Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Ingmar]

It actually isn't too hard to upgrade the HD, the main irritating thing is there's a proprietary cable involved, hopefully you can find someone to borrow it from as I did.

[Mosesandstick]

I liked the length of ME2 (sans planet-mining and hunting), but I think the game would've been better off with just one more mission between finalising your team and suiciding. Something to bring it together before everybody risks throwing their lives away. Or being able to get legion before the IFF mission and having that mission as the pre-cursor.

[UnSub]

Just to follow on from the above - the final ME2 mission was the only one to feel like it included your full squad (because it did). A 'training' opportunity, or more missions that saw you send the rest of your team off on side missions, would have felt a shade 'fairer' on players.

Again: mechanics versus narrative. Why am I recruiting an elite squad but leaving most of them on the ship every time?

"What's that? We need to board a hostile Collector ship that couldn't possibly be a trap? Okay then, you two come with me, the rest of you get some shut eye. I'm sure there'd be no reason to take a team of 8 with me in there."

In some ways (and to be cruel) ME2 was Gears of War with better dialogue.

[rk47]

That felt right. I would prefer if I could manage two fire teams, where Shepard makes the decisions. While I could alternate play as the other fire team's squad leader.

At least I could try out different classes in one playthrough instead of doing the same mission all over again.

[Velorath]

Again: mechanics versus narrative. Why am I recruiting an elite squad but leaving most of them on the ship every time?

Isn't this more or less the case with most RPG's?  Aside from ones that let you create all the characters in your party, I can't really think of any that let you use all your party members at once.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, that ship sailed for me eons ago. I don't especially like it (and I wish I could have at least THREE instead of TWO people with me if you're going to give me an asston of friends), but I realise that's just how RPGs that give you a team roll.

[Fordel]

It would be pretty damn awesome if you could decide how many you want to bring every mission or planet or whatever. With the group size helping shape how you approach the mission. Keep your team small for a covert/technical insertion, or send everyone and open with a strafing run by the Normandy 

[Fabricated]

The game assumes that everyone went on every mission in terms of dialog. Zaheed and a few of the other crew members who actually comment on missions back on the ship speak as if they went with you regardless if you actually took them or not.

[Koyasha]

Here's the thing, though - as far as I can tell, it wouldn't be too hard to intentionally write in one or two ways in which other groups someplace else would be helpful to every mission.

How much real interaction or involvement was there in the final mission with the other squads?  Not that much.  You picked them, they did their thing.  There is little to no reason not to have such a mechanic in every mission, purely for the purpose of making it noticeable that hey, the rest of your squad DOES have a purpose after all!  A line or two of dialogue on every mission as your people on the secondary team tell you what they're doing, and suddenly it all makes a whole lot more sense.

[LK]

At the very least, picking competent leaders to head up the second squad was a contributing factor in their success in the suicide mission.

[Fabricated]

If you're gonna talk about shit that makes no sense in ME2, why not talk about the thing that makes the least sense in the whole game (outside of uh, the whole scifi setting):

What the hell was the mission that EVERYONE went on before the crew abduction?

[Reg]

That wasn't really a mission. It was a 3 day team building retreat at a lovely spa in the Presidium.

[Sjofn]

See, I thought the small team for most of the missions made perfectly decent sense. Yes, I recruited all these people, but I recruited them to kick ass in one specific mission (and it's clear on that from the get-go). Most of the missions leading up to that, I wouldn't take everyone like it's some sort of class trip.  For example, picking up Jack, I wouldn't take everyone. Hell, if it was really me, I'd probably not take anyone, and then I'd be screwed. I think the big bulky plot missions, like Horizon, would've benefited from "take everyone," but most of the loyalty missions and stuff made sense to me in a "one small team" sense.

Thinking about this, it occured to me that ME2 is the first Bioware game I've played that didn't have a personal "water planet." There's not really anywhere in the game I can point to where it bogs down so bad I'm likely to stop playing because I just can't do it again.

[Morat20]

At the very least, picking competent leaders to head up the second squad was a contributing factor in their success in the suicide mission.

I keep being tempted to see how "other people" perform if I assign different roles, but find I like having the team not die.

So Garrus keeps leading team 2 (unless I need him, in which case Miranda does), and Legion always goes solo, and I generally send Moridin back with the rescued crew.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, I'm ALMOST disappointed I did it "right" the first time, because I will never be able to being myself to let anyone die on purpose (essentially). Of course if I had gotten anyone killed my first time through, I probably would've been depressed. I'm such a dork. 

It's funny, I remember who I assigned to the different jobs, but I cannot for the life of me remember the second person I brought with me for the end fight. It was me, Mordin annnnd ... not Miranda or Garrus (he escorted the crew back).

[Shrike]

I"ve gotten a few people killed in various permutations of the last mission--one intentionally. Sorta. The worst screw up was simply listening to Miranda. I knew better; was told better, but did it anyway. Curiosity kills the synthetic. Won't happen again in ME2 and in ME3. SOP for dealing with Miranda now is appear to listen to advice, then do what you were going to do anyway (or act on advice from Tali, Garrus, or Samara, if there's any question on tech/morals, leadership, or biotics, respectively).

I almost invariably run the same choices in all my playthroughs. The initial renegade soldier did things a bit differently, but the result was the same. The only spots I switch up regularly are the escort back to the Normandy, and the number 2 spot on the showdown with the...reaper thing. I do like certain formations, but will switch it up a bit if it won't cause casualties just to hear different dialog--especially to hear Harbinger's running commentary on your teammates.

I will usually lead off with Legion and Zayeed for long rifles and the drone. Tali goes in the duct, Garrus leads the off team (see advice re Miranda). For the next misson, I usually run Tali (drone), Grunt (general ass-kicking and tough bastard), and Samara (see advice re Miranda). Both have shotguns which help with husk fights. At this point, someone goes back to the Normandy (just about anyone but Garrus or Tali). Final showdown will be Tali (drone and general principles) and one other (preferably Garrus on general principles, but I'll mix this one up for Harbinger commentary or hot and cold running drones for hardcore or insanity).

[Sjofn]

Jacob gives you some terrible advice, too, he's all about sprinting straight to getting the IFF. 

[Bunk]

I only did the end mission once, and kind of lucked in to a perfect run, even with Jack unloyal (what I get for flipflopping my morality).

Legion in the tunnel (protecting Tali)
Samara to provide the shield (strongest Biotic)
Miranda to lead team two (obvious leadership and tactics)
Sent Black dude back to the ship (he was a douche who kept hitting on me, so sent him away) (I never remember his name)
Took Grunt (the Tank, duh) and Tali (again, protecting her) to the final fight.

All that, and my Shepard never could quite get Tali's interest (femshep). She hoped for maybe a little friends with benfits with Kelly - nope, something bugged that out. In the end, she just ended up back with Liara.

 

[Shrike]

Garrus has some questionalble advice as well, but it really only affects your renegade/paragon scores. If you don't care about that or are all about general mayhem, then Garrus is spot-on. He won't get people killed out of idiocy.

It's a day for edits/second thoughts.

Actually, Garrus has one bit of advice that I was not comfortable with regardless of renegade/paragon. He's all for co-opting the reaper-tech for use against them. That I get a really bad feeling about. If you're hardcore renegade, you probably will save the base for Cerberus. I blew that fucker up regardless of alignment. Too much chance of indoctrination biting you on the ass in ME3 and I simply like to blow shit up.

[Sir T]

Jack does just as well as Samara at creating the shield. I was never mad enough to try it with Moronda. 

[Sjofn]

Weird that you say Jacob (that's the black guy's name) kept hitting on you, he has yet to hit on me at all. I see the hit on HIM lines and don't take them, because I decided RenegadeLadyShep already has one boy scout pining for her, she doesn't need a second, but he never directly says he thinks I'm totally hot. Maybe you shouldn't be such a hussy, Bunk!

[Mosesandstick]

Too much chance of indoctrination biting you on the ass in ME3

This is one of the things that really irks me. How do none of the NPCs seem to pick up on this. We've mentioned it before in this thread (repeatedly) and I think it makes a lot of the conversations at the end seem daft.

[Merusk]

I always find it weird that everyone had success with Legion in the tunnel. I played through that 4 or 5 times and he kept dying.  Jack was my only non-loyal member (I was too goody two shoes for her I guess.)  As soon as I stuck Tali in the tunnel, no problems.  That always irked me because there's no reason Legion should have failed, he's a damned machine he's just superior to Ms. Gypsy in a Spacesuit.

I didn't send Moridin back with the group, I sent the useless human biotic who'd been hitting on me. (I'm not interested, I said, get back to the ship. )  But I guess since I had Mor with me nobody on the line died as I was doing the final fight.  I just found his "destroy all armor" ability too useful vs the Proteans to kick him out of my group at any point after he finally got it. Particularly since my Shepard was the sniper-rifle class so the armor removal was damn near mandatory at times.

[Surlyboi]

I've found no matter who I put in the tunnel they die, regardless of loyalty. Renegade or paragon. Weird.

[Mosesandstick]

I think who you pick to lead the second squad has an effect.

[Fabricated]

My guess is that the collector base is actually a way for full-on Renegade Shepards to save the Earth in ME3, thus maintaining the "Humans can take care of themselves" mantra that Cerberus and Renegade dialog options seem to promote.

It'll prolly have a big Deus Ex style backhanded ending where your giving the base to Cerberus allows them to save the Earth and Humanity at the cost of Cerberus taking over the Alliance or whatever.

Provided that one of the big tweeeests isn't that the Illusive Man is indoctrinated/A Reaper in Disguise or some shit like that.

[Sjofn]

Too much chance of indoctrination biting you on the ass in ME3

This is one of the things that really irks me. How do none of the NPCs seem to pick up on this. We've mentioned it before in this thread (repeatedly) and I think it makes a lot of the conversations at the end seem daft.

I chalk it up to everyone thinking they're super special and totally wouldn't fall for indoctrination themselves. People think like that about themselves all the time!

[Ingmar]

I think they're doing Illusive Man backstory in a comic right now or something.

Anyway, my big mistake on my first playthrough was misunderstanding the skills important for the tech person - I latched on to the 'crawling through a tube' aspect of it more than the tech aspect and picked Thane.

In general though, all the 'hints' you need for who to pick are there in the character dialog throughout the game, a second playthrough will have you going "ohhhhh" when you talk to people about various things.

[UnSub]

I saved the Collector ship and everyone told me that was a bad decision. Even as a Paragon, we're going to be in a war with the Reapers and knowing as much as possible is likely to help save all sentient life in the galaxy, even if it gives one man a power trip.

If I thought BioWare were dark enough, the end of ME3 would have you turning off the Mass Effect gates / blowing them all up so that civilisations can no longer follow the Reaper's lead, but it also isolates every race due to distances. One of the themes of ME has been "races taking control of their own destiny" so it would fit... but unless a parallel technology was waved into existence it would pretty much be the end of the ME universe.

I look forward to brokering the Quarian / Geth Peace Accord, though.

(Oh, and although controlling Joker is probably my favourite bit of ME2 - it's a great twist - it really was a narrative vanity that every core squad member was off the ship in a violation of how every other mission worked when selecting the team.)

[Fabricated]

Man, this game is still buggy as hell.

I've had the bug where you can run "up" objects and end up stuck in midair happen over a dozen times this playthrough. I took sniper rifle training on the collector ship and now Shepard only does the sniper rifle reloading animation for ALL my weapons. Dialog scenes where other characters need focus still have hilarious bugs where the camera is off-center or the character somehow starts far away from the camera before being pulled in for an extreme close up.

[Shrike]

If I thought BioWare were dark enough, the end of ME3 would have you turning off the Mass Effect gates / blowing them all up so that civilisations can no longer follow the Reaper's lead, but it also isolates every race due to distances. One of the themes of ME has been "races taking control of their own destiny" so it would fit... but unless a parallel technology was waved into existence it would pretty much be the end of the ME universe.

This is actually how the reapers sandbag the race(s) that use their tech to bootstrap themselves up to galactic dominance--or so they think. When the reapers rush the conduit, it's to cut the organics off from the Citadel, which is invariably their capitol (according to the Protheans anyway, but the reapers do seem to stick with this program). Once that happens, command and control is out the window and it's defeat in detail time. Again, the Protheans make a point of this. They also take their damned good time about it. Vigil mentioned the Prothean conquest took about a century or so. With this in mind, cutting yourself off from the relays would be A Bad Idea.

As an aside, Legion is very supportive of Shepard's choice to blow the Collector base to hell. From his point of view, this would be the organics' first real move away from the hegemony of reaper tech. The Geth were pretty adamant about the whole taking control of racial destiny thing. This ties into that rather nicely. It's probably going to be your biggest "in" when/if you get to negotiating with the Geth for support/peace/whathaveyou.

[tmp]

I always find it weird that everyone had success with Legion in the tunnel. I played through that 4 or 5 times and he kept dying.

In my game Legion got rocket in the face to heroically save the team after i sent him in the tunnel. It may be related to whoever is in charge of the second team indeed, i can't remember who i picked for that.

edit: remembered, it was Samara. Which apparently isn't good choice at all so that's probably it.

[Shrike]

It may be related to whoever is in charge of the second team indeed, i can't remember who i picked for that.

It is. Second fire team has to have Miranda , Garrus, or Jacob running the show. Anything else puts the tunnel rat in peril. Also, the tunnel infiltration requires a tech, and that's either Tali or Legion. No one else (yeah, that means no Kasumi).

The off team always requires a leader type. Door cracking requires a tech type. Biotic shielding requires a real biotic--this one isn't so clear, especially with Miranda muddying the water on the planning phase--Samara or Jack only. Deviate from any of this and someone is going to buy a farm.

[Azuredream]

I can't play a game without at least skimming a walkthrough, just so I know about stuff like the crew death/who does what in the suicide mission.

Is it just me, or can you not hit a hotkey to go straight to journal/codex/squad in ME2?

[UnSub]

Vigil mentioned the Prothean conquest took about a century or so. With this in mind, cutting yourself off from the relays would be A Bad Idea.

The Reapers hit the Citadel with the element of surprise though in order to take out that command structure. They needed the relays to do that. Destroy the relays and the Reapers have to physically travel the distance required to destroy / enslave sentient life. They might have the time to do that, but it screws up their plans quite a bit.