Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Morat20]

All that said, Sentinels are possibly the most absurdly powerful class, and I appreciate the "you beat ME2" bonuses to new characters/imports.

Sentinels are the tech/biotics, right? What sort of bonuses for new characters? ME1 had that "Hey, 10% bonus to life for using Kaidan" and "10% increase in X for using X 150 times" achievements, and bonus XP for finishing the game and such.

Any notable ones for ME2 for replays?

[caladein]

One of the loading screens mentioned the Mission Accomplished (?) achievement granting +25% experience.  There might be other bonuses as, unlike in ME1, the bonuses aren't listed with the achievement either before or after you get them.

[Ingmar]

Citadel in general was great this time, even if it was far smaller.

"Hamlet, now with an all-Elcor cast!"

That was actually a followup to an elevator ad in the first game.

One of the loading screens mentioned the Mission Accomplished (?) achievement granting +25% experience.  There might be other bonuses as, unlike in ME1, the bonuses aren't listed with the achievement either before or after you get them.

What you get when you restart with a new character after beating the game:

- your choice of a free bonus power from any character you have the loyalty achievement for (just like the advanced training upgrade, basically). There's still space for another one on the power wheel so you can have 2 bonus powers eventually this way.
- +25% experience
- a whole bunch of money and materials (I think it was 300k credits and 50k of each material but not 100% sure). I think this supersedes the money you would have received from the Rich achievement from a game 1 import.

If you are starting the game over with the same character you just beat it with I believe you also get:

- all the heavy weapons you had for the first playthrough without having to unlock them again

[kildorn]

I don't think you get two bonus powers, I tried getting a second via the upgrade option and it just replaced.

But yeah, that and the bonus minerals (50k of each) are the best bonuses ever. The bonus skill is pretty much key for the harder modes for me.

[Ingmar]

Aw, too bad.

[fatboy]

"Hamlet, now with an all-Elcor cast!"

The best 14 hours of your life!

That totally cracked me up - right of ME1.  Excellent!

[tmp]

Making me scramble into the open to pick up a clip with three bullets is not fun.

Must say i found myself do the vault over obstacle and chase to the next cover bits frequently just for the heck of it and to break what's otherwise monotonous 'sit behind cover and shoot' routine. If i could grab the ammo clip while at it that was just a bonus 

[Riggswolfe]

My favorite environmental bit has to be the ad for Blasto, the first Hanar Spectre!

"It knows the criminal is wondering.  Has it used up all of its heat sinks? Does the criminal feel lucky?"

And of course the followup PR ad where the company apologizes for offending the Hanar.

[Trippy]

Making me scramble into the open to pick up a clip with three bullets is not fun.

Must say i found myself do the vault over obstacle and chase to the next cover bits frequently just for the heck of it and to break what's otherwise monotonous 'sit behind cover and shoot' routine. If i could grab the ammo clip while at it that was just a bonus 

Requiring ammo totally changed my play style. In ME1 I rarely relied on my team members to kill cannon fodder stuff (anybody they killed was simply a bonus). With ME2 I play it like a 3rd person RTS were I move them around and have them do all the work since they never run out of ammo. Typical setup is me in front to draw all the fire (since they tend to die pretty easily) and them in back and I just sit there twiddling my thumbs except to take out the occasional charging baddie and even then I usually just smack them in the face rather than fire a shot.

[Phildo]

So which of the extra powers are you guys using?

[tmp]

My favorite environmental bit has to be the ad for Blasto, the first Hanar Spectre!

"Enkindle this."

[Ingmar]

So which of the extra powers are you guys using?

Barrier, on my soldier, adds quite a lot of survivability.

My favorite environmental bit has to be the ad for Blasto, the first Hanar Spectre!

"Enkindle this."

I think what makes the dialogue in 2 so  is that they had all of ME1 to establish their 'defaults' for everything about the aliens, etc., and now they get to play around with stuff like that to a much greater degree. A lot of ME1 was in INFO DUMP mode that kind of got in the way of that sort of thing.

[tmp]

I think what makes the dialogue in 2 so  is that they had all of ME1 to establish their 'defaults' for everything about the aliens, etc., and now they get to play around with stuff like that to a much greater degree. A lot of ME1 was in INFO DUMP mode that kind of got in the way of that sort of thing.

There's this and they also seem to practice "show, don't tell" more often in their world building which helps the atmosphere a ton. Some of my favourite background characters so far were the various Volus guys, how they're shown in range of everyday and not-so-everyday situations.

[Nonentity]

The Volus on Illium looking to get performance upgrades is pretty hilarious.

[kildorn]

So which of the extra powers are you guys using?

My sentinel used Warp Ammo

My Infiltrator uses <redacted> shielding, for the damage boost at level 4. After looking, it just seemed better than Fort or Barrier because of that one extra effect.

I'm tempted to start a vanguard on insanity (because I think I hate myself..), and I'm also tempted to throw reave into it, but vanguards seem like they need a barrier type ability AND something that actually hurts barriers/shields. Seriously, who made a close combat class with pretty much no offensive or defensive biotics?

[Nightblade]

So which of the extra powers are you guys using?

Reave on a vanguard. Its ridiculous. Double damage to armor and shields, hp drain, massive damage and crowd control skill all in one.

[Merusk]

Making me scramble into the open to pick up a clip with three bullets is not fun.

Must say i found myself do the vault over obstacle and chase to the next cover bits frequently just for the heck of it and to break what's otherwise monotonous 'sit behind cover and shoot' routine. If i could grab the ammo clip while at it that was just a bonus  

Requiring ammo totally changed my play style. In ME1 I rarely relied on my team members to kill cannon fodder stuff (anybody they killed was simply a bonus). With ME2 I play it like a 3rd person RTS were I move them around and have them do all the work since they never run out of ammo. Typical setup is me in front to draw all the fire (since they tend to die pretty easily) and them in back and I just sit there twiddling my thumbs except to take out the occasional charging baddie and even then I usually just smack them in the face rather than fire a shot.

I'm finding my teammates powers are of a greater use than their actual placement.  I typically let my team members wander around and shoot shit up on their own, like you.  Since I'm playing an infiltrator, they usually have wiped out most bad guys by the time I've been able to snipe 2-3 of the tougher ones down.  Just watching their CDs so I can kill/ soften up annoying guys (like anything with barriers.)

I make liberal use of my incendiary shot since it's an "instant kill" on anything that doesn't have armor or shields.  Rocket guy being a problem? Nope, one pop-up inferno shot and he's toast.   Bonus if I'm carrying Morlin around so he can burn armor off a tough one, then I can burn it to death.  My first 4th tier power is squad-wide disruptor shots for shields.


As far as bonus powers, I'm just using Incendiary grenade right now.  Level 12 and I've only done the clone and the merc's loyalty missions.  I'm debating rerunning the mercs just because I don't think the loss of Paragon points was worth the silly grenade.

[Lantyssa]

My main power is Incinerate and ammo.  I switch between Disruptor and Cryo depending on what we're facing, but mostly Cryo.

Requiring ammo totally changed my play style. In ME1 I rarely relied on my team members to kill cannon fodder stuff (anybody they killed was simply a bonus). With ME2 I play it like a 3rd person RTS were I move them around and have them do all the work since they never run out of ammo. Typical setup is me in front to draw all the fire (since they tend to die pretty easily) and them in back and I just sit there twiddling my thumbs except to take out the occasional charging baddie and even then I usually just smack them in the face rather than fire a shot.

That's my problem.  I don't want to play an RTS where I twiddle my thumbs, I want to shoot things.  While it has uses, Incinerating some enemies to death can take a while.

[caladein]

So which of the extra powers are you guys using?

Fortification on my Infiltrator (Heavy Disrupter Ammo/Assassination Cloak/Incineration Blast/Agent).  It's the same power as Barrier and I picked it up for the same reason Ingmar did.

I didn't notice the +Weapon Damage on the Improved redacted Shield Boost... definitely going to pick that up instead on my second playthrough.

[kildorn]

So which of the extra powers are you guys using?

Fortification on my Infiltrator (Heavy Disrupter Ammo/Assassination Cloak/Incineration Blast/Agent).  It's the same power as Barrier and I picked it up for the same reason Ingmar did.

I didn't notice the +Weapon Damage on the Improved redacted Shield Boost... definitely going to pick that up instead on my second playthrough.

Yeah, I don't know why they're identical powers, but one happens to get +10% weapon damage at level 4.

I want tech armor on everything, though! :(

[Ingmar]

They're not identical powers really. One is a barrier one is a shield one is armor, with all the strengths/weakness vs. attack types that those imply, right?

[caladein]

It may be a UI limitation but when I hit Fortification, it looks like I just refilled my shields even though it's the "Armor" power.

I guess I'd have to pop it before going into combat and seeing if my "shields" die before the glowy effect goes away.

I will do some getting-shot-at-for-science later tonight.

[Ingmar]

I did notice when I use barrier when badly wounded, I get full shields but I *don't* lose the RED VEINS OF DEATH. If that means anything!

[kildorn]

I did notice when I use barrier when badly wounded, I get full shields but I *don't* lose the RED VEINS OF DEATH. If that means anything!

From what I can tell:

They do not help health, you can be near dead and shielded.

They don't do different shielding types (barrier/armor/shields), but your CLASS determines which of these protects you. Unless it's a UI bug when you use the wrong protection for your class.

[Venkman]

Is there a screenshot key? Can't find it, even though I have a Screenshots folder

[caladein]

Not that I know of, and I looked.  Even Print Screen returned a black screen for the monitor ME2 was running on.

All my screenshots have been taken via Xfire.

[Venkman]

Jeezus what a pita. So many recent games. How hard is it to just map Print Screen to auto-write a JPG? MMOs have done this for years and those are still in their relative infancy. Print Screen has been working for me, but it's a pain and I lose some clarity on the paste.

[tmp]

Whee, finished. Spent literally like 5 minutes pacing up and down trying to make the final choice. Well done.

QA slip

[Shrike]

So which of the extra powers are you guys using?

On my soldier Shepard it's warp ammo. This stuff rocks on the Collectors--Harbinger in particular, who otherwise is a colossal pain in your ass if you don't have a biotic on your team (I usually didn't.). Warp ammo + Revenant MG = righteous asskicking on the final mission.

Everything else soldier Shepard might need comes from regular upgrades: hard shields and tons of health upgrades. Extra ammo sure is nice on the Rev, too, since it's a wicked bullet hose.

[Phildo]

I'm using warp ammo also, although it feels like a waste of a power considering you already have the choice of three ammo types to start with.  But I'm not playing on a ridiculous difficulty so I have no need for extra barriers, and I hate that some biotic and tech abilities are unavailable against certain enemies.

[tmp]

On my soldier Shepard it's warp ammo. This stuff rocks on the Collectors--Harbinger in particular, who otherwise is a colossal pain in your ass if you don't have a biotic on your team (I usually didn't.).

Harbinger is pretty easy with combination of fire ammo + sniper rifle + bullet time, no biotics needed. If you catch him early (when he's not moving around yet) his barrier can be blown away before he manages to do anything and then the armour goes away in few next shots. Spawning a battle drone to attack him can ensure he'll spend few precious seconds trying to kill it rather than kill you, perfectly exposing him for some extra damage to the head. Regular Collectors... they die like flies to the revenant assault rifle with fire ammo. That's on the hardcore level, maybe harder on insanity.

[MournelitheCalix]

I just completed Mass Effect 2, in my opinion this might be the very best game of all time.  From start to finish I was just in awe.  Time absolutely flew for me and I can bearly believe what Bioware pulled off.  The story was first class in my opinion with a few holes but still first class.   The combat system was amazing.  I think this is the first title to blend RPG and FPS since Deus Ex and in my opinion it was a flawless melding.  

This is why EA bought Bioware, I am convinced of this.  I can see the Mass Effect universe making money for them hand over fist for decades with writing/quality like this.   I am convinces that this is a game we will remember 10 years from now.  I think many of us will talk about it as reverently as i talk about Deus Ex, Baldur's Gate 2, Thief 2 and Fallout.  Bravo Bioware, you outdid yourself on this one.

[Velorath]

I just completed Mass Effect 2, in my opinion this might be the very best game of all time.  From start to finish I was just in awe.  Time absolutely flew for me and I can bearly believe what Bioware pulled off.  The story was first class in my opinion with a few holes but still first class.   The combat system was amazing.  I think this is the first title to blend RPG and FPS since Deus Ex and in my opinion it was a flawless melding.  

This is why EA bought Bioware, I am convinced of this.  I can see the Mass Effect universe making money for them hand over fist for decades with writing/quality like this.   I am convinces that this is a game we will remember 10 years from now.  I think many of us will talk about it as reverently as i talk about Deus Ex, Baldur's Gate 2, Thief 2 and Fallout.  Bravo Bioware, you outdid yourself on this one.

ME2 sold 2 million copies in the first week, so I'd guess that EA is pretty happy with Bioware right now.  That press release also mentioned that Dragon Age was EA's best reviewed game last year (and I doubt they're putting out anything else this year that will top ME2 96% Metacritic rating either).

[schild]

Dead Space 2 is the only thing they've publicly announced that could hit that Metacritic Rating.

[caladein]

QA slip