Title: Mass Effect 2
Format: PC, Xbox 360
Media: 2x DVD (PC), Direct Download (PC), Standard (Xbox 360)
Release Date: LOL TODAY (29/01/2010)
Genre: 3rd Person Action RPG
Rating: BBFC15 (UK), MA 15+ (Ehm, US, I think)

Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Synopsis:
You play as Commander Shepard, the first Human SPECTRE, who after destroying Sovereign, and killing Saren, has been patrolling the Terminus system, looking for remnants of the lethal machine race called the Reapers. After being ambushed by an unknown vessel, your ship, the Normandy, is destroyed. 20 crew are lost, including Commander Shepard, who is killed during the rescue of Joker, the Normandy's pilot.
Fast forward 2 years, 3 months, and 4 days (Thanks Avina...), and Shepard is reanimated by the enigmatic Cerberus Foundation, and under orders from the Illusive Man, takes up a mission that will take Shepard, the Normandy, and her crew to the edges of uncharted space.

Gameplay:
Mass Effect 2 plays very much like your standard 3rd person shooter. Gone are the days of mass levelling, and huge amounts of choice in skills. The RPG side feels very much attached, giving you access to only a handful of skills, with mutually exclusive cooldowns. Because of this, the action is very much concentrated on the very small set of weapons that you can use, and the tactical use of the skills that you do get.
Now, I've been playing this through as an imported Soldier save, level 65, from the first Mass Effect game (Yes, I was nails enough to play through the damn thing on the Insane difficulty), and combat feels very action orientated. The Skill Screen is very much a feature, giving you the ability to stop time, and select combat skill from your 2 team mates. Although, I'm assured you can change targets, but damned if I can figure out how to do it.
Also cut is the extensive modding system from Mass Effect 1. All weapons now have in built specialities. Assault Rifles and SMGs chew shields, Sniper rifles, pistols, and shotguns eat armour, flesh, and synthetics. Soldiers get access to different ammo types, giving you a little flexibility, but you're still linked into the above.

Also gone are the heat meters. Now, you have small heat sinks, which you can eject to automatically cool your weapon. Funny how the assault rifle has a "heat sink limit" of 30 rounds, the heavy calibre pistol has a 6 round limit...
Another thing... They're also universal.

Now, before people sink into the "OMG Deus Ex 2 had universal ammo, and that was shit"... This is universal ammo, in the sense that you only pick up one ammo drop. But all weapons maintain their own ammo store, and the heat clips refill them differently. The battle rifle that you spend most of the game with takes 3 clips to get a full ammo store. The sniper rifles take 11. Figure that out...

A common problem from ME1 are your team mates. AI is still a bit shit, but the ability to be able to give them different waypoints is now a sketchy godsend. Aside from losing track of which of Q and E commands which team mate, I ended up using Jack, who follows precisely fuck all commands, and runs off, throwing her biotic skills in someone's face (Yes, Jack is a she. Subject Zero, to be precise)

Other than that, gameplay progresses nicely, and despite me hammering it for 9 hours today, I still feel engrossed in the story, which feels as though it's about 1/2 way through.

Graphics:
Lets get something straight... Mass Effect 2 is pretty. Areas are rendered nicely, open expanses genuinely feel open, lens flair is overworked on the planets that are close to the local star, but it's all done atmospherically.

You might need a bit of grunt to run it on full, as my 8600GTX struggled a bit with everything on Ultra, but otherwise soldiered on like a trooper.

360 owners should see some optimisations, and should get roughly the same visual experience that I did on the PC.
While the addition of PhysX is nice, developers still haven't got around to using it fully, with the only real usage in ME2 being aerial ragdolling, and a few destructable boxes.

DLC:
I know, DLC on release date... Booo hisssssssss.....

Actually, fuck that, I like the mercenary addon. Badass character, with a high octane introduction quest.
Collector's Armour and Rifle? Both shit. The standard N7 armour with a couple of the mods is more powerful. The Collector's Rifle ( [spoiler]The Collectors are the race that you'll spend a lot of time fighting, so it makes good sense...[/spoiler] Highlight to see why it's an apt name. Big spoiler though. ), while pants in the players hands, it quite nice in the NPCs hands, seeing as they don't suffer the accuracy degradation that the player does. It also doesn't look pretty either. But fuck that, I've got Subject Zero, and Tali'zora in my team, and neither can use anything other than pistols and shotguns...

Scores:
Gameplay: A
Graphics: A+
Story: A-
Lifespan: A+ (Side quests, mining, upgrades, 6 player classes, and 2 reputation paths for each class make this a keeper)

Overall: A

Summary:
Excellent continuation of the Mass Effect story, and hopefully sets the scene well for Mass Effect 3 (Bioware confirmed it as a trilogy a while ago now). A few issues could be ironed out, but only minor niggles remain really. Well polished, and deserving of a place in any gamers collection.

Also, this may be a good thing, or a bad thing...

But I've clocked up about 22 hours in 2 days on this thing...

I'm having similar experiences with this.

Also, now completed on Normal.

Time to make an ME2 male character, cruise through on Insanity, and see if I can get a glimpse of what's under Tali'zorah's helmet, and "merge suit atmospheres", if you get what I mean

Wasn't the max level in Mass Effect 60, not 65?

I just completed it, gonna run through it on Insane when I get back from holiday. A bit pissed off now though, the ending left me wanting Mass Effect 3 so I can finish off the story. I hate games, always so long to wait for the next one...

Keep playing through ME1 on Insanity, it unlocks moar levels.