Mass Effect 2 - Ryder's Dirty Dozen

Ryder · Oct 26, 2016

A little backstory on why this remains my favorite video game of all time...

I didn't actually get to play ME2 immediately after its release. There was a special collector's edition of sorts, a Cerberus package or something. But I remember not seeing any of that when I bought the game, so I must've bought it quite a while after its release date. To be honest, I don't really remember much of my first experience playing ME2. What I do recall is that there was a gap in between my playing of the first game and the second one. And that's the way these two games should be played. With a gap.

I can't tell you how good it was to see my squadmates again after such a long time, but I'll elaborate on that when I actually get to meet them again in the game during the playthrough. The thing is, Mass Effect builds upon your relationships with your squad members. And I'm not just talking about your creepy love-sim kind of romance, but just a more simple and pure friendship going on an adventure through space, struggling through whatever difficulties that may come. That sense of compadre was what made Mass Effect so great for me.

The Dirty Dozen
And that idea of compadre is further reinforced by the diversity of your 12 teammates, the 'Dirty Dozen' under your command. For the savvy among you, "The Dirty Dozen" is a war film about a band of unlikely heroes working together. It's become a household label to use whenever a similar story appears. Mass Effect 2 is something like that, with a dash of "Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai". Shepard will have to recruit 12 very diverse individuals as fellow teammates. 12, as opposed to the 6 you had back in the first game. That's probably the strongest part of this game, and why I love it so much - the diversity. Each of the teammate has their own unique personality you can explore. While not perfect, it's quite amazing how the Bioware team manages to get together a dozen of these people and create interesting stories for each of them - with talented voice-acting to add.

As Commander Shepard, you are the one who have to maintain the relationships so that they don't fight amongst each other, while ensuring that they survive under your command. With you being responsible for the lives of such wonderful characters, going on a suicide mission that you and your crew might not survive, the experience is not only epic, but very rewarding.

The Empire Strikes Back of Sci-Fi Video Games
It's been given that title by a good number of game reviews. Similar to any good sequel, Mass Effect 2 has a heavier focus on building character, not just for your teammates, but also for your Shepard. Choices are harder to make than before. Paragon is no longer always right. Shepard can actually become a more brutal character than ever, or fight the temptations and remain strong in the face of evil. Much like Empire, the story also goes into far dark territories, as you'll soon find out. You think the genophage and the genocide of rachni were bad? You've seen nothing yet.

But as they say, the greater the evil, the greater the hero must be. There might be dark times ahead, but that's what makes it even more satisfying when you overcome all those difficulties to reach that perfect ending you've been fighting for. And boy, can it be hard to reach it without a walkthrough. Will you sacrifice all your friends to save the world? Or will you come out the true shining hero you deserve to be?

“Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right." - Albus Dumbledore

Last but not least, I hope that I don't come off sounding too much like a fanboy (okay, too late perhaps). My earnest wish isn't to defend some video game that I love, but to share the joy I gained having this wonderful experience. I hope you'll enjoy reading the following playthrough as much as I like writing it. Till then, I'll see you aboard the new Normandy.

Doomguy · Oct 27, 2016

The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite Star Wars movie.
Sure the swamp part was a bit too long (okay it was a drag) but the opening battle on Hoth, the Asteroid Field, and then Cloud City were really good.

3\4 of the movie was really good, that's A-Okay in my book.

Ryder · Oct 27, 2016

Note: The following game is played on the "Insanity" difficulty. It's actually quite easy compared to the first game due to the improved gunplay mechanics. It also makes the end-game content much more epic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Due to the opening cutscene being almost identical for every Shepard, I've decided to include a video of it here. The only difference is that instead of Liara, I got Ashley, and instead of the nicer dialogue options, I went for the more impatient ones.

I actually tried to record this on Fraps, but I got really bad framerate on the video (due to the improved graphics on the second game), so someone else's video will have to do. But hey, that's what a written playthrough is for, right?

A few choice screenshots of mine.

Ashley: "Will the Alliance get here in time?"

Ashley: "I'm not leaving either."

Joker: "No! I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!"

First five minutes into the game, and your main character gets killed, her corpse tossed onto the nearby planet. Welcome to Mass Effect 2... Wait, who am I playing as then?

After that incredible and shocking opening, if you've installed the Genesis DLC, you'll be treated to a special scene where the story of the first game - along with your decisions - are summed up in a motion comic narrated by Shepard. I love the self-mocking irony in the opening line. "Just another routine mission. Why do they always say that before a mission? That's how it started. A routine mission - answering a distress call. And look where that got me."

The comic itself is very well-drawn - nothing less from Bioware. You can check out a different variation of the comic here in another video. I don't know why they call it an "Interactive Comic" though since the only part of the comic I can interact with is the end, where I get to change whom I want for the Human Council seat. My choice remains unchanged - Captain Anderson.

After the comic is over, as you're wondering about what happens to the hero of the story, you're immediately given the answer:

Shepard is being revived, with lots of little advanced medical gizmos it seems.

This is where the character customization comes in. You get to change your Shepard's appearance and powers if you didn't like them the first game. Back then, my FemShep actually had a bun instead of a ponytail, and I changed that in the second game before changing it in the first game too since it looks cuter. :3

For now, mine looks okay, so I'm not going to make any changes right up till the third game. Gaining the squad's loyalty in a previous ME2 playthrough also gives you access to one bonus power. Playing the Vanguard can be more challenging in this game, so I'm following a Vanguard walkthrough to pick the proper powers. I'm going with the ol' reliable Biotic Barrier. Technically, the Biotic Charge can refill your shield, but an extra shield is VERY necessary, especially during the Arrival DLC.

And my game crashed. Looks like it can't handle the improved graphics. Ugh. Thankfully, the game automatically saves after my character creation. Never underestimate the autosave.

Back in the game, looks like my Shepard is waking up prematurely and is going into cardiac arrest. Thankfully, two individuals manage to return me to a stable state, and I get treated to a lovely face.

Well, hello beautiful. I fall asleep again, thinking of that vixen in my dreams.

But shortly after, I wake up again. Looks like the base I'm in is being attacked! Talk about your intense beginning to a game! A familiar female voice belonging to that sweet face from before guides me along to help me escape, getting the players familiarized with the new and smoother combat mechanics. I'm back in my old classic N7 armor again, but I only have a pistol to fight back the enemies, who turn out to be none other than... robots, again. Why does it always have to be robots?

But these 'mechs' are easy enough to deal with, even on Insanity. A great thing about the new combat in the game is that shooting the head is much easier, not to mention more effective. The trade-off is that you now have limited ammo instead of infinite. Unnecessary to those who prefers story over gameplay, but welcoming to others. I fall somewhere in between. lol

Despite the lack of looting options this time round, there are actually a large number of items you can easily miss in the game, including upgrades for yourself and your squadmates (extra armor, extra weapons, etc.). So be sure to look everywhere as much as you can.

Along the way, a bunch of civilians get killed by a giant mech behind a glass window you cannot break.

No skin off my ruthless Shepard's back, I suppose.

Through the very next door, I pick up a grenade launcher off a corpse (yay for looting off corpses, something Shepard will hypocritically criticize later on) and shoot up another series of mechs. Robots go boom! But a while later, the voice guiding you will cut off, and you're left to wander on your own.

There are a few audio logs you can listen to as you make your way through the base. They shed some light on the background of your revival. Seems like my body got f***ed up pretty bad when I crash-landed onto that planet. It cost a lot of money to revive me. Also, it seems that one of the two 'individuals' from earlier (not the girl) named Wilson is a bit ticked off that all the money is spent on me instead of on the employees, namely him. Something to keep in mind when you meet Wilson later.

There's also a brand new minigame now when you hack safes to steal- I mean loot money and data. As opposed to the frogger game in the first one, you now have a memory game.

The object of the game is to match the same pairs of symbols for all those buttons. You can see which symbol a button has by highlighting it, and when you find two of the same symbols, you can click on both of them to match them up. Do not click on the button while you're highlighting them because you won't be able to highlight other buttons when you click on one, so you're forced to guess which button matches the one you just clicked on. Thankfully, this being the first minigame, it lets you retry if you fail. The future ones won't be so forgiving.

I keep on pressing 'E' to use an item instead of pressing the spacebar. Guess old habits die hard, since in the first game, the hotkey is E.

Another poor helpless victim.

Wish I could help, buddy. Shouldn't have had those bulletproof glass.

Another audio log with Wilson describing the beautiful girl guiding you earlier (now known as Miranda) as a cold-hearted bitch who wasn't that ecstatic about my revival. Heh. Two bitches in a room would be like oil and fire. Guess Miranda and my equally bitchy Shepard won't get along.

In the next room, a third character is thrown into the mix, Jacob Taylor. Aside from being known for the meme found in his romance, Jacob is pretty much the most boring squadmate in the game in my opinion.

He gives me a quick update on my life so far. It's been two years since the Normandy got destroyed, and the whole galaxy thought I was dead till these guys put me back together again like Humpty Dumpty. But with mechs shooting on our back, it isn't the time for storytelling.

After a little teamwork between me and the biotic Jacob (where he hits'em "with the good stuff"), the mechs go down and I get to find out more about the two year gap. Jacob tells me more about Project Lazarus, the project to bring me back. Seems like I'm not a clone, since they wanted me back exactly as I was - with all the Renegade that comes with it. You can also find out more about the attack on the station you're in, as well as Jacob and Miranda's background. Miranda's the one responsible for ensuring my revival, while Jacob seems to be an ex-Alliance soldier for five years.

The more pressing question I wanted to ask when I first played this was, of course - what happened to my crewmates? Thankfully, most of them survived... except for Navigator Pressley. Sigh. Oh well. But it seems that most of my squad had moved on, so getting them to join me again might prove... difficult.

I proceed to escape the station with Jacob, but not before Wilson radios in, a tad surprised at my survival in the attack. Hmm...

Wilson guides us along the parts of the station filled with more mechs. almost like he's leading us to a trap. Eventually, we find his crippled ass. Seems like the mechs put a good one in his leg.

I had to waste a medi-gel on him. Hope he's worth it.

After that, even Jacob gets a little suspicious about Wilson, but I told them that I don't trust either of them anyway, so we should just move on and get outta here. But Jacob's not satisfied with that and decides to earn my trust; he reveals the true nature of their organization.

Ohhhhh shit! Remember that obscure little company that we could barely tell apart from other evil corporations in the first game? Well brace yourself, because you're now a three-headed dog, cryin' all the time! For now, Jacob says we'll have to get outta here; their leader, "The Illusive Man", will explain everything to me once we escape.

Another minigame can be found shortly as you hack a datapad.

This time, you have to click on the correct data pattern that matches the pattern on the upper right corner. You have to do this three times and cannot touch the boxes with the X. If you touch them, you lose a bit of time (and you can't get the money/credits too, I think). Run out of time, and you're locked out of the datapad.

I move on with Jacob and Wilson tagging behind me, the latter limping along. You'll come to realize that using covers in this game will save your life much more than the first game as your shield and health are much more limited than before. But you can't hide forever either as enemies will progress towards your position, especially later in the game. The trade-off for the decreased health-bar is that you never have to use a medi-gel on yourself because you regenerate.

Just as I'm at the exit, Miranda shows up and...

Seems like Wilson's the traitor who set off the mechs that attacked the base. I kinda smelled his filthy rat stench from the get-go.

Miranda isn't too happy about Jacob revealing the name of their organization, but since he already talked, she's willing to let me ask my questions. There's not much to learn to be honest, aside from what we already know - Miranda's probably as ruthless as Ruth Shepard herself. I'm sure they'll make quite the team.

On the way to the Illusive Man, Miranda and Jacob access my psychological condition to make sure I'm the same person as before. They ask about Torfan, along with why I left behind Kaidan (sensitive topic, but I confess that it was a hard choice). I think there's also another question regarding your choice of human councilor candidate, but its removal probably has to do with the Genesis DLC, which features the same question.

I arrive at the Cerberus facility where the Illusive Man awaits. Here, you can change your appearance with any DLC armor you've acquired either through direct purchase or through drinking Dr. Pepper (that latter offer's long gone and can only be attained illegally). There's also a Blood Dragon Armor you can get by purchasing a special Dragon Age: Origins DLC that provides the armor for both games, but I don't think that purchase is available anymore either. That said, if you're lucky enough to acquire that armor, it can be... well, quite the badass attire to fight enemies in.

But I'm going to save it for later and switch back to my N7 armor.

Aside from armor, you can also change your casual appearance, but I'll reveal what I change into for later if I ever get my own ship.

By the way, unlike the other special armor like the one above, you can customize the different parts of your N7 armor in terms of different colors and different armor, from the helmet to the boots. Those would be where the Dr. Pepper DLCs come in, which offer extra 'parts'. Changing different parts not only alter your appearance, but also gives you stat-boosts. My favorite helmet has to be the Kestrel Helmet. With the proper choice of palette, you can have something close to the Dredd armor here:

Perfect for a badass Renegade. I AM THE LAW!

But for now, I leave the helmet off. don't want to see the Illusive Man with head gear; that's rude. But you know what's ruder? Not meeting face-to-face.

The Illusive Man quickly became an iconic character for obvious reasons. You have Martin Sheen voicing a shady figure sitting in front of a shimmering star as he smokes and sips down wine on his comfy chair. How classy can a character get?

I voice my distrust, but he reminds me to put my personal feelings for a bigger threat - the Reapers. He informs me that human colonies are under attacked, and he believes someone like Saren is working with the Reapers again. As I learn more, he informs me that Cerberus is a pro-humanity organization, which is why it got involved in this. Seems like the Alliance is doing jack-shit, so it's up to them to stop it. He also reveals that the reason he brought Shepard back from the dead is because of her symbol for humanity's destruction of Sovereign. I still think he could've just trained an army though with the money he's spent, not that I'm complaining.

By the way, the Illusive Man theme is so awesome! That mysterious yet kinda dangerous vibe in the score really suits this unknown and imposing figure.

Not to mention that melancholic violin portion. Really represents the tough choices we have to make in the coming days.

For now, TIM (the short form I'm gonna be using from now) wants me to head to the latest human colony that was abducted, Freedom's Progress. I guess they haven't made much progress (ba-dum-tss). I have no choice but to trust these strangers for the moment. Being revived isn't exactly that welcoming, is it. Hope I get some spare time later to look up some of my old friends.

After the talk with TIM, you can talk to Jacob and Miranda before you leave for the mission, squad convo style.

Miranda Lawson
Miranda proves to be just as I presumed - stuck-up and bitchy.

TIM doesn't look like that bad a fellow now compared to this woman. A control chip on a human being. What a whacko.

Jacob Taylor
Jacob promises to earn my trust, despite my misgivings towards all Cerberus members (I mean, they did perform twisted experiments on innocents in the last game). Jacob also talks a little about his service history with the Alliance and Cerberus. Seems he was part of an Alliance black-ops group called the Corsairs, similar to the Council Spectres, but with seemingly more red tape from his description. He thought things would change after humanity joined the Council, but it's the "same bullshit, different leaders." He got sick of the politics, and decided to join Cerberus, where he's free to make his own call.

Have to say, the man makes a good point. Bureaucrats are the bane of progress.

Freedom's Progress
On the way there, the Cerberus duo tells me more about the other colony attacks. Seems there were never a single clue left behind, not even a corpse or DNA. They ask me for my orders, and in the traditional Renegade style, I tell them to do whatever it takes. Seems like I'm going to fit right in with Cerberus, this bunch of Renegades.

At the colony, it's but a barren wasteland. The whole place is empty. No structural damage either. It's like everybody got up and left. But of course, before long, we come across our first enemies. More mechs. Seems they're called LOKI mechs. Seems there are dog-sized version ones called FENRIS mechs as well. Regardless of their Norse mythology references, however, these bots go down well enough with Miranda's Biotic Warp and Tech Overlord powers.

Of course, you need to watch your covers or you'll die... like me. lol "Insanity" is truly something else. Wait till I fight the tougher enemies ahead.

It seems that we aren't as alone as it seems, since those mechs shouldn't be activated. I wonder who could it be...?

Moving on, I come across a safe that I can hack for some monies. There's a glitch you can actually take advantage of; after you finish solving the puzzle, immediately hit the space bar and you'll get to solve the puzzle a second time, granting you twice the money, or more if you're lucky!

After taking down some more mechs, we come across the other party that triggered the mechs, including a familiar face...

It's the new and improved quarian in high-definition graphics! Now it feels more right at home.

Oh, the first time I saw Tali again back then, to be honest, didn't feel quite as great as it is now since she wasn't a particularly favorite member of mine. I didn't hate her or anything, but she just wasn't anyone that special. Contrary to the other ex-teammate I shall come across in the next mission, that is.

But boy, is it good to see Tali again. I remind her that I gave her the Pilgrimage gift back then to prove who I really am. She asks why I'm working with Cerberus, but I tell her that I have no other option since Cerberus did patch me up from the dead and is helping out human colonies. Seems like a quarian on his pilgrimage, Veetor, got injured and panicked (quarians will die even from a flu, remember?). Doesn't help that the guy's got an anxiety problem. When he saw Tali ship landing, he freaked out and activated the drones.

Do you remember what I said about Tali being tougher in this game? Well, from this conversation, you could tell this, especially with how she take charge of the situation as a leader. This growth is one of the reasons why she's gained a loyal following among fans.

I offer to team up with her for old times' sake. When I first played ME2 and saw the option to team up with Tali, after the dreaded time I had spent with these two Cerberus strangers, I was naturally ecstatic. It's like, "Ugh, thank god. Finally! A friendly face to hang out with." I smashed that option immediately. We still have to split up, but at least we're teamed up again.

Tali: "Good luck, Shepard. Whatever happens... it's good to have you back."

You too, Tali. You too.

I actually chose a lot of Paragon options for this convo (most of which are no longer differentiated by colors anymore). With Tali, it was tough for me to be that harsh with her, since she has a kind of little/big sister relationship with FemShep. Hah.

More mechs. I figure out that the machine gun pistol actually has more kick than the normal one. No wonder I kept having my ass handed to me. The normal pistol took forever to take down the enemy shields and armor. Meanwhile, Tali's man, Prazza, have rushed on ahead with his squad into an ambush. Miranda displays her smug disapproval on allying with the quarians.

When I reach the loading docks entrance, Tali informs me that Veetor has reprogrammed a heavy mech and is tearing Prazza's squad apart. This will be our first 'boss fight' of sorts. At the end of each story mission from now on - and boy, are there plenty compared to the first game - there will be a boss fight.

The giant YMIR mech's got machine guns, rockets, shields, and armor, while you have limited covers. Needless to say, this will be a tough fight.

But, the mech is stupid. Get its attention, maneuver around cover, and have Miranda lay down her Overload and Warp. The mech will go down eventually, but you need to watch out for its self-destruct explosion, as with all other mechs.

After you defeat it, before moving on, make sure to pick up the heavy weapon ammo upgrade from the downed YMIR mech (a different one, not the one you fought) on the North side of the area by the stairs. Heavy weapons like grenade launchers rely on one kind of ammo simply called "Heavy Weapon Ammo" (lazy, I know), and it's essential you have this upgrade since the maximum rounds you can carry can be very limited.

After sweeping the entire area for loot (including 2x heavy weap ammo!), I proceed through the back of the loading bay and find Veetor freaking out at a control panel, mumbling about "swarms and monsters coming". There are two ways you can handle this - patiently or otherwise. Depending on your dialogue option, you will get the chance to use either a Paragon or Renegade interrupt for the first time.

Like I said, I have a soft spot for Tali, and her men by extension. I turn off the computer he's focusing on so that he'll notice my presence. I ask him what happened, and he shows me security footage he's pieced together. Miranda recognizes one of the figures. She calls it a "Collector". On a sidenote: I realize that for all three games, the beginning of the story would feature a video footage of some sort. The first game showed a blurred video feed of Sovereign, and now, a Collector. Let's see if we can hit thrice.

Like Sovereign, the images of the Collectors are very blurry so you can't see much. I'll show you a better screenshot of them when I meet them face-to-face for the first time.

I find out a little more about the Collectors from Veetor. Seems that they use some sort of "Seeker Swarms", miniature probes that search for victims and immobilizing them. Aside from the fact that they took the human colonists back aboard their ship, Veetor, along with the Cerberus duo, don't know much else about the obscure Collectors.

Veetor, however, has recorded the Collector's data with his omni-tool (orange holographic gloves used for hacking, recording, and other technological tasks; it's like a computer Swiss army knife). Unfortunately, that also means taking Veetor in so that TIM could get that data. Tali naturally disapproves of this, since Veetor's already injured. I use this chance to ask Tali to join me (*squeals*) but she turns me down... (*frowns*). Seems like she's got her own important mission in geth space. She tells me she'll join me... if she makes it out alive. Oh well.

But despite that disappointment, I'm not going to begrudge cute little Tali just for that. I give her Veetor as she's asked.

Hopefully, we'll get to see her again in the game...

Back at the Cerberus base, MarTIM Sheen here isn't too happy about my pacifistic methods, and I tell him having friends can pay off. He informs that the data has confirmed that the Collectors were indeed the abductors, a fact that he seems to know already. It seems that he had his suspicions, but the Collectors never really had direct aggression until now. They would perform random trades and return beyond an unmapped mass relay called Omega 4.

But since all ships passing through the relay are never heard of again, we can't just follow it without preparation. Regardless, TIM believes the Reapers involved, and it's imperative that we stop whatever it is they've got planned. I tell TIM that I need a good team, and he says he's already compiled a list; it's up to me to convince this dirty dozen to join us and work together. I said I had a team, but it would seem that most of them are not available... Sigh.

Shortly, he gives me my second mission - head to Omega and find a salarian scientist named Mordin Solus, who might be able to counteract the Collectors' paralyzing seeker swarms. I got a bit ticked he's giving me orders already, but he pass them off as "directions". Whatever.

But, sensing my distrust, he baits me back with "a pilot I might like, someone I can trust".

Ohhhhh hell yeah. By the way, for the newcomers who didn't know, "Just like old times" is a recurring quote that will practically become the series' slogan. Remember what I said about that sense of compadre in the story? Well, "Just like old times" represents that, just hanging out with your old squadmates again, saving the galaxy on some dangerous suicide mission yet again. Just like old times.

But wait! That's not all! Joker joining the team again isn't the best part! Yes, you guessed it. It's bigger. It's better. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S...

...too much for my weak heart!!! Oh boy, oh boy.

Joker: "It's good to be home, huh, Commander?"

Joker sums it up well. Back then, seeing the Normandy again for the first time so long after the first game... It's this kind of nostalgia why you should keep both games separated - if you're playing the series for the first time, that is. Even now, just a day from finishing the first game, this scene still gives me chills, particularly with THIS music playing in the background:

That sense of majesty just seeing an old friend again. Oh, so good. Such well-crafted scenes is one reason why Mass Effect is still one of the best sci-fi series of all time.

Shortly, I proudly tread upon my ship, once again feeling at home.

I can't say it enough - it's good to be back.

Of course, Cerberus added some modifications to the ship... including a freaking A.I.!

I immediately tell them to get that soon-to-be Skynet off my ship, which the Cerberus duo understands where I'm coming from considering I not only had to fight geth - rogue A.I. programs in essential - but also had to deactivate a rogue V.I.! If a V.I. can go rogue, how can I trust an A.I. aboard my ship?!

But whatever. "EDI" says she's no threat to me. I guess I have to put up with her - for now.

Let's put all that behind and explore the rest of the ship! There are a couple of squad convos you can have here, including one with your own "Yeoman".

Squad Conversations
Yeoman Kelly Chambers - CIC (Combat Information Center)

Basically, she's a secretary that handles your messages, helps monitor the crew, and flirts with you from time to time. You know, the usual 'secretary' stuff, but maybe not that last part if you're playing FemShep. I don't know. I think Yeoman might be bi. I mean, she asks me to call her by her first name, and when I do, she smiles like a pervert old man! What kind of signal am I supposed to take from that?!

I learn a little more about Yeoman's duties. Seems that the girl's got a degree in psychology. She's a counselor (not to be confused with "councilor") that monitors the crew's mental health. Neat. She also voices her support towards Cerberus, claiming they have noble goals in the interest of humanity. When I call out Cerberus for being a xenophobe, ishe makes an analogy with pets - starting a dog shelter doesn't mean she hates cats. But I tell her she's fooling herself, and she hopes time will change my mind about the organization.

There's also our first flirting session here, where she says she trusts me enough to fall and let me catch her, and I tell her I might do more than just catch her. She replies positively. SEE!? I told you she's bi! lol

Joker - Bridge
If you stand behind Joker long enough without talking to him, he will make remarks about the ship's status, including one amusing remark about using a bottle in place of the bathroom because you're blocking his way.

Joker is clearly excited by the idea of a new and polished ship. But he's a bit peeved about certain modifications, particularly the talking A.I. beside the pilot seat. I tell him it's all a little too convenient, but Joker is too fixated on his revolving leather seat. lol

By the way, I missed the chance to properly show you Shepard's casual outfit on the ship:

I chose this one because it feels more professional. There's a more casual one that's a replica of the average crewmen's uniform, but it made me feel too much like "one of the men", when I'm their superior officer.

EDI - Bridge
I ask EDI about her job details. She handles the ship's cyberwarfare suites, being faster than any organic in reaction. If close enough to an enemy ship, she can break through their firewalls to turn off gravity or air, disable weapons or shields, or just simply put their fusion plant in meltdown. When you add on her management of Normandy's jammers, decoys, and firewalls, she's pretty much a one-woman army on her own.

She also collates the records of the ship's monitoring devices for TIM, since the man needs to monitor our progress. Considering that he's the one who paid the bills, it's hard to argue.

She also has additional unknown functions which are restricted at this time. We'll get to that in the future.

You can ask her about Cerberus, but a lot of your questions would grant you the following response:

Seems that TIM isn't dumb enough to let company secrets leak that easily. There isn't much to know with that block in place, but we'll do something about that later.

Throughout the ship, you can also access EDI to know more about the part of the ship you're in.

Jacob - Armory
Like a loyal soldier, Jacob shows his gratitude for being aboard the ship. He also shares his concerns about Cerberus' past actions. Well, at least he's not daft enough to not know about Cerberus' shady background. I tell him I appreciate his frankness, a trait my own pragmatic Shepard shares.

At the crew level of the ship, you'll catch an exchange between a pair of crewmates, Patel and Rolston, talking about the latter's family. As you progress through the mission, you can come down and listen in from time to time as Rolston's concerns for his family grows due to the Collectors' increased attacks on human colonies.

Mess Sergeant Gardner - Kitchen
Okay, I take it back. Jacob's not the most boring character. This guy is. Like, I don't even get what the point of this character is supposed to be. He cooks, and he maintains the toilet - thankfully not both at the same time.

He's also the ship's handyman that tackles miscellaneous tasks like ship repairs and the sort. Aside from that little tidbit, there's really nothing more interesting about him. Even Yeoman has more lines than this fellow.

To be fair, whenever you pass by the kitchen (yes, the Normandy kitchen), you'll sometimes hear amusing conversations between the crew and the chef. Well, I use "amusing" loosely in this context.

There's also a side quest you can get from Gardner regarding the improvement of the food the crew eats. It's a simple side quest that you can complete as soon as you head to the Citadel.

Doctor Chakwas - Medical Lab
Yes! The good doctor is back! Another familiar face for the count, just like old times (take a shot whenever you see me repeat that catchphrase).

After the Normandy went down, she was reassigned to a medical center on Mars. Peaceful, but boring. She's too used to life aboard a ship to turn down an opportunity to serve aboard Normandy again, even if it's with Cerberus. And besides, according to her, she doesn't work for Cerberus, she works for me. Lastly, even though this might very well be a suicide mission, she's lived a full life and have no regrets. Thankfully, her journey doesn't necessarily have to end at the second game.

There's also a side quest you can do for the Doctor - replace her misplaced bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy that she was saving for a special occasion. There's a special scene for you when you do.

Miranda - Her Office
You can check with her on the ship's status here, along with finding out what she does in her office aside from sipping coffee and looking pretty. Basically, she's TIM's little secretary. I got Yeoman, the Big Man's got her.

I talk to her about Cerberus, which she says isn't as evil as most people believe. She compares Cerberus with the salarian STGs and the asari commandos, even though those groups answer to the Council, while Cerberus is independent of any accountability. Cerberus is also divided into multiple divisions - the ones we encountered in the first game belong to an entirely different division, the military one. It's her subtle way of saying not all Cerberus agents are twisted mad scientists performing experiments on the innocents. Lastly, she is confident about TIM having humanity's bests interests at heart. She's quick to tune his horn - no sexual innuendo intended - even though she knows little about him. Well, by the end of the game, I'm sure she'll sing a different tune.

After that, I talk to her about herself. Seems that she's had extensive genetic mods built into her, which is why TIM picked her in the first place. She's proud of that fact, and I call her cocky for it.

Seems that her mods are very thorough, giving her physical superiority over the average human, not to mention extended lifespan. Add to that her advanced biotic powers (for a human, but not nearly as good as a future squadmate) and "some of the best training and education money can buy", she pretty much the perfect human. But she denies that notion, claiming that she still makes mistakes, and people expect a lot from her due to her abilities, so those mistakes can be costly.

As you progress, you'll learn that little Miranda here isn't really as perfect as she seems after all, and you'll even need to help her out with her daddy issues. But that's for next time.

And that's it for Day 1 of Mass Effect 2. We've obviously covered a lot today, but there's more to come tomorrow as we finally meet my most anticipated squadmate of all, an old friend from c-sec. Gosh, I can't wait. It will be... just like old times.

Ryder · Oct 27, 2016

A little sneak peek of what's to come, and a little extra tidbit:

Miranda's Profile

Mordin's Profile (the salarian I'm recruiting tomorrow)

Ryder · Oct 28, 2016

Previously on Mass Effect 2...

Just another routine mission.

On her neverending quest to stop the Reapers, Command Shepard never expected to meet her death. A humanist organization called Cerberus spent the next two years rebuilding the symbol of humanity, the Commander herself. Human colonies were being abducted by an insectoid race called the Collectors, suspected to be the Reapers' new ally. The Commander is needed once again. At the latest abduction site, Freedom's Progress, Shepard had a brief meeting with an old friend, a quarian named Tali. But both had their own missions to do and parted ways. Commander Shepard is to hire a new team to help her on her impossible task, beginning with a salarian scientist named Mordin Solus...

Just another routine mission.

~~~~~~~~

One last set of crewmates I forgot to mention yesterday, though a fairly minor one:

Donnelly and Daniels - Main Engineering
Immediately, these two already pissed me off with their casual greeting. I berate them for their lack of military gestures.

You can be friends with Shepard, but military routines are there for a reason.

I learn a little more about the engineering duo. Seems they got fed up with the Council's bullshit as well and joined up with Cerberus when they heard of the mission. I also pick up another side quest from them. Seems that they need new T6-FBA couplings to make their maintenance work easier. Like Gardner's meals, you can complete this mission quickly, but instead of the Citadel, you have to buy'em at Omega, our next destination.

Last but not least, the top deck is the captain's cabin, where you can listen to in-game BGMs, check your earned achievements, check your private messages (which you can also check at a panel next to Yeoman; more on that later), customize your outfit, and even breed a bunch of fishes when you purchase them in the future (feeding them constantly can be a pain though).

While customizing my armor, I realize a very annoying omission from the second game - no "Hide Helmet" option. I don't get to see my FemShep's beautiful Latina face during conversations because of that, but the stat-boost of the helmet (especially the Kestrel) is much needed on Insanity. Oh well. In the future, my Shepard's face might not be seen as often anymore because I want to try out cutscenes with some of the cooler helmets, like the Recon Hood.

Private Terminal
There are messages you can read here that either acknowledge your DLC installations through some flavor text, or they'll be emails from old acquaintances you met in the first game. Sometimes they're important as they update your journal with bonus quests, more than often they're not. But it can be interesting to read through them.

You can also read archived messages, check your upgrades (none for now till we pick up Mordin), check on your team's status, and there are even tutorial videos on the new combat mechanics for you to watch.

Navigating Through The Galaxy
The new galaxy map is rather interesting, as you now pilot a miniaturized version of the Normandy through the star systems as you select the planet you want to go. Unfortunately, like any real vehicle, you need to fuel up when traveling between star systems - and the limited fuel tank can be annoying. Run out of fuel and you're sent to the nearest star system with a fuel depot. You can also buy probes to scan the planets for minerals and pick up additional side quests - again, you need to buy these, ugh.

Like the first game, you can pick up minerals. This time, they're not for some random side quest, but for your upgrades. Yes, those upgrades need minerals, and sweeping through the planet with that tiny scanner can be very frustrating. I almost want to just type in a cheat code just to forget about this tedious mnigame. You scan through the planet, and when one of the four Guitar Hero columns there displays a spike (one of those shapes that look like a mountain in the above picture), that means your scanner is picking up minerals. Hold down the spacebar to make the planet spin faster, thus letting you scan faster. Hit RMB to fire a probe. The higher the data spike, the more minerals you'll collect, meaning you'll need to keep searching for the highest spikes available.

The level of annoyance grows as the planet is gradually depleted. As long as the "Scanner Results" doesn't says "Depleted", that means you still have minerals left to collect, so you have to scan through every grid of this sphere. Sigh.

This is one of the reasons why the game is so unfairly long. You need to scan every planet if you want those upgrades. It gets easier with the Shadow Broker DLC, but I'm not planning on doing that till end-game. But to be fair, I can't remember if there are more planets/minerals than necessary to grab all upgrades, so I might not actually have to scan everything, especially when you add the 50k minerals from my ME1's mining to consideration. And every now and then, you'll be lucky enough to come across a planet rich in minerals, making your job a bit easier. In my opinion, gas giants (like Jupiter) are the most annoying ones to scan because they're so huge to scan, but still contain very little minerals.

Oh yeah, and you can no longer right-click to get out of the planet-view screen. You have to click this little button on the bottom-right corner. Otherwise, if you hit Esc, it will exit you from the galaxy map view completely.

Omega Nebula / Sahrabarik / Omega
But thankfully, all that's over and done with eventually. Now it's time to head over to Omega, a quaint little place built in the mined-out husk of an asteroid.

Doesn't it just look lovely? Totally not sinister at all.

Like Noveria, Omega is full of opportunities to go Renegade - even more, I'd say. As opposed to the more corporate-oriented Noveria, Omega is a total slum just waiting for a crime to happen. You can unleash your inner-ruthlessness without restraint here since the majority of the population here are scumbags. It's the perfect excuse for me to earn some Renegade points.

Barely a minute after I set foot, I'm harassed by a batarian named Moklan who wants me to meet someone named Aria at a place called "Afterlife". Sounds like quite the homey locale. Then again, with Omega, any place's a homey locale I guess.

The Veteran
Near the entrance to Omega, there's a heavily-armored human mercenary threatening another fellow - a batarian too. Usually it's the other way around.

That's him kicking the guy in the batarian balls. Pleasant fellow.

Zaeed Massani, part of a squadmate DLC. We'll get another one of these later at the Citadel. It seems like the guy's a bounty hunter. TIM moved a lot of credits to get this guy on, so he must be of some value. The guy doesn't care much for the danger or the point of the mission - he's just in it for credits. Fair enough. I ask him to report to the ship, but he then tells me that there's a fine print to his recruitment - I have to help him out on an assignment. Unlike non-DLC squadmates though, he'll join you regardless of you helping him out. The assignment involves the leader of the Blue Suns (one of the colored gangs in this game; yes, ME2 has those generic colored gangs as well), Vido Santiago. But that's for much later in the game.

Welcome to Omega. Why yes, those are dancing asari strippers on the big-ass screen hanging over the place. Remember the Megacities from the Judge Dredd comic book? Well, it's something like that. Appropriate, considering that I fashion my armor after the Judges' uniform.

There's a new gameplay element in ME2 involving squad comments about places you visit. Now you have to bring your squad to specific areas of the place and select a "Talk to [insert name]" option instead of waiting for that awkward "Hmm..." comment you get in the first one when they have something to say.

Miranda: "Omega. What a pisshole. At least it keeps you on your toes. I've had to come here on business before. I feel like I need a shower afterward -- in addition to normal decontamination."

Soon as I enter this Chora's Den 2.0, "Afterlife", I'm confronted by a bunch of batarian thugs unhappy about me giving them the stink-eye. One of them asks what I'm looking at. My response is obvious.

+5 Renegade

We barely even started and we're in business!

You know, were it not for all the killing and pillaging, Afterlife might have been a cool nightclub to hang out at.

At the bar, you can make that purchase for the bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy for Doctor Chakwas. You can also order a drink here from a turian bartender. The drinks here are probably light in alcohol, as the Commander won't get knocked out no matter how many shots you down. Your screen will swivel from side to side a little and there'll be increased motion-blur to show that she's tipsy, but that's it.

But business must come first. I head up the stairs at the back of Afterlife to meet this Aria T'Loak, but I'm quickly stopped by her guards who need to check me for weapons first. I threaten to blow the batarian's colons out, but Aria insists. I tell Aria I have some questions, and ask if she runs Omega. She laughs smugly.

Someone's got a goddess complex.

Aria: "I'm the boss, CEO, queen if you're feeling dramatic. It doesn't matter. Omega has no titled ruler and only one rule."

Yep. Definitely a goddess complex.

Onto business. I asks my questions, beginning with Omega and Aria herself. But it seems the queen's privy to her secrets, so I can't ask much for now till I prove myself useful to her. I then ask about Mordin. Seems that he's an ex-STG agent who's "as likely to heal you as he is to shoot you". He's currently helping some plague victims down in the quarantine zone, so I'll need to take a shuttle there. I thank her for the info, and she reminds me not to bring the plague back with me.

Mordin is actually not the ideal squadmate to recruit first if you want to get the best squadmate dialogue. Miranda and Jacob have very boring dialogue during the mission. The ideal order would be Jack > Mordin > Grunt > Archangel. The only squadmate that has unique dialogue in Jack's mission is Grunt, whereas in Mordin's, Grunt, Jack, and Archangel all have unique dialogue, but I'd advise you to get Mordin before Grunt because he has really interesting dialogue regarding the krogans during Grunt's mission. Lastly, Grunt and Zaeed have their own comments to share during Archangel's mission.

In fact, due to Bioware messing around with inserting as much dialogue as possible, squadmates you can only get at later parts of the game have unique dialogue too, but you can only get those if you use a cheat code. In the end, it really comes down to which squadmate you would like to spend more time with, because no matter who you choose, you're going to miss out on some unique dialogue during a single playthrough.

So I think I'm going to switch things up a bit. I apologize if things get a bit confusing from here, but I forgot about ME2's puzzling dialogue element and didn't plan ahead. lol Looks like we're going to postpone Mordin's recruitment for now and grab this fellow instead.

So here's the plan:
1. Jack: Zaeed and Miranda
2. Grunt: Zaeed and the other DLC squadmate we'll get later
3. Archangel: Grunt and Zaeed
4. Mordin: Grunt/Zaeed and Archangel

This is the part where I allow my OCD to take over and explore the rest of the Omega star cluster before moving to the one Jack is at, but considering that there are five out of six unexplored star systems remaining, it's too tedious for me to care, so I'm going to all that for later. This includes the planet-scanning, which I've already gotten bored of.

So instead, let's immediately head over to...

Hourglass Nebula / Osun / Prison Ship Purgatory
I bring along Zaeed and Miranda because Zaeed's got ties with the guards on the ship, the Blue Suns, while Miranda's got a catty relationship with Jack in the long run. Speaking of Miri, remember when I said there's someone else with greater biotic talents than Miranda? Well, that person's Jack (just beneath a future asari squadmate), which is impressive considering Jack's also human, not a natural-born biotic like the asari.

The situation is this: Cerberus has negotiated with the Blue Suns for the release of a deadly convict named "Jack". Arriving at the ship, I'm asked to relinquish my weapon. Sigh. Why do all these people even try?

Warden Kuril appeases the situation and asks me to be reasonable, but I can't accept that offer and request to retain my firearm. The turian warden and I engage in a staring contest, but I win out and he allows me to pass through.

The warden plays tour guide as he leads me to my package, He tries to sell me on how impressive his prison is, how each cell block can be blown out of the airlock in an emergency (or just to set an example for the prisoners). The prisoners' homeworld pay well to keep them locked up, but if they don't pay, the warden would merely inform them kindly that they have to release the prisoner back on their planet - at an unspecified location and time. Not exactly the most legit prison system out there. He shares his principles for becoming a warden, that he was sick of criminals escaping on his homeworld, Palaven, so he decided to set up a prison in space to keep'em all locked up. Regarding the risk of prisoner escape, he says that not only do the prisoners have nowhere to run to in the middle of space, but the warden's also put up several defenses to prevent it, including these generators that would trap any misbehaving prisoner in bubble-shields. Effective.

Last but not least, regarding Jack. "Jack is the meanest handful of violence and hate I've ever encountered. Dangerous, crazy, and very powerful." Sounds like Jack's either the perfect soldier for a suicide mission, or a dangerous liability.

After he leaves at the end of the tour, I move on my own, only to find an officer continuously beating up a defenseless prisoner.

The logical conclusion is that the Renegade option would be to say, "That's justice". But surprisingly, if you ask "Is this necessary?" You have yet another Renegade option to choose, which I did. I threaten the officer to stop the beating - or else. In spite of the guns and cameras protecting the base, Shepard's imposing presence alone wins out, and the officer agrees. lol Never cross Shepard.

A prisoner stops me on the way and says if we purchase him he'll do whatever we want. He quickly change his mind when he learns we're here for Jack. Seems that the warden's intentions aren't so noble after all, selling prisoners to the highest buyers. He says he's imprisoned for killing 20 or so people - small-time compared to the other prisoners. If that is small, I don't want to know what's big.

Entering outprocessing, where my package awaits, I find out that the warden wants to keep me around as a prisoner to be sold off. Heh, typical. Guess it's time for a fight.

So, through my second fight in Insanity, the hardest difficulty, the key thing is to have a lot of patience while conserving your biotics and ammo. The usual combat tactics. Using Overlord is tempting, but due to the cooldown, don't use it unless necessary. At this point in time, with the powers not upgraded, it's not wise to randomly toss out powers left and right.

After fighting through the small army of Blue Suns guards, I hack the controls for Jack's cell-block (which would in turn release every prisoner, but who cares with this corrupted penitentiary). I then find out that Jack...

...is a girl? Huh.

In no time at all, Jack rampages through the prison with her biotics like a human tank, tearing apart anything that gets in her way - including three broken up YMIR heavy mechs. I have trouble taking two down, let alone turning three into smashed up tin cans. lol

Needless to say, there's a good reason why Jack's considered the most powerful human biotic in history.

So, the rest of the fight was tougher than I expected, mostly because I made the mistake of forgetting about the respawning enemies during the final area (along with using the incorrect choice of weapons to take down the respective shield/armor). You need to take down the shield generator or enemies will keep on spawning from the front and back, easily cornering you. Taking the shields down will make Kuril attack you, but at least you now can take down the mobs peacefully at your own pace without worrying about respawns. I ended up spending a couple hours reloading because I kept on dying. lol God, I really need those squad points so that I could upgrade my powers. I was almost tempted to turn on god mod, but I wanted to make it through without cheating.

But eventually, I take down Kuril and his sorry-ass spewing excuses for his slave-trading. Meanwhile, Jack makes it through much easier than me, but just as she has finished taking down the last of the Blue Suns, she spots the Normandy - and the Cerberus logo on it. Seems she's pretty pissed about that logo for some reason. In her outrage, a Blue Sun guard sneak up on her, but I manage to put him down and save Jack's bare-naked ass.

She asks me what I want, and I tell her, for starters, her gratitude. We talk smack with each other for a bit, engaged in a battle of wits. She says I'm Cerberus and doesn't want to come with me. I say it's unhealthy to be my enemy. She asks if I think she's stupid for letting Cerberus taking her away. I reply that my ship is the only way out of the burning Purgatory; her arguing answers her own question. Miranda suggests to knock her out. Jack dares us to do so.

Phew. Damn, Shepard and Jack! These girls have a mouth on them! They should have like an insult contest or something. I wouldn't mind watching an entire video with Renegade FemShep and Jack just going at each other, talking shit.

Eventually, Jack simply wants me to make it worth her time. She wants to look through the Cerberus files aboard my ship. I agree, since I don't really have any obligation to answer to Cerberus, much like how Cerberus operates independently of any accountability.

And that marks our first recruited teammate (not counting the Cerberus duo we already got). Back aboard the ship, Jack and the "Cerberus cheerleader" are already squaring off against each other.

It's little wonder though; they're polar opposites of each other. Miranda is professional and organized, while Jack is a wild raging beast with no restraints. It's like Mac vs. PC over here.

I tell Jack that she can have her files soon; she respond by threatening to tear the ship down. lol Charming girl.

We'll proceed with the next set of squad convos in the next session. I think I might want to complete some side quests too, just to level up and let me upgrade my powers.

Ryder · Oct 28, 2016

Gonna wrap up the squad convo from the last mission. Had to take a break just now because I wasn't in a very good mood. Still am not, but I don't want to leave these posts half-finished like the first playthrough. I'm already upset I had to change my plan to pick up Mordin since it makes the story feel so disorganized.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Previously on Mass Effect 2...
Command Shepard made her first recruitment - Jack, a dangerous but powerful biotic convict. After freeing her from a self-righteous slave-trader, Shepard allowed her access to Cerberus files, a decision the Cerberus cheerleader wasn't pleased about.

In addition, Shepard had met Aria T'Loak, the ruthless ruler of the crime-filled Omega. Aria granted her information about Mordin's involvement with a certain plague. But first, Shepard has other plans...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Squad Convos
Jacob
Jacob and I talk a little about his involvement with the Alliance. Apparently, he's saved the Citadel once like myself, but he compares good deeds to pissing yourself in dark pants - warm feeling, but no one notices. Clever.

I ask a little more about himself, but there's not much that I haven't learned already. Ex-Alliance, got sidelined by the politics and decided to join the people that actually bothered setting out to take down the bad guys, Cerberus. His proudest moment serving the Alliance was the aforementioned saving of Citadel, when he and Miranda stopped a group of batarians from setting off a weaponized virus on the Council. But as always, chaos is bad for publicity, so the Council swept it under the rug to prevent panic (just wait till those bureaucrats get to the third game - then they will have no time to even panic).

Jacob also informs me that the Alliance used Shepard's face on recruitment ads since she was the human ideal - for six months before they replaced her with a composite image they invented. He expresses his disapproval at how the perfect example of humanity got dumped, and I ask if he really likes this perfect bod before him. lol Things get a little weird from there, which Jacob feels uncomfortable about - which Shepard likes, since pushing the buttons of her men is not only amusing, but important mental endurance training. But I'll let Jacob off the hook, for now.

Kelly
The secretary apologizes for being flirty with me earlier. I tell her she's very charming, and she returns the same compliment. My Yeoman isn't the only person who gets to be bi. I'll leave it to your interpretation whether my FemShep is doing her button-pushing again here to test her men, or if she's genuinely flirting with another female.

Joker
"Okay, Shepard, glad you're back, but keep an eye on that last one. We can only hold so much crazy."

I ask about the ship's status, and it seems the pilot is changing settings EDI deemed to be against safety standards. He's annoyed and tells me to shut it off, but I tell him to adapt. EDI might not be trustworthy, but her knowledge of the ship might come in useful.

I reminisce about the good ol' days from the first game, but Joker reminds me that back then, it wasn't all sunshine and bunnies either, with the geth and Saren, not to mention the theft of a ship that nearly got us all court-marshaled if we hadn't saved the day. To be fair, we did lose Kaidan too, so Joker's got a point. I tell him I miss the old crew, and he says the seperation was inevitable with the Alliance's indifference and my absence.

Hope we can get the old team back together again.

Miranda
The cheerleader is impressed with how smoothly the Cerberus operations are going so far, and I remind her of my loyalty to the Alliance. She asks me to give Cerberus a second chance, just as it has done for me. I ask why she defends the organization so strongly, and she reveals that Cerberus protected her from her abusive father who literally created her Frankenstein-style with the addition of all those genetic implants she had mentioned earlier.

With Cerberus, she feels like she has a bigger purpose here than serving her father's selfish agendas. I tell her that she's better than just some tool to be used by either of them, that she doesn't need to make excuses for her existence. But she firmly believes that those implants are the only great things that define her existence, and how they're used. Shepard can't disagree. All that platitude about the human spirit and having a great personality's great and all, but when it comes down to it, your actions and your ability to get things done are what get people's attention, not fancy words and sharp wit. It's why Cerberus put billions, if not trillions of dollars into resurrecting Shepard. They wouldn't do the same for just some Ms. Universe that promises something as empty as world peace.

I ask about Miranda's parents. Seems that her father's a humanist as well that donated generously to Cerberus. It was through him that she first heard about the organization. She never had a mother, of course, since her father was Mr. Frankenstein. Most of her genetic material is based on his tissue, and considering that his Y chromosome was altered with pre-selected traits he desired, you can see why Miri here has self-esteem issues about her own body.

Doctor Chakwas
I present to the good doctor the treasured brandy. She offers to drink with me, but I want to save a drinking session for a special occasion.

Zaeed - Starboard Cargo
The war veteran doesn't really have any conversations to have, but he does have a lot of trophies lying about in his room which you can find out more about. I got so sick of listening to Zaeed's war stories that I feel tired just writing about'em. Among the trophies, you can find a really old M-8 Avenger rifle that he named Jessie. Talk about your textbook mid-life crisis. He also keeps a surveillance feed in the room that shows various parts of the ship. Creeepy.

There's also a garbage compactor that you can play with. It releases a cube of trash, which you can eject. That's about it. It pretty much serves the same purpose as a forum spam game.

Daniels and Donnelly
Daniels: "Hey Kenneth, did you know we've got a crazy woman squatting down in the sub-deck?"
Donnelly: "What? If she touches anything, I'll kill her."
Daniels: "Oh, and the only thing she wears from her waist up is tattoos."
Donnelly: "Oh! Maybe I should go down and welcome her aboard."
Daniels: "And she's a murderer. Has biotic powers that could crush you with a blink. Hates everyone in Cerberus."
Donnelly: "Damn it, girl! Stop toying with me."

Jack - Engineering Sub-Deck
The convict is making herself at home down here. She's having fun digging into files (that I specifically said I would give later...). Seems like she's dug up some dirty secrets regarding Cerberus' shady past. She claims that after she's found what she wants, "the galaxy is going to be a lot emptier."

She then finally reveals her relationship with Cerberus - they raised her in a research lab, and she escaped when she was a kid. If that sounds bad, wait till you hear the much sicker stuff in the future, which she won't disclose for now.

I suggest to move her to better quarters, but she says the quiet and obscurity give her a sense of security. She then proceed to suggest for me to become a pirate, live like a queen - she would handle the executions. Aside from that last part, with Shepard's skills and ruthlessness, I actually could imagine her going pirate, albeit not a savage one. Jack seems to enjoy the killing though.

Side Quests
MSV Estevanico - Hourglass Nebula / Ploitari / Zanethu
The first of our side quests involves a crashed freighter. It disappeared without a trace a year ago, so I need to investigate the wreckage to see what had happened to it. The place is a minefield though, literally falling apart on a cliff's edge, so I need to watch out for loose tiles or I might go down with the ship (you won't fall, literally, but like the game's choices, it does give a good illusion of suspense). Some of the tiles you need to shoot loose in order to progress. There are some minerals you could pick up along the way as well.

After navigating through the labyrintic platform, I make it to the mainframe where I retrieve the data, but just seconds later...

I barely escape in time. Just like a typical action movie.

Eclipse Smuggling Depot - Hourglass Nebula / Faryar / Daratar
The Eclipse is our second colored-gang, this time in yellow. They're the more tech-savvy of the trio, mostly consisting of asari and salarians.

There's an Eclipse depot that we need to recover smuggled cargo from. Cerberus will pay credits for every crate you recover. Unfortunately, Eclipse left YMIR heavy mechs to destroy the those crates should they be compromised. You have to destroy those mechs ASAP if you want more monies.

There's actually a glitch you can exploit to make your life a little easier while doing this assignment on Insanity, but it requires that you recruit Mordin Solus and unlock the Heavy Weapon Armor upgrade. So I'll postpone this side quest for now.

Returning to the Citadel - Serpent Nebula / Widow / Citadel

Welcome home. Again.

There's a DLC squadmate here I need to pick up. After that, I won't be returning to the Citadel again till I pick up our final squadmate due to its unique dialogue at this place that I don't want to miss.

At the entrance, now called the "Rapid Transit" (yay map menu!), there's a cute voice calling out to me from what looks like a hooded figure on a cylindrical terminal. If you couldn't tell from her accent by now, she's Japanese.

Now, there's something I'd like to admit - "Kasumi Goto" here is probably my second favorite character in the game, right after Archangel. She's so funny, and there are a lot of amusing lines she'll say during missions, which is why I choose to pick her up so soon since there's not a lot of interesting squadmate options we can choose from right now. And yes, at the risk of sounding like a weeaboo, one part of why I like her is because she's Japanese - but not just because she's Japanese, but the way they portray her as this exotic Japanese who's a mysterious hacker with a playful personality. There's just something very likable about that combination. I like her loyalty mission as well since it's quite emotional. It's truly a shame that I don't get to romance her. (n) I wouldn't mind picking her over Ashley as a MaleShep, to be honest.

She'll appear on the terminal in the guise of an advertisement V.I. asking for your password. If you ignore her long enough, she'll even ask if you've lost your password. lol I could quote most of her lines, and it would be funny in one way or another.

Kasumi: "Okay, really? How many times can you walk by without stopping?"

But eventually, I stop messing with her and actually speak to the terminal. The password turns out to be "Silence is golden." I ask why she's sneaking around, and she says she's the best thief in the business, not the most famous one. Like Zaeed, there's string attached to her recruitment, a 'loyalty mission'. It's also optional as well. Kasumi is looking for her old partner's graybox. A man named Donovan Hock took it, so she needs my help getting it back. IMO, it's probably the most fun loyalty mission in the game. There's a lot of sneaking and hacking involved, making you feel like a spy on a secret mission. Appropriate, considering Spectres are like James Bond.

As you ask more about the mission, and more specifically, her old partner, you'll get a small glimpse of her very obscure visage.

Till now, nobody's actually seen what's under that hood, for better or worse.

Her old partner's name was Keiji Okuda, who had stumbled upon information that threatened humanity. He encrypted the info among his own memories. To decode it, you have to sift through all the time he spent together with Kasumi. You can see why she wants the Graybox badly.

But we'll just have to help Kasumi later. For now, let's head back to Omega. Back on board the ship, you can talk to Kasumi, but she pretty much has the same set-up as Zaeed, except that in place of war trophies, it's stolen treasures. She'll also make two random remarks about the crew everytime you visit her.

So I've been thinking about who I want to recruit next - Mordin or Archangel. The thing is, Archangel has some nice lines I want to exploit during the Mordin mission. And yes, I want to get to the part where I squeal about my first time learning Archangel's true identity, so let's just get right into it!

Archangel
A merc commander noted for his tactical expertise and excellent sniper skills, he's also responsible for high-profile attacks on all three colored-gang leaders. Three guesses who newcomers who this guy is.

First off, I head to Aria for more information. Looks like half of Omega is out for Archangel's head. The local primary color gangs have joined forces to take him down, and they're recruiting (in a private room at Afterlife) anyone with a gun to throw as cannon fodder. Looks like Commander Shepard's joining the mercs. It's one step down from being a pirate, but it will do.

Soon as I enter the private area, however, the scumbag mistakes me for a stripper (after calling me "honey" too; batarian pig). There's a Renegade Interrupt option you can use here (*pulls out pistol and gaze at it* "Show me yours, tough guy. I bet mine's bigger."), which will impress the Blue Suns recruiter.

As always, you can ask your usual investigative questions. Archangel's screwing with the gangs to mess up their operations, the freelancers the gangs are hiring (you included) are thrown as cannon fodder, and last but not least, Archangel's buried deep in his own turf, so getting to him will be tough.

As I make my exit, a very young man walks in and asks to sign up. You can either encourage him or stop him. If you stop him, there's a Paragon Interrupt here which I use.

Ruth can be a thug sometimes, but she's not above sending young boys to their death.

At the transport depot, a Blue Suns driver takes me to the warzone, where I'm greeted and instructed by a batarian named Salkie. Archangel's holed up in a building, and the only way in is over a very exposed bridge. As part of the distraction team, I'm to head over the bridge and get myself kil- I mean keep him busy while an infiltration team sneak in from behind.

I ask Salkie more about the mission, and it seems they had used a gunship on Archangel alone and he still managed to take it down, hitting the correct weak spots. There isn't much Salkie can tell me, but he points me in the direction of the gang leaders should I wish to know more.

I'm going to speed through the rest of the mission up till meeting Archangel because most of the details are kinda boring. You get to meet the leader of each group (or at least the leader for the Omega division); Jaroth's a salarian running the Eclipse, his brother got killed by Archangel; Garm the krogan runs the Blood Pack, he fought Archangel once; and finally, Tarak runs the Blue Suns - Zaeed and him goes way back - Archangel nearly got him at his own home, Along the way, you can pick up a datapad message involving a raid on Aria. You can turn this in later to earn her trust. You can also hack a heavy mech so that it will attack its own men later.

The one I'm to report to is a batarian named Cathka. Before he sends you to your death, he lets you ask your questions. He's the one fixing the gunship, but it's not quite ready yet. There's a Renegade Interrupt coming up where you can knock out Cathka to ensure he doesn't get to finish the repairs.

*stabs Cathka with a welder*
"You're working too hard."

You'll come to notice that a lot of the Renegade Interrupts have some of the most amusing one-liners.

On the bridge, one of the freelancers is setting up a bomb. From this point on, you can either let Archangel handle the freelancers himself, or help him out, which turn their attention onto you. After taking down this bunch of nobodies, here comes the moment I've been waiting for...

Shepard: "GARRUS! What are you doing here?!"

Shepard took the words right out of my mouth back when I first played this scene.

So, remember what I said at the beginning about how there's quite a long period of time between my playing of the first and second game? Picture this: I had came back to a group of strangers. Tali couldn't be recruited (yet), which left me feeling disappointed. So I just played along, not really caring that much about what happens next, when all of the sudden I see this familiar figure wearing a familiar blue armor... waitaminute...

And then, boom - he appears. The feeling at that exact moment can be summed up by the catchphrase that character is now known for - "Just like old times." Seeing Garrus' face again, seeing an old friend, that sense of nostalgia was just so satisfying. It's like, "YES! We finally get someone from the first game as a squadmate! And it's someone cool too!" So, naturally, I hit that "Garrus! What are you doing here?" dialogue option to express my utter pleasant surprise, because there were just no other appropriate words to describe how I had felt.

We catch up a little bit. Garrus got fed up with all the bureaucratic crap on the Citadel and decided to take his trade over to this little haven, where he can shoot all the criminals he want without red tape. Good ol' Garrus.

For now, we need to hold off the mercs as we try to figure a way out. There's a Renegade Interrupt here when Garrus borrows you his scope to look at the incoming enemies. You can pull the trigger on one of the mechs. After which, Garrus will stay on the balcony and snipe away as you do what you do best - take out the enemies any way you can.

Garrus will take out the stray mob every now and then, but don't rely on him too often. After you take out the first wave, Jaroth will unleash his YMIR mech, but with unexpected results - it turns on his own men instead thanks to my earlier hacking. So now we just have to let it do our dirty work before we finish it off.

After you finish off the last of the Eclipse troops, Garrus praises you for your performance. He's such a bro. No wonder he's one of the most popular characters. I suggest for Garrus to break for it while we still can, but it turns out that the Blood Pack is breaching the lower level and they're charging in from a blind spot Garrus can't snipe at, so I'll have to take them down myself from the other side of the door before they break in. I leave Garrus with Zaeed just in case things get rough on him. One of us dying once was enough.

I head down to the basement and seal off the shutter. However, the shutter has a 10 second loading time for some reason, so I have to hold them off till it closes. 10 seconds might not seem like a long time, but the enemies can rush in pretty quick. While you're fighting them off, Garrus will be fighting off enemies at the bridge too (which is where Zaeed comes in handy). That also means you'll have a time limit (or rather, Garrus' health bar) on your hands.

After shutting all three shutters (Garrus have 50% hp left for me), you'll return to the bridge where you now have to deal with the Blood Pack's leader, Garm and his men. With the geth shotgun and incendiary ammo, they're actually pretty easy to take down, especially with Kasumi's very useful Shadow Strike technique that distracts the enemies. This miniboss fight actually turns out to be much easier to handle than the Blood Packs blocking the shutters earlier. Garrus talks about his past experience tangling with him, how he's a tough SOB that regens faster than any krogans he's seen. But I took him down easily enough.

But of course, that's because the real boss fight is coming. The Blue Suns leader, Tarak, finally shows up - in his gunship too! You only have to fight his men first, but eventually, this happens:

Garrus gets a face-blast from a rocket - and no, as much as I wish it's so, that's not a sexual innuendo. :ROFLMAO: And so, a meme was born: "An arrow to the knee? Try a rocket to the face!"

Tarak's gunship comes with no shield and a bit of reduced armor thanks to the earlier Renegade Interrupt. Nevertheless, don't let your guard down as he'll still send his men after you continuously till the gunship is taken down.

In the end, Garrus is heavily injured and is taken aboard the Normandy immediately for emergency treatment.

Some reunion, huh?

Back aboard the ship, Jacob says they've done the best they could (which is shorthand for he's f***ed). But it seems the turian's just as tough an SOB as Shepard is.

Shepard: "Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face paint on there, and no one will ever notice."
Garrus: "Ha-ah! Don't make me laugh, damn it. My face is barely holding together as it is."
Garrus: "Some women find facial scars attractive. Mind you, most of those women are krogan..."

The banter between Shepard and Vakarian is always entertaining to watch, so I might try and quote them whenever I can.

After Jacob dismisses himself, Garrus voices his concerns about me joining Cerberus, reminding me of Cerberus' dark deeds in the first game. I tell him that's why I'm glad he's here.

Shepard: "If I'm walking into hell, I want someone I trust at my side."
Garrus: "You do realize this plan has me walking into hell, too. Hah. Just like old times."

And that's it for another exciting session of Mass Effect 2. I would love to do the squad convos for this round. Unfortunately, it's 8AM where I am, so I need to get some shut-eye. Till next time.

Ryder · Oct 29, 2016

I'm going to stop with these "Previously" from now on because they not only take up time to write, but also don't seem that meaningful when not a lot of people reading this playthrough is going to be reading it daily.

On a sidenote, there's something I want to bring up: My Shepard's face. I always had a difficult time getting the ideal face I wanted. I got it right during my earliest playthroughs, when I first played ME2, and her face was perfect, just the way I liked it, but then I lost the save files and I never really managed to nail down that same exact face anymore, so now her face looks kinda weird - either the shape of her face is all wrong and too jagged, or her complexion isn't tanned enough. I think the biggest peeve is definitely the tan, since I found the tan attractive (at risk of sounding creepy lol). Hopefully, by the third game, I can do something about it. I think they allow you to customize your imported face in the third one... I hope.

Edit:
I used the Gibbed Save Editor for ME2, and I think I manage to finally nail down the skin tone:

Before:

After:

It's actually pretty easy because I had two different Ruth Shepards in my game. The older one had the better skin tone, but her nose was too big, so I use the save editor to copy her skin color code over to my new Shepard. It's really not as complicated as I make it sound. Editing the code into a skin color you want (as opposed to copying the code from another save), on the other hand, is far more difficult since you need to know the code of the color you want.

Back to the game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Squad Convos
Jacob
The soldier gets a little defensive when I try to talk to him, and he apologizes. Joining Cerberus kept his wary of people, putting them at arm's length. He tells me he's an only child, never settled down. I ask about him and Miranda, and he says it's none of my business, which I could respect. I tell him I'm merely checking to see if he's available in case I make a move on him, and he gets all flustered like a cute little idiot.

You failed your test, soldier. Haha.

Note the troll face on my Shepard:

I calm him down and tell him we can be just friends so as not to disrupt the professional relationship we have.

By the way, in case you're wondering what those orange scars on my Shepard are, they're representation of your Shepard's Renegade nature. The more Renegade or aggressive your Shepard is, the more visible they are. They serve as an important part of Ruth's character development later on mid-game, when she reflect on her past aggressive actions, but we'll get to that later.

Kelly

The secretary is wary of Jack's attitude. "She pushes people away, yet approaches sex casually." She warns me to be careful when talking about Jack's personal life, as there might be some kind of deep-rooted personal issues.

Joker
"Hey, Commander, we got Garrus back! That's great, because he was totally my favorite. With that pole up his ass." xD I wonder if Joker shares a similar thought about Ruth, with how uptight she can be...

The pilot reveals he was having an argument over "personalization of his workspace" - AKA putting grease on EDI's cameras spying on him. Well, seems like these two are getting along. Pretty soon, Joker might even be chasing EDI's skirt.

Armor Customization
There is this very cool armor set that I forgot to use during Jack's mission, which would have been totally appropriate - the Terminus Armor.

Might as well use it while we're in the Terminus Systems at crime-filled Omega.

Miranda
Depleted! She's busy with her work, and won't talk to you again till she needs your help with her father later on.

Garrus - Main Battery
Archangel is checking out Normandy's guns. He informs me that the ship's weapons have more kick now thanks to Cerberus' upgrades, but he feels that further upgrades are needed if we're to survive the Collectors. This is an important point to remember during the end-game.

Impressed by the upgrades, Garrus expresses his desire to join up Cerberus sooner. I remind him we're not part of Cerberus. He calms me down, says his own judgement isn't exactly reliable, considering that he got his own squad killed. He shares a little more about his history after the first game. After he left c-sec's red tape, he gathered a team of people who had each lost someone to Omega's cycle of violence and kicked back against those thugs on the streets.

He sheds light on how all his men died - one of his people betrayed him. A turian named Sidonis drew his attention while mercs attacked his squad.

Seems like Garrus' got more scars than just the physical ones. As Garrus makes his leave, Ruth looks on, troubled by her friend's thirst for vengeance.

Jack
The convict jokes about putting Normandy through her paces, and I give her a warning. She asks me to relax. She shares about her background as a survivor. She had joined a deviant cult but dealt with them when she learned they were merely using her to shake down colonies. I comment that she's not doing much living, and she calls me a Cerberus lapdog that only lives for other people. Well, "Cerberus lapdog" might not be entirely accurate, considering Ruth's loyal to the Alliance, but Ruth is indeed a "serve the country" guard dog who doesn't have much aspiration for herself.

She confesses that she's done a little of everything; murder, kidnapping, drugs, piracy, vandalism, and even the destruction of a space station. I ask if she's ever regretted her actions - Ruth knows she has, having her own regrets towards some of her Renegade actions in the first game - but Jack's satisfied with her life, trusting her instincts to save her life.

Jack: "Hey, Shepard. No one's ever asked me about this shit. It's strange to talk about."
Jack: "So fuck you, and thanks for asking."

I'll say one thing about Jack - convos with her sure never gets boring.

The Professor
With Garrus on our hands, I'm ready to finally pick up the good doctor in the quarantine zone. Due to him being an alien, he'll have some amusing lines during the mission since the plague seems to only affect humans.

Before I pick up Mordin, I'm going to do a little side quest here. You heard of asari Matriarchs, now meet the Patriarch. He's Aria's old krogan advisor and some thugs want to kill him for spewing dirty secrets. Patriarch was one of Aria's deadliest enemies, so she wants to keep him around as a trophy. This job will take us to the lower sections of Afterlife. I need to do some shopping there anyway.

I hand Aria the datapad I picked up on Archangel's mission. She's grateful, and she might even do you a favor in the future (no, not that kind of favor; she's not Sha'ira).

Lower Afterlife isn't that different from the Upper one, aside from the option to watch an asari stripper dance for you free of charge. You can also tip her if you want, which grants you a full frontal view and a warm smile.

Niiice. I'll say it again - asari sure are flexible.

You can also dance here with the other patrons. Remember what I said about FemShep having better dance moves in the second game than MaleShep?

Forget I said all that. And yes, if you're wondering - Bioware used the same animation for MaleShep when animating FemShep, not just her dancing either.

There's also a bar here that you can order drinks from. Unlike in the upper area though, this one's being attended to by a batarian. You know what that means. I think I'll stay off the poison for now. We've got business to attend to.

The Patriarch
In a private bar, a krogan is telling old war stories and offering tactical advice to some guests (including a homage to The Godfather about spotting a traitor at the wedding). Some of the stories he tell are actually quite interesting, making me almost not want to interrupt him.

Patriarch: "I remember back before the genophage. It was a glorious time. I remember the hordes. Thousands and thousands of krogan swarming over our enemies. We were unstoppable. I remember seeing the young writhing in the pools. The next generations of warriors picking up their first weapons to murder their weaker siblings. "
Asari Patron: "Are you really that old?"
Patriarch: "It wouldn't be as interesting a story if I wasn't."

I talk to the old krogan. Seems that he was the original ruler of Omega before Aria, with nothing but the clothes on her back, killed the Patriarch's men and convinced the rest that she was a better ruler than him. She took him down in this very same bar and gave him the mock-title of "Patriarch".

Here, you can deal with the Patriarch in two ways - taunt him into killing the thugs himself to restore his honor as a krogan, or deal with the thugs yourself and become his "krantt", fighting for his honor. Saner minds prevailed - making an old krogan charge to his death doesn't make much sense to the pragmatic Ruth. The krogan awaits her return.

Through the backdoor of Afterlife, you will immediately run into Blood Pack thugs, possibly the ones hunting for the Patriarch.

They didn't last long against Ruth's h2h combat. Shepard's the kind of person who would take down krogans with her own fists. lol

The Patriarch is grateful for your help, but warns you that disturbing the power balance of Omega will invoke Aria's wrath. "I think it reminds her too much of herself."

Further down the level through the backdoor lies the slum, where the poor and underprivileged are forced to take refuge in. There's a group of vorcha at the end of it that you can 'talk' to.

They ramble on about someone named "Captain Gavorn" before leaving shortly.

This new alien is like the vermin species of the game. They're not very intelligent, and they can be fairly weak compared to other mobs. They also have a far shorter lifespan than the salarians - 20 years. However, they can be incredibly adaptive. Burn them with fire, and they'll grow tougher skin to resist it, kinda like Doomsday's adaptive biology as he fought Superman.

At the corner of the slum lies Kenn's Salvage. Along with the engineering duo's FBA couplings, you can also purchase some important upgrades here. The eponymous owner here's a nice quarian kid on his pilgrimage whom you can either persuade to drop his prices or threaten to leave if he does not. There's a third option to get a discount that involves a cigar-chewing elcor named Harrot that's controlling Kenn's prices.

Up two set of stairs, you'll find the elcor at Harrot's Emporium.

His cigar aside, you can tell from his mannerism that he's not like your typically benign elcor. I try to ask him to leave the quarian alone, but I don't have enough Paragon points to do that... so I have to use a little bit of cheat to increase my points. Shepard threatens to break the elcor's legs unless he backs off, and he resignedly agrees. He even offers a discount at his store to show his goodwill. Two for the price of one. Now both stores have discounts. Along with armor and an upgrade to decrease the hacking minigame's difficulty, you can also buy from Harrot the model of a geth dropship that you can display at Normandy's top deck, the Captain's quarters.

Back at Kenn's Salvage, he thanks you for helping him out. You can also pay him 1,000 credits to let him escape this cesspool called Omega. More Paragon points can be earned. I probably need to use the cheats again if I want to choose the Renegade options in the future, because I haven't been choosing them a lot. As you progress further through the series, you'll realize that Renegade Shepard becomes more scummy down the line, going from ruthless to just a downright asshole. Makes it hard to choose Renegade anymore when I'm in-character.

Finally, there's another store simply called "Omega Market", run by a batarian named Marsh. Even though he's actually nicer than most batarians I meet, I still feel like going Renegade on this fellow. But I need more points, so it's down to the in-game console I go! He and I come to an agreement and I get my Renegade discount.

More armor, sniper upgrade, the model of a turian cruiser... and a porn mag. No, I'm not kidding.

I'm sure any resemblance of the front cover with the hanar's appearance is purely coincidental.

Next to the shop, you'll find a mad prophet sprouting nonsense about humans and the lesser races being the blight, and something about "The Word" that he treats like the bible. Only thing this guy is missing is a sign that says "The End is Reaped".

Finally, straight ahead from the 'prophet', you'll find the quarantine zone where a turian guard is stopping a human woman from entering due to the plague.

The guard tries to convince us that the district is too dangerous due to both the plague and the gangs picking off the dead. It's an airborne disease that takes down multiple races. "Starts out as a cough, then you start coughing blood, and... well, then I shoot you." Seeing as humans are the only ones who weren't affected by a cross-species disease, a lot of people think humans were responsible for the plague.

But I got a job to do, so I pull a Renegade and tell him that if I find any gangs or looters or anyone else that gets in my way, I'll simply kill'em. He gets the message and lets me through.

Garrus: "A quarantine zone for a plague that kills turians. Why don't we ever go anywhere nice?"

I'd rather Garrus not die of a cough, but I need him to come along to keep the mission more interesting, sooooo...

Entering the Quarantine Zone
The BGM for this area has a really depressing mood, and appropriately so.

You enter the plague zone... Dark, silent, empty flats, some burning corpses in the corner, and this music plays in the background. Mordin's mission has an amazing atmosphere. The bleakness of it all truly suits Mordin when you find out about his background.

The first minute of so has a few guards cautioning you to the gun-totting Blue Suns and vorcha deeper inside. A few more steps behind a door and you'll meet'em. After dealing with the first wave of enemies, you'll find two piles of burning bodies, probably plague victims burned to decontaminate the virus.

Nearby, a batarian dying of the plague accuses humans of spreading the plague, and me of robbing him after the deed. You can get some information about Mordin out of him, but first, you need to cure him using a Paragon Interrupt.

I ask a little about Mordin, and it seems he gunned down the Blue Suns who tried to hassle him for protection money - before displaying their bodies outside his clinic as a warning. Clearly, he's not just your average doctor. I promise the batarian to send someone to help him once I reach the clinic. No reason to leave him to die here.

Garrus: "Is it hot in here or is it just... *cough* Oh. That's not good."

xD Shit. Looks like we need to hurry to the clinic.

As I head deeper inside, I find a bunker with a dead batarian on a bed. Seems like he didn't die of the plague, however, but starvation. The Blue Suns locked his doors and sealed him off when they suspected he's infected, which he wasn't.

After dealing with another wave of Blue Suns, I find a very luxurious apartment with two human refugees hiding inside. You can learn more about the plague and the turf war between the Blue Suns and the vorcha from these two. I advise them to seek help from the clinic instead of hiding here forever, but they don't trust Mordin and claim that they'll never make it past the gunfire. Renegade option time. I tell them that it's a short matter of time before they die if they cower here. If they want to survive, they'll have to earn it - maybe with the help of a Commander clearing the path of those gun-totting thugs.

After getting through more Insanity-mobs (seriously, they tear off your shield and health faster than you can say kumbaya), I come across the third and final set of NPCs - a pair of human looters stealing from the dead, totally nothing like Shepard has ever done before. I want to call them out on it to earn my points, but I feel like it's one of those hypocritical logical fallacies the Paragon Shepard makes that doesn't make sense.

As always, you can learn information from the NPCs. Most of what they say is a repetition of what the other NPCs have already stated. Mordin's clinic is just right around the corner, so let's get right into it.

The clinic is full of alien patients, ironically taken care by human paramedics. When I meet the doctor, it turns out he's an ADD fast-talking salarian that says every word that comes to his mind - truly a salarian at heart when you think about their short lifespan. After he cures your alien squadmate of the plague (namely Garrus in my case), you can Renegade Interrupt to tell him to take a breath already (I went for it 'coz I need the points). If you don't, however, there's a funny scene where he tries to talk at a pace that's more on your level.

I impatiently tell him that I'm here because I need his help. When he asks whom I'm working for, I try to hide it (Ruth does this out of habit from working as a Spectre covert agent), calling it a "covert and privately funded human group", but Mordin easily figures out who I am.

Mordin: "Related to plague? Doesn't affect humans. Human-centric interest. Few human groups would know me. Equipment suggests military origin. Not Alliance standard. Spectres not human. Terra Firma too unstable. Only one option."

Brilliant. No wonder Cerberus wants him on the team so urgently.

Mordin is surprised I got a turian to help out Cerberus, to which Garrus replies that the mission goes far beyond mere human interests (similar to what Nihlus said in the first game at the beginning but with a more negative context). He mentions the Collectors, which sparks the doctor's interest, since they have the technology to engineer the plague. But regardless of that, he needs to distribute the cure for the plague first, and he has to kill the vorcha guarding the vents that he's going to spread the cure from - meaning I have to kill the vorcha.

Just as Ruth is fed up with having yet another recruitment mission she has to deal with, the power is shut down by the vorcha. Mordin hands me a new type of pistol in good faith before asking me to find his assistant on my way. I tell him that he's probably dead.

You can ask more about the plague here. This will be the first time Mordin mentions that humans make for a great "control group" due to our diverse genetics, which is why it makes sense that the Collectors might not want to infect us, were they the one who created the plague. He also sheds a little light on his background. Seems that he was indeed part of the STG back then, which explains his calmness in the face of mercs and the like.

I leave the clinic for the vents. More vorcha, more Insanity, more duck-and-shoot. The pistol Mordin gave me is hard-hitting, but has a very limited clip, making it impractical till upgraded. On the way, I do find the professor's assistant - but he's a little busy right now playing hostage to a pair of batarians. You can signal your team to move in and get the guy killed, or just talk them down the usual way. After I threatened to blow their head off, promising that they get to live if they let the hostage go, they do as told.

Then I shoot them.

Assistant Daniel calls me a murderer. I call him naive. He runs off to Mordin to 'tell on me'... Oh my god, this kid is a real character.

Eventually, I arrive at the control system where I inject the cure. I still need to turn on the fans, however, which means two final waves of enemies to deal with. There are a number of corners and pillars here for cover, so use'em well to dodge those rockets. Shooting their head with a pistol seems more effective than the SMG since the rocket troopers constantly duck into cover. Compared to the mobs right before this though, the last area is surprisingly easy due to the efficient covers here.

After that, Mordin thanks me for saving everyone once again, but Daniel is appalled and calls me a monster. I tell him that if it wasn't for me, he would be going through a remake of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni right about now, fingernails ripped out and everything. Mordin agrees, and thinks that Umineko is the far superior franchise. Okay, maybe not the last part, but he agrees that sometimes, brutality is needed to help people. His assistant displays his disappointment towards his mentor.

I ask Mordin to honor our bargain, and he says he just needs to finish things here at the clinic. He'll be passing on the clinic to his assistant after we leave. You can either leave immediately or stay behind to search for credits and talk to the patients, including the dying batarian you might have saved earlier.

Back aboard the ship, I debrief the professor on the mission. He reinforces his surprise on TIM working with aliens, considering their human-centric policy. He's also intrigued by our A.I. on board, but I tell him to keep his ADD salarian mind focused on the mission. Back then, I used to be able to just click away the lower-right Renegade options without restraint, but now that I'm trying to build a consistent character that doesn't contradict her own principles, it gets a bit harder, especially with how ambiguous the options in the latter two installments of the series can be. Being too nice can be... *inhales* problematic. Especially as a leader in war.

This might seem like a minor point in this context, since I'm merely either welcoming Mordin on board or reminding him to keep his priorities in check, but in the future of Ruth's character development, such fine nuances between choices can mean a big deal for her and the entire fate of the galaxy, whether to make nice with everybody or do her job and remain professional.

But let's leave such heavy subjects aside for now. With Mordin on board, you can now finally access the upgrades menu and improve upon your weapons, armor, and powers. We get a bunch of cool stuff to upgrade even at this early part of the game that should make my Insanity difficulty a little easier.

Squad Convos
Mordin Solus - Tech Lab
Mordin's weapon of choice includes an omni-tool which you can upgrade immediately with only 3,000 eezo. It gives him 20% tech power damage, and in the realm of Insanity, that can mean a lot.

The doctor is settling well to his new lab, already removing the Cerberus surveillance bugs like it's his own home. He's impressed with the lab's set-up, claiming it's the best since his work with the STG. He claims that the STG was the model for the Spectres - reliance on stealth, trusted agents given limited oversight.

He did several jobs for the STG serving under Captain Kirrahe, whom he called a cloaca (asshole, shithead, take your pick). He has problems with his epic "Hold the line" speech as he personally prefers to get the job done and go home. If he was in my place back then, I'd assume he would've probably sacrificed the captain to get the job done quicker. lol

He then begin to talk about the STG's studies on the genophage, a touchy subject and also the part of the game where Mordin's character starts to shine. There are many well-written characters in ME2; Garrus is a bro, Kasumi is funny, Jack is... well, Jack. Mordin, on the other hand, plays the philosophical scholar role in the story, and conversations with him about his STG life can go from inspirational to downright depressing whenever the genophage is mentioned, but depressing in a thought-provoking way. He's the scientist of the team, so it's natural that he's the one you'll be engaged in discussing principles and ideals with throughout the game.

For now, however, he won't reveal much about the STG's studies on the genophage, aside from expressing his sentiments that the population control method - not a sterility plague as per common misconceptions - was necessary. The STG studies was implemented to prevent the krogans from adapting to the drug. Of course, that tune will change very soon in future conversations.

Kelly
The secretary is worried about Garrus' injuries. She wants to hold him close and whisper, "It will be alright"... LOL Looks like Kelly's got a moe vibe from the turian. I tell her that the feeling is mutual. She tells me we would make a cute couple. Now there's an idea...

Messages
As usual, the messages are filled with mostly non-essential reports (of your completed side quests) and emails (resulted by the Renegade/Paragon actions you have taken). The young man I stopped from joining the freelance-attack gives his gratitude. The ship that fell from the cliff was a result of a Blood Pack raid.

One email of particular note comes from Dr. Chakwas, and it's about my Renegade facial scars. She explains those scars are there because of my "cybernetic implants" (possibly installed by Cerberus, since I never had problems with this in the first game). She advises me to "maintain a positive outlook" (AKA go Paragon) if I want to keep my pretty face. Should I choose to do otherwise, there are surgical equipment that can insulate those implants. You'll need to upgrade the med bay, however, which will give you the option to remove those scars.

This is actually an important plot-point for Ruth's story because the scars would become an affecting factor in her future decisions... in my headcanon anyway. More on that when we actually reach the part of the game where I start making shit up about Ruth Shepard and her crew. Hey, it's a role-playing game after all. Of course there's going to be some kind of interactivity where I create my own version of the story in my head.

Joker
Surprisingly, he has no amusing remark to say about Mordin's recruitment.

He and EDI are arguing again, this time about the pilot falsifying maintenance reports. Ruth gets fed up and ask both of them to shut up.

Man, I'm really digging that tan job of Ruth's.

Jacob
The soldier reminds me of how Normandy's armor was sliced up like butter two years ago. If we're going against Collectors, we should upgrade with better defense, namely the asari-made Silaris armor. This is probably the easiest ship upgrade to get, costing only 15,000 Palladium (most common mineral in the game). But due to role-playing reasons, I'm not going to make any ship upgrades - yet. In fact, there are other things I wouldn't be doing due to certain roleplaying stuff I want to implement in this playthrough, including not activating Grunt and even airlocking Legion (or give him up to Cerberus). Don't worry; everything will be clear by the end.

After that, Jacob's depleted in conversations as well.

Garrus
Garrus has come up with the turian-designed Thanix cannon to be installed on the ship. 15,000 Platinum is needed. Again, I'm going to avoid this.

On the conversation side...

And thus, a meme was born.

Donnelly & Daniels
Daniels: "I've got green across the board. The forward tanks are buoyant and elevated."
Donnelly: "Are you talking about the Normandy or Miranda?"
Daniels: "I'm talking about the one that's covered and protected, not bouncing in the breeze."
Donnelly: "I don't know. Operative Lawson's uniform is very official. It always makes me stand at attention."
Daniels: "You're such a dog."

After giving them the FBA Couplings, you'll be invited to a game of poker with the engineering duo. You could pass it up, be a party pooper and shut'em down because gambling on a ship is against regulations, or you could join'em and earn some morality points. But this scene is best done when Ta- I mean a future squadmate is around, so I'm going to leave it alone for now.

Jack
Tatts has a biotic upgrade involving L5x implants, If you recall, L3 was the upgraded standardized version in the first game, so L5 must be pretty high-tier. Picking this upgrade will grant her 20% biotic damage.

I asks Tatts here for another sharing session, but she keeps me at arm's length, searching what agendas I could possibly have for asking such personal questions. I tell her she's not gonna make any friends with that passive-aggressive approach.

Turns out she did have friends, but they turned out to be pricks whom Jack suspected would stab her in the back, literally or otherwise. She never confirmed from the sound of it, merely basing it on her "feelings". She warns me that she always takes care of people who fuck with her, or whom she 'feels' would fuck with her based on her all-trusting instincts, I guess.

She stays away from the lovey dovey bullshit because she believes it never works, that they'd all betray you eventually. Lastly, I ask about the reasons for her tattoos, and she says it's for all sorts of stuff. "Some are for prisons I've been in. Some are for good kills. Some are for things I've lost. Those aren't your business. They're nobody's business. And some are because, hey, why the fuck not?"

At the end of our convo, she poses Ruth with her own question: What's Shepard's agenda? I assure her that I'm merely curious, but she remains adamant that I want something from her. Jeez, it's not as if homosexual relationships are available yet in the series, Jack.

Side Quests
Lost Operative - Omega Nebula / Fathar / Lorek
Cerberus lost one of their men to the Eclipse. I'm to retrieve the data the he is carrying. The operative's survival is optional.

Just another routine mission. The Eclipse got hold of data that incriminates Cerberus of being involved in rachni experiments, but its encryption would take years to decode, and since Operative Rawlings possesses the cipher that would decrypt it, they brought him in for interrogation. Unfortunately, Cerberus trains their men too well, and his obstinacy cost him his life during the questioning.

Looks more like a torture session than an interrogation one.

When I find the data, I'm given three options: Hand over the data to Cerberus like a good three-headed dog, hand it over to the Alliance like a loyal guard dog, or keep the data to myself in case I ever need some kind of leverage in the future.

As always, Ruth's allegiances are to the Alliance, if there's one thing that will never change. Captain Anderson congratulates me for a job well done and wishes me luck on my mission. Despite whatever he's heard about me and Cerberus, at least he should now have some semblance of assurance that I'm loyal enough to aid the Alliance against the hell-hounds.

More side quests coming up tomorrow.

Ryder · Oct 30, 2016

Normandy Crash Site - Omega Nebula / Amada / Alchera
Admiral Hackett has located something of particular importance: the crash site of the old Normandy. He would like the Commander of the ship to honor the site with a monument, as well as locate the dogtags of any lost crewman.

This is a DLC mission that reminds you of what has been lost (the game is called Mass Effect 2: Fight For the Lost, after all), and what the Reapers have taken from you. Time, friends, crewmates.

This is a solo mission, meaning you won't be able to bring any squadmates along. I get why they do that, because it'd be kinda weird if your new pals come along in what was supposed to be honoring your old friends. But with Garrus and the other future squadmate by your side, it wouldn't be all that strange if the game allows you the option to let them tag along since they were part of the crew, maybe even let them make some kind of comment at the site.

I specifically choose to do this mission in my old N7 armor, just for old time's sake. There are no enemies here, so you won't need your weapons. The only thing you need to be concerned about is finding all the dog tags. It's not necessary, but there's extra exp if you find'em, some of which can be hard since they're well-hidden. They do give a shimmer every now and then, however, to let you know they're buried beneath a rock or some debris. Some are also hidden in crates so be sure to smash them out, like a classic RPG.

There are a number of landmarks of the Normandy you can place the monument at, depending on where your favorite part of the ship is or want to honor. I have a particular spot in mind that I want to place at, which I'll cover at the end of this.

The mess hall. This was the part of the ship where Kaidan used to hang out, always waiting to get lucky with me in one of the sleeping pods next to him.

Shame I had to pick one of'em back then. I wouldn't mind keeping Kaidan around if it meant not sacrificing Ashley. He would probably have freaked out if he finds out I'm with Cerberus now though. Probably rolling over in his grave having trouble sleeping right now.

The sleeping pods.

Always seemed kinda weird how they were never really used or interacted with in the game. Can't remember if they even had a codex entry.

The Mako.

Despite all the problems I had with the Mako's frustrating climb across steep surfaces, it's helped me a lot back then and definitely a much better vehicle than the one we got in ME2. This old friend's killed a lot of geth with me back in the good ol' days. Guess it's time to put ol' reliable to rest.

The bridge.

Leather seats are great and all, but there's nothing like the homey feel of the old bridge. Now you don't even need to walk past it anymore when going on story missions.

One of the escape pods landed here.

I wonder if it was Joker's since he was the last one to get out.

The old galaxy map.

In terms of walking up to the map, there's not much difference, though I do prefer the interface of the old one since you could just click and go instead of having to manually fly to the planet you want to go to, cheaply increasing the game's length.

The old CIC.

Boy, I'm going to miss Pressley. He doesn't have much dialogue, being a minor side character, but his grumpy, stick-in-the mud, old bird attitude is memorable. Way better than that boring ol' Gardner for sure.

There's a datapad of his that you can read. He complained about the existence of aliens aboard the ship, comparing it to a zoo. LOL But he slowly grew understanding of them, particularly with Tali and her pilgrimage. He self-criticized on how blinded he was, and that he'd die for any member aboard the ship, alien or not.

Frankly, I feel that his death was kinda lackluster. I mean, an explosion to the face. lol

My old helmet.

I wore it through the end of the first game during my last playthrough, never changing to the better Colossus armor. You can display this headpiece in your captain's quarters for sentimental sake.

Last but not least, the Normandy's main body, with the name written across it.

This will be where I place the monument, to let everyone who sees it knows thy name. We gave our lives to the fine ship.

Eclipse Smuggling Depot - Hourglass Nebula / Faryar / Daratar
Now that we've got Mordin on board, I could engineer the missile launcher, letting me exploit that glitch I mentioned.

Like I said yesterday, you can draw all three mechs into your sight using the missile launcher's auto-targeting system. The mechs can be relatively easy to take down, but you need to maneuver around the Cerberus shuttle, using it as a cover. This means you have to run a lot because the mechs can have a very wide field of attack.

Eventually, the three go down and you get 7,500 credits as a reward.

The Warlord - Eagle Nebula / Imir System / Korlus
Dr. Okeer is a krogan warlord desperate enough to save his people from the genophage that he traded with the Collectors for their technology. He is currently in a Blue Suns camp and we're to recruit him on the team.

Squadmate: Zaeed & Mordin (Zaeed because of Blue Suns, Mordin because of his research on krogans)

Upon landing on Korlus, an unknown voice over a loudspeaker is barking orders at her men. Shortly after disposing the first wave of enemies, I come across a wounded merc crying about bleeding out (even though it's probably a flesh wound or something minor). I use that delusion to exploit information outta him, offering my medi-gel in return.

He says someone named Jedore is hiring Okeer to breed a krogan army, but the creations turned out to be insane, making them useless cannon fodder for target training. Mordin says it doesn't make sense since a breeding facility can be very expensive compared to just hiring krogan mercs. Guess there's something else worth cashing in here.

A radio message cracks up asking the merc for coordinates, You can either lead the soldiers on the other side to stand down or be misled into their death. Naturally, I need the Renegade points, and Ruth has no qualms with killing mercs. If you ask him not to answer the radio, there's a Renegade Interrupt to shoot this wounded merc instead. After he misled his team, I tell him to fuck off and bleed out in a shady spot somewhere. Sucker.

After another round of enemy contact and military bravado from the loudspeaker, I come across a tank-bred krogan who's merely a week in age. Okeer raised him, taught him to speak and shoot, but he then found the krogan imperfect and abandoned him out here for Jedore's army (not that the failed krogans take her seriously). Well, TIM's dossier is right about one thing: Okeer is brutal, abandoning infants casually.

The krogan gladly opens the door for us, showing off his krogan strength.

Even for an imperfect infant, the krogan can clearly be an excellent fighter. I ask why he remains behind out here instead of coming with us, but he says Okeer told him to wait and fight, and he must follow his orders. 'Tis a shame; we could have our own krogan army fighting the Collectors.

Over the radio, I learn that Okeer has released a large number of rampaging krogans without Jedore's orders, and the mercs are being slaughtered left and right. The rogue krogans, however, are easy to defeat compared to the mercs because of how cumbersome they can be, not to mention that their armor is easier to take down than the mercs' shields with just a few clips from your pistol.

After that, it goes downhill with the rest of the mercs because the cover system sucks. "Insanity" is truly insane here as consecutive waves of mercs gang up on you with few save points in between. Don't randomly pick up medi-gel when you've reached the limit. I made the same mistake and was left with two dead squadmates throughout a very tough fight.

You can criticize my skills and tell me "git gud scrub" all you want, but I did a little research on the game's Insanity difficulty and it seems many other players face the same frustration with the covers as well, in that they can be downright useless in taking down the enemies. The third game improves the combat mechanics a bit more, but between the first and second game, the latter's faults are more obvious on Insanity, not just because of the poor cover system, but also in that the game offers you so few options in killing the mobs.

The Blue Suns heavies' missile launchers will ensure you can never aim fast enough and shoot face enough, and it takes forever for my SMG to whittle down the enemy shields when I can only peek out from my cover for half a second before taking a missile to my face. It doesn't help that your early weapons are piss-poor useless unless you choose the exactly correct one - which I didn't, settling for the Eviscerator instead of the far more damage geth shotgun that fires at range, a very important trait the former shotgun doesn't have.

Last but not least, the squadmates' A.I. suck. They keep on either running out into the open and get killed, or they choose the lousiest covers that have mobs firing from two different directions. Why did I even bother recruiting these people?

But enough griping for now about my lousy gunplay, because I've ran into a familiar face.

Seems like she's supposedly doing good now by helping Okeer educate his tank-bred. She says he's trying to help his people but not looking for a genophage cure nor reproducing krogans to increase their numbers. I tell Rana to run again, since I'll probably blow up something again. Zaeed says my attitude is going to bite me in the ass someday.

Oh, if he only knows what I got planned for Ruth.

I finally reach Okeer in the next door. He's not very grateful I just took down all those mercs for him.

He reminds me of the incident on Virmire, and call Saren's goal of cloning krogans foolish, that numbers mean nothing when none of them are pure or strong. He intends to breed the perfect krogan, a champion that can pass down his perfect DNA down the bloodline with true strength, as opposed to those weaklings that survive some stupid drug.

Before I can get any further with the warlord, however, Jedore releases poison gas through the valves, threatening to kill Okeer's precious super soldier here. Looks like I have to stop her and Okeer's whole army of rejects. Oh boy.

Jedore: "I don't care who they are, I want them dead! This is my world! I'll poison them all!"
Zaeed: "Someone shut that bitch up!"

The key to this battle is to take down Jedore first before she could spawn more krogan rejects to attack us. This is pretty simple if you've been saving up your heavy weapon ammo for this moment - which I did. Added to the glitch that stops the YMIR mech and the krogans from attacking me (at least till I took down the mech's shields for some reason), this became an easy boss battle.

Unfortunately, the poison got to Okeer, and now we're only left with Captain Tuchanka here, the first krogan Avenger. xD

Back on board, Miranda share her concerns about bringing a live krogan aboard the ship - one that's bred by a mad man too. But I assure her that he can be vented out the airlock should he cause trouble.

Furthermore, I'm not going to activate Grunt right now anyway.

Squad Conversations
Mordin
One sentence sums up our convo.

The krogans were adapting to the genophage. They were breeding again. The STG had to do something. So they secretly poisoned them with a modified version of the drug once more. I ask him if there were other options. He said he had considered'em all.

I could sense the uneasiness in his words. He seems convinced he made the right decision, but I'm not so sure. It feels like he's seeking approval from me. Which I did. I tell him that it was a hard decision, but one that must be made to prevent another krogan rebellion across the galaxy.

Kelly
She warns me about 'birthing' the krogan as his personality is unknown.

Joker
No input on Grunt. He tells me to keep quiet so that EDI couldn't listen in on our convo, to which she creepily replies, "I'm always listening."

Jack
Jack: "I'm done talking. Come back later."
Shepard: "I should go."
Jack: "Yep."

This round of squad convo is pretty short, but that's probably because we're short one squadmate - the unbirthed krogan. And probably because there's an important mission coming up...

A Bitter Pill - Shadow Sea / Iera System / Horizon
"The Illusive Man wishes to speak to you," as Kelly constantly repeated. You can't access the galaxy map till you do, and if you do, you won't be able to go anywhere else till you complete the mission. Talk about your catch 22.

At the Comm Room, TIM informs me that another human colony has been attacked by the Collectors. Furthermore, Ashley Williams is stationed there. Well, this is a surprise.

I remember, the first time I played the game as a ManShep, I was disappointed to learn that my love interest had gone AWOL. So when I first heard her name again, I naturally 'stood' at attention. lol It was good seeing Ashley again, regardless of the circumstances. Of course, I had thought this meant that we could hook up again. Little did I know...

Here's another great shot of the very tanned Ruth Shepard:

Yeah, yeah, I know my obsession with her tan is starting to get creepy, but believe it or not, there are very few moments in the game when your customized Shepard would look good, or as handsome or beautiful as the default one. This is even more true when you change the race of your Shepard (AKA skin tone) or her hairstyle; more customization = more challenging to look nice. So, I like to savor these little moments.

At Mordin's lab, I ask if he's found a neutralizing agent for the Collectors' honeybees. His response was a big smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Down at Horizon, we get our first up-close and personal look at the Collectors, in addition to yet another popular meme...

I haven't even started the mission and my bae's already taken from me. Damn Reapers.

So, the Collectors. They're protected by biotic barriers that you can tear apart with your machine pistol. This won't be an easy mission, but considering what we've already went through, might as well just suck it up. Don't forget to pick up your heavy weapon ammo - you definitely need it for the boss fight.

Eventually, I find out that I'm not just dealing with Collectors, but also the Husks - this time with their own armor (can't remember if they had a shield back in ME1). They're definitely much harder to deal with this time round. Much like how 28 Days Later reinvented the zombies, ME2 juice up their husks with steroids too. Now they'll charge you much faster than the first game, where you at least had the option of blowing them up with grenades. In this area where you meet the husk, you can also pick up some credits and a defense upgrade. It's good to search around after every fight for these little goodies.

Since we're still moving and not stuck in one place like we're playing red light/green light, I guess Mordin's live experiment, using us as guinea pigs against the seeker swarms, has worked excellently. Guess that means I won't have to ship his singing ass back to Omega. Some of the colonists here, on the other hand, aren't as lucky.

I wonder if I could doodle on their faces. You know, like Jigglypuff, but awake.

You can pick up a new weapon in this area - the Particle Beam. Basically a Collector's heavy weapon. Your choice of heavy weapon will change automatically, but don't worry, because there's a weapon loadout option later. I recommend changing it later on because it's not as effective in the boss fight. As tempting as it is - don't use the Particle Beam and waste your heavy weapon ammo.

Soon enough, I get into another fight. An ominous voice announces, "I'm assuming direct control" before one of the Collector soldiers goes super saiyan. A new enemy then appears, known only as "Harbinger". He'll say a bunch of edgy BDSM trigger-words to you, like "This hurts you," "Our power is unmatched," and "“You cannot resist." Sheesh, Harbinger. I'm all for sadism-play, but at least give me a safe word first.

Despite this seeming like a miniboss, the Harbinger controlled Collector is more like a brute/tank than a boss. You just need to use your covers properly (make sure to manually assign your squadmates' defensive positions so they don't run around like idiots), and whittle down his two layers of protection - barrier and armor - like any other enemy. Watch out for his kamehameha ball of fire which can be damaging, but unlike a missile, it's fairly slow. Harbinger can also take over the body of any Collector, but he won't do so until you destroy the body, so feel free to kill off the other Collectors before you deal with Harbinger. You can also trick Harbinger into taking over one of the more deadly Collectors with snipers or Collector assault rifles (they hurt a lot).

Soon, I take him down and enter a locked door to find a mechanic hiding away inside a garage. He's not happy to see me.

He blames the Alliance and Ashley for making the colony a target when they built those turrets. He keeps on rambling on about his suspicions of Ash, how he knew she's up to no good when the Alliance sent her here. I try to keep my cool and not sock this guy a good one for talking shit about my waifu. I ask him for the location of those turret towers since they could be used to deal with the Collectors before leaving him to rot in this dirty ol' garage.

In the next area, we come across a new enemy - the husk scion. Oh boy.

If you're waiting for the obligatory eldritch abomination in this game, you've found'em and their tumored pimples ready to pop. Instead of popping, however, these ugly SOBs will fire a deadly cannon attack that travels through the ground in a straight direction, which means you can side-step them with good timing. Don't get too close or they'll suck your shields away. Normally, with one or two of these by themselves, they're not especially terrible since they're even more cumbersome than those krogan rejects earlier. But adding a Harbinger-controlled Collector to the mix? They can be a real nightmare.

But I manage to survive - somehow. Damn Insanity. There's an even worse battle coming ahead - the boss battle. To ensure you've saved your game, there's a particularly hard-to-crack door here waiting for you.

First wave of enemies - lots of husks. Might not seem like much, but I died quickly, no thanks to the scion keeping me distracted from dealing with the normal husks.

There is, however, another glitch here you can exploit to make your life a lot easier. Before entering the area, when the door opens, don't move past the doorway. Instead, move to the utmost right of the doorway, aim straight, and look for the little part of the scion peeking out from behind wall. Shoot it and use incinerate attacks on it. Save the game. Don't die after this because that second scion will respawn even if you reload the save where you killed it.

I have to run around a lot, but I eventually take'em all down with my pistol and incineration ammo. First wave and it's already a living hell. I get to save here though, thankfully.

I hack the computer panel for the tower, and this is where the hard part is about to start. I radio EDI to bring the defense tower online, but she says the generator output will attract the Collectors' attention - meaning an ass-load of mobs is coming.

But as usual, it always gets relatively easier at the end of the mission. Compared to the husks (which there are much fewer this time), the Collectors merely require patience and mobility. EDI will update you on the turrets as you fight Harbinger and his Collectors. Once you take down all the enemies, the turrets will be 100% powered up.

But if you think those turrets powering up have no other purpose than serve as flavor backstory, you're mistaken. They're meant to attack the Collectors' ship while you fight the real boss - the Praetorian waitwut?! This is straight-up rip-off from the Predator universe! lol Calm your tits - "praetorian" is a real word that originated from the Roman guards of old.

Seems kinda an inappropriate name to give a giant cockroach though.

The Praetorian has lasers, and an explosive attack if you get too close. This is when your heavy weapon ammo will come in very handy. You'll have to take down its barriers first before you can damage its armor, which is its health bar. Don't attack the barrier with the heavy weapon, since it will repetitively regenerate as you reduce its armor. Use a SMG to tear away the barrier, then quickly fire away your heavy weapon.

This became a very simple fight for me due to my missile launcher. With only one enemy, and my squadmates supporting me, the bug is squashed in no time at all, exploding into a blast of blue light like a moth bursting into flames.

Unfortunately, the turret laser couldn't finish its job before the Collectors fly off with the kidnapped colonies. The mechanic tries to blame you, and in comes...

Yep. You get a handshake. A hug if you're a ManShep. xD

Of course, the first thing I said to her back then was how good it was to finally see her again. I wanted her to come aboard my team immediately so we could have ourselves some R&R . But her response was less than satisfying. She asked why I didn't try to contact her. I said I was dead. xD That's not the part that got her though - it's the whole "I was put together by those evil mad scientists you and I fought against back then" that set her off. She called me a traitor for it, and things pretty much went downhill from there. What a disappointing reunion with my bae.

With Ruth, things pretty much went the same. Garrus says Ash's letting her emotions cloud the fact that the Collectors are the real threat. Ashley brush us off, claiming her loyalties are with the Alliance. That's ironic, considering what I did for Captain Anderson a few missions ago. Clearly Ash doesn't know Shepard - Ruth is an Alliance lapdog whose sole motivation is to serve it till the bitter end even in the face of Armageddon.

When Ashley refuses Ruth's request to return to the team, claiming that she'll never join her, that's the final straw that breaks the camel's back. Something died inside Ruth that day. The Reapers have taken many things from her life, and now, one of her closest partners. The bitterness eats away inside of her. What remains of her kindness and compassion are dwindling away as she's blinded by the hate. This marks an important chapter in Ruth's story, as it will gravely affect not only her future Renegade actions, but also one of the life-changing decisions later on in the roleplay.

Back aboard the ship, TIM congratulates on a job well done, but Ruth isn't feeling too cheery, especially when she finds out that he had leaked rumors of Shepard being alive and now working with Cerberus. He says he will devote all resources to finding a way through the Omega 4 relay, informing her that she and her team's resolve will need to be strong, meaning that any personal feelings of hers regarding broken relationships have to be put behind. Ruth says it's none of TIM's damn business. She'll make sure her team's ready, whatever the cost. Period. TIM has also forwarded three more dossiers for Ruth's recruitment - an assassin, an asari Justicar, and last but not least, Tali'Zorah vas Neema. Ruth shudders upon reading that last name. She fears losing yet another of her friends again.

If you didn't notice by now, I'll be going into heavy third-person roleplaying narrative from this point on. There's a lot to cover in terms of Ruth's character development, particularly after a turning point later in the game during a loyalty mission. I hope the fanfic-ish kind of writing won't put you off too much. It's not strictly fanfiction IMO since I'm merely utilizing the story in the game to roleplay it out, kinda like how you create your own mini-stories in Fallout 3's sandbox world. If it bothers you too much, please feel free to say so, so that I could either try and tone it down a bit or find some way to rewrite future roleplays in the game.

After the talk with TIM, Ruth finds Jacob standing outside waiting for her. He reinforces the idea that everyone's baggage should be resolved before they take the fight to the Collectors. Ruth briefly considers the idea, but is still too strung up about Ashley to focus. There might not be time for closure. She's pissed off, and she wants to get back at the Reapers immediately for the two years taken from her.

Squad Convos
Mordin
Depleted.

Jacob
The soldier is distracted by personal affairs. He was pinged with an SOS last week sent from his father's ship, the Hugo Gernsback that disappeared a decade ago. He'd like Ruth to go check out if the signal is legit. He also points out that the SOS was passed onto him through Cerberus, meaning there's probably an agenda somewhere. It becomes more suspicious when the one who sent the signal covered his tracks.

Jacob reveals some rough patches with his father, something Ruth could relate to back on Earth, when she ran with those red sands gang as a petty thug. But still, the mission takes priority over a ten year old wreck. She shelves this away for now.

Kelly
She brings up Ashley, reopening the wound.

Admiral Hackett
Checking her messages, Ruth receives an incoming transmission from the Admiral. It seems the Alliance has lost a deep-cover agent out in batarian space, an operative by the name of Amanda Kenson. She recently reported evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion. Here's where it gets complicated, however - Amanda was arrested by batarians for terrorism charges. The Admiral wants Ruth to break her out, and she's to do it alone. The discretion is needed if Amanda's to survive. Amanda's an old friend of the Admiral, and he'd owe her a favor if she does this for him. Ruth knows the feeling of losing an old friend, and she'd hate to let others suffer the same fate.

But doubt hangs heavy on her heart. If she lets the Collectors get away, there might not be another chance. She puts a pin on the Admiral's mission.

Miranda
The vixen reveals she has a genetic twin she hid away on Illium, and her ruthless father's hunting for her. To prevent her sister from suffering the same fate she did, Miranda asks that you help her relocate her to a secure location.

Another personal matter. Ruth is getting frustrated. They're running out of time, and yet everyone's got their priorities spanning across the galaxy. She won't be able to bring closure to all of'em at once, least of all Miranda, who should know better than to jeopardize the mission with her baggage.

Joker
Joker: "Hey, Commander. That's uh, that's pretty crazy the people you can run into out here, huh? I mean, it was probably a setup or something, but it was still good to see Ash. Operations Chief Williams, wasn't it?"
Ruth: "Another reminder of how I lost more than time. I don't need this garbage."

More arguments occur between the pilot and the A.I. Joker asks why EDI's always picking on him, and she explains that she was trying to provoke him, not to cause distress, but to find out more about him. Ruth doesn't give a damn. She's got enough on her plate already, and warns both of them to not cause such discord again or risk insubordination.

Next up: another old friend joins the team. Just like old times.

Ryder · Oct 31, 2016

So, if you don't mind, I would like to just take a minute to address the elephant in the room. This is just me thinking out loud about the character I'm playing, so if you're not interested in the roleplay elements of both the game and the playthrough, feel free to ignore this post - I swear I won't begrudge you.

Roleplaying Ruth's Character
Giving Shepard, an essentially tabula rasa role, her own proper character development, roleplaying her in what's supposed to be a video game of the RPG genre, that's all fine and good, but that thing with the "Reapers took away two years of my life so I'm going to be a jerk from now" might come off like a really melodramatic freudien excuse a supervillain might say (especially when I brought up her rough childhood being in a gang back on Earth), not to mention that the 180 degrees personality change from professional agent to downright emo can feel unnatural and contrived. But no, it's not like that. Ruth still knows what's important and still does her job professionally at this point. She's not about to risk her own men and put her emotions before the fate of the galaxy just because she's lost her BFF - that's dumb. Ashley didn't even have as close a relationship with Ruth as Kaidan or even Garrus might have, if we're to be honest.

When I wrote in the last post that Ruth was considering about not helping her squadmates out with their personal requests because she feared she doesn't have enough time to get back at the Reapers, that might have felt like a cheap desire for revenge written into her character by me, but again, no, it's not like that. She's still the same professional Spectre agent that will finish her job no matter the cost. Even if I happen to express her inner turmoil, all the rage and frustrations inside her head (she's not walking around whining to her crewmates how tough she has it), at the end of the day, she'll choose to prioritize her duty over her self-interest every time (including helping her crewmates get closure so that they don't become compromised during the mission). Remember at the end of Quantum of Solace, when Bond tells M, "I never left" at the end of the movie, an implication of how his loyalties were always with his queen and country in spite of his pain and suffering? That's the kind of character I was going for when writing Ruth, not some Shinji Ikari.

The reason why I expressed those controversial, pseudo-emo anxieties is that if we're going to roleplay at all, it's important to state how human Shepard can really be. She's the representative of the human ideal, full of passion and emotions and doubts and fallacies. Among all these intelligent and iron-willed aliens like the asari, the salarians, and the krogans, she's just an average human, a female soldier no less (and let's face it, how seriously does the military treat female officers in the real world?). Asari are the wisest, salarians are the most intelligent, and turians are the most combat-experienced, so where does that leave the aggressive thugs that humans are reputed to be? No better than batarians in the eyes of some species. But I think it's the ability to overcome their imperfections that makes humans so special among these seemingly perfect aliens. You can't tell what "perfection" is without seeing imperfection first.

For example, Mordin is a brilliant scientist that doesn't compromise his own principles, having no doubt in his own judgment. Liara became the Shadow Broker for christ's sake - spoilers. Among confident and talented alien crewmembers like that, I feel it's more interesting when my Shepard, Ruth, stands out as a foil who's contrastingly emotional and doubtful, so that we can see her overcome her hardships, trials, and tribulations. Having someone that emotionally vulnerable making all the tough calls that decide the fate of the galaxy? That can really mess her up - which is more the reason I want to see her succeed. It's an excellent vehicle of carthasis that lets you rejoice when she finally triumphs over all that muck and despair she has to crawl through from the pit of the abyss. Like I said in the first post, Empire Strikes Back, ladies and gentlemen. Luke had to overcome the terrible curse his father wreaked upon him before he came back stronger and wiser in Return of the Jedi. Thus, Ruth must first fall into rock bottom, and she must fall hard.

Breaking Shepard
So if not Ashley, what does eventually break Ruth? What really embittered her and made her more of a Renegade? Well, it's really a culmination of little things throughout the game. Dead for two years, losing her men AGAIN after Torfan and Virmire even though she promised herself not to let it happen in the future, having Ashley calling her a traitor, failing to completely save the human colonies on Horizon, being a lonely child growing up on Earth without a family that loved her, etc. A mistake a lot of people make about Shepard with the "Ruthless" nature is that they seem to think all Shepards always make those sacrifices willingly just to find an excuse to hurt people. If you haven't noticed by now, Ruth actively tries to avoid doing that. She saved the freaking Council for god's sake, even though she openly expressed how ticked off she was by the turian councilor. She didn't ask for Torfan and Virmire to happen, but the fact of the matter is, they did happen, and those mistakes weigh heavily on her supposedly broad shoulders. So those tragic things that happen to Shepard, she can't just always "suck it up and move on". Eventually, they accumulate, and ultimately, they break her.

The straw that truly breaks the camel's back, however, comes from the Justicar's loyalty mission later in the game. The negative influence of a certain manipulative asari was enough to break someone as strong as Shepard, influencing her to give in to the despair. She will succeed, the asari - for now. But like Luke, Ruth will come back stronger.

And honestly? I just love strong female characters like that.

Ryder · Oct 31, 2016

Tali - Far Rim / Dholen System / Haestrom
Following the unpleasant discord at Horizon, Ruth drowns herself in her work to move on and forget about the emotional BS. She was never good at handling matters of the heart, always an objective person better at getting things done and delivering results than "sharing her feelings".

She look through TIM's dossiers. Tali once more comes to mind. She would hate to go through something like Horizon again, but that's specifically why the quarian's name catches her attention. It's the perfect opportunity to renew her focus, set her personal emotions aside and prioritize her mission. No matter what Tali might say about her affiliation with Cerberus, she needs to disregard them and get the team together. The fate of humanity lies in her hands.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, for those who don't know, you can actually hack the game and recruit Legion earlier as he has interesting lines and/or scenes for every recruitment mission - especially Tali's. I'm not gonna do that because it doesn't make sense in the game's canon, but that's just something I figured I should let you know. Instead, I'm going with Garrus (just like old times) and Miranda (because they had such a 'friendly' time together the last time they met).

As soon as you land, you'll see a space-beetle getting space-cooked.

So much for cockroaches' durability to survive anything.

The sun will literally cook you alive if you stay in the sunlight for too long. This includes your teammates, and since they're idiots, you'll have to manually move them out of the light. So, I guess that means...

HELL YEAH! TONIGHT, WE DINE IN GETH!

Inside a gate control station, a dead quarian left an audio log on loop talking about some data that Tali possesses. Must be some important data for the physically weak quarians to come to a dangerous planet like this.

Immediately past the gate, we're faced with a geth dropship. SPARTANS! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty! Shepard and her squad killing geth on a dangerous mission. Just like old times. Remember to watch the sunlight! With the geth on your back, avoiding the light can be a bit... problematic. After you defeat the geth, position your men under the shade while you go hunting down for the heavy pistol upgrade. Be sure to also grab the new Tempest SMG before you pick up the radio. It's only good for close-range though, however.

As I dig deeper, I pick up a radio requesting for back-up from a squad leader named Kal'Reegar. I call in that the other quarians in the area are all dead. Kal informs me that the quarians are here to study the sun; seems it's dying faster than it should. This ties into a dark energy sub-plot that the writers eventually abandoned in Mass Effect 3, but I'd love to see it mentioned again in Andromeda because it sounds like quite the interesting story.

After Kal inform me that Tali is held up at a secure shelter, a geth dropship fires at a pillar that blocks access from said shelter. Oh they piss me off now.

The only way to open through that path is by grabbing two demolition charges to blow that pillar open. For a vanguard, the Tempest SMG's close-range reliance is not as bad as you may think - especially if you upgrade your Biotic Charge into Heavy Charge. This can be a problem when dealing with multiple enemies in one spot, but if you manage to reduce their numbers, you can simply Charge in and finish them off with the SMG, spraying them a face full of lead. This is an especially important tactic to remember during the Arrival DLC, when you don't have your squadmates backing you up. Be sure to watch out for the geth destroyer as it carries a flamethrower that's deadly at close-range. Make sure to blow up its gas tanks from a distance as soon as you can.

Once you place the charges, move clear from the pillar and watch it explode. Time to grab our old buddy. But it turns out to only be a video feed. Oh well. At least you get to talk to her again.

Near the entrance, there's a geth crawling towards me like the T-800 reaching for his shotgun in T2. One elbow-tackle and it's down, the damn robot. There are a lot of dead quarians and geth here in this bunker. Looks like a firefight went on before they killed each other (well, except that one geth that ate my elbow). Aside from a rifle upgrade, there's an audio log where Tali said she missed me and wished I was with her. Awww.

I reach for the video log, and it seems that Tali could only hear me, not see me.

She says she'll discuss joining you after the gunfire dies down. Right now, she's trapped in another bunker with loads of geth outside, so it's up to us to break her out.

After Tali unlocks the door for me, she asks me to keep Reegar alive. No promises from this new Renegade Ruth.

Another wave of geth, this time accompanied by camouflaged drones easily taken down with a few Overload and SMG sprays. When you reach the end of this area, save before you open the shutters, which will reveal a Geth Colossus shooting at the quarians - and now you!

Garrus: *grunts after dodging a Colossus blast* "Definitely like old times."

Down the stairs, I meet Kal'Reegar, a fashionably-dressed quarian with a missile launcher.

He informs me of Tali's situation, that the Colossus attacking the door has a repair protocol! Seems like he's got a suit rupture from fighting the geth, but his suit's filled with antibiotics for now.

Kal'Reegar: "The geth might get me, but I'm not going to die from an infection in the middle of a battle. That's just insulting."

He lays down the battlefield for you. There are three pathways you can take to the Colossus - all three disadvantageous for the vanguard. I tell Reegar to stay down while I deal with the situation. He tries to fight anyway, but I Paragon Interrupt his ass, ordering him to cover my ass instead. Time to deal with ourselves an Armature. Haven't killed one in a while.

As always, I saved up my heavy weapon ammo for this moment. With the Arc Projector, the Colossus goes down easily enough, and so do the geth. After that, we finally get our little reunion with Tali'Zorah. Before you talk to her, however, make sure to pick up the Geth Pulse Rifle - a very effective weapon against geth and shields - if you've been playing the entire mission on Hardcore or Insanity.

Tali says she'd have joined me back then at the beginning, but she couldn't risk someone else replacing her on this dangerous mission. Out of her anxiety to prevent a repetition of Horizon, Ruth says the quarians owe her now for saving their ass, and that it's only appropriate for them to pay back by lending Tali for the mission. Tali heartily agrees, tired of watching her friends die on some stupid data-collecting mission.

Before we depart, Reegar walks in and gives his farewell. He'll appear again in Tali's mission later, but after that, unfortunately, he won't survive Mass Effect 3.

Back on board the ship, Tali expresses her displeasure with Cerberus, but I ask her to at least try and work together with the crew. She says she's here for me, not Cerberus, and I tell her that's good enough. She walks off, warning me of Cerberus' shady business back then, but not before Jacob reminds her to greet the A.I. on board, EDI. Tali responds with a stink eye.

Squad Convos
Kelly
Ms. Moneypenny expresses her pleasant surprise at Tali's character compared to her psych report. She finds their environment suits beautiful, but also sad, trapped under there. She wonders what they look like under those helmets. Well, Yeoman, I'm sure they won't look like any generic stock photo, that's fer sure! Hyuck hyuck hyuck!

Joker
Joker's glad Tali's back on board again - "Just like old times." EDI plays a little prank on him by turning off the auto-spinning function of his seat, since he had insisted so much on "manual control."

Daniels & Donnelly
Donnelly: "Gabby, you'd say the Normandy is a she, not a he, right?"
Daniels: "Of course. The Normandy's the sweetest girl there is."
Donnelly: "And EDI's a she. Tali's definitely a she."
Daniels: "What are you getting at, Kenneth?"
Donnelly: "I'm just saying I'm feeling a wee bit threatened here. A lot of female energy, and I'm just one man."
Daniels: "You're such a dick."
Donnelly: "See. Look where your mind went. I've got to watch out for myself."

It'd be better if he had added FemShep to that list of females on board. Ruth would probably kill him, but the joke's worth it.

Tali - Engineering
Like Garrus, Tali also thinks that the Normandy runs better than before. She can also add Multicore Shielding to the ship, which will definitely help your crew survive against the Collectors.

Tali thanks me again for saving Reegar. She can also tell you more about the Admiralty Board if you didn't learn about it in the last game. She miss the old faces - Pressley, Adams - and wonders if working with Cerberus is such a good idea. I tell her that I don't trust'em, that they'll probably backstab us in the future. Tali tells me she's got my back when that time comes.

Jack
Tattoos is having PTSD flashbacks about Cerberus' past treatment of her. She sheds light on their torture, how they used pain to increase the biotic powers of little children. She eventually escapes, but...

Jack: "They thought they were so clever. Turns out, mess with someone's head enough and you can turn a scared kid into an all-powerful bitch. Fucking idiots."

I tell her I'm going to have a hard talk with TIM about this. Torturing a kid is definitely something Ruth couldn't condone, pragmatic reasons or not. But Jack doesn't want that. She says she's found the coordinates on the torture camp from the files I gave her, and she wants to blow it up. She ease my concerns about ticking Cerberus off, as it's supposed to be an empty base. I tell her we'll do it soon, but the mission must take priority.

Next up: we pick up an asari monk warrior.

Ryder · Nov 1, 2016

Side Quests - Crescent Nebula / Tasale System / Illium
Forget Omega. This is the real Noveria, filled with your corporate backstabbing, shady businesses, and slaver- oh, right, I mean "indentured servitude", because that fine nuance makes all the difference. But it's no surprise, considering its proximity to the crime-filled Terminus Systems.

Gianna Parasini
I come across yet another familiar face. It's that extra from the American remake of Infernal Affairs.

Gianna remembers that beer she owes me, but once again, she needs my help with a corrupted merchant. Can't even sit down for a drink without some agenda.

This side quest can be done quickly. Talk to Hermia (sounds like an STD if you ask me), the asari merchant standing by the Serrice Tech kiosk, and you can use either Paragon or Renegade options on her to get a discount. After which, you can either ask for her "advanced merchandise" to get her to reveal the illegal smuggled items Gianna's investigating her for, or alternatively, you can warn her that she's being watched, and she'll give you the discount if you don't have enough morality points for the previous option.

After helping her out with putting Hermia out of business (Parasini lacks the authority to arrest her), you get to finally talk to her without all the strings attached.

Gianna: "I love nailing asari. So ageless and superior -- then you get them, and they squeal like schoolgirls."

Meeting Liara
After greeting her assistant, Nyxeris, I walk into Liara's office while she's in the middle of a call, threatening to fillet someone.

She's beginning to sound like her mother. lol

Of course, she's surprised to find me standing behind her, and proceed to immediately embrace eternity with me. :LOL: I ask if she could join me on my mission, but she says she has commitments for now and can't. It's been two years, and she has debts to repay. If I want to help, she says, then I could help her hack into some terminals around the city.

Being an information broker, she's naturally the go-to NPC if you want to find out about your recruitment. Seems like Samara the Justicar's being held up by a tracking officer named Dara. When I ask if Samara's a criminal, she says she's quite the opposite. Hm...

After I leave Liara's office, this audio advertisement plays overhead:
Advertisement: "The Council thought that Blasto, the first Hanar Spectre, would play by the rules..."
Blasto: "This one has forgotten whether its heat sink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate."
Advertisement: "They were wrong."
Blasto: "This one doesn't have time for your solid waste excretions!"
Advertisement: "He's got a lover in every port and a gun in every tentacle!
Hanar: "Enkindle this!
Advertisement: "Blasto: The Jellyfish Stings. Available for extranet purchase this fall from Illium Entertainment."

Damn. I wouldn't mind paying to see that movie.

The Troublemaker
As I continue to explore the city, I run into an asari complaining about a human causing trouble at the city's Eternity bar (clever name). The human turns out to be the ever-annoying fanboy...

Naturally, I shoot him in the foot. Not really - it barely grazed his skin, but he's already crying.

Seems like the fan's moved up the ranks to become a wandering vigilante, talking to random NPCs and doing side quests for'em, kinda like a certain other loser. Apparently, he tried to take up Shepard's mantle after she died, and now is harassing the bartender behind him for selling red sand - an undercover cop at a weapons store supposedly told him that. To save myself the agony of continuing dealing with him, I tell him I'll go check out the store and shut him up.

Behind the bar, you can meet a pretty interesting asari matriarch named Aethyta.

She's a matriarch bartender who has a krogan for a dad who fought in the Rachni Wars. Oh, and this is the best part - her mom fought in the Krogan Rebellions. They both fought it out a long time later and made her promise to love whomever survives. Neither of'em did.

She tried acting like a proper matriarch, but it didn't work out. Her own people didn't bother listening to her and thought her a laughingstock. She tried advising them to get the younglings working earlier instead of shaking their ass off at some stripper club, but they never listened and now asari got themselves a dirty rep regarding their promiscuity.

She also shows some disdain towards that other matriarch, Benezia, an important opinion you might want to take notice as it becomes relevant in the next game. Hint: she's got a pureblood daughter.

Medical Scans
Deeper in the city, you'll find the terminals Liara's asked you to hack. There are also some shops here you can browse, including the weapons shop Conrad got his source from earlier. After hacking the terminals, you get a time limit and a number to show your distance from the nearest vulnerable system where you can upload the data to Liara. This means running around the area a lot, where you'll meet the following person if you made the appropriate decision in the first game.

The Feros colonists are doing better now, but they've unintentionally signed themselves a nasty contract for intrusive medical scans. I tell Shiala I've got more important things to handle, but she tells me to at least talk to the Baria Frontiers representative holding the contract.

The person responsible turns out to be an asari xenophobe (now those are two words you won't commonly find in a sentence) named Erinya who daughters died due to the mistakes of other species.

As usual, there are two ways to handle this - show your concerns about her family, or in my case, remind her that her daughters were not filthy xenophobes like her. I then call her out for her hypocrisy, doing the same exact thing she accused other aliens of - bringing grief to the colonists' families.

After she agrees and leaves, there's a shop next to where she stood where you could buy star charts to explore additional star clusters. These clusters provide additional side quests and minerals.

At the weapons shop, Gateway Personal Defense, you can talk to the merchant "undercover cop" who told Conrad the lies about the Eternity bar. Seems like she's manipulating Conrad to get the bar's deed, but I tell her that unlike that idiot, I actually know how to use a gun. I threaten her to tell Conrad that he did a good job. After offering a discount at the store, she leaves so fast I swear there's a blue trail of smoke behind her. Ah, Renegade. Gotta love it.

Blue Rose of Illium
Nearby the shop, there's a krogan reciting poems for an asari. Now there's a sight you don't see everyday. She wonders if he's dating her because he genuinely likes her or if it's because of the genophage - that he just wants her to produce babies for him. Of course, that's a mistake many aliens make since no actual DNA is taken during the mating, but merely genetic traits.

But, the krogan does seem like a sweet guy, claiming that he'll love their children no matter the race, so I persuade the asari to go with her heart and accept him if she truly loves him. This is probably the only Paragon option I've chosen so far on this planet. You get a discount from completing this mission. The shop near her contains my very first purchase of fishies! They're going to be a pain to feed...

Before I move on with the main mission, I wrap up one last side quest here. I lie to Conrad that the mission he had worked on was really dangerous, and he should call it quits. xD

The Justicar
Now that all that side quest hoopla is over, I talk to Officer Dara about Samara, and she says I can catch her at another spaceport with a cab. You can learn a little more about Samara here. Justicars are like asari warrior monks that swear to a code of honor and will kill anyone who break the law - even minor ones. Seems like an extremist Paragon if I've ever seen one. Then again, I gun down mercs for a living, so I'm not one to talk.

The following mission has a very noir-vibe to it, involving an investigation of a murder. A volus, Pitne For, informs me that his business partner, Dakni Kur, was killed last night with a shotgun containing modded rounds. That means Eclipse mercs. Now the volus is worried that the mercs will come after him too, though he doesn't know why. How is this related to Samara? Well, according to the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Anaya, the asari monk is in the crime scene for the aforementioned murder.

I tell the detective I'm here to recruit the Justicar, and she says I'll be doing her a favor if I can get the monk off her back. Her superiors are ordering her to detain the justicar since her presence here is deemed dangerous. And since Justicars don't particularly like being restrained from doing their duty, that's a death-wish. I tell her it's a stupid order she doesn't need to obey, and the following amusing scene happens.

The good detective gives me directions, and I'm off on my way.

Beyond the crime scene, it's time for some action. After a wave of some Eclipse mercs and their mechs, I finally meet Samara the Jedi- I mean Justicar.

Nice dodge, Garrus!

In the room, Samara is threatening the last surviving Eclipse merc for some information. She refuses in fear of her superior's wrath. She thus face the Justicar's wrath instead. She snaps her neck with her foot. Damn.

Seems like Samara here is hunting a dangerous fugitive, whom the Eclipse are shipping off-world, and she is hunting the mercs for the name of the ship. Det. Anaya walks in and says she has to follow her orders to detain her. Samara says her code allows her to cooperate with the local law enforcement for one day. So I make Samara a deal - I'll help her get the ship's name in that single day, but she'll have to join me on my mission. Her code, though strict, would compel her to avoid fighting cops, so following me would be the most sensible solution to continue her pursuit of the 'fugitive'. Samara advises me to talk to Pitne For, who's tied to the murder, and should know how to infiltrate the Eclipse's base. Looks like Detective Shepard is on the case.

I return to Pitne and call him out on his feigned ignorance regarding the Eclipse murder. A Renegade Interrupt can be used here.

Seems like the volus is being hunted for selling bad red sand to the mercs. It's a chemical that boosts biotic powers, but it's also toxic. Note: When I tried exposing myself to that chemical when I played ME2 back then, however, it didn't seem to have any effect on me, despite being a vanguard. After handing me a keycard for the elevator leading to their base, he also warns me that all Eclipse mercs are dangerous soldiers who had to commit her murder to earn their uniform. Something to keep in mind later.

One elevator trip later and it's straight into action. During the fight, the room starts to fill up with those toxic red sand when their canisters blow up. I guess they improve my biotics a little, but it's too minor to tell. Shortly, I pick up a new shotgun, the Scimitar, which is supposed to be "deadly at short range".

Afterwards, I enter a room where an asari Eclipse merc is hiding. "Elnora the mercenary" tries to convince me she's just an innocent initiate who didn't even fire her gun, but she then grabs for her weapon and force me to gun her down. Innocent my ass. By the way, after you take care of business here, don't forget to pick up a biotic upgrade in this same room.

More mercs coming up. While using Tali, she reveals a new power she has - an attack drone that will distract the enemies for you. And of course, Tali being Tali, she gave the drone a name, Chatika vas Paus. lol And yes, that's a reference to Baldur's Gate II.

Eventually, I come to an audio log proving Elnora to be the volus killer. This was one Renegade action that wasn't done in vain, I'd say. Immediately afterwards, I have to deal with a gunship. But that's what the missile launcher is for.

In the next room, I meet one of Pitne For's trade partners, a deluded volus named Niftu Cal high on that poisonous biotic sand.

You can let him run into his death at the very next room, where Wasea the Eclipse leader is waiting, but sending a weakling like him to fight is a bit in poor taste, so I instead shove him and show how wobbly he is in his state of delusion. He says he'll take a nap for now.

Moving on, you have one last chance to change your weapon before facing the final boss. Wasea's just chilling in her office sipping her wine, waiting for you to show up at her front door.

She bemoans about how everything has gone to shit ever since they shipped Samara's "ugly" fugitive off-world. Pissed off, she throws a toxic canister at me, and the fight begins.

This fight is actually one of the easiest boss fights ever, especially if you got the M-920 Cain (ends in 10 seconds). For me though, my Biotic Charge is powerful enough that I can finally dart around the room like a bumblebee, discharging my shotgun and SMG in people's faces, and before I know it, my Charge is recharged in 6 f-ing seconds, allowing me to easily dispose of the enemies in no time at all. This is where Biotic Charge truly shines, if you know how to use it. I eventually kill Wasea with my own fist. xD

After which, I find the name of the ship, and we're back to the spaceport. Pitne For tries to bribe me for evidence I found at the base. LMAO Yeah, right, volus.

Samara thanks me for finding the name. As I wonder about whether if her code will override my orders given to her, she does this.

She's now swore an oath to me, meaning she has to do anything I say. Anything. Excellent. I could use an asari who would do anything I tell her to do. :sneaky: I finish my business with Det. Anaya, handing her Pitne For's evidence, and 'tis as they say in the classic sleuth-fiction of ol': Case F-ing Closed.

With Samara's recruitment, the countdown to destruction has began. May Shepard be able to shoulder that burden when it comes.

Squad Convos
Mordin
DUN DUN DUN! This is the big one. The genophage mission. You didn't think we'd be playing Mass Effect without the genophage being an important plot-point, did you?

One of Mordin's old STG buddies, Maelon, got captured by Blood Pack mercs on Tuchanka. He asks me as a favor to rescue him.

For the record, I'm going to ignore a lot of loyalty missions and save'em for later.

Joker
"So, Commander, even your asari are trained killers? You get everyone at the same store or something?"

Aside from his usual snide remark about my recruited teammates, the convos regarding Joker and EDI's banter are depleted. He's fractured his thumb on her mute button. Well, at least we can get some peace and quiet without these two bickering like husband and wife.

There is one last amusing remark he makes about the squad I went out with the last mission though:
"It seems like Garrus has finally worked that stick out of his butt but now he's trying to beat guys to death with it. I can't believe I like the old Garrus better."

Samara - Starboard Observation Deck
Samara offers an upgrade to the ship - extended fuel. Considering how I kept running out of fuel exploring star clusters, this is very helpful.

She's taken to the observation deck nicely, being in the midst of her meditation.

I ask about her fugitive, but she's not ready to tell me yet, calling it a "personal matter". *wink wink* She offers some wise words about not knowing too much about your mission. "If I must kill a man because he has done wrong, do I really wish to know that he is a devoted father?" She doesn't care about our affiliation with Cerberus, as long as our goal is the same - to stop the Collectors.

Tali
Depleted. Yeesh. We've only gone through one convo.

Side Quests
Captured Mining Facility - Crescent Nebula / Zelene System / Helyme
As soon as I scan this planet, I pick up a transmission ordering everyone for "anti-invasion protocols." Smells like guilty conscience to me. Learning that there's going to be Eclipse presence on the base, I decide to bring Samara along for the ride, seeing as she's killed her share already.

Upon landing, I'm quickly greeted by Eclipse mercs. After disposing of'em, the data logs in the base suggest that some shipment was carried off by a ship. The objective of this little side quest is to simply decrypt the data containing the ship's coordinates. Not very interesting, but that's pretty much how most of the side quests in the second go from here onward. It does give you an excuse to have a pseudo-survival mode as you fight off 3-4 waves of Eclipse mercs while the data is decrypting.

Squad Convos
Kelly
The secretary congratulates me on getting a justicar of all persons to swear an oath to us. She compliments her elegance and gorgeousness, but I tell Kelly she's much prettier (yay for flirting points!).

It's a shame she got ugly in the next game.

Samara
Samara shares more about the justicars. There are only a few of them at any time in the galaxy. It's a dangerous job, and the price to become one is too high for many asari; those few who joined would often die during training. Their code is black and white, there are no gray. Its only purpose is to punish the wicked and protect the innocent - no rehabilitation for criminals is allowed.

Samara compares justicars to the knight errant and samurai of our culture, which leaves Ruth surprised. She studied humans extensively, curious about their great sense of individualism. Or as she puts it appropriately, "If three humans are in a room, there will be six opinions." Ruth asks if the code allows room for romance, and Samara states that while it does, she's moved past that part of her life. Being a thousand year old does that to you.

THERE'S A CHANCE! THE JUSTICAR SAYS THERE'S A CHANCE! Future MILF romance confirmed! (Well, actually, it's only available for Paragons... sucks for you, Rene FemShep).

Garrus
My old buddy has finally proposed his personal request. He's found a specialist on the Citadel named Fade that helps people disappear. His treacherous squadmate, Sidonis, has been seen in contact with Fade. He wants payback. Ruth wonders if that's truly the best option for her old friend, to let vengeance consume his heart and ultimately kills his spirit.

Side Quests
Blood Pack Communications Relay - Crescent Nebula / Lusarn System / Tarith
This mission involves shutting down a Blood Pack comm relay on the planet Tarith. It's a very foggy planet, so spotting enemies might be challenging. This will also mark the first time we meet a harvester.

Throughout the mission, I'll need to activate several beacons to move on. Each will guide me to the next beacon, and the next one, till I finally reach the relay. Along the way, the harvester will drop these fire-breathing bugs called the klixen. These rachni 2.0 are very rarely seen outside of this mission, if at all. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen'em again in the next game. I also pick up several data logs describing the Blood Packs' frenzied escape from this planet. Seems like they're transporting vorcha from Omega to help mine the minerals here since they're more resistant to fire, but ultimately lost'em to either the fog or the bugs as well.

Eventually, I reach the leader, Salamul, who gets a taste of Miranda's warp and a load of my boomstick. He stands no chance against my Barrier and Charge tactic, nor do his vorcha.

After I fired his ass and uploaded data I recovered from Tarith, it's revealed that the Blood Packs were mining the resources there to be sent to Zada Ban for presumably weapons manufacturing. Guess if we're to shut down these honor-less krogans for good, then we might as well be thorough.

But before that, we have a very important life-changing conversation coming up...

Squad Convos
Samara
The justicar finally reveals the identity of the fugitive she's been chasing - an Ardat-Yakshi named Morinth. She's been hunting Morinth for 400 years, and had became a justicar solely for that reason. This mission is of the utmost importance to her. She has tracked Morinth to Afterlife on Omega, and she asks me to help her hunt her down.

She tells me that Morinth suffers from a rare genetic disorder that kills her victims when she "embraces eternity." Holy mother of f-ing god. We've got a sex demon here, woo hoo! Apparently, Morinth's gotten addicted to the killing. Each time she gets laid it's like snorting Coke - she has to do it again, and again. [insert "Another One" meme here] There are only three of her kind left; Morinth's the only one who went rogue instead of abstaining from sex.

Still, being hunted because you just want to get laid, that can be a pretty fine line of morality to even Shepard. But Samara assures her that she's merely a tragic figure, not a sympathetic one. Morinth had the choice to stop her addiction, but she refused.

Given the extremity of Morinth's homicidal tendencies, Ruth agrees to help her. Before she leaves, however, Samara tells her one last thing.

"She's my daughter."

Samara has three daughter. There are three Ardat-Yakshi. It's exactly as it sounds. Ruth is extremely displeased. She can't have her own men jeopardizing the team with dark secrets that might compromise their lives. What if Morinth decided to hijack the ship just to take down Samara? Such potential dangers is one reason why Shepard doesn't like her own crew keeping secrets from her.

After leaving Samara with some harsh words about keeping personal lives private, Ruth says they'll head to Omega if there's time.

Next up: we grab an assassin who kills for a living.

Doomguy · Nov 3, 2016

Needs more Krogath (Krogan? Kroman?)

And Garrus. Always need more Garrus but you know that already

Ryder · Nov 4, 2016

Liara and the Observer
After I visit Liara again, she says the data I hacked for her last time will help her to find information from the Shadow Broker's agents, to which I ask the obvious question: is she working for that shady trader? Her answer is no - she's trying to kill him. She says it with such intensity too, which isn't fitting for the soft-spoken bookworm, so naturally, I ask about it, and it seems the Broker kidnapped her friend some time while I was dead. She's spent the last two years hunting him down. Seems like everyone's consumed by vengeance these days, even the once benign Dr. T'soni.

I try to change the topic to something friendlier... and she goes back to talking about the Broker once again. The data I gave her pointed to her one of the Broker's contacts here on Illium, someone called "the Observer". Her assistant, Nyxeris, has managed to narrow the Observer's identity down to five operatives: a turian, a salarian, a krogan, a batarian, and even a vorcha. Since Liara's not good with the tech stuff, she needs me to collect data fragments from terminals around Illium again and find out the Observer's identity from there.

After I assure her that I'll help her with her obsessive revenge plan already, she finally gives me something in return, information about Thane. Seems like the assassin's targeting a ghost from the past (lots of those popping up in this game) - one Nassana Dantius. ROFL Sweet, sweet karmic justice. Remember when I said we'll get back at Nassana someday? Well HERE IT IS! Liara gives me a lead in a woman named Seryna, Thane's last contact. I praise Liara for being able to extract all that information so fast, and she makes the analogy that "the world of intrigue isn't that different from a dig site. Except that the dead bodies still smell." I don't know whether to be impressed or be concerned.

Much like the last data-gathering mission for Liara, you need to go around and hack various terminals in order to retrieve very vague log entries talking about the Observer's dealings with the aforementioned operatives. This one can be done using terminals near Liara's office, so you can finish it almost immediately. The final terminal is in the Eternity bar, just down to the right of her office stairway. At any point of time while hacking these, you can call Liara and point out whom you think the Observer is - but don't do that yet. After to hack the last terminal, you get a sixth option - none of the suspects fit. Something is off about the logs, since all five Operatives are described as males, but a female is suddenly thrown into the mix at the end of the log. Liara figures out whom it is and asks her assistant to enter her office.

When you return, you'll find Nyxeris mysteriously absent outside the office... Turns out Nyxeris was the agent, but according to Liara, "her barriers needed practice. Practice she won't be getting." lol Damn, Liara. Getting more savage and Renegade with every convo.

With that matter dealt with, Liara vows to continue hunting the Shadow Broker, promising to "hit him with a biotic field so strong that what's left of his body will fit into a coffee cup" OKAY Liara, now you're starting to scare me. With that totally uncharacteristic analogy she just used, I had to ask her why she's so angry. That's when she reveals a very uncomfortable truth - she's the one who gave me to Cerberus. Fuck.

She says she had no choice. The Shadow Broker got hold of my corpse and was going to sell it to the Collectors. Cerberus promised to rebuild me if she took it back from him. It was either that or the Collectors - she had to make a choice, and she couldn't give up the chance to bring me back, no matter what the cost. A real Frankenstein syndrome if I ever heard one.

Naturally, Ruth was pissed. Being sold to the enemy is a treacherous idea, and for just a moment, she stopped hearing anything else beyond that statement and lash out at her. All that anger and frustration from being labeled as a traitor of the Alliance by Ashley just come bubbling up like molten lava.

Oh well. There's nothing much Ruth can do. It's not Liara's fault anyway. It's those damn Collectors who stole two years of her life from her, not her old friend. Liara's merely unlucky enough to get caught in the middle of it, the whole "wrong place at the wrong time" situation. She leaves the office with a heavy heart and drown out her thoughts by focusing on her main objective - recruiting Thane.

Dossier: The Assassin
- Quick-kill biotic specialist
- Expert sniper

Thane Krios is a drell trained from childhood as an elite assassin, proficient in both long-range sniping kills and close infiltration. He has slowed his activities in recent years but is rumored to have a target on Illium.

At the shipping cargo level, I talk to Seryna, who reveals herself to be the ex-head of security for Nassana.

Looks like Nassana's attempts at sweeping things under the rug have finally came back to bite her. As head of security, Seryna might have at least saved Nassana's life if she didn't pull her usual political machinations.

Seryna informs me of Nassana's location - at the penthouse level of the Dantius Tower. She thinks Thane will infiltrate the tower next to it, which is where we'll be going.

At night, me and Seryna infiltrate Tower Two in a skycar (goodbye grounded vehicles). We can't just fly up because Nassana's guards are waiting with rockets, so we'll have to work our way up, just like Thane would be doing. Arriving at the Tower, we're immediately treated to a scene where salarian workers are gunned down by LOKI mechs. The mechs spot us and approach with their FENRIS guard dogs charging at us. Looks like we're landing in hot! Gotta love an action-packed opening. A few shotgun blasts and biotic charges later and it's taken care of.

Nearby, a wounded salarian explains the chaotic situation going down. It's as Seryna said, Nassana is killing off her own people to cover her secrets. Before he could go on any further, he begins to choke and collapse. I use a Medi-gel Interrupt on him to save his life, getting more information outta him. The salarian gives me some direction and warns me of the dozens of mercs hanging around (105 enemies to be accurate), before thanking me and leaves.

Even more waves of enemies appear this time. The charging and shotgun tactic can still work in this enclosed area, but it requires a lot of patience and quick movements. One second too slow, and you'll be dead due to the numbers of people shooting at you. Depending on your playstyle, this can either be an unnecessary tactic, or a very rewarding one.

Climbing up the ramp to Level 2, I overhear a conversation between two Eclipse mercs. Their convo is cut short, however, when one of them makes a strangling sound. Up till now, I've always missed out on what happens next at this part in previous playthroughs - one of the mercs drop out of the venting chute from above, unconscious or dead. xD Looks like the assassin took care of him.

Another round of shoot-the-mercs later, including one tough vanguard merc, we finally get a breather. Use the pillars and blind spots to try and flank the mercs if you're a close-ranged vanguard like myself while darting from mob to mob using your Charge. Once the mercs are gone, I head over to the left end of the area where I find a bunch of salarian workers trapped behind a locked door. Seems like Thane was the one who locked them in to keep'em safe. As Jacob says, "Little protective for an assassin." After whining a little about working for Nassana, the workers give us directions to the elevator before mentioning that there might be other workers around the tower. Before leaving, one of the workers asks me to tell Thane to aim for Nassana's head, 'coz she doesn't have a heart. lol

After you access the elevator, your squadmates will advise you to position them behind a cover in front of it, hinting that there might be an ambush coming up soon. Compared to what's before, this one is pretty easy due to the low number of troops, in spite of the krogan factor. Same shtick, shotgun his face and his friends.

After I board the elevator, immediately comes my favorite Renegade Interrupt of all time.

No words can do justice to how awesome this scene is, so I'm just going to post a video here with ManShep doing the deed (Mark Meer's somber voice is actually more effective than Hale's soft-spoken voice this time):

I love how when Shepard steps into the scene, that intense music starts playing, and you know shit is going to go down, and you can tell this merc is in serious trouble. You can just feel the tension from the music alone, and from the way the merc turns around and says, "Dammit."

My favorite line out of all this definitely has to be, "You've got two ways down - express or coach. Your choice." And Shepard says this while he slowly walks towards him, pushing him back against the fragile window behind. He is not threatening him with his words here, but with his sheer presence, being a badass that's in total control of the situation. This is some pretty great animation here using body language to tell the story.

+9 Renegade Totally worth it.

If you brought Jacob along, he'll remark afterwards, "So when do we read him his rights?" XD

A short wave of mercs later (think I'm getting the hang of the 'Charge-and-Spray' technique), I find another locked room full of salarian workers. One of them warns me to stay back or he'll shoot. Big mistake. I cool his head off with my standard-issued Falcon Punch XD™ usually reserved for insinuative reporters. Another salarian runs up to check on his idiot brother, informing me that they were threatened into the room by a merc, whose head exploded in front of them. Jacob remarks that a clean shot like that takes skill, especially with bystanders around. Sounds like the perfect assassin to kill our enemies.

After ushering that bunch of workers along, I move on and find Nassana whining on the comm channel for her men to report in. I report on their behalf, telling her that they're a little preoccupied right now being dead.

Moving onto the roof, I provide more mercs with my chef's choice of boomerstick lead supreme and biotic impact inyourfacemus. Soon enough, I arrive at the bridge that connects to the main tower. This is where the fun part begins. Take down their shield, unleash a pull - THEN send them flying with Jack's shockwave. Forget about dwindling their health. Because we're on a bridge at the roof where heavy wind is blowing, they won't be able to hold their footing when the above combination remove their sense of gravity. You can also personally send'em flying with a melee attack if you're hardcore enough.

After the fun and games are over, with a little help from my heavy weapon, I reach Nassana's fancy penthouse, where the following amusing exchange occurs.

Nassana: "Shepard? But... you're dead."
Shepard: "I got better."

Nassana bemoans the irony of the situation. First she set me up to do the dirty work of killing her sister, now I've came to kill her to finish the job. Karmic justice. But I tell her I ain't got time for her treacherous ass. However, she offers me a price, so I got curious and play along. She says she'll double my rate, and even quadruple it if I name the one who hired me. Before I could catch up a little more with our old friend here, this happens.

After that amazing entrance, Thane prays before Nassana. I tell him not to bother, but he says the prayer is for himself. He isn't like most assassins. He speaks of atonement and making the galaxy a brighter place... before his imminent death from a terminal illness. He says he'll discuss more about it back aboard the ship.

Back aboard the ship, Jacob expresses his mistrust with Thane, whom he refers to as a "gun-for-hire". Ironically, that's what I referred to Jacob at the beginning. I tell them to work together as a team at first, but after Thane leaves for his room, I order Jacob to keep an eye on Thane. Ruth might be allied with some aliens, but that doesn't mean her anti-alien mistrust is completely gone.

Meanwhile, Kelly tells me TIM wants to see my in the comm room. Sigh... I forgot about what happens when you complete all the recruitment mission. Now I can't visit Illium again (I forgot to pick up some upgrades I didn't have enough credits to purchase before Samara's recruitment).

Squad Convos
Kelly
DJ Kelly here expresses her pleasant surprise at Thane's spiritual side, along with her mix of fear and attraction towards the drell. I tell her "A lot of women like bad boys." She asks if I'm one of'em (this is one of those awkward moments of roleplaying). I tell her that it's natural that I would be, considering that I live a dangerous life. Kelly smiles smugly.

Joker
"Oh, another dangerous alien aboard, Commander. Thanks. Why can't you collect coins or commemorative plates or something?"

Thane - Life Support
Thane provides additional probe capacity for the ship. This is like the ship fuel upgrade, but for the probes you have to keep sending out.

He shares his religious beliefs with me, revealing that drell were polytheistic, praying to different gods for different situation. But those old ways are dying (kinda like Thane - zing!), and now they follow either the hanar Enkindlers or the asari philosophies. You can also learn a bit about the hanar here, how they live on the drell homeworld. He compliments those big stupid jellyfishies, claiming that they can be quite "warm" if you're close enough with them. Sounds like Thane might have gotten a little 'up close and personal' experience with those tentacles, if you know what I mean. <_<

He also sheds light on his terminal illness. It's called Kepral's Syndrome. His people have come to form a close relationship with the hanar on their homeworld, Kahje, but the problem is, the drell homeworld was an arid place; Kahje is humid. The switch made the drell lose their ability to absorb oxygen properly, suffocating them as a result. He's got 8-12 months of lifespan left. An assassin faced with the inevitability of an early death. Lo tragic irony.

Tali
Tali informs me that she's being accused of treason. That sweet, sweet quarian ass, being accused of treason. Ridiculous. She has to attend trial, and will have no idea why she's being charged till she does. If she's found guilty, she's to be exiled from her fleet.

I promise her we'll attend the trial soon. This is one personal matter that Ruth will have a hard time postponing.

Collector Ship
TIM wishes to speak to me, again. It's never good news when that guy is involved.

The boss tells me that he's found a turian distress signal coming from a Collector ship that was taken out by a turian patrol - just before they got wiped out He wants me to investigate it while its systems are still offline.

Ruth's scars are sure getting worse. She's aware of this, of course, and tries her best to keep her aggression in check. But alas, the ruthless must be ruthless to do her job.

As they approach the massive Collector ship, Ruth is reminded of the other one that took the lives of her men and herself. Her breathing becomes heavier, her forehead glisten with sweat. Of course, Joker couldn't tell this since she has her helmet on, not to mention how she tries to play it cool to not reveal any telltale sign of her current panic attack.

She picked the Collector armor Cerberus has fashioned for her as a symbol of irony - fight the enemy with their own technology. It's her own subtle way of payback.

So, especially with the above soundtrack playing, this mission has an atmosphere that feels very much like Ridley Scott's Alien . A distress signal leading to a creepy and barren alien base that's actually an ambush waiting, while many horrors of the eldritch kind await inside. It has a very nice terrifying mood built up here.

My goal here is to investigate the ship and then find some sort of data about going through the Omega 4 relay that EDI can upload back to Normandy. EDI informs me that the ship bears the same signature as the one we saw on Horizon. Garrus wonders if the kidnapped colonists are still alive, but from what clues we can see here, the picture isn't pretty. Empty Collector pods are littered everywhere. And then there's this:

Dead bodies, probably the colonists', just abandoned in a pile like garbage.

Upon coming up to a nearby terminal, I discover one of the Collectors in their own pea-pods. I upload the data for EDI to analyze, and she finds a horrible truth - the Collectors were once Protheans. Oh boy.

Well, at least we now have a remote idea of what the Collectors once looked like. Could be worse - they could have looked like a more monstrous version of the hanar. Imagine the ecchi fanart of that.

Next to the pseudo-Prothean, you can pick up a bonus weapon skill. I went with the assault rifle training because I desperately need a ranged weapon, and the sniper rifle can be a pain without the Infiltrator's skills.

Collectors kidnapping humans, putting them in pods in such a grotesque manner. By now, the savvy among you should know where this is going - nowhere good.

On the way, Joker informs me that EDI found out that the Collector ship is not only the same one from Horizon, but also the one that attacked Normandy. Oh boy. If traps have a smell, there sure is a pungent stench here.

Eventually, I arrive at a huge area where we're blessed with the following terrifying sight.

You know, in an ugly and horrifying kind of way, this is actually quite beautiful.

I arrive at the ship's command console, just sitting there in the open with no guards. Suspicious. I upload the data to Normandy, but it's quickly revealed that it's a f-ing virus. F***. Should've known better than to upload strange data onto your computer. That's why you should be careful of suspicious torrents, kids.

Pretty soon, the platform we're standing on starts flying around, with other similar platforms flying towards our direction. Time for the toughest fight of your life - this is often considered one of the hardest levels in the game, just next to the final mission. Three minutes in and I'm dead already.

After a long series of pauses and careful timing of covers and SMG-sprays, I manage to get through the army of Collectors and Scion. The reason this part of the mission is so goddamn hard especially for Insanity difficulty is because you're sandwiched in between the aforementioned two different type of enemies. Hiding in cover won't always work when the Scion blast you with their cannon. The most deadly part of this is Harbinger - he can easily break you out of cover, and by the time you recover from the impact and get into cover again, the enemies will have dwindle your health to nothing.

But thankfully, luck is with me and I manage to reduce their barriers and armors to nothing. I connect EDI to the ship and allow her to grab the data that we need. She then informs me that after analyzing the distress signal, she could tell it was clearly a trap, but TIM wouldn't have been fooled by it. In other words, TIM set us up, the bastard. What was he thinking?! I COULD HAVE DIED! AGAIN! (Well, I technically did die during the fight. )

But no time to get angry. The ship is powering up again. We need to get out of here if we don't want a repeat of Normandy Sayonara 2.0.

The rest of the enemy waves is pretty much all of the Collector's forces thrown at you, from Guardians to Assassins to even a f-king Praetorian. The Collectors really want me dead. God, I don't ever remember the game being so hard on Insanity back then. But compared to the fight before on those flying platforms, I guess I have a little more breathing room here, having more space to run around instead of being stuck on a platform. Shooting the mobs are still a pain though. There's barely a chance to duck out of cover without them shooting at you everytime. That's realistic combat, I guess.

You definitely want to watch out for the Praetorian as the enclosed room means he can get close to you very fast before you know it. And when he's close enough on you, it's game over, because he can unleash that energy explosion that will diminish almost your entire health. Use the AR on him if you have it. Give him a face full of Mattock lead.

Last but not least, during the final stretch of the mission, where you'll see lots of Husks running at you, don't bother to fight them. Just run for it and make sure they don't get close enough to grab you. The cutscene will play. Joker scrambles across the controls, trying his best to get Normandy outta here before the Collector ship performs its unlicensed laser surgery on us again - we haven't even upgraded the ship's armor and shields yet!

DAMN! A little closer and we'd be looking at another two years, Joker!

Thankfully, it's not our time yet, and Joker's reputation as a pilot isn't for naught. He manages to dodge the Collector's yellow eye of death, just long enough for EDI to warp us away into safety.

Back on the ship, I have a hard talk with TIM. He says he had to send me in blind so that the Collectors wouldn't be tipped off that we knew it's an ambush and fly away before we could extract the important data. I still think it's bullshit. There are a number of ways he could have allowed me that important info if he had cared about my survival. I tell him that I'll be watching my back around him from now on, but he deflects my pettiness with an important information: EDI confirms that the Reapers and the Collectors are using an advanced IFF (Identify Friend/Foe) system to access the Omega 4 relay, a system that I could have acquired if he wasn't such an illusive man withholding important details about my mission! lol But he tells me to calm my tits, that there's a derelict Reaper we can get the IFF from. The catch is that it's trapped near a brown dwarf, meaning gale force winds and extremely high temperatures. Sounds suspicious, but I guess there's no other choice but to play along TIM's little puppet strings - for now.

As I debrief the team, they're reasonably a bit ticked off at being tricked into their doom as well. Meanwhile, EDI has located the Collector homeworld - in the very core of the galaxy filled with black holes and exploding suns. Makes sense why all the ship traveling through Omega 4 didn't make it back since they'd just be either sucked into a black hole or blasted into smithereens by a supernova. EDI deduces that there's probably a small safe zone that can only be accessed via the Reaper IFF, to which the team asks me if we should build our team first or straight away pick up the IFF. Tough choice for Ruth. She wants to get the job done, but not if everyone's still having baggage. Might compromise the mission. Thus, she decides to hold off the IFF for now. She's impatient, not stupid.

Squad Convos
Kelly
The secretary expresses her concern for me, grateful that I'm back in one piece. She wishes that she could spend more time with me, so I invite her to dinner in the captain's cabin, and maybe a little something more too.

DAMN, Ruth! One mission later and you've already turned into the She-Devil Kelly sure knows how to choose'em.

By the way, this dinner date is only available if you've been flirting with her before the Collector Ship mission. This will lead to something special the next time you talk to her - she'll offer to feed your fish! No more heading back to the cabin between every mission!

Joker
Some amusing stuff Joker says while I stand behind him:

"Commander, can I get a mirror up here? You know, so I can see when someone is standing behind me?"
"Take a holo, it'll last longer."
(Sound of woman gasping in a porn scene.) "Uh, sorry. That was supposed to go to my earpiece."

Oh, Joker. What are we ever gonna do with you? [insert laughtrack]

Thane
If you recruited Thane last, this conversation will seem strange to you because it's chronologically misplaced. Drell have an ability to recall any memory at will and experience every detail of it like they're watching a video in their head or something, but the first time Shepard experiences this is during the second time you talk to him - before he asks his personal request. If you've finished the Collector Ship mission, however, I'm assuming that this will trigger his loyalty mission immediately, making the moment when Shepard experiences the memory thing during the loyal mission convo seems odd, since she talks about it as if Thane has already explained that ability to her.

Regardless, Thane talks about his son, Kolyat, and how he was a workaholic who didn't spend enough time with his family. He recalls a memory where his son showed him his schoolwork, but Thane was quickly distracted by a call from work. He describes it with such vivid details, from the music playing at the time to that disappointed look across Kolyat's face. When his wife passed, he left his son in the care of his aunts and uncles - he never had any contact with him since. Ruth rebukes him for abandoning his child, something she couldn't tolerate with her own lack of family. He said he had thought that he was sparing him from his assassin life.

Now, he has recently tried to trace Kolyat once more... and found out that he's signed up as a hit man, possibly as an attempt to get closer to his father, the assassin. Ruth asks why he would need the help of a mere soldier like her to track down his son, and he replies that he doesn't need her help, he wants it. This is when the aforementioned odd moment comes in. He recalls another memory of his wife's burial at sea hosted by a bunch of hanar, and how his son had begged him not to let his mother be taken away. "Don't let them! Stop them! Why weren't you--?" That's when Shepard says the following odd line:

It's a minor bug, but it does peeve me a lot in terms of roleplaying.

This loyalty mission is probably a little closer to the heart for Ruth than most of the other ones (Garrus' one hits home the most though since it's about revenge). Due to her own lack of family kinship, she wouldn't want her own teammate to lose one of his own. She promises Thane that she would help him out with this one as soon as she can.

Ryder · Nov 4, 2016

Side Quests
Mining the Canyon - Caleston Rift / Talava System / Taitus
This is one of the more interesting side quests. There's a deactivated mech on Taitus that you need to gather power cells around the landing zone for to keep it running. If you do, it will help you mine valuable minerals at the end, so it's a give-and-take. There are no enemies here aside from a bunch of varren, so here's your chance to test out any unfamiliar weapons/squadmates here.

I'll admit, having your own pet YMIR heavy mech is kinda fun. It's a shame we can't keep it.

There's an energy-bar at the bottom-right corner to tell you how much power the mech has remaining. You can run ahead and pick up power cells ahead of it if you don't want to waste time, just watch out for the varren. At the end of it, however, the cute little mech will blow up, having completed its mission.

Endangered Research Station - Caleston Rift / Solveig System / Surtur
Another side quest without enemies. This one is less interesting though. A research station is going to bombarded with a solar storm from a dying sun soon, and it's up to you to reactivate the magnetic shield that protects it because they couldn't just send someone to push a button for some reason. This will also mark the first time you do a mission alone, bar Kasumi's loyalty mission.

First, you need to hack the station control panel. Then, you'll come to a spot where there's a control unit in the center. Use it to channel the power source to three different terminals: a cooling unit, a shield control, and a shield generator. Simple logic will tell you which one you need to switch on first. The nearby sun is dying, so it's going to be hot, thus you need a cooling unit first. Then the generator to generate the shield, which you could then control it. After hacking the shield controls, the magnetic shield activates and the mission ends.

Omega Nebula is the closest star cluster to Caleston Rift (the cluster EDI sent me after the Collector Ship mission), so I'm gonna head there first to take care of Samara's personal request first. This will mark the turning point of Ruth Shepard's story in a very important chapter... But first, let's pick up a little side quest on Omega.

Packages For Ish - Omega
A salarian named Ish (creative name) is watching me, Jacob, and Miranda. When I ask if they know each other, Jacob says Ish set them up during a past mission, but Ish denies it and claims it was merely business. Ish offers a business proposition for me - pick up two data packages at the Citadel and Illium. We'll come back to this quest later.

Ish is an NPC from Mass Effect: Galaxy, which you need to supposedly play to get extra dialogues during the above conversation in ME2. I checked out what the "extra dialogues" were, and it turns out to be the same exact conversation I had with Ish, even though I never played that spin-off game (I don't have the platform for it).

The Patriarch
I actually forgot to turn in this quest back then. When I do, she's actually not that pissed off about me disobeying her orders, thanking me on getting the job done. She hands me coordinates to a cache as a reward.

Now that I've gained her trust, she's more agreeable in talking about her past, how she got herself set up. The truth is that she and the Patriarch were friends, but the krogan warlord turned on her. To Aria's advantage, however, she brought his men over to her side with certain asari 'benefits'. Dirty girl, but clever.

Samara and the Ardat-Yakshi - Afterlife
Finally, I ask Aria for information about Samara's daughter. Her last victim was a young girl in the nearby apartments. I visit the place and meet her mother, Diana. Her daughter's name was Nef. She's a sculptor, creative and driven - everything a mother could hope for. But then she met Morinth, Samara's daughter, and became obsessed with her, worshiping her like a goddess. Diana tells me that not being around Morinth made Nef tired and distracted, as if Morinth's presence is an addictive drug.

So there's something I want to try out in this playthrough, especially with the amount of roleplay headcanon that's coming soon. Whenever I want to describe Ruth's perspectives and feelings, I'll put a bolded IC (In Character): before the roleplay. Like this:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IC: After hearing Diana's account of Morinth, Ruth is more intrigued than disturbed by Samara's daughter. A creature that can grant you the peak of euphoria before killing you, almost like a pill of ecstasy. Ruth had her share of deviant sexual experiences during youth, and could understand the appeal of such an individual even at her age. Of course, she knows that she's a cruel murderer who must be stopped, but she would be lying if she claims that Morinth's sadistic sexuality didn't attract her even a little bit.

Her feelings are further affirmed by Samara's description of her. After going through Nef's room in search of clues regarding Morinth, Samara tells her the following: "Morinth speaks to you on many levels. Her body tells yours that she'll bring unimaginable ecstasy. Her scent evokes emotions long hidden. Her eyes promise you things you were always scared to ask of another. Her voice whispers to you after she is done speaking." Ruth expresses how dangerous Morinth sounds, but on the inside, she's even more curious how such a forbidden fruit would taste like. The temptation is gradually eating into her.

Samara warns that Morinth would escape easily if they charge in with guns ablazing. Ruth finishes Samara's sentence: they'd have to lure Morinth out, and Ruth would be bait. She's wary of the plan, but is also secretly excited. Just what kind of person someone who kills with sex would be? How would she try and seduce her?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OOC: You can find Morinth in the VIP section of Afterlife, just directly South of Harrot's Emporium. In here, you'll have quite a number of opportunities to earn Renegade Points if you didn't manage to get enough, starting from the entrance. After I split up with Samara, who gives me last minute tips on how to lure her out (be as Renegade as possible). She claims that violence excites Morinth, a sentiment Ruth isn't too unfamiliar with either.

There are several activities here that will attract Morinth's attention. However, I only got to three before Morinth's attention is on me.

Firstly, there's some human kid who wants to hit on an asari by asking for Expel 10 tickets. I ask him to bugger off before I sock him a good one.

There's a turian asshole hitting on an asari dancer, treating her like a hooker. Ruth steps in, and the turian runs his mouth off about Ruth joining in on the action... oh boy. Poor choice of words. A few punches later, and the turian is sent flying across the room.

Two turians are discussing committing a mugging tonight. I intimidate them and call them pathetic. They got up in my face and try to take me down two-on-one, but that was a mistake.

Right in the balls! Ouch! This is a great scene that showcases Shepard's h2h combat that I mentioned in the first game's playthrough. Look at the way she just swoops through those turians like air. Never underestimate our human women, you alien pricks.

After her little display of song and dance, Morinth soon comes ringing, inviting Ruth to her private booth to have a little chat. Don't bother talking to Morinth about justicars and family, two topics that Morinth detests for obvious reasons. This convo is where the aforementioned clues would come in handy. Talk about Expel 10 the band, Hallex the drug, Forta the artist, Vaenia the film, the enjoyment of danger, and power being its own reward.

IC: Even though it's all pretend, Ruth gets to be in touch with her own aggressive side while conversing with Morinth. While she obviously wouldn't agree with many of her viewpoints and principles, Ruth found herself speaking with a certain level of sincerity when she expresses her own enjoyment of violence and danger. The power she felt overpowering men who had looked down on her based on her gender, when they ended up cowering on their knees, squealing in agony -- that feeling, she must admit, came with its own kind of pleasure.

Eventually, Morinth invites Ruth back to her place, with Samara following closely behind.

(Before talking to Morinth in her room, you can investigate a few items around her, including an AR upgrade)

Ruth engages in further conversation with Morinth, going even deeper into her role as someone as infatuated with violence as she does. They both talk about having freedom over safety, the desire for independence over submission. Morinth is right in that they both share the same yearning for freedom. Growing up in the streets back on Earth, Ruth had to make certain compromises to survive, and she hated that. In some small ways, maybe she's taking it out on the world now for not being able to stretch her wings back then.

Of course, Ruth needs to have the upper-hand here to remind Morinth who's on top of the bed. She tells the Ardat-Yakshi that despite the similarities, she's nowhere near her league.

And that's when it hits her, Morinth's hypnotic gaze."Look into my eyes and tell me you want me. Tell me you'd kill for me. Anything I want." Her soft voice flows like warm honeydew, wrapping Ruth's mind with such a comforting embrace that she's drawn to Morinth's every word... her every command. Her hushed whisper is like a fog clouding over Ruth's thoughts, but at the same time, filling her mind with new ones... "Love me, worship me. Kill for me... everyone you love."

But alas, this wasn't the first time Ruth had to struggle against such psychological coercion. Morinth's fancy little party trick definitely leaves a sensual effect no man or woman could resist, but compared to the batarian torture camps she had to endure throughout her service, along with the nightly voices of the dead that still haunt her today, Morinth's whispers are mere static in an already chaotic mind. Ruth would laugh smugly at her pathetic attempts of coercion if she isn't trying to stall Morinth. "I'm not the victim you were hoping for."

Something's off, Morinth figures. What did she mean by 'victim'? And that's when it clicked for her - mother. Samara walks in, her body charged with biotic energy, and flings Morinth against the glass window, ready for the killing blow. But Morinth did not escape a justicar's clutches for four centuries out of pure coincidence. With her inherited strength, she breaks free from Samara's biotic hold and a fight immediately ensues, with the two powerhouses hurling furniture and biotic blasts at one another.

However, the two are almost evenly matched. A tip in the balance is required if there is to be a winner. Morinth claims she's as strong as Samara, while the latter reminds Ruth that she's already a sworn ally fighting by her side. The choice should be obvious - she came here as a favor to help two mothers find their closure, both Samara and Diana, two mothers who lost their daughter because Morinth wanted to get high killing people.

But something is amiss. Ruth is in doubt, gazing in Morinth's direction. Perhaps the Ardat-Yakshi's bewitching siren didn't have as little effect as Ruth had confidently thought. One step, two, Ruth turns towards Samara with empty eyes and begins approaching her. "What are you doing, Shepard?!" Ruth isn't listening. Her mind feels foggy, clouded with remembrance of how her own mother had abandoned her, leaving her an orphan to survive on the streets. She had to make some ugly choices back on Earth, some that even cost her dignity. Much like Morinth, she was forced to pay for the sins of her parents. In her perspective, Samara's merciless 'code' feels no different from her own mother's self-righteous excuse to rid herself of her responsibilities.

"Morinth will be more useful to me," Ruth says somberly as she grabs Samara's attacking arm. The justicar replies that Ruth will regret her choice. The Commander says nothing in return, nor does she express any trace of remorse.

Morinth seizes the chance to send the biotic blast she's been charging up towards her mother. Once Samara has fallen, the Ardat-Yakshi walks up to her like a ruthless predator, granting her some final words. "Goodbye... Mother." She chokes Samara, and lands a massive biotic blast against her face. The justicar is dead.

Morinth thanks Ruth for her aid, and now lends her own assistance to the team and their suicide mission. Ruth warns that her crew will be suspicious about the replacement in the team, but Morinth says they'd be none the wiser... before changing her voice into that of Samara's. She had perfected her imitation of her mother over the years, providing her advantage to escape the galaxy. Now all she has to do is slip into that "horrible uniform".

OOC: Oh boy oh boy. What was Shepard thinking, right?! Choosing a violent mass murderer with possible psychopathic tendencies (*COUGH*Jack*COUGH*) over a law-enforcing paladin? Ruth must've been crazy! No, she must've been... indoctrinated.

So yes, as you can tell, things are going to change around Shepard's life. This time, Shepard's capacity for compassion has truly been rid of, burned away like some old uniform. All of her decisions will be cold and calculative from now on. Whether if that's the influence of Morinth or if it's of her own will, I'll leave that to your discretion, for now.

It's a shame she didn't get to fulfill the other squad members' personal requests before Morinth mind-fucks her. God knows what fate will be waiting for her team... particularly Garrus and Tali. I actually wanted to finish some of the other loyalty missions before I touch on Samara's, but I just happened to be proximately close to Omega after the Collector Ship mission. And if you remember my first playthrough, I travel from one star cluster to another via the red line that connects them on the galaxy map. Most of the other clusters that had other loyalty missions were much further than Omega. I guess you could call it fate... or a curse.

Due to roleplaying reasons, the rest of the game will be a speed-run. I'll be activating god mode, skipping side quests, summarizing all the loyalty missions and so forth, all so that I could get to the ending ASAP - then something else will happen at that point and, well, you'll just have to wait and see why I'm doing this. Hint: I left a save before doing Samara's loyalty mission.

Squad Convos
Joker
"I'm glad things worked out, Commander. I was worried you'd dump Samara for some crazy soul-sucker with a death fetish, all lithe and sexy and... never mind."

Kasumi
"It must have been really hard for Samara to ask you to help kill her own daughter. Though I've noticed, Samara's not exactly acting like herself lately. Not that I'd mention that to anyone else."

Good thing she says the last part, or Ruth might have to seriously consider silencing her. No, that's not a joke.

Morinth
The Ardat-Yakshi is taking well to her new residence, in spite of that uniform. She expresses some last words for her late mother, how she was dutiful but had shown no love towards her children. Such descriptions merely reinforces Ruth's sentiment that she made the correct choice. However, she is wary of Morinth speaking in her own voice, but she says she's taken care of that little problem. "I just want to be myself with you, Shepard."

Morinth also shares about her life of solitude, how she gets lonely at times due to a lack of reciprocated love from her... hollow partners. But she assures Ruth that all her lovers spent their last moments experiencing the peak of ecstasy, something she'd like a tough survivor like Ruth to experience... after their important mission is over, that is.

Right now, Ruth's only thought is to focus on her mission and get the job done. Her mind is still cloudy for some reason, making it hard to think, so she tries to focus on her work to set her mind straight. Meanwhile, Morinth's got an important task of her own to fulfill too before she could embrace eternity with Shepard: to ensure that Normandy is barren of everyone else, so that she can have Shepard all to herself... Morinth's little puppeteer show has began.

Acquiring the Reaper IFF - Hawking Eta / Thorne / Derelict Reaper

Aboard the derelict ship, I find a few audio logs indicating signs of indoctrination among the Cerberus research team sent to investigate the site earlier. Shortly after, the ship's mass effect core turns on once again and activates its shield generator, cutting the Normandy off from picking us up again. Looks like we'll have to turn the core off - the very same core keeping the Reaper from being sucked into the brown dwarf's gravity.

More audio logs of indoctrination. The crew having their memory altered. Looks like we shouldn't stay on this Reaper for long to prevent risk of mental manipulation. We're soon attacked by hordes of husks, but after dealing with them, we hear gunfire in the distance - not ours. Someone else is here shooting (if you move fast enough around the corner, you could see a geth retreating from the balcony in the distance; he's the one doing the shooting).

More indoctrination logs. Geth pillars are in the distance. Looks like those are the ones that turned the Cerberus crew into the husks we're fighting.

Through an airlock, a geth has its sniper scope aimed at my head, but it soon turns out that it's merely watching me, and even proceed to shoot the husks ambushing me from behind. When I look around, searching for sniper that took out the husks, the geth speaks.

Yes. An actual talking geth. This is on the levels of Rise of the Planet of the Apes with Caesar saying "NO!" lol

More husks. Much like killing zombies, there's a lot of backing away as you shoot them (or in RPG terms, "kiting"). It sounds easy, but due to the way the husks charge at you, you (and especially your squad) will be running away very often. You DON'T want to be cornered by a large army of husks. It will spell your immediate death.

Thankfully, I have god mode by my side for now. Boy, I sure wouldn't want to redo this fight all over again, which I probably wouldn't have any reason to, right...?

After grabbing the IFF, you'd think the fight is over, right? HAHAHA, yeah right. You didn't forget about the mass effect core all of the sudden, did you? This is the final fight. It will be waves and waves of husks. I don't know where the Reapers get their supply from. Gethstop? Huskmart? Reaperzon? lol

Feel free to use your heavy weapon here. It won't help much, because as soon as you clear a few waves of husks with that thing, more will be coming until you've successfully destroyed the mass effect core. Doesn't help that the core sporadically closes in between your shooting, leaving you to defend against the dozens of husks. Phew! And you thought the Collector Ship was tough.

I find pausing in between the husks charging can help you aim better. The problem is, the frame-rate drop between those pauses might cause your game to crash. Mine did.

After finally taking down the core, the team agrees that bringing the geth on board can provide great study opportunities in the future (only because I brought along Mordin and Morinth lol). But even if they disagree, there's no time to argue, since the ship is going to sink into orbit in less than a minute, all the while with more husks popping up and chasing our tail. We hurl that geth's ass into the ship and quickly make our escape, just seconds before the Reaper is sucked into the brown dwarf. Phew.

Back on board the ship, the team has understandable doubts about bringing aboard a geth. A krogan's one thing, since we did have a krogan squad mate before, but geth have always been our enemies. Miranda suggests for handing it over to Cerberus to study it, while Jacob suggests that it's too dangerous, and we should just space it. But since there's literally no dialogue option to space that robot junk, Ruth instead hands it over to Cerberus. She's got bigger fish to fry than worry about having a geth on board. TIM transfers 50,000 credits for the geth I sent him. Phew!

Now we just have to await EDI and the crew to finish installing the IFF. The IFF Countdown has began! LOL People are gonna die! Hahahaha... ahem. You'll know what I mean, for those newcomers reading this.

Squad Convos
Kelly
The secretary has noticed Samara's strange change in behavior as well. Yeoman has become a liability. Ruth will have to find some way to get rid of her...

Morinth
The Ardat-Yakshi's changed back into her old uniform too. She's really making herself at home. Ruth warns her not to jeopardize the mission, and not to cause trouble among the crew either. Looks like Shepard still has some semblance of authority over Morinth. Morinth will have to change that...

Tali: Treason - Vallhallan Threshold / Raheel-Leyya / Migrant Fleet
Having straightened out the Reaper IFF crap, Shepard finally has some free time to help her closest teammates, namely Tali and Garrus. She'll start with Tali, since that one seems more urgent.

We arrive on the Migrant Fleet, the army of ships that quarians always travel together in. The quarians welcome Shepard on board, but her responses are cold and emotionless, as if she's going through the motions. According to the captain of Tali's birthship, Captain Kar'Danna, Tali's been accused of bringing active geth aboard the Fleet. Shepard says they'll deal with that later after attending the trial's hearing that's about to begin. On the way, I meet an old friend of Tali's father, Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay (or "Auntie Raan" to Tali). She informs me that according to quarian law, the accused is always represented by his or her ship's captain - I have to play attorney for Tali. Oh boy. Nobody told me I had to play Phoenix Wright! lol But I guess we'll just have to worry about that later. Onto the trial.

Once the hearing begins, however, Tali learns a terrible truth - the geth have taken over her father, Rael'Zorah's ship, the Alarei, and have likely killed him. Not a single quarian had told her of this before the hearing, even her own "Auntie Raan". That's pretty dirty. Tali immediately voices her desire to take back her father's ship,, but one of the admirals overseeing the trial claims that the safer option is to destroy the ship. "But if you are looking for an honorable death instead of exile..." To that Tali gives the following epic response:

Yep. Our little Tali sure has grown.

After the hearing ends, Tali lets her aunt have it. Raan replies that she had to let the admirals see her genuine reaction of shock or they might not let us take back the ship, or collect evidence from it. Still a dirty move, but understandable.

Aboard the Alarei, we begin our infiltration. Lots of geth die by my god-mode hands. Along the way, we pick up audio logs describing Tali's father researching active geth to take back their homeworld. Shortly after, we come across Rael's body, and Tali mourns for her father. Ruth doesn't perform 'the hug.' >=) Her father leaves Tali a message, telling us to disable the geth's neutral hub and bring the data back to the admirals. Some dying message. Not even a goodbye. Ruth asks Tali to move on, cruelly tearing her away from spending time with her father. If you despite Shepard's actions at this point, I've done my job right.

After disabling the hub, I come across another recording, this time of Tali's father telling his workers not to involve Tali in his controversial work - reactivating geth into a sentience state for weapons testing. This is, obviously, against the strictest of quarian laws, even way before they were exiled from their homeworld. It's important evidence that will exonerate Tali from her father's blame... but will turn Rael'Zorah into the quarian boogeyman.

Back at the trial, you have the option to turn in the evidence or use your morality options to persuade or intimidate the admirals into believing that Tali is innocent. If neither of those are available and she's exiled, she'll still become loyal to you. Turning in the evidence, naturally, does not.

By this point, you should know well enough what the new and cold-hearted Shepard would do. Tali is left devastated and forever disloyal to the team.

+30 Renegade

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