Yeah, it's a bit of an annoyance compared to how much the hacking minigames have been improved. But as I've said before - it's farming. Look at traditional MMO farming - it's always click button, wait, click button, wait. Dull dull dull. So I reckon it's a step up from that at least
With the speed upgrade it's better but I don't mind it that much. It appeals to my anal/OCD nature. I like finding the optimal spots to get as much as possible per probe. I wouldn't go as far to say I find it "fun" but there's definitely something about it I keep falling into when I'm exploring.

Trial and error though. Judging by most people's reaction to it, I'm guessing it won't make it into the third game

Quick question to those that have completed it.

The dossier quests, how much (percentage wish) of the game are they?, can't help but feel I am flying through the game too quickly...

Quote from danowat :

Quick question to those that have completed it.

The dossier quests, how much (percentage wish) of the game are they?, can't help but feel I am flying through the game too quickly...

By dossier you mean, help someone with their cause or mission they want to complete.

If so, they are not that long. Small areas which only take like 10-20mins to finish.

I mean the missions when you are recruiting your "team", are they a big part of the game as a whole.

Quote from danowat :

I mean the missions when you are recruiting your "team", are they a big part of the game as a whole.

Ah ok, nah I don't think they are ment to be that long. But I think they are about the same time as I said before. If you go back to ME1 when you get Liara, that mission is only longer because you need to drive the Mako to the area she is in.

So bassicly it's about 10-20 and ofc depending on what difficulty you are on

But for a %'age lol, I couldn't really say.. I don't think they are ment to take that long.. Just makes you have a team ready much more quickly. But ofc there is more to do once you have these extra guys on your team

Quote from danowat :

I mean the missions when you are recruiting your "team", are they a big part of the game as a whole.

Yes they are, Danowat. apart from getting new members missions there are small missions for each member, Horizon colony mission, Collector ambush, reaper "IFF", and the Omega 4 relay mission... that's about it. I however never thought the game was short even though I was blasting through it quite rapidly, by the time I was given the collector ambush mission I was already thinking "wow, this game just keeps on going"

In total, I managed to beat the game in 22 hours or so

If I have to give you percentage, I'd say (Note, that I never actually timed it all, so this is based purely on my feel)
receiving all team members : 40%
helping all team members with their problems : %25
IFF/Ambush/Suicide missions : %35

Finnaly received mass effect 2. Had to wait a bit more, since it's harder to get english version in Poland. First impression: I don't remember the last time I jawdropped so much during the beginning of the game. Last time might have been years ago when I first played another world. The fact that I also finished mass effect 1 recently again made it feel even better. :jawdrop:

Quote from kamkorPL :

Finnaly received mass effect 2. Had to wait a bit more, since it's harder to get english version in Poland.

It's hard to get non Russian localised games in Latvia too, I know what you mean. Luckily ME2 was pre-shipped to the proper stores... Orange Box for example, I waited for 2 months after initial release.

Anyway - you'll be in for some more jaw dropping man, I envy everyone who has yet to play it though, since all those jawdropping situations can't be repeated on second playthrough

Well, done with it, in just under 40 hours...

Loved the story, all the characters were so well thought out and presented you just couldn't help but care for them (only Zaeed was a bit alienating with his over-the-top machismo) and the cliffhanger at the end will make the wait for the third episode really painful - I just hope I made the right choices... The quick time events were implemented very well, I'd never thought it would improve the dialogues but it really did... The ship gets really creepy after the one mission you're not Shepard (which I found could have been done better - it just interrupts the flow a bit too much when without warning you're in another character)... The mining game became tiring really fast (especially without upgrades), but after mining 3 systems completely clean I had more than enough resources to complete all upgrades (I was short only about 1000 Element Zero and Platinum)... I encountered only two bugs: Verner said I put a gun in his face when I didn't and although I did the mission with Grunt perfectly his special ability somehow wasn't unlocked...

Anyway, if the other games this year are on the same level (yes, I rate ME2 GotY-material), 2010 will be an awesome year for gaming...

Quote from bbman :

Verner said I put a gun in his face when I didn't

Same thing here... I convinced him to go home and sleep or something in ME1 and he decided to think otherwise... a bullet to his leg was quite a good experience though

[SPOIL]
If you already finished ME2 you probably didn't notice that: http://img5.hostingpics.net/pics/654949001.jpg (look behind shepard)
That's... strange
[/SPOIL]

Quote from Sir moi 407 :

[SPOIL]
If you already finished ME2 you probably didn't notice that: http://img5.hostingpics.net/pics/654949001.jpg (look behind shepard)
That's... strange
[/SPOIL]

Yeah I notice that to, I wonder what that means. I first thought it was a graphic bug where he happend to be spawned behind the level or easy loading. But now typing this it doesn't make sense lol

Finally finished it with soldier class, still had side quests to do, galaxy to explore etc. About 44-45 hours in. I will do a 100% run some other time on insanity.

Spoiler - click to reveal

My whole crew survived. Normandy was in a pretty good shape too.

In my opinion it's an epic universe and an epic game. As a sc-fi movies and games fan, ex-star wars addict :P I can honestly give it a 10/10.

In my opinion they took the best out of mass effect 1 and enhanced it.

Squad AI was also greatly improved. I didn't have to babysit my crew as much. Most and foremost they use covers much better now and I can focus on using their powers.

I also instantly began second playtrough with vanguard class. I am trying to rush it and take the renegade path just out of curiousity. I wonder how much it will take me to finnish the game by rushing it.

I agree entirely. I completed it last weekend and have to say it's bloody brilliant. Probably around the same duration as your game too - about 45 hours. My only disappointment was I thought the last fight was a little too easy. In order to stay spoiler-free that's all I'm going to say. F*cking epic but too easy. Well pleased that they let you stay in-game once the story is finished though. Bring on the DLC!

Immediately started again on Insanity difficulty with an Infiltrator, so that should be interesting. Going to make a lot more "evil" decisions this time too. Raar

I reckon I must be about halfway through now, must say I am a bit gutted I started on normal difficulty, because its pretty easy.

It does get better the further you get into it though.

It's still waiting for me to play it.

Played for 2 hours a few days ago, got tired, went to bed and haven't played anymore since then. I'm not sure what it is but so far it didn't excite me much. Maybe I've been too excited about it and it couldn't meet those expectations.

But does ultimate epicness await me after a while? Or will it just all be the same game all the way through?

(It could be that I'm just too excited about my Special FX projects in Adobe After Effects...)

It depends what you expect from it. It does ease you in pretty slowly (it is technically an RPG after all). The missions get a lot bigger as you go further from home. Some of the best parts (IMO) were the backstory sections, like the Normandy crash site, and the bits that cover stuff that's related to universe lore rather than the actual game story. If you think about how it's scripted it loses the epic feel but if you accept it for what it is then you won't be disappointed.

It's really just the last few mission hours that are really cool though, the squad-finding missions have highs and lows.

Quote from Dajmin :

I agree entirely. I completed it last weekend and have to say it's bloody brilliant. Probably around the same duration as your game too - about 45 hours. My only disappointment was I thought the last fight was a little too easy. In order to stay spoiler-free that's all I'm going to say. F*cking epic but too easy. Well pleased that they let you stay in-game once the story is finished though. Bring on the DLC!

Immediately started again on Insanity difficulty with an Infiltrator, so that should be interesting. Going to make a lot more "evil" decisions this time too. Raar

[possible spoiler]
Yeah final fight was too easy. I saved a nuke for that ocassion and it took out most of the opponent's armor.
[/possible spoiler]

(SaM), Jibber: Maybe it's just not your kind of game. I got sucked in by the whole universe (already in mass effect 1), I even enjoy reading/listening to codex and reading planets descriptions. Plus I have started reading Mass effect revelation book and will read ascension later. There are also 2 issues of Mass Effect Redemption comic out.

Also If you don't care for the characters and their backstory, I can see you will be missing out a lot too. I have spend a lot of time just walking around the ship and speaking to other characters.

Plus the experience is even better if you played mass effect 1.

And you could probably say I am a mass effect and bioware fanboy. :P To me the best non racing games I've played in 2000-2010 are: kotor, mass effect 1, mass effect 2, dragon age origins, fallout 3, gta4 and orange box. I guess you can see a pattern here.

edit:

On my second playtrough I started the game with new character insteed of importing it from me1. It's experiment rushed evil playtrough anyway. So far compared to imported character I've noticed those differences:
- there are some characters missing (the ones invovled in me1 sidequests).
- some galaxy news missing.
- no bonuses for game start.
- Different me1 major choices assumed by game developer.

I found this scanning-planets-for-resources part in Mass Effect 2 annoying. Am I the only one? It's hard work to scan a planet with this small and slow radar spot

I felt like this:

I dont like the scanning.

How deep is the character customization and action consequence mechanic? Does it have a large effect on the outcome of the game (squad deaths aside), or is it just little details that change?

Quote from MAGGOT :

How deep is the character customization and action consequence mechanic? Does it have a large effect on the outcome of the game (squad deaths aside), or is it just little details that change?

IMO, not overly deep, there is a single story thread, and although things change, you still follow the same story thread, although, I am lead to believe that towards the end of the game, squad deaths are permenant.

Customization is fairly limited IMO

Quote from kamkorPL :

(SaM), Jibber: Maybe it's just not your kind of game.

The problem for me isn't that i don't like ME. In fact, i loved ME1, plus i'm a huge Sci-Fi and RPG fan. The problem is Demon's Souls on PS3. I can't play anything else since i got it... it made all other games feel pointless and boring for me... which will wear off once i get bored i'm sure, in a few months or something like that.

Quote from jibber :

...The problem is Demon's Souls on PS3. I can't play anything else since i got it...

saw a trailer, looked good
...until...i saw...a knight?