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Mass Effect 2

The year is 2185, two years since the climax of the original Mass Effect. You are Commander Shepard. You are a hero. You are dead. This unfortunate condition does not absolve you from saving humanity again, however. Your new employer does not see complete absence of motor function as an excuse to lie around. And he has the technology; he can rebuild you.

This new boss, The Illusive Man, smokes continuously and shows the same disregard for traditional morality as he does for conventional spelling. But he has a mission for you, as well as a bigger and better ship, so he can't be all bad. Human colonists are vanishing, and because galactic politics is mired in, well, politics, no one is investigating.

So it's time to suit up, assemble a crack squad of specialists and take the fight to the as-yet-unknown enemy. And by assemble I mean persuade, abduct, defrost and spring from prison. A prison reserved for the most psychotic, disturbed and dangerous individuals in the known universe, by the by.

If you didn't play the original Mass Effect you won't be at a disadvantage, but if you did, all you need to know is that this is better. BioWare has achieved the rather improbable feat of preserving the story- and character-driven heart of the original while making the tactical and shooter elements work much better. What's more, the background texture "popping" that was a flaw in the first game has completely gone. Mass Effect 2 is a pure visual treat, even in its more frenetic moments. And fans of the first game will be delighted to know that the Mako all-terrain vehicle has gone too, so no more aimless trundling across barren moons.

Just don't expect to find this in the pre-owned section. It's a keeper.

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