Mass effect 2 is not an RPG no matter how much you try to spin it.
What is the 90% of the thing you do in the game?
Yeah, shoot people and kill them gears of war style.
Most RPGs do have majority of their gameplay involving combat, but they also have upgradability of weapons and armor, magic, strength and some type of variety in combat. For eg. Fallout: You can use melee and become a super melee man, or become a super gunman or a super grenade man, or a super laser man.
In Mass effect 2 all you can do is shoot. That cuts its "rpg" elements by a huge degree. Yes you can use some biotic powers but they are hardly of any use compared to the guns. Can you complete any level just by using biotic powers? NO. Unless you play on the lowest difficulty or something.
They could have helped the situation by making it such that there's some grinding so that you can overpower your guns or something....but no. That's not possible either, unless you go for the MOST boring loyalty missions ever. OMG, your crew wants some help in something, you go to help them shoot people as usual, the crew says thanks, /mission. As a bonus you crew member gets a new uniform. [There is an exception, of course. The bar dance side mission was interesting.]
You can only level up if you complete missions. Or so I think. There maybe some other ways but I haven't found them out yet. So its pretty much like you level up/ your enemies level up = illusionary RPG elements.
The face customizations is amazing. But the armor customization is not. Very limited.
Lets compare it to the MOST dumbed down RPG of this year, Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age 2 has classes, different classes that you can choose. Out of these classes theres more options to choose like what kind of mage/warrior/rogue you want to be. You get to really define how much strong/cunning/etc your character and your friends can become.
This is a dumbed RPG to many people. Now tell me with a straight face that Mass Effect 2 is an RPG. Character relationship doesn't make a game an RPG, since its a very small part of the game that isn't even required for the game to be finished. Nor does the branching of the story since even Heavy Rain has multiple branches in the story with different endings, its not an RPG either.
And the mineral hunting thing can hardly be considered RPG element. It can't level my character up, now can it? It is used for developing weapons and armors and stuff like that I think, and even that you get by completing levels or hacking stuff.
If Mass effect 2 is looked as an RPG, then its the most boring RPG ever. Mineral grinding/hacking stuff game. However if it is looked upon as a TPS, then its a very good game.
As another example, lets compare it to another excellent TPS, Dead Space. Dead Space is NOT an RPG, but it has nodes that can upgrade your guns. It has money that can buy better suits. It has inventory system that can store various stuff like your ammo and stuff.
It also has its own "biotic" powers like kinesis and another one whose name I forgot, but you can upgrade those with nodes as well. You can increase your HP with nodes, and the weapon upgrade is a LOT more upgradable in detail than anything in Mass effect 2.
Mass effect 2 is not an RPG. People thinking otherwise haven't played many RPGs or are just too loyal to Mass effect and think its an insult to think its not an RPG.
