ME1 is ten times better the combat system in ME2 is so bad, so is the leveling system, i should get experience for killing nimes not just for completing missions, and skills i played ME1 as a Vangaurd so i thought i might play as a vangaurd again but the class is terrible it is hardly ever effective to use Charge because as soon as you Charge your enemy you will most likely die in 3-5 seconds, Shouckwave is only good for enemies near you and pull raley hits at a far distance. There is no good long range attacks for the Vangaurd against Bosses that are in the air like gunships or other things. In ME1 you had an arsenal of good Biotic abilites as a Vangaurd, Warp, a good barrier(the barrier in ME2 is garbage basically just like regain sheild in ME1), and many other Biotics. Also Biotics barely help at all half the enemies you have to remove their shields beforwe attacking them with biotics and by time that is done it only takes a few shots to kill them anyways.
I had already sank 8 hours into my Vangaurd before it got ridiculous in Combat and i didn't want to redo those 8 hours. So i started a Adept for my Playthrough 2 and put half an hour into it so i could play that when i finished, the Adept is so much beter compared to the Vangaurd.
Now for the cover system: If i want to switch guns why would i leave cover? the cover system is the worst thing about combat. it takes so long to get into cover that you press A too many times and leap over the cover then get shot for 3-5 seconds and die. You get into cover when trying to escape death but too early because you're holding A to sprint, and you hug an out of place wall only to get shot in the back.
The inventory system is stupid IMO i liked the ME1 inventory why would i want to only be able to upgrade my gun once or only have 2 choices for each type of gun. It was a dumb revamp choice.
Even the new charcters i diddn't feel that sense of connection with them like in ME1. I honestly thought Jacob was just a through away charcter like the guy at the start of ME1 not a charcter that stays with you. A few solid characters though sparked my interest like "Archangel" (No spoiler), Grunt, Thane, and The Salarian Doctor and Legion where characters i wanted to live not just doing it for the achievement. I hope the first 4 i named will make it to ME3 but maybe not one of them because of his "problem"
I don't know why fans and reviewers place ME2 on such a high pedistal above it's Father ME1. every revamp they did was very shoty even replacing the grenades some of the heavy weopons don't replace the grenades well. The skill balancing between clases is horible. The leveling system is horrible. The new shield/health system is horrible. Combat is horible. What do people see in this game to palce it before ME1?...
/rant onto my positive thoughts...
After all that i sill bought it at midnight and beat it by thursday night (loging in 33 hours within 3 days) to do so. I would like to know what dificulty most people played on because this might factor into their emense enjoyment, because it is hard as balls on the second highest difficulty and may skew my opion of combat. After all my hate for some new features I would still give the game a 9/10 and this is why i enjoyed the parts like Conversations, Some of the new Characters, the chance to die at the end, the plot, the continuation of story, the twists, how your original choices effect the game and how characters from the original add spice to the story, The ability to interupt conversations with Paragon or renegade actions. I can't wait for ME3 hopefully it will find the perfect medium between these games.