Mass Effect 2

[Maniacal]

I posted a few days ago to someone's ME1 question about the IFF thing, in which I explained it not realizing he was asking about ME2.

I say go for it, get people killed. You get huge bonuses when you start a new game with a previous character and then you can correct any mistakes you want. I really enjoyed my second playthrough and wish I had taken more risks in my first one. As for the ending not being satisfactory if you screwed up, well, that just makes it more realistic doesn't it? Like how people complain about a character whom is not the most instantly likable guy, not everyone in life is likable

In my renegade playthrough I didn't get Tali's loyalty (chose the 3rd option) and managed to not get her killed!

 

[LightSpectra]

Eh. I'll probably just replay the game right before ME3 comes out and try to fix my mistakes then.

Also, I have to say that ME2 has probably the best ending of any videogame ever. Maybe rivaled by Planescape: Torment.

 

[sophie]

Eh. I'll probably just replay the game right before ME3 comes out and try to fix my mistakes then.

Also, I have to say that ME2 has probably the best ending of any videogame ever. Maybe rivaled by Planescape: Torment.

lol. I played through my first game of ME without really paying attention to anything I was doing, making a buttload of mistakes along the way (killing Wrex, finishing at level 40, not really doing very many of the sidequests, killing everyone on Feros, not getting very good equipment, etc).

It was actually rather fun. It was extremely difficult, and I really had to learn a lot of the aspects of the game, and I found myself scraping by every situation in the game (The Thorian, oh god the Thorian).

Then I went back and basically overleveled myself and made sure to do everything right. That time the game was so easy it bordered on boring. I found myself not really having to use strategy or powers because it was just as easy to simply run at everything while shooting at it until it was dead.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Yeah so I just found out that I'm going to get the bad ending to Mass Effect 2 unless I skip the last three loyalty missions I had to do, because I was not aware that the endgame inevitably comes two missions after you get the IFF. So I can either leave these missions unfinished or I can get the bad ending, which is bad for me because I'm a perfectionist. Alternatively I can load a save from before I get the IFF, which means I'll have to replay three hours of the game that I didn't find particularly enticing in the first place. Though I wouldn't mind doing Samara's loyalty mission again, replaying the IFF mission, Jacob's loyalty mission, and all the planet scanning again is really tedious.

FML.

It's not really a bad ending. The real bad ending is when you get everyone killed, includign Shepard.
On my first playthrought I completed all loyalty missions and only lost the crew, the colonists and Grunt (and the latter was Jack's fault).

 

[Rub'Rum]

I lost a few people despite my best attempt. Apparently I misunderstood a bunch of characters' roles or strengths and assigned them to stupid tasks (I had completed all loyalty missions except for the first DLC dude that came with the game because of the way I solved his mission). Mostly because I expected the ending to take longer and the first people I sent out were those that I felt were maybe "the second best" at whatever they had to do. Or when I thought I had to send in a strong guy apparently I had to send a techy guy. I just misunderstand crap like that all the time, I'm always asking questions when I watch movies 'cause I understand stuff all crooked.

 

[Akka]

Honestly, just use common sense and you'll be fine. I've saved every single person on my first attempt ever by just guessing who should do what.
For ONCE, a game designer actually used plain logical facts rather than contrived gameplay balancing. And, unsurprisingly, it worked.

 

[Dachs]

As you see, Renegade is no more just "being a jerk", it's just "being forceful" (though it sometimes mean being a jerk, of course ), and actually it was much better in the dialogue than ME1 for this.

Yeah, this is more or less true. I would call Renegades more "badass" than "forceful", though. ME1 Renegade also was kind of rasist ("IT'S A BIG STUPID JELLYFISH!"). ME2 Renegade resolution to the quarian slavebroker miniquest on Illium has you accusing other people of being rasist.

What does Joker say after you recruit Thane? I missed that because I forgot to talk to him in between getting Thane and Samara.

"Oh, another dangerous alien aboard, Commander. Thanks. Why can't you collect coins or commemorative plates or something?"

Also, I have to say that ME2 has probably the best ending of any videogame ever. Maybe rivaled by Planescape: Torment.

I have replayed the Suicide Mission many, many times to watch that ending.

It's not really a bad ending. The real bad ending is when you get everyone killed, includign Shepard.

Watching the ending cutscene when you do that is pretty poignant.

Honestly, just use common sense and you'll be fine. I've saved every single person on my first attempt ever by just guessing who should do what.
For ONCE, a game designer actually used plain logical facts rather than contrived gameplay balancing. And, unsurprisingly, it worked.

Yeah. What bugs me about that is all of the idiots on the BioWare boards who complained about [insert problem here] within days of release. Most of them related to "why can't Miri do the biotic field" (jack of all trades, master of none; why use Miri when you have two super-biotics in your team), "why can't Zaeed be a squad leader" (his team hated him so much that they held him down while Vido shot him in the face, so how good of a leader could he have been), and "why does Mordin keep dying when he holds the line" ("Personally prefer to get job done and go home" ring a bell?).

Side comment: only place worth going on the BioWare boards for Mass Effect, other than the announcements forum, is definitely the classes and strategy forum. Some of the people there - sinosleep, Athenau, AverageGatsby, and Pacifien for instance - are brilliant. Most of the other forums are overrun with whining, kind of like all of the anti-Steam crap on the Civ V forums atm.

 

[LightSpectra]

"Oh, another dangerous alien aboard, Commander. Thanks. Why can't you collect coins or commemorative plates or something?"

lol.

I don't think anything has made me laugh so far as hard as Joker's miniquest and EDI.

 

[Dachs]

"There's nothing wrong with off-duty distractions...though some of your extranet bookmarks are technically illegal in Council space."

 

[LightSpectra]

I paid $7 for the Kasumi DLC. Wasn't worth it. Only an hour of gameplay and not a particularly interesting character.

I was thinking about getting Lair of the Shadow Broker, but my saves have for some weird reason recognized me as having romanced Liara, so that's kinda squicky.

 

[Maniacal]

I discovered only in my last playthrough if you hang around Jester after several seconds he will utter some (usually boring and unremarkable) sentence, but if you hang around longer he will utter two or three interesting sentences.

None of the DLC is actually worth the price they charge, even though most of it is very good. Kasumi, however at least, is fully voiced and you can bring her along and use her the entire game, I used her as my tech specialist in the ending.

Lair of the Shadow Broker is really good too.

The Firepower Pack is cool too, though I still feel dirty having paid for frigging items.

Overlord was fun, but they still overcharged on all of the DLC > _<

At least its better than the mediocre Dragon Age DLC.

 

[Dachs]

I paid $7 for the Kasumi DLC. Wasn't worth it. Only an hour of gameplay and not a particularly interesting character.

Meh. Regardless of your opinion of Kasumi or Stolen Memory, I personally think that the flashbangs and the Locust make that DLC worthwhile. Locust totally alters the style of play for basically every class except the Soldier, and flashbangs are incredibly handy because they ignore barriers.

I was thinking about getting Lair of the Shadow Broker, but my saves have for some weird reason recognized me as having romanced Liara, so that's kinda squicky.

lolboringprude

You don't have to start things up again with Liara if you don't want to, you know.

Overlord was fun, even if it did incorporate some Hammerhead nonsense.

I discovered only in my last playthrough if you hang around Jester after several seconds he will utter some (usually boring and unremarkable) sentence, but if you hang around longer he will utter two or three interesting sentences.

Hang around Legion for awhile; he does the Robot.

 

[LightSpectra]

Plot twists I'm hoping for in Mass Effect 3:

Spoiler :

Paragon ending: the Reapers succeed in entering the Milky Way, but choose to spare the galaxy because Shepard has demonstrated herself to be a superior lifeform.

Renegade ending: as a last resort, Shepard prevents the Reapers from returning by destroying every mass relay, thus sparing all sentient life at the cost of intergalactic communication.

Alternatively, Paragon: "Gondor calls for aid" ending where the Quarians lead by Tali, the Rachni, the Krogan lead by Wrex, the Omega forces under Aria, the mercenaries lead by Zaeed, Cerberus, the Council races by Anderson, and the Shadow Broker organization under Liara unite all under Shepard to repel the Reaper invasion.

Renegade: Cerberus, using the Collector base technology, succeeds in turning Shepard into a Reaper, who then saves mankind by negotiating with the Reaper armada at the expense of the other races.

Alternatively-alternatively, the beings that made the Reapers did so with the intent of eventually see a species evolve with an individual capable of defeating their creations. The superbeings then intervene and annihilate the Reapers, and offer Shepard to become the new Bhaal -- er, Guardian of the Universe. Paragon declines, renegade accepts.

The Illusive Man is a cyborg created by, or working for, Councilor Udina.

Shepard was a Reaper the whole time.

The Turian councilor was partially indoctrinated the whole time.

A Hanar party member that can't use weapons, but has extremely powerful biotics.

The Reapers revive an indoctrinated Kaidan or Ashley in a last-ditch effort to emotionally break Shepard. Or, all of the Normandy-S1's crew in addition to every teammate that died in ME2.

If no romances were pursued throughout the three games, Joker becomes a romance option for female Shepard.

In lieu of making a human Reaper, the Collectors decide to make an elcor Reaper. (Just kidding. But that would be a twist, wouldn't it?)

I'm aware most of these are unlikely to happen. What I'm actually expecting is some ending where Shepard uses Prothean advancements to turn the mass relays into cannons in order to annihilate the Reapers or something like that.

 

[Dachs]

Pretty much everybody expects "Gondor calls for aid" to be in the game. Except for the "mercenaries" bit, cause most of them hate Zaeed and vice versa.

They're actually doing the Illusive Man's backstory in a comic book, so the cyborg option is out.

And yeah, most of the other ones are pretty silly. The Joker one might actually work, though. There are plenty of people on the BW forums who have voiced an opinion about that, and if BioWare included Talimancing in ME2 because of fan support, why not Jokermancing?

 

[Maniacal]

Spoiler :

Paragon ending: the Reapers succeed in entering the Milky Way, but choose to spare the galaxy because Shepard has demonstrated herself to be a superior lifeform.

I can't see that happening.

Renegade ending: as a last resort, Shepard prevents the Reapers from returning by destroying every mass relay, thus sparing all sentient life at the cost of intergalactic communication.

They are deep out in the middle of, literally, nowhere in space, the only relay they could have used was the citadel and that was not activated. At the end of ME2 you see the reaper fleet engaging FTL drives and heading for the galaxy.

Alternatively, Paragon: "Gondor calls for aid" ending where the Quarians lead by Tali, the Rachni, the Krogan lead by Wrex, the Omega forces under Aria, the mercenaries lead by Zaeed, Cerberus, the Council races by Anderson, and the Shadow Broker organization under Liara unite all under Shepard to repel the Reaper invasion.

I don't know how much Omega or Zaeed will help, (though I do hope Zaeed shows up, I liked him), but yeah Gondor Calls for Aid is a likely ending.

Renegade: Cerberus, using the Collector base technology, succeeds in turning Shepard into a Reaper, who then saves mankind by negotiating with the Reaper armada at the expense of the other races.

I don't think Shepherd is going to be a reaper, but the renegade option is to use the reaper technology, which means future tech will continue to be based off reaper tech and as such easier for the reaper's to counter than entirely new tech, and possibly cerberus's own minireaper.

Alternatively-alternatively, the beings that made the Reapers did so with the intent of eventually see a species evolve with an individual capable of defeating their creations. The superbeings then intervene and annihilate the Reapers, and offer Shepard to become the new Bhaal -- er, Guardian of the Universe. Paragon declines, renegade accepts.

Maybe, though I suspect the reapers already eliminated their original creators (or they became them).

The Illusive Man is a cyborg created by, or working for, Councilor Udina.

Nope, he might have implants but he was indeed human (Mass Effect Ascension, the 2nd novel, gives a very brief background on him).

Shepard was a Reaper the whole time.

I lol'd.

The Turian councilor was partially indoctrinated the whole time.

Racist!

A Hanar party member that can't use weapons, but has extremely powerful biotics.

That would be awesome.

The Reapers revive an indoctrinated Kaidan or Ashley in a last-ditch effort to emotionally break Shepard. Or, all of the Normandy-S1's crew in addition to every teammate that died in ME2.

Interesting, but I think most of the corpses are safely destroyed.

If no romances were pursued throughout the three games, Joker becomes a romance option for female Shepard.

That would be hilarious and awesome.

I'm aware most of these are unlikely to happen. What I'm actually expecting is some ending where Shepard uses Prothean advancements to turn the mass relays into cannons in order to annihilate the Reapers or something like that.

That would be a good idea, though that probably wouldn't be prothean technology (they barely had just finished their own small relay), or at least not entierly. There are a LOT of reapers though, over 300 in the end cutscene alone.

 

[LightSpectra]

As far as I can tell, the Reapers need to use mass relays as well; otherwise Sovereign's gambit in the first game was pointless. I don't see them engaging in FTL travel in the ending, just waking up.

 

[Maniacal]

Spoiler :

They have no mass relay out there, that is what the citadel is for and why it was so important. The keepers were supposed to send a signal and open up the citadel so the reaper fleet could come through and take out the central government of the space-fairing races, causing chaos, anarchy and cutting off communications. All the mass relay paths lead to the citadel and the reapers would follow them away from the citadel, wiping out all space fairing life.

However, the keepers, being biological, had mutated since the last cycle which wiped out the protheons and did not send the signal. This is why Sovereign had to dock with the citadel and activate it himself (but was destroyed before he could complete it). As such the entire reaper fleet is now FTLing it to the nearest relay, which is a very long ways away from where they are hiding out in deep space.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Two predictions from me:
1.) Since ME is already ripping o... I mean inspired by Babylon 5 to some degree, I predict there'll first be a major war either ME 3 or in the backstory between ME 2 and 3, possibly a second war between the Alliance and the Turians and the dissolution of the citadel council.

2.) There'll be a "not quite so evil" (at least by our standards) counterpart to the reapers and the leviathan of Dis was/is a member of this species. The species is unknown in citadel space because they're either native to another galaxy or are inhabiting areas far away from any known mass relays.

 

[Dachs]

Mass Effect might've been a ripoff of Babylon 5 standard BioWare story, but Mass Effect 2 basically threw that all out the window, no?

The Leviathan of Dis might be a reference to Nazara, or another (derelict?) Reaper, or it might have to do with that virtual world thing that's been going on in Cerberus Daily News over the past few weeks. We've already got an Ancient Alien Benefactor Species, we don't need another one.

I am, however, intrigued about Kumun Shol and Klencory, and the possibility of another Prothean Chekhov's Gun.

 

[LightSpectra]

Something I've been pondering: on Mass Effect missions, are you supposed to "pretend" that the scale is much bigger than what you're looking at? I can understand the Citadel or Illium, for example, because Shepard is only going where she has business, and doesn't have to see the whole area. But I find it kinda weird that she repels a Collector invasion of Horizon (pop. 700,000) just by killing about four dozen Collectors plus one tank. Or that Saren only took about a hundred Geth to Ilos. Or that the Blood Pack on Tuchanka only has about three dozen Krogan at their headquarters, where they were researching something very critical.