I think ME2 is going to back burner for now. Going to start DKS!
If you ever return to ME2, I recommend starting anew and definitely not playing a soldier, which is the game´s least unique class.
What I´d recommend is:
a) playing on higher difficulty
Hardcore is probably the best for a first playthrough, makes encounters
generally feel more intense and additional enemy defense layers stir the game
into tactically a bit more interesting waters.
b) playing a Sentinel, which is the most jack-of-all-trades-y class in the game
- can deal with pretty much all enemy defenses on his own, which also means
you can experiment with party composition more freely even on higher
difficulties
- Sentinel´s exclusive power, Tech Armor, makes the class less reliant on
covers and later allows for a more in-your-face approach, especially once
evolved into Assault Armor; later it also resets cooldowns of your allies
making them a bit more useful
- has powers which can be situationally useful even at low ranks (Throw, Cryo
Blast)
- has Warp which, besides being very useful against enemy defenses, can
also be used in synergy with some biotic powers of your allies (to create
a biotic detonation)
- imo has pretty satisfying development curve
Basically, even with the game´s limited character development you can get
a pretty diverse gameplay experience with this class.
Alternatively you might try Infiltrator who has better firepower, thanks to
Invisibility Cloak is also less reliant on covers and may be fun if you´re into
lining up headshots, but personally I prefer Sentinel´s versatility.
Vanguard´s Charge ability is interesting and probably the most gameplay
changing one, but strongly reliant on metagaming and luck. Without using
it the class is completely dull, with it you´d be reloading a lot unless you´d
play on lower difficulties (which I don´t recommend for other reasons).
Adept and Engineer are boring because they´re more reliant on covers than
other classes, Engineer´s "exclusive" power isn´t exclusive since 2 companions
have it as well and the fact most biotic powers only affect unprotected
enemies severely hampers Adepts on difficulties higher than normal.
Also, keep in mind that after about 1/3 of the game you´ll be able to choose one additional power from the pool of companions´ loýalty ones (first you need to unlock them by finishing the respective missions). So for example in the case of Sentinel, whose firepower is probably the class´ biggest weakness, you could choose armor piercing ammo which grants quite nice offensive boost even at the first rank.
Plus, about 1/2 into the game you can choose additional weapon training.
Give the Sentinel a sniper rifle and you´re as versatile as it gets
.
c) playing as a female
Even though the difference of quality between VA for male and female isn´t
that notable as in ME1 and pretty much all lines are the same (besides, eh,
romances), I think that playing with a female Shepard gives the game a lot
more unique feel, especially when leaning to the Renegade side.
Unless you have strong roleplaying reasons for doing otherwise, if you want
your PC to feel less generic go with a female protagonist.
d) if you don´t want to pour time into planet scanning, download
gibbed´s Save Editor from
here and give yourself as much resources as you want
Anyway, for the time being, have fun with DKS!
