Don't Be Disillusioned, A Regression From The First Mass Effect...
The biggest thing wrong with this game is that it is all style and no substance. I think the reason a site like ign would praise this game so highly its because the style/tone in which the story is told in. It almost seems they wanted to make a decent story into something cinematic ,and "epic" (a word that is used to describe this game so often, it is truly sickening), "epic" would be best used to describe Fallout 3, a non linear Rpg, so detailed and unique it will keep your interest for 100+ hours.
Thats another thing. Is this even a Rpg?, hardly. The leveling up system in this game is dumbed downed, or in laments term "streamlined" for the average player. Although easier to manage than, the weapons,armor, and character upgrades in the first mass effect, there is a lot less you can do in this one. It would seem the developers thought that making it more action packed would make it appeal to a grander audience(which this game does very well), but rather than actually improving the combat elements, they simply removed most of the rpg aspects to make the action more frequent. Also exploration in this game is very linear, VERY LINEAR. In the first mass effect you could choose from roughly 30 planets that you could actually land on. Once you did you had a large range of freedom to drive around, collect minerals, or on occasion get caught up in a side mission. Mass Effect 2 offers a small number of planets you can land on, but once on these planets there is little you can do. The scale of the side missions are smaller as is the actual range of movement on the planets.
Like I said last paragraph they really didn't do much to improve the combat in this game (other than making the it easier to cast your powers and such if you are an adept, vanguard etc.) The A.I. is very weak, they take cover but often just walk in front of you to be picked off. The cover system works, but really doesn't differ from the first game. BUT, most importantly, the encounters with enemies are widely spaced out, leading to a molasses like pace. No matter how cinematic bioware tried to make this game, there is no saving the fact that the game play is simply boring.
In retrospect I am extremely glad I sold this game. It may sound like im exaggerating (this is partly in fact because it got #1 on ign's top 25 games for xbox 360 (god damn it)) but I truly do loath this game. Even though im giving it a measly 6.5 i want you to know i think you should not buy this game. Even if an under aged child in Honduras is willing to sell it for some pizza crust, BUY A GAME THAT HAS SUBSTANCE(so no don't buy Mass Effect 2).