

if shotguns and biotics sound like a great combination to you, go vanguard (although it's slightly less overpowered in this game). if you want well-rounded weaponry access, go for soldier. sentinel is also a more forgiving, defense-oriented class.

i've played both the first and the second game through a few times, and have found infiltrator to be the best for me.

Regarding best class: there's a veritable ocean of advice if you google "mass effect 2 best class." as everyone else has advised, each has its strengths and weaknesses, and it's entirely up to your play type. If you were going to buy DLC, I would purchase them in this order of priority: Cerberus Network, Kasumi Mission, Aegis Pack, Project Overlord, Firepower Pack, Equalizer Pack, and finally Alternate Costume Pack. But they are always pretty awesome to watch. Doing the interrupt can disqualify from gaining points on the other alignment side in that conversation that could be useful for loyalty checks later in the game. I disagree with the advice above to always do the interrupts regardless of alignment. I believe the most commonly selected classes are soldier, infiltrator, and then vanguard. All classes are certainly playable for a initial run. When you are in a mining mood it's probably best to fill the bars of the other three types of minerals and have an excess for awhile. Element Zero is the rarest so always launch a probe when you find a pocket of that.

Skip ones that are initially scanning as poor or sometimes moderate. Find "Rich" planets and mine them to "Poor" or "Moderate". The mineral mining is less tedious than it was at launch. Unlike in the first game, there are no achievements you will miss from rolling with a different crew on your side missions. Talk to everyone on the ship regularly and mix up your team. You can save thousands of credits that way. Most shops offer discounts based on your conversation with the shopkeeper, so on a initial visit you want to talk the shopkeeper first before going to the terminal. You just might be satified with your initial playthrough ending. It's actually quite difficult to get the "bad" ending if you are trying to avoid it. One of my favorite gaming moments of all time is adapting to the events of the final mission. Make that hard save beforehand and you can get a perfect playthrough of the final mission in about 20 minutes afterwards. Don't read spoilers on the final mission especially. It's a good idea to make a hard save before then and another right before the trip to the finale. It's later in the game, so don't be hunting for it. The only thing I would have preferred to know ahead of time is to only do the IFF mission when you have done everything else you feel you want to do.
