And to see how ropey and unfinished much of the game felt.
Don't get me wrong, I loved ME1, it's one of my favourite games this gen, and I always thought it got an unfair rap from many quarters because I was able to overlook its many flaws and admire its strengths, but I didn't know there was this retrospective canonisation of the original game going on. There are a few things I like from ME1 better than ME2, the story for instance and the far superior ground vehicle, but then again I prefer the non-linearity of the sequel and a reduction in sidequests that verged on the utterly banal (although it had its moments).
ME2 has the disadvantage of not being new, so the sense of discovery and intrigue is lessened, but it makes up for it by having more to see and do. On balance they're equally good for slightly different reasons, and in raw gameplay terms the sequel is clearly superior. But ME1 isn't any more of an RPG than the sequel, even though it might have pretended to be with a little smoke and mirrors. They're adventure games with a simple character levelling system, that is all, and to decry ME2 or 3 for this is to paint the franchise as something it never was in the first place.