I finished Mass Effect 2 over the weekend without actually intending to. If that sounds like there’s something wrong then I’d have to wholeheartedly agree with you.
In short, if you want to fully enjoy Mass Effect 2 never go through the Omega 4 Relay.
There are spoilers from here on out, so be warned.
So, there I am happily going through the various team member loyalty missions – which are easily the narrative high-points of the game – when I realize that I’ve finished most of them all off.
Not a problem, I think, and head off to get the Reaper IFF. By this time, my squad is so powerful from my buying every single upgrade that I can find that I blow through the dead Reaper mission in no time flat.
Suddenly, I’m happy because now there’s a new team member – and a damn cool one at that – and I decide right away to help Legion with his loyalty mission. We get to the Heretic station, board the shuttle, and all of a sudden a cutscene starts and the Normandy is under attack.
Once the whole kidnapping thing has taken place, I decide to finish Legion’s mission – which didn’t take too long given my team’s over-poweredness. Once back on the Normandy, since I way playing the Paragon path I decided to up and rescue my crew right then and there.
I scoot over to Omega, go through the Omega 4 Relay, and right into the endgame.
Not just any endgame, though, one of the most unsatisfying conclusions to the up-until-then best RPGs that Bioware’s created to date.
I hated, hated, hated the ending. Completely and totally.
Not so much for the Human Reaper nonsense, which was pretty damn unsatisying on its own, but for the fact that the game arbitrarily marks for death anyone that you choose to lead any of the other teams.
The character you choose to go into the tubes to unlock the door? They’re gonna die no matter what.
The character you choose to lead the second fire team? They’re gonna die no matter what.
The character you choose to lead the surviving crew back to the Normandy? They’re gonna die no matter what.
Screw you, Bioware.
You completely had me up until the Omega 4 Relay. In my mind, Mass Effect 2 was the best game you had ever put together and head and shoulders above Dragon Age. You were just about to make ammends for the ultimately unsatisfying first Mass Effect when, for no good narrative reason, you decided to shit all over the place.
When it came time to pick the person to go into the pipes it was made clear that it was a suicide mission. I picked the lizard guy because he was already dying and felt that this would be a worthy way for him to go out. When he died, I felt partially cheated because it was in a cutscene and not gameplay but you did warn me at the beginning.
When it came time to pick the leader of the second fire team, I picked Grunt because he’s a super badass and never, ever went down in the game. Ever. I fight my way to the door, and the toughest bastard in the galaxy dies in a cutscene. That’s when I really started to feel cheated by cheap narrative tricks.
If you’re going to kill characters let it be in gameplay and let it be due to my own mistakes, not because your suddenly stupid storyline requires it.
After the second team member’s death I was on to your little trick and when I was prompted to pick someone to take the survivors back to the Normandy I just knew you were going to kill that character. I picked a character that I never used and didn’t like – Jack – and what do you know, you killed her.
By that time I was so ticked off at the way you were telling the story that I just wanted to finish the game to get the stupid achievement points and be done with it. Your arbitrary storytelling completely killed the immersion with your ham-fisted (and quickly predictable) way to try to give the conclusion some gravitas.
I can’t even really remember if I chose to blow up the station or let Cerebus keep it I was so checked out of the game at that point. I believe I kept it, but should I really have to try and remember the dramatic highpoint of your game?
You were doing so well, Bioware. What happened?
You had done so well with the loyalty mission stories – and with Miranda’s ass and sex scene – that I was would have been willing to forgive a hell of a lot, but what you did was more than a lot. You went from great storytelling to the cheap tricks I expect to see in RPGs from Japan.
Meh.
Mass Effect 2 is mostly a good game and I recommend it with the caveat that you don’t ever go through the Omega 4 Relay.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
All of my crew and characters survived… You should pick the right one for the tunnel (Legion or Thali) and to lead the groups. If they are all loyal, they will survive. They all can die too (including Shepard), only Joker surviving the adventure. It is completely up to you!
I eventually went to GameFAQs to see what I did wrong and found that there were ways to avoid the ending I saw. Unfortunately, by that point I was so turned off by the game that I never went back to play through the ending again.