During Thane's loyalty mission if you don't follow the Turian politician then it jumps to a cutscene where Thane's son murders him before you get to the Turian's apartment and you can fail Samara's loyalty mission by A) letting Morinth kill Samara at the end or B) when your trying to seduce her, say something that will make her bored ''like saying drugs are bad''(I shit you not, that is how you can fail it, looks like Bioware were sick of those infomercials as kids as well)Fr said:
Just finished Mass Effect 2 on PS3 for 1st time
- Thread starter Josh123914
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When I bought Mass Effect 2, I only had one character from Mass Effect 1 to bring back, but that character was really lousy so instead I made one fresh character and went through Mass Effect 2 TRYING to get the bad ending, so I basically told all of my characters to f*** off, didn't buy ANY of the upgrades and consequently, everyone died.
Nothing is luck, you do what you mean to do, you are that good. Or just an absolute perfectionist who ensured that they did EVERYTHING before beating the game.
Nothing is luck, you do what you mean to do, you are that good. Or just an absolute perfectionist who ensured that they did EVERYTHING before beating the game.
My first time I had all ship upgrades and all loyalty. Had Legion go through the vents as Jacob lead the fireteam. I sent Grunt back with the crew and let Jack make a magic bubble while I let Zaeed lead the second fire team. I was surprised when he died, but took Jack and Mordin to fight the reaper. All in all everyone lived except Zaeed. I then proceeded to blow up the ship and pissed off The Illusive Man.
(Spoilerific, obviously)
My paragon vanguard romanced Tali, obtained all loyalties, entrusted Legion with the vent job, put Miranda in charge of the fire team, Jack on Huge Biotic Bubble duty and lost no team members except for Yeoman Chambers, but I privately dedicated the last mini-nuke I shot into the Larvae's chest to her. Retribution makes big boom. I preserved the Collector base (for science!) and felt no compunction about terminating my working relationship with Cerberus. TIM seemed just a bit too eager to have his own Reaper neo-natal station.
That was that, I thought. Cerberus has all the tech they could possibly need to fight back against the inevitable invasion from Dark Space, I have the smugness of knowing that I'd taken the moral high ground while delivering a sound thrashing to The Big Bad. Day, saved. Unstoppable and fiercely loyal private army, assembled. Quarian hottie homegirl, satisfied. (Not to mention social life, neglected.) I proceeded to take a bit of a victory lap around the Normandy, to have a final chat with my crew members and generally bask in the reflected glow of my own awesomeness. Egotistic? Probably, but dammit, I'd earned it.
At this point, I noticed a common theme in all the conversations that emerged. Everyone expressed variations on relief, triumph, etc with a general sense of "We did it! Huzzah!" (I particularly enjoyed Tali's assessment of "Worth it"). However, without exception, each squad member's P.S. came with an emotional tone I had not expected: subtle doubt. The consensus was that we would be able to kick the ass (entry port?, I don't know) of any Reaper that dared mess with our galaxy. Despite this, I lost count of how many of my people simultaneously expressed faith in my capacity to lead them to victory, and fear for what TIM might do with his newfound Build-a-Reaper toolkit.
Had I won the battle, but laid the groundwork for the emergence of an even greater threat, one spearheaded by a xenophobic and power-hungry bastard who justifies the atrocities committed by his organization under a guise of Machiavellian pragmatism? Would I have to defend sapient life from a war on two fronts, as our bodies faced annihilation (or worse) from the edges of habitable space while a tyrant plotted the subjugation of all life under the heel of his own private human empire? Can a human impregnate a quarian? ME3 has many questions to answer, and I STILL need to take that original character into the Lair of the Shadow Broker. Earth = fucked.
My paragon vanguard romanced Tali, obtained all loyalties, entrusted Legion with the vent job, put Miranda in charge of the fire team, Jack on Huge Biotic Bubble duty and lost no team members except for Yeoman Chambers, but I privately dedicated the last mini-nuke I shot into the Larvae's chest to her. Retribution makes big boom. I preserved the Collector base (for science!) and felt no compunction about terminating my working relationship with Cerberus. TIM seemed just a bit too eager to have his own Reaper neo-natal station.
That was that, I thought. Cerberus has all the tech they could possibly need to fight back against the inevitable invasion from Dark Space, I have the smugness of knowing that I'd taken the moral high ground while delivering a sound thrashing to The Big Bad. Day, saved. Unstoppable and fiercely loyal private army, assembled. Quarian hottie homegirl, satisfied. (Not to mention social life, neglected.) I proceeded to take a bit of a victory lap around the Normandy, to have a final chat with my crew members and generally bask in the reflected glow of my own awesomeness. Egotistic? Probably, but dammit, I'd earned it.
At this point, I noticed a common theme in all the conversations that emerged. Everyone expressed variations on relief, triumph, etc with a general sense of "We did it! Huzzah!" (I particularly enjoyed Tali's assessment of "Worth it"). However, without exception, each squad member's P.S. came with an emotional tone I had not expected: subtle doubt. The consensus was that we would be able to kick the ass (entry port?, I don't know) of any Reaper that dared mess with our galaxy. Despite this, I lost count of how many of my people simultaneously expressed faith in my capacity to lead them to victory, and fear for what TIM might do with his newfound Build-a-Reaper toolkit.
Had I won the battle, but laid the groundwork for the emergence of an even greater threat, one spearheaded by a xenophobic and power-hungry bastard who justifies the atrocities committed by his organization under a guise of Machiavellian pragmatism? Would I have to defend sapient life from a war on two fronts, as our bodies faced annihilation (or worse) from the edges of habitable space while a tyrant plotted the subjugation of all life under the heel of his own private human empire? Can a human impregnate a quarian? ME3 has many questions to answer, and I STILL need to take that original character into the Lair of the Shadow Broker. Earth = fucked.
Plyed it on insane. I had everyones loyalty, expect mirandas because the fight whit jack (OH COME ON, I DIDN'T KNOW SHE WOULD BE EMO ABOUT IT, AND SECONDLY I THOUGHT IT WAS RIGHT THING TO DO SINCE IT SEEMED LIKE MIRANDA WAS THE ONE WHO STARTED THE FIGHT) I played the final mission perfetly until Miranda got hit by a rock and died, lol. (I cried from the inside because of all that SWEET GAMERSCORE i lost). But yeah, i killed the collectors and no one else died. My game of the last year.
The only time I played through to the end, everyone survived except for Mordin, and I don't know how he died because he never did anything dangerous. Tali went through the ducts, Jack held the bubble, and Garrus lead the defense.
26 hour Sentinel run through on PS3. Everyone survived and I destroyed the base. Right now I'm about 16 hours into an Infiltrator play through, working on loyalty missions before going on the Reaper IFF mission.
Mass Effect 2 came out two days before school started, so I was rushing to get it done and didn't see many of the sidequests, etc.
Despite that, I knew that I'd have to upgrade everything and everyone if I wanted to get through in one piece, and managed to get through the Collector Base without a single team member dying - no guides or anything. I felt pretty good about that
Despite that, I knew that I'd have to upgrade everything and everyone if I wanted to get through in one piece, and managed to get through the Collector Base without a single team member dying - no guides or anything. I felt pretty good about that
![Fr]anc[is](https://eg-forums-escapist-data-bucket.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/avatars/l/93/93202.jpg?1620797781){kind=avatar}
northeast rower said:
He probably died at the part where you go off to fight the boss. Its kinda complicated, but everyone has a sort of "hold the line" score. If the average hold the line score is too low, people die while you're fighting the boss in a specific order, and guess who's at the top. Being loyal increases the persons score, and leaving tougher characters (Garrus, Grunt, and Zaeed are the toughest) improves everyone's chances.Bullfrog1983 said:
My first playthrough I had like 5 people loyal, and I refused to do those scans so my ship wasn't fully upgraded. I lost like 5 people at least.
Second playthrough I did flawlessly of course, you basically don't lose people as long as you do the loyalty sidemissions.
Second playthrough I did flawlessly of course, you basically don't lose people as long as you do the loyalty sidemissions.
I had everybody loyal, had all the ship upgrades. Hence, everybody survived the Normandy crash.
However, during the Collector base attack, I lost, in order: Jacob, Thane, Zaeed and Legion.
Jacob, it was because I picked him as my tech specialist, and he got shot in the face when he was trying to shut the door between us and a bunch of collectors.
Thane, it was because I picked Miranda as my biotic specialist to maintain a shield around us, she couldn't take it anymore at the very end, and everybody got through the doors except Thane, who got smothered by all the flying parasite things.
Zaeed, I don't even remember, he just kind of died sometime.
Legion, it was after I wiped the Collector base to give it to the Illusive Man, during the final cutscene I found Legion dead. He was on my team during the final battle, but otherwise I have no idea why he died. Can anybody help me out there?
However, during the Collector base attack, I lost, in order: Jacob, Thane, Zaeed and Legion.
Jacob, it was because I picked him as my tech specialist, and he got shot in the face when he was trying to shut the door between us and a bunch of collectors.
Thane, it was because I picked Miranda as my biotic specialist to maintain a shield around us, she couldn't take it anymore at the very end, and everybody got through the doors except Thane, who got smothered by all the flying parasite things.
Zaeed, I don't even remember, he just kind of died sometime.
Legion, it was after I wiped the Collector base to give it to the Illusive Man, during the final cutscene I found Legion dead. He was on my team during the final battle, but otherwise I have no idea why he died. Can anybody help me out there?
First playthrough:
Ship fully upgraded.
Garrus went through the vents (I thought he was better at tech than that).
Samara led fireteam (I figured she was diciplined...Miranda agreed with me...).
Garrus died.
Jack held the shield.
Mordin defended (just so that he would say "hold the line"...and he did. Woot.).
Mordin and Miranda (not loyal) died.
Destroyed the base.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second playthrough:
Ship fully upgraded.
Garrus went through the vents (for plot purposes)
Jacob led the fireteam.
Garrus died (as expected).
Samara held the shield.
Jacob defended.
Miranda (not loyal) died.
Destroyed the base.
Ship fully upgraded.
Garrus went through the vents (I thought he was better at tech than that).
Samara led fireteam (I figured she was diciplined...Miranda agreed with me...).
Garrus died.
Jack held the shield.
Mordin defended (just so that he would say "hold the line"...and he did. Woot.).
Mordin and Miranda (not loyal) died.
Destroyed the base.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second playthrough:
Ship fully upgraded.
Garrus went through the vents (for plot purposes)
Jacob led the fireteam.
Garrus died (as expected).
Samara held the shield.
Jacob defended.
Miranda (not loyal) died.
Destroyed the base.
{This was written as a response to the first post on this thread, but mutated a bit as I built up momentum. If brevity is the soul of wit, then call me Mr. Dull-Pants}
[SPOILERS ALL OVER]
I was initially disappointed by the apparent lack of depth in the leveling system, but soon grew to appreciate the streamlining of certain elements of the game. I'll gladly sacrifice hours of micromanaging armor, armor upgrades, weapons, weapon upgrades, special ammunition, comparing/shopping for slightly improved omni-tools and amps, forgetting to sell off superfluous gear until my inventory is maxed out, checking and double checking levels of grenades to make sure I'm not selling something I'll need later, and falling asleep in the midst of yet another seemingly endless transaction with the Normandy's Requisition Officer. Jacob can handle that shit. A good leader must delegate. I also had some issues with the lack of exploration and a de-emphasis on the importance of Shepard's role as Human Specter #1, but got over them as the story unfolded.
I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but ME1 and ME2 are less games (in a traditional sense) than the first two acts of a space opera starring you. As such, they riff on the traditional three-act story structure beautifully. ME1 throws you into the world of interstellar politics and intrigue, and your role is primarily that of the investigator. Ignoring side-questing, the bulk of the game is spent figuring out just what the hell Saren is up to. I know that's a gross oversimplification, but it effectively serves the purpose of establishing that the Reapers are a force to be reckoned with, and that in a complicated galaxy, the role of "hero" is equally complicated. End Act 1. Curtain down. Nerd-boner at full attention.
ME2 is more streamlined, with a clear goal (stop the Collectors/pay them back for killing you) presented almost immediately. It is, in many ways, simpler. I feel that this benefits both the game and the series. The accelerated pace of the storyline and the increased emphasis on shit getting blowed up more efficiently are perfect for the evolution of Shepard's role of investigator in a new location. Working for the Systems Alliance in Citadel Space was an endless barrage of red tape and politics. Part of the fun was experiencing the emergence of a big space adventure in a part of the galaxy that (on the surface, at least) provided a normal, boring life for the average citizen. The Terminus Systems, on the other hand, are more analogous to a galactic Wild West. More often than not, your gun/omni-tool/biotics do the talking for you, but with sufficient shrewdness, your interpersonal relationships and influence over galactic events do not suffer in the process. (Okay, except for Kaiden/Ashley, but given the choice between sexing up either of them or the super-biotic asari maiden research scientist, I'd always rather have the blue chick. Te adoro, Liara.) ME2 raises the stakes, shows you the consequences of decisions you made in ME1, while simultaneously revealing a more chaotic and potentially morally compromising part of the galaxy. Mining mini-game aside, the tension builds to a truly epic confrontation with the manifestation (in the Human Reaper Larvae) of the fears shared by many non-humans: a godlike human entity hell-bent on eliminating all "alien" life. Then you blow it up. Stellar (if you'll forgive the pun) Act 2.
To actually get to the question, no. You're certainly not the only one who thinks that ME2 is crap compared to ME1. But I think it's the wrong question to ask. Instead, it's far more constructive to analyze specific gameplay elements that were present or absent in each game, rather than dismissing an entire chapter of the story outright. It's easy to romanticize certain elements of a beloved game (as I often do w/ regard to ME2) and decry any changes as "fixing what ain't broke", and it's just as easy for such romanticism to close one's mind to any number improvements in a saga/series simply because they are different. If you really like game franchises that fail to takes risks, that merely cash in on fan loyalty without committing to innovation, that churn out the same game over and over into infinity . . . . just play Dynasty Warriors. Each one is a little better than the last one, no more, no less. There is a kind of comforting predictability to such gradual progress, and the games are a lot of fun, especially when you co-op with a good friend in the same room, but for my money, I'd rather have Mass Effect. And gun to my head, I'd rather have Mass Effect 2 than Mass Effect 1.
But, of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
[SPOILERS ALL OVER]
I was initially disappointed by the apparent lack of depth in the leveling system, but soon grew to appreciate the streamlining of certain elements of the game. I'll gladly sacrifice hours of micromanaging armor, armor upgrades, weapons, weapon upgrades, special ammunition, comparing/shopping for slightly improved omni-tools and amps, forgetting to sell off superfluous gear until my inventory is maxed out, checking and double checking levels of grenades to make sure I'm not selling something I'll need later, and falling asleep in the midst of yet another seemingly endless transaction with the Normandy's Requisition Officer. Jacob can handle that shit. A good leader must delegate. I also had some issues with the lack of exploration and a de-emphasis on the importance of Shepard's role as Human Specter #1, but got over them as the story unfolded.
I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but ME1 and ME2 are less games (in a traditional sense) than the first two acts of a space opera starring you. As such, they riff on the traditional three-act story structure beautifully. ME1 throws you into the world of interstellar politics and intrigue, and your role is primarily that of the investigator. Ignoring side-questing, the bulk of the game is spent figuring out just what the hell Saren is up to. I know that's a gross oversimplification, but it effectively serves the purpose of establishing that the Reapers are a force to be reckoned with, and that in a complicated galaxy, the role of "hero" is equally complicated. End Act 1. Curtain down. Nerd-boner at full attention.
ME2 is more streamlined, with a clear goal (stop the Collectors/pay them back for killing you) presented almost immediately. It is, in many ways, simpler. I feel that this benefits both the game and the series. The accelerated pace of the storyline and the increased emphasis on shit getting blowed up more efficiently are perfect for the evolution of Shepard's role of investigator in a new location. Working for the Systems Alliance in Citadel Space was an endless barrage of red tape and politics. Part of the fun was experiencing the emergence of a big space adventure in a part of the galaxy that (on the surface, at least) provided a normal, boring life for the average citizen. The Terminus Systems, on the other hand, are more analogous to a galactic Wild West. More often than not, your gun/omni-tool/biotics do the talking for you, but with sufficient shrewdness, your interpersonal relationships and influence over galactic events do not suffer in the process. (Okay, except for Kaiden/Ashley, but given the choice between sexing up either of them or the super-biotic asari maiden research scientist, I'd always rather have the blue chick. Te adoro, Liara.) ME2 raises the stakes, shows you the consequences of decisions you made in ME1, while simultaneously revealing a more chaotic and potentially morally compromising part of the galaxy. Mining mini-game aside, the tension builds to a truly epic confrontation with the manifestation (in the Human Reaper Larvae) of the fears shared by many non-humans: a godlike human entity hell-bent on eliminating all "alien" life. Then you blow it up. Stellar (if you'll forgive the pun) Act 2.
To actually get to the question, no. You're certainly not the only one who thinks that ME2 is crap compared to ME1. But I think it's the wrong question to ask. Instead, it's far more constructive to analyze specific gameplay elements that were present or absent in each game, rather than dismissing an entire chapter of the story outright. It's easy to romanticize certain elements of a beloved game (as I often do w/ regard to ME2) and decry any changes as "fixing what ain't broke", and it's just as easy for such romanticism to close one's mind to any number improvements in a saga/series simply because they are different. If you really like game franchises that fail to takes risks, that merely cash in on fan loyalty without committing to innovation, that churn out the same game over and over into infinity . . . . just play Dynasty Warriors. Each one is a little better than the last one, no more, no less. There is a kind of comforting predictability to such gradual progress, and the games are a lot of fun, especially when you co-op with a good friend in the same room, but for my money, I'd rather have Mass Effect. And gun to my head, I'd rather have Mass Effect 2 than Mass Effect 1.
But, of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
On my first playthrough, I had Miranda hold the bubble 'cause she was so confident and all that I thought nothing would go wrong (everyone was loyal). Unfortunately, she got Garrus killed, which sucks 'cause he was my paramour.
Now I'm working on a second playthrough to try get Miranda killed and no one else.
Now I'm working on a second playthrough to try get Miranda killed and no one else.
I lost, grunt, due to having him lead a team, I lost miranda because I chose jack over her, and I lost mordin while he defended.
None of my favorites luckily, but mordin will be sorely missed.
Second playthrough went perfect. Everyone lived and everything was hunkey dorey.
None of my favorites luckily, but mordin will be sorely missed.
Second playthrough went perfect. Everyone lived and everything was hunkey dorey.
I was more than happy to say f*** you to the illusive man, some people think its right to keep it, but seriously you cant trust him...plus the whole renegade/paragon thing takes all the thourght out of desicionsJosh12345 said:
I let jacob die on purpose first time, since I was paranoid about losing tali, then mordin died, second time everyone survived no problem