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[Y2Kev]

And another thing-- that sex scene was even worse than the one in ME1. Miranda's tits pop out and that's it? That's not sex. That's like first base for space sluts.

 

[Sinatar]

What I did:

Everyone Loyal

Pipe: Legion (Lived)
Fireteam: Garrus (Lived)
Biotic Shield: Jack (Lived)
Distraction: Grunt (Died)
No Escort for Crew, they died.
Final Battle: Garrus & Samara (Both Lived)
Oddly on the run back to the ship it showed a short clip of Mordin dead on the ground, he died but oddly he died doing absolutely nothing. Kinda weird.

 

[Painkiller Q8]

I slept while scanning those non-stop planets :S

 

[BastardSamurai]

My final teams (and my reasons, I fully admit to overthinking this):

-Pipe: Legion (he's Geth! He knows tech and can fend for himself!)
-Fireteam: Garrus (with exception of losing team to Sidonis, the game stressed that he's awesome at taking on overwhelming odds with small teams)
-Biotic Shield: Morinth (I guess Jack could work, but I had a feeling an asari was a better biotic than even an experimented human)
-Survivor escort: Jacob (experience as Alliance marine plus his powers are generally tank-ish/defensive)
-Team leader to hold the line while I finished it all: Miranda (mostly based on Cerberus Tactician specialty, and to have someone not Garrus do it)
-My own party for final battle: Morinth and Jack

Normandy itself was heavily upgraded, everyone was loyal, and had a few weapon and armor upgrades researched.

Everyone lived. Also, I'm pretty sure I did a mission or two in-between installing the IFF and entering the relay, and Kelly Chambers is still alive for me.

 

[Deadly]

My final teams (and my reasons, I fully admit to overthinking this):

-Pipe: Legion (he's Geth! He knows tech and can fend for himself!)
-Fireteam: Garrus (with exception of losing team to Sidonis, the game stressed that he's awesome at taking on overwhelming odds with small teams)
-Biotic Shield: Morinth (I guess Jack could work, but I had a feeling an asari was a better biotic than even an experimented human)
-Survivor escort: Jacob (experience as Alliance marine plus his powers are generally tank-ish/defensive)
-Team leader to hold the line while I finished it all: Miranda (mostly based on Cerberus Tactician specialty, and to have someone not Garrus do it)
-My own party for final battle: Morinth and Jack

Normandy itself was heavily upgraded, everyone was loyal, and had a few weapon and armor upgrades researched.

Everyone lived. Also, I'm pretty sure I did a mission or two in-between installing the IFF and entering the relay, and Kelly Chambers is still alive for me.

How'd you get Kelly Chambers still alive? I lost half the crew members when I got to Dr. Chakwas and saw Kelly get sucked into the tube.

 

[Ducarmel]

the sex scenes are tamer in ME2, some are funny and a kind of cute Tali was cute with male shep, and Thane was thoughtful.

 

[Ducarmel]

Also did people choose to go around the locked door problem, Distraction team or blow through it? Maybe that might make a difference in who lives and dies. I choose the tech way.

 

[Y2Kev]

Also did people choose to go around the locked door problem, Distraction team or blow through it? Maybe that might make a difference in who lives and dies. I choose the tech way.

Same. I went around it. I also chose to have Jacob escort Sexy Chakwas back to the Normandy.

 

[Enosh]

how the hell did everyone get Morinth on their crew? I was never given an option to choose betwen the two...

what kind of renegade/paragon points did you have for that one?

 

[Sinatar]

how the hell did everyone get Morinth on their crew? I was never given an option to choose betwen the two...

what kind of renegade/paragon points did you have for that one?

I didn't have the choice either, but I assume that when she is seducing you you get a paragon/renegade option that I wasn't high enough to trigger, that probably gets her to join you.

Just a guess though.

 

[Acosta]

Yes! :lol I was thinking the same.

Legion and Subject Zero died, everyone else lived to fight another day. They were the only ones not loyal, but I guess it´s not related for what I'm reading.

I played with standard Shepard as I completed the original in 360 and this was PC version. It´s too bad, I missed my bad ass female Shepard and some of the decisions the game made for me sucked badly. Wrex dead (dead! nobody kills Wrex, he was in my team most of times), I saved the council (humans can't be trusted too much) while here they were killed and human took control (for worse of course).

Having played both Shepards, Hale>Meer, but it was good anyway. I don't normally play with females but in the original game I wanted to be a bastard from the beginning and I have less difficulties to play that role with a female as I feel less related.

Was very good, enjoyed the trip. I found the final mission a bit lacking of punch, even the sex scene was bland compared with the first one, less emotive. But overall it was fantastic, and some of the personal missions were awesome. Abandoning Jacon's father with the hunters will make me smile for years.

 

[Aedile]

And another thing-- that sex scene was even worse than the one in ME1. Miranda's tits pop out and that's it? That's not sex. That's like first base for space sluts.

If not for all the gratuitous swearing from the shirtless mall goth with Natalie Portman's face, this game could've snagged a T!

'The Reapers are building a giant human android from liquified human beings in order to destroy humanity, so kill him' is quite possibly the worst plot device that Bioware has ever come up with. That said, the ending sequence itself was very cool; it did a great job of integrating the plot with the combat mechanics. It also proved, at least for me, the value of the people-can-die prerelease hype: I spent the entire sequence thinking to myself GODDAMNIT THIS IS MY TEAM AND NOBODY'S GOING TO DIE! No one did, but the game drew out the tension very well.

 

[Y2Kev]

Yeah, honestly the more I think about it the less satisfied I am. ME1 was so well told, too...I mean, nothing original for sci-fi, but paced well and the game was self-contained. This one wasn't so much, and the end really went off the rails. I really think it has "second game in the trilogy" syndrome.

I said in the other thread I enjoyed the gameplay of the final section; unfortunately, I didn't know anyone could die and no one did. I would liked to have had that tension.

 

[AcciDante]

Half my crew died, but I saved all my main characters. I feel like Commander Shephard :lol That ending was pretty damn incredible.

 

[Jon of the Wired]

My battle plan for the last mission was:
- Legion in the pipe.
- Garrus commanding the fire team.
- Jack and Tali with me.

- Samara on shield duty.
- Jacob escorting survivors.
- Garrus commanding distraction team.

Everyone lived and all crew were rescued.

Overall I agree that the plot was a little out of left field and not nearly as epic as the first game. The focus on your team members was nice, however, and the writing and voice acting were top notch. I suspect it suffered from being the middle chapter in a trilogy. Since you neither get to introduce nor resolve the main threat in a part-two-of-three often the story just meanders around without focus, as it did here. This shouldn't be a problem in ME3, so hopefully the plotting will be back up to ME1 standards.

One thing that I think I liked (though I'm still a bit conflicted) was the narrowing in difference between paragon and renegade choices. Especially in dialogue and interrupts, renegade options were more about being an outrageous badass then simply acting like a jerk. There were also several paragon dialogue choices that featured explicit death threats. While I still leaned heavily towards the paragon end of things, I used far more renegade choices than I had in ME1, without it ever feeling out of character (especially the interrupts. I definitely appreciated the opportunity to shoot people who were talking too much).

 

[Y2Kev]

Oh, that's the other thing: at no point in the game did my Shepard say "we will fight for the lost!!!" which is such a good thing, because that is a ridiculously corny line.

 

[Aedile]

One thing that I think I liked (though I'm still a bit conflicted) was the narrowing in difference between paragon and renegade choices.

I miss the old days of 'good' and 'evil' choices that resulted in significantly different resolutions for situations, rather than ME2's 'sanctimonious dick' and 'douche with poor impulse control' options that end up in pretty much the same place. Bioware games have always been about replay value for me, but here I can't see too much that I can switch up on a second playthrough: maybe the romances and the Samara loyalty quest resolution. Aside from that, all it seems I can do is make the game more limited--maybe leave Grunt in the tank, not do some loyalty quests or not get some upgrades to see how people die in the final mission.

I'm sure ME3 will do shout-outs to decisions you made here just like ME2 did, but I would've liked a more immediate incentive to replay.

 

[Y2Kev]

I think the big decision in ME2 is saving or destroying the Collector Base. That's probably the most important decision that will be carried into ME3.

Also I wasn't happy with my potential choice ways to respond to the Illusive Man at the end. The Paragon Choice was flipping him off...I was playing Paragon, but I'd never flip the dude off.

 

[Acosta]

For ME 3 I really want back social skills. My Shepard ended with only two bars of Paragon/Rebel even if I did all in my power to feel a badass, but I guess avoiding being an asshole had that effect. My morals standing have nothing to do with my capacity to seduce/menace someone.

And I would ask about any kind of interesting space exploration, but I guess that as third episode seems to be about total conflict with Reapers, I better not delude myself.

I was less than happy to see the standard Shepard kills Wrex, I think I will do a "complete run" of the two games in a few years, to prepare for the third one with a character I feel comfortable.

I can't believe you can get Morinth and even romance her (killing you, with it´s just plain awesome). I liked Samara anyway.

 

[Jon of the Wired]

I miss the old days of 'good' and 'evil' choices that resulted in significantly different resolutions for situations, rather than ME2's 'sanctimonious dick' and 'douche with poor impulse control' options that end up in pretty much the same place. Bioware games have always been about replay value for me, but here I can't see too much that I can switch up on a second playthrough: maybe the romances and the Samara loyalty quest resolution. Aside from that, all it seems I can do is make the game more limited--maybe leave Grunt in the tank, not do some loyalty quests or not get some upgrades to see how people die in the final mission.

I'm sure ME3 will do shout-outs to decisions you made here just like ME2 did, but I would've liked a more immediate incentive to replay.

Personally I really hate the whole "good vs evil" binary-morality paradigm. I much prefer something more complex where choices are often morally ambiguous (see The Witcher or Dragon Age). However, the ME series (especially with ME2) is very much "RPG-lite" and reducing the number of options in dialogue was a goal, so that wouldn't really work. With that in mind, I like that your character is assumed to be essentially 'good' but you can choose a more diplomatic or aggressive approach as the situation warrants. The fact that there's less polarization between renegade and paragon dialogue choices in ME2 means that I have more real choices in dialogue, instead of just taking the paragon (or renegade) option every time.

My concern, which I share with you, is that it does reduce the amount of control you have over outcomes, rather than how you reach those outcomes. For a single playthrough I don't see this as a big problem. Despite ME2 being fairly free of major world changing choices, I found that the illusion of choice was maintained, in that I never felt forced to do something I didn't think my character would do. It certainly does reduce the incentive for multiple playthroughs, however.

 

[Sinatar]

I think the lack of a central villain hurt this chapter. The first one had you hunting Saren, he was a great villain and every time you encountered him was an event.

This it's just a big evil group of things, nothing to really focus your attention on.

 

[Swag]

I think the lack of a central villain hurt this chapter. The first one had you hunting Saren, he was a great villain and every time you encountered him was an event.

This it's just a big evil group of things, nothing to really focus your attention on.

Fuck I got this exact same feeling, I couldn't pin point what I felt was lacking in this game compared to the first. But this is definitely it.

 

[Lostconfused]

The ending sucked so I thought there would be more discussion about it. I mentioned it in the official thread but I am going to bring it up here again.

The reason the ending was bad is because this whole human reaper thing came out of left field, absolutely no lead up to it. The first game was brilliant in the fact that you had a conversation with Sovereign on Vermire. That was the big reveal of the game, you had the major plot twist thrown at you an hour or so before the game ends. So you actually have a decent goal and know what you are supposed to do. But here all the revelations got rushed.

Human reaper what? Barely any explanation and even then it doesn't make any kind of sense. Harbinger a reaper, how the hell do we even know that? Another revelation out of nowhere.

Overall the meat of the game is very good but the ending is completely unsatisfying and gives you no closure at all. In ME1 you get that dramatic "don't pat your selves on the back just yet, I got a job to do" and you know what to look forward to. Now? I have no idea where the overall story is going. I can guess that the Geth and Quarians, the genophage, the Rachni might be major plot points. Oh right also the sun that the quarians were studying and dark energy. Reapers on the other hand got way too convoluted. So they harvest galaxies and use biological species to make more of themselves? Really that's it? So all that "your are biological and you cant possibly comprehend our reasoning" was just a big bluff? Why couldn't they make Prothean based reapers? Its not like humanity is single handedly responsible for stopping reapers, if not for protheans Ilos and Vigil Shepperd would be able to do jack shit to stop Sovereign.

Edit: Did anyone figure out the significance of whatever it was that the Illusive man was always looking at? I assume it was a star or something and in the beginning it was mostly orange and a bit of blue/teal. At the end there is a very long shot of him sitting and staring at it except then its all blue. Anyone figure out what that's supposed to mean?

 

[daxter01]

it is a fantastic game but story was meh and no villain hurt the game so much i know being 2 instalment in a trillogy always leads to a meh story progression but i thought bioware could pull a godfather 2 . i did not get the whole loyal or not loyal thing concept is being loyal leads your teamate to servive or not thane was loyal and he did not even make it to collectors base died in acrash:lol

 

[Swag]

Edit: Did anyone figure out the significance of whatever it was that the Illusive man was always looking at? I assume it was a star or something and in the beginning it was mostly orange and a bit of blue/teal. At the end there is a very long shot of him sitting and staring at it except then its all blue. Anyone figure out what that's supposed to mean?

I always just assumed that he's watching it purely for entertainment, simply something good to look at similar to the city scapes that most CEOs have in their offices. I'm probably wrong but I don't remember them mentioning anything about it during the game.

Also that scene at the end changes depending on what you decide to do with the Collector ship at the end, because for my ending he was staring at a blueprint of the Collectors base.

 

[SenorDingDong]

So what are the potential implications of having the entire cast being able to die at the end game. Does this mean we're going to have a new protagonist and an entirely new team. It would seem a little silly to just resurrect Shepard again. I have no doubt they could create a new likable protagonist but to be honest I'd rather finish it off as Shepard.

Also it seemed to me that there was less minor choices to make this time around in comparison to the first though I barely touched any of the n7 missions. There were definitely more major ones, most dealing with what appears to be gaining allies from the various races in the inevitable final showdown.

I'm genuinely curious to see how they are going to handle this. It seems like it will be quite an undertaking.

 

[KolosLazar16]

I had all upgrades/all loyalties

Tali-pipe
Miranda-lead first team

Samara-shield
Miranda-lead second team

Took Garrus and Thane both times, no one died. (except Chakwas lol.)

 

[Swag]

So what are the implications of having the entire cast being able to die at the end game. Does this mean we're going to have a new protagonist and an entirely new team. It would seem a little silly to just resurrect Shepard again. I have no doubt they could create a new likable protagonist but to be honest I'd rather finish it off as Shepard.

Also it seemed to me that there was less minor choices to make this time around in comparison to the first though I barely touched any of the n7 missions. There were definitely more major ones, most dealing with what appears to be gaining allies from the various races in the inevitable final showdown.

I'm genuinely curious to see how they are going to handle this. It seems like it will be quite an undertaking.

They've been quoted as saying something to the effect of, if Shepherd dies in the second game he/she will not be returning in any shape or form for the third game. It'll be a new protagonist completely. But I think the circumstances that trigger the death of Shepherd are probably pretty extreme, no loyalty missions / no upgrades possibly.

The third game is going to have to do quite a lot given the seemingly short amount of time left till the Reapers attack. Settling the Geth / Quarian conflict, Genophage, return of the Rachni, maybe the evolution of the Asari as well are just some of the loose ends I see coming back. Not to mention anything from the second game's crew that would need to be clarified, possibly a cure for Thane's illness.

I hope for the third one they don't introduce that many new characters, or give us the option to just use the cast from the first / second game as the crew. Damn that would be epic.

 

[Aedile]

Edit: Did anyone figure out the significance of whatever it was that the Illusive man was always looking at? I assume it was a star or something and in the beginning it was mostly orange and a bit of blue/teal. At the end there is a very long shot of him sitting and staring at it except then its all blue. Anyone figure out what that's supposed to mean?

I seriously thought to myself, "Hey, look. It's a representation of my paragon-renegade score in the form of a glowing thing." Yeah, it's probably not that, but... did anyone with a renegade-heavy playthrough get an orange as opposed to blue glowing sphere at the end?

Personally I really hate the whole "good vs evil" binary-morality paradigm. I much prefer something more complex where choices are often morally ambiguous (see The Witcher or Dragon Age).

Yeah, having storyline branches tied into the morality meter is something Bioware didn't really need to hold onto after Knights of the Old Republic, which is the only game where it made sense. If it serves any purpose here--aside from getting people to pay a little more attention to dialogue--it's to preserve the illusion that there are different approaches to what is essentially a branchless plot. I agree that the way The Witcher approached these things, with minor but meaningful branches that had significant repercussions on the plot later on, is my favorite way of going about it. But given that the main way that most of these games handle plot branches is by 'align with group A or group B, lady Y or lord Z,' it probably wouldn't work here. One place where it would have worked would be if you could've aligned with Aria or the various groups that were trying to take her down; not relevant to the main plot maybe, but it would've been fun to see how that played out. Maybe a similar plotline will take place in ME3 with Liara versus the Shadow Broker.

Bioware absolutely played to their strengths in this game: far more time is dedicated to character interaction and character backstory than to the main plot, and Bioware does characters well. But I wished there had been more (or any) significant decisions of the destroy-or-don't-destroy-the-ship variety, and even the effects of that remain to be seen. The genophage research subplot was moving in the right direction, and for me Mordin was the most fully realized NPC in the game, possibly Bioware's best recent creation. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that this is (as many people have mentioned) middle-entry-in-a-trilogy setup for the coming payoff, though I have to admit that the rationale behind you-built-a-team-in-ME1-now-go-build-another-one-in-ME2 left me scratching my head.

But I criticize because I love. Seems like RPGs are in a transitional phase right now, and if any existing company is going to get them over the hump to... wherever it is they're going to go, it'll be Bioware.

I hope for the third one they don't introduce that many new characters

If Bioware is going to be true to the tradition of early 80s science fiction cheese that inspired the series, you know they'll have to make EDI a joinable character that looks like this (NSFW).

 

[Y2Kev]

I also think recruitment for a lot of characters was kinda eh. Is there a point where you actually tell any of them they're coming on a "suicide mission"? So Legion's joining the crew was so forced (seriously, a geth...HI IM A GETH LET ME IN "OK LOL"), but he is awesome. But like Mordin. Mordin was doing real work helping people. I just don't know if I buy it. Sure, it's a game, but generally people like Thane make more sense to have in these sorts of scenarios-- they are dying/on death row/have nothing else to do.

They've been quoted as saying something to the effect of, if Shepherd dies in the second game he/she will not be returning in any shape or form for the third game. It'll be a new protagonist completely. But I think the circumstances that trigger the death of Shepherd are probably pretty extreme, no loyalty missions / no upgrades possibly.

I thought they said that if your Shepard dies, you will not be able to load your save file. And that's that. They are definitely not killing him off in the canon ending.

I hope for the third one they don't introduce that many new characters

They better introduce almost none. I don't want to spend a significant part of the adventure recruiting the cast of hooligans again when the REAPERS ARE APPROACHING THE GALAXY FROM DARK SPACE

 

[Swag]

I also think recruitment for a lot of characters was kinda eh. Is there a point where you actually tell any of them they're coming on a "suicide mission"? So Legion's joining the crew was so forced (seriously, a geth...HI IM A GETH LET ME IN "OK LOL"), but he is awesome. But like Mordin. Mordin was doing real work helping people. I just don't know if I buy it. Sure, it's a game, but generally people like Thane make more sense to have in these sorts of scenarios-- they are dying/on death row/have nothing else to do.

I thought they said that if your Shepard dies, you will not be able to load your save file. And that's that. They are definitely not killing him off in the canon ending.

They better introduce almost none. I don't want to spend a significant part of the adventure recruiting the cast of hooligans again when the REAPERS ARE APPROACHING THE GALAXY FROM DARK SPACE

Players themselves dictate whether or not Shepard will die at the end of the game based on choices that they make throughout the game. While exploration in the first game had little relevance to the main story, in Mass Effect 2, the player is able to gather resources for ship upgrades and enemy intelligence that will have an effect on the final mission. BioWare Executive Producer Casey Hudson explained that "If you do die in the ending of Mass Effect 2, it will not come as a surprise, nor will it be random. It will be pretty obvious that you headed into the final mission knowing that Shepard probably wouldn’t make it out alive." Hudson also confirmed that team members would be affected by the player's decisions during the final mission: "You might have an ending where Shepard’s entire team survives, or where the entire mission is a bloodbath and everyone (including Shepard) is killed, or anything in between."The ending in which Shepard is killed represents a permanent death for the character in terms of the story, rather than a death where the player simply reloads from the last saved game after making a mistake in combat, meaning Shepard will not be available for Mass Effect 3 in that scenario.

The Quotes are pulled from this interview with Casey Hudson. It seems their really serious about the suicide mission / bloodbath thing they were talking about throughout the developer diaries.

I think they could've done the character recruiting a bit better, the cast was great and really diverse but the reasons for coming with you for some weren't in any way plausible. Mordin, was a big one. Also Tali didn't really sit well with me considering everything that was possibly going on with her. It seemed she was extremely loyal to the goals of the Admiral Fleet and her desire was to see her home world taken back from the Geth despite that she agrees to go on a suicide mission with you :lol.

Honestly though I can see them adding a few characters into the third game just to compensate for the people that may have had their entire crew die from the second. Or they'll bring back the original cast, Wrex Liara Kaidan/Ashley, and whoever you happened to have saved from ME2 against the Reapers.

 

[Y2Kev]

Yeah, I interpreted that as "your" Shepard. Which I think is pretty reasonable-- we both agree Shepard's going to be the main character in ME3, yeah? Though it would be interesting if you loaded a save file with a dead Shepard and you could be someone else

I agree the cast was awesome--loved them all except Zaeed, who was massively underdeveloped. Mordin was superb, Grunt grew on me and honestly I felt he was cute (Americans LOVE a good bildungsroman!), Miranda was good, Jacob has serious daddy issues and got annoying, Legion was excellently written (though his joining was stupid), Tali is Tali, Garrus was darker but never really got "brooding," Jack was surprisingly well done. Samara's loyalty quest was my favorite, followed closely by Thane. They were all at least good, I thought. It's just the recruiting that strikes me as a little hollow. Why doesn't at least one person say no? Like, no thanks to your SUICIDE MISSION. I totally get why it is the way it is, but I do think in retrospect it can be a little hokey. Total pedantic nitpickery, though.

I expect some new characters for sure. But I bet there will be a canon ending with like only Legion sacrificing himself or something :lol

 

[Swag]

Yeah Shepherd is definetly going to be the main character in the third game, I wonder who they would bring in to replace her/him. Considering the way they've positioned the story it seems like Shepherd is the only human capable of counteracting the reaper threat.

For me Jacob was the only dud in the cast, maybe because his story was the easiest thing for me to relate to, and thusly seemed boring. No space mystique, just a son and his daddy issues.

Bioware did a good job of making every crew member directly or indirectly owe Shepherd in some form, giving Shepherd some type of leverage in order to get them to join up. I guess that's why it was hard for them to say no to the mission., although if someone asked me to go on a suicide mission I'd at least take a day to think it over lol.

 

[SenorDingDong]

So we potentially may see 2 entirely different playable protagonists in Mass Effect 3.

Regarding the introduction of new characters, considering the fact that any combination of the Mass Effect 2 crew can be dead it seems inevitable that they'll have to create a whole host of new characters.

I guess their way around having to deal with including an overwhelming amount of content could be to have Shepard not playable at all regardless of whether (s)he survived. Though I'd be surprised and a little disappointed if that were the case. I've no doubt they'd be able to pull off a new likable cast but considering Mass Effect 2 had such a strong focus on that I'm hoping the third is more centred around directly dealing with Reapers.

Who knows, they might surprise us and release an amazingly content packed finale. I guess we can only wait and speculate.

 

[Swag]

So we potentially may see 2 entirely different playable protagonists in Mass Effect 3.

Regarding the introduction of new characters, considering the fact that any combination of the Mass Effect 2 crew can be dead it seems inevitable that they'll have to create a whole host of new characters.

I guess their way around having to deal with including an overwhelming amount of content could be to have Shepard not playable at all regardless of whether (s)he survived. Though I'd be surprised and a little disappointed if that were the case. I've no doubt they'd be able to pull off a new likable cast but considering Mass Effect 2 had such a strong focus on that I'm hoping the third is more centred around directly dealing with Reapers.

Who knows, they might surprise us and release an amazingly content packed finale. I guess we can only wait and speculate.

I think at this point, their going to have to deliver a shit ton of content in the finale, 4 disc ME3 . All the characters from ME1 will have to make an appearance, I wonder if possibly they'll just assume that all characters from ME2 survived, would be the easiest path for them to take.

There's no way that Shepherd isn't coming back in the third one, absolutely no way. Unless of course he / she dies in the second, but at that point I guess they can shift the blame on the player.

 

[SenorDingDong]

I think at this point, their going to have to deliver a shit ton of content in the finale, 4 disc ME3 . All the characters from ME1 will have to make an appearance, I wonder if possibly they'll just assume that all characters from ME2 survived, would be the easiest path for them to take.

There's no way that Shepherd isn't coming back in the third one, absolutely no way. Unless of course he / she dies in the second, but at that point I guess they can shift the blame on the player.

Yeah I'd be genuinely surprised if they made Shepard unplayable if he survived seeing as (s)he's so integral to the series. The only reason it springs to mind is that it's just the only workaround I can see for them having to deal with delivering a massive amount of content. But hey maybe they can do it. I don't think we'll see as extensive an overhaul to gameplay elements from the second to third like we did from the first to second and they've obviously wrapped their heads around the engine. So hopefully they're able to put a larger focus on campaign content.

Dragon Age Spoiler below:

Spoiler

It's worth noting that Bioware are taking a similar approach I believe with the expansion to Dragon Age where you can either import your character from the main if he survived the original campaign or play as an entirely new character from Orleis. Although theres a couple of key differences in that the playable character isn't voiced and apparently only one of the party members carries across from the original

 

[adamsapple]

Edit: Did anyone figure out the significance of whatever it was that the Illusive man was always looking at? I assume it was a star or something and in the beginning it was mostly orange and a bit of blue/teal. At the end there is a very long shot of him sitting and staring at it except then its all blue. Anyone figure out what that's supposed to mean?

When I chose to destroy the reaper tech, it turned all blue, but when I chose to keep it, it remained red, if that helps ...

i thought it was just a view of the Omega 4 area, it went all blue because i blew it to shit, but remained red (as usual) when i just deployed a radiation bomb that killed shit but kept things intact.

So that last shot of the reapers...where do we think they are now?

They'll be arriving in convenient time for Mass 3

Yeah Shepherd is definetly going to be the main character in the third game, I wonder who they would bring in to replace her/him. Considering the way they've positioned the story it seems like Shepherd is the only human capable of counteracting the reaper threat.

Casey Hudson said you can't import a dead character, I thought it just meant that's just not going to be the default path for ME3 at all ..

if you died in ME2, you'll be getting the stock default version in ME3.

 

[McNei1y]

My thoughts and End Mission review:

-Mordin went through pipe (got shot in the face closing the door)
-Grunt led the fire team
-I took Miranda and Legion

Mordin was the only casualty

-Jack was the biotic sphere person
-Garrus was the leader of fire team
-I took Miranda and Legion (Legion got fucked over by Jack for being a pussy bitch and failing the sphere)

SURVIVORS: I made Jacob take them back. Dr. Chakwas and Kelly were alive

Final Part:

-Took Thane and Garrus with me. Both survived
-Everyone else lived except for Jack. She ended up dying at the standstill. She deserved it for letting Legion die. Bitch.


I thought the last mission was fucking amazing. When I was playing it and saw Mordin die, I knew this mission had many different (minor) outcomes. My ship had new weapons, a new shield, and new strength and no one died in the attack. It landed on the Corrupter base.


Plot

I thought this game was fucking sweet. Following Mass Effect's lead was tough. That game's plot was amazing. Speaking with Soverign was probably one of the BEST dialogues I've ever had in a game. Reason being: It was such a twist. "We exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it". Such evil shit right there.

Mass Effect 2's downside was its out of left field plot. Harbringer was a reaper? Where were the clues? The hints? The Reapers do what they do just to take souls and either create more reapers or enslave shit? Where do we find that out? It all happened in like 2 minutes within eachother that you had no idea what the fuck was going on. The only great plot twist/info in this game was that the newly found enemy, the collectors, were/are the mysterious Protheans from the first. It was a good story but it definitely needed something to long for. Something to crush! I did enjoy seeing the Reapers come at the end.


ME2's gameplay was way over ME1 though. It was really well played out. I enjoyed how many more missions there were and how well the designs were to planets and stations. Everything was great.

Side Comments:

- The sex scene was fucking PG. Miranda in a bra was nothing satisfying :lol

- What's the deal with Morinth? (whatever Samara's daughter's name is.) You could have her on your team? You could bone her?

- Has anyone had Shepard die yet?

 

[Swag]

Casey Hudson said you can't import a dead character, I thought it just meant that's just not going to be the default path for ME3 at all ..

if you died in ME2, you'll be getting the stock default version in ME3.

I didn't even look at it from that view point before :lol, the quote from him says it's a permanent death for the character in terms of the story.

Personally I don't think that they would hype it up the way they did just to have people import a save where Shepherd died and then suddenly he/she comes back and your like "Huh I thought you were dead". Would be a silly Cop Out IMO.

 

[Pop On Arrival]

did you upgrade your ship all the way?

No, Just the upgrade tali offered me, heh. I'm going to do another play through and be very thorough this time.

Anyway, I love how I was always on the edge during the final part of the game. The fact Jack and Thane died without much build up kept me on my guard throughout the rest of the ending. Whenever someone looked like they were in a little trouble, I would flip the fuck out and hope they didn't fucking die. I was also nervous as fuck when I saw Tali buried under pieces of scrap metal, lying motionless.

don't think I've ever been worried about the well being of characters before.

edit: and reading how a lot of you guys rescued your entire crew makes me feel like a tremendous fuck-up. I got my entire fucking crew killed! I am a terrible starship captain.

 

[Ducarmel]

Just do there loyalty missions, and upgrade everything, and in the suicide mission planning part choose to go around the door and but a tech guy in the vents Tali or Legion. And Have Miranda or Garrus lead your Fire Team. Almost anybody should be able to lead the Survivors back.

Which is bullshit in my opinion, so if you want the happy ending you have to care about your crew and get loyalty when in ME1 you got there loyalty because they had similar goals to defeat Saren. I feel like the guy who saved the universe in ME1 deserves you respect and command from the get go and the loyalty missions should of been side quest like in ME1 if you cared to get involve with the personal lives of the crew.

Bioware should of focused the main story on the collectors and the Terminus system itself as a whole. A gaffer already pointed it out before why was the Terminus system not the wild wild west ME1 said it was? It seems like The Terminus System is more civil then citadel controlled space.

 

[Lostconfused]

Bioware should of focused the main story on the collectors and the Terminus system itself as a whole. A gaffer already pointed it out before why was the Terminus system not the wild wild west ME1 said it was? It seems like The Terminus System is more civil then citadel controlled space.

Because we didn't see anything in the Terminus systems, we only got to see Omega. The other two major explorable locations are the Citadel and Ilium which are both in citadel space.

 

[Ducarmel]

I take that back then I thought Ilium was in the Terminus system. Apparently only the earth Colonies and Omega and the few anomalies we visited are in terminus. But still when the council said stick to the terminus system i thought we were going to see a lot more.

 

[Ponn]

I did Jacobs loyalty quest last night. His dad is such a pimp:lol

 

[Lostconfused]

But still when the council said stick to the terminus system i thought we were going to see a lot more.

They pretty much were saying the same thing in the first game. We all know how that worked out.

 

[MegaKungFuRadio]

Hmm, so I did:

Legion in the pipe (he died)
Zaeed lead the fire team

then
Samara gave me barrier
Jacob lead the next fire team
Garrus for escort.

Took Miranda and Mordin with me both times.

Is there rhyme or reason to this? I did a quick Google search and they seemed to say that you have to leave immediately after the Legion loyalty quest, but I didn't since I wanted ot hard save first.

 

[Ducarmel]

Did you get Legion's upgrades done I think he had two, his shield and his rifle.

 

[MegaKungFuRadio]

Did you get Legion's upgrades done I think he had two, his shield and his rifle.

D'OH! Didn't feel like scanning the resources for his rifle since I wasn't planning on using him. I had plenty of every resource BUT platinum. So if I put Tali in his place everyone will survive? Or will Legion still find some way to die? I may just load the game up, set it to easy and burn through in that case.

There's no way that Shepherd isn't coming back in the third one, absolutely no way. Unless of course he / she dies in the second, but at that point I guess they can shift the blame on the player.

One of the loading screen tips was "Import your save to Mass Effect 3. If you survive." To me that means no Shepard, no import. Then again, I haven't seen the ending where he dies. Time to YouTube.

 

[Calantus]

Jacob got shot in the face on mine, Jack was dead on the ground at the end, and i lost legion. Didn't have jack loyal, and i liked her loyalty quest but not her character much.

Jacob was boring, and i liked legion oh well.

I'm glad we are done with the collectors, they killed the mood for me. Can't wait to fight the reapers.

 

[KHarvey16]

how the hell did everyone get Morinth on their crew? I was never given an option to choose betwen the two...

what kind of renegade/paragon points did you have for that one?

I believe if you have a high enough paragon or renegade score you get the choice. When they're fighting you'll be able to pick between killing Samara or killing Morinth. My paragon was up pretty high and I was able to choose, but I know people who had high renegade score also got the choice. I don't think there's a paragon/renegade point reward based on your choice though.