One gripe among hardcore Mass Effect players is that its toughest difficulty was an unlockable - after playing through the game twice. A design lead explains why, and "insanity" may not be locked in ME2.

On the Mass Effect forums, Christina Norman, lead system designer, said that Insanity difficulty was made unlockable, because it was so difficult a player needed the experience of already playing through the game in order to complete it.

So, what about the top difficulty level for Mass Effect 2? Norman said the team is considering "additional dimensions" to the difficulty system in Mass Effect 2, details that will make the game harder in the sense that it is more challenging, not simply "tougher."