This is spoiler free. I'm going to try and take a different approach to the one I took when I played the original Mass Effect and try and include less of the actual story. We'll see if it works out. So, after about nine or so hours of play what's great about it? What's great about it is many people are questioning whether it's a role-playing game at all, mostly because of it kicking out the RPG baggage, and this is officially a good thing.

It kicks out the RPG baggage. I've discussed this before so I'll keep it brief, but Mass Effect 2 throws out a lot of the baggage that traditional role-playing games began to ditch in the eighties, though computer role-playing games kept a lot of the baggage for much longer. Mass Efffect 2 is all about getting to the awesome, whether it be playing out an action scene or one of dramatic worth. It's not about managing inventory, levelling up characters, having random encounters while walking from City A to City B and whatever other old rubbish. In a way, it's the CRPG to come closest to a very scene-focused storytelling game focused on conflict and choices. Hell, it even maintains the results of those scenes not just in the game but to the next two.

It focuses on player skill and not character skill. Okay, I've discussed this before and back then I was still focused on role-playing games being based on characters skill. That's the point right? You're playing a character and just like in a traditional games I might be crap at shooting but my character may be great. I was wrong. I wasn't thinking it through. Mass Effect 2 changes things, it makes you realise it's all about player skill because the elements combine to create something unique. Once a CRPG has dropped all the RPG baggage then it's all too easy to see character skill as just another facet of that baggage. A CRPG is different to a traditional RPG and as such character skill is less important, because player skill in terms of interfacing with the game is a totally different dynamic. I can't use my skill at shooting in a traditional RPG but I can use my skill at 'shooting' in a CRPG. This makes it more visceral and more immediate, which works well with a fluid, scene-based game blending game and interactive narrative almost perfectly. The narrative, the scenes, the action and the choices sort of blend into a continuum of awesome.

It kicks simulative play in the bollocks. Mass Effect 2 is following a trend in the traditional RPG market of giving simulative play of a setting a kick in the bollocks. There is very little myth of reality. There is no need to create stuff and have things happen, just to maintain the illusion of being in a real world. It's not about engendering verisimilitude for the sake of it. It's about telling the story, as it pertains to the protagonist, with colour to provide a contextual awesome, and choices to be made. This is why the game is constructed to cut to the point of action or narrative, it doesn't feel the need to present the setting to you as having value in itself. Don't get me wrong, the setting is there, but it's not valuable in and off itself, it's valuable in terms of the fabric of colour.

The setting is awesome. The setting of Mass Effect 2 (and the original) is pretty, damned fine. They've managed to do something with a computer game that is rarely witnessed: provide a setting that is just brilliant. It doesn't feel like a CRPG setting, it feels real, it has weight. It sounds real. It looks real. The concerns of the people and species within it all feel incredibly important. It does this without labouring you with world building, as the setting comes through via the brilliant visuals, the excellent acting of the cast and the dramatic choices you make. This is how setting should be revealed.

The soundtrack is great. I rarely notice the soundtracks to games, but I notice the one is Mass Effect 2 just like I do a great film soundtrack. It's not just the bombastic moments, it's the relatively subtle music when speaking The Illusive Man, or the music in the club on Omega. It's very good stuff, and I'm listening to it on a very basic sound system, I can't even begin to contemplate the aural part of the game if I had something good blaring it out across the room.

The characters are exciting.Last, but by no means least, the characters really draw you in. Basically, it's the science fiction magnificent seven (well, more than seven I think) setting off on the ultimate 'suicide mission' to save the galaxy. The characters are visually exciting and excellently drawn in that grand, soap opera manner of melodramatic awesome. They are a varied and unique bunch. Not only that, they are each backed up with an individual quest that focuses on their back story. I've only done Miranda's, but it was very good. It was exciting. It was sad. I'd even say those computer characters go a long way to actually acting. If each of the personal quests is as good as Miranda's that's some awesome sauce right there.

The irony of all this is Bioware has released two games, in almost as many months, that define two radically different CRPG approaches. Dragon Age: Origins harks back to how such games used to be done. It's about the party. It's about tactics. It's about character over player skill in terms of ability (the player skill comes in choosing what character us used where and does what). It's about a lot of the old baggage updated only slightly. It has a setting that feels more like you're 'walking around living in it' rather than just being part of a narrative within it. It's the traditional RPG. Mass Effect 2 is much closer to the story game approach. It drops all the old baggage. It doesn't have character skill, it's all player skill. It's about aggressive scene framing whether it be an action or dramatic scene. It's about setting coming through action and colour rather.

As one can expect, the two approaches are divisive. Only about 40-minutes ago I read an article on how Mass Effect 2 is no longer an RPG for the very reasons it cuts out all the things that Dragon Age: Origins keeps. The argument wasn't that dissimilar to why some story games aren't role-playing games because they cut out simulative goals of setting verisimilitude and various elements of RPG baggage.