History MassEffect2 / TropesAToF

* CainAndAbel: The Overlord DLC has a FateWorseThanDeath version, where [[spoiler:a researcher uses his brother as a conduit to contact the Geth, in the most horrific fashion imaginable]]. Paragon!Shepard warns him that [[spoiler:if he ever goes near his brother again. he [the researcher] goes directly to [[Literature/TheDivineComedy Caïna]].]]

* FeministFantasy: The franchise does a great job with its female characters, which is one of the reasons why the game has such a large EstrogenBrigade. Since the first game, every squad in the series has had a roughly 1:1 gender distribution, with women warriors potentially outnumbering the men if you play as female or [[spoiler: save Ashley on Virmire]]. Even the more sexualized characters, like Miranda and Samara, are ''far'' more than eye candy and receive plenty of CharacterDevelopment throughout the series that turns them into, well, people rather than objects. ''Mass Effect'' also shows plenty of women as soldiers, scientists, and other strong individuals among the N.P.C.s and background characters. The real icon of the feminist influence in ''Mass Effect'' though Fem!Shep, who manages to surpass being a typical PurelyAestheticGender RPG protagonist due to Creator/JenniferHale's extremely well done voice performance for the character and Creator/BioWare's acknowledgement and endorsement of female Shepard as a strong female protagonist.

--> '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCoHT_cHPzY Gunnery Sergeant]]:''' And that is why Sir Isaac Newton is the '''''DEADLIEST-SON-OF-A-BITCH-IN-SPACE!!'''''

** [[MultipleEndings The worst ending.]] [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll Shepard and all of their crew except for Joker and EDI are dead.]] [[PyrrhicVictory The Collectors have been wiped out,]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog but the only person who can stop the Reapers is gone.]]]]

* EarnYourBadEnding: Getting the worst ending (where ''[[KillEmAll everyone]]'', including Shepard, dies) is surprisingly difficult. Even a new player who has no idea what they're doing is bound to have at least a few squadmates survive the suicide mission. It's difficult to kill everyone accidentally, and doing it ''[[VideoGameCrueltyPotential deliberately]]'' requires knowledge of how the survival mechanic in the final mission works. If you have the two DLC that add more party members (one of whom is actually the optimal choice for one of the final gauntlet challenges), then getting the worst possible ending is functionally impossible, because so many people will survive to the end challenge that they may get either Grunt or Zaeed out anyway.

* EpicFail: It is possible to get the worst ending (where ''[[KillEmAll everyone]]'', including Shepard, dies[[note]]except for [[SoleSurvivor Joker]][[/note]]) but it requires [[GuideDangIt knowledge]] of how the survival mechanic in the final mission works.

* CrisisPointHospital:

* CasualDangerDialog: Shepard and Liara during the ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' DLC in ''spades''.

** [[FridgeBrilliance Of course]], that's assuming human-style genetic reproduction is the norm.

* AdultFear: Disabled people are all too frequently abused by their family or caretakers, as [[spoiler:David Archer]] discovers in the Overlord DLC.

-->'''Shepard:''' You can either stand with me or be crushed beneath my heel, but you will '''not get in my way'''!

-->'''Zaeed:''' Good. Let's get that out of the way so we can concentrate on being [[BigDamnHeroes big goddamn heroes]].

--> '''Mordin:''' Better funded [than the Spectres], though. Didn't have to ''[[LampshadeHanging buy our own weapons]]''.

--> '''Bailey:''' Whenever you would delete something, the VI would say "I delete data like you on the way to real errors."\\

* [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Galaxy]]: Depending on the choices you made in the first game, the state of affairs in the second game can be rather [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]]. Some of the possibilities: [[FantasticRacism other species having anti-human race riots]] on the Citadel, the Alliance and the other militaries having serious problems keeping the fleets up to snuff, humanity's relationship with all other Citadel species being increasingly strained and antagonistic... hell, the list goes on and on. Just listen to the Galactic News on the Citadel, or talk to Avina. And that's not even considering the AnyoneCanDie nature of the final mission, where even Shepard can be KilledOffForReal, plus [[spoiler: the massive fleet of Reapers shown advancing on the galaxy in the ending]].

* ChildhoodHomeRediscovery: {{Downplayed}} during Jack's LoyaltyMission. Jack takes Shepard to the old Cerberus facility where she was experimented upon as a kid, looking for a suitable place to put a giant bomb and [[InUniverseCatharsis blow the whole place to smithereens]]. As they make their way through the facility, however, the discover old logs and even a living witness, which reveal that Jack's memories of the place are not exactly accurate, partly due to trauma and partly due to not seeing the whole picture as a child

*** Tali, naturally, is a good choice for [[spoiler:the tunnel techie,]] but [[spoiler:her inability to get Prazza to stand down on Freedom's Progress indicates she's not good leadership material.]] The other recommended choices for [[spoiler:the vents, Legion and Kasumi]], have also proven themselves beforehand [[spoiler:Legion held its own against Husks inside the derelict Reaper, exposed the Reaper core before getting knocked out, and rewrote a Reaper-written virus to turn it against the heretics instead; Kasumi has not only pulled off a daring heist involving lots of electronic locks, but was also capable of disabling a gunship's shields]].

*** Tali, naturally, is a good choice for [[spoiler:the tunnel techie,]] but [[spoiler:her inability to get Prazza to stand down on Freedom's Progress indicates she's not good leadership material.]] The other recommended choices for [[spoiler:the vents, Legion and Kasumi]], have also proven themselves beforehand;[[spoiler:Legion held its own against Husks inside the derelict Reaper, exposed the Reaper core before getting knocked out, and rewrote a Reaper-written virus to turn it against the heretics instead; Kasumi has not only pulled off a daring heist involving lots of electronic locks, but was also capable of disabling a gunship's shields]].

* BlamedForBeingRailroaded: Most of the characters who knew Shepard in the previous game greet him or her with a vehement "WhatTheHellHero" upon learning that he or she has joined Cerberus, a notoriously xenophobic human organization with no qualms about atrocious human rights violations and unethical experiments, even on humans. However, most of those characters ''eventually'' come around. Not so with the human squadmate (Ashley or Kaidan), who remains adamantly against the idea and refuses to have a civil conversation with Shepard for the entire game. Nevermind the fact that the player is forced to work for Cerberus for the entirety of the game, no matter what choices are made in this game or the previous one. [[spoiler: Though being nice to the Survivor in this game makes them more amenable in the next game.]]

* DoggedNiceGuy: [[FanNickname Friend Zone Turian]], found in Eternity on Illium, tries very hard to convince his quarian lady friend that she needs a guy who'll "treat her right". Unfortunately for him, she doesn't seem to be getting the hint.

* ElectricInstantGratification: The subject of... [[ADateWithRosiePalms nerve stimulation systems]]... comes up a couple of times. Mentioned by Tali offhandedly during her romance path; also mentioned by the [[FanNickname Valley Girl Quarian]], who was apparently quite willing to demonstrate its use ''in public'', until she and her turian friend suddenly notice you eavesdropping.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The vorcha seem to suffer this kind of FantasticRacism, and reactions vary, but they kind of look like goblins and/or trolls. Aria herself refers to them as "little goblins" once. Somewhat deconstructed when you see a group of them huddling in squalor in a corridor on Omega. They seem terribly afraid of Preitor Gavorn, a turian tasked to keep them in line.

* DummiedOut: A bunch. Fairly comprehensive compilations of all the dummied out stuff can be found [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_2_Cut_Content here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4B56CA6794991D92 here]]. Some particularly notable examples:
** The post-Horizon squadmates--Samara, Tali, Thane, and [[spoiler:Legion]]--have unique pieces of dialogue that were rendered inaccessible by the decision to split the party recruitment into two separate phases, in order to fit the game onto two discs. It's possible to modify your save game to get them in your party earlier, where they'll have normal lines almost everywhere. (The one exception is Horizon itself; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Vut1y1W6s only Tali has lines there.]])
** Like in ''Franchise/MassEffect'', same-sex romance options were apparently planned and even partially voiced and scripted, but dummied out in the final version. See also BuryYourGays and HideYourLesbians.
** The newly introduced [[CallAHitPointASmeerp heat sink]] system was initially implemented as a more logical hybrid system in which the heat sinks cool down and "fill up" again, if not ejected. Reportedly playtesters didn't like it, so the cooldown was dummied out. Editing some values in the game's internal .ini file allows re-enabling the hybrid system at the risk of [[GameBreaker unbalancing some guns]] that were balanced for the new system.
** The [=PS3=] version of the game has a few things dummied out, namely that it will always be Liara who is seen evacuating people from the ''Normandy'' at the start of the game, as "Mass Effect: Genesis" (the interactive recap of the first game) takes place following the title card, so the game has no way of knowing if Kaidan or Ashley will be alive in the game. (In the PC and 360 versions, Liara will only be seen in the opening cutscene if she was romanced in the first game.) Even if a save file is imported from the PSN release of the first game, Liara is still the only one seen.
** There was originally supposed to be a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMHCuaVrW1I loyalty conflict between Mordin and Grunt]], similar to the ones between Jack and Miranda and Tali and [[spoiler:Legion]].
** Mordin was originally a biotic, and he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_28OE71kmA8 would have been a "good" choice]] as the biotic specialist during the suicide mission.
** There are ''even more'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o95ZG83shg death scenes]] during the trip through the Omega-4 relay, also dummied out thanks to the aforementioned decision to split the game.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGHD160dy80 Paragon version of Conrad's sidequest]] was accidentally dummied out thanks to a save import error. This one is [[LampshadeHanging referenced]] in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''; Conrad apologizes for claiming that you put a gun to his head when you didn't. This was not rectified for the [[UpdatedReRelease Legendary Edition]] version.
** The DLC Firewalker side missions had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TSBIdOktfE a lot of interesting logs cut out]]; most notably, the Dr. Cayce from Firewalker was supposed to be revealed to be Dr. Manuel, the rambling scientist on Eden Prime in the first game.

* ChildhoodHomeRediscovery: {{Downplayed}} during Jack's LoyaltyMission. Jack takes Shepard to the old Cerberus facility where she was experimented upon as a kid, looking for a suitable place to put a giant bomb and [[InUniverseCatharsis blow the whole place to smithereens]]. As the make their way through the facility, however, the discover old logs and even a living witness, which reveal that Jack's memories of the place are not exactly accurate, partly due to trauma and partly due to not seeing the whole picture as a child

* DarkerAndEdgier: Though without any loss of quality or maturity. Fornax is just one example. The atmosphere is considerably darker, with Shepard spending most of their time [[WretchedHiveOfScumAndVillainy in Terminus space]] with even your time on the Citadel spent on the darker levels around criminals and barely any at the brighter Presidium. Your allies are mostly morally ambiguous mercenaries, violence-obsessed criminals, [[CowboyCop reckless vigilantes]], [[KnightTemplar cops who casually kill helpless enemies if they don't talk]], assassins and members of a terrorist organization. Even the ''gameplay'' gets in on this, being considerably more likely to rip you to pieces but also making you capable of doing the same to enemies.

* FourOneNineScam: Shepard gets at least two different versions in their email during the game, along with an adaptation of the popular Christian inspirational piece "Footprints in the Sand", featuring a drell and the hanar Enkindlers.