Mass Effect was more then just a shooter.
Mass Effect was about exploration. You can go to different planets and explore, fight in combat, make discoveries and upgrade your character.
What made Mass Effect truly unique was the sheer quality the game put out. There are different races in the game (human of course, but also asari, geth, quarians, krogan, salarians and so on) but these weren't just fast-crafted species. They have a complete backstory, militairy doctrine, history, culture... even the fysiology of these creatures can be read upon. It made 'aliens' - even though it was a video game and even though they weren't human - seem realistic.
Also, there is a crapload of voicework done in the game. Every important character (and there are allot) has his own unique voice which was always well voice overed. There were interesting discussions and conversations in the game. Which makes the other unique part about Mass Effect, you could make choices what to say. There were hundereds of conversations in a single playthrough and you could say hunderds of things. You can choose to be an **** or a good guy or just choose a neutral path. But you never had to stick to it. If you've been good the entire game but someone was pissing you off, you can still be an ass to those people. Once again: the pure quality of the game really shines here. You've never seen anything like it.
The story is great and as such those countless conversations you have don't feel like a drag, but you want to be part of it. Upgrading your character wasn't too fleshed out, but it was cool. Same thing goes for the combat.
So, ME2 will have much better combat, more fleshed out character development, better customizability, an even deeper story (if that's possible.. I'm having a hard time believing), will be even longer, have more things to explore, more conversations, more options within conversations, more upgradables, more interesting characters and it's all coated by the fact that every choice you made in the first game will carry over into ME2. So, if you chose to kill someone for example, that person will be dead in ME2. There were allot of important choices in the first game, so ME2 will be heavily influeced by how you played the first game.
That's the reason why it rocks. I played ME about 5 times I think all the way through. I remember thinking the game was near perfect. But I just can't wrap my head around how much they managed to improve on it after seeing allot of stuff in ME2. It almost seems like it's not possible. That's why people are hyping it. It was one of the best games they played and yet, it seems like they managed to improve it thrice the quality of the first game.
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