BioWare's release of Mass Effect back in 2007 for the Xbox 360 (and later in 2008 for the PC) meant a brand new science fiction universe for gamers to explore. Mass Effect went a little further than that, though. If you look at BioWare's history, a huge chunk of their games are using other licenses. Don't get me wrong: Baldur's Gate is awesome, Neverwinter Nights and its modding community were extremely compelling, and Knights of the Old Republic remains one of the better Star Wars games to date. However, it has left little room for original worlds. Jade Empire toyed with the idea, but Mass Effect fulfilled it. It's completely original, taking license only from the pure awesome of the space opera genre (and maybe Battlestar Galactica).

In the first game, you assumed the role of Commander Shepard, customizing appearance and first name to your liking. From there, you cruised around the galaxy in the most impressive stealth frigate ever designed: the SSV Normandy. It's the 22nd century and humanity is now one of the lesser powers amongst a big wide open galaxy of factions, the largest of which being the Citadel Council and its more prominent members. Humanity, as per usual, is struggling to be the best. The most significant appointment you receive as Shepard, aside from resident galaxy-saver, is enlistment into the Spectres. I could quote the codex here, but they're pretty much the CIA muscle of the Citadel Council. You spent the entire first game running up against a veteran and apparently rogue Spectre named Saren Arterius. He's allied himself with the geth, a race of violent and sentient machines, and the Reapers, a second race of extremely violent and monstrously sentient machines. Hollywood usually has enough trouble repelling one race of murderous robots, Mass Effect asks you to repel two!

BioWare polishes off its story-telling mastery at the end of Mass Effect by leaving us with one of the most fulfilling cliffhangers in gaming. You destroyed Sovereign, a vanguard Reaper bent on summoning the rest of its dormant race and bringing about another end of days. Saren is dead, and the geth fleet massacred. But the Citadel Council is forever changed, and its fleet is decimated. Humanity, and Shepard, saved the day. But somewhere out there in the dark intergalactic space between the Milky Way and the other galaxies, there's also the promise of legions of cranky Reapers, no doubt just as powerful as Sovereign. How are the squishy organics going to repel that?

Mass Effect was a great game, but it was very far from perfect. As a hybrid between third-person shooter and RPG, it couldn't decide which it wanted to be, and it didn't fuse the two genres overly well. Many things shined in the game: BioWare's Emotion Engine powers the conversation and characters beautifully. But it suffered from repetitive side missions, boring QTEs, and huge texture pop-in issues, among other things.

Many things have changed in Mass Effect 2, but many things have also stayed the same. If you've played Mass Effect, you'll be comfortable in the sequel. Firstly, there's been a noticeable upgrade to the character models and most textures in the game. Assuming the role of Commander Shepard once more, you'll give stink-eye to your enemies with an amazing level of graphical detail. The game is also filled with nice pre-rendered movies, far surpassing its predecessor, and this was probably the reason why the game required two discs. Despite the increase in graphical detail, I found much fewer problems with frame rate. My PC was able to run the game at an average of 50 frames per second, dipping only around 30 during the heaviest of loads. In other words: perfection. The game probably doesn't run that smoothly on the consoles, but it's improved in every way from Mass Effect.

The soundtrack for the game neither adds nor removes anything from the experience, and you'll find it similar to Mass Effect. On the plus side, Shepard's got a bitching new sound system in his quarters. Oh, did I neglect to mention? The SSV Normandy is quickly blown up at the start of Mass Effect 2, and Shepard is killed. Luckily, the rogue human organization known as Cerberus arrives and resurrects him. All it took was 22nd century science and half a trillion dollars. On top of that, they supply Shepard with a larger, more impressive version of the Normandy. The beginning of the game was jarring, and I was shocked BioWare so quickly destroyed what I felt I had earned in the first game. There is a silver lining to the loss: Cerberus forgot to give Normandy 2.0 a Mako, and the gaming world is forever thankful for that.

The whole pre-launch mystery of "The Illusive Man" and Shepard being "KIA" is solved within the first hour. Shepard is now borderline messianic and the Illusive Man, the nebulous head of Cerberus, is recruiting you. The Collectors, a highly advanced race of xenophobes that hide behind their one mass relay at the edge of known space, have been abducting entire human colonies and no one knows why. Worse: it becomes obvious it was a Collector cruiser that destroyed the Normandy and seems to haunt Shepard. After only a few conversations and it becomes obvious that BioWare has scored another win in the voice-acting department. The voice work in the game is just as good as Mass Effect, and usually better. They've even got a stellar cast of sci-fi regulars doing a lot of the work. It's impossible to play through the game and not recognize a couple people, unless you've kept your ears cupped for the past few decades.