1661

I finally committed to and finished my first Insanity playthrough, renegade style. I completed every damned quest and side mission… yes, even that Krogan fish business on the Citadel. This was on the heels of my first 100% Mass Effect 1 playthrough so everything was fresh in my mind and I was able to appreciate all the little references to Shepard’s previous exploits and other random galactic happenings. As Tom might say if he weren’t, you know, Tom: two thumbs up.

Random thoughts:

  • I wish Grunt weren’t the more viable option for the Suicide Mission because Zaeed grew on me a lot over the bulk of my playthrough.

  • I brought Legion to the Quarian flotilla for Tali’s loyalty mission which was amusing to say the least. Having to complete the loyalty mission with two engineers and my Adept – not so much.

  • Unfortunately, that mission delayed me and killed my personal assistant. The Doctor may have to be sedated for ME3.

  • I liked the Council more when they were dead.

And god help me, I love this combat system with my Adept. Insanity isn’t even a difficulty increase** so much as it’s +fun to this particular class. Swiftly shredding shields then knocking baddies around like so many bowling pins just never gets old, nor does the hysterical, endless AHHHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHing when singularity occasionally bugs out a bit.

Now I’m considering another full playthrough with an engineer or infiltrator because I can’t get enough of the combat now that I truly grasp it. I fear I’ve reached hong levels of fanboyism.

Last but not least: having saved The Arrival DLC for the end of this playthrough I’m a bit late to the party but I had a lot of fun with it. One moment in particular, when you wake up from sedation and take control of the drones… music and gameplay converge to make it a fairly memorable sequence in a game chock full of them.

Other than that, kudos for the optional stealth gameplay (more of this in ME3??) and has anyone survived five waves for the achievement? I wasn’t prepared, to put it lightly.

** Ok, the first few levels were very, very hard. It’s well worth struggling through it, however.

1662

I’ve watched your hate grow inside you. Now you are ready to unleash the full power of the Dark Side.

That is, if I don’t strike you down first. I envy your enjoyment of the combat system. You’ve almost sold me on an ME2 replay with Adept.

1663

Insanity is just more fun, period. Without the layers it adds to combat everything is too easy. This applies only to ME2, in ME1 Insanity was a grind.

I think I’ll just play ME3 at the top level from the start.

1664

Rise, zombie thread!

I just finished ME 2 this week. (Still don’t have ME 3, by the way. That’ll be another couple years until it gets down in the $10 range.) Ran it on Veteran difficulty with my ME 1 Femshep import who had taken all the Paragon path stuff, continued that direction.

Didn’t think much of the combat changes. ME 1 did it better. The “hide for a bit and you’ll be all healed up” is just dumb. For shield recharge, sure, but for health it’s silly. Weapons choice was pathetic. Other than the heavy weapons, didn’t really see any reason to ever change loadouts. I was playing an Adept, so by about halfway through, my biotics were so powerful that I barely needed guns anyway. Used 'em mostly for something to do while the powers recharged. I’d mostly throw Warps and Singularities around while my squad killed everything while it floated helplessly.

Disappointed that the Illusive Man didn’t turn out to be anything more than the manipulative, human-centric asshole that was evident from the start. I was hoping he’d end up being an AI, or a hidden Reaper operative, or something.

The bit where Joker lurched around the ship to unshackle EDI was kinda cool from a story perspective, but holy cow was it horribly contrived. Shepard and the whole combat crew go running off in the shuttle to some unexplained side mission just long enough to have the rest of the crew stolen? Joker just happens to have enough mobility to get to a couple of consoles down on lower decks? Everyone’s scared to death of free AIs, but EDI is set up in such a way that a crippled pilot can hook her up to every system on board in five minutes? I’m willing to suspend a lot of disbelief, but that’s over the line.

The giant human Reaper was incredibly stupid. Building a Reaper using organics from subjugated (or soon-to-be) races, sure, makes sense. But having it take human form? God-awful schlock. I realize this is Bioware writing, but even they should have some standards.

Some of the new characters were pretty cool. I like Samara, the Justicar, particularly. And not just because of that outfit. The storyline with her having to hunt down and kill her daughters was pretty good, I thought. The Krogan subplots, both Grunt and Mordin’s loyalty missions, were pretty cool too.

Was nice to see some of the old crew. Garrus was written perfectly. He goes all vigilante, the inevitable backfire that left him alone, ripe for recruiting. Exactly what I’d have expected after ME 1. Wish there had been some more Liara and Wrex, but I can understand why they’d minimize their involvement.

The planet-scanning for resources is absolutely horrible. I hear it’s gone in ME 3, which I sure hope is the case. Also the Firewalker vehicle thing was pretty pathetic. The ME 1 Mako was a whole lot better.

I’m glad I played ME 2 because I like the universe and enjoyed seeing what happened to some of the characters. But as far as gameplay goes, ME 1 was a whole lot better. I played ME 1 twice and enjoyed it both times, but I’m not feeling the need to subject myself to the ME 2 gameplay again.