I'm Commander Shepard and this is also my favorite thread on Obsidian

[~Di]

Did anyone actually get a level 30 character? I swear, I did every conceivable quest and only made it to level 28.

It's difficult to do in your first playthrough -- I think you need to import a level 60 character from ME1 to be able to hit 30 first time around.

 

Beating the game unlocks an achievement that increases XP gain by 25%, so it should be easier in subsequent playthroughs.

 

Ah, thanks. I only had level 52 and 53 characters... the only DLC I had was Bring Down the Sky. I noticed the bonus XP gain when I started my next game, so yep, am hoping to make it this time.

 

Well, I finished my first run with my soldier. Overall I enjoyed the game very much, and was able to save my entire team. It was still a pretty costly victory, considering that I also lost half my crew. I thought I'd saved

Yeoman Chambers because she was alive when I found her and supposedly all the survivors also survived being escorted back to the ship, but when credits rolled and I was back on the bridge, she was nowhere to be found. Who's going to feed my fish now, huh?

Think this depends on how many missions you do

after you retrieve the IFF from the derelict reaper

. IIRC, in order to save the whole crew you can do one, then you gotta go.

 

I only did one. I got Legion, then did his loyalty mission, and off we went.

 

The story kept my interest for the most part, but I'm still kinda scratching my head at the end. It... didn't make sense to me. The

Collectors are Protheans

reveal left a bad taste. Again, seemed nonsensical. Took everything learned in ME1 and threw it out the window.

I felt just the opposite. I thought the big reveal was kinda interesting, especially the way Mordin explains it.

 

I'll have to pay more attention next time. For me, the whole thing seemed pretty nuts.

 

And what's with gaining Renagade points just for helping Liara?? Bah.

Liara's doing some not very nice things, heh. What did you think of her personality change? I thought, "holy crap"

 

I hated her personality change. It's like she got a lobotomy and a morals transplant all at the same time. There seemed absolutely no logical reason for her to go from naive sweetness to ruthless badass in the space of two short years. It was incredibly jarring and befuddling.

[~Di]

The best FemSheps can go with is Garrus... but of course scalies might not be for everyone.

 

Garrus?? I never saw any romancy-type dialogue options with Garrus. Not that I really want to, actually. I'm just wondering why the option never came up.

 

Try a Sentinel for a good all-round class. If one runs out of ammo, one can destroy everything by using Magic Missiles Heavy Warp/Heavy Overload... cooldowns will be only a couple of seconds with the right upgrades too.

 

I'm actually trying a Sentinel right now. Fun so far, although I've just started, but I think I'm going to enjoy it!

 

Take along Zaeed & Miranda and combat gets pretty trivial. I'm surprised by the old man, in fact... just like Shale in DA:O he has a good deal of input during missions... and is pretty much unstoppable.

 

I used Zaeed a lot until I got Grunt. He was pretty danged good, IIRC. My favorite was Mordin, actually. That skinny little Salarian and his incinerate were actually deady as sin out there, and not once did he let himself get killed! He's a corker!

[Volourn]

" hated her personality change. It's like she got a lobotomy and a morals transplant all at the same time. There seemed absolutely no logical reason for her to go from naive sweetness to ruthless badass in the space of two short years. It was incredibly jarring and befuddling."

 

I agree that her fast climb to super information broker comaprable to the SB was way too quickand unbelievable; but the eprsonality 'change' made sense to a degree. Just because everything isn't spelled out literally doesn't mean it don't make sense.

Edited March 17, 2010 by Volourn

[Gorth]

I eventually arrived at the conclusion that, if I stopped worrying about the details and just enjoyed it as an "interactive comic", then it was actually a quite entertaining one. I can't remember the last time I bothered completing a game 4 times in a row (and that despite the poor combat and hateful minigames)

 

Maybe I should try playing the game as a female Shepard some day.

[Gromnir]

the plot o' me2 were just sorta a massive post script to me1.

 

 

yeah, the reapers is still coming to wipe out galactic civilization, but did we for get to mention that those massive space-faring squids is gonna use humanity to achieve a new step forward in their planned evolution? unlike bacteria, carrier pigeons and turians, reapers evolve according to a design rather than submitting to the oh-so-messy vagaries o' natural selection. so this time around the reapers is eradicating all intelligent galactic life, but they is gonna harvest humanity for our DNA... and verve. humanity gets the ultimate evolutionary consolation prize; we still gets obliterated as a species and culture, but our genetic goo will achieve functional immortality. huzzah.

 

in me1 you had to successful defeat a rogue specter, a fleet of geth, and a Reaper who were working to unleash galactic Armageddon... but did we forget to mention that the collectors is re-purposed protheans? no? well anywho, in me2 you beat up on the collectors who is busily constructing a human-reaper hybrid. oh, and an off-stage reaper named Harbinger is making sock puppets outta individual collectors to taunt you as you make the galaxy safe® for democracy, puppies, and cerberus operatives.

 

 

so, me2 didn't really change or add much o' anything to the Mass Effect story. reapers is still the Ultimate Evil intent on wiping out sentient life in the galaxy.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[I want teh kotor 3]

That's actually very true, now that you mention it... I guess the

Prothean-Collector

thing is gonna be big in ME3... Either that or Bio just lost their plot-writing mojo... Which would explain why they're making that... thing...

[Gorth]

That's actually very true, now that you mention it... I guess the

Prothean-Collector

thing is gonna be big in ME3... Either that or Bio just lost their plot-writing mojo... Which would explain why they're making that... thing...

Maybe the

human/reaper hybrid thing

was intended to shock (or at least startle) the gamer. They sort of had to come up with something to do with all the stuff that the collectors collected. Lets see if they painted themselves into a corner

[I want teh kotor 3]

That's actually very true, now that you mention it... I guess the

Prothean-Collector

thing is gonna be big in ME3... Either that or Bio just lost their plot-writing mojo... Which would explain why they're making that... thing...

Maybe the

human/reaper hybrid thing

was intended to shock (or at least startle) the gamer. They sort of had to come up with something to do with all the stuff that the collectors collected. Lets see if they painted themselves into a corner

 

That makes sense....

 

The thing I was referring to, by the way, was TOR...

[Gorth]

"TOR"?

 

Most of my knowledge about ME1 is from either this place, review, game play footage or similar, but somehow I can't shake the feeling that ME2 is like a ME1 Redux. It feels like the start of a series, not a middle part. Hard to put into words really.

 

Edit: Also, see Gromnirs post above.

[Deraldin]

"TOR"?

 

Most of my knowledge about ME1 is from either this place, review, game play footage or similar, but somehow I can't shake the feeling that ME2 is like a ME1 Redux. It feels like the start of a series, not a middle part. Hard to put into words really.

 

Edit: Also, see Gromnirs post above.

 

TOR = The Old Republic. Bioware's Star Wars MMO.

[I want teh kotor 3]

"TOR"?

 

The MMOPOS Bioware insists in making out of the ruins of kotor.

 

Most of my knowledge about ME1 is from either this place, review, game play footage or similar, but somehow I can't shake the feeling that ME2 is like a ME1 Redux. It feels like the start of a series, not a middle part. Hard to put into words really.

 

That may be because you never played the first one, and it may be because its really only a sequel in terms of plot- gameplay was completely changed...

[Volourn]

"The MMOPOS Bioware insists in making out of the ruins of kotor."

 

No big deal consideirng that KOTOR is BIO's worst game to date. So much so they wanted nothing to do with the sequel, and instead chose to develop the vastly superior ME series. And, it's very telling it's not the REAL BIoware who are wasting their time with the KOTOR MMO trash but a bunch of people in a different country. HAHA.

 

ME > KOTOR

 

ME2 > KOTOR2

 

MEMMORPG > KOTORMMORPG

[kirottu]

I still haven

[Nepenthe]

I still haven

[kirottu]

It

[mr insomniac]

in me1 you had to successful defeat a rogue specter, a fleet of geth, and a Reaper who were working to unleash galactic Armageddon... but did we forget to mention that the collectors is re-purposed protheans? no? well anywho, in me2 you beat up on the collectors who is busily constructing a human-reaper hybrid.

 

It's actually kinda funny how, after everything that happened in ME, galactic civilization continues to purposely turn a blind eye to what's going on around them. One would think that Liara and possibly other asari specialists would have spent some of their free time with Shepard further studying the vision implanted by the beacon. Also, yes the VI on Ilos crapped out but on an entire planet you'd think there would be something worth studying. Liara practically drooled at the opportunity to spend a little more time on Ilos, even to the point of getting a paragon check to let her talk to Vigil while at that very moment Saren is racing to the Citadel.

 

Still, TIM explains it a bit when he says, when he says no one has had the chance to study the Collectors at a genetic level before EDI.

 

[mr insomniac]

I only did one. I got Legion, then did his loyalty mission, and off we went.

Strange. *shrug* Dunno, she should have been there.

I hated her personality change. It's like she got a lobotomy and a morals transplant all at the same time. There seemed absolutely no logical reason for her to go from naive sweetness to ruthless badass in the space of two short years. It was incredibly jarring and befuddling.

Yeah it was definitely confusing that she would change so much in such a short time, given both an Asari's lifespan, and the fact that the rest of your old team just became more of what they already were. Maybe it's her mother's genetics shining through.

[Nepenthe]

I only did one. I got Legion, then did his loyalty mission, and off we went.

Strange. *shrug* Dunno, she should have been there.

I hated her personality change. It's like she got a lobotomy and a morals transplant all at the same time. There seemed absolutely no logical reason for her to go from naive sweetness to ruthless badass in the space of two short years. It was incredibly jarring and befuddling.

Yeah it was definitely confusing that she would change so much in such a short time, given both an Asari's lifespan, and the fact that the rest of your old team just became more of what they already were. Maybe it's her mother's genetics shining through.

 

It's the Mass Effect comics shining through, more like.

[mr insomniac]

Ah, never read the comics. Should I? Are they any good?

[Oner]

Ah, never read the comics. Should I? Are they any good?

Liara has an unrealistic personality change in them. That answers your question, doesn't it?

[Nepenthe]

Ah, never read the comics. Should I? Are they any good?

Liara has an unrealistic personality change in them. That answers your question, doesn't it?

 

I've read the first one, didn't think it's very good, but I don't think the personality changes go as far as to be unrealistic. Creating a massive information trading empire in two years is a bit stretching it, yeah, but becoming a cold calculating bitch when somebody you love gets offed and then you get royally screwed while trying to recover the body... I can see that as ending innocence and naivete pretty well.

[Raithe]

I don't know about the personality change so much.. I mean, they always had that she was that very young Asari who was a touch naive.. but who also had killed pirates and scavengers who'd attacked her dig sites before.. So she wasn't that total innocent.

Then she gets involved with Shep and the whole Reaper/Saren thing, see's a lot more death and destruction. Then her friend gets killed, and while trying to find who steals his body she establishes another friendship with someone who gets killed off..

The desire for rip-roaring Revenge can have a significant shift in the way people think and act...

[Oner]

Her mom got mind****ed by a previously unknown eldritch abomination and she was one of the people who pulled the trigger on her.

She was kinda sad afterwards.

[213374U]

so, me2 didn't really change or add much o' anything to the Mass Effect story.

The story progresses very little indeed. ME2 focuses on environments, organizations and characters. Most of the time and work in ME2 is spent either on recruiting people or fixing their personal problems. In contrast, in ME1 you recruited everyone in "act I", except for Liara, and spent most of the game saving the world. I can't say I have a problem with this setup, as some recruitment missions are really good -- or maybe it's just the music direction that makes everything so much better.

 

But... just what do they need so many characters for?

[Amentep]

But... just what do they need so many characters for?

 

Cannon fodder in ME3?

 

Oddly one of the things I was wondering after playing ME1 and 2...

 

 

In ME1 Shiara will give you a locket that she doesn't know what it does; at a prothean site the locket will force Shepard to (re)live some test(?) given to what appears to be primal human ancestors on Earth. Vigil explains that extinction of the Protheans took some time, hence why the stasis pods were left so long that most of the people had to be killed before it was "safe" to open them. The Reapers seem to be interested in mining the human genetics. Did the dying Protheans seed something into human genetics to help them fight the Reapers? Something that only a "human reaper" would have been able to counter? This would make the ending to ME2 important to the overall story, I think.

 

 

Frankly I didn't think the reveal that the

Collectors were Protheans

was all that big a deal. We already knew that

they'd done the same to the Keepers. And since we know from Liara's information that there seems to be a long cycle of Reaper cullings, there could be more species out there under the thumb...er tentacles of the Reapers

.