I loved Mass Effect 1, but was somewhat disappointed in 2 for the following reasons:
- I felt they were aiming at a younger age demographic and going for a more pure TPS, rather than a TPS/RPG hybrid. This is a matter of taste of course.
- The game lacked narrative drive and got really bogged down in the side quests.
- Too many squadmates with little to say, instead of a smaller number with more dialogue
- The Collectors were lame, uninspired enemies who you hardly ever saw; it felt like your mission was to hunt down merc groups!
- It also really annoyed me that I could not put my companions in proper armour or spacesuits for those times when, you know, they go into space!
- No meaningful upgrades to your armour and no weapon upgrades to speak of.
- No inventory or economy whatsoever!
- Shrinking universe (a side quest mission allows you to eliminate the entire Geth threat from ME1!)
- Planet scanning
- N7 missions sucked; give me the Mako (with better controls) and those stunning vistas on unexplored worlds anytime
ME2 was still a good game with some really slick presentation with great voice acting (at times), and a few interesting characters, but it felt like the soul of the first game was sacrificed to create it. I think there was a lot of missed potential - the game would have been much more interesting if Cerberus had been shown to be undoubtedly evil and they had created a compelling reason for you to join them.
Having said all this; do you think I will like ME3?