User blog comment:Detttan/New Game +/@comment-5057525-20120427233227

There are other reasons to play a new game+. You get to keep all of the stuff you've acquired during the first game, weapons, weapon upgrades, and abilities, and weapons and upgrades level 6-10 are unlocked.

There are also weapons that you can't acquire until the second half of the game like the Carnifex and Disciple, and others aren't available until very late in the game, such as the Falcon, the Saber, and the Locust. Starting a new game+ allows you to have access to these weapons right from the very beginning, and maxed out the moment you get full access to the Normandy.

You can't max out your character, that is, get to level 60, even with an imported level 30 character, except by starting a new game+. Importing a level 30 character and doing all quests will leave you at level 57 at the end of the game.

Basically, what a new game+ does is allow you to play the whole game with your character's abilities already complete, or very nearly so, and allows you to have access to all of the higher tier weapons from the very beginning.

It also gives players who are playing fresh (ie, not importing) to get their players up to a high level; a playthrough that starts at level 0 ends with your character somewhere in the 40s, I think.

As a hint, if you want to go after the two insanity achievements, new game+ is the easiest way to do this in single player. Start a new game without importing, and you start at level 0. Play through the game, being careful to buy and fully upgrade whichever weapons you plan to use for your insanity playthrough, but otherwise hoarding credits. You might also want to avoid side missions so as to keep your character level relatively low. Once you finish, start a new game+, switch to insanity after the prologue, and as soon as you get free run of the Normandy, you'll be able to upgrade your favorite weapons to level 10 and have level 5 or six upgrades to install in them.

For example, if you're playing a power-intensive character, you can have a Level 10 Locust (practically weightless with superlight materials) and a Level 10 Paladin with high level upgrades and still have very fast cooldowns. Or if you're playing a soldier, you can basically start the game with a level 10 Falcon, Saber, Wraith, Black Widow, or whatever your favorite weapon combination is, and still be playing a character in the 40s or so, meaning you have all of the best weapons fully upgraded while going up against mid-level enemies.

At the other end, if Insanity isn't hard enough, importing a level 56-57 character means that you start the game with all of the enemies fully leveled up, making things much tougher.