Mass Effect 2 Discussion

[jaguars4ever]

Snowed this weekend, which was a good excuse to sit around playing the game pretty much all the time. Question: Without getting too spoilery, when should I

go investigate the dead Reaper? I went through the Collector ship, but declined to immediately follow-up and started doing loyalty missions instead. I now have Miranda, Samara (Reave is great; basically Warp on steroids), Garrus, and Thane loyal to me. Is there an advantage to going there early, or should I wrap up my squadmate missions first?

 

 

Are people finding ammo powers useful? I haven't played with them much-- I'm playing a Sentinel, so my approach is to just spam Overload and Warp/Reave at protected enemies.

 

For the first question:

Things will change depending on when you go check out the dead Reaper. I don't think I can say any more than that without getting too spoilery.

 

 

Ammo powers can be a big help. Disruptor can shutdown mechs for a second or two. Inferno ammo can light enemies on fire, organic enemies will panic and stop to put out the flames. Fire also disables Krogan and Vorcha regen. I would assume cryo ammo can freeze enemies, which would then be prone to shattering. Never used it myself. The other types don't seem to have any extra effect.

 

Also I take back everything bad I ever said about Throw. 1 second cooldown time is amazing against husks. One shot the armour with the hand cannon then throw. By the time you shoot another one, throw is ready to use again. Or you can go with the area effect version, wipe out all the armour and throw them all at once.

You pansies and your flapping around with your girly biotics and techs.

 

A real man wades right into the battle (cover is for sissies) LMG bursting, concussive shots/inferno grenades splattering, shield/health regenerating, while bullet-time pr4wning.

Edited February 1, 2010 by jaguars4ever

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Oh man, the Thresher Maw boss battle... that was freaking terrifying compared to those Mako fights in the first. These loyalty missions are fantastic!

 

I think I'm turning into a Bioware fanboy all over again.

[Deraldin]

You pansies and your flapping around with your girly biotics and techs.

 

A real man wades right into the battle (cover is for sissies) LMG bursting, concussive shots/inferno grenades splattering, shield/health regenerating, while bullet-time pr4wning.

 

Get your facts straight before you start calling other people pansies you little sissy girly man. Real men don't need your overcompensating LMGs and bullet time. They just charge head long into battle and don't stop punching danger in the face until everything stops moving. Then they give it one more swift kick to the balls just to make sure.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

You pansies and your flapping around with your girly biotics and techs.

 

A real man wades right into the battle (cover is for sissies) LMG bursting, concussive shots/inferno grenades splattering, shield/health regenerating, while bullet-time pr4wning.

 

Get your facts straight before you start calling other people pansies you little sissy girly man. Real men don't need your overcompensating LMGs and bullet time. They just charge head long into battle and don't stop punching danger in the face until everything stops moving. Then they give it one more swift kick to the balls just to make sure.

Makes me wish there were melee skills to this game.

[Purkake]

You can get a melee damage upgrade...

[Deraldin]

You pansies and your flapping around with your girly biotics and techs.

 

A real man wades right into the battle (cover is for sissies) LMG bursting, concussive shots/inferno grenades splattering, shield/health regenerating, while bullet-time pr4wning.

 

Get your facts straight before you start calling other people pansies you little sissy girly man. Real men don't need your overcompensating LMGs and bullet time. They just charge head long into battle and don't stop punching danger in the face until everything stops moving. Then they give it one more swift kick to the balls just to make sure.

Makes me wish there were melee skills to this game.

 

There are upgrades that help even if there is no specific skill. One gives +25% to melee damage dealt, one give -25% (or was it 50%?) to melee damage taken. Tech Armour would probably be a good skill for anyone that wants to try it because of the shield explosion knockback effect. And Melee isn't freakin' useless like in the first game. It actually hurts people in this one. The insane knockback isn't there so you can't just keep knocking people over, but you can punch a lot faster now. I could take a husk down from full health with one, maybe two hits in return.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Deraldin

[Raithe]

Hah. 44 nearly 45 hours of gameplay and I've finished my first run through. Went on Veteran and imported my 60th level Vanguard from the first...

 

And dang it.. I lost Mordin. And only Mordin. Now I'm going to have to figure out why the hell he died...

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

You can get a melee damage upgrade...

I was thinking kung-fu ala Alpha Protocol.

[jaguars4ever]

I loving the new Garrus. Combines ass-kickery with cheeky style. Him and Tali both. Ah, just like old times...

 

That being said, Mordin = Best Character of All Time. However...

 

Garrus: Do you ever miss those conversations we used to have in the elevator?

Tali: No.

Garrus: Come on, remember how we'd all ask you about life on the flotilla? It was an opportunity to share!

Tali: This conversation is over.

Garrus: Tell me again about your immune system!

Tali: I have a shotgun.

Garrus: Uh, never mind.

 

[I want teh kotor 3]

Yeah Mordin's pretty epic... And that singing was hilarious... I'm about to

board the Reaper corpse

, and I think I'm in love...

[Deraldin]

I loving the new Garrus. Combines ass-kickery with cheeky style. Him and Tali both. Ah, just like old times...

 

That being said, Mordin = Best Character of All Time. However...

 

Garrus: Do you ever miss those conversations we used to have in the elevator?

Tali: No.

Garrus: Come on, remember how we'd all ask you about life on the flotilla? It was an opportunity to share!

Tali: This conversation is over.

Garrus: Tell me again about your immune system!

Tali: I have a shotgun.

Garrus: Uh, never mind.

 

 

They needed more conversations like that in the game. Each character had a fair bit of dialogue, but it was limited to very specific areas. There was maybe half a dozen moments in the loyalty quests where I remember the secondary character actually saying anything. It was pretty disappointing.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Deraldin

[Enoch]

Snowed this weekend, which was a good excuse to sit around playing the game pretty much all the time. Question: Without getting too spoilery, when should I

go investigate the dead Reaper? I went through the Collector ship, but declined to immediately follow-up and started doing loyalty missions instead. I now have Miranda, Samara (Reave is great; basically Warp on steroids), Garrus, and Thane loyal to me. Is there an advantage to going there early, or should I wrap up my squadmate missions first?

 

 

Are people finding ammo powers useful? I haven't played with them much-- I'm playing a Sentinel, so my approach is to just spam Overload and Warp/Reave at protected enemies.

 

For the first question:

Things will change depending on when you go check out the dead Reaper. I don't think I can say any more than that without getting too spoilery.

 

Hmm...

 

I think I'll split the difference. I'll take a trip to

Krogan-town

to do Mordin and Grunt's quests, then it's on to the

dead Reaper

. That'll put me with just over half of my squad loyalty quests done.

 

 

Most boring quest so far: Samara's loyalty.

You get briefed beforehand on which dialogue choices to pick, then you pick them, then there's a cutscene and the quest ends.

Pretty lame.

 

Although, as I mentioned before, Reave freakin' rocks-- it hits quicker than Warp (usually before enemies can duck back behind cover), does more damage, and heals you. The damage is spread over a few seconds, and it doesn't detonate other biotic effects, but it seems to work much more quickly than the 4 seconds the description claims, and the detonation is a pretty useless feature-- if an enemy is already shieldless and being Pulled (etc.), extra damage on them is overkill. I burned some eezo on respec'ing Shepard, taking all of my points out of Throw (I only put the 2 levels in necessary to open Warp) and Warp in favor of Reave.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Enoch

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I'm almost done with all the loyalty quests so far - except I don't have Samara yet. Or Legion, I guess, but I have no idea where to get him. I really wonder how it could change the Reaper mission. :/

[GreasyDogMeat]

I'm almost done with all the loyalty quests so far - except I don't have Samara yet. Or Legion, I guess, but I have no idea where to get him. I really wonder how it could change the Reaper mission. :/

This shouldn't be considered a spoiler, but you get him during a main story quest, so you can't miss 'em.

 

Its a shame you can't trade resources for credits, or other resources. In any future replays I'm ONLY going to resource hunt after getting a blueprint. I've got all upgrades now and tons of extra resources.

[Volourn]

Just gonna post that the scene with Ashley along with her attitude is retarded. That is all.

[Purkake]

No change there then

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

She's probably the only character I'm not happy to see again. Wonder what Kaiden would be up to if I hadn't nuked his ass.

[Volourn]

"No change there then"

 

Wrong. In ME1, while her attitude was often disagree it was logical character wise. In ME2, no such luck.

 

Also, there is no 'cheating' on Ashley in ME2.

[GreasyDogMeat]

"No change there then"

 

Wrong. In ME1, while her attitude was often disagree it was logical character wise. In ME2, no such luck.

 

Also, there is no 'cheating' on Ashley in ME2.

I have a feeling they are going to count it as 'cheating' in ME3. I was going to stay true to Ash, but after the meeting with her I decided to go for Tali... after some massive flirting with anything that had breasts and two legs.

[Purkake]

Ok, whatever you say, Volo.

[Hurlshort]

I have a feeling they are going to count it as 'cheating' in ME3. I was going to stay true to Ash, but after the meeting with her I decided to go for Tali... after some massive flirting with anything that had breasts and two legs.

 

How would that even work? Is there an exhaust pipe or something for that?

[GreasyDogMeat]

I have a feeling they are going to count it as 'cheating' in ME3. I was going to stay true to Ash, but after the meeting with her I decided to go for Tali... after some massive flirting with anything that had breasts and two legs.

 

How would that even work? Is there an exhaust pipe or something for that?

With Tali? Well, she is eagerly searching for some sort of anti-biotics for our rendezvous.

 

In ME1 I didn't see why so many people were into the character. She was actually one of the characters I was LEAST interested in for ME2 but after speaking with her and doing her missions I've found she's probably the most likable romancable character in ME2.

 

That's not a shot at the characters of ME 2. She's just so much more interesting in this one and it was a bit of a surprise.

Edited February 1, 2010 by GreasyDogMeat

[Nightshape]

Hah. 44 nearly 45 hours of gameplay and I've finished my first run through. Went on Veteran and imported my 60th level Vanguard from the first...

 

And dang it.. I lost Mordin. And only Mordin. Now I'm going to have to figure out why the hell he died...

 

I clocked up 37 hours on my first play through, imported my first character from ME a level 37 Infiltrator.

 

I tend to do alot less exploring on my first play through as I am mostly concerned with the main plot threads.

 

That said, I didn't loose a single character, I don't know WHY I didn't loose a single character as all the options seemed pretty straight forwards.

 

Started a second play through, with my next character from ME 1, I still have another in the bag for after that.

[Nightshape]

Did anyone notice Tali saying "Go for the optics!", cracked me up.

[Enoch]

I was over 25 hours into the game before I discovered that Shepard's cabin has its own bathroom.

 

 

The non-Samara loyalty missions so far have been pretty interesting. I've been mostly letting the companions handle things as they please, which generally means accumulating Renegade points. Miranda

killed her former-best-friend

. Garrus

murdered his betrayer

. Samara

killed her daugher.

Mordin

killed his former student (and deleted his research)

. Grunt... [not a spoiler] well Grunt just shot whatever was in front of him[/not a spoiler]. I guess it makes sense in that I have specifically sought out violent people for this mission. Thane,

of course, is the exception-- he didn't kill his son

. Maybe the missions for Tali and Jacob will provide more balance. (Jack and Zaeed, less so.)

 

 

Is anybody aggressively managing their Jerk/Sap status? My "playing it by ear but avoiding neutral options wherever reasonable" (the thinking being that both Jerk and Sap points are positives, so the only response to be avoided is the one that give you neither) has gotten me a little over halfway full on both meters, after having started with lots of Sap points and a few Jerk points from importing. This will probably hurt me later as poor meta-gaming (there have been a couple of coercion checks that I've missed so far), but I'd rather test the game out and criticize it later if meta-gaming Jerk/Sap points turns out to be important.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Enoch