Well, not only have I played it, but I've survived the suicide mission. While ME2 does live up to my expectations, it isn't the world shaking title that ME1 was. The combat is improved and the side missions are far more enjoyable. Still, the reason I love Mass Effect is because of the story, and while other people might have differing opinions, Mass Effect 2 does not live up to the story of the original. I wouldn't go so far as to call it bad, but the original Mass Effect redefined what people thought of video game story telling. This game is happy to just be one in the crowd of Sci-Fi stories.
The story feels a little thrown together from the beginning. In what I believe to be an attempt at believability, the writers created the most unbelievable introduction. I know it must have been difficult to come up with a situation the would have put either the Paragon people loving Shepard or the distrusting mission focused Renegade Shepard in the same spot. What they managed to come up with might be acceptable for some people, but personally, I hate it.
Once everything gets going the story is considerably easier to accept. You spend your time trying to form a team of specially trained operatives to take with you on one more suicide mission to stop the Reapers. Collecting team members makes up half of the main missions, while getting those team members loyal makes up the other half. Since their are ten possible team members, this process ends up being considerably longer and more involved than the story of ME1.
Some things still irk me though. One major one is that if you play Renegade, like I do, your character slowly become more and more disfigured until you end up looking like a frikk'n terminator. If you play Paragon your facial scars heal on their own. So, while glowing red eyes and patchy metal skin might be cool while you're shooting people who are in your way, or maybe throwing them out windows, it looks absolutely stupid while you're holding normal conversations. Since normal conversations make up the vast majority of the game, it will get to the point where its intolerable. Eventually you can get rid of your scars, but you have to upgrade the Medical Facilities and it is pretty expensive. For a game that prides itself with the added customization, you would think they would make this scaring optional as well. Besides me not wanting all of it (some of it is alright) who's to say that I don't want the scars playing Paragon? Its just stupid.
Another issue I had personally was with Liara T'soni. She's back in some regard, they have her working with the Shadow Broker. Really, its just one more weak point in the story. I would have liked to have continued our relationship from the previous game. However, the writers decided that would not be possible, so our interactions came down to her telling me about her current work and that she's too busy to even consider being with me again... ever. In fact, none of the love interest from the first game can be recruited or have a continued relationship. The objective is to push you into a relationship with one of your new options, but the way its done feels harsh, limiting, and outright unpleasant.
Obviously I'm being very nit-picky though. If I hadn't been such a freak about the first Mass Effect, none of this stuff would bother me. The game is very enjoyable with tons of content and some nice new Characters. The combat is 100% better and the game feels more action packed, but yet still familiar. You'll make some more tough choices and see the results of the choices you made earlier in ME1. I can't say this game blew my mind like ME1 did, but its hard to top something so original. I can say that I enjoyed the many sleepless hours I spent playing the game over the past 3 days and will probably pick it up again at some point.
... Now to begin the long wait for ME3. Anyone seen any new info? :P