There is some very well done written stuff though. Pretty much all of Patrick Weekes stuff.
Mordin was pretty well done, definitely the most interesting Bioware NPC since forever (I think the only one that comes even close is Shale, but still a long way off). Legion was well written, with two problems: the whole Geth heretics concept was an utterly idiotic attempt at delivering "shages of grey" (hint: grey isn't necessarily better than B&W), and the fact you get him so late in the MQ, so unless you plan things VERY carefully you'll miss out on half his interactions (which is what happened to me).
But ultimately, ME is NOT a SERIOUS BUSINESS game, it was always advertised as a B Movie Soap Opera, and in that, The Mass Effect Team delivered.
I think the biggest problem with ME2 writing is that it actually tried to deviate from pure space opera derp, only to drown itself into much worse derp. ME1 pulled off every space opera cliche it could find, and if it wasn't for the fact they so blatantly ripped off Gateway I wouldn't have minded as much (though the "humans are special!" angle was also done very badly). But ME2 tried to distance itself from this with all the grimdark edgy SERIOUS BUSINESS. When it works, like with Mordin and Legion, it's great. When it doesn't work, like just about everywhere else (one of the worst offenders probably being Thane's loyalty mission. ugh. And Jacob's. Double-ugh) it's really, really bad. It looks like they're going for SERIUS again with ME3.
in my book), but for me that means breaking with the BioWare romance archetype. That would very likely piss off the fans they eagerly pander to, so I don't see any chance of that happening.
^^^
