**Official Mass Effect 2 Thread** - The Thread of Unique Planets, New Species and Amazing Scores

[SR1729]

Quick question: I think I'm about 2/3 of the way through at this point, but I'm only a level 16 or 17. When you play through multiple times, do you keep your attributes and just keep building on them? Do you get to re-class when you play through without losing your squad points and level?

 

[warcrow]

Almost 40 hours in and I dont want ME2 to end!

I'm steadily progressing the main story line, but only when I must because I want to be sure that I'm soaking everything this game as to offer.

I've completed all the planetary side missions (anomaly detected!) of which there were somewhere around 18-20, and are now working on the loyalty missions and area quests (like the Citadel, Omega). In regards to the loyalty quests I gotta say, I'm plesantly surprised at how varied, interesting and well designed these missions are. Thanes was SO completely different than anyone elses like, say Zaeed. It's great!

Oh! That reminds me, I had a huge WTF moment last night doing Samara's loyalty quest. I'll wrap it in spoiler tags because it was pretty crazy and only those that are sure should click it.

Again, for contexts, this spoiler has to with Samaras loyalty mission and being a hardcore renegade, which is apparently the only way to accomplish this.

Spoiler

Once Samara & Morinth begin to fight they eventually come to a standstill where I was offered the option of killing one of them. Since I'm playing a total hardass I decided to kill off Samara.

Man, it was so brutal to watch her own daughter crush her! Afterward it made me pause and really reflect on the choice I just made. There was no way I was going to go back--I stuck with it.

But after Samara was killed, Morinth turns and thanks you. She then offers to replace her mothers position on the ship in honor of you saving her life. Creepily she suggests that she mimics her mothers voice and appearance (doning her mothers attire) so that no one on the ship suspects or asks questions.

Crazy!

😱

 

[oznerol]

Again, for contexts, this spoiler has to with Samaras loyalty mission and being a hardcore renegade, which is apparently the only way to accomplish this.

Spoiler

Once Samara & Morinth begin to fight they eventually come to a standstill where I was offered the option of killing one of them. Since I'm playing a total hardass I decided to kill off Samara.

Man, it was so brutal to watch her own daughter crush her! Afterward it made me pause and really reflect on the choice I just made. There was no way I was going to go back--I stuck with it.

But after Samara was killed, Morinth turns and thanks you. She then offers to replace her mothers position on the ship in honor of you saving her life. Creepily she suggests that she mimics her mothers voice and appearance (doning her mothers attire) so that no one on the ship suspects or asks questions.

Crazy!

😱

Spoiler

The choice to side with Miranda definitely surprised me. I believe it is only an option if you use either the Paragon/Renegade conversation option to resist her.

I played the Paragon route, and I still chose to kill Samara - partially because Samara sucked, but mainly because I looked up the pros/cons of choosing both and there's really no downside to choosing Miranda. Plus, she is voiced by the chick from Saved by the Bell: The New Class, so that pushed me over the edge.

I was very disappointed with how they handled it, though - Miranda basically is removed from the game entirely except for her different power and name. I was hoping they'd incorporate her into the story better rather than just saying she's Miranda but leaving her as Samara for the rest of the game.

Long spoiler. Sorry.

I'll add to the game wrap-ups no one reads. I beat the game last night. Did the final mission.

Spoiler

Everyone was loyal going in, no one died.

Pretty satisfying. Cliffhanger ending. Still not entirely sold on the dumbed-down weapon/armor system. Best loyalty mission was Samara, followed by Tali.

Everything felt much more condensed in this game, compared to ME1. I'd like to have seen an achievement for visiting and scanning every planet - without one, there's really no reason to do so, aside from personal satisfaction. Speaking of achievements, it's a really small thing I noticed and appreciate is the timing of the achievement delivery. By that, I mean you will unlock certain achievements at very specific moments in cutscenes. I thought that added a nice little touch rather than generically giving the achievement out at the end or during loading.

Played as an imported, Paragon Infiltrator, for what it's worth.

 

[gorcorps]

Did you run out of money or resources? Because I found myself ending up with an absurd amount of cash, but not nearly enough platinum.

One hint vis a vis resources: not all planets are created equal, even if their resource levels are the same (eg, "rich"). Not all planets have element zero, for instance, and some of them have very high levels of particular resources.

I ended up quite low on cash. I'm not sure how either... is there another way to get cash other than missions? I did all the missions, scoured every system 100% for side missions, and made sure to hack into anything I found. Did a pretty good job at it too.

Resources were very rarely a problem. I ended up with over 150k of palladium and iridium, over 40k of element zero, and 70k of platinum. The only time I was low on resources for an upgrade, I'd go 'mining' and have what I needed within a few planets.

 

[R Nilla]

I've played an unhealthy amount of this game over the past few days but it looks like everyone else has too 🙂. I'm about 33 hours in and have a few side quests (that I know of) and only Samara's loyalty mission left. I also have the crash site DLC to visit. As for the main quest line I'm about to

Spoiler

retrieve the IFF. Looks like I should finish up everything else before I do this, though.

 

[SR1729]

I ended up quite low on cash. I'm not sure how either... is there another way to get cash other than missions? I did all the missions, scoured every system 100% for side missions, and made sure to hack into anything I found. Did a pretty good job at it too.

Resources were very rarely a problem. I ended up with over 150k of palladium and iridium, over 40k of element zero, and 70k of platinum. The only time I was low on resources for an upgrade, I'd go 'mining' and have what I needed within a few planets.

Wow... 40k of EZ? Is there a jackpot somewhere you'd be willing to divulge?

 

[gorcorps]

I'll add to the game wrap-ups no one reads. I beat the game last night. Did the final mission.

Spoiler

Everyone was loyal going in, no one died.

Pretty satisfying. Cliffhanger ending. Still not entirely sold on the dumbed-down weapon/armor system. Best loyalty mission was Samara, followed by Tali.

Everything felt much more condensed in this game, compared to ME1. I'd like to have seen an achievement for visiting and scanning every planet - without one, there's really no reason to do so, aside from personal satisfaction. Speaking of achievements, it's a really small thing I noticed and appreciate is the timing of the achievement delivery. By that, I mean you will unlock certain achievements at very specific moments in cutscenes. I thought that added a nice little touch rather than generically giving the achievement out at the end or during loading.

Played as an imported, Paragon Infiltrator, for what it's worth.

Bastard

Spoiler

I had Mordin randomly die on me. If I brought him on the last mission he probably wouldn't have gotten himself killed. I'm pissed cuz I did everything I could to keep everyone alive... loyalty and upgrades were as good as I could get them in 1 playthrough. From what I read though the chances of some people dying are semi-random and everything you do just helps their chances of survival. There's still a small probability they'll die. I'm still pissed about it though.

 

[oznerol]

Oh and also - the absolute best part of this game was when

Spoiler

you got to play as Joker.

It was intense, well-written, and pretty funny. I really enjoyed when

Spoiler

Joker kept saying "Shit. Shit. Shit." while hobbling to the computer room.

It was definitely something I would do, too.

 

[oznerol]

Bastard

Spoiler

I had Mordin randomly die on me. If I brought him on the last mission he probably wouldn't have gotten himself killed. I'm pissed cuz I did everything I could to keep everyone alive... loyalty and upgrades were as good as I could get them in 1 playthrough. From what I read though the chances of some people dying are semi-random and everything you do just helps their chances of survival. There's still a small probability they'll die. I'm still pissed about it though.

What was your team? I didn't read anything about it until after and it looked like others did the same as I did:

Spoiler

Tech: Tali
Group 2 Leader: Garrus
My Team: Miranda and Grunt

Biotic: Morinth (Samara)
Group 2 Leader: Garrus
Normandy Crew Guide: Jacob

Garrus got shot at the first door, and I figured I was screwed, but he shook it off and that was that.

 

[pathos]

Quick question: I think I'm about 2/3 of the way through at this point, but I'm only a level 16 or 17. When you play through multiple times, do you keep your attributes and just keep building on them? Do you get to re-class when you play through without losing your squad points and level?

That depends. When you load the game the first time, you get the import from me1 button, or new toon. After you finish, you get the import from me 1, import from me 2, and start new toon.

If you import from me 2, i think you keep your character design/sex, levels, money, skills (note the i think, I wasn't paying attention to much)

I chose to start over from scratch myself. First playthrough was male paragon, second playthrough is female renegade. I started back at level 1 with no skills.

 

[SR1729]

That depends. When you load the game the first time, you get the import from me1 button, or new toon. After you finish, you get the import from me 1, import from me 2, and start new toon.

If you import from me 2, i think you keep your character design/sex, levels, money, skills (note the i think, I wasn't paying attention to much)

I chose to start over from scratch myself. First playthrough was male paragon, second playthrough is female renegade. I started back at level 1 with no skills.

Thanks for the info pathos!

 

[Qbah]

So I finished the game. And I'm afraid the score goes down from absolutely awesome to just good. Reasons (obviously blacked out are story spoilers 🙂):

The BAD :

1. They completely removed inventory - armors and weapons and mods. Each weapon type has one upgrade only (a new weapon you find on your travels) - some of them from the main campaign, some from side-missions. The only thing that influences your "stats" (which you don't have anyway...) are upgrades - either bought directly at a store or found+researched for minerals you mine and ammunition which is talent based and works like a "power" now - applied until cancelled by another type of ammo. In theory it sounds really nice, but in practice it's boring... If they gave a bigger variety of weapons, seriously nerfed the upgrades, then it would be nice imo. Then the research would introduce another thing you would do. In ME1 you had tons and tons of shit in your backpack - in ME2 you get squat. Two different extremes unfortunately and both don't work.

Spoiler

There's a second upgrade for a sniper, assault rifle and heavy pistol on the Collector's ship but it's only for you

.

2. I don't understand why, but the story kinda went downhills towards the end. I mean the beginning was perfect (even though I knew the premise, I was watching the events unfold themselves in awe) - excellent execution of missions, nothing was repeating itself - every location was different. Then you're given some pretty amazing revelations which is also amazing... But the last "chapter" I was more *sigh* than *omg* (I'm talking story here). The ending felt very rushed imo and the whole situation wasn't well thought out and executed. Which was a major bummer for me as ME1 was epic until the very last second. Everything, even though obviously sci-fi, felt very real and grand with Shepard being in the center of an epic story. But in ME2 it felt rushed, cheap and forced...

Spoiler

And don't get me started on the Reaper-Human boss... did that one suck story-wise! Looked amazing though. And I totally loved the derelict Reaper mission! You just knew this thing was so badass, just by walking inside of it. Plus the scientists on datalogs explaining what happened . simply awesome

3. Shepard's face expressions seriously killed me. Really. His face, when you're full paragon, looked like a baby's butt! He had the smile of a sicko the whole time when talking to people. And his eyebrows, eyes, facial expressions looked very strange... can't really pinpoint what's not right, but it looked very wrong. I was having an impression that it was all a giant joke to him and he was just high and cruising along spouting some cheesy lines left and right to people he met on his way - plus his facial expressions when saying stuff. I just didn't feel the epicness of ME1.

4. They didn't show

Spoiler

Tali's face, when you went down and dirty with her 🙁 Though her scene was kinda cute 😛

5. How the hell did

Spoiler

one ship with 12 people on it manage to destroy a giant space station with tens of thousands Collectors? This is the disbelief I mentioned earlier. It feels wrong. In ME1 Shepard, even though the main character, that uncovered the whole truth about Reapers, barely managed to kill a Reaper with a combined fleet of the Citadel races. And the station here was breeding a new Reaper inside! Harbinger (the Reaper from ME2) is some kind of a pussy I think... He had overwhelming numbers, superior technology and yet lost everything. And it took all of a crazy-faced Shepard and his merry team of 12.

6. One of your team members,

Spoiler

Legion - you could run around with him on the Citadel for Pete's sake! And the customs chick at the entrance was spouting something about stricter protocols - to lower the chance of Geth incursions - and my buddy here (Legion, a real Geth!) was standing in front of her with a huge hole in his chest, waving at her... Really BioWare... was it so hard to not allow Legion to be selected when landing on the Citadel? And to add another one? Tali's trial of treason - she was accused of smuggling Geth to the Migrant Fleet that were active and started running rampart on her father's ship... but there we have Legion, on the trail, standing like nothing's wrong and listening to the hearing next to me and Tali... with all the quarians around... this one killed me. I think the entrance guard had a problem with me, but nothing like a high karma answer to make him forget the past 300 years of Geth/Quarian history

Now what's GOOD :

1. The combat felt very right. Fast-paced very direct and precise - this is what I felt when playing the soldier. They really nailed it here. And I really enjoyed it. Once they add a varied inventory again (a working one this time) together with some upgrades, perhaps modules that offer different perks and the ability to customize everything (and not only "should I use the older, worse gun or the newer, better one?" - that's not really a choice to begin with!). And they talked about armor customization on pre-release vids. It's a joke now - you change the looks of the parts a bit but the difference is negligible in terms of changes to gameplay. It's like - should I use the chest with +5% shields or 5% HP - everything else will be the same (compared to ME1 where a Phoenix armor to Colossus was like paper to kevlar in terms of protection). Nothing similar in ME2 - it's basically looks and that's it. I think they went seriously too far here. Combat's awesome though 🙂

2. Limiting weapons based on class = awesome 🙂 Love the idea!

3. The feel of weapons and cover was just right - a very enjoyable experience.

4. Playing a renegade she-Shepard now. Hopefully her face will be fine and not make me go *sigh*. And an adept - I can already see the play-style is VERY different but still very nice! Especially the lack of Adrenaline Rush is very game-changing. Gave my Adept Fortification as the bonus talent and she should probably be very fun to play!

5. No Mako - YAY! And no need either - each side-mission is unique and has very different environments - love it! Now, I heard some leaks about a Hammerhead DLC coming out shortly with some missions and a hover-tank. I wonder how that will work.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Inventory management, both discarding equipment over your carrying capacity and making sure that all of the weapon slots for all of your teammates were kept up-to-date (including weapon mods) was one of the most tedious aspects of the original Mass Effect. If I have to choose from the two extremes, I'll take the streamlined version offered by the sequel any day.

 

[zerogear]

I kinda miss the Mako 🙁

 

[gorcorps]

I kinda miss the Mako 🙁

Ewww... but I have heard they're releasing more free DLC one of which will include a vehicle similar to the MAKO, but it's more of a hovercraft thing. So still no tedious mountain climbing.

 

[zerogear]

Well I like the Mako well enough. What I didn't like was the barren planets. I wish they added more to do on each planet.

 

[brblx]

Inventory management, both discarding equipment over your carrying capacity and making sure that all of the weapon slots for all of your teammates were kept up-to-date (including weapon mods) was one of the most tedious aspects of the original Mass Effect. If I have to choose from the two extremes, I'll take the streamlined version offered by the sequel any day.

i liked equiping myself and all my teammates. very disappointed that they removed it, they just needed to polish the inventory system and add some more variety.

and this is from someone who thinks games like diablo and borderlands are retarded.

 

[Queasy]

Is there a trick to scanning planets for resources faster? Just seems like a huuuge unnecessary time sink so far. And I've already done one upgrade to the scanners.

 

[maziwanka]

Is there a trick to scanning planets for resources faster? Just seems like a huuuge unnecessary time sink so far. And I've already done one upgrade to the scanners.

ill be curious to hear this as well. this shit is just tedious

 

[Queasy]

ill be curious to hear this as well. this shit is just tedious

LOL, I actually caught myself falling asleep last night while scanning some planets.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

LOL, I actually caught myself falling asleep last night while scanning some planets.

With the upgrade it is tolerable, but man...it was awful with the slow scanner. They really should patch the speed to be slightly faster so it is less tedious. Scanning planets <> fun.

 

[sourceninja]

I only scanned when I needed resources for an upgrade, then I only scanned rich planets. I did visit every planet to see if there was an anomaly, but I didn't even come close to scanning even half the planets for resources.

 

[oznerol]

To quickly scan, I find the best method is to use the scanning trigger to "shoot" in bursts, rather than holding it down and going up and down. Once you see a pulse in the monitor screen, hold the trigger down to pinpoint the location.

 

[R Nilla]

I wonder what planet scanning is like on the PC...

Also, given the significant changes BioWare has made to the game in response to the vast amount of negative feedback they've reviewed from ME1, I honestly don't understand who thought anyone would enjoy spending hours scanning planets? It's a neat idea but the dedication required to come up with an usable amount of resources is far too much. Why can't I just make EDI do all of this for me?

 

[oznerol]

Also, does anyone else get a slight bit of satisfaction taking a resource "Rich" planet and grabbing up all of its usefulness until it is a "Depleted" planet?

I highly doubt it will have any affect on ME3, but it would be funny if there are negative side-effects by sucking a planet dry.