Really my only remaining concern would be the climactic battle. ME1's had weight because you were facing off against a character that had affected you personally - a Praetorian still doesn't fill that gap, but I guess that's a problem with ME2's plot as a whole. At least it'd be a more dynamic fight than the giant Terminator.
Yeah, and I miss the ability to persuade the boss to death.
I really like the idea of clambering over a half-formed Reaper for the finale. And the new explanation for the abducted colonists is creepy. Doesn't it still make the Reapers dependent on organic life, though? I assume they're not just storing minds because they like the taste. I don't know anything about the original draft, mind you.
Dependent on organic life in the way an All-Star team is dependent on regular teams: they nom up the best to make new kickass Reapers for their squad of civilization-embodying space squidbots. I'm cool with that kind of dependency. They're just winnowing out the talent.
Either way, the suggestion that each Reaper contains the repurposed minds of dead civilisations - oh man. You're telling me they ditched that explanation for what we got?
I'm hoping they still reveal that as the truth in ME3, and just for some reason felt it couldn't be delivered in ME2. Because yeah, it's that good. It's like each Reaper is a singularity, the end state of a civilization's development. (Though I assume each species becomes multiple Reapers.)
Also I'm wondering if they're gonna reveal that the Reapers are omg just symptoms of a bigger problem, like whatever's eating Haestrom's star. ****ing photino birds.
edit: oh also I never really liked the way EDI turned out to be a total skeleton key. It's too easy.
Yeah. Unfortunately her magic AI skills feel narratively necessary for stuff like moving those silly hex platforms about.