Thats the conclusion I have come to It feels small. 
 
The two reasons for this are down to general space exploration and and the locations you can explore. 
 
Simply Put while many many many things about the mako were a pain in the behind it allowed you to traverse these large alien landscapes, admitedly 
They were quite uniform in appearence but they added hugely to the games sense of scale. 
 
This was also most definatly the case with the Citadel in ME 1 it's large open areas which you could run around to your hearts content plus large number of sub areas 
gave a real sense of huge scale. in comparison ME 2's citadel is tiny consisting of one 3 story Ward and a Presidium    that consists of one Room! 
 
It was initally my hope that omega station would turn out to be an effective replacement at least in providing a flow of quests but I had picked the place clean in no time at all.
  
The full open (explorable)area of omega is a fraction of the size of the Me 1's citadel. 
 
Illium and the Krogan Home world are no better. 
 
whats appears to have happened is that Me 2 has traded 1 huge hub (citadel) and a number of smaller ones (Novaria Feros) for four small ones 
(Omega Illium Tochanka mini citadel) and combined with the new and frankly awfull planet exploration (survey) system has in my mind killed Me 1's feeling 
scale almost entirely which by extention very badly effects the feeling the game tries to instill in you the player of a battle/story with huge intergalactic stakes. 
 
Somthing ME 1 does better then pretty much any game out there.   
 
This is made even worse by the the actual missions and story of ME 2 itself 
 
In ME 1 you spent alot more time fighting the geth and persuing Saren either in the game's missions or story then you do chasing the collectors in ME 2. 
 
If nothing else this means I had personaly built up alot more animosity towards Saren and the Geth by the end of the ME 1 then 
then I ever did with the collectors in ME 2. 
 
The recruitment and loyalty missions take a large chunk of game time and while they are a nice idea they are not properly implimented and clearly eat into the number of gameplay hours that could have been allocated to the main story involving the collectors. 
  
The problem with the recruitment and corisponding loyalty missions for your rag tag crew is down to the number and self contained nature of those missions. 
 
Because you can do those missions in mostly any order you choose they cannot be connected to each other in any meaningful way this isolates both a character's 
associated recruitment and loyalty missions from all the others turning them into glorified side quests and because there are so may charactors the amount 
development time and by extension gameplay and story time expended on each character is limited. 
Frankly each charactor gets two short stories and thats it, it makes getting attached to the charactors next to impossible in my mind the only two that stand out are the 
Salarian scientest (funny different) and Tali one two charactors back from ME 1. 
 
The fact is that there are simply to many team members to spread gameplay and story around for you to get attached to any of them which undermines  the later stages of the game hugely. effetively ME 2 is the Dirty Dozen in Space with no attachmnet to the characters one way or the other. 
which undermins the games whole  narrative. 
 
Quite frankly the story and by extension the game would have been much better if the number of characters had been cut down and there recruitment intergrated 
into the main collector mission/story 
 
Which would have allowed for a much larger main quest and given the player a better chance to become attached to the more limited cast. 
 
 
Another area were the games falls down hugely  is the invantory system which has been hugely cut down since the first game this is not a problem in itself because 
ME 1's invintory is a mess but two critical elaments associated with it are a huge problem. 
 
The first is that a major trope of RPG games has been excised completely e.g the loot drop. 
This means that the flow of new weapons and gear thats gives you a regular boost of endorphans in ME 1 the Diablo games and most notably last years  Border lands 
(a hit) is gone.  again you might think this is not that bad but when you realise what has in effect replaced it thats when you start to grate your teeth.

Upgrading your kit comes in three forms buying from vendors( not to bad)picking up the odd weapon placed in locations by the developers(not dropped by bad guys) 
in missons and doing research on the normandy (very very bad).   
 
The problem with picking up weapon upgrades in the missions is that since the weapons are not dropped as loot by dead bad guys but placed by the developers you 
can miss them and since the missions are not replayable  if you miss a weapon upgrade in a mission its gone forever. 
now this does not cut off weapon advancement at the knees as these weapons are upgrades are interchangeable and let you level up your weapons 
so If I miss one and find the next I can still upgrade my rifle from level 2 to level 3 but it does mean that missing one or more upgrades for a weapon has a glass ceiling 
effect on my firepower late game. I myself only managed to max out the sniper rifle be the end of the game. 
  
The other two Options however are both problematic. 
 
Buying weapon upgrades can be extremely expensive I myself completed the game without buying all that was available  I had grinded every quest both minor and major in the game and still did not have enough cash this would not be a huge problem by it self if it were not for the last and sadly unavoidable method of upgrading your weapons. 
 
Research on the Normandy 
The problem with this is to do research you need raw materials and they only way to get those is to do the most god awfull aspect of the game again and again and again 
The Planet survey mini game is the only realy bad addition to the core gameplay and since it is the only way to get materials to use in weapon research you have to do it 
constantly. It and I kid you not is as bad a grinding in any MMO. 
 
What makes it even worse is that  these same pool of resources also are what you use to upgrade your ship and the ship upgrades can be extremely costly in resources. 
Unfortunaly the upgrade status of your ship has a very direct impact on the late game so are not realy avoidable.  
 
This results in the player having to do a large amount  of survey Grinding which is both very time consuming and boring. 
 
This brings us back to the invantory system. 
Most reviews of the game have excused the new invantory system and romoval of loot drops as a concession to the more mass market Gears of War/Modern Warfare 
gamers out there. 
 
Quite frankly this is nonsense for the simple reason that repeatedly grinding the planet survey mingame is a unavoidable part of upgrading your weapons. 
and the boring nature of the planet survey mini game and the raw amount of time that needs to be put into it is frankly anathama to your typical mass market gamer. 
rendering Bioware's attempts at appealing to the mass market in this respect a complete waste of time. 
 
The original messy invantory system would have have been less off putting to the mass market and could have been cut down in ways to make it alot simpler to understand. It is my deep seated suspision that Bioware engineered this aspect to the game to pad out the number of game play hours in a similar fashion as nintendo did  with the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker on the Game Cube. 
 
What could have mitagated to a degree the problems with weapons and ship upgrades in ME 2 would have been the ability to sell surplus minerals to vendors for cash 
or other needed minerals and use surplus cash to buy minerals when needed.  
 
This however is not present, what is very odd about this is that there is a advertisment on one of the advertisment kiosks in the ward section of the citadel advertising 
effectivly a pawn shop that will "pay money for minerals" yet no vender exists in game. somone in Bioware clearly thought of this but it has not been implamented.   
This is particularly annyoing when you can end up with a large surplus of minerals that you don't need but can't do anyting with them yet are low on cash or another mineral.
 
 
The game's graphics have been updated resulting in a nicer looking game and the elimination of various glitches that affected  ME 1.
 
The main 3rd person combat has been markedly improved over the first game but is still mostly standerd by late 2009 early 2010 standards 
Both character clases and Biotics have been refined again this is evolution rather then revolution. 
These gamplay gains are effectly nagated by the very poor planet survey mini game and the amount of time the game forces you to spend on it.
 
 
Mass Effect 2 may come on two disks but it's story is simply not nearly as good as Mass Effect 1's and particularly as an rpg this hurts the game alot.
The game feels markedly smaller in scale then the first one resulting in a distinct lack of the first games epic feel. 
The attempt to fix the invantory system has resulted in a much worse overall alternative and the exact same goes for the mako. 
 
 
Anyone who has taken the time to read this review may be wondering why it differs so much from the Pro's point of view both on this site and else were. 
 
My view on this is that Mass Effect 2 has the advantage that most people reviewing this game played the first one and loved it and rightly so and this has bled over 
into their reviews of the game I too loved the first one and felt giddy playing ME 2 at the begining and thought it was fantastic and make no mistake dispite what I have said above its a good game the problem is even taking the good improvments into account Mass effect 2 simply is not as good a game as mass effect 1 
by any definition it is a solid 7 out of 10 game but it is most definatly not a 10 out of 10 contender for game of the year that the game press thinks it is and I beleive if they had the time to play the game in a more relaxed manner and then chew the cud on it for a day or two before reviewing it as I have  I beleive the reviews may have been quite different.
   

   
Thats the conclusion I have come to It feels small. 
 
The two reasons for this are down to general space exploration and and the locations you can explore. 
 
Simply Put while many many many things about the mako were a pain in the behind it allowed you to traverse these large alien landscapes, admitedly 
They were quite uniform in appearence but they added hugely to the games sense of scale. 
 
This was also most definatly the case with the Citadel in ME 1 it's large open areas which you could run around to your hearts content plus large number of sub areas 
gave a real sense of huge scale. in comparison ME 2's citadel is tiny consisting of one 3 story Ward and a Presidium    that consists of one Room! 
 
It was initally my hope that omega station would turn out to be an effective replacement at least in providing a flow of quests but I had picked the place clean in no time at all.
  
The full open (explorable)area of omega is a fraction of the size of the Me 1's citadel. 
 
Illium and the Krogan Home world are no better. 
 
whats appears to have happened is that Me 2 has traded 1 huge hub (citadel) and a number of smaller ones (Novaria Feros) for four small ones 
(Omega Illium Tochanka mini citadel) and combined with the new and frankly awfull planet exploration (survey) system has in my mind killed Me 1's feeling 
scale almost entirely which by extention very badly effects the feeling the game tries to instill in you the player of a battle/story with huge intergalactic stakes. 
 
Somthing ME 1 does better then pretty much any game out there.   
 
This is made even worse by the the actual missions and story of ME 2 itself 
 
In ME 1 you spent alot more time fighting the geth and persuing Saren either in the game's missions or story then you do chasing the collectors in ME 2. 
 
If nothing else this means I had personaly built up alot more animosity towards Saren and the Geth by the end of the ME 1 then 
then I ever did with the collectors in ME 2. 
 
The recruitment and loyalty missions take a large chunk of game time and while they are a nice idea they are not properly implimented and clearly eat into the number of gameplay hours that could have been allocated to the main story involving the collectors. 
  
The problem with the recruitment and corisponding loyalty missions for your rag tag crew is down to the number and self contained nature of those missions. 
 
Because you can do those missions in mostly any order you choose they cannot be connected to each other in any meaningful way this isolates both a character's 
associated recruitment and loyalty missions from all the others turning them into glorified side quests and because there are so may charactors the amount 
development time and by extension gameplay and story time expended on each character is limited. 
Frankly each charactor gets two short stories and thats it, it makes getting attached to the charactors next to impossible in my mind the only two that stand out are the 
Salarian scientest (funny different) and Tali one two charactors back from ME 1. 
 
The fact is that there are simply to many team members to spread gameplay and story around for you to get attached to any of them which undermines  the later stages of the game hugely. effetively ME 2 is the Dirty Dozen in Space with no attachmnet to the characters one way or the other. 
which undermins the games whole  narrative. 
 
Quite frankly the story and by extension the game would have been much better if the number of characters had been cut down and there recruitment intergrated 
into the main collector mission/story 
 
Which would have allowed for a much larger main quest and given the player a better chance to become attached to the more limited cast. 
 
 
Another area were the games falls down hugely  is the invantory system which has been hugely cut down since the first game this is not a problem in itself because 
ME 1's invintory is a mess but two critical elaments associated with it are a huge problem. 
 
The first is that a major trope of RPG games has been excised completely e.g the loot drop. 
This means that the flow of new weapons and gear thats gives you a regular boost of endorphans in ME 1 the Diablo games and most notably last years  Border lands 
(a hit) is gone.  again you might think this is not that bad but when you realise what has in effect replaced it thats when you start to grate your teeth.

Upgrading your kit comes in three forms buying from vendors( not to bad)picking up the odd weapon placed in locations by the developers(not dropped by bad guys) 
in missons and doing research on the normandy (very very bad).   
 
The problem with picking up weapon upgrades in the missions is that since the weapons are not dropped as loot by dead bad guys but placed by the developers you 
can miss them and since the missions are not replayable  if you miss a weapon upgrade in a mission its gone forever. 
now this does not cut off weapon advancement at the knees as these weapons are upgrades are interchangeable and let you level up your weapons 
so If I miss one and find the next I can still upgrade my rifle from level 2 to level 3 but it does mean that missing one or more upgrades for a weapon has a glass ceiling 
effect on my firepower late game. I myself only managed to max out the sniper rifle be the end of the game. 
  
The other two Options however are both problematic. 
 
Buying weapon upgrades can be extremely expensive I myself completed the game without buying all that was available  I had grinded every quest both minor and major in the game and still did not have enough cash this would not be a huge problem by it self if it were not for the last and sadly unavoidable method of upgrading your weapons. 
 
Research on the Normandy 
The problem with this is to do research you need raw materials and they only way to get those is to do the most god awfull aspect of the game again and again and again 
The Planet survey mini game is the only realy bad addition to the core gameplay and since it is the only way to get materials to use in weapon research you have to do it 
constantly. It and I kid you not is as bad a grinding in any MMO. 
 
What makes it even worse is that  these same pool of resources also are what you use to upgrade your ship and the ship upgrades can be extremely costly in resources. 
Unfortunaly the upgrade status of your ship has a very direct impact on the late game so are not realy avoidable.  
 
This results in the player having to do a large amount  of survey Grinding which is both very time consuming and boring. 
 
This brings us back to the invantory system. 
Most reviews of the game have excused the new invantory system and romoval of loot drops as a concession to the more mass market Gears of War/Modern Warfare 
gamers out there. 
 
Quite frankly this is nonsense for the simple reason that repeatedly grinding the planet survey mingame is a unavoidable part of upgrading your weapons. 
and the boring nature of the planet survey mini game and the raw amount of time that needs to be put into it is frankly anathama to your typical mass market gamer. 
rendering Bioware's attempts at appealing to the mass market in this respect a complete waste of time. 
 
The original messy invantory system would have have been less off putting to the mass market and could have been cut down in ways to make it alot simpler to understand. It is my deep seated suspision that Bioware engineered this aspect to the game to pad out the number of game play hours in a similar fashion as nintendo did  with the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker on the Game Cube. 
 
What could have mitagated to a degree the problems with weapons and ship upgrades in ME 2 would have been the ability to sell surplus minerals to vendors for cash 
or other needed minerals and use surplus cash to buy minerals when needed.  
 
This however is not present, what is very odd about this is that there is a advertisment on one of the advertisment kiosks in the ward section of the citadel advertising 
effectivly a pawn shop that will "pay money for minerals" yet no vender exists in game. somone in Bioware clearly thought of this but it has not been implamented.   
This is particularly annyoing when you can end up with a large surplus of minerals that you don't need but can't do anyting with them yet are low on cash or another mineral.
 
 
The game's graphics have been updated resulting in a nicer looking game and the elimination of various glitches that affected  ME 1.
 
The main 3rd person combat has been markedly improved over the first game but is still mostly standerd by late 2009 early 2010 standards 
Both character clases and Biotics have been refined again this is evolution rather then revolution. 
These gamplay gains are effectly nagated by the very poor planet survey mini game and the amount of time the game forces you to spend on it.
 
 
Mass Effect 2 may come on two disks but it's story is simply not nearly as good as Mass Effect 1's and particularly as an rpg this hurts the game alot.
The game feels markedly smaller in scale then the first one resulting in a distinct lack of the first games epic feel. 
The attempt to fix the invantory system has resulted in a much worse overall alternative and the exact same goes for the mako. 
 
 
Anyone who has taken the time to read this review may be wondering why it differs so much from the Pro's point of view both on this site and else were. 
 
My view on this is that Mass Effect 2 has the advantage that most people reviewing this game played the first one and loved it and rightly so and this has bled over 
into their reviews of the game I too loved the first one and felt giddy playing ME 2 at the begining and thought it was fantastic and make no mistake dispite what I have said above its a good game the problem is even taking the good improvments into account Mass effect 2 simply is not as good a game as mass effect 1 
by any definition it is a solid 7 out of 10 game but it is most definatly not a 10 out of 10 contender for game of the year that the game press thinks it is and I beleive if they had the time to play the game in a more relaxed manner and then chew the cud on it for a day or two before reviewing it as I have  I beleive the reviews may have been quite different.
   

While I didn't read all of this (suggestion: this looks like enough to justify it being a review. Just trim it down a bit), I'll give my thoughts on it feeling "small". 
 
I think Bioware went for the same thing Lionhead went for in Fable 2: they wanted it to feel more personal. Before Mass Effect 2, I didn't think a game could pull off that personal feel. Fable 2 failed at it, in my opinion. It really only felt smaller and less (I hate to use this word) epic then the original. It was smaller in scope and suffered for it.

Bioware succeeded, in my opinion, in making it more personal and I honestly enjoyed the game more because of it. Everything; from the new inventory system, loyalty system, the new Normandy, the Suicide Mission, and the new way exploration quests work; it all was smaller in scope, sure, but it felt better and helped the player feel more attached to the univerese, your squadmates, and to Shepard himself.  
 
Again, this is all opinion, but I think Bioware accomplished what they set out to do and it is honestly one of my favorite gaming experiences ever and a worthy contender for game of the year.

Fix your failgraphs, and maybe I'll read it.

I think they should have spent more time making the cities and the Citadel bigger and better instead of throwing in more and more planets for the stupid scanning minigame.

That post looks intimidating.

I agree somewhat, the main story with the Collectors was actually quite short compared to the amount of time you spend on your recruits.  A lot of your argument is that they've gone away from RPG norms and are leaning more towards a 3PS with solid dialog.  I never disliked the Mako sequences of the first game, then again the controls for it on PC were a lot better than what I hear of the xbox ones.
 
Yes it does feel a lot smaller, but its smaller and more interesting.  Not the best comparison but I'll say its like Oblivion to Fallout 3.  The world is much smaller, but far more varied and detailed.  Some of the RPG elements were cut down and refined (not as much as ME2 granted) but in the end the game felt better for it.
 
Mass Effect 2 is more a story heavy shooter than an RPG, and I'm not complaining.

 
Inventory
 
I disagree with most of this but obviously that is my opinion.
 
From a story perspective, it is the second act, it had to be more focused, it had to introduce us to the team, and the enemies, as well as prepare us for what is to come. I found the diversity in ME2 to trump ME1 in just about every way. The worlds were all different, they didn't use the same dungeon over and over. The irritating things about the first, such as driving around numerous squares looking for loot that had little use, or minerals that had no use other than a fetch quest were replaced. In and out extraction, and a simple scanning mechanism that isn't nearly as time consuming as most folks seem to think were added allowing for more details to be added to the side missions and landings. The character classes were diversified making for, again in my opinion, more interest in multiple play throughs. Furthermore the characters, story telling, cinematography, dialogue tree, combat, and sheer amount of outcomes have all been improved. No game is perfect but IMO no game in recent memory has come as close as Mass Effect 2. After playing ME2 I have little interest in ever revisiting ME1. This once again proves that opinions are awesome, and game reviews don't always work for you. Another perfect example of this is the fact i think GTA4 is a steaming pile of garbage, that neither tells a good story, or is fun to play...yet its the highest rated game this generation.

Yeah this is nothing new. It's simply the kind of RPG that Bioware has been making ever since KOTOR. Relatively small spaces and mostly corridor style gameplay. Personally I like it.

Anybody who actually read* that atrocious excuse for writing, can you please sum up what it says?

If it feels too small i can forward you a few emails i got for meds that can fix that problem.... or so they say.

This game is about the characters. The journey to get them, and the journies you have with them. Being able to revisit those places would make them not as special when reminiscing about their respective recruitment missions. 
 
BTW, Way too long. You are really going on a exaggerating about something which isn't that big of a deal.

Yeah I felt the game was allot shorter and less intresting storywise.
 
However, I feel I could sum up my feeling as "Refinement over size", as in the game generally plays better but is allot smaller as a result.
 
Though don't forget we have the Hammerhead Tank DLC coming someday.

"This game is about the characters. The journey to get them, and the journies you have with them. Being able to revisit those places would make them not as special when reminiscing about their respective recruitment missions.  BTW, Way too long. You are really going on a exaggerating about something which isn't that big of a deal. "

The loyalty missions should be sidequests ( as they where in ME1 ).
Alongside that whould've been way more collectors missions. The merc groups felt like the biggest enemy to me, instead of the collectors who are supposed to be the major threat. You only fight the collectors like 3 times? Not enough to actually fear or want to hate/hunt them.

"The loyalty missions should be sidequests ( as they where in ME1 ). Alongside that whould've been way more collectors missions. The merc groups felt like the biggest enemy to me, instead of the collectors who are supposed to be the major threat. You only fight the collectors like 3 times? Not enough to actually fear or want to hate/hunt them. "

I take your point that the reduced size of the Citadel undermines the sense of scale a little. (Although I would be against simply spacing things out for the sake of it, there would need to be real content to fill any extra space).  
 
I completely disagree with you on the story. I feel the loyalty missions (which are optional) give the characters much needed depth that the recruitment missions alone don't quite manage.  It might help if you approached it like a sci-fi show such as Babylon 5: There would be plenty of 'Sheridan episodes' or 'Londo episodes’ that didn’t directly impact the main story, but they added depth to the characters which made you care about them when the big stuff culminates. (see my blog from earlier today:   

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/finmon/mass-effect-2-dlc-could-have-great-potential-heres-hoping/30-38057/    )

Put it this way, did you really care that you were sending Kaidan off to his death in ME1?

As for the Collectors, sometimes less is more. I think it was great that they teased the collectors in the prologue, but you don’t fight them till much later. For me, the Geth had lost a lot of novelty by the end of ME1, but the Collector fights are so occasional that it feels important when you run in to them.

I don't think sweeping, wide-open vistas with almost nothing to do make a game "big" or "small".  
 
Too many of the worlds in ME 1 were boring.  Now, I was one of those weirdos who *liked* the Mako (I also played on a PC where the controls for it were better), but I sure didn't spend a ton of time exploring random planets. Instead, I looked at faqs and picked the most interesting places to visit. I feel ME 2 has kind of done that for me. 
 
I also think ME 2 benefits from the way it draws me back to familiar locales again and again. For example, Miranda, Garrus and Thane's loyalty missions bringing you back to a place you've already been. 
 
Too often in ME 1 I felt like I visited a place, and never had a reason to go back. 

On topics of places such as Zakera ward being too small and Presidium  being all Anderson's room only, I did feel the Zakera ward was very atmospheric in places. Kind of what I'd expect, the steaming plants at one side, being able to see the fast transit vehicles and signs saying "People who jump will hit the windows" lol and the screens all over the place.

i was still abit upset not to get more "shadow broker" story, i was convinced the Liara thing was really gonna open up :(

"

I take your point that the reduced size of the Citadel undermines the sense of scale a little. (Although I would be against simply spacing things out for the sake of it, there would need to be real content to fill any extra space).  
 
I completely disagree with you on the story. I feel the loyalty missions (which are optional) give the characters much needed depth that the recruitment missions alone don't quite manage.  It might help if you approached it like a sci-fi show such as Babylon 5: There would be plenty of 'Sheridan episodes' or 'Londo episodes’ that didn’t directly impact the main story, but they added depth to the characters which made you care about them when the big stuff culminates. (see my blog from earlier today:   

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/finmon/mass-effect-2-dlc-could-have-great-potential-heres-hoping/30-38057/    )

Put it this way, did you really care that you were sending Kaidan off to his death in ME1?

As for the Collectors, sometimes less is more. I think it was great that they teased the collectors in the prologue, but you don’t fight them till much later. For me, the Geth had lost a lot of novelty by the end of ME1, but the Collector fights are so occasional that it feels important when you run in to them.

   

"

" effetively ME 2 is the Dirty Dozen in Space "

I think you do have some good points regarding the number of characters and limited time spent on the main storyline; however, I enjoyed each character's backstory/loyalty missions immensely.  As the second game in the series, introducing so many characters works as a viable method of expanding the cannon of the Mass Effect universe (we never even knew of Drells before Thane).  In the final installment, I would prefer Bioware to force the player to pair down the number of team members so that only the player's favorites remain (maybe six) and the main storyline (end game) can be fleshed out.   
 
I also believe the hubs could've been a bit bigger for non-combat exploration.
 
I do not miss the Mako.  
 
Planet scanning isn't that bad.  I like finding the random missions, but it could take up a bit less of the player's time.  Maybe a faster reticle. 
 
Selling or buying minerals would've been awesome. 
 
All in all I love the setting and world of Mass Effect.  The visuals, voice work and ambiance completely suck me in.  For me it is the most immersive experience I've had with a series/game.  At this point I just have to wait for the third installment!

If the loyalty missions were sidequests, people would be less inclined to complete them before the end of the game - and we all know how that would turn out. 
 
They're also arguably the best parts of the game. Heh.

@Dafub said:

1 Kaiden survived my ME 1 game so I'm still stuck with the ass sigh. 2 everyone hates Kaiden and I mean everyone.  3 The Babylon 5 analogy is not worth the webspace its written on, Why you may ask?    because any Babylon 5 episode lasts 45 minutes which means Sheridan or londo or any other character in any such episode gets    45 minutes of story time in such episodes of which there are many across B5's 5 seasons.     No character on your team gets that much pure story time in the game counting both recruitment loyalty missions and conversations on the Normandy.  Imagine if you deleted  Samara ( who after I recruited her felt like just another biotic character) took all that story and game time and added it to Tali's Loyalty Quest effectivly more than doubling your time in the Migrant fleet.  This could also be applied to any team member in the game the amount of team member story is simply to small per character for you to feel a significant connection to them. Mordin stands out because he is funny and thats it.  4 While the less is more argument for the collectors does make sense by itself putting it into the overall context of the game it falls flat.  This is because the Collector missions and story sequences represent the biggest concentration of missions and story that are truely interconnected to each other in the game and there are correct me if I'm wrong 5 of them! the first one being the investigation of a colony post attack(no collectors). and the 4th being the search of the dead reaper(again no collectors). All other quests/story sections are either single mission only or recruit/loyalty missions combos which are basicaly two quest/story long arcs thats it.  It makes the game and the story feel short/small it as simple as that.  Axing Samara and thane as two examples and realocating their missions to the main quest would almost doubled its size!  If you don't want more collectors then have them use a proxy like the Vorcha which they do in mordin's recruitment quest!  "

ok.  
 
1 and 2: you simply ignored my point rather than addressing it. - There is a reason we dont particularly care about Kaiden, we are given no reason to invest in him. Kaiden's backstory of his tough childhood growing up as a biotic is only revealed if you go to the trouble of talking to him. Even then, you are never really involved in his issues and there is no reward for taking the trouble to find out that stuff.  
 
3. You misunderstand the analogy. I wasnt comparing the game directly to B5 in terms of quality, I was highlighting the value of taking the time to develop characters. I dont understand your inference that not enough time was put in to the character development in ME2 - Every character was given substantially more depth than any character in ME1.  
 
Moreover, in ME1 character stuff was revealed through TONS OF EXPOSITION:   eg.  "So Wrex, tell me about yourself" "Blah blah blah my life history". ME2 makes the effort to reveal the characters through these subplots in a much more organic way.  
 
Comparing the minutes devoted to characters in ME2 to B5 is absurd, you should be making the direct comparisons to ME1 (which you hold up as being superior in this area).  
 
Also, may I ask what your game-clock on ME2 reads? Be honest...

I like how Bioware did it, more planets, but smaller spaces. Finally, something besides a Beginning, an Ending and 4 random places to visit.

Also, having smaller and more confined spaces actually gave BioWare the ability to flesh out and detail each area. That's why we don't have the same "clear out generic building A" side missions, like ME1.
 
Would you rather have a gigantic box with a few candies in it, or a smaller medium sized box full of candy?

"

@Dafub said:

1 Kaiden survived my ME 1 game so I'm still stuck with the ass sigh. 2 everyone hates Kaiden and I mean everyone.  3 The Babylon 5 analogy is not worth the webspace its written on, Why you may ask?    because any Babylon 5 episode lasts 45 minutes which means Sheridan or londo or any other character in any such episode gets    45 minutes of story time in such episodes of which there are many across B5's 5 seasons.     No character on your team gets that much pure story time in the game counting both recruitment loyalty missions and conversations on the Normandy.  Imagine if you deleted  Samara ( who after I recruited her felt like just another biotic character) took all that story and game time and added it to Tali's Loyalty Quest effectivly more than doubling your time in the Migrant fleet.  This could also be applied to any team member in the game the amount of team member story is simply to small per character for you to feel a significant connection to them. Mordin stands out because he is funny and thats it.  4 While the less is more argument for the collectors does make sense by itself putting it into the overall context of the game it falls flat.  This is because the Collector missions and story sequences represent the biggest concentration of missions and story that are truely interconnected to each other in the game and there are correct me if I'm wrong 5 of them! the first one being the investigation of a colony post attack(no collectors). and the 4th being the search of the dead reaper(again no collectors). All other quests/story sections are either single mission only or recruit/loyalty missions combos which are basicaly two quest/story long arcs thats it.  It makes the game and the story feel short/small it as simple as that.  Axing Samara and thane as two examples and realocating their missions to the main quest would almost doubled its size!  If you don't want more collectors then have them use a proxy like the Vorcha which they do in mordin's recruitment quest!  "

ok.  
 
1 and 2: you simply ignored my point rather than addressing it. - There is a reason we dont particularly care about Kaiden, we are given no reason to invest in him. Kaiden's backstory of his tough childhood growing up as a biotic is only revealed if you go to the trouble of talking to him. Even then, you are never really involved in his issues and there is no reward for taking the trouble to find out that stuff.  
 
3. You misunderstand the analogy. I wasnt comparing the game directly to B5 in terms of quality, I was highlighting the value of taking the time to develop characters. I dont understand your inference that not enough time was put in to the character development in ME2 - Every character was given substantially more depth than any character in ME1.  
 
Moreover, in ME1 character stuff was revealed through TONS OF EXPOSITION:   eg.  "So Wrex, tell me about yourself" "Blah blah blah my life history". ME2 makes the effort to reveal the characters through these subplots in a much more organic way.  
 
Comparing the minutes devoted to characters in ME2 to B5 is absurd, you should be making the direct comparisons to ME1 (which you hold up as being superior in this area).  
 
Also, may I ask what your game-clock on ME2 reads? Be honest...

"

• i never said that you brought up B5, simply that I was using it to illustrate the importance of character pieces seperate from the main story arcs, whereas you took it up as a comparison of devotion of time. 

• I contend that the ME2 example is a much more engaging and organic way of telling a story than the ME1 examples which are nearly completely made up of characters justtelling you their life story. 

• Its a bit facetious for you to say there is more talk in ME2 because there are more characters. Can you really say the presentation of characters in ME2 is more talk-heavy than ME1?   

• I only ask about hours of play because you complained about how short the game was. Do you get over 60 hours play from most of your games?

I agree with you mostly. But I think having less depth behind a lot of the characters is the pay off for having so many different characters, which is a good thing. Good stories or bad, it's simply fun to have so much variety.
 I have to admit though, it does often feel a bit hollow, but that's probably down to the neatly wrapped up loyalty missions and Bioware's fear of taking risks.

As I have said elsewhere (and some have made in this very thread), the structure of Mass Effect 2 is not that of a singular film, but of an overarching story in a season of television. Each recruiting mission could be seen as an "episode," along with their corresponding loyalty missions which help to further develop the characters. If you found the characters under developed, I can't really do anything to change to argue that position; however, I will say that each of the characters (for me, naturally) had clearly defined goals, fears and desires. They were each extremely different from the others, and their back stories revealed painful secrets.  In going through their stories, I care more about them; watching the ones that didn't make it at the end hurt because I cared about them as characters. Again, if they didn't connect with you, that is going to be a personal taste issue I think.  For me, the character I cared the least about was Jacob, but he just struck me as kinda generic and template.
 
As far as the design of the locations, I think that the decision BioWare made to have smaller, more detailed hubs rather than expansive but mostly empty worlds was ultimately a good one. While the original game did have a sense of vastness to it that this game lacks due to the changes in stage and mission structure, I also think that same vastness caused the original game to become a bit monotonous at times. For example, planet scanning is boring (no argument there) but I can also do it for short bursts over time between missions, collecting some resources to add to the ones I pick up in mission, to buy all the necessary upgrades for my mission. By comparison, each "assignment" in ME1 always felt like a relatively pointless choir, with little reward other than some XP and possibly a neat weapon or armor that may or may not help the way I'm playing the game to begin with. There were a handful that had memorable moments, most memorably the rogue AI on Luna, but ultimately they served little purpose other than grinding fodder. In some ways this does give the appropriate level of "vastness" to space, but also could become boring very quickly. By comparison, the ME2 assignments, while nothing compared to the main missions, are still enjoyable, unique and are often punctuated with interesting choices or flashes of narrative; the continue the TV series analogy, they would be webisodes: not enough meat to fill out a full-fledged episode, but a little extra for hardcore fans.