Mass Effect 2...Little Late.

[Frankster]

Well this should be quick....

Kaiden had little impact on me, to me he was the face of the faceless crewmen of the normandy, but he never annoyed me so guess im ok with him and i did grow to like him as my sidekick.
Ashley, well she was the female kaiden for me with stronger opinions which i didnt really agree with so fell behind kaiden in the overall rankings but i was ok with her overall.
Honestly i wasnt thrilled in letting either of them die so shows i cared about them a little.

Jacob somehow made even less of an impact on me then kaiden did, a feat worthy of respect. I dont wish him ill nor good, just pure indifference.

Now miranda on the other hand I really can't stand, she's got most things i hate in a person, overconfidence and arrogance, self importance and mary suesque qualities, its a good thing she doesnt do too many smartass quips or would have been the complete package.

What elevates her above being a mere annoying character though, is that she benefits from a certain preference or aura of invincibility compared to other characters. She is the hardest to kill in the final mission regardless of loyalty and is immune to the nastier deaths other characters can have, so what miranda, you too good to die horrible deaths like the rest of us?

 

[Patrick Buck]

Tail and Garrus. The only two people I really take on trips. I do like the other characters, but I just love those two so much, it hardly matters.

 

[Ziame]

I didn't exactly _hate_ them (Kaidan, Ashley, Jacob or Miranda). Just, in my opinion, they felt so bland compared to Wrex, Garrus, Tali and all. I haven't really developed any interest in any of those four characters. Kaidan whined all the time, Ashley bored me, Jacob was "too nice for a guy who knows a thousand ways to kill you" and Miranda was a *****. But that was all acceptable, they just weren't interesting in their flaws.

And I hoped that after ME2 they would finally understand that Garrus and Tali should be the two main sidekicks, but oh well.


(oh, another thing is that the "perfect girl" didn't really get me excited. Neither digital nor real version. She's pretty, but not OMFG pretty.)


Actually, same deal with Bastilla/Onasi. HK-47 all the way.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Or creepiness as it feels like Shepard is manipulating someone for sex.

That, too. It never ceases to amaze me how ME2 romances have such a large fanbase. Seriously, BSN? [http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/category/325/index]

 

[Kahunaburger]

(re: Jack)

- Oh, but don't think you can 'fix' her. That smacks of white knight presumption. The notion of her having to be 'corrected' by some external source most of all.

Wasn't that the whole premise of her paragon romance subplot, though? Well, that and the whole "healing dick" cliche.

 

[Zyxx]

What I hated most about Miranda was her blind devotion to Cerberus. I wound up losing her loyalty because I DID feel that what Cerberus did to Jack was wrong, and her argument that it "wasn't really Cerberus" didn't hold water to me. If the Illusive Man didn't know about that, it's because he didn't WANT to know.
And then at the end she's all "You did the right thing by blowing up the Collector base." Okaaay... the fact that you're suddenly not biting my head off about disobeying the Man kinda makes me uneasy.
Also, her front teeth kinda put me off. They're really wide, or something? I kept noticing it.

Jack's sociopathic violence actually sort of endeared her to me. She reminds me a little bit of Revy from Black Lagoon. I would really have liked to see more of her just unleashing biotic hell on everything in her way (figuring out how to work that into gameplay would be sweeeeet - not just warps and singularities, but full-on chairs flying everywhere skull-crushing mass effect field insanity.)

I sort of liked Jacob as a person. Maybe not the most interesting CHARACTER, but a decent guy I don't mind chatting with now and again.

I got bored with Zaeed really fast, mostly from lack of real conversations to have with the guy during off-time.

I didn't really care for Kaidan or Ashley, though I'll admit I mostly ignored them in favor of the nonhumans. It's just how I'm wired: I'm around humans all the time anyway, and my interactions with most of them have been pretty unsatisfying. I'd rather give Turians and Krogans and Quarians (oh my) a chance.
In my defense, not being human isn't enough to make a character worthwhile to me: I found Liara to be VERY dull.

I do kinda have to give Bioware props for giving Ashley some unpopular (in the setting, at least) views regarding alien relations and religion. Not enough to make me really care about her, but it IS something to make her stand out.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

(re: Jack)

- Oh, but don't think you can 'fix' her. That smacks of white knight presumption. The notion of her having to be 'corrected' by some external source most of all.

Wasn't that the whole premise of her paragon romance subplot, though? Well, that and the whole "healing dick" cliche.

Yeah. I romanced Jack, but it felt very condescending as a Paragon.

 

[NubiJuan]

Me and Jacob got off the right foot from the beginning since he was a nice contrast, being an everyguy, to Miranda's overpowering personality. I didn't use him after the first couple of sequences but I still liked him because he always came off as being dependable. As for Miranda, I was too distracted by her to not like her...

But due to the extended yellow phase I went through, Kasumi was my favorite and I really enjoyed her story. Not having played the first ME, Zaeed and his blatant bad ass-ness were second favorites.

I know it's an amazing galaxy filled with cool alien creatures, but that only makes me want to cling on to other humans.

 

[Gmans uncle]

MIRANDA. IS. A. *****.
I let her die BOTH times I played through ME2, I'm sorry but Jack was in the right in that argument.
I went for Garrus in my first play-through, and Liara on my second, played as femshep both times. I like Garrus 'cause he seemed like the only character I'd actually want to spend thirty collective seconds with in real life. Thane is probably who I'll go for on my next play-through, I don't really fancy Samerta or Morinth, and I refuse to play as maleshep.

 

[Erttheking]

I pretty much like all of the companions for both games...minus Zaeed. DUDE THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THAT REFINERY!

 

[LetalisK]

I hate Miranda, I hate her so much. She's too overly confident for me, nothing about her strikes me as appealing. Jacob, where as I wouldn't say he's a guy every girl should date, he's a nice guy. He feels a lot like Garrus to me; someone that wants to do good but needs the right direction.

This isn't exactly a bad thing. If you hate Miranda, or any character for that matter, because you think they did a poor job of crafting her character, then that's a problem. But if you hate her because you don't like who the character is, then mission accomplished. If the developer can inspire emotion in a player through the other character's personalities and stories then it's done its job. Almost always we link good emotions with companions and bad emotions with enemies, but in a game where all the characters are supposed to have different personalities, dispositions, and goals, isn't inspiring hate equally valid?

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Something Amyss]

Jack on the other hand, what is the deal with her outfit?

She's a textbook psych case, I've never understood why people don't understand her behaviour. If anything, she's a little too "by the numbers" for me.

 

[Something Amyss]

This isn't exactly a bad thing. If you hate Miranda, or any character for that matter, because you think they did a poor job of crafting her character, then that's a problem. But if you hate her because you don't like who the character is, then mission accomplished. If the developer can inspire emotion in a player through the other character's personalities and stories then it's done its job. Almost always we link good emotions with companions and bad emotions with enemies, but in a game where all the characters are supposed to have different personalities, dispositions, and goals, isn't inspiring hate equally valid?

Just my 2 cents.

Unless, of course, the character is supposed to be likable or sympathetic.

 

[MadarseLizard]

Ashley was at least fun to talk to and felt like a real character; Kaiden was boring and I never used him outside of the first mission, letting him die instead of Ashley without a second thought; Miranda looked horrible and was just annoying; I found Jack to be whiny and dull, but used her a lot in missions and Jacob was dull to start with but got mildly more human as the game progressed. All of the human characters were overshadowed by the much more interesting and unique alien characters

 

[iRevanchist]

Jack has to be my favorite character from ME2. Wait, no, Mordin is. Joker is third.
Going through the game as a femshep, you see the jacob is just very dull. i feel like he was written up on request after a meeting which asked the team to make 'a normal character'.

.

quote="Kevin Delgado" post="9.335955.13564386"] Kaiden always struck me as more interesting due to the problems of "Brain camp" that he had to endue to me an L2. Not to mention his voice actor always reminds me of Carth Onasi from KOTOR.

I thought he WAS Carth from KOTOR...after playing KOTOR for the first time Kaiden now strikes me as "Carth 2.0"[/quote]

lol, i do think that bioware just likes hiring sbarge for its space rpgs. but thane has the SAME EXACT backstory as Carth's.
dead wife because he was out working. check.
son who hates him for being absent. check.
son who needs the protagonist, and carth/thane, to come on a loyalty mission to turn him back from the dark/renegade-criminal side. check.

 

[LetalisK]

This isn't exactly a bad thing. If you hate Miranda, or any character for that matter, because you think they did a poor job of crafting her character, then that's a problem. But if you hate her because you don't like who the character is, then mission accomplished. If the developer can inspire emotion in a player through the other character's personalities and stories then it's done its job. Almost always we link good emotions with companions and bad emotions with enemies, but in a game where all the characters are supposed to have different personalities, dispositions, and goals, isn't inspiring hate equally valid?

Just my 2 cents.

Unless, of course, the character is supposed to be likable or sympathetic.

Then that would fall under the former, wouldn't it? Assuming that was the intent, trying to create a universally likable and sympathetic character in a game like Mass Effect would run counter to its foundation.

 

[longboardfan]

Biggest issue with Miranda was wishing I could turn the setting from "*****" to "normal" and to take the stick/oar/crane out of her ass long enough to have a real conversation with her character. Alas, she's stuck on ***** and the crane has turned into a fishing trawler.

Jack: don't stick it in the crazy

Kaiden/Jacob: Hey Shephard, how do you like my impression of a plank of wood?

Ashley: xenophobe with a hard-on for guns and bad poetry = don't stick it in the crazy

Kelly Chambers: well at least she isn't crazy, or bitchy, or stupid, or walks into missiles, or blocks line of sight to enemies while catching bullets with her face, etc. However, I might have to flag her for "too stupid to live" because she's the first to die if you don't immediately go through the jump point to save the crew

 

[Rariow]

I never stopped to hate Miranda since I saw her at the beggining, even for a second. She's arrogant, bitchy and unlikable. She has no flaws, and flaws are what makes someone interesting. All other loyalty missions are about facing someone's flaws, and getting them to surpass them (Apart from Jacob's, but his was so well written in an entire other sense I can forgive him) but Miranda's was about the people around her getting to grips with their flaws, as if the game was taunting us ("Hey she's so perfect anyone around her looks evil! Nahnahnahnahnahnah!"). I've romanced every romanceable character except her, and I never will.

Jacob is an entirely different cup of tea. Sure, he doesn't have much personality, and the "...but the priiiize!" line is probably THE single most cringeworthy phrase in a videogame, but I like him not from the point of view of his character (He's the classic Nice Guy. No other personality traits, really), but from his impact into the overall party of ME2. You might have noticed, most of the ME2 party is extraordinary, and most of them are crazy to some extent, from Grunt's straight in the face murder frenzy to Thane's subtly written in and almost unnoticeable paranoia. Jacob is the only guy on the team who's just that: A normal guy. Not a badass, not a crazed killer, just a guy. And because of this, the entire party appears a lot more normal. I played through the game completely ignoring Jacob, and the Normandy felt like a flying insane asylum. Plus, his loyalty mission is great.

I never really payed much attention to the humans in ME1, since I find them boring. Kaidan holds up the classic BioWare "Captain Has-A-Traumatic-Past-But-Is-Overall-A-Nice-Guy" post, and I find it OK, but frankly, too predictable by this point. Ashley I kinda dislike because off her apparent racism (Which seems hypocritical, since this is exactly the kind of flaw that could be awesomely used to make the character grow) and the fact that she kills Wrex even if you explicitly tell her not to. I did the romance for both, and for Kaidan I wished I was talking to Carth from KotOR, and with Ashley I really didn't pay much attention.

 

[s0p0g]

as it might somewhat matter: i'm a guy (what are the odds, eh?)

sooo...
Jacob: he's cool... more or less. a little to "black" (as in nowadays clichée), and a little too "i'm so awesome, i've got the looks, the toys, and the quipment wink-wink you'd ever need, commander fem-shep". but compared to an Archangel, a crazy scientist, and the Grunt he's just pale. yeah sure the others are a little over the top; i think i mostly didn't like him for his (assumed by me) attitude towards women. maybe i was just jealous

kaidan... had much more potential, i guess, background-story wise, than they used. besides his training he was kind of boring... or rather not as interesting as others, boring seems a little harsh. he was... ok.

now to the interesting part, the female characters
Miranda... well, Miss Spandex (later: leather & lace if you prefer (wtf?!)) 2010, what more is there to say
yes, she may have been designed to be perfect... but that doesn't mean she has to run around like some space-hooker, eh? i mean, doesn't it show a lack of confidence in their product, when ea-bioware have to resort to sex sells? i mean, it wasn't only miranda; what was it with Samara's (that's the name, right? the crazy asari with the stupid codex) cleavage? why do we need two space-hookers in one bioware game? oh well.
why does her butt have to be placed right in our faces? (wait... that came out wrong) (don't get me wrong, it looks quite good, but if i am to take her serious as the cold type who gets the job done, you cannot put her in a bodysuit that leaves no room for fantasies AND place her ass in the middle of the camera in certain cutscenes)
besides that she felt kind of bland, not really fleshed out.

now Ashley... she was a different kind. i really like her; she's tough but doesn't come off like a man with boobies, she has a relatable motivation, a background, she doesn't really like Xenos i mean aliens which in some players' eyes made her a rather unlikable character, BUT she actually *has* a character and thus is one of (too) few
she was quite human, with good sides and "flaws", if you will
no, i ain't saying everyone has to like her and those who don't are morons; maybe that's one of the big pros of the game, that one actually can like and dislike certain chars (Liara, for example, in ME 1, was... sort of a red flag for me ^^)

 

[everythingbeeps]

To be honest...I hadn't really noticed it before, but I do hate all the playable humans in ME1 and ME2. Kaidan and Jacob are dull, and Miranda and Ashley are thoroughly unlikable, though for different reasons. Miranda's nice to look at, at least.

On the other hand, the non-playable humans (Joker, Kelly, Dr. Chakwa, Anderson) are very likable. So it's not that Bioware can't write good humans. And FemShep is the best character in either game, though a lot of that is just great voice acting.