Mass Effect 2 thread of Shepard and his elevator alien love

[Darragh]

This is probably just a thread for myself and Max hoping it's going to be a great game and then (hopefully not) complaining about why it's not as good as the first game.

Nothing much to add to the thread yet as I've been on a media blackout. All I know is you can import your characters from the first game to the second game which makes me happy.

[Nora]

I'll be picking it up too, soon. Probably not right away.

[Darragh]

I'm about to start my first playthrough of this now and I can't decide which of my previous characters I want to import. I have a Soldier (good), an Infiltraitor (bad) and an Adept (good). My favourite was the Infiltraitor but I don't want to play through as a bad character first time. Decisions...

Edit: Oh, wasted 10 minutes deciding as you can choose a new class for your character if you wish.

Edit2: I only played about an hour but I'm interested so far. I've read the second mass effect book which is a backdrop to this game so i'd imagine people who have not may find it less interesting. The controls are better, the visuals are better and so far the ambient music is better so I'm pretty enthusiastic to continue.

I doubt anyone will leave spoilers here but just a reminder to mark them.

[Qu Klaani]

My PC won't run the sequel, despite my interest being inevitably piqued by the ads which have been following me around city centres, bars and train stations. So the obvious next best choice is to buy the original. I enjoyed KOTOR, not entirely because of the Star Wars although it was a big part, and I found it reasonably easy to tolerate the turn-based combat despite having always considered it retarded. So, is it worth my precious monies, Darragh?

[Darragh]

You missed the Steam sale for it over the holidays sadly. It was going for €7 I think.

Anyway, it is worth your money if you are willing to invest the time into the game. That means 10-15 hours. It's not really turn based but you can pause the game to select weapons/abilities. It's the same formula as KotOR, find crew members, learn more about them, gain their trust, have some sex, save the galaxy in an epic battle, listen to the kick ass end credit music.

Shame there doesn't seem to be a demo on Steam to make sure performance is ok.

[Mr Anderson]

No spoilers please.

I acquired the original Mass Effect on steam a few weeks ago, and was mightily impressed. I badly needed an RPG fix and Mass Effect satisfied my cravings and more. If I had to criticise it, I'd say there were a few too many elevators, and not enough detail on the side quests. Also, the difficulty options require a bit of refinement. I am currently working my way through an Insanity campaign where enemies have so much health they don't need to bother with cover. Your average Krogan can absorb about eight times his body weight in lead, and by god you better keep shooting him or he'll recover in the blink of an eye.

Not that it's possible to kill me either. Lvl 53 soldier with Colossus X armour. Immunity can recharge in the time it takes to dissipate, so I can be perpetually immune. Combined with the soldier's health recharge, I simply can't be killed.

Romantic wise, it was a step up from NWN2, though there still needs to be improvements. Geekish and socially crippled Liara was who I went after. Not through the novelty of saddling an alien species, but rather because she was much more interesting than Ashley, who in true Republican style, was a xenophobic god and gun lover. Her bungled attempts at appearing intelligent by quoting Ulysses were amusing rather than endearing.

Mairi had a run through with a Female character, Females get the short end of the stick here, as they have to choose between Joe Unremarkable, and Lesbianism. Mairi chose celibacy, though she wanted Garrus or Joker.

ME2 is ordered, does it matter what level your character is?

[Darragh]

It works that if you are a level 60 you start off at level 5. So I suppose 52 may be a level 2. You can pick a new class if you wish.

Re the elevators: You understand my thread title now but it back fired on me because they took the elevator loading out of the sequel, they replaced it with something that seems just as slow.

I'm well into the second half of the game I think and I'm slightly disappointed over the lack of improvement. Some things are gone that I miss but I won't say anything here.

[Darragh]

I finished this last night with a time of about 36 hours. This is doing every mission and side mission. Normal mode which is way too easy. I started a new game+ on insanity.

The following contains no story spoiler whatsoever. I only talk about the gameplay changes but if you are like me then you don't even want them spoiled soo...

Spoiler:

1. They replaced the mako missions with mining which is actually worse. All you do is scan planets for ore, it's very time consuming and dull but you need to do it. Tip: Only mine "Rich" planets as there are more than enough of them in the game.

2. They seemed to simplify the character powers which I found to be negative. In fact the whole game is simplified. From guns and armour to powers. Some people may like it that way but I think this game is more of an action/adventure 3rd person shooter with rpg elements tacked on. I preferred the originals approach even though it needed refinement.

3. As an action game it's fantastic. The story seemed pretty dull to me but it built up nicely to a decent payoff. It was definitely the difficult second game but they managed to set up the 3rd game well enough. I can't wait for it.

4. Characters are interesting enough but your interactions with them are not improved from the first game. It's the same thing.

[Qu Klaani]

I bought the original, I like how all of a sudden the game's moral quandaries jump from whether or not to be a bit of a dick to the hot god-botherer* about her dead dad to "Genocide; Yes or No?" It is to BioWare's enternal credit that it took me what was, in gaming terms, an absolute age to make the decision.

*I'm guessing that like most nerds who started the game being nice to her largely because of an awareness of the potential for fornicating, as soon as someone more interesting showed up I lost interest completely.

[Qu Klaani]

Lolz, ~*iguana*~ Bioware:

Spoiler:

It's all got a bit Alyx Vance with Miss Williams, so really there was only ever one outcome there. Still made me feel a bit of a dick though. More guilt was of course induced by my telling the grief-stricken and probably by this point madly in love girl that no, I wasn't into her in that way. Jesus, if she hated Aliens before...

[Darragh]

Haha, you are flying through the game so I take it you like it.

Related to your spolier and thus not a spoiler for you:

Spoiler:

I killed Kaidan the first time because he was never in my team.

[Qu Klaani]

Spoiler:

Sort of the same, although I took him on the Metroid Prime mission and he kept getting killed. I liked the guy well enough, but I get the feeling he survives very few run throughs by men. My rela...*ahem* Shepherd's relationship with Ashley is a bit weird, I'm really fond of her, as I said, Alyx levels of liking, but it strangely doesn't translate to a desire to sex her up. I think it might be the God thing. Was a little bit moritified when the game translated my desire to let her down gently as "Liara is the one I really care about, do one while I get freaky with the barely legal alien."

It's when you start thinking like this that games get a bit disturbing

I really wish they'd made it so you had to play Virmire last, it was such a set up for the finale, having to now go to what I imagine will be a pretty plot-sparse mission on Feros feels all kinds of frustrating.

[Darragh]

Spoiler:

As long as the sole reason you like Liara isn't that "she is innocent and naive and thus she can be groomed into my sex slave" I think you are ok.

Wrex: "Shepard" is my favourite line in the game.

[Qu Klaani]

I just really like her species as a whole, they're a pretty cool idea. Except Troi, she was just weird, and didn't really bother to act. Although I bet that confrontation is much more interesting if done with a different team.

Spoiler:

Actually it feels kinda cheap going for Liara over Ashley, because I've not really had much to do with her and feel like I only got to her late in the game.* We've had all of two conversations ever, I never take her on missions and the first thing I told her about myself was that I killed her mother (strangely this doesn't actually happen in the game, but it must have done at some point.) Whereas Williams is my right hand and I've spent the entire time leading her on, although I rebuffed her when she got a little too obvious. I rationalise the rejection as Shepherd feeling more of a brotherly affection for Ashley, and also having what we might call a Kirkian outlook.

*This isn't nearly so bad as KOTOR, wherein I managed to miss HK-47 entirely.

[Darragh]

Did you notice Joker was Seth Green?

Let me know what you think of the game when you finish it.


I finished Mass Effect 2 for a second time this time as my female jackass from the first game. It's a satisfying game.

[Qu Klaani]

I've a hunch that my opinion may be positive...unless they really ~*iguana*~ up the back end of the game with some kind of Watchmen-esque retardation.

I've been wondering about the dark side, trying to figure out what exactly being a proper renegade would entail, my best guess so far:

Spoiler:

Maybe taking Saren up on his "join me, and together we can be slaves to a higher power!" I mean, the threat of the reapers at this point is so convincing that his justifications had some impact. I've a feeling the game will allow some way of defeating them though, I hope it isn't too contrived. It'd be a bit awesome if one possible ending was defeat, I'd be reasonably contented with that if done right, not sure how that'd carry over to the sequel mind.

Anyway, I'm about as renegade as a puppy at this point, despite picking the more assholish origin option. Hell, near enough the only points I've got since leaving the citadel were for executing that scientist, who totally deserved it, and for calling the council dicks, which they are.

[Darragh]

The ending does not dissapoint. It is truely epic and the end credit music just makes you feel "~*iguana*~ yeah, that was awesome".


The paragon/renegade choices do affect how Mass Effect 2 plays out but not in a game changing way. In playing 2 it was very nice to see that just about every choice I made in 1 was recognised in the story. That's all I'll say. Enjoy the rest of the game.

What do you think of the Mako missions? The controls are a bit pants.

[Qu Klaani]

They are, but on the other hand you can literally drive it up the side of mountains, and then right back off again, without a scratch. I find this hilarious.

In playing 2 it was very nice to see that just about every choice I made in 1 was recognised in the story

I've been hearing about the sheer extent of this, and it's depressing because it means I can't play Mass Effect 2 until I have a PC thats up to it (I'm getting a 360 probably much sooner.) Its such a deeply personal experience that playing it without every single detail accurate would feel completely perverse. I'll confess that its probably due to my inexperience with the genre (most games of this nature don't appeal due to their fantasy setting) but I've been taken aback by how involved I've felt with the game. After a week its already moved me more than say, Battlestar Galactica ever did. This is where gaming is going of course, has been for a long time really, and it offers the merest glimpse of the future, but it really excites me to think how the possibles can expand with technology. The choose your own adventure format realised in glorious technicolour.

What's most impressive about all this is that understood as a "game" its actually a bit bland, and when I'm feeling less involved I'll probably have a moan about how much it relies on action (which isn't brilliant anyway) over adventuring and the like. After the somewhat dull mission to find Liara I decided to go back to the citadel and just spent two days doing every single sidequest I could come across. Mass Effect might not be all that astonishing, I don't really know, but its the game I've been waiting for.

[Darragh]

Did you have a problem finding all the keepers? When I played through the first time I must've spent close to two hours trying to find the last one. I convinced myself I checked absolutely everywhere and the game must be bugged. Then when I came back later and was just running around I found it, I was so pissed off.

I can totally understand your viewpoint that the game is bland from an adventuring rpg point of view, it certainly is but I think the story manages to hold it together. In the sequel they focus even more on action (removing mako altogether which was a dissapointment because it was a great idea if they got the gameplay right) but this time the action is top notch and actually feels like a challenge. Once again though it's only the story that holds it together.

[Qu Klaani]

Did you have a problem finding all the keepers? When I played through the first time I must've spent close to two hours trying to find the last one. I convinced myself I checked absolutely everywhere and the game must be bugged. Then when I came back later and was just running around I found it, I was so pissed off.

I struggled for awhile and then remembered the storeroom behind the shops.

Anyway, I've no idea how they'd ever begin writing a sequel to a game with alternate endings as varied as this:

Spoiler:

Really though, I'd would love Bioware forever if the result of diverting alliance ships to save the council was a long cutscene of everyone dying and then a big "GAME OVER" sreen. I've a hunch that this isnot the case.

You mentioned Seth Green, he was really obvious, what blew me away was noticing who voiced the Admiral in the credits. My exact thought was: "Holy crap, Bishop! How did I not recognise that."

edit: Reading the wiki now, kinda spoiling some of the alternative paths but I don't really care:

Spoiler:

After completion of the assignments associated with the asari Consort, Citadel: Asari Consort dealing with Septimus and Xeltan, and upon returning to the Consort's Chambers, Sha'ira will offer a reward of words, "an affirmation of who you are and who you will become." If the Commander expresses dissatisfaction with the offered reward, Sha'ira will initiate a sexual encounter with Shepard.

Lol, typical. Also annoyed that that amazing globe thing on the monkey planet can actually be accessed if you did something right about 20 hours previous to getting there.

edit 2: ~*iguana*~'s sake, accidentally spoiled two parts of the sequel by insufficiently careful wiki'ing:

*Mass Effect 2 spoilers*

Spoiler:

So literally any character can die in the sequel, you can even have a full Blake's 7 ending? I guess thats not exactly a spoiler, but I kinda wish I hadn't known about the possibility, not that I'll be able to play it for a long time. I was expecting the final battle in Mass Effect to have this possibility, but forgave it because of the awesomeness of a game which lets me talk the final boss into shooting himself in the head.

The other spoiler was that Jeb Bartlet is in the sequel...wish I'd not know that either. Although I did just watch the laucnh trailer, and yeah, his presence isn't exactly a secret, also, holy crap do I need a new PC.