There was some on-again, off-again talk of whether or not Mass Effect 2 would have a New Game + mode, but power gamers who go the distance with their characters can rest assured, they can continue to use them on subsequent playthroughs. In a recent post on the BioWare message board, community coordinator Christ Priestly details the bonuses gets when they import characters from Mass Effect 1, as well as confirms the return of New Game +.

In addition, when a player imports his character(s) from Mass Effect 1, you are not only limited to plot changes, but bonuses to your character. Christ Priestly further describes:

“Yes New Game + is making a return to Mass Effect 2! Additionally as mentioned above, make sure you are playing on your Xbox 360 profile that you completed ME1 on and that the profile and save data is present on the Hard Drive and not a MU.”

Also included in your character transition, if you were either a Paragon or Renegade (or in my case, both), that status will also open up additional dialogue options for you in the game.

“…if you finished ME1 as a level 35 character, you will receive a bonus, but if you finished ME1 as a level 50 character, your bonus will be larger. That being said these bonuses will not put new playthrough characters at a severe disadvantage. For example, some of these bonuses include a monetary boost at the start of the game, or additional research resources for use at the Normandy’s Tech Lab.”

It’s great to see BioWare not forgoing the hard work of gamers, such as myself, put into their characters in ME1. In fact, my Vanguard Shepard is level 60 and pretty awesome. I would hate to see him just cheated out of his abilities and powers.

While money was somewhat useful in ME1, after you got the Spectre weapons and Predator armor, it become a superfluous thing. However, with the inclusion of reloading and the probability of having to purchase ammo, money might actually be a more usable commodity.

Mass Effect 2 will start sucking away my life on Xbox 360 and PC on January 26, 2010.

Source: BioWare Forums