Mass Effect 2

I love Vega. He's awesome. I don't bring him with me on missions very often - I typically prefer having squadmates who can hit enemies with powers - but he's always fun to talk to.

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Jack & Kasumi.

I find him quite useful in gameplay. Fire explosions for everyone! Plus, anyone who can turn their shotgun into a rocket launcher is a friend in my book.

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Kaidan is my favorite human squadmate, Liara is my favorite ME 1 squadmate, Mordin for ME 2 and Javik for ME 3.

My "canon" romance is probably Liara's.

Worst romance in the series is Jacob's due to him being the only one to abandon you of the romance squadmates between ME 2 and 3.

Oh, game specific?

ME 1: Wrex and... well everyone was pretty bland. Still likable though.

ME 2: Tali and Mordin.

ME 3: Javik and Tali.

That's story wise. Gameplay wise:

ME 1: Wrex and Tali

ME 2: Legion and Samara

ME 3: James and Javik

I've never romanced anyone but Tali. Except on my very first playthrough of any Mass Effect game, where I romanced Jack. But I think I deleted that one a while ago due to a lot of mistakes.

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One of which was romancing Jack.

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I romanced Liara as well for my 'canon' playthrough. I suppose my next playthrough will involve no-one to better role-play Shepard as 'me.'

That's another reason I like it the most.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

I'll stick with romancing Liara. That one had the most work put into it and I have no issues with doing it because I don't have any hang-ups about Bioware romances.

I tried romancing Liara in the first game, but she was just so...I don't know. Her voice was bland and emotionless and the way she picked her words just seemed very robotic. Very matter-of-fact. It was like banging a Star Trek Vulcan. "You are a person that I like. We should do the intercourse. Please insert tab A."

Spending more time with Liara in 2 and 3 just made me question further why every race in the galaxy - and the writers, for that matter - are so obsessed with the asari. Even their maturity cycles seem strangely mechanical. Child Phase Complete, Initiate Stripper Phase. Loading Parental phase. Estimated Wait Time: 170 Years. Downloading Wisdom Phase.

Legion had more personality.

edited 9th Dec '13 11:44:06 AM by TobiasDrake

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My Soldier!Shepard (Male) romanced Liara. She's alright as a romance option, mostly due to the 3rd game. My Vanguard!Shep (Female) romanced Thane because I already watched Garrus' romance on Youtube.

If I do any further playthroughs, chances are they'll be a Male Engineer!Shepard who romances either Tali or Miranda. Either works.

edited 9th Dec '13 2:45:25 PM by DamascaRamza

This, so much. I never saw the appeal of Liara, at all.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Liara's the only character I romanced with both Shepards in the first game. I would have romanced Kaidan instead with my FemShep for something different, and in fact was flirting with both of them throughout the game. But in my earlier playthrough with my male Shep I'd saved Kaidan instead of Ashley just because, even though I did take a long moment to think about it when first presented with the choice, it came down to "I think I'll save the squadmate who isn't often a shithead." Since I was doing almost everything different in my second playthrough, Kaidan ended up dying and there was only one romance option left.

The funny thing is that I wound up doing the opposite of what I'd planned as the trilogy went on. My Paragon male Shep slept with Liara before Ilos, whereas my female Renegade Shep wound up telling her "Not now, I have to focus on the mission." The thing is, when Jack joined my team in 2 I wound up liking her better and that, combined with Liara not being on board the ship, led me to change my mind about what I wanted to do. I played "Lair of the Shadow Broker" and when Liara told me that she wasn't sure if we could just pick up right where we left off due to two years passing I said "Yeah, you're probably right, let's just be friends right now." Then I proceeded to sleep with Jack.

And later, when I brought the other Shep to see Liara on Thessia and she turned out to be as in love with me as ever even though we weren't intimate, I decided "Okay, I'll go all the way with her this time," and made sure the time we did a lot more than reminisce during the time we spent in my cabin later.

Anyway, I liked Liara before her level in badass because of her adorkableness. I actually found her a bit less attractive in 2 because she'd lost it and become more ruthless. (I know, I know; how much sense does it make that I was turned off by Liara's ruthlessness but chose Jack over her when I had a choice between the two? This is just another example of emotions not being logical, I guess.) Later on they seemed to strike a nice balance between the two qualities, having her be badass and in control most of the time while also having her be socially awkward and nerdy in certain situations that caught her off-guard.

Kaidan's low on my list of preferred squad mates, even by the standards of the relatively lackluster human squad mates, but he does have one redeeming factor: having the funniest distraction scenes in the Citadel DLC. Not that I've seen said scenes in my game, mind, just on youtube.

"Uh, I'm sorry. You can't...get it back. No, no...please, sir. Please don't cry."

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. . . I will have to watch that.

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None of the squadmades really jumped out at me in 3, but one thing that I liked was the chats that Kaidan and Tali sometimes had in the elevator. I'm not sure why, because they were mostly "Oh, hey, worldbuilding detail about human biotics/quarians" "Really? That's interesting." I liked to imagine that they were getting to be friends.

Then I saved Ashley. Still not sure why.

3 is my favorite in terms of squad mates, mainly because of Tali, Garrus, Javik, and James. James is very relatable (I swear I know a guy exactly like him), likeable, and hilarious, Javik is funny, BADASS, and interesting despite being another walking codex, and Tali and Garrus are Tali and Garrus.

2 had 2/4 of these + a lot more squad mates, but a lot of them weren't properly fleshed out due to having to share space, pointless (Thane and Jacob), and/or just plain unlikeable (Miranda, maybe Zaeed). While I want most of them to get happy endings, Grunt and Legion were the only additions I actually liked (and not so much anymore for Legion).

edited 10th Dec '13 4:47:30 PM by CPFMfan

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I would agree with that. 3 did the absolute best job in terms of the squad. I still say 2 just had too damned many. They should've cut Thane and Samara. I know those two are really popular, but in the end, they don't really have a good reason for being there beyond being cool. Cerberus has no real reason to pick those two as specialists. Miranda and Jacob are obvious - they're Cerberus, and they were involved with Lazarus Project. Jack makes sense - Cerberus invested a lot of time and money into her, they want a return on their investment. Garrus and Tali make sense - they'll help put Shepard at ease. Mordin makes sense - the guy's a genius. Okeer makes sense - he has experience with the Collectors. (Then he dies and we get Grunt, instead. And Grunt is awesome, so that's totally OK.) Zaeed and Kasumi make sense - they're both among the best humans at what they do.

But Thane and Samara are much odder choices. They're aliens, they have no real involvement in any human matters, Samara's never even left asari space. I don't understand why Cerberus would want them rather than equivalent human specialists. Hell, Jack is already a human equivalent to Samara.

So those two don't really fit the story. If they'd been cut, it would've allowed more time and resources to be put into developing everyone else. More important, it might have allowed them to have the other squadmates interact once in a while. I hated the fact that none of the squadmates in 2 ever really have anything to say to each other. Even 1 had the elevator rides - it may not have been much, but it still gave an indication that the people were friendly. It gave more of a feeling of them being a team. In 2, it's not a team, it's just a collection of individuals who are fresh out of shits to give about each other.

And that's where 3 really, really blew 2 away. In 2, they're friends. They talk to each other. They have lives outside of Shepard. That makes them all feel a lot more fleshed-out, and a lot more real.

One of the things that really, really pissed me off, in 2, was the fact that no one on the ship says a damned thing about Legion when you activate him. The worst is Tali apparently having no particular feelings regarding the fact that you just agreed to work with a geth. The fact that she doesn't ask you what the hell is wrong with you after you activate Legion is unforgivable. There is absolutely no reason for that conversation not to take place.

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Hot Mass Effect nudes.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

Random question: in Mass Effect, does everyone communicate with a Common Tongue or Translator Microbes?

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Generally Translator Microbes as mentioned in the books and Thane's romance, though apparently there's a galatic trade Common Tongue too.

So then, Translator Microbes are what we're hearing all throughout the games as Shepard? Shame. I generally like the Common Tongue explanation better.

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Has the fandom historically taken a lot of isue with the Translator Microbes explanation? I always found it odd that I saw a lot of people poking holes in the mechanics of the space battles and not, say, why the characters are all perfectly lipsynched to the point that they can do things like pause or get interrupted in a way that translates coherently.

edited 15th Dec '13 2:55:38 AM by SomeName

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One of the many reasons I don't like that explanation. I've never actually seen anyone bring that up.

Though I guess if you don't romance Thane, you can just assume that Shepard and co are using the Common Tongue, and that Shepard using Translator Microbes when romancing Thane is just another small change in that alternate universe...? That's what I'll do anyway.

edited 15th Dec '13 3:03:04 AM by CPFMfan

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Whatever works for you man. Must be one hell of a common tongue though.

edited 15th Dec '13 9:00:52 AM by HellmanSabian