Having avoided most of the pre-release coverage and picking up the game a few days too late (I was too busy putting off my replay of the original to be trusted with the sequel) I've been without much Mass Effect 2 discussion. Even now, having dropped twenty hours of my life into Bioware's latest (and possibly greatest), I live in constant fear of spoilers and that means no message boards.

I'm at that point in the game where every one in my party recognizes that we're on a mission of galactic importance, but it'd be really sweet if we could drop everything and run a personal errand across the universe, so this is as good a time as any to slow down and jot down some of my thoughts. If you're like me and you're in the middle of your first play through, don't worry, I'll keep it spoiler free. 

Massively Improved - For the first hour of the game, I couldn't help but point at the TV and shout enthusiastically at my girlfriend (who worked on the PC version of the original.

"Can you believe this is Mass Effect?" I cried. With a silky smooth framerate, incredible details and graphical errors being an extremely rare occurrence, Mass Effect 2 is the most well constructed Bioware game to date. It's typically safe to lump them together with Bethesda as the developers that craft technically flawed titles that somehow overcome their obvious shortcomings to reach greatness, but no, Mass Effect 2 is a true AAA title in every respect. 

By completely rebuilding Mass Effect from the ground up, not only did Bioware fix just about every complaint I had with the original, but they even added new and completely awesome extras that I hadn't even considered. You can pimp out Shepard's crib! You can pick what clothes you wear on the Normandy! You can combine biotics with other abilities to create entirely new effects! It's truly insane how much better Mass Effect 2 is than its predecessor and whomever sold their soul to make this possible can rest assured, it was worth it.

The Cerberus Effect - Working for Cerberus could have easily of been a simple storytelling gimmick, but Bioware really went the extra mile to not only make it feel like a genuinely different experience than the Alliance, but tie it into gameplay as well. Life aboard the Normandy is much looser than the Alliance and the crew and your relations with them reflect this. Everyone on board is much more personal and the ship in general feels more alive than ever. While I sort of miss having the crew salute every time you pass, the Alliance didn't allow space hamsters as pets.

Not being under the thumb of military also makes being a Renegade instead of a Paragon a more natural progression as opposed to whether or not you feel like being a dick. The moral choices in Mass Effect 2 are much more grey and even though my Shepard is a Paragon through and through, there are moments where it simply felt much more natural, not to mention beneficial, to be a Renegade and the actions were much more appropriate than what I experienced in the original. Under the guise of Cerberus, it's no longer about right and wrong, rules and regulation, but about getting the job done and the choices you can make this reflect this beautifully. 

I Love this Party - Truth be told, I didn't like my potential crew mates going in, though I had a feeling that the fantastic writers at Bioware would quickly change my feelings on the subject. I should really know better than to doubt them at this point (Remember, I wasn't interested in Dragon Age until it came out, then I played it 3 times over) and realize that the problem isn't with them, but their marketing team.  Seriously, they need to either ditch whoever came up with their last few campaigns or switch up their game plans.

From the psychopathic biotic with the troubled past to the genetically engineered butterface (Right?), I've once again found myself frantically rushing back to my crew to hear more about their past after every mission, just as I did in the original game. It's also great to see a lot of my favorites return such as Garrus, fresh from his post-Sovereign life as a Krogan testicle farmer. No? Well, that's what I like to imagine happened. 

Import or Die - I have absolutely no idea how this game works without an imported save from the original Mass Effect and quite frankly I'm scared to find out. Not only do the imported decisions go a long way to increase the emotional impact during key moments, but the lengths to which Bioware went to make me feel as though I had a genuine impact on the universe really pay off. I don't want to spoil anything, but they made very effective use of the in-game email system. For once, I am reading codex entries. That's pretty amazing right there.

I could go on and on about Mass Effect 2 but quite frankly, I want to go play it some more. Between this and Bayonetta we have two fantastic "game of the year" nominees, regardless of what year we're talking about. I get the feeling that 2010 is going to be insane.