Mass Effect 2 [thread contains spoilers]

[Darth Payne]

It was just so freaking boring shooting everything with those assault rifles....

 

Yep, it did indeed get very boring at times as a soldier. On my 2-3 playthrough i didn't even have to fear my weapons overheating due to various upgrades.

[Drunkside]

Yep, it did indeed get very boring at times as a soldier. On my 2-3 playthrough i didn't even have to fear my weapons overheating due to various upgrades.

 

Yeah, same here. I just took an open place with no cover, sat down there and held the trigger down til everyone was dead... But still, even though soldier is ridiculously easy i think infiltrator is actually a better class. And biotic powers are pointless, the only biotic power i had in my entire party was lift that i took as the extra power while making my character, and it didnt make the game any harder to play... I just had Tali for those "open boxes etc" skills and Ashley for more firepower

[Salzella]

truth. I definitely vote for Female Shepard as the canon (despite the default being a male in-game) and them casting Jennifer Hale as Jane Shepard in the upcoming Mass Effect movie. anyone? anyone?

 

Maybe. I'm still against the whole idea of a movie, but if they must do it, then they'd better get someone really amazing for shep.

 

infiltrator for the win. X-98e Widow Anti-Material is pure beast

 

Hehe, having just played through the game again as an infiltrator, i have to agree now. I died way fewer times and the Widow is, as you say a BEAST. i beat the Reaper IFF mission without dying for the first time EVER on hardcore, and it was just so fun. Sentinel is OK, but can be a bit of a war of attrition at times.

 

As for ME1, i just play on casual difficulty because the combat is just no fun though i was an infiltrator in that as well with my main character (who's the one in my sig and avatar).

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

Vanguard with Biotic Charge maxed out and power cool downs off. Fighting that one Spectre during the Shadow Broker DLC was one of my favorite vidya fights of all time like that, we both just teleported around the room firing at each other. That plus that one long(er) range, armor-piercing shotgun. Woo.

[Darth_Calo]

I dont even want a movie that "canonises" some choices. Isn´t playing your own story one of the main points of ME? And yeah, Infiltrators ftw. Played INF in ME1, played it in ME2 and will play it in ME3. Also, i made a ME1 playthrough with a soldier a few weeks ago, but didnt like it. It was just so freaking boring shooting everything with those assault rifles....

 

but in Knights of the Old Republic the good choices are the canon. players can still do whatever they want. If they made a Mass Effect movie that canonized the baddass choices, it would just be like "oh that's what really happens" and IMHO wouldn't detract one bit from the gameplay. you could still make the story what you want. in some ways it builds that from the start since the canon background is John Shepard, Male Earthborn War Hero Soldier. but I had "beast" shepard, male colonist ruthless adept shepard. it builds in a sense of canonicity, whilst still allowing for an enjoyable experience regardless. IMHO, the movie should canonize all the bad ass choices, but that's just me

[Drunkside]

but in Knights of the Old Republic the good choices are the canon. players can still do whatever they want. If they made a Mass Effect movie that canonized the baddass choices, it would just be like "oh that's what really happens" and IMHO wouldn't detract one bit from the gameplay. you could still make the story what you want. in some ways it builds that from the start since the canon background is John Shepard, Male Earthborn War Hero Soldier. but I had "beast" shepard, male colonist ruthless adept shepard. it builds in a sense of canonicity, whilst still allowing for an enjoyable experience regardless. IMHO, the movie should canonize all the bad ass choices, but that's just me

 

I see your point, but still deep down it would suck to have a canonising movie. It just makes my choices seem less valid. But if the storyline of the movie had nothing to do with the games it would be good, the ME universe is definetely rich enough to host quite a few movies not connected to Sheppie.

[Darth_Calo]

I agree with your last point. since BioWare owns rights to the universe,they have free license to create whatever stories they want. Like George Lucas when he was starting the Star Wars franchise, they can be creative. I would enjoy a canonising movie, because I myself generally make the same choices each playthrough as far as dialog goes (I always am hardcore renegade but destroy the collector station or save the council...don't know why, I just do. I also always appoint Captain Anderson to be the human representative to the council.) but if they went a different direction, that would be just as good. personally I would really like a movie that chronicled a background of shep, ending with Anderson and Shepard boarding the SSV Normandy to head to Eden Prime.

 

also, my thoughts on the classes of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2

in mass effect 1, the "pure" classes (Soldier, engineer, adept) were overpowered in some way. Engineers could tear through Geth with little or no trouble; Adepts could wreck small-medium targets with little or no issue; Soldiers could just wreck with no issue.

the "cross" classes (infiltrator, Vanguard, Sentinel) were a little underpowered. as they didnt excel at either of their skills, they needed back up more so then the "pures"

 

in mass effect 2, and this is a credit to the folks at bioware, all the classes have a strength, and the introduction of heavy weapons and SMGs added a new wrinkle. Biotic Charge, Tactical Cloak, and Tech Armor made the vanguard, Infiltrator, and Sentinel respectively a lot more deadly. The pure classes' unique talents were either re-used from ME1 (singularity), underwhelming (tech drone), or overpowered (adrenaline rush)

 

it is my hope that they find a happy medium between the two extremes for ME3. an example would be the warrior, mage, and rogue in Dragon Age: Origins; each is powerful and has useful unique abilities (with the mage being the most distinct of the three) without being rediculous.

[Salzella]

I would hate it if they made the renegade choices into a movie. it would not make sense is, as Liara said, they are trying to prove humanity to the rest of the galaxy, to choose a racist, *******, gun-pulling jerk to represent them. Paragon, whilst slightly too do-goodish to be true, is the only real option as far as i can see.

 

Therein lies the problem. The whole point of Mass Effect is that each player makes their own story - to make a new one to override it would be to cheapen the experience. Screw that. If they must make a movie about Shepard then pick one of the backgrounds, each of the Paragon (Elysium), Neutral (Akuuze) or Renegade (Torfan) would make an equally good film without ruining each fan's experience, to a lesser extent than filming the whole series would, regardless of how they choose which of those three to use.

[Darth_Calo]

I would hate it if they made the renegade choices into a movie. it would not make sense is, as Liara said, they are trying to prove humanity to the rest of the galaxy, to choose a racist, *******, gun-pulling jerk to represent them. Paragon, whilst slightly too do-goodish to be true, is the only real option as far as i can see.

 

Therein lies the problem. The whole point of Mass Effect is that each player makes their own story - to make a new one to override it would be to cheapen the experience. Screw that. If they must make a movie about Shepard then pick one of the backgrounds, each of the Paragon (Elysium), Neutral (Akuuze) or Renegade (Torfan) would make an equally good film without ruining each fan's experience, to a lesser extent than filming the whole series would, regardless of how they choose which of those three to use.

 

I totally agree with you. that said, as the council said if renegade shepard saves them, his (or her) "ruthless pursuit of Saren and the Geth proved how strong humanity is". The council thought that humanity was just a bunch of thugs, but Shepard showed they can get stuff done, but are also willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Wiping out the Rachni? yes that might not have been Shepard's choice to make. Killing the colonists protecting the thorian? coldhearted. Not saving the salarians on virmire, letting captain kirrahe die valiantly in battle? ok that one is not that bad. warrior's death. anyone? anyone? not all of the renegade choices are that bad, most are just a matter of attitude--do whatever it takes vs minimize casualties.

 

I would also vote for one of the backgrounds, perhaps including the origin (earthborn, spacer, colonist) as well as the storyline for the movie--and as I said, I would have it end with shepard walking onto the first Normandy

[Drunkside]

I totally agree with you. that said, as the council said if renegade shepard saves them, his (or her) "ruthless pursuit of Saren and the Geth proved how strong humanity is". The council thought that humanity was just a bunch of thugs, but Shepard showed they can get stuff done, but are also willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Wiping out the Rachni? yes that might not have been Shepard's choice to make. Killing the colonists protecting the thorian? coldhearted. Not saving the salarians on virmire, letting captain kirrahe die valiantly in battle? ok that one is not that bad. warrior's death. anyone? anyone? not all of the renegade choices are that bad, most are just a matter of attitude--do whatever it takes vs minimize casualties.

 

I would also vote for one of the backgrounds, perhaps including the origin (earthborn, spacer, colonist) as well as the storyline for the movie--and as I said, I would have it end with shepard walking onto the first Normandy

 

If they make the movie i doubt it´s going to canonise a total paragon or a total renegade. After all, the game´s morality is about shades of grey. And as a side note, i did the complete opposite in ME2: I was goodish (i helped the weak and killed all who irritated me(doesnt include zaeed, he never did )) and kept the station. And no one of the party members agreed with that??? Come on, there´s a freaking hyperrace of nasty murderspaceships coming toward the galaxy, the ends is what matters, not the means

[Darth_Calo]

If they make the movie i doubt it´s going to canonise a total paragon or a total renegade. After all, the game´s morality is about shades of grey. And as a side note, i did the complete opposite in ME2: I was goodish (i helped the weak and killed all who irritated me(doesnt include zaeed, he never did )) and kept the station. And no one of the party members agreed with that??? Come on, there´s a freaking hyperrace of nasty murderspaceships coming toward the galaxy, the ends is what matters, not the means

 

I may be reading too much into this but I viewed the potential use of the Collector Station as a threat to humans losing their humanity. I know that sounds odd, but if they are willing to use it to construct their own reaper using mass kidnapping like the collectors, that makes them no better than the collectors in my eyes. I was a complete *******, I went the paragon route in Zaeed's loyalty mission just so I could kill him. virtually every other renegade option (betraying Samara in favor of Morinth, shooting and killing Kolyat's hostage, threatening mouse at gun point, intimidating the shopkeeps to give me a discount, shooting conrad in the foot, among many others...) I took advantage of. But the opportunity to save the collector station gave me pause because as I stated before I thought it would be a form of losing their humanity.

 

that said, I agree that a movie would not canonize a pure renegade (or paragon) shepard, which would continue the "morally gray" theme of the games. I wish it would canonize the renegade options because they would make for a, in my view, more bad ass action hero film. However I again express my hope that the movie covers one--of the possible backgrounds, selecting earthborn, colonist, or spacer; war hero, sole survivor, or ruthless; and soldier, adept, engineer, infiltrator, sentinel, or vanguard--any combination of these would make a great movie. my ideal timeline for the movie would start with shepard enlisting in the Systems Alliance Military and end with Shepard walking down the gangway to the SSV Normandy for the mission to Eden Prime. so a prequel of sorts to the games.

[Drunkside]

I may be reading too much into this but I viewed the potential use of the Collector Station as a threat to humans losing their humanity. I know that sounds odd, but if they are willing to use it to construct their own reaper using mass kidnapping like the collectors, that makes them no better than the collectors in my eyes. I was a complete *******, I went the paragon route in Zaeed's loyalty mission just so I could kill him. virtually every other renegade option (betraying Samara in favor of Morinth, shooting and killing Kolyat's hostage, threatening mouse at gun point, intimidating the shopkeeps to give me a discount, shooting conrad in the foot, among many others...) I took advantage of. But the opportunity to save the collector station gave me pause because as I stated before I thought it would be a form of losing their humanity.

 

that said, I agree that a movie would not canonize a pure renegade (or paragon) shepard, which would continue the "morally gray" theme of the games. I wish it would canonize the renegade options because they would make for a, in my view, more bad ass action hero film. However I again express my hope that the movie covers one--of the possible backgrounds, selecting earthborn, colonist, or spacer; war hero, sole survivor, or ruthless; and soldier, adept, engineer, infiltrator, sentinel, or vanguard--any combination of these would make a great movie. my ideal timeline for the movie would start with shepard enlisting in the Systems Alliance Military and end with Shepard walking down the gangway to the SSV Normandy for the mission to Eden Prime. so a prequel of sorts to the games.

 

To quote my favourite "doctor", Humanity is overrated.

 

I would rather have a movie of Andersons chance to become a spectre, that would be cool, and it wouldnt have any effect on making some choices in the games more valid than the others.

[Darth_Calo]

on a totally unrelated note, I legit made a Shepard in ME2 that is the spitting image of President Barrack H. Obama II. LEGIT. even the ears are at the right angle. the ONLY thing missing is his voice. I also made one that looks like Samuel L. Jackson purely for the Everyone dies badass ending, because its Samuel L. Jackson! Snakes on a space ship!

 

back to the movie, there are so many choices, and the more i think about it the more I agree that a canonized main storyline, at least before ME3, is a bad idea. if they waited until ME3 is released, then I'd be all for it, kind of like 'play the games how you want, but this is how we envisioned shepards storyline

in terms of actors, this is a bit premature, but I'd think of Jenniffer Hale as being perfect for Female shepard, or alternatively Matt Damon (Bourne Trilogy, The Departed) for a male shepard.

 

(if anyone was curious, the Obama one is now my avatar)

[Tysyacha]

Does anyone know what sidequests have an impact in ME2 and which ones don't?

[DarthParametric]

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/944907-mass-effect-2/53322093

 

It's possible that there may also be some things that crop up in ME3 that didn't in ME2.

[DarthParametric]

So, I finished another ME2 run today and I realised that it was starting to get difficult to track who has done what amongst my various previous playthroughs. I figured I should make a checklist to make things easier when ME3 comes around. Of course, rather than just keep things simple, I had to go and make an Excel sheet with drop-down menus for everything. After all that effort I figured others might be interested in it as well. Here's a preview detailing the results of my latest playthrough (based on a downloaded ME1 save):

 

 

It's not super fancy, but gets the job done. EDIT: File is available via Bioware Social site -

 

http://social.bioware.com/project/4113/

 

If there are any suggestions to improve it, by all means please share them. The original is in 2007/2010 XLSX format. There's also a legacy XLS version for older Excel/OpenOffice users. I have tested it with OpenOffice (and fixed a couple of bugs affecting the XLS in the latest version).

 

SPOILER WARNING

Obviously this reveals pretty much every quest and decision in the game, so don't go looking at it if you haven't finished the game at least once. Although I would guess that pretty much anyone reading this thread at this juncture has already done so.

[mimartin]

I will do my part of replacing posts lost during the database crash.

 

Effective February 8th 2011 there will be new DLC for Mass Effect 2. Before you fanboys/fangirls get your bloomers in a knot, it is nothing exciting or that will add replay value to the game. It is Alternate Appearance Pack #2, not to be confused with Alternate Appearance Pact #1 (released March 23, 2010).

 

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

[Alkonium]

Several sarcastic remarks referring to Miranda's stock appearance as a catsuit, also stating that in the romance scene, she's always wearing the default catsuit. And I really like the new look for Tali.

[Lynk Former]

Something, something, Miranda's ass, something, something, pink thong.

 

I can't remember what I wrote last time before we lost our posts but that's all of the relevant information I do remember.

[mimartin]

Miranda isn't some airhead bimbo, she would never wear a pink thong... It's black or none at all.

[Mav]

Post Recovery: TL;DR version:

 

Waste of money, coat of paint.

[Totenkopf]

Miranda isn't some airhead bimbo, she would never wear a pink thong... It's black or none at all.

 

I'd pretty much have to agree with this. She may be a bitch, but she ain't really the girly type.

[Lynk Former]

Some women just want to feel womanly, even if at the office they wear their office clothing, underneath it could be all frilly and girly. You'd never know *points*

[Totenkopf]

Some women just want to feel womanly, even if at the office they wear their office clothing, underneath it could be all frilly and girly. You'd never know *points*

 

The race doesn't always go to the swiftest or the fight to the strongest....but it's the way to bet. Besides, pick=womanly is such a worn out cliche.

[DarthParametric]

Clearly it's none. There's no VPL and definitely a hint of toe.