The More I Play Mass Effect Legendary The Less I like it

ME2 is held in high regard by many for its satisfying combat loop and not much else. Bioware leaned heavily on it because it brought a lot more players to the franchise. I'd wager that there are a significant number of players that couldn't even compare ME2 to ME1 because they've only experienced the comic book DLC.

I completely understand your criticisms. The minigames especially will tax patience. They aren't even skill based. They are busy work that only serve to ruin the pace of gameplay. It really should just be a skill check or even just a button. 

Games of choice and liking are subjective. I personally think ME1 is the best of the three. I am an RPG freak tbh, so ME1 really appealed to me. Changing the ability to use any weapon no matter the class took a bit of the RPG out of that game but the player agency choices still have huge impacts. 

Having said that, if you consider the story of ME2, then the battles seem appropriate, considering the reapers are using the the Protheans they genetically modified to combat losing one of their own in ME1 (Sovereign), so this makes sense. Considering the reaper's goals of no quarter and lives saved, batytles are to be expected. There are RPG elements in that yiur choices determine if squadmates live or not and make it into ME3, which is far better at RPGing than ME2.

These are the three faces of Mass Effect. On the one hand I applaud that they kept the heart and look and feel through all three games. The minigames are in both 1 and 2. Not too shocking, right? They just changed the type. None of them are too complicated. The sticky cover dynamics have changed throughout the series. Each game has its own quirks.

On the other hand, they did make some changes perhaps in part due to user feedback... for better or worse. (ME1:We hate the Mako! What's with all this driving?! ME2:No Mako? We hate this planet scanning thing! Where's my ride?!). It moved more into the action RPG category than ME1. I still love all three games, each for its own merits, and the overarching environment and lore. 

In ME, there are several times when you can use a Paragon or Renegade check in conversation to bypass a fight, gain a better quest outcome, give yourself options. ME2 interrupts mostly give roleplay responses, style mostly. No real fight bypass options there. My pure Paragon Shep went Paragade in ME2. The situation Shepard was in seemed to call for it (if you don't find a sense of humour after coming back from the dead and finding yourself shunned, just go back to being dead), and many of them were very amusing. So I still like the RPG aspect of 2. The combat was more fluid, so I liked that better than 1. I agree about the magic pixel traps that you run into that lift you into the air and make you reload to continue. That sucked, but wasn't too frequent for me.

In ME3, I liked the combat dynamics even better, though they nerfed some of the things I had loved in ME2. I still play ME3 multiplayer, eight years later. The majority of renegade interrupts in this game are dark though...too dark for me.  But that's RPG agency for you.

@jdbassjr  I just started ME2 and I'm still on Lazarus Station, shortly before ending the mission. The usually bypass and hacking objects in this mission were now accessible without the minigames, just interacting was enough.

Has this been changed with the patch?

Nevermind, in the Freedoms Progress mission the minigames are back.

I quit playing Mass Effect 2 several weeks ago.

I got tired of the constant combat and it was the recruitment of Liara, if I spelled it right, that broke the camels back. I might come back later if I am bored enough but I got plenty of stuff to keep me occupied.