Mass Effect 2 gameplay thread

[Crazed Rabbit]

Finished the game about an hour ago.

Thougts about combat;
I liked that it kept the danger up through the end, constantly. In my ME1 game plus play through on hardcore, I'd run up to a guy in the middle of a battlefield and shoot at him for 10 seconds while he shot at me and so did his buddies. And I'd be fine. ME2 worked well at keeping combat dangerous all the time.

But...the sticky cover system was terrible. Half of my deaths were due to hitting the shift key (remapped from spacebar) and vaulting over a box into the firing arc of three machine guns instead of backing off the cover, or not being able to crouch if not directly behind cover, or getting shot from behind and having to stand up to shoot the person.

Why, why, why oh why didn't they just add a crouch toggle key?! Or at least make the "go into cover key" different from the "leap out out of cover" key.

I still don't like taking all the armor and weapons and mods out.

About the ending...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I didn't get the best ending.
I chose Legion for the vent shaft, but he died in a cutscene.
Then I chose Zaeed (DLC merc) and he died leading the parallel fire team the second time (having survived the first).

Then I told cerberus to screw off regarding the base. In those scenes, telling off the Illusive Man, gave Shepard the chance to stand up to cerberus that all paragons needed.

About romances...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It seems that if you're compatible with NPC, conversations will go to romance even if you don't want them to. It's either 'continue talking' and go down the romance path, or stop asking 'how do you feel'. I had a male shepard.

I loved all the side conversations. One conversation between nameless crew members on the Normandy struck me...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The father who gets his family off of New Canton right before the collector attack, and then says he'll give his daughter the longest hug when he sees her again. And then the collectors catch him. And then I saved him and he was so glad to be able to see his family again. What's that? Oh, I must have got some dust in my eye...

Overall, a great game.

CR

[naut]

About the ending...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I didn't get the best ending.
I chose Legion for the vent shaft, but he died in a cutscene.
Then I chose Zaeed (DLC merc) and he died leading the parallel fire team the second time (having survived the first).

Then I told cerberus to screw off regarding the base. In those scenes, telling off the Illusive Man, gave Shepard the chance to stand up to cerberus that all paragons needed.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I had Garrus and Jack die. I was so annoyed. The two I didn't want to die.

Without going into detail. I don't know if it just me, but I found the end a bit too easy.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Plus. Playing on the XBOX,the ending felt like a lazy Gears of War rip-off. The biotic shield thing to avoid swarms, lol, Gears of War rip-off right there. The ending enemies are like locusts, lol. The 3rd person angle is the same as Gears of War, as is the combat system. I haven't looked, but they used the same engine didn't they? They must have.

That's my only gripe. Otherwise, it's a decent game. And I am glad that it came out when it did, as I dodged the Dragon Age bullet.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I had Garrus and Jack die. I was so annoyed. The two I didn't want to die.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That's one reason I chose Legion for the shaft - he's just a walking platform for Geth programs, right? So it's not the same as a person dying.
And Garrus was just so awesome - he set himself up as a Batman like figure in the heart of the terminus systems!
And since my character had a romance with Tali

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I've never seen anything like Quarian faces!

I kept her in my group, figuring it's easier to keep NPCs alive through the end that way.

Without going into detail. I don't know if it just me, but I found the end a bit too easy.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Plus. Playing on the XBOX,the ending felt like a lazy Gears of War rip-off. The biotic shield thing to avoid swarms, lol, Gears of War rip-off right there. The ending enemies are like locusts, lol. The 3rd person angle is the same as Gears of War, as is the combat system. I haven't looked, but they used the same engine didn't they? They must have.

That's my only gripe. Otherwise, it's a decent game. And I am glad that it came out when it did, as I dodged the Dragon Age bullet.

I've only played about 10 minutes of the first GoW, so none of that for me.

One minor gripe; why can't you change your helmet during the mission? Going helmet-less in non-earth environments just seems wrong. It perturbs the engineer in me.

CR

[Kekvit Irae]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That's one reason I chose Legion for the shaft - he's just a walking platform for Geth programs, right?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Keeping Tali/Legion alive is easy. All you need to do is make sure they are loyal, and that your first fireteam leader is either Miranda, Jacob, or Garrus (again, they need to be loyal).

[johnhughthom]

Completed with my level 50 imported character, reached level 28, 43 hours played.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Tali and Samara killed last level, I'm going to have to play again before ME3. Got to have Tali back for that.

[frogbeastegg]

Decent article with a rundown of the highs and lows of ME2. All spoilers are concealed until you request the page displays them, and are labelled so you know what to expect. NB: language warning.

I'm putting ME2 to one side for a bit. I've done everything I want to with it except my insanity/renegade run. That can wait until the experience is less fresh in my mind.

The achievements are far easier to come by this time, kind of disappointing. I replayed ME1 many times before I reached 100%. I've got 50/51 with a single playthrough and 45 minutes of play on a new game+. Insanity is the only one I am missing.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Decent article with a rundown of the highs and lows of ME2. All spoilers are concealed until you request the page displays them, and are labelled so you know what to expect. NB: language warning.

That's a very good article.

CR

[Krusader]

Decent article with a rundown of the highs and lows of ME2. All spoilers are concealed until you request the page displays them, and are labelled so you know what to expect. NB: language warning.

I'm putting ME2 to one side for a bit. I've done everything I want to with it except my insanity/renegade run. That can wait until the experience is less fresh in my mind.

The achievements are far easier to come by this time, kind of disappointing. I replayed ME1 many times before I reached 100%. I've got 50/51 with a single playthrough and 45 minutes of play on a new game+. Insanity is the only one I am missing.

To be on safe side:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The writer sums up my thoughts on Cerberus perfectly. I expected there to be more conflict for Shephard to play out regarding Cerberus, as they were portrayed as a pretty twisted organization in ME1.
I just have the feeling that someone on Bioware's writing team had a hardon for Cerberus and/or secret organizations and wanted Cerberus in, maybe as a rather unsuccesful attempt at doing a story twist.

And a little image I found which I find amusing:

[snip]The comic contains swearing and shouldn't be posted directly here. Post a link with a language warning instead. Froggy.