People want shooters with RPG elements. Turns out Hexen 2 was actually an RPG ahead of its time instead of a shooter with RPG elements, if something like Borderlans or ME2 counts as an RPG these days.Its fine if you like that shit, just don't try and pass it off as something its not.

i agree with pretty much all of that, but its still my fave game in recent years 

I played through the game twice, and am gearing up to play it a third time when all the DLC is released, on the sole basis that the classes are all very fun and unique, and there are lots of different combinations of moral decisions you can make that affect the storyline. So I'll have to disagree with you that the game's watered-down or action-only.
 
Also, your AI partners don't immediately die if you spec them right. Like any rpg, ME2 is about min-maxing at high difficulties.

Nice list, at least you don't just say I don't like it and leave it at that.

I think that the game improved on the first in almost every way.  The thing is the first game was an RPG with shooter elements and the second one is a shooter with RPG elements.  I thought they did a fantastic job with the cover system and I would go as far to say it was the best cover system I have played.

i agree. i didn't even have a problem with the mako.

Why does it matter that its less RPG like from a gameplay stand point? RPGs have really stupid gameplay elements anyway. Mass Effect 2 is just as much story driven as ME1, it just has better gameplay and art. So what if you can get 800 different types of ammo to ignore? I think ME2's gameplay is better than gear of war, which was an absolute joke of a game. The hardest part of gears of war is fighting the walls/cover mechanic. Mass effect seems to have a better system in place, which has a similar intent.

It's a third person action adventure with some RPG elements.
 
It's not watered down, the RPG element's aren't the focus of the game.

"The game is excellent. That's all that counts. I couldn't care less what genre is does or doesn't fit into. Life's to short to dwell on such minutiae. "

" Holy shit! This guy just described Final Fantasy 13.  Wrong forum, idiot! "

I know this is wishful thinking, but for Bioware to change the formulatic "Go Planet X > Recruit Y > Bang Y x repeat 10 times", they would have totally rewrite the code for the game.  Which would mean ME3 won't happen in 2011.
 
I only hope they can make the shooting more faster and be a lil' bit more creative in level design.
 
For instance:
In Splinter Cell: Conviction, the spots where you can climb, hide behind are seamlessly integrated to the environment. It looks natural compared to ME2's "hey here's a a lot concrete slap along this pathway where i can hide behind tee-hee"
 
 
ME's greatest triumphant imo is the ability to convey to the player an entire universe solely relying on the dialouge system.