@czott - Fair enough. It's the term "watered down" that undermines what you were saying, is all. There has to be a previously existing system for it to have been watered down, and a hypothetical previously existing system isn't enough to warrant the word-usage. The game could have had deeper RPG elements, but I've admitted that.
And yet as you say, the game is still great. That's because the shooter was the core and the RPG its support. Believe me, had they gone with a deeper RPG element, you'd have probably heard more complaints from people who particularly play shooters. Wah, it slows down the game flow, wah, menues, wah, stats. Me, I love all that, but at the same time I'm willing to give the developer the benefit of the doubt knowing that the design was deliberately geared towards a shooter, and in this sense, cutting down the RPG element benefitted the design.
Also note that a lot of what you listed as expectations for RPG elements comes from games that are purely RPG. SS2 itself was not even on par with several of the expectations you listed. There's some things that making the game a fun shooter just eliminates as possibilities here. Still, there's no doubt that they could have done more/better with regard to the RPG system.
Edit - A 9.7 hm? ...I think that's right where I'd put it. Incredible, with room for improvement.
"Whenever you find a man who says he doesn't believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later." -C.S. Lewis
"We all make choices... but in the end, our choices... make us." -Andrew Ryan, Bioshock
Prediction: Wii passes 360 in US between July - September 2008. (Wii supply will be the issue to watch, and barring any freak incidents between now and then as well.) - 6/5/08; Wow, came true even earlier. Wii is a monster.
