Tools of Destruction: A Look at ME2′s Engineer Class

Some would say less is more.

Mass Effect 2’s Engineer would summon a combat drone, hijack your weaponized android, and turn its disintegrator on you before telling you to eat futuristic space-lead and die. Know why?

Because he can.

While the Adept was all about turning Commander Shepherd into a one-man power house of psycho-kinetic energy capable of clearing a room with the flick of an armored wrist, the re-tooled Engineer holds true to the “strength in numbers” school of modern combat. Thanks to his ability to hack into robotic enemy units whilst controlling a deadly combat drone, the Engineer assures that players can have up to 4 additional allied units in the field at any one time (that includes your 2 trusty companions), the most of any character class. The Engineer’s strength hinges on how the new drone can be upgraded in a multitude of ways, while the efficiency of your hijacked enemy unit solely depends on just how much of a badass it already is.

As “technical combat specialists”, Engineers can get very creative on how they take out enemy combatants. The ability to control a floating orb of destruction will come in handy seeing as how you can use your friendly automaton as a distraction, laser gun, or even a bomb. Engineers also have some powerful class specific moves they can deal out on the fly such as Incinerate, Overload, and Freeze. Combining these brutal attacks with your customizable arsenal and you have yourself a recipe for wielding offensive tactics on a massive scale.

Watch the newest Class Trailer from Bioware and prepared to be blown away by the Engineer’s new moves. I have to say, it’s looking to be a harder and harder decision on just what class I’m going to finally decide on playing through , and this new Engineering shenanigans is NOT helping.