Was Mass Effect 2 really that Much Better than MEA?

Either way Shepards original body would have been paste after crashing through the atmosphere and falling all the way to the surface of the planet.  I don't know how in the world they could resurrect it.  We know Cerberus was already trying to create clones of Shepard any way, due to the imperfect one that shows up in Citadel in ME3.  So why now ME2 and ME3 Shepard being the perfected one?

No, it wasn't. I personally find ME2 as overrated as ME:A is underrated, but YMMV. Still love both for what they are tho.

I think that ME2 could be considered as a revolutionary and groundbreaking game for when it got released whereas ME:A right now places itself somewhere in the middle-segment of enjoyable but ultimately-a-bit-flawed games. (This is based on the general reactions on the forums here and the professional critic scores on websites as metacritic.) ME:A still has its strong points though and even surpasses ME2 on certain aspects, like gameplay. I think that that is only logical though, given the 7 years in between the release of both games. What I do believe however, is that ME:A simply didn't improve enough and is flat out worse than ME2 in some other areas. This is especially apparent when it comes to the story. (I'm not talking about how logical the story is and if there are any plotholes, I'm talking about the place the story has in the game and how strong it is in binding players to it. ME2 was completely centered around the main plot whilst ME:A's main story almost never felt bigger than another sidequest. The game just got too clouded with all the Open World content for the story to really stand out.) It really depends on what you value in a game. They both have their strong, and weaker points. It also doesn't help for ME2 that it is an older game. I don't feel that it's that apparent right now but one can see that it is ageing in certain aspects. So for people whom are now beginning with the franchise, ME:A might and probably will come out on top as the better game. and in some aspects, it objectively is. But for people who where there when ME2 got released chances are they will still like ME2 more. Even though this is of course looking through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia in a certain way, I still think there is a grain of truth there as well. ME2 was, and in some ways still is a groundbreaking game. One which will be remembered in the lists of best videogames of all time for a long time to come. (even if you didn't like it yourself that much, this is the status the game simply has.) I'm not so sure about that with ME:A however.

So it depends on what you value in a game and when you first played a Mass Effect game. I think fans of the OT will vote more for ME2, (with some exceptions of course), but that new players will be quicker to vote for ME:A because the older games are ageing a little bit. The exceptions in the 'I played the OT first but still like ME:A more' department are probably the ones which liked ME1 more than ME2 to begin with. Both games are quite different when it comes to design and gameplay and ME1 simply more closely resembles ME:A than ME2 does. Therefore, my conclusion is that it is practically impossible to establish which game is better right now. I also don't really see the point. All I can do is point out that at the time of its release, ME2 got a lot more praise than ME:A does now. If that actually means that ME2 is the better game remains to be seen. Personal preferences, I guess.

 squad abilities and commands,

You're right. But what I was saying is what other game in the past two or three years has all those mechanics in place working cohesively together? Besides DAI, what other game gives you multiple companions to always play with and account for?

You're right. But what I was saying is what other game in the past two or three years has all those mechanics in place working cohesively together? Besides DAI, what other game gives you multiple companions to always play with and account for?

Jaal wouldn't speak to Ryder for a period of time, and neither would Drack - due to some decisions they didn't like. I don't remember that ever happening in the trilogy.

There were some you weren't required to recruit - and you didn't have to take back the VS after the Citadel coup - but I don't remember any occasions when Shepard could boot a squad member.

There were some you weren't required to recruit - and you didn't have to take back the VS after the Citadel coup - but I don't remember any occasions when Shepard could boot a squad member.

Choosing Kaidan over Ashley and vice versa, killing Wrex, Bascially the entire suicide mission, siding with Geth on Rannoch. Pretty much all these examples can be interpreted as a way Shepard is 'firing' a certain squadmember.