Well, I gave it a shot. I got up to two hours invested in ME and it never really clicked. For a variety of reasons.
1. I couldn’t get into the RP. Your dialog choices are not clear at all. They hint at what you’re going to say. Unlike DA:O which lets you choose from exact sentences. With ME I never know what is going to come out of my character’s mouth, choosing what looks like the right option can sometimes result in an answer I really wouldn’t have chosen. It’s like RNG with voices.
2. Related to my first complaint, the dialog choices in ME are in the scene view. In the above case right on my character’s neck. It’s obtrusive. I love catching screenshots in games. CLEAN ones. Frequently I’ve now had what could have been nice shots, screwed up by the location of the dialog. Same goes for subtitles. In DA:O they are at the top of the screen, out of the way, with your choices at the bottom. In ME, subtitles are mid screen across the scene. Very annoying. I tend to play with the subtitles on, so I can keep my volume down while others watch tv, and avoid using a headset. Headsets hurt my ears/jaw no matter how cushy they are.
3. More Aesthetics. As Samodean mentioned in a comment on my last post, they’ve managed to make ugly look best, and all attempts at attractive look…not so attractive. Let’s compare shall we? ME is on the left, DA:O on the right.
I compare the two, because they are both Bioware games. I realize graphic engines differ. But considering the same company did DA:O just a year later, it should have THAT much disparity between the two.
3. The player character voice. I’m not dissing the voice actor. I just don’t like having a voice all that much. I thought I would, but I found I much preferred imagining my PC’s voice as I played. That and my Fem Shephard is seriously monotone. Ugh.
4. Controls- I only have one complaint here. I like having a mouse cursor that I can move and click and hover on things. Such as in WoW, DA:O, Torchlight etc. I would rather steer by keyboard, or by pressing both mouse buttons. In ME you walk by using WASD, and steer with the mouse. I’ve missed many interactive objects, just because my mouse didn’t hit the specific area as I panned around.
5. Slow story building. It’s an RPG, it has a story. But I’m two hours in and it feels like it’s crawling. The snail in my frog tank is running rings around it.
6. Combat. Surprisingly no complaints here. It took some getting used to, but it’s actually pretty cool. I like the combination of shooter+3rd person RPG. If only my character looked a little less…strange from behind. Or in front for that matter. Girl has a serious swayback thing goin on.
An RPG has to meet some criteria for me. Unfortunately, ME falls short.
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Female protagonist. Check
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Fast unfolding storyline. Not warp speed chaos (Hello DA: Awakening…looking at you), but not crawling slow. Minus.
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Aesthetically pleasing in a consistent manner. Minus.
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Ease of controls. Check in combat, minus in exploration.
I may go back and try further, but it’s not calling to me to play. Whereas WoW, and DA:O do. I’m on another set of 6 characters in DA:O now. Four are complete, and ready to play through the xpac, 2 are almost finished. But ME is just not clicking for me, there’s very little desire to see what’s next, even though it’s my first time actually playing. Whereas DA:O, I’ve played 10 times over, all curiosity satisfied but I’m still finding ways to RP the same game.
No, don’t laugh. It’s not even remotely funny to be arachnophobic. Yes, I managed to get a broom, kill the sucker, get it gathered up and flushed down the toilet. That’s how bad it is by the way, unless I see it leave the room, the house, the universe, whatever, I’m convinced it’s not really dead. It can’t just be killed and left laying somewhere. I stripped the entire bed to find it, and get the body flushed. I’m now nauseous, sweating and shaking. I’ll either sleep on the couch, or lie tossing and turning tonight in bed because of it. 
