I feel sorry for anyone who didnt enjoy this masterpiece. 

Just finished my fifth play through of the game utilizing the Firepower pack and it is still a damn fun game. I'm now eagerly looking forward to the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC.

This. 85 is much more fair score for this game than all the massive wave of 10s it's getting. I get a feeling like most reviewers never spent  more than few hours for playing it so they never noticed problems.

Story as you say is bad and ending is some kind of sick joke.

Graphics - i don't fully agree as imho they were quite good considering game is using UE3.

On gameplay yeah too few guns, stupidity of reintroducing ammo and magazines back into game which didn't have them previously , armor was completly pointless (and you had helmet during cutscenes and talks which was laughtable). Skills yeah they were bad, and they removed all the need to think when developing character since yu could get all of them anyway.

Also planet scanning is retarted - first if anyone with probe can harvest minerals how the hell there are any minerals left in systems inhabbited for hundreds of years. Second what's the point for shipyards and factories in ME universe when ship lab can put together cutting edge weapons from basic minerals.

I also fully agree on small maps and linearity of missions. And why the hell there's only like 2 missions where you don't shoot hordes of enemies?

It's called insanity for a reason. It's supposed to be very hard - and the AI in my game wasn't too bad. Though I only plan on beating Insanity before Mass Effect 3 is out to refresh myself on things..

Either way most scores were based on one play through at default settings. The game was a master piece and probably my favorite WRPG of all time behind Fallout 1/2.

Though I guess it is nice to see some ME2 hate with an attempt at giving valid reasoning.

The original Mass Effect is the best in the series by a longshot. Here is why I think Mass Effect 2 is vastly overrated:

1. Lack of Memorable Bosses

Besides a two-bit, giant Terminator knockoff as the end boss, what boss battles are there? Collector tanks with reinforcements that Harbinger takes possession of. Wow...Mass Effect had Benezia, the Thorian, and Saren. Mass Effect 2 falls into the new school realm of boss fights where they are unchallenging battle situations with enemy reniforcements. Lazy and completely unoriginal.

2. The Collectors

 Anyone miss the Geth as the enemy? I sure as hell do. Instead we get Stewie head, bipedal insects who have about 3 varieties at most and are not very challenging.

3. One Big Recruitment

Anyone besides me feel that Mass Effect2 is nothing more than one long recruitment? Where is the beef? Oh, the devs must have thought we would find it in Zaeed's quest. Nope, didn't find anything besides vegetarian patties that have me craving and asking where is the beef? I didn't get it.

4. Jacob, Jack and Thane

Ugggh...This is more a personal critique than any. Jacob is a tool who would lemming himself off a cliff for Shepard. No individual initiative whatsoever. Just another soldier blinded by loyalty to who is giving the orders. Jack is a complete whacko and has an incredibly pathetic Biotic repertoire for who the Illusive Man describes as one of the galaxie's most powerful biotics. If Jack is so powerful, then how come I found Miranda on my team 90% of the time during my 4 playthroughs, while I put Jack on my team 10% of the time?The bottom line why I do not like Jack is that she "does not bat for the other team." Jack has been locked up half her life and never felt the urge to munch a rug? Unbelievable, my Renegade Shepard really wanted some of that Sinead O' Connor tuna, but you had to go and make Jack say "I don't bat for the other team."

Thane deserves his own paragraph because he is a fish and a cold, soon to be dead one at that. Thane is a cold-hearted, killer who has the audacity to justify his life of killing hiding behind some Bushido-esque code. Save me the self-loathing Thane! Accept yourself for the killer you are and revel in it. Nothing is more pathetic than an assassin who waxes poetic with remorse. You were a killer, are a killer and always will be a killer. Please take some enjoyment in it and live for it. No one wants to hear your "I feel regret for..." lectures, shut up and put that scope to your eye!

mass effect 2 is quite possibly the best game released this year.

i couldn't care less about someone else's opinion. 

Mass Effect 2 is indeed worse than ME1 and if it wasn't for the connection to ME1 it wouldn't have been "kinda good" and it would have been a lot more "meh, not worth the money" type of game.

The story sucked really hard. I can sum up the story in 3 points. Gather people, walk into a trap, get a key, kill Collectors. That's it and that's all that happens. Thankfully the character development is stellar, but it is not near enough to fix the absolutely shitty story.

While the AI blew chunks there is a combination which is absolutely broken. Get Garrus/Legion/Thane and give them snipers. They never run out of ammo, always hit their targets, and just generally rape anything at any time on any dificulty setting. All I had to do at one point was just hide and save my ammo and let the other 2 completely wipe the floor with any enemies.

Also the pacig sucked, jsut as a mission you went on got exciting and you got pumped up, it ended.

The RPG elements were absolute shit. I mean, they were as pathetic as pathetic RPG elements can get. It was jsut embarassing.

The shooting elements were also weak. What the hell is up with a total of a few guns, all of which do just about the exact same thing?

Scanning is far far far worse than the Mako.

In the end it was an RPG/shooter with horrible RPG elements, poor shooter elements, and a pisspoor story. Good thing it tied up with the first one so well for it to get 10 more points to bring it up to 80-ish.