Board 8 > I have finally finished my first Mass Effect 1+2 playthrough *MAJOR SPOILERS*

(+) Yeah! (+)

I got the achievement for completing Eden Prime on August 11th, 2008, so I created the Shepherd I just completed ME2 with nearly three years ago. I've actually been playing the game continuously that entire time too, I just took a few massive breaks.

Here's my choices and results:

Mass Effect 1

- Romanced Ashley
- Kaiden died on Virmire, Wrex survived
- Council died (although I specifically chose to focus defenses on the Citadel or whatever, I didn't outright condemn them to death)
- I chose Anderson to lead the new Council

Mass Effect 2

- Romanced Miranda
- Had casual sex with Jack, attempted it with Samara, flirted and had dinner with Kelly
- Obtained everybody's loyalty
- Chose Legion to sneak through the vents and Miranda to lead the second Fire Team
- All crew members except for Dr. Chakwas died, though I'm not sure if I can prevent this
- Had Samara create a biotic barrier to protect us from the seekers while Jacob escorted Dr. Chakwas back to the Normandy. Miranda led the diversion team.
- Took Miranda and Mordin with me to the Human Reaper while everyone else stayed back to watch our back
- Chose to destroy the Reaper facility, Miranda resigned from Cerberus and I told TIM (whoa) to shut it
- All party members survived

I still have to play LotSB and Arrival, but until then I'm interested in seeing how everyone else handled their first time through the game.

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Ew romancing Ashley. I didn't even romance anyone in ME1 because the options weren't great. Liara was cool, but meh. Ashley is a racist b**** and I was so glad to sentence her to death.

I romanced Tali in the second game, she's the best one.

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~Halo Live, fight, survive, as a family.
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Wait, Mordin survived with you? That's impressive. He apparently always dies if you don't send him back as an escort.

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~Halo Time to rock, Scott Pilgrim style.
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Yeah he survived. Probably because he was in my party the entire time I guess. Glad I always kept him for comic relief!

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No, he doesn't always die.

I've actually never had him die when having him HOLD THE LINE, and I do it every playthrough.

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As for smaller decisions, I went exclusively Paragon. Let the guy escape to save the workers in Zaeed's loyalty mission, made Saren kill himself, et cetera.

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- All crew members except for Dr. Chakwas died

You have to replay the game.

Yeah seriously how could you let Kelly and the two engineers die

Shame on you

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I was upset that they died but I don't really know how to prevent it. It's kind of annoying because I'm otherwise completely happy with the outcome of my game.

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I didn't know it was possible to prevent their deaths.

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~Halo Time to rock, Scott Pilgrim style.
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You took too long to go through the Omega 4 relay.

You only have time for 1 mission after it opens up (specifically it's there for Legion's loyalty mission)

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Also I'm still working on a replay of the game, because Legion died on my first playthrough. So I gotta make sure that doesn't happen this time, I need a perfect end-game for the third game.

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~Halo Time to rock, Scott Pilgrim style.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/907/bandfinisher.jpg

From: tcaz2 | #011
You took too long to go through the Omega 4 relay.

You only have time for 1 mission after it opens up (specifically it's there for Legion's loyalty mission)

I'm pretty sure I only did his mission after the Omega 4 Relay opened up and they still all died.

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~Halo Now you learn the mistake of challenging me.
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Well, you're mistaken then. As it's definitely possible to save them and you definitely have time for one mission and one mission only.

Actually, it might be 'one of going anywhere'. Did you like, say, land on Omega for supplies or something?

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I can't remember. Though like I said, Legion died in the end, so I know I did something wrong somewhere. I wasn't able to convince Miranda to be loyal after her fight with Jack, because I wasn't high enough Renegade.

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~Halo Now you learn the mistake of challenging me.
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I did like 20 missions after the team got kidnapped, because I wasn't expecting the Reaper IFF to be a "point of no return".

Whoops.

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So how difficult is it to have everyone survive your first time through? Do I deserve a pat on the back?

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If anyone here is interested in the exact play-by-play mechanics of the Suicide Mission, some lovingly hard-working forumites down at the BioWare Social Network compiled this positively kickass image for your viewing pleasure.



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TimJab posted...
So how difficult is it to have everyone survive your first time through? Do I deserve a pat on the back?

Not really. (No offense!) It's remarkably easy -- too easy. A common complaint, really.

So long as you gain everyone's loyalty, it's pretty simple. The only parts people are known to slip up on are the "Hold the Line" sequence and the decision to have Zaeed lead a fire team sine they sometimes think his long-lived merc status means he'd be good for it.

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I knew not to trust Zaeed!

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The old BSN joke about Zaeed is that people think he's fit to lead a fire team because of his decades of experience. What they neglect to realize is that over half his stories involve being the only survivor of some doomed expedition.

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For my two cents, I actually orchestrate the deaths of a couple of squadmates every time I play through ME2. I let the girlfriend tackle the trophy and achievement on the respective consoles because I didn't feel like it.

I consider the lead-up to the Suicide Mission really strong on an emotional level and while there's certainly something to be said for the awesome factor of a team that does the impossible and spills drinks on the Citadel afterward, I like the dramatic impact of it being factually impossible they're all going to make it out of that place alive.

I shake it up sometimes but usually Zaeed kicks the bucket for one. He has a really rad death line. "Always knew it'd... be something... like this."

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Jack gets too excited in combat.

She'd most likely rush away from the line and get herself killed

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Jack is a great biotic (even though by gameplay standards she's kind of underwhelming compared to Miranda, Samara is better due to Reave and Liara for the short time you have her is up there with Miranda for sure) but she's still a... how would she put it?

"One minute I'm a crazy b**** but then the next, I'm just a scared little girl. I don't know, it's f***ing stupid. Forget about it."

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At first I thought I was leaving one guy behind to "hold the line" and at first that was gonna be Zaeed. Then I realized he wasn't very trustworthy and decided to leave Garrus behind because I remembered his ability to hold a chokepoint on Omega. Then I realized I didn't want Garrus to die before he could finish his calibrations so I planned to leave Grunt behind.

Once I saw that I was leaving everyone behind I just brought my normal Miranda and Mordin team with me to face the final boss without even thinking about who I was leaving behind, which was a apparently a pretty solid team.

Looking at the graph though, I'm confused as to why Jack is so useless at the door. Mordin, Tali, and Kasumi make sense, but isn't Jack an unstoppable killing machine? She would have been my 4th choice to stay behind after Garrus, Grunt, and Zaeed. She should switch places with Miranda.

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Oh man, this is so ****ing depressing. Except for Jacob getting a rocket to the face. That was awesome.

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TimJab posted...


Oh man, this is so ****ing depressing. Except for Jacob getting a rocket to the face. That was awesome.

I'm responsible for quite a few of those views. I watched that like fifteen times in a row one night after I got piss drunk and my friends all went home.

Yup.

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From: ShadowHalo17 | #003
Wait, Mordin survived with you? That's impressive. He apparently always dies if you don't send him back as an escort.

I sent Zaeed back as the escort, and everyone survived for me

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_foolmo_
'but that statement is something only an Aspergers patient would say' - UltimaterializerX

The thing about Mordin always dying is flat-out false. The chart will show you this. The fact is that Mordin is one of the first to kick the bucket if the strength of the defenders isn't high during the "Hold the Line" sequence. That's where that rumor is from. Nothing more.

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Whoa, reading that graph now, I had no clue it was possible for Shepard to die as well.

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ShadowHalo17 posted...
Whoa, reading that graph now, I had no clue it was possible for Shepard to die as well.

Shepard's death means you can't import for Mass Effect 3, though. Been confirmed a zillion times.

The amount of threads we get on the BSN everyday asking about who the new main character will be if Shepard's dead is insane.

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Well obviously.

I need to get to playing my ME2 game now, I'm still working on completing the game again, this time with everyone surviving. I'm just getting through it really slowly. I also have all the DLC missions to do as well, which I have yet to try.

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Man that freaking pod scene is WAY worse when you don't save Kelly (no seriously it seems more gory)

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ShadowHalo17 posted...
Well obviously.

I need to get to playing my ME2 game now, I'm still working on completing the game again, this time with everyone surviving. I'm just getting through it really slowly. I also have all the DLC missions to do as well, which I have yet to try.

The DLC for ME2, as I'm sure you've heard, is impeccable. Play it posthaste.

Overlord is fantastic. Kasumi is fantastic. Lair of the Shadow Broker is a terrific postgame story. Arrival isn't bad either and sets the tone for ME3's beginning well.

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I've already played Zaeed's and Kasumi's loyalty missions. I'm waiting to play the other ones at the right time. I mean, I'm in the middle of the game, and I can already play Arrival and Lair of the Shadow Broker, even though I haven't done the necessary steps for those missions to fit in with what's already happened so far. Like I haven't talked much to Liara, haven't given her intel, haven't completed her Shadow Broker missions, so doing that Lair mission would just be out of place now.

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~Halo Time to rock, Scott Pilgrim style.
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Arrival and LotSB adjust the dialogue slightly so they make sense whenever you play them, but ideally they should be left until after the Suicide Mission. Arrival in particular is designed to be the last thing you do, as it's more a prologue to ME3 than an epilogue to ME2.

Firewalker and Overlord have entirely self-contained plots, and can be done mid-game.

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"I'm Commander Shepard, and you're standing in the biggest library in Citadel Space. Look me up."

Yes, do Firewalker and Overlord at your leisure.

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Sir Chris Police ~Ace Detective in Homicide~
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OK, so I do LotSB first and then Arrival?

I've already done Firewalker and Overlord. I've done a couple of missions involving anomalies on planets too, mostly Blue Suns stuff.

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From: Pirateking2000 | #033
Man that freaking pod scene is WAY worse when you don't save Kelly (no seriously it seems more gory)

I didn't save Kelly and for some reason I don't think her death scene was as gory in my game as it was in the video. Maybe I'm misremembering, but in my game she just kind of slid out of the bottom of the pod...in the video she melted or something.

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TimJab posted...
OK, so I do LotSB first and then Arrival?

I've already done Firewalker and Overlord. I've done a couple of missions involving anomalies on planets too, mostly Blue Suns stuff.

Yes, LotSB and then Arrival is the correct order. However, it really doesn't matter much.

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I didn't save Kelly and for some reason I don't think her death scene was as gory in my game as it was in the video. Maybe I'm misremembering, but in my game she just kind of slid out of the bottom of the pod...in the video she melted or something.


meh looked at youtube it kinda shows

"When you fail to save Kelly" the scene shows more blood gore and her body being all red zombie looking

when you save her the random colony chick it only shows like a little bit but she doesn't look like a total freaking melting zombie.

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XBL GT: Demon Ninja X2
"There comes a time in every man's or woman's life where they have to make **** up to cover their ass." - Hazama

playing LotSB now

garrus, tali, and liara are all so improved from the first game it's ridiculous

also that spectre had the most predictable heel turn ever

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I think I sent Thane through the vents and uh...I don't remember what else.

I much preferred ME1 to 2 though. I disliked a lot of 1 for the faults it had, but 2 didn't fix these at all. The game was mostly uninteresting with no real villain, whereas 1 had an awesome villain.

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So instead of making a new topic, I'll just ask here, as I'm currently still re-playing through ME2, I just did Tali's loyalty mission and actually had a good enough Renegade score this time around, so I got her all cleared. Felt good.

Now I think the only other big Renegade/Paragon check that I couldn't pass last time (and didn't even know about then) is the Samara/Morinth fight. Well, I guess it's just the ability to resist Morinth. Should I leave that for the last optional mission to get more Renegade points? I heard that the way it actually works is during a mission, you have to get enough of the Renegade points for you to be able to pass a check later on. So in that case, it apparently wouldn't really matter how much Renegade points I have overall.

Or what. I need help.

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WHERE'D ALL YOU EXPERT GUYS GO?

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~Halo Now you learn the mistake of challenging me.
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So while I'm waiting for an answer, I'm spending some time watching videos of the game played by different classes (I played as an Infiltrator because SNIPING). So I'm watching some Vanguard stuff, and DAT CHARGE.

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~Halo Everybody run!
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I have no idea about the speech check stuff. I was able to do every paragon speech check no problem. I don't understand why people can't do it.

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It's easier to play as a Paragon, because the game offers more and more importantly bigger Paragon checks. If you do something good it's usually like +24 Paragon and if you do something evil it's more +2 Renegade. So getting to Renegade checks is harder than passing Paragon checks.

just finished arrival, so i'm officially done i guess

i thought arrival was pretty good, i don't know why people don't like it

lack of boss fights i guess?

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I found it a bit short for the cash you give out.

But it was a nice prelude and winning the "impossible" fight feels good, so I didn't really mind.