I've just finished Mass Effect 2 and daaaamn. They literally took everything good from the first game, made it 10x better, then literally took everything bad and incinerated it. The game is a damn masterpiece, kinda like the opposite of what happened to Dragon Age and its sequel. The storyline is brilliant, the graphics are astounding, they got rid of the annoying weapon heat system and went to classic ammunition, they killed the Mako and actually made what few driving stages there are awesome to play (I freakin' love the Hammerhead), the classes and characters are now so balanced you could play any and have pretty much the same difficulty. In the first game, techs and biotics were so much more powerful than pure combat types, but tech/bio hybrids were overpowered thanks to stasis specialization. The game is also a lil bit longer (I completed the first game in 30 hours and the second game in 40 hours, DLC included. The ending also made me want to buy the last one, install it and play it right away. There's so little bad things to say about the game, it's almost perfect. I'd say my biggest complaint is that sometimes when you get in contact with a wall or something, you'll walk up it and get stuck in midair, requiring you to reload a past save. Also the DLC can only be bought from EA's Online Store and not on Steam. Heck, Mass Effect 3 isn't available on Steam, which is a shame. Also even though the game is much more fluid and less buggy (I only crashed one time, as opposed to... one time in the first game. Huh) and the resource-mining system is still infinitely better than in the first game (driving around in the damn Mako), scanning all these planets is still a pain in the ass and you barely need 5% of the resources available in the game. Money, on the other end, is limited and you'll have juuuuuuust enough to buy everything in the game, as opposed to the first game where I had maxed the money count and had nothing to buy 'cause I dropped everything I used. Oh yeah, drops. Drops in the second game is limited to ammo. While in the first game I'd change weapons, armor, shields, biotic amps, omni-tools, etc etc every hour or so, in the second game I kept the same armor for most of the game and the same weapons for 90% of the game. Heck, the armor and weapons I used were mostly from the DLC so that explains it. But it's not because the stuff the DLC gives is gamebreaker, it's just 'cause the weapons and armor in this game are severely limited and all weapons are basically as powerful as the others, with the exceptions of the DLC weapons which have interesting perks like laser sight or burst fire. Nothing too fancy, just a really small edge over the others that make 'em better. The way weapons get better is that you can upgrade 'em and your squad's through research, using the resources you mined. Interesting concept, especially since you get a special upgrade from each team member you get. And you NEED most of your teammates' special upgrades if you want to survive the mission. A single false step or mishap and you won't survive the last mission. Forgot to upgrade your ship's plating? Boom. Its kinetic shields? Boom. Its weapons? Boom. Its engine? Boom. Getting along well with your allies and knowing them extremely well is also crucial. If they aren't 100% loyal to you by the end, they most likely won't survive and get you killed in the process. Plus you need to know 'em and their personality since in the final mission, you need to build special teams to take care of tech, biotics, diversions, escorts, stealth and so go on. Your survival depends on so many things it's no wonder the last mission is considered a suicide mission; nobody expects you to live.