Line #35 Trivia/MassEffect2


1	* ActorAllusion:
2	** The krogan are very similar to [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingons.]] It's no surprise then that Wrex's adviser Gatatog Uvenk is voiced by an actor [[Creator/MichaelDorn famous for playing a Klingon.]]
3	** Kal'Reegar, the quarian you meet before facing the Geth Colossus, concerns himself less with politicking and more with shooting, just like [[Series/{{Firefly}} another character]] played by Creator/AdamBaldwin.
4	** Miranda, the Cerberus FemmeFatale, is voiced by (and modeled after) Adam Baldwin's co-star from ''{{Series/Chuck}}'', Yvonne Strahovski, who plays Sarah Walker, a CIA FemmeFatale.
5	** Creator/SteveBlum plays a strong, deadly, artificially created, technically newborn lizard warrior with a childlike ([[ValuesDissonance for his species]]) demeanor, a love for battle and an UndyingLoyalty to his human master. [[Anime/DigimonTamers Just like Guilmon]].
6	** Mordin's actor really did [[TheCastShowoff perform]] Creator/GilbertAndSullivan.
7	** One of the ways EDI messes with Joker when Shepard talks with the latter is to move his chair around a few times. One of the gags in ''Film/AustinPowers'' was when Dr. Evil's chair went out of control and spun him around. Although Creator/SethGreen[='s=] character in the movies didn't have that happen to him then.
8	** Creator/AliHillis plays Liara who comes off as cold and ruthless, traverses a place with lightning all around to get to a person named Feron, then defrosts after it is over. Hmm, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Lightning and Feron!]] Where have we heard those phrases before?
9	* AscendedFanon: Creator/BioWare's response to Garrus' and Tali's popularity and the fans' desire to have them romance options.
10	* DummiedOut:
11	** Cut news reports for ''[=ME2=]'' show what results Shepard's actions would have had. Had Shepard endorsed Charles Saracino, then Terra Firma would have gained seats in the recent election. Had Shepard refused, then Saracino would have been charged with tax evasion. They're restored in the ''Legendary Edition'' version.
12	** [[spoiler:Apparently, Zaeed was planned so it would be possible for him be taught proper squad tactics in the suicide mission, allowing the specialist to live and surviving the long walk if he's the fire team leader.]]
13	--->'''Zaeed:''' Suppression fire. [[ShootEverythingThatMoves Something comes through the door, kill it]].
14	** Much like Kaidan from the first game, Thane Krios was originally intended as a bisexual romance option. Some dialogue from his romance with Male Shep is still floating around the Internet.
15	** 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.]])
16	** 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.
17	** 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.
18	** 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.
19	** 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]].
20	** 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.
21	** 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.
22	** 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.
23	** 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.
24	* ExecutiveMeddling:
25	** Ahead of the anniversary re-release, a dev on Twitter revealed that there were originally two additional same-sex romance options in the game (between [=FemShep=]/Jack and [=ManShep=]/Jacob). It got far enough into development that the scenes between them were fully animated before the decision was made to cut them, citing fear of boycotts from HeteronormativeCrusader groups.
26	** The developers themselves decided to tone down and cut back on the [[{{Fanservice}} gratuitous butt shots]] in some scenes with Miranda due to acknowledging that they did not age particularly well and clashed with the tone of the scenes.
27	* DyeingForYourArt: Creator/BrandonKeener didn't sleep for over 24 hours before recording for Garrus' recruitment mission in order to authentically sound like he had just spent several days fighting waves of mercs.
28	* MemeAcknowledgment: Creator/BioWare merchandising produced shirts for the "Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest sonofabitch in space!" and "I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel" memes.
29	* MultiDiscWork: The Xbox 360 version was split into two discs, however, disc 1 is required again for endgame content.
30	* TheOtherDarrin:
31	** The voice for the man trying to get a refund from the turian shopkeeper on the Citadel doesn't sound '''anything''' like it did in the first game. If he didn't specifically mention that he'd been trying to get a refund for two years, most players probably wouldn't have noticed it was him.
32	** Mordin is the only major character to switch voice actors between games. Few noticed the difference.
33	* PlayingAgainstType:
34	** Creator/MartinSheen as the Illusive Man.
35	** Carrie-Anne Moss as [[TheDon Aria]].
36	** Kal'Reegar is a much more open-minded, upstanding character than some of Adam Baldwin's more notable roles, standing in sharp contrast to ''Chuck'' and his parts in the Whedon universe.
37	** Creator/FredTatasciore, the man behind Saren himself and other deep-voiced characters, voices the noticeably high-pitched Maelon.
38	* PreOrderBonus: If you pre-ordered at [=GameStop=], you get a M-490 Blackstorm heavy weapon[[note]]Which shoots ''exploding black holes''[[/note]] and the [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Terminus_Armor Terminus Armor]], and if you pre-ordered at [=EBGames=], you get the [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Inferno_Armor Inferno Armor]]. However, the Inferno Armor is now available as part of the Equalizer Pack DLC, and the Terminus Armor and Blackstorm weapon are available as free DLC.
39	* StarMakingRole: Legion is one of two roles that made a star out of Creator/DCDouglas, the other being [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 Albert Wesker]].
40	* ThrowItIn: Michael Beattie, Mordin's voice actor, came up with the idea of [[VerbalTic sharply breathing between sentences.]] It's now considered one of Mordin's defining characteristics.
41	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The ''Mass Effect'' Wiki has a [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_2_Cut_Content comprehensive list.]] Some examples:
42	** Cut content from the Firewalker DLC [[http://youtu.be/9TSBIdOktfE reveals]] that one of the scientists you're trying to find was a minor NPC from the first game on Eden Prime, the one who was "raving".
43	** Unimplemented content, pre-release posts on Weekes's dev blog, and other leaks indicate that Tali, Miranda and Thane could be romanced by Shepards of either gender in earlier development. In the final product, the most visible remainder of this is that most of Tali's lines are the same for both Shepards, which are clearly intended to nudge the player to a romance with her. Female Shepard can even attempt to initiate a romance with Tali, but she will dodge the issue.
44	** Similarly, Kenneth and Gabriella were meant to be romanceable like Kelly.
45	** Character recruitment was originally intended to be much more open-ended, and modding your save file to add party members before you should be able to recruit them will let you hear their dialog for earlier circumstances, such as taking Legion to Purgatory. This likely changed because of the late decision to split the Xbox 360 version of the game into two discs; the forced recruitment progression funnels the player along a path that's not entirely linear, but predictable enough to split the game with.
46	** A few leftover voice recordings in the released game indicated that Liara was initially intended to have a much deeper and longer storyline — which was later made a reality with the DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker.
47	** Early video previews showed more involved gun mechanics; weapons would cool down on their own à la the first game, with ejectable thermal clips as a "need More Dakka right this second" option. Specialized ammunition was shown to be a consumable resource instead of a passive ability and as such could be turned on or off at will.
48	** Going through the dialogue and screen text files reveals that several of the loyalty missions originally had very different plots:
49	--->''"Bored with being the galaxy's top bounty hunter, Zaeed's also exhausted by up-and-comers seeking a rep written in his blood. Now he's learned that the second-best bounty hunter has gone corporate, and job one is to kill Zaeed. Zaeed's plan: wipe them out first... with extreme prejudice."''\
50	''"You helped Zaeed fake his own death, and he's grateful."''\
51	''"Kasumi revealed that Nava Corp has designed and is about to unleash tailored bio-viruses against the citizens of the Alliance. Only Nava Corp possesses the vaccines. Kasumi needs you to help stop Nava Corp permanently."''
52	** Mordin was initially intended to be biotic. [[spoiler: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_28OE71kmA8&feature=channel One correct choice for maintaining Biotic Barrier during suicide mission]]. DummiedOut content lampshaded by Jack in [=ME3=]. Claims [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath Mordin could have protected the party from seekers by incessant babbling.]]]] Also, initially would have come into conflict with Grunt. The two have next to no problems with each other.
53	** A cut sidequest in [=ME2=] originally had Shepard forced to find some red sand for Jack, due the fact that Cerberus experimentation meant that red sand was the only thing that could help her sleep without levitating everything in the room.
54	** All post-Horizon squadmates have hidden dialogue for earlier in the game, but Legion came off a bit worse than Tali, Thane or Samara because Legion was meant to be Shepard's first squadmate and the person who recovered Shepard's body to give to Cerberus.

Context Trivia / MassEffect2