First of just to clarify, I may not hate FPS's as much as you do but I've never owned a pure FPS and I doubt I ever will. While I don't primarily enjoy the fighting aspects of any game RPG or FPS alike, I've also coped with it to play the majority of cames. Honestly, if there is a way to cheat so I can rush through the battle parts as fast as possible then I'm probably just going to do that because fight scenes to me are just filler between the different points of the story. I've never played either Mass Effect game on anything other then easy, and it doesn't appeal to me to try it.

Ok, so with that said I'll give you my take on ME:2, since we have similar tastes in games from the sound of it. Hopefully it will help give you an idea of if it's worth it or not for you to try it out. I'll just take each change as a point of discussion so it doesn't all blur together to badly.

No more Mako:

I'll be honest I never really enjoyed the parts of ME:1 where I had to try and climb some insane mountain side or shoot my way through hordes of enemies. But its clear why, I don't enjoy things that delay the continuation of the story to long. With that said though I do miss the ability to just roam around a planet and explore. There were times in the first game when I'd come across a random prothean ruin or other item and it would be as interesting as the mission I happend to be on.

This got me to thinking though, and I realized that towards the end of ME:1 I was shooting right to the main goals of a mission so I could be finished with the Mako, and by the end of the game it had lost it's fun.

In ME:2 they did completely remove the Mako for now, though they will be adding a new version of it soon. I will admit they did a good job in making missions more straight forward, so it does take away from the tedium of trying to get around. Truly though I wish they had just re-worked it so that you could pick where you got dropped off, but still had the option to explore with the Mako. That way you'd have the convenience of the drop shuttle, with the freedom of the mako.

Inventory System Changes:

This part of the game was changed drastically, in fact it's pretty much gone. In it's place is the resource hunting so you can create upgrades. This is a process that at first seems to be interesting and would perhaps have the pontential to be as customizable as the original inventory system, but sadly it's not. Honestly, the only point of the upgrade system is to get all of them. Sure how you go about doing this will effect the current play style you choose, but as players like us don't like the shooting parts anyways it all just boils down to getting the upgrades done asap so their just that, done.

You do have the ability to choose which upgrades you have equiped on your armor, as well as which weapons you want to use, but in the end it just isn't as much fun as the old system. Easier yes, but for a fan of RPG's you'll probably miss the uniqeness of being able to fully create your own setup.

Ammo Clips and no grenades:

If your like me anything that makes the battle portion of the game take longer or harder then it's not an improvement in your eyes. Having to run around finding ammo makes battle both take long and end up being harder.

I'm not really too worried by this part though as on easy, which is the only setting i play on, you'll never be short on ammo.

I do prefer the new heavy weapons though. On easy about any enemy is quickly dealt with using heavy weapons, so it makes fights go alot faster. Plus in ME:1 I never found grenades to be all that helpful so this is one change I do like

Level Compression
This is a bit of a double bladed sword for me, but one that cuts deep. I love that the fight sequences go really fast the majority of the time. They arn't drawn out and there isn't a huge amount of area to cover. You run into plenty of people to talk to through out and there are plenty of places to explore so this part of it I love.

Sadly, this same level compression applies to cities as well. The citadel is probably a third of it's original size, and the other places are no bigger. Gone are the days of having all sorts of nooks and crannies to search and things to discover. Missions are usually completed within sight of those who gave you the mission and there is very little back tracking throughout.

there is one saving grace to this which I'll discuss at the end, but honestly It made me more then a little sad.

Party member and NPC's:

This aspect of the game is truly it's saving grace. There are so many people to talk to that is really does feel so much larger then the original game. Also it's not even so much that you have more people to talk to, it's that each person has more to say and more of a personality.

The only part of ME:2 concerning party memebers I didn't like is that you can't talk to them on missions like you could in ME:1. They talk alot more on their own though, and there are parts on every level where you can get them to talk, but I miss the days of being able to select them at any time to see what they say, even if it was usually repetative and not vital.

Romance Options:

This part I feel is superior to ME:1 simply because you have more options on how to pursue a romance with a larger variety of crew members. Of course this may pose problems in ME:3 depending on choices you've made in ME:1 and ME:2. I can't really go into any more detail as it would potentially be spoilers for both ME:1 and ME:2

My conclussion

In the end we're still at the question of whether or not it's worth it to play ME:2 if your totally against FPS's in general. For me it was for a few reasons. All of the parts that made the first game drag out sometimes, making it feel more tedius at times, have been stream lined. Yes in some way this is taken to far, but overall I still feel that if you treat it like an RPG and don't try to play the game on insanity then you're not going to have trouble with the FPS aspects of the game. In fact most of the fighting parts of the game go fast with the levels being shorter as they are.

The character development really makes this feel more like an RPG then an FPS, and you do still have the freedom to progress through the game as you choose. Doing side quests, researching upgrades, getting to know crew members and gain their loyalty, and persuing romances all help to make this far more then an FPS. yes if you prefer an FPS experience then you can make it into one by ignoring everything and just going from one fight to another, but it is by no means the only options. yes you have to fight, but as I said on easy its almost no different then the original game in the difficulty and the duration is probably shorter in the long run.

For me I find it worth playing ME:2 even with all of the FPS tweaks. Being able to see how my actions in ME:1 impact ME:2 is a great experience that I haven't found in other games. Being able to truly grow to understand and care about your squad mates makes the game emotionally investing far more then your typical RPG adding a whole nother motivating reason to play.

As far as the changes, to me I am able to accept them because they all play towards a sense of urgency that I feel the story requires at this point. In the first game we were investigating what was going on, so we had the time to look around and figure it all out. In this game we know what's happening and we're doing what it takes to prepare for a suicide mission and do it as soon as possible so more lives are not lost. The streamlined aspects of the game make it seem more focus and more intense as you realize that everything you're doing is leading up to a final quest to save millions of lives. So to me the changes really help to increase these feelings, which only further involves me into the story, which I find to be much more of an RPG trait in then an FPS gimmick.

If nothing else it's worth trying, especially since you played ME:1. Rent it or borrow it and just play it on easy and see what you think. Maybe wait to see if there are some cheats that will help you through the combat and then check it out, and then it should be cheaper too.

Plus you never know, ME:3 may be more of an RPG and you'll want to play it, but you never know how much you'll loose out on if you don't have the character data from ME:2 to import into it.