Mass Effect 2 Catch All

twelve1784 wrote:

A sick, twisted part of me is hoping that Sheperd has been assimilated into the Geth, Locutus of borg-style. The sane part of me realizes the game probably wouldn't be as fun playing as an emotionless, robot giraffe-monster.

Would be kind of cool if it pulled the data from the first game as others mentioned above & that shepard as an assimilated geth is a npc party member?

Second guess is that maybe that is just crew member x who was assimilated maybe ship was attacked?

The primary problem with ME2 arbitrarily pulling information from previous saves would be if someone played through the game 2 or more times using different characters and/or different actions (such as who you handle Wrex) then there would be conflicting time lines. In your head, the 'true' story as you would prefer to remember it may not be the one they use.

I would assume that it would let you select the saved game to bring over. That's the way Bioware did it for the second Baldur's Gate title.

inspiringsn wrote:

The primary problem with ME2 arbitrarily pulling information from previous saves would be if someone played through the game 2 or more times using different characters and/or different actions (such as who you handle Wrex) then there would be conflicting time lines. In your head, the 'true' story as you would prefer to remember it may not be the one they use.

Huh, I hadn't thought about that but my character that I took to 60 played through the game going both full paragon and renegade with different endings selected both times. I'll be curious to see how the whole situation is going to be handled, especially in light of the PS3 Mass Effect 2 situation.

DSGamer wrote:

All of this talk makes me want to bag on my feeble attempts at playing through Fable 2 and go buy Mass Effect again. My local game store has it for like $15. So excited.

So if the first book was bad, how is the second book, really?

Haven't read the second book yet, but I didn't think the first book was terrible. I mean, it's not a work of deep literature, but as a straight forward action/science fiction novel it's not half bad. I haven't even played much of the first Mass Effect (which will change soon) but I'm already really into the story and characters.

DSGamer wrote:

All of this talk makes me want to bag on my feeble attempts at playing through Fable 2 and go buy Mass Effect again. My local game store has it for like $15. So excited.

So if the first book was bad, how is the second book, really?

I would recommend springing the extra $5 to get the new two-disc edition, which includes (among other things) the excellent Bring Down The Sky DLC: http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/Prod...

I thought the first book was good, if you go into it expecting pulp sci-fi; it really increased my enjoyment of the game because I had some investment in the universe and characters and locations. I'm putting off reading the second book until closer to the release of ME2.

Wrex was a like my drunk wingman at a bar. Here I have my charismatic Commander Shepard delivering wonderful interviews, finessing his way out of bad situations and killing with class, and there goes Wrex, being all mad and sounding like a Space Hillbilly. Wrex, I'd pull the trigger again.

beeporama wrote:

I thought the first book was good, if you go into it expecting pulp sci-fi; it really increased my enjoyment of the game because I had some investment in the universe and characters and locations. I'm putting off reading the second book until closer to the release of ME2.

I'll have to consider it, then. The thing I liked about KOTOR over Mass Effect (aside from there being more main quests and better side quests) was that I already felt a connection to the universe. Mass Effect has promise, but it is starting from scratch.

My theory is that you will continue from a past saved game. You either fake your own death or are captured and assumed dead by the Alliance. Your alien associates are nowhere to be found, convincing the Alliance that they are the prime suspects in your death.

Either a paragon or renegade, you are still humanity's hero, so your character at the start of the game doesn't have to be any different. Your previous saved game only needs to affect the supporting cast.

Grubber788 wrote:

Wrex was a like my drunk wingman at a bar. Here I have my charismatic Commander Shepard delivering wonderful interviews, finessing his way out of bad situations and killing with class, and there goes Wrex, being all mad and sounding like a Space Hillbilly. Wrex, I'd pull the trigger again.

That choice wasn't much of a moral quandary for me either.

Most likely, it'll just pull whatever choices that you made in the last playthrough.

Or, at least, that's how I would imagine it going.

Wouldn't it be like Baldur's Gate 2? There, they picked a bunch of companions and started you off with most of the storyline from the previous game predetermined.

There were a few conversion sections where you would select some of your actions from the previous game, but they seemed to have zero impact on the second's story so were pretty irrelevant.

I would expect something similar for Mass Effect. Same universe, but self-contained story with references to its predecessor. That said, I do recall Bioware stating this was to be a flowing trilogy from the onset, so who knows?

Whoever guessed the Renegade's story ending being continued, with Cerberus meddling with Udina and Shepherd now on the run from the Geth, the manipulated humans and the oppressed alien populations might be on to something. That sounds super cool. Make sure to give the shadow dude a role though.

Hopefully I get to continue being a xenophobic, short-tempered douchebag!

gewy wrote:

I vote for Shepard being captured, and the game starting out with him being rescued or escaping. Of course this also means his memory likely toast due to the torture, brainwashing, and/or assimilation.

Another, distant possibility is you play as a clone of Shepard. Maybe created by Cerberus (since it's featured prominently on the ME2 official website)?

The "known alien associates" part implies to me that the theme of anti-alien prejudice is going to play a bigger role...

This is definitely among my most wanted at this point!

Isn't Shephard a woman?

Heh. It's weird to think that people played through with Shephard as a man...
...and not an alien-loving xenophiliac!

Geth? Tali? Quarians?

Man, I swear I finished this game and I never knew what the hell was going on. Cool action scenes tho =)

JohnnyBarnstorm wrote:

Isn't Shephard a woman?

Heh. It's weird to think that people played through with Shephard as a man...
...and not an alien-loving xenophiliac!

After playing through it four times it stopped being weird. Of course my first Shepard is close to my heart, so if I have to choose between them Teddy Shepard the Xenophobic Humanist wins every time.

That said, I think they're going to do the same thing they did in KOTOR 2, only with save files. So your character will show up in holograms or in some cutscenes, they'll reference some actions you did and whoever you picked in the end will be the head honcho but the changes will be purely cosmetic. When it comes right down to it the worlds aren't all that different if you went paragon or renegade; we just barely stopped one evil machine dude, humans are largely in charge because we're the only ones with guns and crap, and we know there are a ton more evil machine dudes waiting to kick our asses and the local evil machine chumps want to bring in the outside evil machine dudes because they like harshing our mellow. Begin Mass Effect 2.

DSGamer wrote:
beeporama wrote:

I thought the first book was good, if you go into it expecting pulp sci-fi; it really increased my enjoyment of the game because I had some investment in the universe and characters and locations. I'm putting off reading the second book until closer to the release of ME2.

I'll have to consider it, then. The thing I liked about KOTOR over Mass Effect (aside from there being more main quests and better side quests) was that I already felt a connection to the universe. Mass Effect has promise, but it is starting from scratch.

It's odd but I've never clicked with the Star Wars universe. I was more involved in the Mass Effect story.

Mex wrote:

Geth? Tali? Quarians?

Man, I swear I finished this game and I never knew what the hell was going on. Cool action scenes tho =)

I spent hours reading the Codex... I don't know why. Plus you could listen to the audio portions of the codex whilst meticulously cleaning your apartment.

If I'm still Shepard, they better not pull a KOTOR amnesia and make me forget all my really fun specter powers. The gameplay only really started to come into its own when you got the abilities to throw people 50 ft. and create gravity fields.

I'm having trouble remember what happened with Wrex and... a beach? Where's a good place to get a recap of the main plot?

I know I didn't kill Wrex, he was with me til the end.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I know I didn't kill Wrex, he was with me til the end.

No kidding? Wow. I thought the choice was preempted by Ashley. I didn't realize there was an alternate scenario there.

Funkenpants wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

I know I didn't kill Wrex, he was with me til the end.

No kidding? Wow. I thought the choice was preempted by Ashley. I didn't realize there was an alternate scenario there.

In my scenario Ashley blew Wrex away herself, IIRC. My desire to make nice with her privates dropped precipitously after that.

EDIT: Ah.

Game Guide wrote:

There's apparently only three outcomes here: either you shoot Wrex, Ashley shoots Wrex, or you use your Charm or Intimidate skill to talk Wrex down and you all walk away. Hope you've been investing in your speechcraft!

ColdForged wrote:

In my scenario Ashley blew Wrex away herself, IIRC. My desire to make nice with her privates dropped precipitously after that.

This was the scenario I ended up with, too. But I didn't blame Ashley. Wrex was pointing a weapon at her wannabe main squeeze. Girl is going to go batsh*t crazy you do that. Wrex just didn't understand the feminine mind.

Kind of weird to have a trilogy that switches protagonists every time, especially since the first game set Shepard up as someone pretty important. Maybe you'll get Shepard-Geth as a party member?

And while I loved me some Wrex I felt forced into the situation that makes everyone love him. There's an obvious compromise in there and I had no option to pick it.

I mean, we're going to be ripping through the place... how hard is it to say, "Wrex, I will not compromise our main objective for anything... but if we happen to be passing through their research labs, and you happen to go 'investigate' some 'hostile activity,' and you happen to stumble across a whole bunch of data in an easily transportable medium, I think we could chalk that up as unavoidable coincidence."

I guess that's pretty hard to say. How about, "We'll root around while we're in there but no promises?"

I did manage to talk Wrex down but I felt really bad about it. I felt he had a right to that cure, and I had a duty to help him.

Spoiler:

[color=white]If you had enough points in uh, those things that give you more chat options. Intimidation or whatnot. You can convince Wrex to back off, but if you don't then he will die by your hand or Ashley's.[/color]

Or is this an automatic spoiler thread since it is regarding the sequel?

misterglass wrote:

Spoiler:

[color=white]If you had enough points in uh, those things that give you more chat options. Intimidation or whatnot. You can convince Wrex to back off, but if you don't then he will die by your hand or Ashley's.[/color]

Or is this an automatic spoiler thread since it is regarding the sequel?

Nice intent, but the cat is firmly out the bag by now I think.

misterglass wrote:

Or is this an automatic spoiler thread since it is regarding the sequel?

I'd vote for that. I don't mind putting in spoiler text when something has just come out, but at some point the courtesy should start flowing in the reverse direction.

My Sheppard was a Renegade and I'd been putting plenty of points into Intimidate. From what I remember, I shouted him down. He cried for a while, but not too long.

Anyone else punch the reporter?

Grenn wrote:

Anyone else punch the reporter?

I think I did in one playthrough and was very surprised that "this interview is over" means "I am going to cause you bodily harm."

Looking on some youtube clips, it seems those playing as a woman got far more violent renegade responses than those playing as a guy.

I think I only got to shoot 3-4 people. It really put a damper on my evil laugh.