My problem is actually the complete opposite. When I tell them to take cover somewhere they will only stay for about 5-10 seconds before popping out of cover and trying to find a new place despite the spot I just positioned them being perfectly safe. It’s painfully to watch pop out of cover constantly and try to advance on 2 mechs 20 feet away. Once they move out of cover at harder difficulties you don’t have time to tell them to get back in cover because they’ll die.
Yes, sometimes they’re a bit buggy. For instance, sometimes if you try to place them somewhere before the enemies have started firing, they either won’t move to those spots and will still be on follow, or will revert back to follow once the shooting begins. To avoid that, make sure that the enemies are already firing at you before you place them in their positions (it kind of sucks, but it works, at least for me). Also, make sure when you point to a particular position that you put the pointer not too close to the cover, because sometimes they will take position past the cover instead of behind it. In addition, if you try to point each of them to a position next to each other, if one of them momentarily blocks the other (even briefly) from getting to their position, they’ll move somewhere else, so you may want to move them one at a time, and in completely different cover positions.
Basically, if you think you placed a teammate somewhere but they’re still moving, then their placing has failed and they’re still on follow. If your teammate is truly holding a position, they’ll stay there, even if they are flanked and getting hit.
I see, I always position my team mates before a fight since sometimes you issue a movement command they stand there for 2 seconds or so before actually moving and I don’t like risking that mid fight. Must be why they get up when the fight starts. Luckly this only affects me in a couple of fights (like the floating platform section of the iff mission) in the game, otherwise the fights are pretty easy even on insanity.
So, I think it’s time to have a little discussion on the possible ramifications of ME2 and what this means about the Reapers, etc.
for Mass Effect 2
[details=Spoiler] As we know, the Collectors that we have been fighting throughout the game are simply Protheans that have been highly genetically modified to behave as mindless servants for the Reapers. Previously we had been told by Virgil in Mass Effect 1 that the Reapers were interested only in wiping out all sapient life forms in the galaxy. This statement appears to be untrue, and leads to questions about why they’ve decided to let the Protheans survive.
Now, it appears that they let the Protheans survive so they could complete the construction of a new Reaper ship. If this is true, we have to assume there was an attempt to build a Prothean Reaper, but this failed. I believe EDI says this herself in the game. Why did the Reapers keep the Protheans around after this? Did they simply need a race of servants whom they could easily take over at any time? Obviously they’re useful now that they were trying to build a human Reaper, but there’s really no way the Reapers would have known they’d need that sort of help in the future.
The motivation behind the Reaper attacks are clearer to me now too. They aren’t wiping out all sentient life; they’re absorbing the essence of all life so that they can build a new Reaper. This may be how the Reapers come into being, and it would explain the motivations behind their cyclic destruction of all life forms.
Through the game, you play against the Collectors, and your opponents are often taken over by an entity known as Harbinger. Deceptive cutscenes lead us to believe Harbinger is a Collector General, but towards the end we discover that Harbinger is in fact a Reaper, who is simply assuming control over the Collectors for his own purposes, including the General. During fights, Harbinger states “We are your genetic destiny.” At first I assumed he meant that he was referring to the Collectors, and that humanity would be similarly modified. However, it would appear he was actually referring to the Reapers themselves. If they absorb the essence of all species to create a Reaper that is similar in appearance to the absorbed species’ form, perhaps this is their version of ‘evolution’ - the creation of a perfect machine/organic hybrid with no weaknesses, the avatar of an entire species.
But where did the first Reaper come from? Was this just an experiment by an advanced race that went horribly wrong?
When you’re on the derelict Reaper, people mention that the God is dreaming, and they can hear the God’s dreams. They’re referring to the Reaper Ship, that is defunct from the massive blast that scarred the surface of a planet (nice homage to a hint in the earlier one, I wondered if that was a shot from a battle with the Reapers). Even though the Reaper is most likely truly ‘dead’, it still appears to be able to effect the minds of others.[/details]
Wow. MaleShep’s voice is sooooo bad.
The cycle of destruction had been going on uninterrupted for… shit how long, millions of years they implied? I thinkl the Reapers force evolution down their path (with their technology like mass relays an crap) as a test - the protheans failed, so they weren’t used to advance the reapers. This time, there were several races to test and the main human man himself countered everything sovereign had to throw out, humans passed the test, so thats why they were “Collected”.
I don’t know what the deal was with that one dead reaper, but i guess we’ll either find out in 3 or it was just a plot point to get the iff
Oh and funnily enough, the Good/Neutral male shepard scenes are average at best - the renegade/badass scenes with male shepard are actually pretty good more often than not
Lots of spoils and renegade scenes in these for ME1 and ME2 - funny as hell though
[media=youtube]sy-eRfupYbA[/media]
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whoa dawg spoilers yo!
although i think we’ll have an end to the need for spoilers soon, can’t go on using them forever.
anyway.
the reaper
Spoiler
If the dead Reaper ship had just appeared as a plot point i would have found it a little bit cheesy (like the extremely fortuitous shuttle mission taken by every single operative right before the collectors attack). However, in the very first one they allude to that with some information on that planet and it’s great rift valley, so its actually foreshadowed in the previous game, which makes it a bit more acceptable
Look at…
[details=Spoiler] Compare the Prothean heads to the Reaper ships. While the Reaper ships come to a point on top making them more squid like, the tentacles hang down like the tentacles on the face of the Protheans. Statues or whatever they are on Illos is what I’m using as a comparison for Reaper and Prothean. Appears they’re doing the same thing with Humans in ME2 to look like Humans as they did to make themselves look Prothean last time. Also appears to be the only thing either game gives as genuine information about the Reapers.
That aside, it feels like a complete circle jerk to even speculate at this point no matter how constructive any contribution. The only other information, if you want to even call it that, about the reapers you have is speculation. Speculation from what is closer to the personality of a Prothean scientist than a pure AI and, presumably one of if not the most advanced AI in the current galaxy via EDI given the creator, but still in universe speculation none the less. Add to that some words from Soverign about gods think and it happens, and you really know nothing about them. Let alone what direction ME3 is going to take. Are we actually fighting them? Or loading a virus on them Independence Day style, something a lot of people seem to think? Will they even get here in time for ME3?
At this point it doesn’t seem much better than speculation on how the Reapers will get here in time for a ME3 as done on the Bioware boards. Given how far away they were in the ending, as in how much of the Milky Way they can see when the camera pans, they’ve got a hell of a long way to go. And if ME1 holds up, no relay to access and get here instantly.
I pretty much feel the same way about their true purpose as I do how they plan to get here faster than 10,000+ years of FTL travel using what we know of current, in universe science/technology; don’t care as long as I get the same cast of people and the new ones are as interesting as the new people from ME2. I have little worry about trying to make sense of an overall plot when you’re literally in a world using Deus Ex Machina and “A wizard did it…” as it’s major plot devices. Element Zero is our wizard allowing all technology to exist and the god isn’t just inside the machine directing it, it’s the whole damn Reaper(s).
Besides, we all know how this will end. Some combination of events will unlock the message the “beings of light” left the rich Volus, that will interact with the Jupiter brain on Ploba, or whatever the planet was called. This will give Sheperd and crew power rings to not only summon Ted Turner in blue spandex, but also unlock the monolithic star ship the SSV White Whale. Sperm whale ship in tow Sheperd will eat the squid looking reapers, while screwing as many alien ladies as possible in the process.
As dumb as that last paragraph was, I honestly don’t expect much better, even from Bioware, to convince me there is any logical or genuinely compelling reason for the Reapers to exist and/or do whatever it is they do. I like the series enough I’ve accepted that and don’t care though. So more power to them for that. They’ve already got my money for ME3 on launch day.[/details]
For reference to the lame paragraph.
i’m doing my super awesome ME1 run for import into ME2 when i pick up my copy next week
is there anyway to guarantee to not romance anyone and get stuck with that baggage in ME2? (and, assuming as much, ME3)
like will saying “no thanks” for the sex scene kill that or does one have to never EVER talk to liara or ashley/kaiden?
Characters from ME1 are no longer possible love interests if that’s what you’re asking. Even if you pick either Liara or Ashley, you don’t get stuck with either in ME2, though there are some extra dialog options/cut-scenes when you meet them again if you do choose either one.
exactly why i use female shepard. Male shepard might get more bitches, but his voice acting is trash.
i know that much. i also know that:
- a picture of the love from ME1 appears of shep’s desk in ME2
- it’ll matter in ME3
i just don’t want my ME3 playthrough to play like a talk show if i wanna pick some one from ME2
Same. The male voice is just painfully bad. I barely got through the tutorial mission with my level 60 ManShep. By the end of it I felt like my ears were bleeding.
Finally finished my run. The game was a huge improvement in inventory management and combat. The only weak spot was the story. Almost the whole game was recruiting a squad with little linear missions. Makes sense as a whole story arc, but kind of bland as stand alone game. I’d give it a solid 8.5.
ME1 was the exact same way but shorter.
You got Kaiden and Ashley on Eden Prime
Garrus, Wrex and Tali on Citadel.
Liara on the Prothean dig site planet (can’t remember the name)
And the only planets you are supposed to go to story line wise are Noveira, Virmire, and Ilos.
And really the only character you actually earned in ME1 was Liara. The rest were just like "ohai. yeah, that saren is a dick"
Plus unlike ME2. There was no real back story for any character in ME1.
I didn’t make it all the way through the first one, so I can’t compare too much. It’s definitely more fun to play without all the tech issues and inventory nonsense.
me1 had a fuck ton more side missions and shit though.
There certainly was backstory for the ME1 characters, you just had to make sure to make frequent visits to have conversations with them. The character development in both games was equally as good. The difference is that in ME2 it was revealed through gameplay and in the first you just would talk to your crew. Also I have no issue with Male Shepard’s voice. A VA doesn’t have to have some super cool rugged quality to them for them to be OK for me. He sounds very believable in a mellow kind of way. He didn’t sound like he was awkwardly reading from a script, and the cadence of all of his lines matched. That’s good enough for me.
I must not watch enough anime to notice maleshep’s voice sucks because I thought it was fine.
Wrex was an extremely deep character if you took the time to speak to him enough - if you didn’t he was just “I’m a krogan, lets kill stuff” - Grunt is pretty much that even when you do speak to him, but he’s still entertaining and is voiced by Steve “I sound like a badass” Blum so he’s okay