Every time I get a chance to play Mass Effect 2 I'm blown away by the strides BioWare has made towards fixing the issues that held back the original. Mass Effect is the greatest flawed game of the generation. At the time, I called it the best Science Fiction Game of All Time, and I completely stand by that remark. The story, built on the back of an expansive and believable universe, helped mask the blemishes, but didn't actually erase them. This time around, they've not only been erased, but painted over entirely, leaving a shiny paint job where scuffs once were.

Improvements are abundant, showing changes to both the engine and the design. On the interior, the graphical pop-ins are mostly removed, the frame-rate is as smooth as butter, and the lengthy loading sections and infuriating elevators are a thing of the past. The actual graphics also look a good deal better, showing what BioWare was able to do with a few more years of tinkering with the Unreal Engine. It's still far from the best looking game of the generation, but damned if anyone is going to complain. As long as the textures don't take thirty seconds to show up it will still be a marked improvement over its predecessor, and all signs point to that being the case.

On the exterior, gameplay and interface fixes are almost as significant as the changes made under the hood. The inventory/item management system from the PC version has been added to all SKUs, meaning one of the largest criticisms of the first game should be silenced. The same can be said of the combat, which was disappointing when compared with other games on the engine. It's still not going to pull anyone in expecting Gears of War, but it's a huge improvement over the original's, and makes taking down opponents a much simpler and rewarding task.

While talking about giant leaps forward, landing on one of the many explorable planets means more than it did before. In the original, it was fun, but ultimately unrewarding to explore the far reaches of space. At most, there were a few enemies to kill and some items to loot, and in an expansive story-driven epic there's no time for such lallygagging. In Mass Effect 2, each planet will have a purpose and a story, playing out like the downloadable content Bring Down the Sky. The small, contained stories will give a purpose to wandering the universe in search of intelligent life.

What else? There's going to be some sort of water play, as I mentioned before. How it will work in is still, as of yet, unknown, but it has a chance to expand the already varied combat. One of the last things we saw was a familiar friend, sniping enemies in the distance. Looking as bad-ass as ever, Garrus returns in Mass Effect 2, and he's ready to help save the universe.



Beyond that, everything was pretty similar to what I've seen in the past. Finally, game developers are listening to complaints from gamers, and EA seems to be at the forefront of the movement, hoping to earn some credibility after years of being known for unnecessary sequels. Whether or not it'll pan out is yet to be known, since we're finally just getting to the second round for their original games of this generation, but I personally can't wait to find out.

Mass Effect 2 is due out on January 26, 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PC.