To be perfectly honest, I’m as efficient at shooting games as the next RPG nerd, so when my sister recommended Mass Effect to me a while back, I didn’t really take her seriously.

It’s not that I expected the game to be bad, it was simply that I expected myself to not be able to get past the first area.

To make a roughly 30-hour story short, I enjoyed it, unsurprisingly I’m sure to those who have played it, and I only died a hundred times or so. And now there’s “Mass Effect 2.”

There’s always a hesitance about sequels. Sure, “Mass Effect” is a planned series with a clear story connecting its volumes, but that can still go wrong, because game developers can always make something go wrong.

“Mass Effect 2,” however, is not a rehash of the first game with essentially the same plot and mechanics plus a few changes here and there.

Instead, it is a new and interesting addition to the first game with enough improvements to the game play to make you feel like you’re playing something else entirely.

Sure, I found myself saving the universe again, but that’s just because I’m so good at it.

What I found most remarkable was that there was a tutorial at the beginning of the game.

It’s amazing how much a person can appreciate what is usually so irritating to get through. In the first game, it took me several hours to figure out what exactly every button did.

I’m not exactly your seasoned first person shooter veteran. This wasn’t because no one bothered to tell me, but the second game filled me in on everything before I could even begin to wonder was what to do next. And what better way to give the player a tutorial than with an attractive British woman?

The solutions didn’t end there. Remember having to wait for your weapon to cool down? Well, now there are thermal clips, which can be ejected while shooting to cool your weapon. And thankfully your felled enemies inexplicably excrete them, so you never really run out.

How about randomly wanting to shut someone up while he is explaining his evil plot to you? Well, now with the help of either “Paragon” or “Renegade” triggers, you can either gallantly interrupt him or hit him over the head with the butt of your gun.

But be careful how often you’re a loose-cannon spaceman, though, because the more often you choose to do evil, or just sort of mean things, the least likely you are to have a pretty face thanks to the strange addition of scars that heal as you become a better person.

There is still, of course, the usual array of glitches throughout the game.

The Illusive Man can never quite get his cigarette between his lips, and members of my party were always just walking right onto furniture.

Throughout the game, I found, there was never a moment of, “Well, what next?” Each chapter of the game carried me into the next, and there was never a sense of isolation from the plot, as some quest-based games have left me feeling. I’m talking to you, “Bethesda.”

As for the plot, well, there’s no denying that “Mass Effect 2” and its predecessor are science fiction in every sense of the term.

From regenerating the dead, to aliens bent on enslaving humanity with giant ticks; I knew, when playing it, that if I asked too many questions I would find myself lost, confused and somehow dissatisfied.

In short, it’s a game worth playing. I personally enjoy it a bit too much, and I might find myself playing it again, which happens with me a bit too often when it comes to Bioware’s games.

I more than suggest it to those who have been considering the series.

Most importantly, you could easily get away with playing it even if you haven’t played the first one. So maybe you might just skip ahead to save yourself some time.