On February 07 2010 18:07 {88}iNcontroL wrote: yeah upgrading the ship saves a life at least.
I think the "suicide mission" person HAS to die. I also think at least 1 gets wrapped up in the swarm? Maybe a way to prevent this.
Also if you get the d/l character he dies every time I think? Possibly wrong on that. I also spoke with a guy today at gamestop who said his "jack" died after a big battle.. so maybe some group thing determines that too? I dunno.. jack died on the ship for me and thane was killed at the door so those were the only 2 that weren't "loyal" so everyone else lived for me.
I haven't had anybody die any of the times I've completed it except once, and going in I knew they'd die.... because I think the Jack character sucks balls and didn't want her on my ship anymore.
Upgrades + loyalty quests + picking the right team = no deaths.
edit: Can't say about the DLC character, don't have it. But it'd be strange if he was a guaranteed death.
Getting the No One Left Behind Achievement isn't very hard really. You just have to know what you're doing. As far as Zaeed Massani goes, he's survived every time for me.
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
Honestly, is there something wrong with me if this almost made me cry? -.-
Also, in case you didn't know, it's possible to kill off Samara and get Morinth to join you crew instead during Samara's loyalty mission. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I'm really tempted to. No, not because I want a sexually addicted Asari in my crew , but because of her loyalty-skill. You recieve it right away, and just look at it!
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
Prefered ME1 to this one. Despite the very needed improvement of the combat portion, rpg elements and story suffered a bit too much.
It was way too easy and even unlocking the other difficulties doesn't really matter because I have no desire to play it again. Bad choice to restrict them if the only settings you keep accessible are this ridiculous. The end mission and especially the "boss" were quite a big disappointment.
I think if they did a better job on the main story in -combination- with the vastly superior characters and fighting then this game would truly be a masterpiece. As it is, you don't feel moved in the same way you did during ME1. The Illusive Man, in particular, doesn't reveal enough about his motivations and when he does they are too vague. He saved Sheppard to save all of humanity, but if Sheppard dies he doesn't care and he'll move on.
My hunch is that Liara will come back in ME3 and drop the "bomb" that he is the Shadow Broker. You'll probably have to fight your way to her and kill/save her. There will be a huge bust up with the Council over leading the reapers back and the entire Alliance will turn against you. It'll be your crew and pockets of resistance / supporters scattered everywhere that you need to unite against the reapers.
As for the final mission - You need to bring a "leader" when they ask for people to lead the other squads, anyone else - even loyal guys - will die. The game counts Miranda, Jacob, and Garrus as leaders. The tech expert is pretty obvious, Tali or Legion. The biotic worked with Samara and Jack for me.. I didn't try all of them though. I'm guessing if the people in your final team aren't loyal they die in the fall and Sheppard dies if neither one of your allies make it back to the ship to pull you up.
On February 08 2010 00:10 Fzero wrote: I think if they did a better job on the main story in -combination- with the vastly superior characters and fighting then this game would truly be a masterpiece. As it is, you don't feel moved in the same way you did during ME1. The Illusive Man, in particular, doesn't reveal enough about his motivations and when he does they are too vague. He saved Sheppard to save all of humanity, but if Sheppard dies he doesn't care and he'll move on.
My hunch is that Liara will come back in ME3 and drop the "bomb" that he is the Shadow Broker. You'll probably have to fight your way to her and kill/save her. There will be a huge bust up with the Council over leading the reapers back and the entire Alliance will turn against you. It'll be your crew and pockets of resistance / supporters scattered everywhere that you need to unite against the reapers.
As for the final mission - You need to bring a "leader" when they ask for people to lead the other squads, anyone else - even loyal guys - will die. The game counts Miranda, Jacob, and Garrus as leaders. The tech expert is pretty obvious, Tali or Legion. The biotic worked with Samara and Jack for me.. I didn't try all of them though. I'm guessing if the people in your final team aren't loyal they die in the fall and Sheppard dies if neither one of your allies make it back to the ship to pull you up.
I really agree with this post, personally i think the most awsome twist they could give ME3 would be something like shepard is the shadowbroker only before mass1 you removed your memory or something and that you play as shepard a little in the beginning or not at all if he died and then you play as a new character that is contacted by the shadowbrokers organisation. THAT would be awsome :3
Edit: it still doesn't feel like things change that much when you played different. But i love the whole wrex thing.
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
Actually, you can't If you (Shepard) died in ME2, you won't be able to use that save for ME3. It was noted by Bioware.
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
Honestly, is there something wrong with me if this almost made me cry? -.-
Nothing wrong! Had my game ended like that for real, I probably would have shed a tear and said to myself: ''Well, I fucked that up.''
lol, it's pretty hard to end up like that. What did you screw up? In order to get everyone wiped out, you need to not upgrade your ship, not do any of the loyalty quests, and assign the characters to the wrong positions every time. Unless you were doing it for shitz and giggles...
9/10 Tali - By far the most emotionally driven character in the cast. Her voice acting by Liz Sroka is just superb. I can't get over how well everything involving Tali was done. She'll be a big part of ME3 again I'm going to assume. Think about how many scenes she's had over the two games. She outs Saren for working with the Geth the first time you meet her. She shows up in the first mission of ME2 involved with the first time you see the Collectors. You save her on a planet where the star is about to explode. Her loyalty mission is galactic in scale, either encouraging or discouraging a Quarian v Geth war. She's just way up there in the interesting character scale. I took a point away because she isn't really all that good at actually fighting in either game.
7/10 Wrex - By far the best character to have in your squad in ME1. Totally destroys anything he comes across and he never, ever dies. Comic timing is great, and the genophage backstory is a main feature in both titles. He can't join your crew in ME2, which sucks - but he is leading a krogan reunion on his home planet. He doesn't get involved enough in Grunt or Mordin's loyalty missions on the planet, which leaves you with a "what the hell" sort of attitude. That being said, one of the main decisions in ME1 was whether or not to kill him on Virmire. I have a feeling he'll be back in part three.
7/10 Garrus - Has a role on your team in both games, but is always in the backseat. He has a sweeeeeeeeet reveal in a ME2 cutscene where he's sniping kids for fun. They could have done a bit more with his past. You don't really know much about Garrus besides the fact that he's a "get the job done, fuck the rules" dude - for the good guys. He's still useful in combat in both games, and the Turians in general are a pretty badass race. He has some of the best "idle/elevator" comments too. His loyalty mission is a big let down. Harkin didn't matter enough in ME1 to be a big character in ME2.
6/10 Liara - One of the best companions in ME1, probably the most romanced character, had some of the best dialogue on missions, and was just far superior to anyone else if you needed biotics. Not a team member in ME2 and not even interesting. Really really upsetting that she only has about 20 lines of dialogue total. Depending on your romance options/dialogue choices - you might not even really get a good explanation of her motivations. Illium was easily the least interesting city to explore and all of the characters there were extremely bland until you meet Thane and Samara.
3/10 Kaiden / 4/10 Ashley - Boring placeholder characters. Ashley has a decent voice actor at least which makes her painfully dull stories worth listening to. Both of them show up in ME2 for a criminally negligent display of thanks to Sheppard for saving their asses. They save the galaxy in ME1, lose their captain on a ship, and get saved again by said captain only to say "Oh my god, Cerberus - we hate you!" and storm off. Ugh.
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4/10 Grunt - Not enough story with Grunt. You get that he's supposed to be perfect, but nobody likes perfection. He's too quick to trust for a Krogan and you never get any details about why he's helping you when the entire Krogan race needs him. After his loyalty mission, that would've been a good spot to have some Grunt / Wrex dialogue about the future of the Krogan race and what needs to be done. Maybe you could influence Wrex to use Grunt to help or even a renegade option to oust Wrex as the leader. Didn't really ever use Grunt, so I can't comment on his effectiveness - but his skill choices were pretty bland.
2/10 Jacob - Jesus christ. Why is this guy in the game? Did anyone find anything to do with Jacob interesting? I'd love to hear some people's evidence for why they brought this guy or why they even listened to his backstory/loyalty story with any conviction. I tried to get him killed in the final mission and he didn't die, so hopefully he gets lost somewhere between here and ME3.
6/10 Jack - It was pretty refreshing to hear the type of dialogue that Bioware made Courtenay Taylor use for this game. Why they made Jack so incredibly childish is a little strange though. The loyalty mission for Jack was pretty good as far as character development goes, and Jack was a Beeeeeeeeeeeast on your team. There was something offputting about her though. The appearance and introduction of Jack don't really match with her quick change in attitude I guess. The prison mission and backstory make you think she'll be a badass killer and she turns out to be a wimp who pouts too much that's so strong she can't be stopped. Not exactly endearing.
7/10 Legion - Maybe its just because I'm a nerd, but I loved Legion. His score is only a seven because you don't get to use him much, but daaaaaaaaamn was he cool. I loved the mission where you get him, and his loyalty mission was even better. I think the hive mind geth have a much more interesting conflict than the overarching reaper scare, for instance. The reapers using human DNA to create what looked like a metallic terminator? What? Anyway - the widow is one of the best weapons in the game, and the combat drone is really effective on the missions where you can use Legion to distract the harbinger. Have a feeling he won't be back, though. Seemed like a one time deal.
6/10 Miranda - I didn't hate her like a bunch of other people here seemed to, but I also think she was pitifully weak for being raised by Cerberus since childhood. It didn't really make sense that she wasn't more ruthless/forceful. She should have definitely been the renegade enforcement of the Illusive Man's will - not some babbling pretty woman that agrees with everything Sheppard does in the end. Boring skillset and Slam one of the worst skills. Advantage of being able to play her all game, but why? So many other choices.
It seems like you only played through the Jack storyline on a paragon playthrough. Her late game demeanor is a mirror of Shepard's. If you're renegade she pretty much stays the same asshole as she was when she first joins. This gets magnified even more if you do the relationship storyline with her. Which is pretty believable given how fucked up a life she had.
She was easily the character I was least interested in pre-release, but she turned out to be have some actual depth, which is more than you can say for some of the other characters.
mordin, tali, garrus, jack, legion, joker/edi, and the two engineers by tali were all awesome grunt was just ok samara, jacob, miranda, thane weren't so great.
Well with Jacob ... there wasn't alot of depth - but I think that was kind of the point. He is a straight forward character that you already know what he's all about the first time you meet him. Not that I think it's a good thing ... they could have pulled it off and still made him a bit more interesting. An example would be Minsc from BG1/2. You instantly know what he's about the first time you meet him and the character doesn't have much depth. But Minsc is still presented in an interesting and comical way.
On February 08 2010 01:29 Sandrosuperstar wrote: I really agree with this post, personally i think the most awsome twist they could give ME3 would be something like shepard is the shadowbroker only before mass1 you removed your memory or something and that you play as shepard a little in the beginning or not at all if he died and then you play as a new character that is contacted by the shadowbrokers organisation. THAT would be awsome :3
Er, that would just be the KotOR plot twist recycled. I don't see how that would be awesome.
Of course, seeing as Bioware seems to have no qualms recycling story elements, it's not altogether impossible.
On February 08 2010 01:29 Sandrosuperstar wrote: I really agree with this post, personally i think the most awsome twist they could give ME3 would be something like shepard is the shadowbroker only before mass1 you removed your memory or something and that you play as shepard a little in the beginning or not at all if he died and then you play as a new character that is contacted by the shadowbrokers organisation. THAT would be awsome :3
Er, that would just be the KotOR plot twist recycled. I don't see how that would be awesome.
Of course, seeing as Bioware seems to have no qualms recycling story elements, it's not altogether impossible.
Nah, it would be the KotOR twist if it turned out that Shepard was a Reaper.
On February 08 2010 04:50 sixghost wrote: It seems like you only played through the Jack storyline on a paragon playthrough. Her late game demeanor is a mirror of Shepard's. If you're renegade she pretty much stays the same asshole as she was when she first joins. This gets magnified even more if you do the relationship storyline with her. Which is pretty believable given how fucked up a life she had.
She was easily the character I was least interested in pre-release, but she turned out to be have some actual depth, which is more than you can say for some of the other characters.
mordin, tali, garrus, jack, legion, joker/edi, and the two engineers by tali were all awesome grunt was just ok samara, jacob, miranda, thane weren't so great.
It's true, I don't have Jack yet on my renegade playthrough. I'm sure my opinion will change after I finish this one.
On February 08 2010 04:15 Fzero wrote: Some thoughts about the game.
I agree about Tali, I even ended up in romance with her, because of how charming she was.
Mordin is 10/10 definitely, after I've seen trailers I was "surely this guy aint on my team!", but he is fokin amazing.
I don't agree about Slam, I played default character, and only better skill for my play style was warp ammo, but still I take slam because seeing the enemies flying around makes me happy like a child.
And krogans suck. I know they make funny comments, but they're just disgusting.