Do not compare ME2 to ME1 only! COMPARE IT TO INDUSTRY FIRST!
ME2 game is amazing period. Right now nothing else in the market comes even close. I rate it as 10.0 compared to other games in the industry and 9.0 compared to ME1 so my overall score is 9.5
I spent 38 hours on my first playthrough, I took my sweet time to explore entire galaxy and visited every planet , I completed about 45 -50 side quests .
GOOD
1) Amazing Story – some of you may want to replay ME1 to see how it effects ME2 , or upload different characters from ME1 ... some parts are breathtaking
2) Great Graphics - Huge improvement over ME1
3) New Allies - I love new allies, their loyalty missions are nice, much bigger crew than in ME1
4)I nterrupt option – you can stop people in middle of conversation and get paragon or renegade points which really adds on to the experience and I think its great
5) New ship Normandy 2 - Has more stuff on it, also you can check your achievement status on ship level 1 , for example it will tell you completed 2 out of 10 tech upgrades etc so you know where you stand
6) Amazing planet side quests - No more Copy and paste warehouses – in ME 1 there were few types of buildings that where used over and over in side quests. In ME2 each planet side quest is unique, there are puzzles , timed missions etc Please try to do them all, they add on to experience that you will not find in ME2 main quests
7) New Planet Scanning for side quests - ( not to be confused with planet scanning for resources) – very simple and quick, less frustrating than driving ME1 vehicle around . As soon as you enter orbit of the planet it will tell you anomaly detected if there is a side quest, so it will take 20-40 sec to scan and find location which in my opinion beats driving Vehicle with a terrible aim around. Note if anomaly is not detected move to next planet unless you need resources
8) Alien Cities - ,ME1 had only 1 Citadel , ME2 has 4 ( although they are not as big as Citadel in ME1)
Still Its nice to see some other galactic centers besides Citadel
9) Addition of Heavy/ big weapons
10) Inventory management good side ( not to be confused with inventory management bad side) - no more 10 levels on each gun , upgrades etc. like In ME1. you would use highest level gun anyways so all levels below would be useless and would just create inventory mess ( especially on 2nd and 3rd play through ) So upgrade system works here . So once you upgrade to level 2 all guns you have become level 2 you do not need to carry level 2 and level 1
11) N7 Armor and Customization – plenty very nice add-ons that you can buy / find and customize your N7 armor .Also upgrade system works here too as opposed of having 10 levels of same armor in inventory and using only 1 best
You can upgrade shields and armor up to level 5.
BAD
1) Planet Scanning for resources – you will need to do this if you want to get a lot of upgrades
This is by far most annoying part of the game. Even if your scanner is f upgraded Its 10 times more annoying than elevators in ME1. This feels like mini arcade game on its own … Analogy : they could as well put game like Tetris and when you dropped 50 lines you get resources to upgrade 1 weapon … but Tetris would be 100 times more fun and I would take it over scanning and shooting like 10-30 probes on every planet that I come across. On good side seams realistic but Supper Annoying spent 10 hours of my time on this alone!!!!!!!!!!!!
2) Inventory management bad side –stripped down- Armor Variety - only 1 armor- N7 , you can get about 4-5 more armors with codes if you pre-ordered or bought certain things. There are only 2 options for ally armors/ outfits. In my opinion collectors armor is supper annoying and you can not remove helmet .. unless you like looking like a giant bug. Weapon Variety – you will come only across 2-3 kinds of each gun if you are lucky ( this does not apply to heavy weapons,)
3) Skill Variety and Customization – stripped down
4) ME1 Elevators replaced with loading screens - I don't think this is a solution for elevator problem
5) 2nd playthrough problems
minerals do not carry over - I had 70K 220k 90K and 210K replaced with 50K each …WTF Bioware no I do not want to scan for minerals again ..
Upgrades do not carry over – I had almost all upgrades – it sucks cause all your guns and armor go back to level 0… also I am playing Insanity difficulty now so I will need to upgrade everything again which means back to "Awesome" planet scanning
DLC tip for Bioware
Also I feel like ME2 lacks an Exchange place or a bank where you can convert one type of mineral to another or credits, or credits to minerals , At one point I had almost no credits like 30K because I spent it on upgrades in stores but I had plenty of minerals