From a bystander's perspective, it would be easy to mistake Mass Effect 2 as yet another cover-heavy shooter, where all one does is pop out of door frames, blast aliens in the face and progress to the next wave of enemies. And in some ways that's what it has become - and BioWare is thrilled to bits with the result. We're also sure that players of the first game will be inclined to agree.

Our play on the preview shows that while the finer points are yet to come together, it certainly holds up as a shooter. Cover is a little sticky and not quite fast enough to move in and out of, but it feels entirely natural. Though fighting against less competent enemies feels pretty much like any other Unreal 3 shooter, the underlying role-playing elements emerge when you tackle tougher enemies such as a bipedal robot that requires changing to circuit-frying disruption rounds in order to down. Elsewhere, you can tackle advancing drones with an ice gun, causing them to comically freeze and topple over before shattering, continuing to prove that this isn't just an intergalactic version of Gears Of War.

And even if it was, BioWare wouldn't half mind. Lead technical artist Adrien Cho is incredibly proud of the gains the team has made since the first game, with a particular focus on the more action-filled combat. "It's surprising, I often forget that when I'm playing, there is an RPG under the hood as well," he says. "It's definitely up there with all the popular shooters, and I think people are in for a real treat when people go hands-on and realise how easy it is to get into and how robust the combat is."

Of course, it is still a role-playing game, and comes with a more targeted and adventurous story to carry it forward into a planned trilogy. Shepherd investigates the mysterious disappearance of human colonies across the galaxy, recruiting a variety of cast members new and old to find out who or what is behind it. We discover (light story spoilers to follow) that an insect race of collectors are using paralysing bugs to round up humans and use them as experimental bioweapons, such as a walking turret constructed from human features, or a giant walking shell made from crushed human remains. It looks as brutal as it sounds - and is just a fragment of the dark and twisted story that BioWare is pitching this time around.

For those looking forward to continuing the story, the studio remains tight-lipped on the specifics of using your saved game in the sequel, but Cho promises that "we want to ensure that characters [we] spent time developing will carry over" and that choices will be a dominant factor of that transition. At the same time, he stresses that new players will find it far more accessible, with an undisclosed "smart" method of bringing them up-to-speed with the story. Though he does admit that choices made in the previous game won't have the same emotional impact to newcomers, using the analogy of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader's relationship and watching Return Of The Jedi as an example.

Dialogue trees with sprawling conversations are still part of that story, now with the added option to interrupt a non-playing character to forward their rambling or make them feel uncomfortable. Cho also maintains that BioWare has a much more structured and formulated plan for downloadable content, as opposed to the two pieces of DLC spaced out over a year from the first game. Again, he was quiet on the specifics, but says that it will give the opportunity for people to experience more of the "fleshed-out world" it has created.

Perhaps most reassuring is that BioWare is aware of some of the issues from the first title, and has taken into account player feedback to make a more robust sequel. "As a team it was a lot of hard work to build up this universe, and in the second we just had a lot of fun," he reveals. "In every aspect we get to explore a bit more. We continued to work on the things that did well, and this game represents a substantial improvement on the first one. Not that the first one was a slouch by any means, but this one is going to blow it out of the water."

Although the January release date is just around the corner, it's surprising that so many details have yet to be announced. Regardless, our short but sweet hands-on shows that significant gains have been developed, from the streamlined combat to polishing the visuals, making those conversations as engaging as before. And the team seem far more confident in delivering its epic space drama to both returning and new players.

Mass Effect 2 will be released for 360 and PC on January 29.