Mass Effect 2 was the best of the series. I know doing side quests for characters is a staple not just of Bioware games but RPG's in general and it feels like padding, but Mass Effect 2 was one of the best at doing it I feel even if it feels a bit formulaic or following a pattern.
There were also arguments that ME2 kinda shifted the franchise too far from whatever the idea was in Mass Effect but it's still the strongest game in the trilogy IMHO with the gameplay, setting, characters and yes story and it did an excellent job leading into Mass Effect 3... which dropped the ball and IMHO made Mass Effect 2 less well received since it was responsible for setting up the climax of the trilogy. But overall, even if largely character driven, Mass Effect 2 was just excellence and a significant upgrade over Mass Effect which was a good game itself.
And that's not to say Mass Effect 2 was perfect... it wasn't. Like I didn't find Jacob's character missions (or character in general) all that interesting for example. But still a really solid game.
There were also arguments that ME2 kinda shifted the franchise too far from whatever the idea was in Mass Effect but it's still the strongest game in the trilogy IMHO with the gameplay, setting, characters and yes story and it did an excellent job leading into Mass Effect 3... which dropped the ball and IMHO made Mass Effect 2 less well received since it was responsible for setting up the climax of the trilogy. But overall, even if largely character driven, Mass Effect 2 was just excellence and a significant upgrade over Mass Effect which was a good game itself.
And that's not to say Mass Effect 2 was perfect... it wasn't. Like I didn't find Jacob's character missions (or character in general) all that interesting for example. But still a really solid game.