I just finshed the first round of squad recruitment. The awesome thing about not reading any preview or news about the game before it's announced is that you don't know who the party members will be. I was pleasantly surprised by Garrus' return, and now that I've received my second batch of dossiers, I'm happy to see my favourite character, Tali, will also return - so I'll now make a beeline for her to include her in my party again. Shame Ashley's contribution will most likely be limited to her short appearance on Horizon.
I'm liking the game a whole lot so far. Not a fan of the ammo system, as I've mentioned before (sniper ammo and heavy pistol ammo is scandalously limited!), but the upgrade system is nice, a far better mechanic than the old carry-100-rifles-and-compare-them-all misery. The scanning system is a good idea, but poorly executed (far too slow and tedious), making it almost as boring as the old drive-around-pointlessly-in-the-Mako-and-hope-you-spot-rare-metals scheme, but at least they tried.
Liking the combat too, new sprint/cover controls are far more useful than in ME1, only thing I miss is more graphic death animations. Headshots in particular.
