Forums > Game Forums > Mass Effect 2 > So, these DLCs...
Slug Camargo (583) on 10/18/2011 1:49 AM · Permalink · Report
I'm really really really enjoying this game, and I already decided I'm gonna be buying (at least some of) the DLC.
I heard good things about the Shadow Broker one, and also it's a chance to get to work with Liara again (L), so that one's a given.
What about the other ones? Anyone played them? Are they any good? For instance, I'm given to understand Stolen Memory (the one with the hooded new recruit) is good gameplay and writing-wise, but it's also too short.
Also, should I finish the main game first or can I safely shoehorn them in the middle of things?
BurningStickMan (17916) on 10/18/2011 10:32 PM · Permalink · Report
Throw them in the middle, don't wait until the end. I believe only the last one is meant to take place after you fight the Reapers (also, the only one I haven't played).
Shadow Broker is probably the best of the lot. Fairly robust, and there's some things to go back to when it's done. Another good reason to get it before you finish the game.
Stolen Memory and the one with the rogue AI definitely felt short. Depends on how much you pay for them, I suppose.
Slug Camargo (583) on 10/19/2011 4:06 AM · Permalink · Report
Thanks for the info. I tried to make my mind by reading some reviews, but on the first one I found I met with what I believe is going to be a pretty big spoiler, so I had to back up all shrieking and gesticulating exaggeratedly and stuff.
I then decided to start with Shadow Broker and see what's what, but then there was some mix up with BioWare's f'ing Microsoft-inspired point system, the slippery slope, and I ended up buying Stolen Memory and having my debit card like half a dollar short from SB. I could have started vigorously banging my head against the desktop if it wasn't cluttered with all this crap.
Anyway, I guess I can get an extra dollar or two in the next days and fix the mess, and meanwhile I'll see what's with this whole fancy-dressing Shepard business. I like the new character, for one, and her unique power seems like a very cool thing to get for myself, and something the Infiltrator is really missing too, by the way; but I guess the power she'll end up sharing with me will be some much crappier ammo enhancer or explosive or something.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 10/19/2011 5:23 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
"...she'll end up sharing with me..."
OMG you're playing a She Shepard too?! Quick, let's swap pictures!!!
What's your Shepard like? My Shepard is very mean. She does this too people.
She makes me feel disgusted about saving the universe. But honestly, the rest of the galaxy is crap too.
Edit: Got it.
Slug Camargo (583) on 10/20/2011 2:45 AM · Permalink · Report
I tend to model my RPG characters into girls I like, though I have a conception of "pretty" that might be not a popular one: Huge nose, huge lips, huge eyes, lots of freckles whenever possible, thick brows and a rather masculine general facial structure. And if I could make them about 5'1'', that would be terrific. Also they're not just lesbian, but actual full fledged misandric psychos. One of Julia Shepard's most terrible secrets is that sending Kaidan Alenko to the wolves actually wasn't that tough a decision.
There might be some kind of convoluted self-loathing gay inside me trying to say something.
Character wise, Julia Shepard is rather sad: She keeps second guessing and giving the Illusive Man and all the Cerberus bitches quite the attitude, but she goes to work for them anyway, so the joke's on her. Also she's still so pathetically in love with Liara that she'll willfully play catch without questioning a word, even though Liara has turned into a cold bitch and I'm pretty sure she doesn't even like Shepard anymore :(
Also she's became an alcoholic, because how could she possibly not, with that pitiful life she's having? People keep sending her e-mails with congratulations you're such a hero and plox find our abducted cat and whatnot, but little do they know she's still on the mission most likely on a drunken suicide drive :( The Illusive Man would've saved a lot of cash by just tossing a vodka bottle into the Omega 4 Relay. Julia Shepard is a cautious, clever strategist that will exhaustively analyze every possible angle of a given scenario before deciding to make any move, but she will take apart the Reaper that used to bully Sovereign in grade school with her f'ing teeth if it happens to stand between her and a drink >:(
Anyway, here's my main Shepard, an Infiltrator because that's the kind of character I enjoy playing the most lately ...
She of course wears the hot pink armor at every chance she gets.
And here's the secondary one, a Vanguard I'm playing on the side because the powers are so cool and also to try some unnecessarily mean Renegade choices for kicks ...
This one wears a black armor because she's such a badass and serious business and whatnot.
Yeah, they're pretty much the same person with different hair. I'm just fixated on that face.
Also, here's my daughter's rendition of her ...
I guess this would be a nice caricature to go with the scathing piece that Khalisah al-Jilani will be running in The Citadel Times.
And Garrus got one too ...
By the way, it has occurred to me that I may have been fooled by the game into thinking I'm really making all these choices while in fact I'm playing a rather standard ME2 character; but if that's the case I gotta hand it to BioWare, they made a very clever job anyway.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 10/20/2011 5:11 AM · Permalink · Report
Well my Shepard has had tender moments too. In ME1 she was all ruthless, get the job done, shoot the krogan, in fact shoot anyone in the face no questions asked. In ME1 she was also humanity first at every cost, but now she thinks turians are okay too.
But in ME2 I remember a scene where she met the survivors of that mind control plant colony... and it got me a little bit. She's actually become more considerate. She still shoots people in her way without hesitation. But sometimes... for example this time she was kind to that crazy Shepard fan.
And she's now more thoughtful about her role. She has pretty much accepted that she has damned her soul. And it has given her a sense of peace.
That's why she and Garrus get along so well. They're both kind of Batman gone wrong. She lost Tali in the final battle and it was a bit sad. She does kinda bond with team-members now. She just doesn't have the time to mourn. And it's sad.
Here she is getting walled by a krogan.
I have another Shepard too, but she's so nice that she only wants to hug people and love the pain away and it makes her very sad that people don't love.
Here is she getting walled by a krogan, she looks like she's about to say "you may rape me brutally, but Jesus still loves you... and so do I."
Lain Crowley (6629) on 11/7/2011 11:58 PM · Permalink · Report
That Garrus drawing is fantastic.
I'm playing through this for the first time now. Not liking it as much as Dragon Age, and the cover mechanics are, I think, the worst cover mechanics I've seen in a 3rd person shooter that I have played, but I'm still enjoying it. I also don't care for how being nice or being a dick are special powers. I can also see why they're adding in the option to automate conversations in ME3, because there's so little reason to manually select anything in ME2 since it never makes any difference.
Lain Crowley (6629) on 11/10/2011 9:49 PM · Permalink · Report
Just beat the game and now I'm going for a male paragon playthrough on insanity. Kind of regret not picking insanity from the start for my first playthrough, since enemies are actually more than just speedbumps now.
My problem, however, is with Shepard and Mr. Mark Meer. I don't understand how 83% of mass effect 2 players can stand to listen to him for an entire game. I'd actually be willing to pay for a Cam Clarke or Nolan North sound pack if one was available.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 11/10/2011 10:10 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Lain Crowley wrote--] My problem, however, is with Shepard and Mr. Mark Meer. I don't understand how 83% of mass effect 2 players can stand to listen to him for an entire game. I'd actually be willing to pay for a Cam Clarke or Nolan North sound pack if one was available. [/Q --end Lain Crowley wrote--]
That's why real men play the female Shepard. You do want to be a real man, don't you?
Slug Camargo (583) on 11/10/2011 10:42 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Lain Crowley wrote--]Kind of regret not picking insanity from the start for my first playthrough, since enemies are actually more than just speedbumps now. [/Q --end Lain Crowley wrote--] Same thing happened to me. I found a pretty sweet spot on the second to hardest level, but everything before that was insultingly easy. I'll probably take it to insanity for the rest of my Renegade Vanguard playthrough.
[Q --start Lain Crowley wrote--] My problem, however, is with Shepard and Mr. Mark Meer. I don't understand how 83% of mass effect 2 players can stand to listen to him for an entire game. [/Q --end Lain Crowley wrote--] Speaking of that, you didn't post pics of your Shepards. It's a mandatory thing in this thread.
I had every intention of letting this game alone for a little bit so I could pay some attention to The Witcher or something else from my "To Do" list, what with having finished it along with all the DLC, but then I realized there are a bunch of sidequests hidden in planets that I didn't have any reason to visit!!!! So now I just have to 100% the entire galaxy --I couldn't sleep well knowing there are unsolved quests somewhere out there. And every planet looks so unique and amazing too.
Lain Crowley (6629) on 11/11/2011 1:16 AM · Permalink · Report
Not sure if it's possible. I'm playing the game on the PS3. Can I drop that identity code or whatever on the masseffect website for it to generate an image of them? I really like how Saint's Row 3 is letting people do this.
I loved checking out all the planets for their flavor text. Reading about abandoned colonies and extinct civilizations. It's a shame you can't actually explore all of them, but the sidequests the game does have are still better than the half-assed approach of Dragon Age 2.
Slug Camargo (583) on 11/11/2011 2:43 AM · Permalink · Report
You would think someone had made a website to do just that, but apparently you would be wrong. Either that, or I really suck at Google.
Well, if you want you can post your code and I'll build a screenshot for you on my PC.
And yes, it is a shame that only a few planets can be explored, but then those that you can land on are jaw droppingly beautiful! I'm growing more and more amazed at these unmarked sidequests I was talking about before --to think so much work it went into them only for the (few?) really dedicated explorers to ever find out. I know I for one almost missed them entirely because I didn't even know there were unmarked quests at all.
By the way, if you like reading flavor text so much, you may wanna play the Shadow Broker DLC. Once you're done with it you gain access to a very interesting database with juicy info on pretty much every character in the game.
Slug Camargo (583) on 10/24/2011 11:41 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start BurningStickMan wrote--] Stolen Memory and the one with the rogue AI definitely felt short. Depends on how much you pay for them, I suppose. [/Q --end BurningStickMan wrote--] Stolen Memory felt rather generic, it would have been better if the pseudo-adventuring in the party had been longer, but then Kasumi is a huge payback of a companion.
You may be right about Overlord being kind of short, but it blew my socks off nevertheless. It has a couple of cool crazy ideas (like the System Shock-ish tour inside the VI's world), a bit of gameplay variety in the vehicle sections that I for one found rather fun to play, and, above all, one of the best, stronger storylines of the entire game. Completely worth the 7 bucks, and maybe a couple more.
Now I'm off to do the Shadow Broker one and see what's what.