Mass Effect 2 Impressions. For everyone.

[Scoobes]

I'm loving it so far, although I'm not too far into it at the moment (damn Uni work getting in the way!). Playing on PC using my character profile from the first and I love seeing how the decisions I made in the first are affecting my game in the sequel.

Pros

- Improved gunplay: In the first I almost felt like the shooting was tacked on. In this one it's a lot smoother. Almost a Gears/Uncharted feel to the dynamics.
- An interesting assortment of characters (so far at least). They don't all fall into Bioware's usual "crowd" and sterotypes.
- Interesting story. Not the best story (so far) in games (specificall RPGs) but more than enough to keep me playing.
- Much faster loading (PC version) and just overall, better optimised. It runs perfectly on my PC and I've had no problems so far. The first one had a few even though it looked worse, which brings me nicely onto...
- Graphics. A huge improvement over the orginal. I wouldn't say they're near the top graphics of the gen, but very good nonetheless.
- When finding minerals you no longer have to land on a planet and drive the stupid mako, in fact, I haven't seen the Mako at all in this one, yay!
- The galaxy map is actually kinda fun now :P

Cons:
- Huge reduction in actual RPG elements. Less skill points, can't always see how much of an improvement one particular weapon is over another etc.

Overall it's a great game. I'm not sure I count it as one of the best RPGs out there based on the little I've played so far, especially with how simplified they've made it, but it's damn good. The best shooter-RPG hybrid of the gen!