Mass Effect 2

[LeadHead]

So I finally got around to finishing the Massacre Playthrough.

Original Plan: to have all team members die, except Garrus, Tali and Mordin.

What changed: During the process of playing, I decided to have Thane survive too. Also, to retrieve Legion but leave him in the AI Core until after I've taken on the Collector Station.

How it turned out: I actually ended up having to restart the Suicide Mission because I was wrong about one part of my strategy. I upgraded no major systems, Jack died from no armor, Kasumi died from no shields, and Thane died from no weapons. I thought taking Thane with me to the Cargo hold would keep him alive and have Zaeed die. Whoops. So I reloaded, upgraded the weapons, so by the time I get to the Collector base, only Jack and Kasumi are gone.

Jacob Volunteered to go into the tubes and since he was the only one on the list whom I didn't want to survive, in he went. Samara led the 2nd team, but she doesn't get killed, just embarrassed for being behind schedule. Jacob dies, and it had been more than 3 missions since the Collectors took the crew, so it's Chakwas.... and 2 random colonists, who were never referred to again. Tali watches their backs on the way to the Normandy. Tali and Chakwas survive.

Time to go through the seeker swarms, Thane's my biotic for this and I realized at this point that Zaeed was loyal, since I thought it'd be him killed if I didn't upgrade the weapons, I didn't think it was a problem to get him loyal, I wanted the renegade points. So my Team was Miranda and Zaeed, which was pretty obviously a very unpleasant demise for Zaeed. Grunt is m next strongest defender, he leads the 2nd team. Zaeed and Grunt die.

For the final leg of the mission, Mordin and Garrus are my team, leaving only Thane, (loyal) Samara and Miranda (not loyal) honestly at this point I thought they were all doomed, even Thane. Miranda gets killed, Shepard, Garrus, Mordin, Thane and Samara make it back to the Normandy.

I knew that Loyal squad members could save unloyal squad members, but given how there were only the 3 of them defending, I thought that wouldn't matter. I was really surprised that Samara didn't die.

We come away with a very empty ship. The Cerberus crew, gone. Miranda, Jacob, Grunt, Zaeed, Kasumi and Jack are dead. Deck 2 only has Joker and Mordin on it, and the Engineering Deck might as well be Talis Private Condo, since there's nobody else down there now.

I wanted a more realistic result, I think I got it.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

So who else likes the Cain?

 

[eastman23]

So who else likes the Cain?

It's very useful for taking down the Geth Colussus.

(And the Thresher Maw. )

 

[SPCTRE]

We come away with a very empty ship. The Cerberus crew, gone. Miranda, Jacob, Grunt, Zaeed, Kasumi and Jack are dead. Deck 2 only has Joker and Mordin on it, and the Engineering Deck might as well be Talis Private Condo, since there's nobody else down there now.

I wanted a more realistic result, I think I got it.

Nice writeup You guys really make me want to start a similar playthrough - perhaps it's a good thing I don't have the time at the moment

So who else likes the Cain?

I'm on the fence when it comes to the Cain.

The visuals and the sound effects are great, and it is very useful on Insanity vs bosses. That said, I hate to carry around a weapon I know I'm never going to use versus run-of-the-mill enemies. I keep saving ammunition to the point of never using it

With the grenade launcher at least I feel like I can take out the occasional standard-type bad guy without horribly wasting precious ammunition

 

[John Clark]

I'm on the fence when it comes to the Cain.

The visuals and the sound effects are great, and it is very useful on Insanity vs bosses. That said, I hate to carry around a weapon I know I'm never going to use versus run-of-the-mill enemies. I keep saving ammunition to the point of never using it

With the grenade launcher at least I feel like I can take out the occasional standard-type bad guy without horribly wasting precious ammunition

I know what you mean. Cain has its uses, but for the day to day work, the grenade launcher and particle beam are my favourites.

 

[eastman23]

I'm on the fence when it comes to the Cain.

The visuals and the sound effects are great, and it is very useful on Insanity vs bosses. That said, I hate to carry around a weapon I know I'm never going to use versus run-of-the-mill enemies. I keep saving ammunition to the point of never using it

With the grenade launcher at least I feel like I can take out the occasional standard-type bad guy without horribly wasting precious ammunition

True enough, especially considering the Cain is a one-shot weapon.

I usually take the Collector particle beam or the missile launcher on missions.

 

[Reverend]

Time to go through the seeker swarms, Thane's my biotic for this and I realized at this point that Zaeed was loyal, since I thought it'd be him killed if I didn't upgrade the weapons, I didn't think it was a problem to get him loyal, I wanted the renegade points. So my Team was Miranda and Zaeed, which was pretty obviously a very unpleasant demise for Zaeed. Grunt is m next strongest defender, he leads the 2nd team. Zaeed and Grunt die.

A bit late now, but I think it's possible to kill Zaeed in his loyalty mission by taking the paragon route and leaving him to die at the end when he gets pinned.

My massacre playthough went very similarly. I forget the details now (though I probably posed them some pages back) but I think I was left with just Jack, Tali, Samara and Legion. Also if you think your ship feels empty, try not having Chakwas around too. Joker has the CIC deck all to himself (and EDI) while the other decks have only two people each. I may at some point load that career up again and finish all the side missions (except Legion's.) And see if I can try getting Zaeed killed too (I left him on Omega.)

I'm on the fence when it comes to the Cain.

The visuals and the sound effects are great, and it is very useful on Insanity vs bosses. That said, I hate to carry around a weapon I know I'm never going to use versus run-of-the-mill enemies. I keep saving ammunition to the point of never using it

With the grenade launcher at least I feel like I can take out the occasional standard-type bad guy without horribly wasting precious ammunition

I know what you mean. Cain has its uses, but for the day to day work, the grenade launcher and particle beam are my favourites.

The only two missions I'd consider taking the Cain are Grunt's loyalty mission (it takes about half of the thresher maw's health in one shot) and perhaps on the final mission to as it's very effective at weakening the reaper spawn. Still, I tend to use the collector beam on the latter as it's vital on higher difficulty settings for weakening scions.

Though I rarely bothered with it much on my initial playthrough, in subsequent games I've come to really value the grenade launcher. Just one or two well placed shots and you can devastate a tight pack of enemies or cripple a charging krogan. VERY helpful on hardcore & insanity when you come up against armoured husks. I also found it handy for the boss fight in Kasumi's mission, where enemy re-enforcements pop up from elevator platforms. If you can get yourself in position ready for them, one shot can destroy all of their shields and armour and even blow a few clear off the roof, making it much easier to mop them up and focus on the gunship.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Time to go through the seeker swarms, Thane's my biotic for this and I realized at this point that Zaeed was loyal, since I thought it'd be him killed if I didn't upgrade the weapons, I didn't think it was a problem to get him loyal, I wanted the renegade points. So my Team was Miranda and Zaeed, which was pretty obviously a very unpleasant demise for Zaeed. Grunt is m next strongest defender, he leads the 2nd team. Zaeed and Grunt die.

A bit late now, but I think it's possible to kill Zaeed in his loyalty mission by taking the paragon route and leaving him to die at the end when he gets pinned.

No the Paragon choice saves him and lets you get his loyalty.

 

[Reverend]

^I'm pretty sure you can actually choose to leave him there. At least that's what I read somewhere.

 

[PsychoPere]

According to the Mass Effect Wiki, you only get the option of leaving Zaeed to die if you do his loyalty mission after the suicide mission and only if you have at least two other squad members remaining.

 

[Reverend]

^Yeah, I just tried it with my "loserShep" and you get to just leave him there. Though I should probably point out you don't actually see him die, just cursing your name before a big fiery explosion engulfs the platform. Given that this is a man who's already survived being shot in the head, I wouldn't be surprised to see him, all burnt, crispy and coming after Shep for revenge in ME3.

Speaking of my loser Shep, since Samara managed to survive, I decided to do her loyalty mission but screw up the conversation with Morinth so she escapes. Samara was not pleased. So to recap, "loser shep" wiped out the rachni, allowed the council to die and replaced them with a human supremacist one, got Tali exiled and encouraged the quarian admirals to go to war with the Geth, ignored Legion's request to stop the heretics from using their virus, got most of his team killed, blew up the collector base and now he's let an asari psychopath get loose and made the shitlist of a very pissed off merc and a justicar...he's so screwed!

 

[Hartzilla2007]

blew up the collector base

You know I just can't see that as a bad thing considering how Cerberus totally sucks at controlling their experiments I mean how many times has Shepard had to clean up after them because they unleashed doom upon themselves, and then the Illiusive Man (THE FREAKING HEAD OF CERBERUS) tells you he didn't know about it, well that's encouraging the Cerberus cells can aparently do what ever the hell they want without the boss finding out added to the fact that loyalty isn't really that big in Cerberus (much how not being corrupt isn't a big thing for Specters) I can't help but think if the Collector Base was under Cerberus control they would unleash something horrific that Shepard will have to take time out of his day to stop or they'll push some wrong button and get turned into husks.

 

[Skywalker]

Agreed, blowing up the Collector Base is far from stupid. It can't be trusted in the hands of Cerberus.

 

[Reverend]

^That did occur to me, but I was approaching it from a diminished resources POV. Admittedly with the base intact Illusive Man is liable to try building his own human reaper but I figured even if the thing goes all mecha-godzilla-cthulhu on us, without it, there probably won't be much in the way of a technological edge. When combined with all the other decisions (forgot to mention he also destroyed the genophage research and Kasumi's reaper related grey box data) it adds up to the odds being decidedly stacked.

That's part of what I like about Mass Effect as a whole. Most times there's no "right" choice, just a decision and it's consequences. For example; was it right sacrificing thousands of human lives to save the Destiny Ascension and the council or was it right to throw everything the Alliance fleet had at Sovereign? Either choice would come at a cost and neither is right or wrong. Same for reprogramming or destroying the Geth heretics. Morally there's no distinction between the available options.

 

[Jax]

It can't be trusted in the hands of Cerberus.

I left it for my first original character because we will need the tech but If the Illusive man tries to screw me, I want a chance to blow it up with his ass on it and not some bad ending without the chance to nail him to the wall.

 

[SPCTRE]

That's part of what I like about Mass Effect as a whole. Most times there's no "right" choice, just a decision and it's consequences.

That's ME's biggest strength in a nutshell, IMHO.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

and Kasumi's reaper related grey box data)

Wait WHAT

Okay how did you find out what the secret on the greybox was because I didn't see an option to ask about it? (Though it appears to be a good thing for my Shepard that I told her to keep it.)

For example; was it right sacrificing thousands of human lives to save the Destiny Ascension and the council or was it right to throw everything the Alliance fleet had at Sovereign? Either choice would come at a cost and neither is right or wrong.

Though saving the Council does have some perks they do sort of give Shepard his job back (though this still hapens if you let Anderson run the Human-lead council from what I hear) and he can remind them that they owe their continued existence (the new council doens't even bother to show up) to him and so the better damned help him (especially if you can get proof about the Reapers which it looks like he has at the end of the game) and the aliens in Mass Effect 2 are way nicer to you if you save the council.

Oh and Reverend another way to screw over your Shepard is not to do Lair of the Shadow Broker as that would give Shepard access to valuable resources and intell.

 

[Reverend]

and Kasumi's reaper related grey box data)

Wait WHAT

Okay how did you find out what the secret on the greybox was because I didn't see an option to ask about it? (Though it appears to be a good thing for my Shepard that I told her to keep it.)

If you watch the bit when she first opens it, the first of the image slides is of a reaper. Of course exactly what the data is and how it could bring down the Alliance is still a mystery.

For example; was it right sacrificing thousands of human lives to save the Destiny Ascension and the council or was it right to throw everything the Alliance fleet had at Sovereign? Either choice would come at a cost and neither is right or wrong.

Though saving the Council does have some perks they do sort of give Shepard his job back (though this still hapens if you let Anderson run the Human-lead council from what I hear) and he can remind them that they owe their continued existence (the new council doens't even bother to show up) to him and so the better damned help him (especially if you can get proof about the Reapers which it looks like he has at the end of the game) and the aliens in Mass Effect 2 are way nicer to you if you save the council.

Exactly. It's not a matter of right or wrong it's a matter of consequences.

Oh and Reverend another way to screw over your Shepard is not to do Lair of the Shadow Broker as that would give Shepard access to valuable resources and intell.

Too late I'm afraid, already did it! Not to worry though, I suspect that anyone who didn't play that DLC will find in ME3 that Liara went and did it on her own anyway, but wasn't able to save Feron or something.

 

[TheGodBen]

Possible ME multiplayer shooter in the works.

Hmm.

Nope, I don't like the idea. The shooting is probably my least favourite aspect of Mass Effect, what makes the series so good for me is the story, the characters, the dialogue ring, and the ability to make decisions with huge galactic consequences. I don't see how a multiplayer focused shooting game could possibly include all those.

I've seen a suggestion that there could be a singleplayer campaign about the First Contact War between humans and Turians, which would be fun to see, I guess. But if it just tries to be a shooter in the same vein as Halo or Call of Duty, I wouldn't be excited about it.

 

[SPCTRE]

I'm looking forward to this - why?

I love the ME universe and no matter whether they're going for a more conventional FPS or an MMOFPS (see: Planetside), the more ME spin-offs, the better (as long as the core gameplay mechanics are enjoyable and they tell a compelling story, and I trust BioWare implicitly when it comes to that)

what makes the series so good for me is the story, the characters, the dialogue ring, and the ability to make decisions with huge galactic consequences. I don't see how a multiplayer focused shooting game could possibly include all those.

I enjoy ME 1 & 2 for exactly the same reasons (although I enjoy the combat mechanics quite a bit as well), but for that, we'll always have the ME trilogy (plus DLCs). I guess I don't see how that's a reason not to embrace ME spin-offs in different genres

(As an analogy: I loved Halo Wars, not because it was an RTS - not a huge fan of those -, but because it was a chance to see a corner of the Halo universe we hadn't seen before.)