Finished Mass Effect a month or two ago, and I really liked it. The graphics and story were impressive. The combat was OK, i think my problem was that I was trying to play it a shooter (Mass Effect is the first RPG I've played) so it felt cumbersome to avoid incoming fire and get to cover. Once I understood the skills I could get my character and team mates to use it made a whole lot more sense!
The fact that weapons can only have one upgrade at a time is something that needs to be made a bit more clear, and the enemies AI during combat is not as impressive as it could have been.
Looking forward to the sequel.