ship from the first game. You have to rescue Joker as the ship falls apart and then you actually “die”, only to be resurrected by a unique multi-billion dollar secret project run by a faction of humans known as Cerberus. It’s at this point that the Genesis backstory kicks in and you are able to play through the comic. Once you’re done, the game brings you up to speed with a few cut-scenes and a brief tutorial section as you escape from a lab, then you’re pretty much straight into the game. For such a story-driven game, it’s surprisingly welcome how quickly you are thrust straight into the action again behind the helm of your own spaceship. From here on out you are free to explore the galaxy as you see fit, with a small number of ‘story’ missions to do in addition to several ‘side’ missions. You can pretty much skip most of the side missions if you really want to, but that would be a mistake as many of them are quite integral to the gameplay and story later on, or you can pick and choose what you want to do. Despite the game being based around hubs and generally small gameplay areas, the overall nature of the game is remarkably open-ended, with an enormous galaxy to explore when and how you want to.

The gameplay, to be crude, boils down to talking, shooting, talking, shooting and perhaps a brief flying mini game inbetween. What’s so utterly remarkable is that Bioware have somehow managed to combine such a gripping storyline with such fun, tactical shooting that you barely notice how simple the premise really is. The pacing is just about perfect; just as you start waning towards the end of a battle, you move on to some exploration or conversation areas to advance the story. By the time you’re finished with this, you’re just aching to get behind your gun and start shooting stuff to pieces. The non-linear approach to the gameplay means that you can also tailor your gameplay to your own needs – if you get bored, you can do a different quest, spend some time on the ship with your crew, mine precious minerals from distant stars, upgrade your equipment or take on some flying-based exploration of a few planets with the Hammerhead vehicle. You can buy different guns, armour, ship upgrades, pets for your cabin like tropical fish or even model spaceships. The amount of stuff to do in Mass Effect 2 is staggering, and as soon as you realise this the game becomes very exciting.

Combat is essentially a mix between Gears of War and Deus Ex, where you can use shoot everything to death with a machine gun or use special ‘biotic’ powers to cripple or maim your enemies in some very cool ways – it’s about as close to using ‘The Force’ as you’ll get outside of a galaxy far, far away. If you’re a gun-nut and find Call of Duty to be your thing then you can just choose the relevant class/skills and focus exclusively on weapons. If you’re more experimental, you can go almost fully biotic and use your powers to throw, slam and smash your enemies into pieces. There are even tech skills that allow you to create attack drones or hack into synthetic beings (i.e. robots to you and me) and turn them against their allies. Whatever your favoured gameplay style, you should be able to tailor your character to your liking.

The combat sections in Mass Effect 2 are a fun, constantly evolving challenge that opens up with options as you progress through the game. The only real downside is the way that the levels work – enemies essentially scale with you, meaning that by levelling up you don’t really gain any advantage over your opponents. What makes it fun however, is that by opening up new skills you are constantly finding new and fun ways to dispatch your enemies – just don’t expect to grind up a level 30 character that will be able to obliterate everything in sight.

Graphically, Mass Effect 2 is superb. Generally speaking, the textures are highly detailed, the effects are excellent and bar a few dips during cut-scenes the framerate is pretty slick. What’s more, it’s absolutely solid, with no screen-tearing whatsoever. Most of the gameplay areas look fantasic, though some would have been more impressive if they were a little bigger. One of the most memorable locations of the original Mass Effect is the Citadel, a massive open area ‘city’ with several huge levels of characters and locations – unfortunately, since it was destroyed and rebuilt inbetween the end of Mass Effect and the beginning of Mass Effect 2, most of the old Citadel is now inaccessible, with just a few key locations available. Such solid graphics and framerate clearly come at a price, and occasionally you may find it frustrating that you spend most of your time in narrow locations or compartmental hubs rather than big sprawling open areas. This is made up for, in part at least, by the sheer number of locations you can visit. Each world has its own look and feel, with some pretty deep storyline elements running throughout most of the main areas.

When you’re not shooting or exploring, you’re generally talking, and again this is where Mass Effect 2 can really shine. The dialogue is very well acted throughout, with a massive array of different voices (no Oblivion-esque problems with 1,000 NPCs sharing five voice actors) and an impressive number of lines throughout the game. Being so heavily story-based, Mass Effect 2 would have died on its knees without such fantastic voice work, and clearly a lot of attention has been paid to it. Sound effects too, are brilliant, evoking a real sci-fi feel without sounding cliched or repetitive. To compliment this, the music in Mass Effect 2 is equally good, with a wide variety of incidental music as well as some pumping futuristic dance music in the nightclubs or even your cabin should you wish.

Mass Effect 2 can probably be finished in about 15 hours if you rush through and skip all the non-essential quests but in truth, most people will probably spend 25 – 35 hours on their first playthrough – and even more if you really want to do everything. One of the most interesting aspects of Mass Effect 2 is that you have so many choices to make throughout the game that you won’t be able to resist a single playthrough, and like everything else, Bioware have already thought about this. Not only can you import your Mass Effect 2 character into Mass Effect 3 (when it’s released – currently scheduled for Winter 2011), you can start a ‘new game plus’ on Mass Effect 2 and import any character that you’ve already finished the game with. You won’t keep some aspects of your character build, but you’ll keep your level and you’ll be given a tonne of cash and raw materials, as well as your upgrades, in order to play through the game again. If the prospect of starting from scratch is a little daunting after you’ve just finished the game, you can go back to your character after you’ve finished the game and continue playing in a sort of ‘free-roam’ mode, allowing you to tie up any loose ends and unfinished quests, as well as mine materials for further upgrades to your weapons and characters. All in all, there is probably 100+ hours of content in Mass Effect 2, including all the DLC – which is all included with the PS3 version of the game when bought new. If you buy a used copy of the game you will be missing out on the content of the Cerberus pack, which includes the Genesis comic, a potential crew member and a few extra side missions. Fortunately you can buy the Cerberus pack from the PSN Store, so ultimately you can get the same experience as players who bought the game new if you want to – and it’s recommended that you do.

Mass Effect 2 is one of those special games that actually lives up to the enormous hype that it generates. It is one of the finest games of this generation and, despite a delay of a whole year, the release of Mass Effect 2 on PlayStation 3 should be very welcome news to any PS3-owning RPG fan. Everything about Mass Effect 2 is highly polished, and it is clear from the start that a lot of care and attention has gone into making Mass Effect 2 as good as it is. There are some slight niggles – the scaled levelling and the very occasional bug, but on a project this massive, it’s amazing that it works so brilliantly. If you have even the slightest interest in RPG or sci-fi games, then don’t hesitate to order yourself a copy of Mass Effect 2 right now – you won’t be disappointed.