Mass Effect 2 is an awesome game. I’ve yet to find anyone who’ll say to the contrary. Metacritic, friends, and my most trusted reviewers have all universally praised the game. But are we really grasping the impact it will have on the landscape of gaming?

While the game has many merits – gorgeous graphics, excellent writing, overhauled mechanics – there is one I believe should be raised above all others: Mass Effect 2 is one of, if not the first games that has actually made the original better, a point I believe Arthur Gies made on a recent episode of Rebel FM.

Usually in the video game world, when a game gets a sequel, it diminishes or even makes obsolete the previous iteration. I can’t think of a single person who still plays the first Gears of War and while purists hang on to their Halos and Halo 2s, the vast majority of the Halo-playing audience has moved on to the greener pastures of Halo 3 (as evidenced by Microsoft’s upcoming “Old Yeller-style” treatment of the first Xbox’s Live servers.) It’s not that these games are bad, it’s just the majority of sequels are plainly better than their predecessors (at least mechanically anyway. Story is a whole other matter. Looking at you Bioshock 2…)

The reason Mass Effect has been benefitted by its successor is probably one you’ve already guessed: its character import system.

Other games have included this feature in the past, but none to the degree of Mass Effect 2. To have all of your decisions transfer over in a meaningful way that can drastically change the events you experience is huge.

Think about it. Have you ever seen a sequel to a choose-your-own-adventure book? You know why you haven’t? There are just too many variables. But somehow Bioware has found a way to make the tens of hours of playtime I spent fighting Saren mean something (a fact that has me playing through the original again -- Renegade this time.)

If Mass Effect 3 can up the ante as much as the second did while staying cohesive, I will dub it gaming’s first timeless franchise. Hopefully other games will follow Bioware’s suit (my fingers are crossed for Borderlands.)