Released on January 26th, 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PC, and for the PS3 on January 18th, 2011, Mass Effect 2 was released to critical acclaim despite many changes to the formula. A much bigger focus on DLC, a much more streamlined and toned down RPG aspect, and a bigger feel of it being a third person shooter.
Mechanically, the game takes everything Mass Effect 1 had, and throws it out the window. Gone is the unique overheating system, gone are the myriad of weapons, gone is your inventory, and gone are the weapon modifications. Its no longer an RPG with shooter elements, its a shooter with RPG elements. This does not particularly have to be a bad thing, but to those coming off of Mass Effect 1's system it can be a bit of a kick in the pants.
Mind you, some things did need to be streamlined. As stated in the previous review, the skill system of Mass Effect 1 was absolutely insane. I believe they took it a bit too far though. Now Shepard can have a maximum of six different skills that you can level up and if you're a soldier, two of those at least are going to be weapon modification skills. Which are useless half of the time depending on what you are fighting.
Instead of a heat meter, now you 'reload'. Though still following the lore that states you don't so much use ammunition as a large block of lead that has tiny fragments sheared off to be used as bullets, its not 'ammo' being reloaded. You're instead 'ejecting the thermal clip' to instantly cool the weapon down, and putting a new one in. So yes you are reloading, just not any of that old 'bullet' nonsense.
Combat feels a bit more visceral and has a much greater focus on cover based shooting. While you could take cover in the first mass effect it was not always necessary, indeed there were several fights where taking cover would have gotten you killed. In Mass Effect 2 your gun is horribly inaccurate unless you're jammed against a wall or barrier of some sort and you will get torn to pieces in seconds from enemy fire unless you have a nice big strong manly wall between you and whatever you're trying to kill.
Weapons have been cut down to almost nothing, there are other weapons available, but they are DLC exclusive, and require five to ten dollars to have access to. There are decent weapons without DLC and you'll be able to see the end of the game fairly easily, but you'll probably be stuck with the same weapon for the majority of the game. Armor suffers from this as well. You find parts to armor, and can mix and match. Pity a lot of the armor pieces are downloadable content only, and generally break the game's difficulty over its knee. Again, you'll be able to find some armor pieces in the game itself, but be prepared to see the same armor on your Shepard for the majority of the game. Though I do appreciate the ability to customize the color of your armor.
The planet exploration segments in Mass Effect 1 have been cut out altogether. Now in order to find items you scan the planet in what could be argued as the most mindnumbing mini-game on the face of the earth. You look at a planet with a constantly repeating texture, holding down the mouse button or gamepad button, waiting for the scanner to detect a quantity of resources. Then you launch a probe, get the resources, rinse and repeat until the planet is depleted. If you want to research any upgrades to your stats, items, and equipment, better start scanning.
These are all small things that can be overlooked, however. nitpicks on a wonderful game for strictly one reason: The characters. Mass Effect 2, has the best ensemble and writing for their characters that I have ever seen. The dialogue is well written, the characters are wonderful, and Bioware's technique for making you love and care an imaginary character is on display. I fell in love with each and every character, even those that I disliked on a personal level. The characters were never just 2D cardboard cutouts, which would be somewhat understandable with so many recruitable characters. Instead each character has hidden depths. Learning about them, earning their trust, and seeing those depths is the highlight of this game.
The combat is passable, even exciting sometimes. The story is a tad cliche, but in all the good ways. The weapons and armor are slimmed down because EA wants your money, but whats left is functional, and fun to play with. All of these things pale strictly to the character and dialogue. Is it worth your time and money? Hell yes it is.
(Thanks to Sean "Chocolate Donuts" Davis for help with editing and feedback)
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