Not for me. ME2 was easily the worst of the trilogy for me. It went ME3 > ME1 > ME2. Not saying ME2 was bad. It had many great things like the Criminally underused Collectors, a few great squadmates like Legion and Kasumi and Grunt, my favorite LI of the franchise to date Kelly, etc. Just ME3 and ME1 were easily better.
This is how I rank the series myself as well, based on own personal enjoyment. I loved Mass Effect 3 and have put more hours into it (not including hours on MP here) than any other entry in the series. It had flaws. Ok a lot of flaws. And the ending was not good. But I loved it.
Mass Effect 2 did a lot of things right, and has some things better over ME3 and ME1. But I find ME2 the weakest entry, especially on story, plot, narrative what have you. Recruiting all those great, unforgettable characters was awesome, and I really enjoyed the focus on character, but ultimately there was a huge disconnect between them, as well as some rather forced and contrived additions.
I love Kasumi, she's one of my favourites, but do we need a Master Thief for taking on the Collectors? It's not like there's a Collector equivalent of the Crown Jewels that might fetch a pretty credit on the Citadel.
Thane. Yes, he's a badass. But unless there are Collector/Templars, do we need an assassin per se?
And I like Jacob. He's a likable character. But I honestly feel like you could have just condensed Miranda and Jacob into one person, you didn't need both of them.
And the Collectors by the end of the game, had, for me, overstayed their welcome.
Gameplay yes, it's great and more refined. The hub worlds, missions, everything else was great. But everything above mentioned pegs it down for me, and that's not taking into account some of the storytelling decisions in ME3, but the difference is with ME3, the plot moved forwards, for better or worse, and it didn't just stagnate like ME2's lack of plot.
ME 2 had the best dlc(the firewalker, overlord, arrival), great characters like thane, awesome story about going into the galactic core and stopping the collectors from creating a human reaper, Miranda's body, great ending, etc. What's not to like?
Awesome for liking Miranda (I hope, as a person as well? she's a good character) but honestly i really don't see why Miranda's body is desirable.
Granted i'm gay, but seriously her body always appeared to me to be like a fetishised idealisation of a woman (I am aware of the whole perfect genes dna, i'm born to be perfect stuff ok) but even so, that body is just so unrealistically proportioned it makes Lara Croft in the early days look more like a real person. The arms on most of the female character models are like sticks, the outfit looks like it would cut off circulation from the body, and she's got weird calfs and ankles that don't look like they'd support a human body (may be the boots) and I have no idea how having her boobs strapped together so tightly could be comfortable.
But of course no one cares cause of "dat ass".
I overlook the ridiculous character model, cause Miranda is a good character, and Yvonne did a great job voicing her. Its a shame they didn't just scan in her actual body along with her face instead of this Barbie doll model.
That it was basically a dozen unconnected recruitment / loyalty missions followed by the (admittedly great) suicide mission? That the response to the ME1 inventory system being clunky was to just not have one?
I love all three games for different reasons, but 2 isn't the flawless masterpiece nostalgia would have us believe.
I honestly believe its the gameplay side of it for the time that rose tinted all those reviews. If some critics actually sat back and reflected on the state of the narrative, then maybe it wouldnt be held up as so masterful after all.
I'm aware its a game and for entertainment, but with a game like ME2, game play can be amazing but surely a good story is just as important to entertainment as well as gameplay? I think the ball was dropped slightly on this one, and its why ME3 had a lot of weak story moments cause it had to make up for the narrative stagnation in ME2.
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