Mass Effect 2 video shows off Adept class

BioWare has popped out two new videos for Mass Effect 2; one showing the improvements made to the Adept class and the other detailing the return of Tali.

Adepts wield the game's biotic abilities with more power and breadth than any other class. Available to them are abilities Warp, Shockwave, Singularity, Throw and Pull as well as Heavy Pistol and Submachine Gun weapon training.

"We've improved Biotic powers for Mass Effect 2. You can curve them around corners or around cover to hit hidden enemies. You can precisely angle a throw or pull to send an enemy flying off an edge. And when you combine multiple powers on a target the results are devastating," said Christina Norman, lead game designer, during the video.

We follow Shepard as he does just that: hits an enemy with Warp so he floats and then sends him careering into the air. "Up close the Adept is even deadlier," she adds, showing the Shockwave that ploughs through ranks of enemies and sends them flying.

"In Mass Effect 2 no one is better at controlling the battlefield than an Adept, and no one is better at killing enemies without firing a single shot," she said.

Tali was a part of Shepard's party during Mass Effect 1. She, a Quarian, was on a mandatory pilgrimage for her people that ends once something of worth is found and returned to the Migrant Fleet - the huge armada the Quarian's call home.

Tali is back, this time with a purple scarf over her envirosuit, but everything is not at all well back in Quarian land. This video shows Shepard having a heated exchange with a Quarian counsel before Tali is given the strongest possible sentence: exile from the Migrant Fleet.

Tali joins new characters Thane, Grunt and Subject Zero on the character roster for Mass Effect 2. There are still six empty slots left to fill.

Joining the videos are a clutch of new screenshots. Mass Effect 2 will be released on PC and Xbox 360 on 29th January 2010.