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Mass Effect 2 Story Discussion (SPOILERS - No Tags Required, You Have Been Warned!)

This is your last chance, there will be endgame spoilers from this point with no tags.

In the same vein as the Assassin's Creed 2 story discussion thread, this is for people who have finished the story and want to discuss it without tagging everything, hopefully it will also stop the main thread having pages of black boxes everywhere, any and every spoiler is allowed with no tags necessary.

So, lets start with the major thing, the human reaper. This was not a twist I saw coming or even anticipated, they took the story in such a radical direction that didn't really fit in with the previous established lore that it really took me by surprise.

Also who did you loose in the final battle, I read posts stating people only lost 3 people but when the smoke cleared it was only Miranda and Joker left with 8 coffins! Tali's death shook me as she was one of my favourite characters and turning over Garrus' lifeless corpse was a real emotional point in the game.
 

ballsofsteel

Neo Member
i'm wondering what happens to you if you don't buy this ship upgrades? i'm assuming it makes the game a little more difficult and someone will die. also how does loyalty effect the end game? when i played it bought all the upgrades and made everyone loyal so nobody died also was anyone angry as hell the the tali "sex scene"
 

Kabouter

Member
I lost Mordin damnit :/. Got all loyalty, got all ship upgrades, guess I did something else wrong :/.

Anyway, I thought the story was pretty awesome. And to be honest, the human reaper's existence sort of explains why the Reapers wipe out civilization every 50,000 years. Human reaper was easy to beat though, nuke gun is awesome. Thing annihilated a serious portion of its HP in one shot.
 

JWong

Banned
I saved everyone. 8)

I don't think Kelly is a possible relationship. I had sex with Miranda when Kelly was kidnapped, so if that was the time for sex, Kelly certainly won't be there.
 

AstroMan

Banned
I really wanna know what Quarian look like, because I assumed they were purple.

Since ME3 should be a direct sequel (unlike ME2 which took place 2 years after), my living squad SHOULD be available to me right? Also, what are the chances that past members like Wrex(if he's not dead in your save) and Liaria show up to replace fallen team mates?

I totally want Garrus, Thane, Tali, Mordin and Grunt to be available to me for the word go. I also hope there's more planets to actually see and explore. Like Earth and the Turrian homeworld.


ALSO: Anyone agree that Garrus should get his own game?
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Kabouter said:
I lost Mordin damnit :/. Got all loyalty, got all ship upgrades, guess I did something else wrong :/.

Anyway, I thought the story was pretty awesome. And to be honest, the human reaper's existence sort of explains why the Reapers wipe out civilization every 50,000 years. Human reaper was easy to beat though, nuke gun is awesome. Thing annihilated a serious portion of its HP in one shot.



So were the Proteans converted into reapers, and some of them were modified to become the collectors?

And do the reapers die for old or something? I don't get why they would keep assimilating everyone in the universe and converting them to reapers every 50.000 years. Is that they only purpose?
 

Coop

Member
I don't think loyalty have anything to do with it. I think you have to pick the right person for each specialty.

I did the final mission twice with Tali not being loyal. here's what I did

First time
Pipe:Tali (died)
Assault: Jacob

Biotic: Asari ( i forget her name)
Assault: Garrus
Didn't send anybody back with crew they died

Took Miranda and thane for final fight

1 person died
-----
Second time. I intended to select the worst person for each one

Pipe:Garrus (died)
Assault: Mordin

Biotic: Thane---Jacob died
Assault: Mordin (died)
Set with crew: Tali (died)
Took jack and miranda.

4 people died
---
I could be wrong..

Quick question. At the end when you decide to blow up the station, I selected to save the station. The illusive man said to Miranda to stop me. If I dont have her loyal will she attempt to kill me?
 

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED IN THIS SPOILER THREAD!


Jack was not loyal.

Everyone else was.

Sent Thane through tubes.
Garrus led second team.
Jack was shield.

Thane and Grunt? (party member through first part) died.

WTF?!
 

Kabouter

Member
itxaka said:
So were the Proteans converted into reapers, and some of them were modified to become the collectors?

And do the reapers die for old or something? I don't get why they would keep assimilating everyone in the universe and converting them to reapers every 50.000 years. Is that they only purpose?
Reapers tried to convert the Protheans into new reapers, but were unsuccessful. So they enslaved them instead by making them the collectors.

And who knows if the reapers die of old age? But procreation is something that every life form does, one of the most basic purposes, why not Reapers?
 

AppleMIX

Member
I sent Thane into the pipe, he died.

I figured someone was going to die, might as well be someone who is terminally ill. :p

I also lost Miranda after I finished the boss.

I think Legion and Tali are the only ones who can make it through the pipe and live.
 
qoued4.png
 

Kabouter

Member
AppleMIX said:
I sent Thane into the pipe, he died.

I figured someone was going to die, might as well be someone who is terminally ill. :p

I also lost Miranda after I finished the boss.

I think Legion and Tali are the only ones who can make it through the pipe and live.

I used the same choices that some other guy who had zero casualties used, but still lost Mordin:
Combo was Tali for pipe, Garrus to lead the other team, Jack for biotic, Samara to protect crew members and Miranda to lead second other team. Still lost Mordin though, so maybe who you choose to go with you matters as well :/.
 

Truant

Member
AppleMIX said:
I sent Thane into the pipe, he died.

I figured someone was going to die, might as well be someone who is terminally ill. :p

I also lost Miranda after I finished the boss.

I think Legion and Tali are the only ones who can make it through the pipe and live.

Nah, Legion went in my playthrough, and he died when they hacked the door.
 

AppleMIX

Member
Truant said:
Nah, Legion went in my playthrough, and he died when they hacked the door.

I do know that it is possible for Legion to live through pipe.

I'm assuming he was loyal... right?

Did you side with Tali when her and Legion had their conflict?
 

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
EmCeeGramr said:
:lol
Yeah, quite the resemblance.

I enjoyed the game overall. Much better than DA. Will try the end over again to see if I can't get everyone to survive. Pissed about Tali non-reveal, but I liked Miranda better anyways.
 
My team was Miranda/Grunt.
I sent Legion into the pipes.
Used Jacob for the second team.
Had Mordin escort the crew.
Used Jack for the Biotic barrier.
Used Garrus for the solo.
 

AstroMan

Banned
According to one member here if you:

-Sent Tali in the vents
-Had Garrus lead the first team
-Had Jack make the biotic sphere
-Had Miranda lead the second team
-Had Samara escort the crew members

Everyone lives. Which I'm doing in my second run to fact check.
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
funkmasterb said:
Awesome! I spent like two months animating that dude. :D
*pat on the back* Well done man, well done.
The way he moved...his head would sometimes tilt back and stuff, nice touch.

Edit:
McNerdBurger said:
Double awesome!! I made his sound effects!!:D
*head explodes*
Awesome job.
 
So I just found out there was a different lead writer, I guess that is why the story felt a bit off at all times. Out of all the things they could have focused on they chose a relatively minor subject (How the reapers reproduce). I also think it would have been a much better twist if the Collectors were the original species instead of just the protheans, and then the reason for their collection of species could be explained, also having someone alive that was behind the reapers would make for a much creepier story.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
^ Well you have to realize earning squad's loyalty means getting rid of their past issues, and parental issues are very common .
 

AstroMan

Banned
chandoog said:
^ Well you have to realize earning squad's loyalty means getting rid of their past issues, and parental issues are very common .


But still, too many daddy issue missions. Why couldn't it be more of "Kill the asshole that betrayed me"?

I guess Garrus just has a cooler life.
 

Truant

Member
funkmasterb said:
Awesome! I spent like two months animating that dude. :D

Awesome.

Excellent final boss. Come to think of it, it had to have been his endless stare that got to me. Guy never did blink.

Why didn't we get to fight the controller Collectors? Seemed like the game was building up to an encounter where he perhaps would take control of your squadmates or something.
 

Dennis

Banned
funkmasterb said:
Awesome! I spent like two months animating that dude. :D
When you meet the guys responsible for the design of Thane, please let them know some guy on the internet thinks they did the best design-work for a game character in ages.
 

Truant

Member
AppleMIX said:
I do know that it is possible for Legion to live through pipe.

I'm assuming he was loyal... right?

Did you side with Tali when her and Legion had their conflict?

Both were loyal, did the Paragon response (You're both right, bla bla bla) so they were both happy.
 

ballsofsteel

Neo Member
first part:
Vents: Tali
Assault: Miranda
My team: Thane & Samara

Second part:
Crew escort: Tali
Assault: Miranda
Biotic field: Samara
My team: Taylor & Thane

and final boss battle i picked thane and miranda. They were all loyal to me with and i also bought ever upgrade suggested to me by each crew member and nobody died. i'm surprised it seem like most people had someone die on them i thought as long as your squad was loyal they'd all live
 

RS4-

Member
AstroMan said:
According to one member here if you:

-Sent Tali in the vents
-Had Garrus lead the first team
-Had Jack make the biotic sphere
-Had Miranda lead the second team
-Had Samara escort the crew members

Everyone lives. Which I'm doing in my second run to fact check.

Tali in vents.
Miranda second team.
Jack for the sphere.
Miranda for team again.
Mordin with kidnapped crew.

That's what I used my third time through and everyone lived.

And yeah, motherfucking Terminator :lol

First time through, I sent Tali to the vents and had Legion lead the second team, Tali got shot in the face!
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
- Legion in vent
- Miranda leading fire team
- Miranda leading distraction team
- Tali escorted the crew back
- Samara with the biotic barrier
- Grunt and Samara for the final fight (Grunt is the one who slipped and fell, it was kinda funny to see Shepard jump after him and hold him with a single hand off the ledge).

Although Shepard didn't yell his name like in the launch trailer with Tali.

- All at full loyalty (all paragon answers in the arguments)
- Ship fully upgraded (besides medical bay)
- Destroyed Reaper technology (illusive man was pissed)


Everyone survived.
 
On the giantbomb podcast thing they said that you action in the game (Not last level) also affect who lives and who dies, so there is probably a lot more than just choosing the right people for each one.
 

Max

I am not Max
I'm puzzled as to why there are vehicle controls in the key bindings menu, I was expecting to control the hover ship at one point :(
 
Goddamn, awesome game. It was a little shitty that Jack and Thane died even before I could drop into the collectors base. Anyone know what I did wrong? Jack just sorta dropped dead and thane got impaled by something. Lost everyone in my crew, lol.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I love the "moments" characters have ... eg Samara was the biotic shield generator for me at he final push, and right at the end she starts slowing down and falls to her knee, I thought she's about to die fuck, but then she suddenly gets up and hurls a MASSIVE energy field that clears out a bunch of collectors at once.

awesome.

i'd imagine she'd have actually died there if she wasn't loyal.
 

Ceebs

Member
Max said:
I'm puzzled as to why there are vehicle controls in the key bindings menu, I was expecting to control the hover ship at one point :(
The Mako replacement is coming as DLC
 

Ducarmel

Member
My team was Loyal all of them

My first party was Than and Garrus

Fire team was lead by Miranda since i made her a cerbrus leader and had her lead Grunt and Jack.

Specialist was Tali.

Everybody survived


the next part

My team was Than and Miranda

Fire team lead by Garrus followed by Legion and Jacob

Specialist was Samara

Garrus got injured but was o.k.

Jack lead the survivors back to the ship


The finale

I took Tali and Grunt blew up the collector ship everybody survived
 

Ducarmel

Member
Pop On Arrival said:
Goddamn, awesome game. It was a little shitty that Jack and Thane died even before I could drop into the collectors base. Anyone know what I did wrong? Jack just sorta dropped dead and thane got impaled by something. Lost everyone in my crew, lol.
did you upgrade your ship all the way?
 

Dizzy-4U

Member
Can you regain the loyalty of Miranda or Jack after the fight they have? I basically said fuck off to Miranda (didn't have any paragon option at the time). She was loyal before that and now she is back to normal. So everyone is loyal except for Miranda and I'm kinda worried that she'll die at the end =/
 

Ducarmel

Member
try talking to her lol girl age in Mass Effect 2

Did any of you guys go in the Flotila with Legion.
MassEffect2_2010-01-27_10-35-32-31.jpg

I was surprised they actually let him on considering what she was charged with and that there were 4 admirals on board. It also suggest that maybe the Quarian and Geth situation was hyped up in ME1 or played down in ME2 Tali made is seem like the Quarians hated and feared the Geth in ME1 like it was a blood feud. ME2 Legion made it seem like the Geth are cool with the Creator as long as the Creator does not attempt kill them, and two of the Admirals don't even want to kill the Geth.


Worf? I did not know they had Worf in the game! Too bad he's dead now.
MassEffect2_2010-01-26_11-30-18-85.jpg
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Alright .. just to spice it up I just finished a REALLY quick run through the game on easy.

- Default Shepard (no import)
- Full Renegade
- No upgrades to Normandy at all
- Still did everyone's loyalty quest, but replied every possible choice negatively.
- Didn't wake up Legion at all.


So ...

- Jack, Tali and Thane all died on the flight.
- Jacob was the pipe man, he died pretty brutally after opening the door.
- Miranda was the biotic generator, but she surprisingly survived.
- Grunt was in my 3 man party, he died (dragged away by the swarm).


- I rushed in so Kelly was alive
- Unfortunately I sent them back alone, so they all died.


- Miranda was incharge of the distraction team, she survived.
- The salarian did not


- Final 3 was Shep, Samara's daughter, Garrus.

they all survived.


now how does one get the "Shepard dies" ending ? don't do anyone's personal quest ?



also, a seemingly huge plot revelation that i JUST picked up on the 2nd time through :p

copy-pasting it from the official ME2 thread.



So the collector head dude often assumes control of the lesser collectors, I didn't realize before that the big collector dude HIMSELF was under control of Harbinger (a reaper) the whole time, and at the end right before shit blows up Harbinger goes "Releasing direct control" and the big collector dude looses the glowey eyes and looks all sad like at the explosions ..

completely missed this revelation in the first play through, which is why i was puzzled at Shepard saying "Harbinger is coming" to the Illusive man after that.

that kinda makes the collectors/protheans appear even more sad ..
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Nobody died. Had everyone loyal and had all ship upgrades.

Disappointed with the end game plot-wise. Overall the "reaper" plot doesn't advance a lot throughout the game, and the last bit didn't have enough development. All the reapers we've seen so far look like Scuttlefish-- why now are they working on other types of reapers? And why did it have to look like the frigging Terminator?

Also, it was unclear to me that Harbinger was a reaper and was controlling some bug dude (who controls other bug dudes...) until the very last line of his dialog. That was a little strange.

So that last shot of the reapers...where do we think they are now?

And who knows if the reapers die of old age? But procreation is something that every life form does, one of the most basic purposes, why not Reapers?

This is not satisfactory. There are, as we see in the last shot of the game, hundreds of Reapers. If they can't procreate on their own, where did they all come from? If this method is no longer available, why?

So far all we have is one sentence of speculation from EDI. EDI, by the way, breaks down in the end-- her voice and emotions become human. That was strange. It was like the voice director forgot she was a robot.
 
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