The end made me feel really guilty. If a character dies in a movie then I can take solace in the fact that the character was always going to die, but when I lost half my team in ME2 I could have prevented all of it. Looking back, by trying to preserve the characters I liked the most I ended up making poor decisions and lost almost everyone else. It's interesting that this something I can't really imagine feeling about a movie or book beyond more abstract ideas of social responsibility; Bioware really took advantage of the medium in that respect.
Yeah, I beat it having done almost everything. In the end, I lost two, Mordin and Jack. I didn't really like Jack, but Mordin was my favorite, and my heart hit the floor when it panned by and he was dead. I'm almost certain that it has to do with the uprgrades, because those are the two that I didn't have fully upgraded.
So who did you pick at the ending stuff? I had Tali go in the pipe, Garrus lead the second team, and then again later he led the team. Grunt went back with the people we found. Legion and Samara came with me at the end.
Spoilers: I beat it Saturday. I had Thane go in the pipe, and Garrus lead the other team. Thane ended up dying after the pipe sequence there. I then had Jacob take the team back, and Miranda lead the second squad. I took Grunt and Garrus with me to the last battle, and also had Mordin die after the defeat of the final boss. I was sad to see them both go, although Thane I was ok with dying since he was dying anyway, thus this was a more noble end. However I want Mordin back for ME3 so I think I'll probably play the final boss again so that he's alive at least. I figure if I send him back with the crew he'll be ok.
The only person I had die was Zaeed (which I'm not upset about at all, I was never particularly impressed by him), but I also lost about half the crew, including Chambers. I think it's because I performed an extra mission before going through the Omega 4 relay. All in all, I'm more upset about cheating than losing people, I hope I don't piss off Liara
I'm a fucking boy scout. I did every side mission I could find, got all defensive upgrades to the ship (that I know of: guns, hull and shields), got every team member, did all their loyalty quests, and maxed out my Paragon bar. I picked Jacob for the first fire team lead, Miranda for the second, Legion for the door hack, Samara for the biotic barrier, had Zaeed escort the survivors back (I think I could trust him with that), and had a mix of the remainder for my personal teams. Also, my girl Shepard didn't even cheat on Kaidan! And guess what? Every got-damned one of them survived. Fuck yeah! Suicide mission my arse. President Bartlet was pissed that I blew up his station, though. His star went quite a menacing shade of blue.
I can't wait to do a playthrough as a renegade (who is short-tempered, unlikeable, racist, Cerberus-sympathising and downright ugly, gets most of the team killed and delivers the Collector base to The I Man). Once my mind cools down, that is. In about a year, maybe two.
Another problem I had with the game is that despite being a role playing game in a more literal sense than most, it doesn't actually reward role-playing. I went with my gut on every decision, and as a result my renegade/paragon bars were pretty even. Because of this I wasn't able to explore every dialogue option, and ended up losing the loyalty (and the life) of Jack because I didn't have a high enough "score". As much as the writers delight in putting you in morally grey situations, the mechanics don't reflect that; the optimal strategy is still to play on the extreme end of the spectrum. Or is it just me? Did anyone else notice this?
EDIT: The more interesting question is: what would you do to fix this?
I managed this by chatting Kelly up (who is basically my secretary, now I think about it). She liked me so much that she offered to take care of the fish.
Comments
The end made me feel really guilty. If a character dies in a movie then I can take solace in the fact that the character was always going to die, but when I lost half my team in ME2 I could have prevented all of it. Looking back, by trying to preserve the characters I liked the most I ended up making poor decisions and lost almost everyone else. It's interesting that this something I can't really imagine feeling about a movie or book beyond more abstract ideas of social responsibility; Bioware really took advantage of the medium in that respect.
Has anyone else beat it yet? What did you think?
Yeah, I beat it having done almost everything. In the end, I lost two, Mordin and Jack. I didn't really like Jack, but Mordin was my favorite, and my heart hit the floor when it panned by and he was dead. I'm almost certain that it has to do with the uprgrades, because those are the two that I didn't have fully upgraded.
So who did you pick at the ending stuff? I had Tali go in the pipe, Garrus lead the second team, and then again later he led the team. Grunt went back with the people we found. Legion and Samara came with me at the end.
I beat it Saturday. I had Thane go in the pipe, and Garrus lead the other team. Thane ended up dying after the pipe sequence there. I then had Jacob take the team back, and Miranda lead the second squad. I took Grunt and Garrus with me to the last battle, and also had Mordin die after the defeat of the final boss. I was sad to see them both go, although Thane I was ok with dying since he was dying anyway, thus this was a more noble end. However I want Mordin back for ME3 so I think I'll probably play the final boss again so that he's alive at least. I figure if I send him back with the crew he'll be ok.
I can't wait to do a playthrough as a renegade (who is short-tempered, unlikeable, racist, Cerberus-sympathising and downright ugly, gets most of the team killed and delivers the Collector base to The I Man). Once my mind cools down, that is. In about a year, maybe two.
EDIT: The more interesting question is: what would you do to fix this?