Was Mass Effect 2 really that Much Better than MEA?

i do think that is a lot of the appeal. Certainly a lot of my appeal listening to Jennifer Hale as fem shep. Truly made the character extraordinary and relatable and bad ass...butt I've never thought Shepard was great from a writing standpoint.

Yes and no.

The story of ME2 is episodic and barely holds together Shepard's death and rebirth are never explained and should have happened at the end and not the beginning I hated that Shepard had to work with Cerberus regardless of how played Shepard in ME1. The new characters are OK but they lack the freshness of the original crew there are way too many biotics and the romances are bland and predicable some like Jacob and Thane are downright boring. The returning Garrus and Tali are the best written (Tali is a mass improvement over her ME1 version) Mark Meer is still boring as Male Shepard and Jennifer Hale nails Femshep. The original squad Kaiden/Ash and Wrex are reduced to cameos (depending who lived and died in the first game) and Liara's story arc doesn't make much sense in-game unless you read Mass Effect: Redemption comic book mini-series and play Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC.

The combat, story, planets, and characters in ME:A are IMHO vastly better written and have more personality Drack is the best krogan in the series. Peebee is a riot, Vetra is a great take on turians, Cora is different take on the biotic and asari commando, Jaal is the ME1 Tali (basically an agaran exposition dump) and Liam starts out annoying as hell but after his loyalty quest he actually grows as a character. Suvi is cute, Gil is funny, Kallo is cool and Lexi is charming. I already feel like I know more them and I want to know even more about them than I ever did with Miranda, Jacob, Thane, Grunt, Legion, and Jack.

I guess after blowing up the Milky Way Galaxy in ME3, I guess I needed the fun and hope that ME:A has and not the dark depressing mood of ME2 and ME3.

The music in ME2 while good never blew me away I would play songs ("Instruments of Destruction" by NRG during the prologue and "The Touch" by Stan Bush during the escape from the Collector Base) that I ripped from CDs on my Xbox 360 HD because IMHO they were better suited to certain scenes and because I liked those songs and I could do it. I think the music in ME:A is good but misused it's either used wrong places or maybe when they mixed it with the sound and dialogue and it gets drowned out, I don't know I'm not sound tech guy. While both games have some nice tracks in them but I wouldn't pay no more than $5 for all of them in any format. The music in ME1 and ME3 are the best in the series.

The combat in MEA is the best in the series. The Nomad is more to ride and can actually take being shot at unlike the Hammerhead which can be destroyed with 5 shots by one standard geth trooper on casual. Seriously.

Both games have their strengths and weaknesses I would say I feel like I had a lot more fun in ME:A but since ME2 was part of trilogy I feel it's story was weaker because it felt more like the whole thing was a filler story that was either paying off stuff that was set up in ME1 and had to be a cliffhanger to set up ME3.

Fair point. I can get behind this. ME2 wins

I can't. ME2 lobotomized Shep and made him join Cerberus. That's it's own kind of really creepy space magick, especially for those Sheps with a Sole Survivor background. 

I didn't really see Shepard as bad writing, but more of a wasted opportunity. I always felt like the writers could've done so much more with the psychological profiles and pre-service history than a mere side mission and few dialogue mentions here and there. 

Oh, sure, that was bait, but you could attempt to engage with the lengthy, well-reasoned argument surrounding it.

Why, when you stoop to silly bait?

Oh, by "him" I meant Shep, not Meer. But yes Meer did get criticism as well. But I always liked him. 

While admittedly an assumption, it's one I strongly agree with. They really have no taste for another trilogy since last time they over-promised and under-delivered.