Mass Effect 2 Sentinel Interview and Trailer

IGN continues their recent class-specific coverage for Mass Effect 2 by posting a Q&A with lead combat designer Christina Norman and a nearly two-minute trailer covering the Tech Armor-enabled Sentinel.
IGN: How much will you be able to customize your Sentinel? Will it be possible to specialize in specific arms of the skill tree?

Christina Norman: The sentinel has six powers, and whenever you max out any of those powers, you get to choose between two evolved versions. You'll only be able to evolve 2 or 3 powers, so picking which powers you evolve will have a big impact on how your Sentinel plays.

If you specialize in Overload and Warp you'll become a deadly direct damage expert. Any enemy you face you'll be able to burn down with power damage alone. This specialization path makes the Sentinel the strongest direct damage power class in the game.

But you can also focus more on crowd control. With throw and cryo freeze, you can knock enemies down and freeze them solid. They won't die as quickly, but they won't be attacking you either.

You've also got your tech armor as a specialization option. Tech armor is powerful at any level, but if you put a lot of points in it you'll become incredibly hard to kill, and your defensive blast will increase in strength.

And you've got your class talent (Defender) which works really well with any playstyle. Each rank gives you a negotiation bonus, increases your health, and lowers the recharge time of your powers. When you evolve Defender, you can choose to become a Guardian or a Raider. Guardians receive an additional bonus to negotiation, and achieve the maximum possible reduction to power cooldowns. Raiders receive a bonus to direct damage, making their overload and warp abilities incredibly deadly.

With so many options, picking how you will specialize your Sentinel is quite the challenge, but this is only one aspect of specialization. Your armor, weapons, and researched upgrades will have a big impact on how your Sentinel plays. We also have other forms of character customization we haven't announced yet. With so many options, you could play through Mass Effect 2 three times with three different Sentinels, and have a different experience each time.