The latest trailer for Mass Effect 2 was released recently and it is simply astounding. It's easy to see new possible playing styles within the game and all of the hallmarks that make the Mass Effect universe a superior video game environment. At the beginning of the trailer, you can see in Commander Shepard's eyes that this mission is of the utmost importance and one he may not be coming back from.

Check out the new cinematic Mass Effect 2 trailer after the jump.

Watch and enjoy courtesy of Kotaku:

I am still so impressed and happy that Martin Sheen is voicing the mysterious overseer. He appears to be human but his glowing blue eyes might suggest otherwise. It's possible that he is the leader of the Cerberus group that was hinted at in the first game and Shepard will be working with him. According to the Mass Effect 2 website, Cerberus is a group dedicated to the preservation of humanity "at any cost." Though we haven't seen the overseer doing much - his voice will be a welcome addition to the storyline.

Thane appears to be a hand-to-hand combat expert with very useful biotic powers. Judging from the trailer's depiction of him and his combat style, there will be a lot more hand-to-hand combat in this game. No more simply bashing aliens with the butt of your assault rifle, you'll be getting much more personal with your enemies now.

The biotic that is mentioned in the middle may be Subject Zero who you can look up on the official Mass Effect 2 website as well - but the hand looks decidedly male to me. Could this be Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko returning for more in the sequel?

We also see an excellent heavy weapons demonstration from Shepard's new Krogan teammate, Grunt. Grunt is a younger Krogan who is brash and violent - even by Krogan standards. He also appears to be fast and exceedingly tough. All this is evident from the guts of a Thresher Maw covering his armor as he smiles grimly.

In addition, the combat video shows us all of the new possibilities for combat in Mass Effect 2. We can plainly see that Biotics and Soldiers will be able to combine their strengths to achieve efficient combat results. As previously mentioned, the hand-to-hand gameplay is prevalent and Shepard also shows us what fighting with the new missile launcher will look like.

The enemy characters appear to look a lot like the Racchni from the first Mass Effect but with a dash of Humanoid DNA.

Finally, we see what is probably the main story point of Mass Effect 2. A gigantic organic looking ship, even bigger than the Reapers in Mass Effect, hovering menacingly over a human colony with Shepard and his team preparing to attack it with everything that they have. Whatever the ship is, it certainly appears to pose an almost insurmountable challenge to humanity and to the entire galaxy.

What do you think? What do you see? Has this trailer piqued your interest or are you still not convinced?

Mass Effect 2 is scheduled for release on January 22, 2010 on Xbox 360 and PC.

Source: Kotaku