Mass Effect 2 delivers the goods but reminds you not to raise your expectations too high or you could be disappointed.
Let's get the obvious out of the way...
Mass Effect 2 is about Shepard, the Spectre space guy from Mass Effect who, again, must save the human race. Admittedly I never played the original Mass Effect which is a good thing and a bad thing. The bad is that I'm not fully connected to the story and also it leaves me wondering what to expect when I play the game. The good is I haven't been tainted by the first one so I won't unfairly love, or unfairly hate, the second one.
Another obvious point: The graphics are beautiful. I doubted the X360 could challenge the PS3 when it comes to the abilities of excluse-only titles. After seeing Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2, just two examples, I wondered if the x360 had the horsepower to make a beautiful exclusive. Mass Effect 2 is it. The graphics are crisp and fast and the textures of the characters are extremely lifelike.
The last obvious point: Audio is awesome. You probably need a nice sound system but the clean 'thuds' of some of the special character powers feels great. Additionally all of the sound overall is great.
Some good things about the game...
Conversations: They work well. I know many people complain it was better in the first ME but I never played it. I like how it works though in the second and the facial expressions and voice acting are great too. Sometimes I wonder if different convo options are really even that different since Shepard seems to mold all of his words into extremely convincing phrases, but who knows.
Characters: They're all unique and you'll appreciate having them around and you'll also find it mysterious at times as you wonder if you can really trust someone that you've grown to like.
The story: It's captivating. I never liked Halo gameplay because it was too old school run-and-gun with little strategy but I still played all of the Halo games because the story was beautiful. If a story can pull you in the the game then it's worth playing. This game has that and the musical score and cutscenes add to it.
Your mother ship: Its beautiful and you won't be bored inside it as you explore different areas and talk to different crew members. There are plenty of things to do in this state-of-the-art facility and you'll spend a lot of time here.
Epic moments: There are some moments in the game that leave you speechless. These can be shootouts or video cut-scenes but you'll have moments of feeling like you're in a movie.
So let's start nit-picking...
First of all this game is disguised well but it's linear in the end. What this means is the path is drawn out for you whether you like it or not. Sure, you can go to different planets at different times and do different side missions at different times but do not let the open-world description by many fool you. This is not Grand Theft Auto IV by any means. Once you're on a mission then there is only one path to follow and pre-scripted events to trigger. Nothing is left up to the imagination for most of the game. I can't completely label it a plain 3rd person shooter since there are RPG elements to it. Think of it as Gears of War with some life and side missions in between the missions. If you made the mistake I made of thinking this game was a modern replacement for Knights of the Old Republic II, you're very wrong.
I never quite noticed Shepard being affected by his conversational decisions. It's nice to know you can shape your character and events based on what you decide but I think people are making too much of this fact. The game generally goes along in the same direction no matter what.
The RPG elements are almost worthless. The leveling up gives very few options and you'll start to wish you could just skip this whole part of the game. There just isn't much to it and so you'll never really think about it and you'll just do it when the time comes and then move on. Admittedly it actually becomes annoying. Again, don't go expecting this game to be a replacement for Knights of the Old Republic II.
The environments are very dull. If you like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and how the environments get torn up by gunfire and papers fly everywhere and bullets riddle the walls... You won't find it here. The environments are very static. You can't interact with anything except doors and a few items that are pointed out for you. Picture Halo: ODST. There isn't much to the environments except the one or two items laid out for you to find that are always highlighted with big bright boxes so the dumbest of players can benefit from them. True, some environments have loads of people walking around and looking real but you can interact with only a few of them.
The battles are generally the same over and over again. It's some enemies behind cover and you and your buddies behind cover. The end. Like I said above there are some epic moments but usually its the same battle over and over.
The Verdict: 8.3 - Don't over-hype it in your head and you won't be disappointed. It's not a real RPG and it's lacking some details that modern games have perfected. It's fun, it's long, it's really nice looking, and it's a great story, just make sure you appreciate it for what it is and not for what you're hoping it will be.
Pros: Nice graphics and audio, conversations are actually fun, fun mothership, very well done story.
Cons: Not an RPG to the point that RPG elements are annoying, linear when it counts the most, dull environments, repetition.