Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Stormwaltz]

One of my favourite moments in ME2 was where in one apartment you tell off looters for stealing property during a plague, then go into the next apartment, tell the people to find shelter, and loot their safe right in front of them. Hypocrisy FTW!

I pointed that bit out in testing. 

[Bandit]

Yeah. i actually loved the driving sections in ME1. Bouncing around on that Jeep thingie was great fun to me. Certainly a lot more fun than spinning a planet and wiggling your mouse.

It's not the driving itself, and on the PC version Mako combat was a hoot. What sucked and sucked hugely was driving around on near vertical surfaces. The mountainous planets blew goats. The flat(ter) worlds were actually fun to tool around on.

That's my opinion too. Instead of ditching the Mako for 2, they should have just cleaned up the terrain you drove on.

I prefer the Mako to the Hammerhead missions in ME2.  The Hammerhead content is pretty much on rails, and there is some silly "platforming" up lava fields.  The fault as suggested with the Mako was the planets themselves and not necessarily the Mako.  I liked the exploring aspect of the Mako and some of the horizons on the planets was incredible.

[Shrike]

Yeah, the skyscapes on some of the more exotic worlds were breathtaking. That's the one thing I really missed in ME2 as opposed to the first game.

It just occured to me (re-occured really) that the overall feel of ME1 was of melancholy. This was heavily reinforced by M4 part II on the credits. The overall feel of ME2 was very different; more of epic beatdown, rather than discovery and loss. The bombast of Suicide Run reflects that.  I'm fine with all this, but it's a stark contrast. Makes one wonder what ME3 will be like. I know what I'm hoping for, but I guess we'll find out in about a year.

[Sjofn]

My favorite place was actually the moon in ME1. I liked seeing Earth from there, possibly because when I was little I totally wanted to be an astronaut (I even named my LadyShep Sally in honor of Sally Ride, I am a TOTAL DORK  ), so it resonated or something. Plus I didn't have to drive up any sheer cliffs.

One of MY big hopes for ME3 is that we don't have another "wtf, really?" end boss like in ME2. The giant husk thing at the end was just so out of nowhere. Aside from that, though, I think the end sequence of ME2 is one of my favorite things I've ever done in a game. To be fair, I'm not sure any "end boss" fight would really have worked for me, though ... it felt too YOU'RE AT THE END, TIME FOR YOUR END BOSS, if that makes sense at all.

[Sky]

All you wanna do is ride around, Sally.

Ride, Sally Ride!

 

[Stormwaltz]

It just occured to me (re-occured really) that the overall feel of ME1 was of melancholy... The overall feel of ME2 was very different; more of epic beatdown, rather than discovery and loss.

Some of that is because in ME1, there was pressure from above to remove humor from the game. The theory was that if we cracked jokes all the time, no one would take the game/story/background seriously. That rule relaxed quite after the first game proved a success.

[Fabricated]

I'm playing through ME2 again, which says something about how good the game is but I'm really starting to notice something that bugs me and it's how ridiculously pervasive/acclimated humans are in the ME universe despite us only being on the galactic scene for like 26-28 years or so. Zaheed in particular confuses me.

...you started the Blue Suns like 6 years after first contact? In the terminus systems? What?

Also how weirdly xenophobic humans are despite how they literally rushed out into alien territory. It'd be like a bunch of people from the Catskills moving to Long Island and complaining about "the coloreds". How about stay home then?

[Ingmar]

Yeah that always bugged me a bit too. Everything seems so compressed. In particular I am kind of bothered by the idea that humans had a fleet technologically competitive with the turians before first contact even happened, despite the turians having a 1500 year+ head start into space.

[Sjofn]

That's what makes humans so SCARY! 

[Reg]

I always assumed that the Mass Effect universe was reaching the limits of technology where new things just didn't get developed very often anymore. A lot like it is in Star Wars where ship drives have all been pretty much the same for thousands of years.

If I remember correctly, nobody developed mass effect drives on their own right? Their races either had it given to them or they stumbled across it in old Prothean/Reaper ruins.

[Stormwaltz]

In particular I am kind of bothered by the idea that humans had a fleet technologically competitive with the turians before first contact even happened, despite the turians having a 1500 year+ head start into space.

"Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your civilization develops along the paths we desire."
- Sovereign

Everyone shares the same mass effect technology base for weapons and FTL drive. Applications may differ, but the humans came to the party with the same set of tools as the turians.

At the first, human ships were markedly more primitive in non-paleotech-based fields (power system, life support, armor), but remember the size of their counterattack took a small turian force by surprise. If the war had gone on, the turians would have been landing on Earth in weeks or months.

[Ingmar]

Fair enough, although I am risking the urge to go Comic Book Store Guy here and start asking more questions.

Alec, Alec, regarding that so called "silent" propulsion system in "The Hunt For Red October", I printed out a list of technical errors which I think you'd enjoy discussing.

[Tannhauser]

It's almost a shame Bioware is making SWTOR, this means there probably won't be a ME MMO.  I'd really like tooling around in that galaxy.  You've already got the player races and classes, just some adjustments.

Add me to the list of folks who liked the Mako.  Sniping and scooting around on planets was fun.  But yeah, the mountains really sucked.  Wish it hadn't been quite so floaty but it was fun exploration.

[Velorath]

It's almost a shame Bioware is making SWTOR, this means there probably won't be a ME MMO.

On the other hand, it doesn't mean that they won't make a Mass Effect game with some sort of multiplayer component (such a thing was already rumored for ME3).  I'd also rather have seen a Mass Effect MMO than a SW one, but really I don't think the MMO approach is the most ideal way to explore the ME Universe, at least at present.  Right now I'd rather see where they take things after they're done with 3.  I'd like to see them do some one-off stories personally.  They can have some decisions carry over from game to game, but I don't want another trilogy right away.

I'd also be happy if they found a good partner to make a Mass Effect P&P RPG with.

[Lantyssa]

The Mako would have been fine if they would have just let it climb those steep inclines, and not let a multi-ton vehicle bounce around like a balloon.

[UnSub]

One of my favourite moments in ME2 was where in one apartment you tell off looters for stealing property during a plague, then go into the next apartment, tell the people to find shelter, and loot their safe right in front of them. Hypocrisy FTW!

I pointed that bit out in testing. 

What was the response?  

It's one of those areas where most RPGs fall down - you walk into a room and loot everything that isn't bolted to the floor, even if you are meant to be playing the Holy Paladin of Moralsville. It did stand out that the organisation who apparently spent millions reviving Shepherd couldn't spin him some extra credits to buy better weapons and armour. Or couldn't supply him with the best straight out.

It would have made more sense (and did, when it popped up) that you needed the hard-to-get resources you collected to build unique weapons / items, but less when you had to buy conventional weaponry from the shops.

As for the ME universe: it probably works better as being vaguely defined. The more someone tried to define the universe, the more the gaps would start to appear and things would look unworkable.

[Paelos]

As I closed in on the end of ME2, and started to realize that as soon as I collected the last person, that was going to be it, I got a little pissed.

I was thinking, wow you don't even give me like some smaller missions with my loyal asskickers before sending me into the unknown void?

[UnSub]

Asskickers who need time to level up their powers after they join you.

I'm picking at game mechanics vs narrative, but it is something that ME (and other RPGs too) suffers from. You're an elite solider in ME1 who needs to spend points so you can hit a target accurately, or how Jack kicks the crap out of 3 YMIR mechs in a cutscene but is fairly second string on the player's team.

[Bunk]

As I closed in on the end of ME2, and started to realize that as soon as I collected the last person, that was going to be it, I got a little pissed.

I was thinking, wow you don't even give me like some smaller missions with my loyal asskickers before sending me into the unknown void?

Well, with the exception of the very last recruit, you can always just wait and do all the DLC missions after you have your crew fully loyal. Of course the downside there, is that your companions forget they had voices or personalities in the DLC missions...

My second playthrough, I'm trying to focus on doing all the loyalty stuff right off the bat, then hitting all the side missions, since I actually know how things playout now.

[Paelos]

I'm taking DLC out of the equation. I'm talking about how its, Death > Lazarus > Ship > Assembly > End.

You build up the crew but there's no bridge to the finality of the game.You just feel like you're doing assembly the whole time, instead of actually accomplishing anything.

[Sky]

It's almost a shame Bioware is making SWTOR, this means there probably won't be a ME MMO. 

Ye gods, no. Stop making things into mmo. Expensive shitty gameplay...with friends!

You build up the crew but there's no bridge to the finality of the game.You just feel like you're doing assembly the whole time, instead of actually accomplishing anything.

Because that's the game. The only reason you don't go straight to the final encounters once you find out what's going on is that you need to build up a crew that can tackle the final encounter. Goes back to the earlier discussion on loyalty missions not being side missions because it's all about getting a team prepared as quickly as possible to, you know, save the galaxy and whatnot.

[Morat20]

or how Jack kicks the crap out of 3 YMIR mechs in a cutscene but is fairly second string on the player's team.

I always brought Jack to deal with husks. The wider shockwave was nice for that. Singularity was good too, when I played an adept.

[Bunk]

I used Jack occasionally dealing with Husk missions, but by the end game it was always Grunt for firepower and ammo mods and either Tali against Geth or Miranda for the Team bonuses.

My current Vanguard playthrough though - Shockwave has become my bread and butter. It doesn't get me killed the way Charge does. 

Curious about other peoples' opinions on bonus powers - I tried a variety, but stuck with Reave as soon as I learned it.

[Morat20]

I stick with Ammo powers, mostly, so I don't have to waste team points with them to give the whole squad one. I liked reave, but on my adept playthrough I was really missing having an ammo power. I use Warp, and it just chews through things.

My adept playthrough I paired with Mordin + Garrus, for the most part, we could deal with high-health or high armor bosses, but shields and barriers warp helped a lot. My Vanguard I stuck with Miranda + Other, and used squad incendiaries.

I'm not really thrilled with the ammo powers in general -- seems like a needless mechanic, and a waste of points other than powering up Sheppard with a single squad version. Maybe they're more effective on higher difficulty levels.

I'm a bit torn in the game I just started (forgot the class -- the one with tech armor), but I'm guessing I'll go the same route.

[Shrike]

Ahh, bonus powers.

As a soldier Shepard, you don't really need them, but I used reave mostly. It was handy against organics  when your shield dropped. I used some ammo powers, but they weren't really necessary with the soldier. I made some use of the improved geth shield, but with adrenalin rush it was a bit redundant.

As a sentinal, I always used warp ammo. You could branch out a bit more (reave would have been outstanding) on the PC version with its hotbar, but my sentinals were all on the 360, so it was warp to save buttons.

As a vanguard...man, this one is still bothering me. I went back and forth with the geth shield and reave. I could make a case for slam as well. This character was on the 360, though, and the button issue cropped up. Relied on improved shockwave, mostly. Geth shield when in cover; charge when the opportunity for a couple of quick kills presented itself. The plasma shotgun and Mattock battle rifle made the vanguard a lot easier to play.

[Ingmar]

You build up the crew but there's no bridge to the finality of the game.You just feel like you're doing assembly the whole time, instead of actually accomplishing anything.

This wasn't a problem for me. It isn't the usual '4 planets' Bioware story, instead it is one of those 'get the team together' ensemble things like the first halfs of The Dirty Dozen or The Seven Samurai. The characters are the story - it's a model I expect to see copied (probably badly) because I think it works really well, personally.

[Sjofn]

My only issue with it was how Legion is sort of screwed over if you don't want to melt your crew down. Any other crew member, I will have time to have them be loyal on a different mission if I'm doing it "right," but Legion is never going to get to go on anyone else's loyalty mission unless I decide I don't care if Kelly gets melted. That said, I really liked "get the team together, secure their loyalty, shoot the main problem in the face right away instead of dicking around wasting time chasing terrorist groups or slavers or whatever that don't have much to do with the things that want to wipe out all organic life" thing.

[Lantyssa]

One of my playthroughs I'm going to unlock Legion with the editor for that very reason.  Even when I do my disaster playthrough I'm not letting Kelly get melted.

[Rasix]

From what I've read in various faqs, you have two missions between IFF and the kidnapping.  Apparently, you can get Legion's loyalty mission done before the kidnapping happens.

Legion's Loyalty Mission                                                                                                                                                         

Note that if you activate Legion and learn about his loyalty quest immediately after the Reaper IFF mission, the Collector attack / Joker level will wait for one extra mission before triggering.  This allows you to complete all the loyalty quests before the crew is even kidnapped (assuming you did the other ones already).

[Sjofn]

Yeah, sorry, I meant any loyalty mission but his. I did his right away. I would just like to see if he has anything interesting to say elsewhere (I know he changes Tali's loyalty mission a lot, go figure, for example).

[Morat20]

Yeah, sorry, I meant any loyalty mission but his. I did his right away. I would just like to see if he has anything interesting to say elsewhere (I know he changes Tali's loyalty mission a lot, go figure, for example).

I'd love to try that. Supposedly there's a great line if you take him to the Citadel, but it was cut from the game...

You're going in, and the C-Sec officer stops you and tells you she's on the lookout for 'Geth Infilitrators'.
Legion responds "Geth do not infiltrate".
The C-Sec officer asks you not to bring your "Synthetic Personal Assitant" on shuttles.
Legion responds "Geth do not intentially infiltrate".

I think it was upthread, someone mentioned that disc issues was why you get Legion so late -- they wanted to avoid disc swapping as much as possible. *shrug*.

[Sjofn]

ME2 is on more than one disc? Huh.

[Morat20]

ME2 is on more than one disc? Huh.

For Xbox, yes.

[Sjofn]

Consoles really do ruin everything. 

I'm actually surprised 'cause Ingmar played it on the xbox and he never mentioned it. I'm not sure why he would've, of course, but hey.

[Morat20]

Consoles really do ruin everything. 

I'm actually surprised 'cause Ingmar played it on the xbox and he never mentioned it. I'm not sure why he would've, of course, but hey.

I'm actually running a bit low on hard drive room for my Xbox. Somehow, I don't think it's easily upgradeable.