Mass Effect 2 Gameplay

[Vendetta]

Samara (your mileage may vary).

Samara feels like your standard Lawful Psycho paladin type, though the backstory on why she's a Justicar is quite interesting.

Zaeed is obviously the weakest party member, since he's optional DLC, but I like his London hard man voice and attitude, fits his look.

[adam_grif]

Zaeed's loyalty quest was fairly well made and had much more depth than anything else associated with him. The recruitment goes as follows:

"Join me"
"Ok."

... and you just happen to bump into him when you're walking into Omega. I understand he's DLC and all, but he's extremely shallow regardless. You can't even talk to him in his crew section, you just look at the stuff and he talks about it. I did love the trash compactor + airlock though.

I agree Miranda was pretty weak, but I still dragged her with me most places because the combination of Overload + Warp means that she's your go to gal for destroying defenses. Not that it really mattered for me all that much, since I'm a soldier with heavy disruptor ammo, inferno ammo and I took AP ammo as a bonus talent.

Anybody else go soldier? The damn things are nigh invincible. The 10 round per heatsink sniper rifle + headshot damage upgrade + adrenaline rush = all basic enemies go down in one shot. And you can hold 58 rounds or so. The Revanent heavy machinegun is strange because it's really inaccurate, even when firing single shots or small bursts. But at close range with adrenaline rush, 2-3 rounds from it kills a merc. And it holds 80 rounds per sink.

[Vendetta]

I'm playing a Vanguard. Take someone with Pull. Pull + Charge = Splat.

Also, I use a shotgun designed for Krogans, have to reload after every shot, but you point blank something directly after a Charge and they do not get back up.

[Aaron]

MG's aren't all that accurate in RL anyways, there an area weapon.

Anyways, adam I was in error when I mentioned before that your carryovers are based on your achievements. That's for new characters, if you start a new game with a previous character (I'm on run through #2 with a Soldier), you get all the heavy weapons you had before, the armour bits and a bunch of money/resources.

[SylasGaunt]

Then there's the N7 armour it has bolted on, though in the artbook they basically admit they did that just because it was something cool to show in the first teaser.

I did like the response you got from it when you asked about why.
Spoiler

"There was a hole."

[Aaron]

MG's aren't all that accurate in RL anyways, there an area weapon.

Anyways, adam I was in error when I mentioned before that your carryovers are based on your achievements. That's for new characters, if you start a new game with a previous character (I'm on run through #2 with a Soldier), you get all the heavy weapons you had before, the armour bits and a bunch of money/resources.

Edit: Once you get the Normandy you get all the weapons you had on the first playthrough.

[adam_grif]

Yeah I started my second playthrough and I've worked that stuff out already. The 50,000 resources is great for Eezo and Paladium, but for Platinum it's chump change. I burn through that stuff so fast. It doesn't help matters that the medical bay upgrade to get rid of your face craters costs 50,000 platinum.

MG's aren't all that accurate in RL anyways, there an area weapon.

Right, but compared to an SMG or pistol they're extremely accurate at a distance. They aren't all that far behind assault rifles, sometimes even better because they have heavier + longer barrels. It's just more of the same video-game brain bug that says that Pistols are medium-long range weapons and are very accurate, and that the faster a weapon is capable of firing the less accurate it must be.

And it's also more of the same video-game logic that says "automatic weapons can't hit targets past 50 yards". The HMG, fired one round at a time, scatters worse than most shotguns do in real life. I was thinking of switching to an alternate weapon, but I can't stand to look at the collector rifle, I hate the burst fire on the battle rifle and the default AR is pathetically weak, and still highly inaccurate.

My weapon of choice at the moment is the 10 round per reload sniper rifle. The zoom is frustrating at close range, so I just try to keep my distance. I got Garrus' AP rounds ability as my bonus talent, and I now have the +50% headshot damage upgrade in addition to the +10% from my visor thingy, and organic / armored targets go down fast.

P.S. Adrenaline rush is super OP. I spam it constantly.

[General Zod]

So, I'm forced to admit they've vastly improved the gameplay over the last one. The annoyingly stupid side missions seem to be entirely fixed now, and gathering resources is much easier. I'm still not quite happy with the menu system, but making the writing less polarized was a huge plus. I do find it irritating how the camera seems to sometimes "stick" during combat, or how the subtitles aren't quite matched up to the dialogue, though.

(I rationalized purchasing it with the fact I can trade it in for Final Fantasy 13, God of War 3 or White Knight Chronicles when they're out).

[Pulp Hero]

Just had a conversation in which Dr. Solus sang for an extended period. I love this game.

[Ford Prefect]

While I did know that Mordin sang at some point, like Shepard my thought really was 'wait, you sang Gilbert and Sullivan?'. His version of the Major-General's Song cracked me up.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

The singing Salarian is great.

Though, the Quarians are pretty doomed. If they can't go suitless in an environment they control, I really don't see how they'll be able to survive on any planet. It's probably not helped by their claims of putting every newborn in a bubble right off the bat.

But, it makes their crusade against the Geth seem more and more like simple revenge. (Though, it's probably written more from the stance of not having to model their actual features...)

[Ford Prefect]

Their crusade against the geth really is pure revenge. This was clear in the first game, just from speaking to Tali: she's not even remotely rational about it.

[Vympel]

Has anyone noticed stuff happening in the game that indicates the import process is either bugged or has holes? Because I encountered Gianna Parisini on Illium even though she was killed in a shootout with Anoleis on Noveria, I heard a news report about Corporal Toombs in the present tense even though in ME1 he shot himself, and Stofsk told me that Verner acted like he had pointed a gun in his face (that worked right for me, I did do that) even though that's not what he did in ME1.

[adam_grif]

Lots of people have reported the Conrad Verner thing.

People aren't sure if it's actually a bug or if that stuff didn't actually transfer and that's just the default behavior.

[Vympel]

Lots of people have reported the Conrad Verner thing.

People aren't sure if it's actually a bug or if that stuff didn't actually transfer and that's just the default behavior.

That's frankly a pretty big fuckup, given how everyone knows about the moron and definitely dealt with him in ME1. The Gianna Parasini thing pisses me off too, I loved it how she and Anoleis got themselves killed, and she shows up as if I helped her out? WTF?

Same with Corporal Toombs - he just sent me a message threatening me. He must be a zombie with a hole in his head.

[Aaron]

Where is Verner anyways, I haven't been able to find him.

[Jaevric]

Where is Verner anyways, I haven't been able to find him.

Spoiler

Ilium, in the Eclipse bar.

Probably unnecessary use of spoiler tags. The nods to NPCs from the first game are getting to be a little much; a galaxy, hell, a planet is a big place and it's starting to feel like I'm going to see everyone I didn't kill from ME1 in ME2, and a few of the people I did. I was a little surprised by the Verner conversation myself since I hadn't put a gun to his head -- though in retrospect that was probably a mistake on my part and one I should have rectified.

[Gramzamber]

Their crusade against the geth really is pure revenge. This was clear in the first game, just from speaking to Tali: she's not even remotely rational about it.

Though it appears there are at least some Quarians who want peace with the Geth, that one admiral's dialog with Legion about co-existance is interesting. Gives a little insight into why the Geth drove them out in the first place.
Then there's Admiral Morrigan who's damn creepy with her "hohoho I'll make the Geth our slaves again!" yeah that worked out sooo well the first time.

[Aaron]

Anyone else running into the odd error? I was in a firefight while looking for Okeer and I found myself stuck on the ceiling yesterday.

[Gramzamber]

Anyone else running into the odd error? I was in a firefight while looking for Okeer and I found myself stuck on the ceiling yesterday.

I get similar glitches sometimes, I get stuck on a rock and float up into the air and got stuck between the ceiling and the galaxy map consoles on the Normandy once.

[open_sketchbook]

I got stuck in the wall in Mordins clinic, and got to walk around the skybox you see out some of the windows. Garrus even sniped a few Blood Pack from outside the map. Considering that that, and a wierd mantling glitch, was the only problems I had in a 26 hour playthrough, I consider that pretty good.

[Vendetta]

I've only been stuck in geometry once, when a Charge left me standing in the middle of a staircase handrail.

[Instant Sunrise]

So has anybody else gotten the Cain yet?

Because if not, you should. It is a GAME-BREAKINGLY powerful heavy weapon. The only downside is that it has a charge time associated to it, and it needs a shitload of heavy-weapon ammo.

[White Haven]

The charge time makes it often useless, since if you're in cover you can't cook it while hidden. If you're a squishy class, you'll be dead by the time you can fire the damned thing if you're fighting anything dangerous enough to warrant using that much heavy ammo on.

[Agent Fisher]

Made it and used it just once. On Tuchanka, to kill a thresher maw in just about one hit. What can I say, my Shep's team was wiped out by a Maw, payback's a bitch.