Mass Effect 2 [Xbox 360/PC/PS3]

[ezee ryder]

Just to add to the whole relationship thing, during my second playthrough

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Mordin actually thought I wanted him! He said he "didn't feel the same way". I had the option of telling him "what are you talking about?" but I chose to play along and thanked him for "letting me down gently". He finished off by saying I was the only human he would actually go for, if he was into that sort of thing

.

Hilarious!

[Welrain]

Finished this at 3.00am this morning at around the 24hr mark. Fantastic stuff. I played mostly as a Paragon but did take renegade opportunities where I'd get an upper hand in combat.

Spoilers:

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Thane and Zaeed died. Felt bad for Thane but didn't shed much of a tear for Zaeed.

Miranda got some Shephard loving.

I managed to save my crew from the Collectors.

I saved the Collector base for Cerberus.

I blew up the Reaper supporting Geth.

I kept the original Justicar not the bad one.

I woke both the Krogan and Geth.

[Orgun]

Finished this a minute ago, clocked in at 43 hours/level 28 and I loved every god damned ****ing second of it. Fav Game/series of my lifetime

Spoilars:

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I only lost Zaeed on the base, which sucked as I really liked him and thought he was an interesting character.

Tali got her freak on.

Saved the crew from the base.

Kept the base for Cerberus...not so sure if that was a good idea anymore

I rewrote the Heretic Geth.

Kept the Justicar.

Very odd end boss but I enjoyed the fight.

[Eight Rooks]

Slowing down somewhat on a second playthrough, myself. I'm still enjoying it greatly but the limitations of the system and the missed opportunities in the writing are that much more obvious a second time around (since you're sitting through the same conversations over again with even more time to think about what you'd like to say). There are some brilliant possibilities - I mean, I like the game a lot simply for making me think about various options that could have been in there - but far too much of it simply isn't developed as much as it could have been. It's a credit to Bioware the game's good enough it makes me feel guilty for wanting more, more, more, but it flatly isn't quite as well-developed as it thinks it is.

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- No proper reaction from taking Legion to the Migrant Fleet. They should react with horror, for Chrissakes, not mild curiosity, give you a whole new sidequest based on that alone.
- No opportunity to really have it out with Tali or any other major Quarian NPC over the whole Israel/Palestine allegory thing going on between them and the Geth. It's one of the strongest ethical dilemmas in Bioware's universe and they barely touch on it.
- No opportunity to have Samara flip out on you, or even foreshadow such a thing beyond a few lines, or to really confront her over the inflexibility of her worldview. Cerberus are in many respects rotten to the core, despite being your saviours. I wouldn't have been at all surprised if they had her threaten to kill you when she finds out who you've forced her to work for, but nothing.
- Haven't finished Jack's relationship but there's far too little here developing the idea she's basically been living a lie for most of her life, which is a crying shame given again it's one of the strongest character traits Bioware came up with.

And all the myriad Paragon/Renegade choices that don't really go the way they ought to or aren't written as well as they blatantly could be. It's excellent in places, no doubt about that, and it's got some of my favourite videogame narrative moments in years - AC2 was a good story, but it was a fairly stupid potboiler without much character development. But still, the harder Bioware push themselves, the more they show themselves up, it seems. Hopefully they'll manage to improve as much again for the third game.

EDIT: And my God are Infiltrators ever badass. Christ, the Material Rifle tears through practically everything, even the heavy enemies, in just a few shots. Makes Veteran seem quite the cakewalk... If Kasumi's the last character they're adding I'll probably try for a 'proper' playthrough once the whole gang's in place, then I may try further DLC if it looks any good but I'm not in a tearing hurry. I'll probably be a little tired of it by then.

[SUMIRE]

I finished this the other day, and thought it was great. I never get pulled in by the hype, or watch spoiler videos etc, so everything was fresh. I know its very hard to do when you are mad on games, but it was for the best

[Jebus]

Out of interest, what are people's thoughts on Zaeed?

I thought he was an absolute waste of DLC and after his quest, I never used him ever again. It really showed that he was DLC as well, no dialogue trees whatsoever, not even a ship upgrade!

How about the other DLC pack? Again, I thought it was just okay, a bit boring and a bit pointless really, though very easy XP if you need it.

If and when they do more DLC I really hope it's of a higher standard because I can totally understand why this DLC was free day one content.

[Eight Rooks]

Zaeed? His loyalty quest was a bit crap, really. Plus no option to get him back should you screw it up. His war stories are okay to fairly good, though, and he's decently voice acted. I'd maybe be a tad pissed off had I paid (that much) extra for him, but as a free bonus he's all right, and I don't mind EA's attempts to kill off the second-hand market too much.

The black hole gun DLC is wildly over-powered, though. Slow, but enemies don't do enough damage on Veteran to stop you getting a round off, and as an Infiltrator I can cloak, then fire anyway... it's a laugh, and the effect is nice, but it gets uncomfortably close to Dragon Age's godawful balance issues.

[EvilBoris]

I keep starting the game over and over changing classes and redoing the end of the first game to alter what happened to the council! I can't decide how I want everything to be!

[Ish]

I'm enjoying this but christ the loading times are absurd....

[chis]

I'm enjoying this but christ the loading times are absurd....

Load times are fine for me, off a 3-4 year old hard disk that's very full. (260GB Samsung or something)

I suspect, Ish, your PC might have fallen foul of the recently discovered processor affinity issue, for which someone has created a fix. I'm on a Q6600 and haven't needed this (heck, I'm playing this game whilst rendering 3D art in the background and getting only a modicum of slowdown), but I'm sure others might.

Edit: There's me trying to be helpful, it's only now dawned on me you could be playing on 360. :P Still, I suspect others may find this fix useful.

Been through my second play through now, on veteran with a female Shepard. Jennifer Hale's voice acting is remarkable at times, and makes Mark Meer's efforts look a little bland. Reached level 30, saving all the crew and finishing all quests. After two and a bit weeks of this and the first game, I'm done. And completely satisfied! Why do Bioware insist on continuing with generic fantasy tropes in their other games, when Mass Effect proves they are capable of so much better...

[Welrain]

Just played the end game through again - achievement unlocked. I'm thinking of playing through again on a high difficulty with a female character....might start from Mass Effect 1 for the full effect.

[SUMIRE]

I'm enjoying this but christ the loading times are absurd....

Hmm, mine was fine, a lot better than the first one. I did install to the HD though, so that knocks a few seconds off.

[Kaosu]

Is insanity really that frustrating then? I was tempted to go for the 1015/1015 gamerscore, but I would hate to sully my memory/opinion of the game by getting angry during a "hard" playthrough.

It depends on the class, but also the style of play you use that determines the fraustration of Insanity. Sentinel/Infiltrator are highly reccomended, as they can breeze through most enemies with minimal effort.

I will admit, that final section on Insanity was way easier than I expected as I was depleating most armour/barriers in one swift hit. Also, Cryo+Heavy Throw... wow.

[elaniel]

I just finished and am very happy!

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The whole suicide mission I was clenching and it was so tense (Haven't felt that nervous in a game for a long while, trying to ensure everyone survived and what decisions to make.) The cut scenes where you really didn't know what was going to happen made me really nervous.

Luckily, everyone survived (including all the crew) and stayed faithful to Ashley.

Question though. As with the first game I assume an End Game save gets made. If I go into new game plus, does this eventually become a completely separate End Game save, or does it overwrite?

I want to play through again. Not straight away, but maybe a few months before ME3. Just want to find out before I do that so I don't screw up my ideal game to take into ME3.

Also just a NER-NER to all the people that thought I was going to be tempted to cheat.

[Ish]

I'm using a 360 with the game installed to its (half full) 250Gb hard drive and it seems to take ages. Since moving onto the second disc it seems to have got worse. Not had problems with any other game. Hmmmm.