Mass Effect 2 Preview

Games Radar brings us some updated impressions of Mass Effect 2, in which they cover a few elements I don’t believe I’ve read about in previous articles. For instance:

Mass Effect 2 will have tracked over 60 individual choices you made, from the fate of major characters if some of your Mass Effect mates didn’t make it they won’t be in Mass Effect 2 right down to seemingly inconsequential encounters having unforeseeable repercussions. It means that Shepard’s death at the end of Mass Effect 2 would presumably leave Mass Effect 3 without a lead. And the trilogy is about Shepard.

Clearly there’s more to it than what we’ve been told, and the developers would rather leave us wallowing in intrigue while they show off the more tactile changes they’ve made in Mass Effect 2. Combat’s been scrubbed up well, not least through the introduction of heavy weapons and rocket launchers (there’s even a Fat Man-esque nuke launcher to play with), but also by tweaking the AI to be more fun to fight against. Biotics will no longer spam you with their stun abilities, so Shepard won’t spend half his fights flopping about on the floor like a fish out of water.