Board 8 > Now that I've beaten Mass Effect 2, here are some of my thoughts (SPOILERS).

(+) Yeah! (+)

First of all, let me preface this by saying that I didn’t play ME1 first. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t have much of a choice. I don’t own a 360, nor do I own a PC capable of running ME1, and I wasn’t going to buy either just to play the game. As a result, I ended up watching a playthrough on YouTube to get myself caught up to speed (LMS would be so proud). It’s a good thing I did, too, because that interactive comic didn’t do a great job of summing up the plot of the first game! No mention of the geth, no mention of the Thorian, no mention of Ethan Jeong. I mean, how do you expect someone to know what’s going on if you don’t talk about those things? For the curious, there are only six decisions the comic lets you make, and they are these:

1. Whether you kill the Rachni or save them (I chose to save them)
2. Whether you romance Liara or Ashley (I chose Liara)
3. Whether you kill Wrex or spare him (I chose to spare him)
4. Whether you save Ashley or Kaiden (I chose to save Ashley)
5. Whether you save the Council or let them die (I chose to save them)
6. Whether you choose Anderson or Udina as the human representative on the Council (I chose Anderson)

With that out of the way, let me go ahead and say that Mass Effect 2 is a great game. I had lots of fun with it. I mostly did just the main missions and the loyalty missions. The only sidequest I’ve done so far (not counting the loyalty missions, I guess) was the Project Overlord one, which was pretty good. It wasn’t really anything special until the very, very end, and then it got really good. I’m generally not a big fan of shooters, mostly because I don’t find gunfights very exciting. I can’t really put my finger on why that is, but most guns in video games are boring. ME2 has some fun weapons to use, and it can put you in some crazy scenarios during the main storyline (The Suicide Mission, of course, as well as the Derelict Reaper). A lot of the standard gameplay is pretty straightforward and not that special, at least to me. It’s fun enough though. I enjoy the effects of the different kinds of ammo powers and stuff like that.

The fun in Mass Effect 2 for me comes in conversation and character interaction though. I love dialogue wheels and just talking to people. Getting to choose between good options and bad options was fun. I always made sure to talk to everyone after every major mission to see if I had unlocked new dialogue. Some characters are more conversant than others, and some characters have more interesting things to talk about than others, but that goes without saying. That’s part of the reason loyalty missions were so fun for the most part. You get some new dialogue, interaction, and development. If you want to argue “plot relevance” of characters or silly things like that, get out. I don’t really care if someone like Thane is plot relevant or what he talks about. Dude’s awesome, simple as that.

The main story itself is pretty short and not overly involved. From what I can tell and what others have told me, ME2 is basically a bridge from ME1 to ME3, and it’s not a terribly long bridge. It’s there to flesh out and show you the worlds ME1 talked about. ME1 told you about the Migrant Fleet; ME2 let you go there. ME1 told you about Tuchanka; ME2 let you go there. It also sets the stage for the grand finale against the Reapers. But give me a game with fantastic atmosphere, strong presentation, and a guy refusing to back down from near impossible odds, and I’m sold. That’s what ME2 gave me, and I loved it. I was shaking from the nervous excitement and the tension during the Suicide Mission. When a game can give me that feeling, I know I’ve had a good experience.

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"So cold. I am always by your side."
"There ain't no gettin' off of this train we on!"

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have more to say later, but for now, let’s just do a character ranking.

1. Commander Shepard – Whether he’s a Paragon whose leadership commands loyalty and courage to face impossible odds commands respect, or he’s a Renegade whose jerk qualities are extremely entertaining, he’s the best this game has to offer.
2a. Miranda Lawson – SORRY CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER ALL THIS YVONNE STRAHOVSKI
2b. Tali’Zorah vas Normandy – Couldn’t decide between Miranda and Tali, but they were my favorite people to talk to (for different reasons, admittedly) and my favorite people to use in battle.
4. Thane Krios – I just love this guy’s backstory, and I love the “assassin with a conscience” thing. His random MEMORY SPACING OUT was pretty awesome, too.
5. Garrus Vakarian – Oh, you want me to explain why he’s not higher on the list? Hmmm…Well, can it wait for a bit? I’m in the middle of some calibrations.
6. Mordin Solus – Mordin singing Gilbert and Sullivan is seriously one of the greatest things I’ve ever witnessed in a video game.
7. Jeff “Joker” Moreau – “This is all Joker’s fault. What a tool he was! I had to spend all day computing pi because he plugged in the Overlord!”
8. The Illusive Man – Honestly, I’m still not sure if I should love the guy or hate him, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
9. Grunt – Probably a bit high for some people, but I found him entertaining, and he’s awesome in battle.
10. EDI – She plays off of Joker so well. A good pairing, that.
11. Kasumi Goto – I loved gossiping with her on the Normandy, and she had one of the best loyalty missions. Needed more screen time, but hey, what can you expect from a DLC character?
12. Zaeed Massani – His story about nearly getting choked to death by a hanar is awesome. Needed more screen time, but hey, what can you expect from a DLC character?
13. Legion – His talks about the Geth are pretty fascinating stuff, at least in my opinion, but he comes along too late in the game for me to really get attached to him.
14. Samara – Her loyalty mission was pretty interesting, and all the stuff about justicars and code was neat. Her personality was boring to me though.
15. Jacob Taylor – He’s a nice guy, but he’s just…there, for the most part. Despite the fact that he’s one of the first characters in your party, it’s not hard for me to forget about him. His loyalty mission was all kinds of messed up though, in a good way.
16. Jack – The only character on the main crew I’d say I flat out dislike. I’m sure she has a nice personality underneath all that mess on the surface, but that mess on the surface is exactly why I don’t want to explore any further. Plus, she’s constantly at odds with Miranda, and well, yeah.

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Miranda has dat ass, but she's also incredibly boring.

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Chrono1219

Fun fact! You can get Legion early, and he has tons of lines for the other missions. Try replaying and getting him at the start!

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

Yeah you should definitely do a "Get Legion as fast as possible" run through at some time.

He has a lot of hilarious dialogue.

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Thane was great. Best new character in ME2.

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"When I was a young man, I had liberty, but I did not see it. I had time, but I did not know it."

My thoughts on Miranda:


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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.

As a Chuck fan, it's hard to not be all over Miranda.

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-Merc

Spoilers


During Samara's loyalty mission, if you're maxed or near maxed Paragon or Renegade a new option will open up.

I'm not a huge Miranda fan, I'd rank her as "just okay" really. I suppose her nature and personality is somewhat polarizing though.

You should give Jack a little more chance however, I think. Underneath her exterior personality is her real character, though unfortunately you have to choose her as your romance partner to really get to see the bulk of it.

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Save My contests are awful, without exception. Timjab is an amazing user, the eeveelutions suck, mark sanchez is the best qb in the league, and it wasn't Brock.

Mordin > every other character in the series. Dude is awesome and his loyalty mission is easily the best thing in the game.

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We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny

Garrus is the best character, but I grew highly attached to him from playing the first game. And then when he showed up again in ME2 I was so excited. I guess if you didn't play ME1, you didn't get the chance to really connect with him as much.

Mordin is also one of the greatest video game characters ever. It's too bad he's not very good in combat, but that doesn't matter too much. He's still freakin' awesome.

From: TheRock1525 | #007
My thoughts on Miranda:

Yup. Miranda isn't hot to me, I rank her down at the bottom along with Jacob, below Jack. Then again, I really don't care much for any of the human characters in the Mass Effect series, except for Shepard of course. And Joker too. Tali was an easy romance option for me, because she was the only one I liked. I didn't romance anyone in the first game because Ashley is a racist annoying b**** who I jumped at the chance to kill off, and Liara was okay, just... not romantically. Now Samara, I would totally romance that all up and down the Normandy.

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~Halo There is no Crane, only Scarecrow!
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3739/scarecrowq.jpg

Jack top tier. Grunt God Tier. Nothing more fun than Team Ruthlessly Violent. Tehe conversations you get when Grunt first gets on your ship are just epic.

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Realo won gold at the Sex Olympics with a BROKEN FRIGGIN NECK.-Voltch

How'd your suicide mission go, by the way? I assume by you saying nothing about it, everyone survived it.

My other actions from ME1 are about the same as yours. I saved Kaidan instead though and romanced no one since I came in already knowing Tali was an option in the next game (is that optional in the comic, just for reference?). It's rather interesting the Rachni decision is one of those "big six" since there's scarcely little mention of them in Mass Effect 2. I'm going to assume a larger role is planned in ME3.

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Save My contests are awful, without exception. Timjab is an amazing user, the eeveelutions suck, mark sanchez is the best qb in the league, and it wasn't Brock.

Yeah I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that the Rachni have a bigger role in ME3.

Also if you get Legion early, doesn't that sort of mess up the suicide mission in some ways? Like I thought you had to quickly go to the Omega 4 relay after getting the IFF.

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~Halo Live, fight, survive, as a family.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/7469/batfamily.jpg

From: ShadowHalo17 | #015
Also if you get Legion early, doesn't that sort of mess up the suicide mission in some ways? Like I thought you had to quickly go to the Omega 4 relay after getting the IFF.

No, you can put it off as long as you want, but if you do a mission it will result in you showing up in time to see half the crew die on the Collector base, or if you do two or more missions, everyone but Dr Chakwas.

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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Right, that's kinda what I meant. Like if you put off going into the Omega 4 relay after getting the IFF, you pretty much get people killed that way. So you have to choose between either getting Legion early or saving your crew.

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~Halo Now you learn the mistake of challenging me.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2734/hieis.jpg

The thing about that is... I put it off and recruited more people, but I didn't get there to see the crew die. Everyone lived. That always puzzled me.

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Save My contests are awful, without exception. Timjab is an amazing user, the eeveelutions suck, mark sanchez is the best qb in the league, and it wasn't Brock.

I always save Ashley, just because Kaidan bores me to tears. Not quite as bad as Jacob, but not all that much better

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

Can you get Legion early legitimately? I thought it required modding the PC version.

Or by 'early', do you just mean doing nothing but main quests then taking him on all the loyalty/side missions and damn the Normandy crew? Because there is unused dialogue for him in the recruitment missions as well, IIRC.

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

From: DeathChicken | #019
I always save Ashley, just because Kaidan bores me to tears. Not quite as bad as Jacob, but not all that much better

Jacob is better than Kaiden. Jacob is generic, but he's black and looks like Kanye West. Kaiden is generic and Carth 2.0, which is just terrible. At least he's not a racist annoying b**** like Ashley.

From: BlackMageJawa | #020
Or by 'early', do you just mean doing nothing but main quests then taking him on all the loyalty/side missions and damn the Normandy crew? Because there is unused dialogue for him in the recruitment missions as well, IIRC.

That's what we mean, yes, since most of the game consists of side/loyalty missions. It's just about doing the IFF mission as soon as it's available to get Legion "early".

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~Halo Rolling around at the speed of sound.
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/2417/sonicspeed.jpg

Now do Lair of the Shadow Broker!

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
SuperNiceDog. Best friend.

From: ShadowHalo17 | #012
Now Samara, I would totally romance that all up and down the Normandy.

So you make fun of Miranda's teeth and then pick someone with even worse teeth, I see.

I just think Shepard and Miranda have a good dynamic going on in their relationship. They have good chemistry, and they're good foils. A lot of these rankings are based on how enjoyable they are to talk to, and nobody tops Miranda, Tali, and Thane there for me in ME2.

From: vcharon | #014
(is that optional in the comic, just for reference?)

No, you have to choose someone, although I assume you could still get the same effect by choosing Ashley and then saving Kaiden.

Not surprising Rock has terrible ME opinions though.

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Hey, I friggin' love Yvonne but her model is... weird in the game. Like, I recognize that it's Yvonne but it doesn't really look like Yvonne.

Miranda isn't particularly interesting, either. She's OK, but her loyalty mission wasn't that great compared to some of the other characters.

Garrus is a boss. I take him with me on every mission cause he has the best comments. Especially helping Grunt through puberty.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.

From: LeonhartFour | #002
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have more to say later, but for now, let’s just do a character ranking.

1. Commander Shepard – Whether he

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Yoblazer: http://oi52.tinypic.com/ad21i1.jpg
Watch and you'll see... SuperNiceDog own me... in the Guru!

FemShep always trumps MaleShep, IMO.

Dat Jennifer Hale.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.

6. Mordin Solus

That's a 6, not a 1, silly.

Seriously, he's not only awesome, he says s*** that actually makes sense.

He makes the genophage sound like a good idea.

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I like how each new topic you make reveals such varied facets of your idiocy. - foolmo
[NO BARKLEY NO PEACE]

I used Garrus and Grunt.

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http://backloggery.com/shados
http://last.fm/user/ShadosNeko

Garrus and Kasumi here.

I don't even know if it actually works, they're too great to not keep around.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.

I actually don't think I used anyone BUT Garrus and Grunt, other than when they weren't available.

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shadosneko posted...
I actually don't think I used anyone BUT Garrus and Grunt, other than when they weren't available.

Kasumi has that awesome stealth attack that seems pretty useful.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.

Tali's robots were more useful

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

From: TheRock1525 | #029
Garrus and Kasumi here.

I don't even know if it actually works, they're too great to not keep around.

^5

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Cyclokle
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y306/greenseafoam/RCoween.png

My rankings.

1. Garrus: He's f***ing Garrus
2. Kasumi: While she's lacking in dialogue and interactions, she has an awesome loyalty mission and the dialogue she does have is great.
3. Mordin: He's the very model of an awesome teammate. Also, surprisingly deep when you listen to his thought process. Great loyalty mission, especially since it makes him question his own actions a bit.
4. Thane: Actually the best romance storyline (on noes im dying). Also a great character, sucks that he's not acquired right away.
5. Tali: Definitely improved from ME1, shows a lot of individual growth. Very good loyalty mission (;_;).
6. Grunt: Not as good as Wrex, but provides a much more interesting look at the Krogan people. Has some good moments, loyalty mission was completely underwhelming.
7. Jacob: Haters gonna hate. Personally, my favorite loyalty mission, such a messed up situation and has a great moment for Jacob. Without, he'd probably be lower.
8. Miranda: Despite her claims of perfection, is the perfect example of complete average. Average character, average storyline, average loyalty mission (cool interrupt, though, at the beginning).
9. Zaeed: Great loyalty mission, few nice lines of dialogue, but rather bland for the most part.
10. Legion: Great concept, didn't like the loyalty mission all that much, execution was pretty flawed and not enough time in your squad. Still "Geth do not intentionally infiltrate" is one of the best moments in the game.
11. Samara: Your t**s can't save you from being a general boring character. She has a great loyalty mission, except the funny part is that she's hardly involved in it compared to the other ones. So I can't really call that a plus for her.
12. Jack: I can deal with the "bad girl" image, but Jack comes off as so friggin' forced that it comes off as incredibly fake. Maybe romancing her makes her more interesting, but otherwise she's generally terrible. Also, that outfit looks more like it should be in FF or something.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.

Actually, strictly based on the Loyalty Missions and not the characters:

1. Jacob
2. Kasumi
3. Mordin
4. Tali
5. Samara
6. Garrus
7. Thane
8. Zaeed
9. Miranda
10. Jack
11. Legion
12. Grunt

Honestly, ranking 3-8 was really, really tough. You could change the order real easy.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.

From: DeathChicken | #032
Tali's robots were more useful

Playing as an Engineer, me and Tali (when she was in my party) would always send out the drones to the fighting while I sniped people from the back. The third person always got killed because he/she was the only one moving forward.

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

FemShep people are so weird.

So weird.

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LeonhartFour posted...
FemShep people are so weird.

So weird.

Truth!

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"When I was a young man, I had liberty, but I did not see it. I had time, but I did not know it."

From: LeonhartFour | #038
FemShep people are so weird.

So weird.

Indeed. Male Shep is superior.

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~Halo Rolling around at the speed of sound.
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/2417/sonicspeed.jpg

FemShep best Shep

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FF fans don't hang around the internet on a monday morning they are out doing shopping or asleep hungover from parties. They got lives. -The_Djoker

Well, if you like FemShep better, that's fine. I don't have a problem with that. I love Jennifer Hale as much as the next guy.

I just don't know why FemShep people seem to get offended by the mention that someone played Mass Effect as Male Shep!

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That's just Yoblazer!

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FF fans don't hang around the internet on a monday morning they are out doing shopping or asleep hungover from parties. They got lives. -The_Djoker

He's not the only one!

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"The great GF...Bahamut."
"...GF? I...? Using my powers...It is you humans...I fear..."

At least female Shepard gets romances with GOOD characters.

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You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself, blame the world. Blame God. Blame me.

From: GANON1025 | #045
At least female Shepard gets romances with GOOD characters.

Tali is a great character.

And I don't know if it's just me, but I don't really like role playing as a girl.

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~Halo Everybody run!
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I said that FemShep always trumps Male Shep.

Doesn't mean that I'm offended by you playing as him!

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.

Look, if you can stereotype Tali fans, I can stereotype FemShep fans.

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From: TheRock1525 | #035
Actually, strictly based on the Loyalty Missions and not the characters:

1. Jacob

What the

FemShep trumps MaleShep but it's not by that much, she has a tendency to take completely ordinary, mundane lines and make them sound super pissed off for absolutely no reason, and it kind of gets annoying over a long period of time.

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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Jacob has the best for the following reason:

How it's simply passed off as "when you get a chance, it's not that important" rather than "WE NEED TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW." You don't really think too much about it because it's Jacob and even he's seemingly unconcerned about it. Except the whole cryptic "He's been dead for years" thing, which piques your curiosity.

When you first land, and you check the wreckage. It's a nice contrast of the f***ed up situation you are about to experience when you're on a beautiful beach in what might be considered a tropical paradise.

When you encounter the "natives." And see how the people survived, survived being used in the loosest sense of the term. There's some real "Lord of the Flies" s*** going on, except much worse because they're all supposed to be adults.

And then finally, watching your character and Jacob absolutely destroy his father verbally. It's one thing to cap a guy in the head for his past actions, it's another to absolutely destroy the man using nothing but words.

That's why I love it. Nothing has that feeling, that general tone, and that great of an ending as that mission in terms of Loyalty missions.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.