If you think the combat in ME2 is a chore you're doing it wrong :]
It's partially the game's fault, because on Normal difficulty almost all the enemies are unprotected, which means you fight them all the same way and you don't need to direct your squad mates. The game defaults to them acting on their own anyway. There's nothing wrong with lower difficulty settings in games, but in ME2 you're missing out on most of the things that makes it interesting if you play on Normal. The game never forces you to learn the combat, so you probably won't and will just stick to shooting guys instead.

Play one of the caster classes, like Adept, on a higher difficulty where you need to use your powers in concert with each other, direct your squad and pick your team carefully, then it becomes some of my favourite combat in any game, ever. It's very tactical, you need to use the pause a lot, but still a great action game, it's brilliant! But play the game as a Soldier on Normal and you'll probably not use more than one ability the entire game, never pause and just shoot everyone with guns and it won't be nearly as engaging.