I don't like space operas, and I'm not too fond of RPGs, but I love Mass Effect 2.
I really had the same attitude throughout the first few minutes of playing. I didn't know what was going on, who was who, but I thought of it as an above-average third-person shooter. So I played through the intro, where as all of you probably know, Commander Shepard "dies" only to get brought back to life by Cerberus. I created my character as a "soldier" class, since I didn't know what the hell biotics were back then. There wasn't really that much to judge on in the first part of the game, and its at the mission at Freedom's Progress where I started getting interested in the combat of the game.
I quickly noticed how convenient the controls were, especially with how easy it was to move from cover to cover, which helped out a lot. I also quickly grew accustomed to the "rpg menu", where you can command your squad mates and use your powers. I know this isn't much of an RPG element, yet it was enough to turn a simple cover-based shooter into a deep RPG hybrid. Now, I've noticed many people complaining about how Bioware reduced the RPG elements in the second game, however, the change has been for the better for me. It allowed me to pick up and play the game without much knowledge about how to use the RPG elements. In fact, I really didn't need to use them at all, however, I found myself using them more and more frequently. I actually started manually upgrading my character, thinking carefully about what powers I need to strengthen the most. When playing through the game on hardcore, I found the HUD screen especially useful. It didn't make a complete RPG fan out of me, but it definitely made me branch out from my usual game selection.
Another thing that didn't take long for me to catch on to was the story. I didn't know any of the characters, and I had a basic understanding of what happened in the first game, yet I quickly started caring deeply about story in the game. I would continue playing the game through sleepiness and eye fatigue just to know what would happen next. The characters, especially the squad mates, were all interesting and each had something to say to me when I would stop by to see them, and it was kind of saddening when they ran out of dialogue. Luckily you have the loyalty missions to get to know them a little better. They are all varied and interesting, and have each character's story tied into them that help explain what they are trying to accomplish and why they joined the character on their "Suicide Mission".
This brings me to my next praise for the game, its final mission, dubbed the "Suicide Mission". Without giving much away, this is your final assault on the Collectors, a mysterious alien race and the main antagonistic force in the game. It is meant to be a very suspenseful part of the game, and only when I got to the ending cutscene did I notice how much my hands were shaking. You have to pick characters to do specific jobs in the mission, and if you have simple logic, the choices shouldn't be too hard. Now, if you read about the game, you've probably heard that you and your squad mates can permanently die in the game, however, you would have to try pretty hard to have your character not survive. On my first playthrough, two of my characters died, so I played through the entire game all over, this time being the "Vanguard" class, and managed to save everyone the second time.
The second time I played through the game I tried to play it as differently as I could from the first time. There are moral choices in the game, but isn't a straight up black and white, good and evil type thing. Its been described as "shades of grey". You can either be a morally conscious hero with "Paragon" dialouge choices, or a stop-at-nothing badass with "Renegade" choices. The first time I played through, I kind of picked what I wanted, and with me not playing through the first game to help me out with these points, I found myself short of both by the end of the game, resulting in the death of the 2 squad mates I mentioned earlier. The second time I played through I tried to be the "nice guy" and picked mostly paragon choices. This got me enough to do much more in the game, and resulted ultimately in everyone surviving in my crew. However, I was curious as to what would happen if I played the Renegade choices, which resulted in me playing through the campaign once again.
So all in all, despite a few annoying bugs and glitches, it was a near perfect experience. It was a deep, highly addictive, and an extremely immersive experience. Only now have I noticed that I realized that I didn't mention anything about mapping, graphics, or voice acting, like I would usually do in a review. Instead I talked about the experience as a whole, and that's how I know the game is a true success. Did I mention that the soundtrack is amazing as well? Go listen for yourself, Jack Wall has not let us down! I played through the game 3 times, but I still found myself with a "mass shortage" of the Mass Effect Universe. I bought the 1st game, and I even bought the books. I can't wait for Mass Effect 3!