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In 2007, Mass Effect was a huge title for Microsoft and Bioware.  The game was the beginning of a three part space story that mixed elements of gunplay, biotics, technology, role playing and even a little romance.  The game ended with our favorite Alliance member and newly recruited SPECTRE, Commander Shepard, taking down Saren and his ship Sovereign.  The Alliance feels that the fight is over, but Shepard knows that there are more Reapers out there and that the entire galaxy will have to come together to stop them.

Electronic Arts and Bioware were kind enough to give Aeropause a twenty minute presentation of Mass Effect 2, and what new and exciting features will be in store for players with the new title.  We also get the lowdown on whether Commander Shepard will live or die, and a huge spoiler that we will try and avoid as to keep a few things secret for when the game comes out.

So the first thing that is on the minds of everyone who has watched the Mass Effect 2 teaser trailer, is whether Commander Shepard lives or dies in Mass Effect 2.  Casey Hudson, Executive Director at Bioware and Project Director on Mass Effect 2 gives the room the lowdown, by stating that Bioware created the Mass Effect trilogy to follow a single individual through all three games, and that individual is Commander Shepard.  However we were also told that there will be events that will come about that will challenge the player to keep Shepard alive.

Also, Bioware has done something no other game developer has tried on the 360 or any other console for that matter, and that is importing game data from the first Mass Effect to continue your game in the second Mass Effect.  All the decisions you have made will factor into that import, so if you have killed Kaiden or Ashley in the first game, they will still be dead in Mass Effect 2.  This is an amazing feat if Bioware can pull it off, as it goes far beyond just importing your character data, which has been done in several computer games in the past.  This takes key decisions into factor as well, which has to be a huge task for Bioware to program in all those options.  I did not ask about whether you can import multiple characters that you have played through, but I would assume that if it works for one, it works for all.

With the start of the gameplay presentation, we are told that while Shepard and her team have saved the galaxy from Saren and the deadly Reaper Sovereign, things are not as good as could be for the Alliance territories.  Humans are disappearing throughout the galaxy with no reasoning as to what is happening to them.  Shepard decides to go on a mission to find out what is happening to these missing humans, but in order to go to the far side of the galaxy; Shepard will again have to assemble a cast of characters to assist in going on what is termed, “a suicide mission”.

Our current mission takes us to a large cityscape, where we are travelling in a floating car through traffic.  In the car are an Asari and two human security officers.  We are looking for an assassin named Thane.  Thane is rumored to be the best assassin in the galaxy, but attempts to find  him have not come up with much, so Shepard comes up with a plan to get to the next target, or mark, before Thane gets there, allowing Shepard to discuss things with Thane. 

While the first Mass Effect looked rather stunning, the graphics for the cut scenes have been enhanced, making the characters look a little more lifelike at times.  Also the film grain seems to have been toned down just a tad bit, giving the cut scene more clarity.  From here, we get to see that you can have interaction with Shepard during a cut scene.  Also, the dialog trees are designed to give a bit more flow to cutscenes, eliminating a lot of the jerky transitions that would occur with choosing dialog options.  When we reach our destination, the Asari drops off Shepard and the other two humans, but she leaves the scene.  From here we get our first taste of the new combat engine.

One of the biggest complaints from the first Mass Effect was that the shooting mechanics never seemed to gel properly in the framework of an RPG.  Now, shooting is based on precision shooting skill, meaning that you, as the player will be more responsible for hitting the enemy, not your guns skill.  I am not sure how this translates into having weapons skills, and if there are weapons skills, how do they affect combat?  That was something the Bioware team was keeping under wraps.  What we did get to see was the new region damage system now implemented in Mass Effect 2.  You can now aim for arms, legs, head shots and more, with each enemy having several damage zones that can be targeted.  Biotic attacks have been improved as well, with a little more control being brought into things like Warp.  We saw targets pulled from behind cover with Warp, allowing Shepard’s team to attack them with extreme prejudice.

The audience was also told of 9 new weapon classes being brought to Mass Effect 2, including a new rocket launcher that will allow the player to target an enemy, and then move behind cover to launch the rocket.  The rocket launcher is a deadly, new class called the heavy weapons class. 

As we work our way to the top of the skyscraper we are in, we come across a security guard.  We take him into our custody and start to interrogate him.  Now the person playing through the gaming sequences has taken a hard line stance with our prisoner, threatening him with death if he does not cooperate.  The prisoner in custody rambles on about not knowing anything, which at a certain point during the rambling, a button showed up in the corner of the screen.  Upon pushing the color coded button, we grabbed the suspect and launched him out the window.  So remember all those frustrating cut scenes where you just wanted to get to killing the bad guy.  Now you can break out of a cut scene and perform a scripted action based on your tone, which in this case meant throwing the security guard out the window.

Arriving at the top of the building, I got a nice surprise in that the target mark was Desana, a character that had a minor side mission for our character in the first Mass Effect.  It was nice to see Bioware take some of these smaller characters they had created in Mass Effect, and give them bigger roles.  After some discussion with Desana, the assassin shows up to perform his magic.  Immediately, I notice that his race is new to the Mass Effect universe.  I asked Casey what race Thane is, and we were told he is a Drell.  They could not give more detail on the Drell, but it is clear that we will see new races popping up in the game.

Now we were taken to another mission in the game, and I am going to warn you that there could be some spoilers here, so if you want to go in to Mass Effect with virgin eyes, you might want to skip over this paragraph.  There are a few things here I cannot gloss over without giving some plot points away.  With that said, on to the mission.

We find Shepard aboard a rapidly disintegrating Normandy.  Apparently, the Normandy has been attacked by a new enemy and it does not look like the ship will survive another go around by the enemy.  At this point we get to see our first returning member of the original Mass Effect, Liara.  She is trying to put fires out on the Normandy, and states that Joker will not leave the flight console Liara also states that she will not leave the ship.  Shepard orders her to the escape pods and off the Normandy.  We are then left with the daunting task of rescuing Joker from certain death with the destruction of the Normandy.  Fires are everywhere and we come to a section of the ship that has been blown open, exposing us to Zero-G space.    The vacuum of space sucks away all sound leaving us with a peaceful feeling in the middle of all the surrounding chaos.  We find Joker and we after an argument, we see the enemy coming around for another attack.  Shepard lifts Joker out of his seat, carrying him to the last remaining escape pod.  At this point the attack hits the ship, with one person making it into the pod, and one sent floating into space, slowly suffocating.  Who makes it out and who doesn’t?  Bioware would not say, but they did mention that there will be sequences in Mass Effect 2 that are designed for Shepard to fail, with the player having to make tough choices to stay alive.

At this point the lights came on and the demo rolled to a close, but after watching all the footage, I am convinced that Mass Effect 2 will be a darker toned sequel, but a more enjoyed sequel.  New characters, new choices and knowing all the decisions I have made in the first Mass Effect actually have meaning for future titles in the Mass Effect universe have me sold day one on this title.  Mass Effect is set for a release sometime in 2010 for both PC and Xbox 360.   Special thanks to Casey Hudson and Anthony Rogers for getting us into the presentation.