Mass Effect 2 (With spoilers!)

[Brandon]

What Ive been doing is this

My Team: Sheperd, Miranda, Grunt (I take them through the whole game)
Vents: Legion (although I've tried every other character)
Team 1: Zaheed
Team 2: Garrus (I tried Zaheed a 2nd time on my first playthrough but he died)
Send back: Jacob
Biotic shield: Jack (Ive tried Samara too and she works fine)

With that setup the only deaths Im having are in the vents. Thats with all loyalties done, all ship upgrades, all personal upgrades, all weapon/armor upgrades. The vents are the only place anyones dying

[Karma]

Zaeed should not lead a team. That's your problem right there.

[Inkidu]

Wrong. The loyalty missions do determine how everyone survives the last assignment, but romance doesn't quite factor into it. Just because you shagged one of the members you can be loyal with his or her counterpart.

You don't need to lose any disloyal squad members as long as they do not do anything vital (or not placed in your actual team) during the final mission. You'd be surprised how far a full Paragon or Renegade bar can carry you even if you do not immediately bring their missions to their favoured endings (think Zaheed, for instance; fucker is a loose cannon, but you can Paragon him to be loyal).

I do agree this game does seem to favour full Paragon/Renegade again. Still, you can be pretty darn Paragon while headbutting Krogan left and right.I'

I didn't say loyalty was of no importance. I said it was paramount. I have always lost any disloyal squad members and I'll tell you why: Because in the end the game kills them off because everyone not in your team is left to guard your ass. They will die.

First playthrough lost Jack. Disloyal. Didn't do anything with her. I know exactly what it takes to clear and you need those three things.

[Karma]

Just to be clear, the characters I listed are absolutely confirmed to be the ones that work, beyond the shadow of a doubt. Everyone else causes problems, whether you think they make sense or not.

[TheWriter]

My Team: Shepard, Tali, Garrus (fuck yeah Team Dextro-protein, of which Shepard honorary member because he's Commander Shepard and you try telling him he can't be)
Vents: Legion
Team 1: Garrus
Team 2: Garrus (took a bullet to abdomen, but shrugged off like manly bro he is)
Send back: Mordin, very model of a scientist salarian he is
Biotic shield: Samara

No casualties, including all crew.  Newfound respect for engineering team for good dialogue, newfound disrespect for Dr. Chakwas who can't hold her drink.

Managed to bullshit my way through every awkward conversation with Paragon.  Except krogan I headbutted, krogan I blew up with gas tank and Suns I dropped shipping container on.  Also developed annoying habit of talking like Mordin.  Current excess Coke intake probable cause.  And I'll concede: voice acting up to snuff.

[Aragem]

Except krogan I headbutted, krogan I blew up with gas tank and Suns I dropped shipping container on.

You are a friend to Krogans.  LOL

[Brandon]

Well apparantly you were right Karma Zaeed was the problem. Even so that seems odd to me since when youre selecting a person for that teams role she says something like "You need someone who can command through experience" and I cant think of anyone except maybe Samara/Morrinth that would be more experienced then him.

Anyway, something Im pondering now: Why do all the reapers seem to have Cuthulu-esque structures expect the one you destroy in the facility?

[Karma]

You need someone that can command a squad effectively. Zaeed and Samara have been lone wolves for decades and centuries respectively.

About the Reaper: The human Reaper was an embryo of sorts, far far smaller than the fully grown Reapers. Could be that they use the basic structure of the species for an internal lattice and build the greater Reaper shell around that.

[Aragem]

It was very strange seeing the Human Reaper.  It makes you wonder why they need an organic species to reproduce and why they chose humans?

[thebobmaster]

It was very strange seeing the Human Reaper.  It makes you wonder why they need an organic species to reproduce and why they chose humans?

First part is unexplained, but the game drops hints, what with the Collectors being former PRotheans and all and doing this, that they reproduce to make new Reapers in the form of the last enemy they encountered.

[Inkidu]

It was very strange seeing the Human Reaper.  It makes you wonder why they need an organic species to reproduce and why they chose humans?

They don't need them to reproduce. They're sentient machines. They use organics for their experiments. As for the second part.

Illusive Man: "I don't know if a Reaper can feel fear but you killed one [Shepard] and they have to respect that."

Reaper General: "You have the attention of being infinitely greater than yourself."

Humans, kicking ass, taking names, becoming targets. Humans killed a Reaper. Humans must be the shinola.

[Jarod1]

I thought Mass Effect 2 was an excellent successor to the first game.  I beat it a few weeks ago though I'll probably play it again down the road after I finish playing Dragaon Age Origins and its up coming expansion.

I was a little sorry to see the uncharted world and mako runs taken out, though in terms of eliminating the poorly developed world I can understand the reasoning behind it.  I loved how there was much more consequence in this game and that if you just ran through it as fast as you could you would lose people perhaps your whole team.  I managed to keep everyone alive.  Everyone was loyal to me, and I fully upgraded the Normandy. 

On the last mission I took Samara, and Tali.  Garrus led the fireteam, Legion took care of the engineering job.  When it came time to send someone back with the surviving crew I sent Jacob.  For the second selection I again chose Garrus to lead the fireteam, Samara as my biotic specialist, and took Jack and Tali as my party.  Finally my last team was Tali, and Samara.  all hands were on deck when we blew up the station

[Aragem]

Wait, you sent Jacob back with the survivors?  And you didn't loose Mordin?  You were lucky.

People say that to ensure Mordin's survival, you have to send him back with the survivors.

[Avi]

I've heard the same thing.  He's the weakest in combat, so either you bring him with you into the endgame fight or you send him back with the survivors, because he has a high probability of dying while covering your back.

[Jarod1]

That is wierd because Mordin survived in my game and I didn't use him at all during the last mission.  That is good to know for future run throughs.

[Brandon]

I was putting Mordin on guarding the door too and he never died for me either. Also I always sent Jacob back because I dont like his character and he doesnt add anything to my team

[Jarod1]

I wonder what the variable is, because a friend of mine mentioned that he had Mordin loyalty and he died guarding the door.  Maybe it random.

[Brandon]

I dont think its a random variable, random doesnt even really exist in computer language. You can give anything the illusion of randomness but every random selection is made through some kind of ordered program. What that means is with programs nothing is completely random. With my infiltrator, soldier, and adept Ive sent Jacob back everytime and left mordin on the door. He never dies. Maybe the key is Jacob going back?

[Karma]

You can actually have computer generated randomizations, it's just more expensive computationally - and not on any scale you'd notice with a computer that can run Mass Effect. The fact is that no one knows what determines Mordin's death for sure, but I can guarantee you he has never died using the method I described.

[Inkidu]

I don't know. I can't remember what I did with him in my first game.

I think as long as you pick the appropriate specialists for the parts and have everyone loyal and their own personal upgrades (ship tech) you'll come through. I usually take Mordin with me though because he usually had the incinerate for the final boss.

Side note:

My totally paragon manShep from ME1 romanced Jack. It was actually really sweet and she has pretty eyes.

[TheWriter]

New game plan:  Because my moral compass pulls me away from being an asshole to my own crew, I can't have a totally Renegade character. 

So now, I have So Paragon He Poops Virtue / My Own Canon Manshep, and Paragon But A Bit Renegade / Bioware's Canon Femshep.  Still can't believe the Bioware canon...

[Aragem]

I'm going renegade, but I don't have to be a bastard to my crew to do it.  I have her take neutral comments and I take all the renegade interruptions.

[Inkidu]

You have to be pretty renegade most of the time though. If you isolate it to your crew and just hand the rest of the world a cup full of asshole you should be fine. Oh and always pick intimidate options. Extra renegade!

[Aragem]

Also, let your crew kill who they want to kill in their loyalty missions.  It won't loose their loyalty and you can uber Renegade points. 

The only time that a Renegade option would screw you over in attaining someone's loyalty is Tali's.  She will be super pissed if you sell out her dad to win her case. 

[Inkidu]

Also, let your crew kill who they want to kill in their loyalty missions.  It won't loose their loyalty and you can uber Renegade points. 

The only time that a Renegade option would screw you over in attaining someone's loyalty is Tali's.  She will be super pissed if you sell out her dad to win her case.

Unless you have the intimidate option when you do it. Then you get Tali's loyalty, she gets to remain un-exiled, her father is clear, and you get a metric ass-ton off points.