aaaand done,i finished with shepard around level 40 in around 20 hours (i spent a little time dickering around with side-quests) and my opinion is pretty much the same,it is a decent shooter with some light rpg element (and not the other way around) but i wouldn't call it game of the year or stuff like that,it's okay
the worst part of the game is probably feros,not only it's probably the most dull-looking planet of the game and also incredibly generic since all you do is fighting horde of zombie like guys while climbing stairs
the moral system was a little lame,i wanted to play bad but ultimately i always ended up picking the "good" answer because more than playing "good guy/cartoonish villain" it was more like "reasonable guy/jerk for no reason"
the different alien races are cool even tough they are made with the usual race tropes (the warrior race... the all female race...) the little guys who look like chubby version of darth vaders stands out in particular but it's a shame you see so little of them,the character were also nice except the 2 human jerk,wrex was particulary cool,i heard there is no wrex in ME2?

having a bigger variety of enemies would probably have made the game better,it's nice that they gave each side-quest some story (instead of the "BRING ME 5 SLIME DROP!" school of family) but most of them give you no real reward and take place on the same buildings,i did a few of them just for variety sake and to get enough money's to get the "rich" achievement (which also unlock the game best weapons) but it's just lame
the beginning is also sooooooooo slow,there is so much talking that takes forever and really doesn't move the plot forward or anything,it's just kinda there...
also maybe i missed a passage somewhere but the story took a turn for the stupid near the end
spoiler (click to show/hide)
so these guys never realized there was a secret tunnel in their home? and the other end was on an unknown forgotten planet? that's like never realizing you have a basement and to reach it you have to go trough the north pole... stupid!
for a plot it's also pretty banal...
i guess next pick would be nier,or bayonetta/super street fighter 4 if i feel in a more actionesque mood