PC/Console Mass Effect 2 Choices - Massive Spoiler Warning!

[jim]

As per the title, this thread is all about spoilers, so if you haven't finished the game I strongly advise you don't read ahead - it's much more fun to make your own decisions based on what you think is right at the time!

I know there's a Mass Effect 2 thread already, but thought this represented a bit of a fork and would allow for some open discussion without spoiler tags for people who have finished the game.

So... how did you play out the storyline side of the game?

Paragon or renegade? And why?

How did you play out Zaeed's loyalty mission?
Did you follow a romantic path in ME2? Did you cheat on your ME partner?
Samara or Morinth?
Destroy or recruit the Geth in Legion's Loyalty mission?
Destroy or preserve the Reaper?
Did you get all of the ship upgrades?
Who died in the suicide mission?
So on so forth...

Personally I played a Paragon character virtually the whole way through, in line with my ME character. And I managed to worm my way out of most problems with my paragon score, was never in a situation where I couldn't use the paragon conversation option. Only deviated from that majorly a few times - during Zaeed's loyalty mission I thought it was important to press on with the mission and ensure a takedown, so I sacrificed the refinery workers, and a few occasions when either people annoyed me or we facing overwhelming enemy forces I took advantage of renegade quick-time events and took them out before they could react. The high-rise window kill was pretty satisfying!

As for the romantic path, I'd decided I was going to stick with the first game save, which was Ashley, so I turned all of them down... near the end though, I was in the Captain's Cabin, and noticed her picture had been turned face-down. I suddenly twigged that by trying to be friendly and paragon-like to prevent Jack going off on one had been misinterpreted, so I popped down and insulted her a few times, which did the trick - Ashley's photo came back up again, and Jack asked me to "Off" on the few later occasions I popped into Engineering

And I got all of the ship upgrades, and had fully squad loyalty when we went into the suicide missions. I chose Legion for the hacking - he seemed the obvious choice, although Tali was an option. Since someone mentioned that going down that shaft might be suicide, seeing as Legion was just "another geth", I considered him expendable and didn't want to risk Tali's life. Garrus was the obvious choice to lead the strike team, since he'd been my right-hand man for virtually the entire game, although it didn't feel right going into battle myself without him there. It seemed like a reasonable sacrifice though, if he would ensure the safety of the strike team. Samara was the obvious choice for the biotic - as an Asari I suspected she could out-do Jack regardless of her "amazing" abilities. I kept Garrus in charge of the strike-team, and left Kelly and Dr Chakwas to make their own way back. My attitude at the time was that we couldn't spare anyone for the final battle, and the mission had to come before any rescue attempts - I regretted doing it once we'd finished the mission, but Zaeed would've been my choice to go with them. If I'd have let him go, it would've weakened our defence at the gate, and I could potentially have both him and another member of the team as a result. My standard team of Garrus and Thane came with me for the final section - I suspected that Grunt and Zaeed would have sufficient firepower to hold them off at the gate.

So all-in-all I only lost Kelly and Dr Chakwas, which I thought was reasonable. Not desirable, but a fair outcome given the fact that I could've easily lost several members of the team.

As for how ME3 will pan out, I don't know. I was aware that with a huge fleet of Reapers ready to attack we would need everything we could possibly get our hands on in order to have any chance of destroying them. Consequently I preserved the station for the Reaper tech and tried to convert the Geth over to my cause - if we don't have their help, I suspect everyone will die, so I was prepared to make moral sacrifices - despite disagreeing with my decisions I thought that was the only way to play it.

And I'm sure I missed out some of the important choices, but those are the main ones that spring to mind at the moment

What about you?

[Zadock]

Paragon or renegade? And why?

Mainly because the character I imported from ME1 was a paragon so I started with a lot more paragon points. I also thought it would make it easier to get the loyalty of the team, and it did.

How did you play out Zaeed's loyalty mission?

Saved the facility and talked him down, I had high enough paragon points to reason with him and managed to keep his loyalty.

Did you follow a romantic path in ME2? Did you cheat on your ME partner? :naughty

My character was a lady and ended up with garrus coming on to her, cringe worthy!

Samara or Morinth?

Because i was paragon and because I think she is the more attractive asari, bit of cleavage on show there... its all good.

Destroy or recruit the Geth?

Recruited, got his trust and the geth shields are a great skill.

Destroy or preserve the Reaper?

Destroyed it to stay in keeping with the paragon theme.

Did you get all of the ship upgrades?

Yes, makes a big difference from what I hear. I spent a lot of time exploring, mining and getting upgrades for everything.

Who died in the suicide mission?

Only Mordin, I'm not sure what else I could've done to stop him from dying. I think maybe leaving both Zaeed and Grunt would've been a good idea since they are both strong fighters.

My first play through was as an adept with barrier, gained by getting jacobs loyalty. Didn't have much trouble throughout with the exception of those scion things! Their shock wave brings down shields, rather annoying... Warp is a good skill to have for taking down anything armored or shielded, unstable is probably the best version since there isn't a big difference in damage between heavy and unstable and unstable hits multiple targets.

My first port of call was omega to get mordin, whom you need to do research to get your upgrades. Because I imported a character I had a paragon points advantage so was able to get team loyalty more easily... i was able to get the first few characters and then do their loyalty missions straight away. I explored every single system before I attempted the suicide mission.

[Hicks12]

I did play my character as mainly paragon, i like being the good guy and it tends to work on all the ladies .

Went for miranda, too hot to be turned away especially the accent and its nice to know the voice/modeling is done from/bye Yvonne strahovski so, its all good to like this graphic representation... prefer black hair too .

I decided to save the station because i thought it would be best but then i realised all my team mates thought i screwed up. So i decided to replay it and keep with my theme of good guy and ignored the illusive man, Miranda also resigned from cerebus because of that . On the first run of the mission i lost no team mate, was happy but wasnt intime for the crew to survive (bar the doctor etc, sent mordin with them) and on the second run i lost Legion! Miranda failed at holding the shield and he got pulled away by the swarms as i carried Miranda to safety, i wont be using her again for shield at the end. I lost jack somehow, dont know why she died at the end because i used the same team as i did on the first run for the ending and yet she didnt die that time . I also didnt save the bloody crew again, thought i used a saved which was just after my crew were taken but i was wrong, starting threw the game again but will not do missions after my crew are taken and hopefully save them.

As for upgrades, i had the majority but cba with scanning planets for the time being, wanted to lvl up so went on to retry the story.... wanting to go renegade this time but i feel so much that i need to be paragon . May play ME1 again and keep my save to do this story again but i just dont know yet.

ME3 should be awesome, if miranda is a romance option then im in . As the geth said, using other technology stagnates your own development and makes you fail in the long run, i will be using his help to defend aganst the reapers hopefully though.

[Salazaar]

Only Mordin, I'm not sure what else I could've done to stop him from dying. I think maybe leaving both Zaeed and Grunt would've been a good idea since they are both strong fighters.

The only way I found to save him (because I refused to finish the mission with anyone dead) was to send him back as the escort for rescued crew.

I think the key to saving all the team is both making the correct choices of specialist and team leaders and also having all the crew as loyal as possible, which pretty much means completing all their story missions.

Paragon or renegade? And why?

Paragon, mostly. Because you've got to play it one way or the other, I've just started my second run through and I'm being a right bastard.

How did you play out Zaeed's loyalty mission?

Saved the base, sweet talked Zaeed.

Did you follow a romantic path in ME2? Did you cheat on your ME partner?

Miranda, no cheating.

Samara or Morinth?

Samara, cos it was the 'good' choice.

Destroy or recruit the Geth?

Recruit the Geth, who wouldn't want a badass Geth on the team?

Destroy or preserve the Reaper?

Destroy, mostly to annoy the Illusive Man.

Did you get all of the ship upgrades?

Yep. Scout's motto, be prepaired (with big guns, high tech shield and heavy armour).

Who died in the suicide mission?

No-one dies on my watch!

[jim]

The only way I found to save him (because I refused to finish the mission with anyone dead) was to send him back as the escort for rescued crew.

I think the key to saving all the team is both making the correct choices of specialist and team leaders and also having all the crew as loyal as possible, which pretty much means completing all their story missions.

Not quite true with Mordin - he didn't die on my game and I sent the rescued crew back alone. They died, but there you go. As long as the defense team is sufficiently strong, they will all survive.

As I understand it though, Mordin is the only person who can get the crew back and also survive himself. Anybody else will at least die themselves, and the crew may not make it either. If I had sent him back, I would've kept my entire team alive inc Kelly and Dr Chakwas but it didn't seem like an obvious choice so I'm not kicking myself about it. If I'd have sent anyone with them it would've been Zaeed...

Loyalty is vital as well, I think most of them will die during the final mission if they aren't loyal although it does depend on what you make them do.

[Jasp]

As I understand it though, Mordin is the only person who can get the crew back and also survive himself. Anybody else will at least die themselves, and the crew may not make it either. If I had sent him back, I would've kept my entire team alive inc Kelly and Dr Chakwas but it didn't seem like an obvious choice so I'm not kicking myself about it. If I'd have sent anyone with them it would've been Zaeed...

Sent back fishboy with my survival team and they all lived including fishboy.

[Geist]

I completed it twice on normal. Once with my ME save that was paragon based and once as a new game as renegade.

It was just over 40 hours for my first play through. Everything was done before going for the IFF so only had to do the Legions Q then the jump through the relay. By the end I had maxed Para and had half Renegade totals and overall felt everything had fitted well together. Plus head butting a Krogan to shut him up was perfect.

Although I don't try and get achievements, without any of the weapon based ones in ME2 I had four left to get after the first play through, one of those being complete on Insane.

As far as I know if the person is loyal then they will survive, unless you assign people poorly such as Tali or Mordin as a team leaders etc.

Please tell me you all heard Mordin's rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan.

One of the biggest disappointments had to be how they carried the Liara romance over from ME1. You meet back up with her and it starts with a hug and a kiss then she just shrug's you off and whines about lost time and some other friend. From the words she uses she found some new lover just after you died and before you find her again she’s started a crusade to get revenge. I did think at first it she was still talking about Shepard and how the shadow broker wanted to sell the corpse but I’m not sure. There is just no feeling that you had any kind of relationship with her.

[Salazaar]

Please tell me you all heard Mordin's rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan.

I forgot about that. How I lol'd, it was brilliant!

[jim]

Plus head butting a Krogan to shut him up was perfect.

Please tell me you all heard Mordin's rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Yup, with you on both of those!