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I think ME2's great reviews were mostly driven by the excellent cast of memorable characters you got to assemble throughout the game. Such an upgrade over the BioWare trademark mild soup of forgettables in ME1, and also the biggest reason ME3 was maligned after relegating most of those beloved characters to a 5-minute scene.

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Also, the vastly upgraded combat system.

Everyone says ME2’s combat is much better than ME1’s, but as someone who rarely plays shooters, I didn’t really notice much difference.

What changes in ME2 made the combat vastly better than ME1?

I think the first game relied on weapon overheating to limit how fast you could fire.

The second game used ammo clips and that made combat far easier.

That’s right. I’ve seen arguments over which scheme is better, but the second game’s scheme is definitely more orthodox.

I also keep hearing ME1’s combat described as “clunky” and ME2’s as “smoother”. Without much experience with this type of game, I think I just don’t have the skills to feel the difference.

You're probably playing on a PC with mouse and keyboard. The Xbox 360 Mass Effect controls were not great, but that was the original release.

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