My memory being like it is, it was always going to be somewhat of a struggle for me to come rolling into Mass Effect 2 fully remembering what the heck I did when I reviewed the original way back toward the end of 2007. I struggle enough to remember what I did two minutes ago let alone two years ago, hence my leaking sieve of a brain was going to be the acid test on which the initial part of Mass Effect 2 fell. Would it allow me enough in the way of hints so I could actually fully comprehend what was going on?

As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. Within minutes of porting my save game over so I could carry on from where I left off with my evil Sinead O’ Connor alike character from the first game it all began to flood back via a series of gentle hints and cleverly placed conversation threads. The events of the first game, complete with all the moral choices made, people slain and general badass attitude to people, was bought up like the ghost of Christmas past, reminding me of exactly how much a complete bitch I had been throughout my playthrough.

Not that I necessarily had to continue down this path, mind. See, the introduction to the game sees Shepard befall a rather unfortunate fate, leading to you ending up working for a shady corporation who were occasional antagonists in the first game. It’s a clever way of basically wiping the slate clean and allowing players to start again if they wish, although obviously if you’re coming to the sequel having never played the original then you’re starting from nought anyway, in which case you can tell the game what you would have done through various key plot moments to fill in the gaps. It’s like slipping a comfy pair of slippers on again, and as we will discuss later, really helps give the game a particularly unique feel that will be unique to pretty much everyone who plays it.

When you get out of those opening sections and into the main portion of the game it proves to be classic BioWare fare: you level your characters up and choose abilities to spend your acquired points on, you undertake the main quest whilst dallying in side quests and all the while the game throws a plethora of moral choices at you so you can shape your little avatar to be exactly the kind of person you want them to be. A lot of it bears a striking resemblance to the first Mass Effect, and that’s not such a bad thing at all.

This is particularly the case when you realise that the majority of areas the sequel does differentiate itself from its predecessor are the areas in which most of the niggles lay in the first place. The most obvious one of these is the combat, of which the first struggled with a slightly clunky cover mechanic and brainless buddy AI the first time around. This time things are much slicker; Shepard can slide into cover if you hold the sprint button, fly over the top of it should you wish to move and now seems on the whole a lot more able to peek out from cover and move between different objects. Likewise, your buddies are a heck of a lot more sensible second time around, ducking when in the line of your fire, using their powers intelligently and generally being a heck of a lot more help.

Another new feature is the way in which you obtain your weapon, armour and other upgrades. Whilst scouting around the various planets you find yourself on you occasionally come across blueprints and pieces of tech that you can pick up and then research back on your ship, using raw materials obtained through scanning and mining planets from the Galaxy map on your ship. This in itself a little mini game in which you pass a scanner over the surface of planets that you can’t land on and, when you get a strong enough signal, launch a little drone to mine the element out for you, which goes toward your upgrading. It’s curiously relaxing task, especially in between the gunplay of the main quests and side missions.

Those side missions are rather frequent should you wish to pursue them, either obtained by meeting people in the main cities or talking to your crew, or (and rather excitingly) finding a random anomaly with your scanner when you are searching for minerals. Problem is, although there are a few variations such as a mission where you have to go into a bar and chat up a freaky alien chick and one where you must stalk a politician so you can stop him getting bumped off, most of them boil down to the same formula: arrive in area, gun through lots of enemies, find equipment. It’s not that it’s not fun so much; it’s that it does lack a little variety at times.

Still, you can’t help but be impressed by the scope of what Bioware are trying to achieve. Each decision you make during your time traversing the planets will have a knock-on effect somewhere; sparing someone’s life may see you meeting them again later and getting a quest or item from them, whilst being a complete bugger to someone will make them dislike you and not want to talk. The way it all carries over from the first game is a really lovely little bonus on top of all this, because you really do feel you are living and fighting in a mouldable game world that will shift depending on your actions and choices. Put another way, the experiences that myself and Jay had throughout the second game were vastly different, mainly due to us having done differing things in the first and then taking different attitudes through the sequel. Obviously the game does funnel through some standard sections in terms of story, but you can get to these via a whole number of different routes.

Along the way you meet all sorts of interesting characters. A few favourites from the first tip their hat (well, as long as you kept them alive...) and there’s a rather menacing evil with a particularly impressive ship that you come across pretty quickly. Some of the moments in the story are packed with great little set pieces too, and throughout you are given the opportunity to interject into a conversation or event in either a Paragon or Renegade manner. Do you help the ailing alien, or leave him to die? Listen to someone’s ranting speech, or shoot a gas canister underneath them and send them rocketing into the air? It’s a neat little addition, and it works well.

Going back to the game’s systems and mechanics, it’s clear that a lot of streamlining has gone on. A result of the new upgrade system is that you no longer carry around a ridiculous amount of items and tools. The HUD when in battle mode is much simpler and much, much easier to understand, with enemies having a little health bar over their heads and your squad’s energy and status being located toward the bottom middle of the screen. Something that didn’t need to be changed was holding either shoulder button to bring up an ability or weapon choice wheel to get your team mates to do something or select something in particular, and it returns in all its slick glory. The result is a game that is much, much smoother and much more frenetic in terms of pacing.

It all works together to make a fantastic sequel – one that takes what the original did and inject some well-oiled pace into proceedings. It’s not absolutely perfect as detailed, but on a technical level it has made the right kinds of changes to build the series’ momentum perfectly. Likewise, as with most Bioware titles (not so much Jade Empire for whatever reason), it’s jam-packed full of standout moments that you will remember long after the final battle is complete and the end credits have rolled. Whether it be the pulsing atmosphere of seedy Omega, the haunting silence of a lost ship teetering on the edge of a cliff face or the sheer tension of your team running for cover as bullets ping left, right and centre, it sticks in your brain.

As a knock-on effect, this means that the hype and expectation for Mass Effect 3 is going to be all the higher. Truth be told though, there’s more than enough in Mass Effect 2 to suggest that not only will Bioware live up to the expectation, but should instead go on to surpass them completely. Until that day, may my Shepard, bitch or not, enjoy her two-year temporary retirement. You’ve earned it, girl.