Space opera. Timeless classic. Sprawling epic. KoTOR killer. Whatever you call it, it’s undeniable that nothing quite like Mass Effect 2 has ever been seen before.

I’ll be honest, it took me a long time to finish the first Mass Effect. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun game. But a few of its shortcomings — painful inventory system, and bland planet exploration among them — made it a hard one to slog through. Ultimately, I played it on-again, off-again until the week before the sequel was released. I figured I should finish the first one before taking on the second.

The final mission of the first Mass Effect was breathtaking. Intense. Gut-wrenching. Flawless, with the possible exception of Saren’s “Oh snap, we need a boss fight!” re-animation sequence. It had adrenaline fire-hosing through my veins and my fists in the air as the credits rolled.

Imagine my elation, then, when I realized that those words, with few exceptions, describe Mass Effect 2 in its entirety.

For those of you unfamiliar with the franchise, I’ll step back a bit. Spoilers may follow.

The Mass Effect games are set in our galaxy some two hundred years in the future. Mankind ventured beyond Earth’s atmosphere to discover that they were not alone in the galaxy — dozens of other races far ahead of them on the evolutionary timeline make up a galactic system of government.

Much of this galactic civilization is built around ancient and mysterious technology. The titular term “mass effect” refers to the technology that makes it possible to travel around the galaxy — mass relays propel ships through the stars as speeds far in excess of light; biotics (psychics, essentially) can generate mass effect anomalies with their brains to hurl enemies in the air; and the center of government sits in a massive space station known as the citadel, built by the same long-dead race of aliens that built the mass relays.

In the first game, you (playing as Commander Shepard) discover that an ancient race of sentient machines known as the Reapers is behind all this mysterious technology, and that they are planning on showing up and consuming all biological life in the galaxy. It’s up to you to stop them. Along the way you’ll recruit team members to your cause, make decisions that determine the outcome of the game, and ultimately save the galaxy in the aforementioned awesome final battle.

Mass Effect 2 picks up two years after all this. One of the coolest features of the game is that your decisions in the first Mass Effect carry over into the sequel. Assuming you still have your saved game from the original, many of the actions, decisions, and side missions you carried out in the first have dramatic effects on the way things play out in the sequel.

The sequel’s story revolves around stopping the Collectors, a mysterious race of insect-like creatures apparently working for the Reapers. The Collectors have been making a nuisance of themselves by abducting human colonies. You are recruited by Cerberus, a xenophobic human organization led by the enigmatic Illusive Man, to put a stop to their shenanigans.

To do so, you’ll have to recruit a team of professionals. And this is where the game shines the brightest.

Each member you bring into your party has distinct motivations, character, tastes, emotional baggage – everything you’d expect in a real person. The game does a masterful job of bringing these characters to life and encouraging you to get to know them, develop relationships with them, and come to care about them. This is a game that works its way into your heart and stays there.

There are a myriad of other ways this plays out, and the end effect is that you’ll feel an extreme emotional connection to the game because your actions really do matter. I know that I would probably have been reduced to tears had I lost some of the members of my team, purely because I came to empathize and deeply care about each one.

The writing is incredible. Just walking around your ship and eavesdropping on conversations between crewmembers will result in quite a few laughs. The voice acting is also top-notch: Martin Sheen, Adam Baldwin, Seth Green, and many others all turn in incredible performances.

Graphically, the game is seamless. While there aren’t many moments of jaw-dropping graphical fidelity like you might find in Crysis or Bioshock, the visual design works extremely well for the game. Each environment is unique, and the lighting and character animations are crafted quite well.

ME2 is also backed up by a fantastic soundtrack and the promise of a conclusion to the trilogy in the next couple of years. What’s not to love?

Well, there’s a few things.

From a technical perspective, there are a couple minor issues. Mass Effect 2 corrected the overcrowded inventory of the first game by swerving all the way to the other extreme. You don’t have an inventory anymore. You’ll be able to upgrade your weapons by finding or purchasing plans, and there are a few unique weapons you can use. But adjusting each squad member’s loadout for maximum effectiveness is replaced by jumping straight into the action. Some might see this as an improvement, but the loot-loving RPG junkie in me missed the level of control the first game offered.

To upgrade your weapons, armor, ship, and abilities, you need resources in the form of rare metals. Unfortunately, gathering them is a major pain. You’ll be able to find some while on missions, but most will have to be gathered by mining planets in what is quite possibly the most boring minigame ever created. Fortunately, you won’t have to do this too often. But when you do need to, it’s time-consuming, boring, and really interrupts the flow of the game.

Lastly, some editions of the game came with bonus armor. Disappointingly, it isn’t as customizable or functional as the game’s default armor. It’s irritating to pay extra for something and then not have it worked into the game.

There are more issues on the content side.

While the game rarely gets gory, it is violent. In fact, most of the worst violence is bloodless, or even occurs off-screen. While recruiting the assassin Thane, you’ll watch him snap the neck of a bodyguard before shooting his unarmed target at point blank range. A crew member screams in terror as he is mauled by a Collector, and is apparently killed off-screen.

Depending on how you play Shepard, you can also commit some acts of over-the-top violence. Throughout the game, you’ll be presented with the choice to follow the selfless, put-others-first path of the paragon, or the ruthless, ends-justify-the-means renegade path. Choosing the renegade option will at times result in senseless violence. At one point, Shepard gets the drop on an enemy mercenary. After talking the mercenary into betraying his employer, Shepard is faced with the choice of letting the man go or pushing him out the window of the mile-high building he’s in. Most of the choices aren’t as stark as that, and the occurrence of that level of violence is admittedly rare. But it is there.

The game is based solidly in a naturalistic worldview. What religion that appears in the game is treated as personal superstitions. The story revolves around the cycle of evolution — sentient life is no more sacred than any other form of life. It’s just nature’s latest production of chance plus time. It’s not necessarily problematic if you know your worldview, but it is something to be aware of as you play through the game.

Language appears throughout. One party member in particular is fond of the f-word. And sexual dialogue pops up occasionally, usually intended as humor.

The sexual content in Mass Effect 2 has actually been dialed down from what appeared in the original. It’s still there, however, and it’s nothing to gloss over. Depending on which gender of Shepard you’re playing as, you’ll have the option of pursuing romantic relationships with a few of your party members (you’ll have to choose one, though — no two-timing allowed).

For the most part, these relationships feel very genuine and are often quite touching. If you pursue them far enough, they’ll all end in bed. These scenes never pass a PG-13 level. The most explicit involves a revealed bra before a fade to black. Nothing you wouldn’t see while channel surfing during prime time, but still more than enough to warrant caution before deciding to pick up the game.

The worst offense in the sexuality category comes from the character of Jack (the same one who loves the f-bomb). Jack is an extremely troubled girl with a scary-dark backstory. Getting to know her and convincing her that life is worth living is genuine and emotionally involving — but also fraught with language and the fact that Jack doesn’t wear a shirt. A halter of sorts covers the bare minimum of her torso.

This is mitigated somewhat by the tattoos that cover her body, and after finishing her side quest you can put a shirt on her. But for a significant portion of the game, you’ll have a nearly topless woman on board. I can’t really think of a single justification for that design decision — there are many other ways to communicate Jack’s disdain for social norms without parading her body around. It’s an unfortunate shock tactic that doesn’t belong in a game with so much masterful subtlety.

I feel I might be the only voice in this industry saying that relationships don’t and shouldn’t automatically end in bed. While admittedly there isn’t time for a marriage ceremony while saving the galaxy, I remain convinced that true love waits for the goods until there’s a commitment backing it up. The Mass Effect games are hardly the only mainstream entertainment preaching promiscuity as the natural path of a relationship, but it’s still disappointing.

ME2 is definitely not without problems. It’s appropriately rated M for mature, and I don’t recommend it for anyone under the age of eighteen or so. However, after playing the game and reflecting on the overall experience, I do believe that the pros outweigh the cons.

The game lauds honor, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, love, loyalty, and the triumph of good over evil. Much as in real life, you’re given the choice throughout to make decisions that put others first or that serve your own immediate needs, and those choices are not always black and white.

Mass Effect 2 is a shining example of gaming excellence. In spite of its forays into faux “mature” content, the overall message of the game is one of hope and justice. It requires you to think about the consequences of your actions. It encourages you to show love to other characters in the game. It rewards you for taking the high road in the face of adversity.

It’s a spectacular success with few caveats, and a game that shouldn’t be missed by anyone mature enough to navigate its obstacles. From the opening mission to the climatic final battle that easily tops any video game conclusion I have ever experienced, the game is non-stop out-the-ears incredible.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.