Okay, here's the thing. I played through Mass Effect just before I went home to my parents for christmas, I loved it, and so I'm about to order ME2 (360 version), and I was wondering how best to play it. I played the first game on easy, because I found the combat pretty rubbish, and I couldn't be bothered with it, since it was probably the last reason I had for playing the game.

But what about ME2? I still don't care for the action, I'm there for the story. But has the action been improved? Is it actually fun now? Because if the action has been improved enough to be actually fun, then I wouldn't want to put it on easy again.

So, should I play Mass Effect 2 on easy or not?

action is quite a bit better in the second one.  Very much improved.  

However, I would try playing and adjust difficulty to what you are comfortable with.  You can adjust the difficulty anytime you want to.

Play it on veteran on your first playthrough, it can be a bit difficult in some missions but otherwise, its a breeze. It plays exactly like gears of war if you want to know how Mass effect 2 plays like.

The combat has improved dramatically.  A lot smoother gameplay compared to the first game.  On normal you'll pretty much breeze through it.  On hardcore or insanity, its much harder requiring you to be a bit more tactical with using squad powers in order to bring out enemy vulnerabilities (depleting Shield,Barrier,Armor, etc.)

Also it depends if you like TPS games because thats what ME2 generally is.  If you don't, you can go on ahead and just set it on the easiest setting.

Alright, sounds like it's improved enough for me to play on normal without getting annoyed all the time.

Be sure to import your ME1 save, the "canon" ME2 for new chars makes for a dull game.

Yeah just play through it on the Normal difficulty first I would recommend.  Combat is vastly improved.

Also a few tips.

- Be sure to import your commander Shepherd from the first game.  Obviously makes it much better.

- BE SURE YOU HAVE LOYALTY with all members of your team before taking on the final mission.

- Buy all DLC.  Lair of the Shadow Broker is amazing.

I think that you made the same mistake on your first playthrough that I made on mine.  I played the game like it was Gears of Star War and focussed on the semi competent gunplay.  the second time I payed attention to using biotics, my team, and their powers and it made for a very fun experience.

But for ME2, the game is very forgiving.  You should have no problems on normal difficulty.

Mass Effect is best played on the hardest setting. That way you feel the true war from multiple angles. If you own with Vanguard you should feel like a god. I only got to play 25% of it on the 360 before mine died. I have it preordered for the PS3 so cannot wait to get reacquainted.

Oh God, thank you for saying this.  I tried to convince friends of this that just jumped in as Soldiers and then complained about the game being too shooter oriented.  : |

The higher difficulties FORCE YOU to play the game the RIGHT WAY.  Lower difficulties cause you to sloppily get through it and the nuances of the gameplay are missed.  Happened to me with the first game too but FAR more here.  You'll able to get through the game without even seeing the point of enemies having Barrier, Shield and Armor (it'll just seem like they have to be shot more) or why to use Warp, Overload or Incinerate situationally.  Your squad will just do their thing instead of you selecting them carefully and syncing their abilities to create a Warp Explosion or the wonders of the Pull/Charge and AI Hacking to conserve ammo.  And, heck, I only played through 3 times (ME1 continued Paragon Vanguard, ME1 continued Renegade Sentinel and 2nd playthrough Vanguard on Insanity) so I still have 4 classes I didn't play with (and yes, they ARE that different) as well as a female Shep.

GotY for a reason.