Vendetta covered the best strategy - I did it without casualties on my first try with everything upgraded except Legion's sniper.
1st section:
- ducts: Tali
- team: Garrus
2nd section:
- biotic: Jack
- team: Miranda
- escort: Zaeed
Reaper assault: Tali and Garrus (the old team is back and kicking Reaper ass yet again! )
Aside from the upgrades and team selection, you have to be careful with the dialogue before the final assault - one of the choices (the more renegade one) puts you on a hidden timer before your rearguard starts dying (with the non-loyal ones being the first to go). So instead of telling them to rush it, mission is most important blah blah, tell them to hold their ground and finish it (ie. the paragon, do it systematically safely, option).
The ending survival math is frightfully conservative overall - paragon and good choices==survival, renegade and bad choices==death.
One good thing to come out of a complete Renegade failure (not much of a spoiler, considering all the interviews and foreshadowing, is that you die) is the Commander Joker ending (don't watch it if you haven't already seen the ending):
It would be cool in a way if we could import that save into ME3 and have the crawl be something like:
"...
Commander Sheppard saved the galaxy twice. He died saving it the second time.
The galaxy is threatened by a Reaper invasion and there is nobody to protect it. Other people must step up."
Followed by a ME1-like armoured figure touring the Normandy scene with everyone nodding and saluting "Commander" except not stopping behind the pilots' seat but getting into it with the camera finally rotating around to reveal the main character is Joker.
Of course, it will never happen since the changes in the game (especially with the different voice acting) would be immense.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 07:38am
by adam_grif
It's already been confirmed by Christina Norman that if you die in ME2, you can't import your save into 3.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 08:15am
by Pulp Hero
Minor plot/character question:
I never finished all the way through ME1, but Ashley seemed like the most hateful and xenophobic human in the Normandy crew. Why when I encounter her in ME2 is she shocked that I hooked up with Cerberus? Is this a misjudgment on my part, a retcon, or Ashley mellowing towards aliens over the last two years?
Also, I only met her once (on the colony attacked by collectors) is there a follow up encounter?
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 08:21am
by Brother-Captain Gaius
Ashley is hardcore Alliance military, from a hardcore Alliance military family. Cerberus is a privately-funded black-ops group which (among other things) is directly responsible for abducting and killing Alliance Admiral Kahoku and quite a few of his Marines.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 10:29am
by White Haven
In summary, the enemy of my enemy might still be an enormous fucking douchebag.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 11:07am
by Acidburns
Spoiler
I finished the game today. I was going for a paragon playthough but I did manage to grab few renegade points from headbutt interrupts and exploding pipes (what is it with villains and standing next to gas pipes?). I completed everyone's loyalty missions and managed to make it though without any casualties. Jacob came through one of the doorways after leading a team clutching his chest; I thought he might have have bought it but he was fine. I guess that might of been a hint that he was a sub-optimal choice for whatever it was I had him do.
As for dealing with the base, it didn't seem like a great idea to throw away that technology but I decided to finish the game the way I started it and channeled maximum paragon self-righteousness to blow it up. Miranda was there and she seemed in favour of blowing it up, when the Illusive Man told her to stop me, she told him to shove it and quit Cerberus.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 11:40am
by General Zod
Pulp Hero wrote:Minor plot/character question:
I never finished all the way through ME1, but Ashley seemed like the most hateful and xenophobic human in the Normandy crew. Why when I encounter her in ME2 is she shocked that I hooked up with Cerberus? Is this a misjudgment on my part, a retcon, or Ashley mellowing towards aliens over the last two years?
Also, I only met her once (on the colony attacked by collectors) is there a follow up encounter?
I haven't ran into her again, but if you meet up with Anderson later he explains that she was on the colony investigating Cerberus as a possible cause for the disappearing human settlements. It's not hard to see why she'd be so mistrustful.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 11:51am
by Balrog
So I've tried to avoid any spoilers in this thread, which means I've probably skipped over a lot of these questions, but I wanted to ask if ME2 was worth getting. I bought the first game, and while enjoyable it had a number of faults (poor inventory, boring sidequests, simplistic morality/dialogue system, etc.) that's made me wary of getting the sequel. And I just laughed when I heard they were putting ammo 'heat sinks' into the game. But have they fixed the problems with the last game in this one, or at least do the good bits outweigh the bad?
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 11:56am
by General Zod
Balrog wrote:So I've tried to avoid any spoilers in this thread, which means I've probably skipped over a lot of these questions, but I wanted to ask if ME2 was worth getting. I bought the first game, and while enjoyable it had a number of faults (poor inventory, boring sidequests, simplistic morality/dialogue system, etc.) that's made me wary of getting the sequel. And I just laughed when I heard they were putting ammo 'heat sinks' into the game. But have they fixed the problems with the last game in this one, or at least do the good bits outweigh the bad?
I was pretty leery about the sequel myself, and I'm probably one of the biggest critics of the first one (who isn't Stark). So far I'd say the improvements fix a lot of problems inherent to the original. The menu system is actually manageable, if not ideal. There's also no more cookie-cutter side missions, and gathering resources is considerably less tedious. (Your mileage may vary). I'd say get it, and trade it in later if you really don't like it. . . .well, if you're a console gamer anyway.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 05:00pm
by Ford Prefect
Pulp Hero wrote:I never finished all the way through ME1, but Ashley seemed like the most hateful and xenophobic human in the Normandy crew. Why when I encounter her in ME2 is she shocked that I hooked up with Cerberus? Is this a misjudgment on my part, a retcon, or Ashley mellowing towards aliens over the last two years?
Even in the first game she gets indignant if you compare her to the racist Terra Firma Party, and when you do meet the dickhead in charge of that group she bites his head off for not cracking down on the serious anti-alien sentiment within his party. I mean, when you think about it, the only aliens she's actually leery of are Garrus and Wrex; she doesn't mention any concerns about Tali (and she just teases Liara). I used to be pretty dismissive of Ashley in the past, but I don't think you can chalk her opinions up to pure xenophobia. Navigator Pressley was similar (and according to his logs you find in ME2 he came to regard the aliens in the Normandy's crew as highly as any human).
Besides, Cerberus is fucking evil.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 05:28pm
by TC Pilot
Just finished it. Overall, it was pretty good. Replay value might not be as high as all the alternate endings and missed sidequests may seem at first. By the end, the character sidequests seemed pretty repetitive. Seems like everyone has a fucked up family life.
This is partially the developers' fault, but the TV for my 360 is too small, so reading, especially the emails (background color = pain), is practically impossible. Sometimes, I can't even read the dialouge trees if it's against certain backgrounds. I also thought that the constant need to re-dock or land at places like Omega or Ilium were incredibly annoying. Oh, you just recruited a character? Now you're in space again! I also couldn't for the life of me find Legion after you acquire him until the Joker section (can you actually fail that section?), which, I might add, was so contrived that they even admit it in dialouge. Spoiler
I don't know what the hell the rest of you were doing to get such huge casualties on the final mission. I picked Jacob to go through the tunnels. Poor schmuck got headshotted closing the door. I figured that choice was like ME1's "who dies?" choice, and this one was only slightly harder to make because it wasn't so transparent. Grunt lead the distraction team.
I sent Moridan to escort the crew survivors back (I activated Legion and completed his sidequest after the crew was taken, so I lost my secretary and half the crew) and they all lived. Jack was the biotic for the "bat cave," with Miranda leading the second group. She grabbed her chest at the end like she had a gut shot, but nothing. Garrus and Tali were there to take out Super Terminator. I laughed at the fact that "token black guy" was the only one who died.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 05:54pm
by TC Pilot
Crap, I hate doubling posting, but missed the edit limit...
How are you supposed to complete Thane's sidequest? Does it matter what side of the catwalk you're on, or how long it takes for you to report in, because I kept track of the target and reported in immediately, yet failed. I thought it was just a bug, since lots of the report-ins seemed really glitchy.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 06:15pm
by Ford Prefect
It's probably just a bug. I had no trouble following the target and reporting in when requested.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 06:17pm
by General Zod
TC Pilot wrote:Crap, I hate doubling posting, but missed the edit limit...
How are you supposed to complete Thane's sidequest? Does it matter what side of the catwalk you're on, or how long it takes for you to report in, because I kept track of the target and reported in immediately, yet failed. I thought it was just a bug, since lots of the report-ins seemed really glitchy.
I think you're screwed on your current playthrough if you fail and didn't have the foresight to make multiple saves (I didn't think to, annoyingly). I lost the target myself and couldn't retrack them, and wound up failing the mission.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 06:58pm
by open_sketchbook
Pulp Hero wrote:Minor plot/character question:
I never finished all the way through ME1, but Ashley seemed like the most hateful and xenophobic human in the Normandy crew. Why when I encounter her in ME2 is she shocked that I hooked up with Cerberus? Is this a misjudgment on my part, a retcon, or Ashley mellowing towards aliens over the last two years?
Also, I only met her once (on the colony attacked by collectors) is there a follow up encounter?
The lore of Mass Effect give humans plenty of reasons to be wary around aliens. Our first encounter with them was, you know, them attacking us, and the resulting battle got Ashley's grandfather blacklisted so bad that she is still getting crap assignments and no promotions for it. So, surprise! She's not happy with Turians. Then of course, with Wrex, we have a situation with a species that is actually violent and dangerous. It's not just a stereotype; Krogan are actually genetically predisposed to violence. That Wrex is an awesome warrior poet is actually an exception, not the rule.
It's not quite the same as racism because they are actually different, instead of just different skin colour or whatever. Aliens actually aren't human, surprise surprise, and though Mass Effect is space opera and the aliens are for the most part humans with bumpy forheads, in-universe you can't really know that. Is erring on the side of caution wrong, especially for a soldier?
Honestly, humanity has only been in contact with aliens for some thirty years, and they spent the first bit of that at war. On top of that, Ashley is a marine (Marines, you know, the international symbol of political correctness) who had her whole unit wiped out by an alien force. I'm surprised she isn't more prejudiced.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 07:09pm
by TC Pilot
Why is Ashley shocked that Shepard's working with Cerberus? Well, let's see... they:
-lured a squad of Alliance marines into a Thresher Maw's nest
-abducted and killed a vice admiral
-conduct experiments on rachni and Thorian creatures
-turn colonists into husks
How can you not love these guys?
Edit - yeah, Thane's sidequest was definately buggy for me. When I report in, my character just stands still, no dialouge, and sometimes jerks from side to side like he's trying to move to the scripted location.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 07:11pm
by Manus Celer Dei
It drives me crazy that there isn't a button to manually crouch anymore. It just adds insult to injury to see that the AI-controlled squad mates can duck while moving around in the open; why can't I? There's even two buttons that do the exact same thing, so it can't be a shortage of buttons to map it to. Bah!
Also, screw Thane's loyalty mission. It's not like Shredder Ammo is vitally important skill or anything, but it was annoying to miss it.
Up to the Ghost Ship part at the moment, and I'm loving it. I mean, it's a pretty shameless and textbook attempt at Lovecraftian stuff, but finding an audiolog declaring
Spoiler
"EVEN DEAD GODS CAN DREAM!"
was great.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 07:24pm
by Ford Prefect
open_sketchbook wrote:Our first encounter with them was, you know, them attacking us, and the resulting battle got Ashley's grandfather blacklisted so bad that she is still getting crap assignments and no promotions for it. So, surprise! She's not happy with Turians.
That said, this is literally Ashley's weakest reason, because it wasn't the turians that blacklisted the Williams name, it was the Alliance, and by extension pure human jingoism. As I recall you can actually point this out to her in conversation.
Manus Celer Dei wrote:It drives me crazy that there isn't a button to manually crouch anymore.
You could crouch in the first game?
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 07:34pm
by Manus Celer Dei
Ford Prefect wrote:You could crouch in the first game?
Yeah, by clicking the left thumbstick. In ME2 that just calls up the objective compass, which clicking the right thumbstick also does.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 08:33pm
by Brother-Captain Gaius
Yeah, the lack of crouch irritates me to no end. Especially since in ME1 crouching increased your accuracy significantly, which made shooting the sniper rifle no-scope viable. In ME2 you can't do that and the Viper no-scope is just too damned inaccurate standing.
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 08:38pm
by Vympel
Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:Yeah, the lack of crouch irritates me to no end. Especially since in ME1 crouching increased your accuracy significantly, which made shooting the sniper rifle no-scope viable. In ME2 you can't do that and the Viper no-scope is just too damned inaccurate standing.
On the plus side, they did do away with the annoying scope drift on sniper rifles from ME1 (in the absence of having high skill, I mean).
Still haven't finished the game. Just got Samara. Still need to get Zaaed (I haven't gotten his DLC yet, shaped bandwith stopped last night) and Legion (I assume thats part of the main quest since I have to get some IFF now).
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 08:41pm
by General Zod
Vympel wrote:
Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:Yeah, the lack of crouch irritates me to no end. Especially since in ME1 crouching increased your accuracy significantly, which made shooting the sniper rifle no-scope viable. In ME2 you can't do that and the Viper no-scope is just too damned inaccurate standing.
On the plus side, they did do away with the annoying scope drift on sniper rifles from ME1 (in the absence of having high skill, I mean).
Still haven't finished the game. Just got Samara. Still need to get Zaaed (I haven't gotten his DLC yet, shaped bandwith stopped last night) and Legion (I assume thats part of the main quest since I have to get some IFF now).
Edit: Nevermind
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 08:54pm
by adam_grif
Vympel wrote:
Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:Yeah, the lack of crouch irritates me to no end. Especially since in ME1 crouching increased your accuracy significantly, which made shooting the sniper rifle no-scope viable. In ME2 you can't do that and the Viper no-scope is just too damned inaccurate standing.
On the plus side, they did do away with the annoying scope drift on sniper rifles from ME1 (in the absence of having high skill, I mean).
Still haven't finished the game. Just got Samara. Still need to get Zaaed (I haven't gotten his DLC yet, shaped bandwith stopped last night) and Legion (I assume thats part of the main quest since I have to get some IFF now).
DO NOT DO THE IFF MISSION UNTIL YOU'VE DONE EVERYTHING ELSE.
------
P.S. relating to endgame spoilers Spoiler
I wonder if they'll address the issue of the Reapers having 6 years of pent up drive-charge and nowhere to dissipate it into thanks to being in the galactic void...
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 08:57pm
by White Haven
Tens of millions of years of advancing technology to find a drive technology that doesn't have the same problem?
Re: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay
Posted: 2010-02-01 09:02pm
by adam_grif
White Haven wrote:Tens of millions of years of advancing technology to find a drive technology that doesn't have the same problem?
I just found out that Spoiler
The derelict reaper has been maintaining a ME field for 37 million years.
All illusions of being internally consistent and trying to be plausible have been totally shattered.
)