Mass Effect 2 *SPOILERS* (Beat the game, fgt).

[SixInARow]

So, I beat Mass Effect 2 within a week of it coming out.  Meaning I played it ALOT during that week.  I know Kyle just beat it too, so here are some of my thoughts.

I made the mistake of going to the bioware forums, which is essentially the retard capitol of the world for people who don't know how video games work.  All they did was bitch about Mass Effect 2, and seeing as attempted to illuminate their misguided opinions would be pointless; I have thought I would share my ideas with you.

Alot of people thought Mass Effect 2 sucked compared to ME, because all you did was "build a team with a bunch of side quests and did not have any engaging main story line."

To that I would say, fooey.  I would argue that I felt like a did a lot more in ME 2 than ME 1, like GO TO THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING GALAXY.  The environments explored were much more varied, and I felt like I saw the scope of the ME galaxy more.  ME2's story was much more streamlined, and I felt like I felt it was more coherent than its predecessor.

I think people's problem with it, is that it didn't have all the other characters jerking off Sephard's ego as this exalted hero like it did in the first one, followed with the big home run of killing Saren and Soverign.  Obviously this game was darker, not only in subject matter, but generally in scope.  You visited the dingier parts of the galaxy, which was in contrast to kind of the shiny disney places you saw more of in ME. 

Secondly people bitched about him dying in the first couple minutes of gameplay.  I thought that was a good twist, and a good way to get away from the feel of the original ME and open it up more storywise. 

Furthermore, people once again bitched about it not being as grand in scope as ME.  Well, this game was even more clearly made to be part of a true trilogy.  HOW CAN YOU HAVE A GOOD TRILOGY WHEN YOU RESOLVE ALL THE FUCKING CONFLICT EACH FUCKING GAME, THERE NEEDS TO BE A BUILD UP OF TENSION AND UNRESOLVED CONFLICT, THAT IS NOT ONLY HOW TRILOGIES WORK, BUT JUST GENERAL PLOT LINE AND CHARACTER PROGRESSION WORK, READ A FUCKING BOOK.

which leads to people complaining about how the characters in ME2 sucked compared to ME, and how they felt no connection with the new characters.  That is because you already played an entire fucking game with the original characters and awaited their return for ME2, you will probably feel the same about the characters now in ME2 during ME3.  I loved the characters, true the humans were a little more on the duller side, but they were mostly Cerberus company men, company men are pretty much like that. 

I guess finally, everyone thought the final mission was "too" hard, and their team kept dying.  Really?  If you get everyone loyal, make the upgrades to the ship, have the tech people do the fucking tech mission, have the biotic people do the fucking biotic mission, and have someone with some leadership ability lead team two you will have no problem. 

I liked the game, yeah. 

[Neg1]

Yeah the people on the bioware forums are a bunch of tards.

I think ME2 is way better then the first, all the side missions and loyalty stuff was really well done. The game play was much improved and the graphics and framerate were much better then the first game.

The only thing I did not like about ME2 was the lack of gear and upgrades and the process of scanning the planets. I hope they work on this for the next game, it was just boring as hell to fly around and scan planets.

Not sure what I did wrong for the final mission but I lost Mordin Solus. I had all the ship upgrades and picked all the right people for the teams and he died at the end when the rest of the team was holding that door. I guess it was because I did not have all the gun upgrades idk. Will try again on my 2nd play of the game.

[SixInARow]

I did not have all the gun upgrades either.

Here's what I did; Tech Specialist- Tali, Biotic Specialist- Jack, Escort survivors back- Thane, Team Leader both times- Garrus.

At the end of the second team mix up, it looked like Garrus got shot and he was clutching his gut, but he recovered I guess.  Was Mordin your team leader? I think for me if it was almost any other character leading the team they would have died, but maybe Turians are just super fucking hard to kill.  After all I went paragon, so I accidently let the gunship in Omega super fuck him up, lol.

[Neg1]

Tech Specialist- Legion, Biotic Specialist- Samara, Escort survivors back- Zaeed, Team Leader both times- Miranda.

For the final fight I took Miranda and Grunt, while the rest were back at the door thats when Mordin died. I will just change it up the next time I play, next time I am going to go renegade.

[SevenSixtyTwo]

My somewhat abbreviated thoughts on the game:
+ Enjoyed it thoroughly.  The last mission was epic.
- It was probably the only thing that really felt epic in the game.  Most of the game was about building your team, which was fun, but it didn't feel as important as the majority of Mass Effect 1.  There was no real mystery to solve, no major adversary like Saren...just get ready for a fight and go fight.  Also I kept hearing about important decisions in all of the reviews, but they didn't feel like important decisions like the ones you make in the first game where you pretty much tell Wrex the genophage will keep going or you choose who will live and die between Kaiden and Ashley.  Maybe my jackassery will come back to haunt me in ME3.
Like I said, I enjoyed it, but I can see how people think it wasn't as epic as ME1.  But I also agree that it's the middle of a trilogy and is setting up a finale.  Look at Empire vs Last Hope.  In Last Hope, Luke discovers his destiny, blows up a space station, sends the ultimate badass hurdling into space, and gets a medal.  All is right with the universe.  What is so epic about Empire?  Luke gets his hand cut off and finds out Vader is his dad and then he runs away crying.  If everyone thinks ME2 sucks because it wasn't as important or whatever as ME1, I think they'll feel a lot differently when ME3 rolls around and they're fighting the reapers for control of the universe.

+ I liked the planet scanning system.  Dunno why but it was sorta relaxing.  It's okay if you didn't like it though, because on any subsequent playthrough you get 50k of each element for beating the game.

+ I liked all the characters and, unlike in ME1, I had a hard time choosing who went with me on each mission.  I usually stuck Miranda on my team because I like that show Chuck.

- I also missed the wealth of new weapons and upgrades that were in ME1.  I understand streamlining the process so it's not overwhelming for people who have no interest in RPGs, but I had the same SMG for 85% of the game and the same heavy pistol from the time I met Mordin until the end of the game.  Yeah I upgraded them, but without hard numbers, it's not real easy to see the effect of upgrading them, especially since as you upgrade the badguys are getting tougher.

Overall I'd give the game about a 96/100.  Not perfect but that doesn't mean I didn't play it as much as I could over a 4 day period to beat it.

As for the final mission here was mine:
Tech Specialist- Tali
Biotic- Samara
Escort- Jacob (never used him for anything else, figured he'd die)
Team Leader (both times) Grunt

Everyone lived except for Grunt.  I had done all of the loyalty missions.  My ship was fully upgraded so no one died there. 

Also I hope that if you're nice to Conrad (the fanboy) in both games he does something epic in ME3, like Randy Quaid in Independence Day flying his jet into to the alien ship's butthole causing it to become so constipated it explodes.  And if you're a douche to him, I hope he's the ultimate bad guy who has sent the reapers to destroy all civilization to impress Sheppard.

[SevenSixtyTwo]

Free set of armor and shotgun on the Cerberus network tomorrow.  Looks like helpful stuff for that class that zips around...can't remember which one that is.

[Neg1]

Having lots of fun playing renegade. I imported my lvl 58 full renegade character from ME1 just going around being a fucking ass to everyone is much more fun.

Thats cool that we are getting some more free dlc. The Hammerhead tank dlc should be coming out in a few more weeks. http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/M57_Hammerhead

[Neg1]

Download the Firewalker pack and gain access to 5 new missions featuring the Hammerhead. The Hammerhead is a heavy assault vehicle that hovers over the battlefield at up to 120 kilometers per hour and features a guided missile system ensuring accuracy even during aggressive maneuvering. Coming late March, free to all Cerberus Network members!

[Neg1]

Exclusive Hammerhead Gameplay HD - Mass Effect 2