I'm not saying it was *terrible* but think about it: -terrible color palette range -side quests that lacked voice acting, dialogue options, choice -simple, linear cities with very little to do -the removal of inventory (not that ME1 had a good system, but it wasn't unfixable) -the complete lack of a plot (you need to invade a homeworld, so you recruit 12 ground troops? why? and then you just blow up a base and it ends? what? what did we accomplish?) -goofy, po­rno-quality romances with awkward animations -complete segregation of gameplay and story (the combat and dialogue can only occur in the designated "combat" and "dialogue" sections) -character is required to stick entirely either to paragon or renegade choices in order to save the whole team. -antagonist has all the depth of Dr. Claw -nonsensical ret-conning of lore in order to hastily justify awful gameplay changes (thermal clips) -nonsensical, unexplainable technology simply to make the marketing more interesting (Shepard can be resurrected after suffocation + atmospheric reentry + impacting the surface of the planet) -terminator baby boss -a soundtrack that, while still good, has an action-movie feel rather than the utterly incredible science fiction soundtrack of ME1 Sure, the gameplay was more polished than ME1's, but it was also a lot more generic and sided more with third-person shooter elements over RPG elements. On the whole the game was a regression from ME1 that took away more than it added.