If You Had To Cut 3 Squadmates from ME2...

Since the game only requires 8 squadmates to go through the omega 4 relay, I say cut 4.

Of the list above, I chose Garrus, Legion and Thane. I would also choose Mordin, but keep him on the ship for doing the seeker swarm thing just not have him as a squadmate

Not just me then?  Glad someone agrees.

Zaeed??  Awwww.  

I agree.

Most of my playthroughs I only have 8.

Quick reminder that Kasumi and Zaeed require DLC, and were not available in the vanilla version of the game.

I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time choosing.

On the one hand, I dislike Grunt as a character, and even more as squadmate. (He has no redeeming squadmate qualities; anything he brings, other squadmates can also bring, only better. He's even useless on his own loyalty mission.) And apart from Mordin (who I really like as a character), I am indifferent to the rest of the squad.

On the other hand, how many specialists do we really need?

• We have three tech specialists: Kasumi, Tali, and Legion
• We have two biotic specialists: Jack and Samara/Morinth (technically that is three, but Samara and Morinth cannot be in the squad at the same time)
• We have three fireteam leader candidates: Miranda, Jacob, and Garrus

Would limiting specialists to two each be better? Or maybe limit tech and biotic specialists to one each? (Choice of multiple fireteam leaders seems fine.)

Also, the following bonus powers are kind of useless:

• Fortification (Grunt)
• Geth Shield Boost (Legion)
• Barrier (Jacob)
• AP Ammo (Garrus)
• Shredder Ammo (Thane)
• Inferno Grenade (Zaeed), although it is somewhat better on Zaeed than Concussive Shot

Also, I think Reave (Samara) and Dominate (Morinth) do not really make much sense lore-wise, and I wonder how Energy Drain (Tali) works as well.


Typically, my most used squadmates: Mordin, Miranda and Thane.
Typically my least-used squadmates: Grunt, Zaeed, Legion (get him too late to be useful)

Story-wise, I think Legion would be better served never having been in the story. I prefer the Geth as constant antagonists throughout the games.

Choosing just three is going to be so hard for me. I may have to make a decision later.

I'm thinking one of the following:

• Grunt, Legion, and <undetermined>, to remove squadmates I don't want to be in the story. (For the record, I would prefer Okeer over Grunt.)
• Kasumi, Legion, and Jack or Samara/Morinth, to remove specialists. Not sure which biotic specialist to remove to make sense story-wise.

This is hard.

Anyone who votes Kasumi is getting banned. No exceptions.



Anyway, I picked Jacob, Jack and Tali. The first is purely preference (or a lack thereof), the second is redundant once you gain Samara and a flat out liability and the latter because while I can get behind her role in the story, it doesn't make sense to bring the super fragile tech wizard in a firefight when you have so many other options (including a geth who's better at combat and hacking in every way).

Actually, if we go by preference and logic I'd restructure the ME2 squad as such:

Miranda- 2IC, should command the ship in your absence but you can bring her along. If you do, Jacob assumes command, Jacob is an non-squad NPC beyond the intro mission. Miranda is a Fire team leader
Zaeed- non-DLC and mandatory. As a merc and expendable gun he should be first priority for field work. Romance option
Mordin- mandatory. The primary medical research/ship doctor. Should only bring him out as a last resort or if the missions specifically calls for his expertise.
Garrus- mandatory, weapons tech and field commando like Zaeed. Fire team leader.
Grunt- the heavy.
Jack- not recruited. You can keep her mission but she's cut loose after being freed on the grounds of being too unstable/a liability. This makes:
Samara/Morinth- Mandatory, biotic specialist. Instead of Morinth being a part of Samara's loyalty mission (after she's already sworn herself to you) and thus a barely developed character, have the two as alternate options you can pursue recruitment for. Working for a questionable bunch like Cerberus and/or if you've been really renegade thus far may make Samara a dangerous option to approach. You can also have an initial confrontation between them as the recruitment mission and who you choose joins you and you escape the other. The loyalty mission will then still be tracking the other down and neutralizing them, but slightly reworked, obviously.
Kasumi/Thane- mandatory, non-DLC. Infiltration expert, assassin/thief. As above (but without the animosity), you can only recruit one. Both are on the same mission (Kasumi maybe needs to steal something from Nassana Dantius in order to get to Hock's party) but for some reason you can only help one. Loyalty missions then proceed as normal. Romance options, tech expert (Kasumi)
Tali- recruited the same, except non-squadmate. Loyalty mission as side mission for assets (or to unlock romance). Can be selected as tech expert though.
Legion- no change.

So you have 9 squadmates instead of 12 though there are still 12 developed. And not all are expendable though. Miranda, Mordin, Tali and Legion cannot die. Or for the latter two, perhaps if one dies, the other lives, foreshadowing the conflict in ME3 (which is still kinda dumb but that's another issue)

Other than the "Cheerleader", I had a tough time deciding.

In the end I went with Miranda, Garrus, and Thane.

Miranda - I just don't like her very much. She gets better once her attitude towards Cerberus starts to shift (late in ME2 and in ME3), but I just can't stand Cerberus and how big of a role they came to have in the series, and for me Miranda is basically the symbol of all that.

Garrus - like Wrex, I think he becomes a better character if he leaves the squad. I didn't dislike him, but he was never my favourite, and I don't really like how he evolved into Shepard's "canon best bro" over the course of the trilogy.

Thane - nothing against him really, but like UpUpAway I don't feel it was necessary to introduce another race at this stage.

You could make a case for one of Tali, Legion, or Kasumi being dropped as well, given how many "techies" we end up with.

That's just my opinion though, there's really no need to go spreading it around.

Jacob, because he's bland.
Zaeed, because he's a horrible human being.
Samara, because her loyalty mission was creepy to the point that I'm 50-50 on whether I'll even do it during my replay. I'd leave her unrecruited if it weren't for the scene with Niftu Cal.

Okay, that made me giggle.  

Totally disagree about Kasumi, I love that girl.  But hey, your choices.  But er...that accent ain't South African.  Not totally sure what it's supposed to be but definitely not that.
EDIT: You meant Donovan Hock....scuse me, I'll just show myself out.

We're talking about Donovan Hock, right? Certainly sounded like it was intended to be South African to me.

Dear me, I did not know BioWARE was standing by to act on the results of this poll. Heh, jokes aside, I know how you feel. From where I sit, Thane greatly influenced my Shepard's story in ME2/ME3, and without him it will make less sense. I am keeping him, if the rest of the verse tosses him.

Inconceivable, I know. The rejection is real.