D.A. fan is back for an ME1 Text Only 'Let's Play' (page 51)

Heh, at least wait till you meet Thane :)

I was one of the players that reacted strongly negatively to Kaiden on Horizon, and nothing could fix it. I would avoid romancing him if I play ME1 again, because I felt so bad about that choice after Horizon. I would have much preferred if Shepard had just stayed with Thane the whole Trilogy and did not do the whole "well, he's the only guy who likes me" in ME1. I normally drop any companion that yells at the PC in romance like stone, starting with Anomen. Hysteria is not something I find attractive.In fact, I saved Ashley on the second play-through specifically because I still felt resentful of myself for selling out Shepard too early in ME1. I felt Shepard was betrayed because after the whole tirade of his feelings and all that, he would not even allow her to say anything at all, just yells and storms away. So, I felt how false it is, and how he only wants her in health and happiness, not in sickness and pain or troubled circumstances. That was that for me for Kaiden romance, and I found his ME3 feelers disgusting.

I actually never minded Shepard's response options so much. Can't s/he say something like "I was out for 2 years, so I couldn't reach out to you. I've only been back for a very short time."? I mean, yea, it would have been nice to specify that Kaidan/Ash were alreay under cover and unreachable but given their reaction, I felt taht they already got that.
Then there is the Cerberus issue. Shepard can say "I don't work for Cerberus, I am just using their resources." or something like that. The VS doesn't believe that (and I can't blame them, it does sound like an excuse) but there really was nothing else Shepard could have said here that would really make a difference.
Really, to me, the problem was more that the game didn't allow me to act like Kaidan/Ash wanted me to act but in that conversation itself, I can't think of anything Shep could have possibly said at that point.

BTW: Kaidan has exactly such a moment in ME1 as well. After Novaria, he will tell you he'd rather left the Rachni Queen in the cage and left the decision to kill or free her up to the council, especially because humanity was not around for the original Rachni wars. Well, THANK YOU for reminding me Kaidan, that was exactly what I thought when I was there but the game wouldn't let me take the logical approach. I really wonder, how a writer could be so blind as to scold the protagonist/player for not taking a choice they never offered in the first place. It just draws attention to the limits of the game's design, nothing more.

I am completely with Kaidan within that conversation but I am not with the writer who came up with the entire scenario. Same on Horizon in ME2. I get both Kaidan's and Shepard's side of that particular conversation, the screw up happened in everything leading up to it.

A "food for thought" response....

I got nothing... it's just not DA.

Sorry. I wasn't complaining about lack of romantic content. I was commenting on lack of Character Content.

Grunt is finding meaning in life and Jack is interesting based on her anarchist tendencies. But there is limited banter on missions.

Joker has the most dialogue. The short of it is the characters seem limited in scope compared to what I'm used to.

And the organization of the game is kinda screwing with me because I seem to be going on endless recruitment missions without much forward momentum on the main story. There are mini missions which involve cameo characters from ME1 that are meaningless because I don't know them.

Maybe I should go check up in the Rachni Queen. That's the only super interesting plot point to me at the moment.

By the way, I'm not trying to drag folks down with tearing of ME2. I had complaints aplenty abiut Geralt of TW3 but the main story was interesting enough to keep me going. ME2 isn't giving me any main story give me more Horizon!

That is just simply not true.


Oh, and, Jacob mentioning drinks isn't romance specific. I edited it out of my earlier post because phoray mentioned going for Garrus instead, but Jacob's romance can be tricky to trigger because there's only ONE chance to start it and that can be missed early on in the game.


No spoilers here, just sliding under a cut to keep from cluttering the thread too much.

Wait, there are invisible points of effort given that trigger Collector Encounters? I thought I had to recruit all these people to get the story content, but there are alternative paths?

You don't have to recruit everyone. Only 8 are needed to complete the game. There are many alternate paths. After Horizon, you can do whatever you want. Just know that after completing x numbers of missions, a main story mission will happen. Once that main story mission is completed, you can go back to doing whatever or continue straight to the next main mission. Its up to you how you play the game.

1. I'm not just comparing ME2 to DAI. I'm comparing ME2 to the entire DA series. But even DAO, which I thought came out a few years before ME2, had more companion discussion. I could ask Alistair, a companion of DAO, about life as a Templar Recruit, the loss of Duncan, his mentor, about the Wardens, a group I'd joined right off the bat. Then one story mission later, I could ask about why he'd kept the King thing a secret, what it was like being raised as a pseudo orphan... And this isn't counting comments he made DURING missions, and the romantic content at all. I could also find plot relevant gifts for him, similar to what Shepherd can do with the Ice Brandy and the Doctor on board the Normandy. Except apply that to all eight companions of DAO. Some people have complained that they feel like they forget the main mission for all the companion content- a thing I would never complain about myself, but gives you an idea of where I'm coming from. A place where you talk to your companions for a solid hour...then go on a mission. Then come back for another half hour to hour of companion discussion content (when going through them all.) Companions can have major reactions to how a major story mission was handled- if a child died on one mission, Alistair has a huge rant prepared for you. If you killed the elves, Zevran has some pretty sharp comments. No matter how the elf thing was resolved, Leliana will sing a song about hope/death right there at the campfire. There is feed back from at least one companion after every mission about the mission. What I'm getting with ME2 is I go on a mission, come back, make rounds, over half of them have nothing to say, I have no plot relevant gifts to spur anything into being... Randomly, Jacob or Miranda will have a few lines about usually their disapproval of dragging someone on board...And considering what you're saying is that ME2 IS it's companions- the bulk being recruitment and loyalty missions- it seems supremely lacking that a companion focused game isn't actually giving you anything but those two paths to get to know your companions. a Third totally optional path to knowing some of your companions is the romance path. Which is tied to mission content rather than how well you got to know them, how well you agreed with them, whether you spent time with them talking to them.

This comparison is all Dragon Age Origins.

2. Well, it's good to know that it isn't only recruitment based. I recruit everyone a first game anyway though, but at least I know I'm voluntarily torturing myself now instead of being required. ^U^

Shepherd: I'm looking to recruit Samara for my mission.

Detective: Justicars are drawn to impossible missions.

Garrus: we got that covered.

Lol

Shepherd to detective: you have a right to disobey orders that would result in certain death.

Garrus: we can disobey suicidal orders? Why wasn't I told?
Thane: that happens about twice a day.



I found my golden commentating duo. So much win

Elnora tricked me. :/ Damn Merc.