OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Wait, shit, that's right. My first time through half the crew got slurpied. I forgot about that! Sorry slurpied crewmembers, your remains will have as memorial one blown up Collector Base.
For those looking ahead as I silently am, resolving this argument with the Charm option thus preserving the loyalty of both Tali and Legion still leaves open a very slim chance that she can save both the Geth and the Quarians in ME3.
For me, saving both the Geth and the Quarians, allowing the Geth to contribute to saving organic life and thus proving that it is not in fact necessary for the Reapers to do their thing, is the true climax of the trilogy. I'm not sure if making it difficult to achieve is part of what lead to the actual ending being unsatisfying.
fake edit: There seems to be an errant draft remaining but I like it.
For those looking ahead as I silently am, resolving this argument with the Charm option thus preserving the loyalty of both Tali and Legion still leaves open a very slim chance that she can save both the Geth and the Quarians in ME3.
For me, saving both the Geth and the Quarians, allowing the Geth to contribute to saving organic life and thus proving that it is not in fact necessary for the Reapers to do their thing, is the true climax of the trilogy. I'm not sure if making it difficult to achieve is part of what lead to the actual ending being unsatisfying.
fake edit: There seems to be an errant draft remaining but I like it.
As an answer to that errant draft, Blindsight by Peter Watts is a good “incomprehensible aliens” story. It’s bleak as all hell, just as a heads up
Someone or other posted this short film on another thread here in PA and I've loved it ever since.
PA, introducing me to the best stuff since 2008.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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WhiteZinfandelYour insidesLet me show you themRegistered Userregular
Here's the short story that's based on. As much as I like the costuming, acting, and weird cigarette stuff, I prefer the text version. There's a disconnect with O'Regan's work in that the two are discussing and recoiling from the strangeness of meat and how meat communicates by slapping its meat together... as they visibly inhabit meat and communicate the exact same way. It also makes some script changes and outright removes the ending.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Here's the short story that's based on. As much as I like the costuming, acting, and weird cigarette stuff, I prefer the text version. There's a disconnect with O'Regan's work in that the two are discussing and recoiling from the strangeness of meat and how meat communicates by slapping its meat together... as they visibly inhabit meat and communicate the exact same way. It also makes some script changes and outright removes the ending.
Oh I read the story after I saw the short for the first time. I understand the disconnect but still sort of like the film better. They just did a really good job of showing what's so distasteful about all this flapping meat. Also both guys playing the aliens are excellent, but the guy in the Fez is particularly good with his unexpected laughs and weird teeth chomps. I wonder if any of his physical performance was prompted by the director, or if this is how he came up with the character entirely in his own head. Either way, I love that guy.
Cambiata on
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I was introduced to that short story after they performed it at Desert Bus for Hope one year, and FWIW, I've always loved the DB readings, because they manage to hit it with an absurdist tone that gives the whole thing a wonderful affect of dark humor.
EDIT: So there's a bunch of different versions available on the Desert Bus YouTube page, but I think Cam and Andy's dynamic is my favorite, so that's the one you get.
Isn't Miranda the one who can't die unless everyone else is dead or something?
She's the character least likely to die accidentally, but it's not impossible. Taking her to the final boss without securing her loyalty will kill her off without anyone else dying.
Isn't Miranda the one who can't die unless everyone else is dead or something?
She's the character least likely to die accidentally, but it's not impossible. Taking her to the final boss without securing her loyalty will kill her off without anyone else dying.
In the fantasy genre the inhuman aliens are represented by the incomprehensible masquerades of the gods, who pursue their own fancies with men as puppets
As an answer to that errant draft, Blindsight by Peter Watts is a good “incomprehensible aliens” story. It’s bleak as all hell, just as a heads up
My Kindle is packed with bleak at the moment, one more can't hurt me any more than I already am.
The joke is doubly on me because Blindsight is not on the kindle, and the chapter of Carrion Comfort that was up next actually did hurt me a lot more than I already was, leaving me painfully torn between "I actually can't phyiscally face reading any more of this" and "I can't leave this here".
As an answer to that errant draft, Blindsight by Peter Watts is a good “incomprehensible aliens” story. It’s bleak as all hell, just as a heads up
My Kindle is packed with bleak at the moment, one more can't hurt me any more than I already am.
The joke is doubly on me because Blindsight is not on the kindle, and the chapter of Carrion Comfort that was up next actually did hurt me a lot more than I already was, leaving me painfully torn between "I actually can't phyiscally face reading any more of this" and "I can't leave this here".
You can read Blindsight on the author’s website here.
Buckle up, this is going to be a long one. Might split it into two posts. I'll at least section this post off with Spoilers by section of the mission. If you want to play along you can make predictions for each section based on her actions in the previous sections before you read it.
This was the absolute hardest bit for me to not only keep my mouth shut on, but also to keep my facial expressions, breathing, and tone of voice as absolutely neutral as possible. I hope others that have started playing with their partners get to this point because while I'm interested in the full breadth of all y'alls experiences, I'm specifically very interested in your perspectives going through this mission. It was harder than I anticipated.
Into the Relay:
First off, going through the Omega-4 Relay had her annoyed at Miranda because Joker said it was 2 hours to the Relay and then Miranda said it was "a few hours." In the dialogue she is confident in her crew and that the Collectors "are about to find out what happens when you piss me off." For those wondering, there is no filler content if Shepard has no relationship in ME1 or ME2, it just skips that bit entirely. Her pre-mission talk with TIM is full of confidence in her team.
We go through the Relay and we enjoy the cutscene. She has all the upgrades possible for the Normandy, in fact she made it a point to make sure to have every possible upgrade the Squad suggested, so I know nobody is going to die at this point, but the little flashes showing a crewmember that's still alive mean nothing to her. To her, seeing Jack looking out a window after Normandy takes a hit is just part of the scene.
In my head I figured on two hours to run the SM from Relay to final conversation with TIM. When she spent nearly 10 minutes just deciding on which two squad members to take to deal with the Oculus in the shuttle bay I started fearing I had grossly underestimated how much time she'd spend on decisions. She ends up picking Garrus and Tali. This only matters if you don't have the appropriate Normandy upgrades, as different squad members not with you during the fight can die during the intermission cutscene. But she doesn't know that. As a reminder it took her something like 22 minutes to make the choice between Ashley or Kaiden on Virmire.
The fight goes smoothly, though panic sets in for her at the very beginning as Garrus says that only Heavy Weapons can damage it. It's not true, it's just the game nudging you to use your heavy weapons (and there's an ample supply of ammo that respawns from here on out). She started worrying that she should have brought Grunt since he has the heaviest of weapons. I did remind her that heavy weapons were the special weapon that only Shepard can use. We chase off the Oculus, then go flying through the debris field and get a flash of Kasumi working in engineering. Then the Oculus returns and we blow it up.
The Collector ship comes around to attack next! And it gets a healthy dose of Garrus' immaculately calibrated Thanix Cannon. The resulting explosion damages the Normandy, though she's confused about has damaged the ship and why it's going to crash. "Have I made a bad choice already?" She then gets pissed at Miranda saying that we all knew this could be a one-way trip; her response ingame is "I plan on living" to which Joker raises his esteem even higher with "Whew, glad you're the one in charge."
Dead at this point: 0
Base Approach:
The briefing is next. She is immediately against splitting up the team since that never seems to work out for her but quickly accepts that it doesn't seem to be an option for her. The time has come to select the crew member going into the tunnel. "Is this person going to die like in the first game?" Rather than even acknowledging the question I pet the cat. She harumphs for a few minutes before looking at the list of possibilities for the tunnel. She looks at Jacobs entry and wonders why he's there with no tech skills listed. She then eliminates everybody except Tali or Kasumi (who she still calls KiKi) based on their qualifications and history. Except Legion, she's worried about the Collectors controlling Legion somehow. She selects Kasumi to be the tunnel rat. Total time no more than 5 minutes as she methodically went through the list and eliminated poor possibilities selected the person she felt most qualified of the two left over.
The next choice is the other squad leader. She vapor-locks at seeing the list of her entire squad minus Kasumi. Her first thought is to pick Jack just to make Miranda take orders from her and because she's annoyed at Miranda for volunteering but quickly says she was just joking. After about a minute without looking at any descriptions or vocalizing any thoughts she says "Uhh, Samara because she's a Justicar and has that code to follow." There was just enough hesitation that I asked if that was her choice because I didn't want to push the button and have her immediately say was just thinking out loud. But she sticks with Samara. Our squad selections are Garrus and Jack and off we go to have fun storming the castle! This part is buttery smooth for the first bit as there's no time pressure, but right after the first valve is opened I forgot about the fact that the next batch of Collectors drop right on top you in the only cover in the narrow hallway and one of them immediately becomes Harbinger. Shepard got flanked and lit up and died in under 2 seconds and we had to go back to the autosave at the start of the combat sequence. Whoopsy. She's concerned it was because she picked the squad poorly and I do tell her that it's because I chose my cover poorly. The mistake is not repeated. She watched that health bar for Kasumi like a hawk and was informing me anytime it dropped even a little bit. For my part I kept moving forward at a steady pace, almost never stopping while using throw to knock incoming Collectors out of the air and focusing the squad on Harbinger as I picked off the lackeys so he couldn't respawn.
We hit the final valve and trigger the end of sequence cutscene. Kasumi gets one door open and teammates pour through while keeping a steady stream of suppression fire back the way they came. The other door opens and rest come in, but the door won't close. Kasumi gets to work, Samara orders cover fire. The entire squad lines up and flings hot tungsten at the Collectors. The door still won't close. Kasumi and Shepard physically try to force the doors and Kasumi takes a face full of Harbinger biotics. She hits the ground and doesn't get up. There's gasping and a cry of "KIKI!" followed by "Is she okay?" but the pool of blood forming at Kasumi's head answers the question.
Dead at this point: Kasumi
The Long Walk
Having done every mission before taking on the Reaper IFF means there was nothing for her to do before charging off to the Base, therefore she gets treated to a scene of Lilith the colonist being liquified and sucked into a tube. The Normandy crew is quickly freed and she assures Dr. Chakwas that the Collectors are going to be feeling her wrath.
Then she gets annoyed at Miranda for volunteering to be the biotic specialist. She acts on this annoyance by selecting Miranda to be the biotic specialist after being surprised that Thane has biotics. <PURE SPECULATION> she made this choice so quickly, and had openly said several times she wants to get Miranda killed that I wonder if she saw that her Tech Specialist choice Kasumi died and figured the biotic specialist would also die. Her rantings against Miranda tonight had reached the point that I told her she either needed to get over her Miranda complex or significantly tone it down otherwise I'd stop playing. </PURE SPECULATION>. She almost immediately picks Tali to lead the second squad. Tali is also the first person in the list of everybody.
She sends the crew back without an escort. She's worried about losing more people after already losing Kasumi and reasons that the killed a bunch of Collectors already so the crew should be fine.
She spends a couple-few minutes trying to pick squad members. She keeps trying to pass the choice off to me because I "do combat" but all I say is repeat the refrain I've used for two games: that I can do any of the combat sequences with any combination of squad members. She selects Samara and after another minute or two picks Garrus too. We begin the Long Walk.
Most of this is uneventful. I make sure she gets plenty of views of Miranda maintaining the bubble as we go through, first with no effort, and then gradually showing exertion and hunching over. The combat itself is straightforward as Harbinger never really gets close enough to be a bother and any husks are easily tossed over the edge with throw. She notes the couple of times that Tali makes some increasingly panicked radio calls with the last being "Help."
The bit with the Scion is a little annoying since there's limited room, but we make it to the end with Miranda drastically picking up the pace now that the door is in sight. The bubble collapses as we hit the door however, and while Shepard and Samara and Miranda make it through Garrus lags behind is covered by the Collector swarm.
The single most heartwrenching thing I've ever heard come from my girlfriend is the cry of "GARRUS!" that was cut off by a loud sob as tears immediately began streaming down her face as Garrus is carried away and starts to scream only to have it cut off. She's already sniffling as she cries and the cutscene isn't over yet since Shepard and Samara are opening the door to let the rest of the team in. They stream through but Tali takes a shot which is met with "NO!" and Tali sags down, saying "Multiple suit breaches....Keelah Sei'lai..." and dies.
She's full on ugly sobbing now with her head in her hands and is bent clear over that her head is almost in her lap. I put the control down to rub her back and comfort her for a few minutes. She catches that nobody from the crew made it back to the Normandy and says "Great, so I killed the Doctor and all the rest too." Most of this grief is due to Garrus, some of it is Tali, the Crew is just a drop in the bucket. She manages to choke out "That means the whole next game won't have Garrus in it."
Dead at this point: Kasumi, Garrus, Tali, entire Normandy crew
After she recovers herself and takes a short break she has to pick the two squadmates that she'll take with her for the final push, everybody else is left back to Hold the Line. Kirrahee would be proud. The fire in her belly has gone out though, I ask if she wants to keep going and she insists she wants to finish it. She needs a bit of clarification about what's going on since she was indisposed during the latter part of the cutscene. I tell her that the team is splitting up again, she'll take two people to go to the generator to blow it up and the rest of the team will stay right here to hold all the Collectors off and give them time. She reasons she should leave the biggest and best fighters and therefore takes Mordin because he's wimpy and Thane because he's just a lone wolf assassin. She starts the speech off with "People have died, make it count" and then skips the rest of it by just saying "lets move out"
The first bit of this section is another fight on a floating platform as other floating platforms come in bearing Collectors If you're quick you can use throw to toss enemies off the edge before Harbinger can take control. We therefore only face one Harbinger and the longest part of the fight is very very slowly taking down the two scions at the very end. Stupid bullet sponges.
She shows no reaction to the human-reaper reveal at first, but does ask during the dialogue "So, there's Reapers in shapes of all kinds of different species?" She's not much interested in the investigate section of this dialogue though because she's still ripped up about Garrus and Tali. She resolves to blow it up. Stage one is done very quickly as I take out two of the tubes the first time they open and the other two the next time they open. The Reaper drops from view and the cutscene begins with Shepard preparing the explosion when TIM calls.
Illusive Man begins with "Hey, EDI tells me we could use radiation to wipe out all of the collectors without blow..." but looks right at me and says "Nope. Not letting him have the base." before the sentence is finished. She blitzes right through it, denying him at every point in the conversation until the last one where she actually has to commit to blowing up the base or not. Surprisingly she mulls it over for a couple of minutes before deciding to blow this sum'bitch up. Then the human Reaper comes back and we do that annoying fight since it's so damn nimble with tiny weak points. Ammo becomes an issue but it eventually explodes.
Cutscene time again. Mordin goes sliding down the platform and it looks like Shepard will fail to save him, but he snags him at the last second. "Oh, HIM I save." There's explosions and it cuts to them lying on the ground. Shepard gets up, helps Thane and Mordin up, and then they book it for the Normandy. She notes that Joker says "All survivors are on board" without actually noting if anybody else has died. She's surprised at Joker coming out to lay down cover fire and openly speculates the entire Hold the Line squad is dead. Shepard makes a desperate leap and is pulled to safety by Mordin and Thane. The Normandy escapes the explosion. With no crew left, the squad is making repairs alone. She sees that nobody else seems to have died.
Final list of dead: Kasumi, Garrus, Tali, entire Normandy crew
Wrap up
In the final conversation with TIM she is not having his complaints about destroying the base and selects the renegade conversation option which is "I'm sorry I'm having trouble hearing you, I'm getting a lot of bullshit on this line." which at least makes her laugh. She finishes it out by telling TIM that she did the job as requested and now he better follow her lead because he's taking a back seat from now on. The scene ends and we finally regain control of Shepard. I make a save since manual saving is only available during the Collector base before you first encounter an enemy on the Technician/tunnel sequence.
She's a little teary again and ready to call it a night. I tell her that if she wants we reload the save from before going through the Relay and she can try again. I still won't help or give guidance, but it is just a game. We have a save we can use if she decides she wants to commit to her first choices for ME3, but there's nothing stopping her from taking another crack at it. She perks right up at that and decides to do it again right then. And we did do a second run, but you're going to have to wait until tomorrow because it's super late now and I need to go to bed.
I don't think I'd have the heart to follow through after that. Do-overs are okay!
Honestly,
Garrus died because Miranda couldn't hold the bubble and was the second squad member selected. Had she picked Garrus first and lost Samara instead, I think she would have stuck with it. She realized pretty quickly into the walk that maybe Tali was a poor choice to lead a squad and was anticipating that death a little. Garrus caught her flat-footed and he's her favorite.
Man she lost possibly the worst people to lose with Garrus and Tali, given their parts in ME3.
I always thought Miranda was an okay choice for the bubble? Guess not.
Miranda isn't a primary biotic--look at her skillset if nothing else. She's half tech, half biotic. The only two pure biotics are Jack and Samara, and they're they only two that won't kill someone in the bubble.
I don't think Samara is a good Squad leader. You want Jacob, Miranda, or Garrus in that spot, people who have led other people. Samara is super experienced, but she's not a team player at all.
The bits I don't like in suicide mission are how sending a weak but loyal person with the crew is safe, it cheapens that decision that sounds important, and subsequently how weak people CAN die (but aren't guaranteed to die) holding the line, even if you leave crazy heavy hitters like Grunt and Zaeed there. I understand why Zaeed is a bad leader in the game, but it seems more like a meme than a logical reason. He isn't an incompetent leader, he keeps getting betrayed. Did his squad betray him on the suicide mission??
Oh and what causes loyal Tali or Legion to die after the vents? They're the optimal pick for that role. Is it health lost in the battle? Or something else?
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
I don't think Samara is a good Squad leader. You want Jacob, Miranda, or Garrus in that spot, people who have led other people. Samara is super experienced, but she's not a team player at all.
The bits I don't like in suicide mission are how sending a weak but loyal person with the crew is safe, it cheapens that decision that sounds important, and subsequently how weak people CAN die (but aren't guaranteed to die) holding the line, even if you leave crazy heavy hitters like Grunt and Zaeed there. I understand why Zaeed is a bad leader in the game, but it seems more like a meme than a logical reason. He isn't an incompetent leader, he keeps getting betrayed. Did his squad betray him on the suicide mission??
I mean if you talk to him the fact that he's the only one that ever comes out alive in any of his stories should be a good hint that maybe he's a shitty leader.
Samara as well is a shit leader. She's a lone wolf, exactly like Zaeed.
The opacity of holding the line and sending someone back is fine IMO. Depending on your decisions you may be down to a small handful of people and sending someone back could reduce your hold-the-line firepower. By the same token if you've got everybody including the DLC characters, chances are you aren't going to think too hard before you send someone. Of course if you've lost someone already--say to some errant vents or a poor choice with your biotics--you may be feeling a bit gunshy over sending someone alone to protect the crew...which is the point.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
edited June 2020
The vent person will die if you pick a bad choice for second squad leader, as well as if you pick the wrong person for the vent itself. (RIP Garrus on my first run)
After a brutal first attempt at the Suicide Mission, my girlfriend self-debriefs. She made impulsive decisions after the vents and once Garrus was carried away she couldn't think anymore. She resolves to do better, but wants a hint. I tell her to make better choices. I'm not heartless but sometimes I'm an ass.
Nothing changes through the first bit; through the Relay, into the debris field, then fighting the Oculus with the Garrus and Tali. Same as last time, nobody dead yet.
Base approach:
When it comes time to pick a vent person, she looks through the list again and decides to send KiKi once more reasoning that she didn't die in the vents, just afterwards and she's okay with losing Kasumi as long as she gets the job done. During this sequence she notices at the top of the selection screen it says "Select Tech Specialist" and remarks "Oh hey, the game tells you what you need!" For me this called into question what she thought she was picking when she picked Kasumi the first time around but I kept my mouth shut and pet the cat.
Armed with her new knowledge she sees that the next choice is the Leader for the next squad. She looks at me and says "Why'd I send Samara? She's not a leader, she's always alone unless she's killing somebody." I shrug and rub the cats belly. "But Samara didn't die last time, so maybe I should just pick her again?" This time she reads through the descriptions for everybody and is trying to decide between Zaeed, Garrus, and Jacob. Her decision is that Garrus has a much more impressive leadership resume, but she's hesitant to send him, what if he dies again? She hems and haws, maybe Miranda? No, Little Miss Perfect would probably mess up. Samara didn't die last time so she decides to send Garrus. Miranda says "Well at least he knows what he's doing" and we have another heavy sigh and eye roll about Miranda.
Our squad this time is Samara and Grunt. She wants me to make sure every collector dies because maybe that's what killed Kasumi. I've told her many many times I can do any combat sequence with any squadmembers, but honestly she picked a perfect pair for this one because I don't think I took cover at all except to mantle over stuff and just kept the control stick pressed forward the whole time. It was like the Collectors were offering up no resistance at all. We mercilessly killed them all without stopping and had a brief victory spin at the final valve before letting Kasumi out.
The teams stream through the door. Garrus orders them to lay suppression fire, Kasumi is trying to close the door, Shepard and Co are through and shooting...then the door closes! Kasumi is still alive! Making a better choice for squad leader has saved her tech specialist from death. She attributes this to the ease and time it took to move through the Collectors ourselves though.
1st run dead at this point: Kasumi 2nd run dead at this point: 0
The Long Walk
Once again we see the Horizon colonist turned into a slurry and flushed into tubes. Once again the squad desperately races to open the pods and pull the Normandy crew out. Once again she's going to have to walk through the seeker swarms. To pick a biotic specialist her first words are "Fuck little perfect girl, she couldn't keep Garrus safe." She looks through the list and brings it down to Jacob, Jack, and Samara. She reasons that Jacob probably isn't a better biotic than Miranda, and spends a couple more minutes thinking about Jack or Samara. In the end she thinks that while Jack might be powerful, she probably is going to save herself if she has to because nobody has ever looked out for her and she probably isn't used to the idea and will default to what has kept her alive before. Samaras Justicar code would probably make her sacrifice herself rather than let somebody else die, so Samara gets the bubble this time.
Squad leader, she wonders if there's any reason she couldn't pick Garrus again. She decides he 1) might be tired and 2) will probably be safe if he's just in the pack with everybody else this time because people she picks dies, not other people. Jacob will lead the other squad.
She resolves this time to send the crew with an escort. This decision took her ten minutes to think through. Her first thought was Grunt, but then she thought that maybe he'd get so wrapped up in fighting he might forget to protect the crew. She considered Thane, but then remembered that in his recruitment mission he saved a bunch of workers by shutting them in closets and moving on, which is not the best way to get the crew out of the base and onto the Normandy. How about Miranda, maybe she'll die? I don't recall why she decided against Miranda, but at some point she exclaimed "Wait, the crew is all injured and the Collectors were trying to dissolve them. Some of them can't stand up, they probably need medical attention. Dr. Chakwas is laying on the floor so she can't help others if she can't help herself. Send Mordin with them, he's a special forces doctor. He'll kill the Collectors with farming tools if he has to."
Our squad is Kasumi and Tali. She thinks Talis little drone will be helpful and figures if Kasumi dies she won't be that sad. We begin the march and it goes like last time. I make sure she sees that Samara is becoming progressively more strained and she starts getting nervous as we progress. She wonders why Samara doesn't make the bubble smaller so it's less stressful to maintain which I think could have been an interesting choice or consideration to add to this sequence. Luckily we have Kasumis flashbang ability this time which makes Harbinger and joke and renders the scion at the end completely irrelevant. Talis drone can wander outside the bubble with no consequence and keeps things from even getting close to us.
We hit the end and Samara is in the same position as Miranda, running to get out and losing the bubble. At the door however she musters one last burst of energy and blows all the seeker bugs back the way we came. Shepards squad steps through alive and whole. We open the door so Jacob and team can join us. Jacob gets shot in the side but doesn't go down. The reaction is "Oh, well I'm glad Garrus isn't shot."
She then celebrates wildly because she kept Garrus and Tali alive. Joker lets her know that Mordin and the entire crew have made it back to the Normandy. It dawns on her that she hasn't lost anybody yet.
1st run dead at this point: Kasumi, Garrus, Tali, entire Normandy crew 2nd run dead at this point: 0
Final Assault/Hold the Line
Last time she brought Thane and Mordin on the final assault so she could leave all her heavy hitters behind. It worked well and nobody died, but now she's sent Mordin back to the ship. She reasons that Kiki was dead by this point last time, and now Tali, her drone, and Garrus are around. Garrus already has held the line before and that was all by himself, so she brings Kasumi and Thane. The squad gets a rousing speech this time about how they should feel sorry for the Collectors because the Collectors are hit and run ambushers that have never had to stand and fight the best and it's time to show them who is boss etc etc. And off we go.
The platform fight goes even faster this time. Being able to teleport Kasumi clear across the battlefield for backstabs is great, her flashbang once again makes the Scions not even count, and we fling Collectors off platforms like we're cats on a shelf of expensive things. This time I remember to circle the platforms and pick up ammo before pressing on to the next bit.
This time she goes through all the conversation options regarding the Human Reaper and resolves once again to blow it up. This time though I apparently forgot how to aim and shoot because I only manage to get one tube at a time, meaning we have to go through four cycles. It's okay though, because she loves it every time Kasumi yells "Haha!" She quickly tells TIM to stuff it and she's blowing up the base. She says last time she considered not doing it because the Council still doesn't believe her about Reapers and this would be some good proof but figures they'll still find some reason to not believe her AND TIM will have the base, so she sticks to blowing it to hell.
The rest of fight moves on, for some reason both Kasumi and Thane stop shooting at anything at all once the tubes are destroyed. They'll follow me around the platform but won't fire on anything and just keep their guns up even if I direct them to shoot at Harbinger or something. They still use powers when I direct them to, but only then. Weird. We destroy the Human Reaper again and save Kasumi from sliding off the platform and then go running for our lives. The rest plays out the same, we make the run and jump, Joker provides covering fire, Kasumi pulls Shepard onto the ship and we escape.
1st run Final Dead: Kasumi, Garrus, Tali, entire Normandy Crew 2nd run Final Dead: 0, a perfect run!
Aftermath
This time she noticed the Collector leader isn't Harbinger, Harbinger is a Reaper that was controlling the Collector Leader. The repairs go better when there's a crew around to help. She talks to TIM and gives him the bullshit line again but this time tells him to shut up and hangs up on him. Everybody lives!
After we get control back we go feed the fish and pet the Space Hamster. She wanders around the ship to talk to everybody. The Normandy crew are all thankful, especially Chakwas, Gardner, and Gabby and Ken in engineering. She's surprised at Miranda agreeing with her about destroying the Collector base and enjoys that Jacob likes the way she announces her Cerberus resignation. Aside from the one thing each person says about the mission, only Thane has additional dialogue where he talks about how the Dantius contract he was on when we found him was one where he'd resolved to die because he didn't know how to keep living. And Legion has stuff to say about the nature of his consciousness and the uniqueness of his existence. He also has memories to share so long as Shepard allows him access through EDIs firewalls.
The access is allowed and Legion plays back the earliest memories of the Geth. It comes just 15 minutes after the Geth "woke up." She immediately makes the connection between "waking up" and the Geth calling their conflict with the Quarians "The Morning War." It didn't take place in the literal morning, it was because the Geth had just woken up.
The recording is of a Geth household unit designated 431 asking "Creator, do these units have a soul?" and the Quarian freaking out, demanding to know where the Geth learned this word. In the ensuing exchange the Quarian quickly states that no, Geth have no souls, only organics do. When asked, Legion says it wasn't the first time Geth had asked about a soul, but it was the first time a Quarian was terrified by the question.
With no missions left there's really nothing else to do in ME2. I don't believe that anybody out in the universe has anything to say about the Suicide Mission, so next time we'll likely import her Level 30 Sentinel with a full Paragon bar and mostly full Renegade bar into ME3.
At the risk of going down the ending rabbit hole, my girlfriend is excited about seeing how it all plays out. She wants to live happily ever after and have the Council and everybody finally acknowledge that Shepard was right and congratulate her for saving everybody.
Oof. I kept it neutral and "Well we'll see how you play it out."
Getting someone hooked on Mass Effect and then having them play 3 is torture.
I think 3 has a lot of good payoff and interaction up until you get to Priority: Earth, and then it shits the bed. But the other 90% of the game (fuck Priority: Thessia) is really good! Lots of great moments! And it has literally the best DLC of all time.
Yeah, but imo that 10% ruined not only the game but the franchise.
Maybe ruined is too hard. But it did derail it hard enough that I think they really struggled with what to make a sequel out of.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
With the DLC and extended cut ending I think it’s okay. Yeah, it’s not what you might hope for but things are telegraphed and not out of left field. You get closure on all the characters you’ve spent the last 120 hours with.
Her history with the tropes of sci-fi may also color her enjoyment of it. Especially certain works they were clearly aping at the end.
Mass Effect 3 is punctuated with disappointments, so I can't easily separate it into parts I like and parts I hate.
Great ending though. A house party and goofy Citadel adventure? Bold choice, but very satisfying. I heard rumors that there's an alternate ending which focuses on the reaper invasion of Earth instead, but I don't know anything about it.
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Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
I have a hard time letting the ME3 ending get to me. I dunno. The whole series covers so much ground that I don't blame them for getting painted into a corner. The best parts of the trilogy are in the stories along the journey - the overarching plot always felt like it was as internally consistent as, say, Doctor Who. And Doctor Who is pretty fun!
Nothing about the ME3 ending pissed me off like the ending to NWN2 did. I have the expansions somewhere and I never fucking played them because of how angry the bullshit ending still makes me.
I believe my previous experience with NWN2 has helped my feelings on ME3.
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Well I guess with the updated endings, the one major thing that she'd hate most will have been rewritten, namely that Garrus does not die on some random planet, the last of his species that he will ever meet in the starvation of his last days.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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For me, saving both the Geth and the Quarians, allowing the Geth to contribute to saving organic life and thus proving that it is not in fact necessary for the Reapers to do their thing, is the true climax of the trilogy. I'm not sure if making it difficult to achieve is part of what lead to the actual ending being unsatisfying.
fake edit: There seems to be an errant draft remaining but I like it.
As an answer to that errant draft, Blindsight by Peter Watts is a good “incomprehensible aliens” story. It’s bleak as all hell, just as a heads up
My Kindle is packed with bleak at the moment, one more can't hurt me any more than I already am.
Please note it's weird and gross and NSFW.
Someone or other posted this short film on another thread here in PA and I've loved it ever since.
PA, introducing me to the best stuff since 2008.
Oh I read the story after I saw the short for the first time. I understand the disconnect but still sort of like the film better. They just did a really good job of showing what's so distasteful about all this flapping meat. Also both guys playing the aliens are excellent, but the guy in the Fez is particularly good with his unexpected laughs and weird teeth chomps. I wonder if any of his physical performance was prompted by the director, or if this is how he came up with the character entirely in his own head. Either way, I love that guy.
EDIT: So there's a bunch of different versions available on the Desert Bus YouTube page, but I think Cam and Andy's dynamic is my favorite, so that's the one you get.
She's the character least likely to die accidentally, but it's not impossible. Taking her to the final boss without securing her loyalty will kill her off without anyone else dying.
Can't even send her into the tunnel.
The joke is doubly on me because Blindsight is not on the kindle, and the chapter of Carrion Comfort that was up next actually did hurt me a lot more than I already was, leaving me painfully torn between "I actually can't phyiscally face reading any more of this" and "I can't leave this here".
You can read Blindsight on the author’s website here.
Buckle up, this is going to be a long one. Might split it into two posts. I'll at least section this post off with Spoilers by section of the mission. If you want to play along you can make predictions for each section based on her actions in the previous sections before you read it.
This was the absolute hardest bit for me to not only keep my mouth shut on, but also to keep my facial expressions, breathing, and tone of voice as absolutely neutral as possible. I hope others that have started playing with their partners get to this point because while I'm interested in the full breadth of all y'alls experiences, I'm specifically very interested in your perspectives going through this mission. It was harder than I anticipated.
Into the Relay:
We go through the Relay and we enjoy the cutscene. She has all the upgrades possible for the Normandy, in fact she made it a point to make sure to have every possible upgrade the Squad suggested, so I know nobody is going to die at this point, but the little flashes showing a crewmember that's still alive mean nothing to her. To her, seeing Jack looking out a window after Normandy takes a hit is just part of the scene.
In my head I figured on two hours to run the SM from Relay to final conversation with TIM. When she spent nearly 10 minutes just deciding on which two squad members to take to deal with the Oculus in the shuttle bay I started fearing I had grossly underestimated how much time she'd spend on decisions. She ends up picking Garrus and Tali. This only matters if you don't have the appropriate Normandy upgrades, as different squad members not with you during the fight can die during the intermission cutscene. But she doesn't know that. As a reminder it took her something like 22 minutes to make the choice between Ashley or Kaiden on Virmire.
The fight goes smoothly, though panic sets in for her at the very beginning as Garrus says that only Heavy Weapons can damage it. It's not true, it's just the game nudging you to use your heavy weapons (and there's an ample supply of ammo that respawns from here on out). She started worrying that she should have brought Grunt since he has the heaviest of weapons. I did remind her that heavy weapons were the special weapon that only Shepard can use. We chase off the Oculus, then go flying through the debris field and get a flash of Kasumi working in engineering. Then the Oculus returns and we blow it up.
The Collector ship comes around to attack next! And it gets a healthy dose of Garrus' immaculately calibrated Thanix Cannon. The resulting explosion damages the Normandy, though she's confused about has damaged the ship and why it's going to crash. "Have I made a bad choice already?" She then gets pissed at Miranda saying that we all knew this could be a one-way trip; her response ingame is "I plan on living" to which Joker raises his esteem even higher with "Whew, glad you're the one in charge."
Dead at this point: 0
Base Approach:
The next choice is the other squad leader. She vapor-locks at seeing the list of her entire squad minus Kasumi. Her first thought is to pick Jack just to make Miranda take orders from her and because she's annoyed at Miranda for volunteering but quickly says she was just joking. After about a minute without looking at any descriptions or vocalizing any thoughts she says "Uhh, Samara because she's a Justicar and has that code to follow." There was just enough hesitation that I asked if that was her choice because I didn't want to push the button and have her immediately say was just thinking out loud. But she sticks with Samara. Our squad selections are Garrus and Jack and off we go to have fun storming the castle! This part is buttery smooth for the first bit as there's no time pressure, but right after the first valve is opened I forgot about the fact that the next batch of Collectors drop right on top you in the only cover in the narrow hallway and one of them immediately becomes Harbinger. Shepard got flanked and lit up and died in under 2 seconds and we had to go back to the autosave at the start of the combat sequence. Whoopsy. She's concerned it was because she picked the squad poorly and I do tell her that it's because I chose my cover poorly. The mistake is not repeated. She watched that health bar for Kasumi like a hawk and was informing me anytime it dropped even a little bit. For my part I kept moving forward at a steady pace, almost never stopping while using throw to knock incoming Collectors out of the air and focusing the squad on Harbinger as I picked off the lackeys so he couldn't respawn.
We hit the final valve and trigger the end of sequence cutscene. Kasumi gets one door open and teammates pour through while keeping a steady stream of suppression fire back the way they came. The other door opens and rest come in, but the door won't close. Kasumi gets to work, Samara orders cover fire. The entire squad lines up and flings hot tungsten at the Collectors. The door still won't close. Kasumi and Shepard physically try to force the doors and Kasumi takes a face full of Harbinger biotics. She hits the ground and doesn't get up. There's gasping and a cry of "KIKI!" followed by "Is she okay?" but the pool of blood forming at Kasumi's head answers the question.
Dead at this point: Kasumi
The Long Walk
Then she gets annoyed at Miranda for volunteering to be the biotic specialist. She acts on this annoyance by selecting Miranda to be the biotic specialist after being surprised that Thane has biotics. <PURE SPECULATION> she made this choice so quickly, and had openly said several times she wants to get Miranda killed that I wonder if she saw that her Tech Specialist choice Kasumi died and figured the biotic specialist would also die. Her rantings against Miranda tonight had reached the point that I told her she either needed to get over her Miranda complex or significantly tone it down otherwise I'd stop playing. </PURE SPECULATION>. She almost immediately picks Tali to lead the second squad. Tali is also the first person in the list of everybody.
She sends the crew back without an escort. She's worried about losing more people after already losing Kasumi and reasons that the killed a bunch of Collectors already so the crew should be fine.
She spends a couple-few minutes trying to pick squad members. She keeps trying to pass the choice off to me because I "do combat" but all I say is repeat the refrain I've used for two games: that I can do any of the combat sequences with any combination of squad members. She selects Samara and after another minute or two picks Garrus too. We begin the Long Walk.
Most of this is uneventful. I make sure she gets plenty of views of Miranda maintaining the bubble as we go through, first with no effort, and then gradually showing exertion and hunching over. The combat itself is straightforward as Harbinger never really gets close enough to be a bother and any husks are easily tossed over the edge with throw. She notes the couple of times that Tali makes some increasingly panicked radio calls with the last being "Help."
The bit with the Scion is a little annoying since there's limited room, but we make it to the end with Miranda drastically picking up the pace now that the door is in sight. The bubble collapses as we hit the door however, and while Shepard and Samara and Miranda make it through Garrus lags behind is covered by the Collector swarm.
The single most heartwrenching thing I've ever heard come from my girlfriend is the cry of "GARRUS!" that was cut off by a loud sob as tears immediately began streaming down her face as Garrus is carried away and starts to scream only to have it cut off. She's already sniffling as she cries and the cutscene isn't over yet since Shepard and Samara are opening the door to let the rest of the team in. They stream through but Tali takes a shot which is met with "NO!" and Tali sags down, saying "Multiple suit breaches....Keelah Sei'lai..." and dies.
She's full on ugly sobbing now with her head in her hands and is bent clear over that her head is almost in her lap. I put the control down to rub her back and comfort her for a few minutes. She catches that nobody from the crew made it back to the Normandy and says "Great, so I killed the Doctor and all the rest too." Most of this grief is due to Garrus, some of it is Tali, the Crew is just a drop in the bucket. She manages to choke out "That means the whole next game won't have Garrus in it."
Dead at this point: Kasumi, Garrus, Tali, entire Normandy crew
The first bit of this section is another fight on a floating platform as other floating platforms come in bearing Collectors If you're quick you can use throw to toss enemies off the edge before Harbinger can take control. We therefore only face one Harbinger and the longest part of the fight is very very slowly taking down the two scions at the very end. Stupid bullet sponges.
She shows no reaction to the human-reaper reveal at first, but does ask during the dialogue "So, there's Reapers in shapes of all kinds of different species?" She's not much interested in the investigate section of this dialogue though because she's still ripped up about Garrus and Tali. She resolves to blow it up. Stage one is done very quickly as I take out two of the tubes the first time they open and the other two the next time they open. The Reaper drops from view and the cutscene begins with Shepard preparing the explosion when TIM calls.
Illusive Man begins with "Hey, EDI tells me we could use radiation to wipe out all of the collectors without blow..." but looks right at me and says "Nope. Not letting him have the base." before the sentence is finished. She blitzes right through it, denying him at every point in the conversation until the last one where she actually has to commit to blowing up the base or not. Surprisingly she mulls it over for a couple of minutes before deciding to blow this sum'bitch up. Then the human Reaper comes back and we do that annoying fight since it's so damn nimble with tiny weak points. Ammo becomes an issue but it eventually explodes.
Cutscene time again. Mordin goes sliding down the platform and it looks like Shepard will fail to save him, but he snags him at the last second. "Oh, HIM I save." There's explosions and it cuts to them lying on the ground. Shepard gets up, helps Thane and Mordin up, and then they book it for the Normandy. She notes that Joker says "All survivors are on board" without actually noting if anybody else has died. She's surprised at Joker coming out to lay down cover fire and openly speculates the entire Hold the Line squad is dead. Shepard makes a desperate leap and is pulled to safety by Mordin and Thane. The Normandy escapes the explosion. With no crew left, the squad is making repairs alone. She sees that nobody else seems to have died.
Final list of dead: Kasumi, Garrus, Tali, entire Normandy crew
Wrap up
She's a little teary again and ready to call it a night. I tell her that if she wants we reload the save from before going through the Relay and she can try again. I still won't help or give guidance, but it is just a game. We have a save we can use if she decides she wants to commit to her first choices for ME3, but there's nothing stopping her from taking another crack at it. She perks right up at that and decides to do it again right then. And we did do a second run, but you're going to have to wait until tomorrow because it's super late now and I need to go to bed.
I don't think I'd have the heart to follow through after that. Do-overs are okay!
Honestly,
I always thought Miranda was an okay choice for the bubble? Guess not.
The bits I don't like in suicide mission are how sending a weak but loyal person with the crew is safe, it cheapens that decision that sounds important, and subsequently how weak people CAN die (but aren't guaranteed to die) holding the line, even if you leave crazy heavy hitters like Grunt and Zaeed there. I understand why Zaeed is a bad leader in the game, but it seems more like a meme than a logical reason. He isn't an incompetent leader, he keeps getting betrayed. Did his squad betray him on the suicide mission??
Oh and what causes loyal Tali or Legion to die after the vents? They're the optimal pick for that role. Is it health lost in the battle? Or something else?
Samara as well is a shit leader. She's a lone wolf, exactly like Zaeed.
The opacity of holding the line and sending someone back is fine IMO. Depending on your decisions you may be down to a small handful of people and sending someone back could reduce your hold-the-line firepower. By the same token if you've got everybody including the DLC characters, chances are you aren't going to think too hard before you send someone. Of course if you've lost someone already--say to some errant vents or a poor choice with your biotics--you may be feeling a bit gunshy over sending someone alone to protect the crew...which is the point.
e: seriously though fuck miranda
After a brutal first attempt at the Suicide Mission, my girlfriend self-debriefs. She made impulsive decisions after the vents and once Garrus was carried away she couldn't think anymore. She resolves to do better, but wants a hint. I tell her to make better choices. I'm not heartless but sometimes I'm an ass.
Nothing changes through the first bit; through the Relay, into the debris field, then fighting the Oculus with the Garrus and Tali. Same as last time, nobody dead yet.
Base approach:
Armed with her new knowledge she sees that the next choice is the Leader for the next squad. She looks at me and says "Why'd I send Samara? She's not a leader, she's always alone unless she's killing somebody." I shrug and rub the cats belly. "But Samara didn't die last time, so maybe I should just pick her again?" This time she reads through the descriptions for everybody and is trying to decide between Zaeed, Garrus, and Jacob. Her decision is that Garrus has a much more impressive leadership resume, but she's hesitant to send him, what if he dies again? She hems and haws, maybe Miranda? No, Little Miss Perfect would probably mess up. Samara didn't die last time so she decides to send Garrus. Miranda says "Well at least he knows what he's doing" and we have another heavy sigh and eye roll about Miranda.
Our squad this time is Samara and Grunt. She wants me to make sure every collector dies because maybe that's what killed Kasumi. I've told her many many times I can do any combat sequence with any squadmembers, but honestly she picked a perfect pair for this one because I don't think I took cover at all except to mantle over stuff and just kept the control stick pressed forward the whole time. It was like the Collectors were offering up no resistance at all. We mercilessly killed them all without stopping and had a brief victory spin at the final valve before letting Kasumi out.
The teams stream through the door. Garrus orders them to lay suppression fire, Kasumi is trying to close the door, Shepard and Co are through and shooting...then the door closes! Kasumi is still alive! Making a better choice for squad leader has saved her tech specialist from death. She attributes this to the ease and time it took to move through the Collectors ourselves though.
1st run dead at this point: Kasumi
2nd run dead at this point: 0
The Long Walk
Squad leader, she wonders if there's any reason she couldn't pick Garrus again. She decides he 1) might be tired and 2) will probably be safe if he's just in the pack with everybody else this time because people she picks dies, not other people. Jacob will lead the other squad.
She resolves this time to send the crew with an escort. This decision took her ten minutes to think through. Her first thought was Grunt, but then she thought that maybe he'd get so wrapped up in fighting he might forget to protect the crew. She considered Thane, but then remembered that in his recruitment mission he saved a bunch of workers by shutting them in closets and moving on, which is not the best way to get the crew out of the base and onto the Normandy. How about Miranda, maybe she'll die? I don't recall why she decided against Miranda, but at some point she exclaimed "Wait, the crew is all injured and the Collectors were trying to dissolve them. Some of them can't stand up, they probably need medical attention. Dr. Chakwas is laying on the floor so she can't help others if she can't help herself. Send Mordin with them, he's a special forces doctor. He'll kill the Collectors with farming tools if he has to."
Our squad is Kasumi and Tali. She thinks Talis little drone will be helpful and figures if Kasumi dies she won't be that sad. We begin the march and it goes like last time. I make sure she sees that Samara is becoming progressively more strained and she starts getting nervous as we progress. She wonders why Samara doesn't make the bubble smaller so it's less stressful to maintain which I think could have been an interesting choice or consideration to add to this sequence. Luckily we have Kasumis flashbang ability this time which makes Harbinger and joke and renders the scion at the end completely irrelevant. Talis drone can wander outside the bubble with no consequence and keeps things from even getting close to us.
We hit the end and Samara is in the same position as Miranda, running to get out and losing the bubble. At the door however she musters one last burst of energy and blows all the seeker bugs back the way we came. Shepards squad steps through alive and whole. We open the door so Jacob and team can join us. Jacob gets shot in the side but doesn't go down. The reaction is "Oh, well I'm glad Garrus isn't shot."
She then celebrates wildly because she kept Garrus and Tali alive. Joker lets her know that Mordin and the entire crew have made it back to the Normandy. It dawns on her that she hasn't lost anybody yet.
1st run dead at this point: Kasumi, Garrus, Tali, entire Normandy crew
2nd run dead at this point: 0
Final Assault/Hold the Line
The platform fight goes even faster this time. Being able to teleport Kasumi clear across the battlefield for backstabs is great, her flashbang once again makes the Scions not even count, and we fling Collectors off platforms like we're cats on a shelf of expensive things. This time I remember to circle the platforms and pick up ammo before pressing on to the next bit.
This time she goes through all the conversation options regarding the Human Reaper and resolves once again to blow it up. This time though I apparently forgot how to aim and shoot because I only manage to get one tube at a time, meaning we have to go through four cycles. It's okay though, because she loves it every time Kasumi yells "Haha!" She quickly tells TIM to stuff it and she's blowing up the base. She says last time she considered not doing it because the Council still doesn't believe her about Reapers and this would be some good proof but figures they'll still find some reason to not believe her AND TIM will have the base, so she sticks to blowing it to hell.
The rest of fight moves on, for some reason both Kasumi and Thane stop shooting at anything at all once the tubes are destroyed. They'll follow me around the platform but won't fire on anything and just keep their guns up even if I direct them to shoot at Harbinger or something. They still use powers when I direct them to, but only then. Weird. We destroy the Human Reaper again and save Kasumi from sliding off the platform and then go running for our lives. The rest plays out the same, we make the run and jump, Joker provides covering fire, Kasumi pulls Shepard onto the ship and we escape.
1st run Final Dead: Kasumi, Garrus, Tali, entire Normandy Crew
2nd run Final Dead: 0, a perfect run!
Aftermath
After we get control back we go feed the fish and pet the Space Hamster. She wanders around the ship to talk to everybody. The Normandy crew are all thankful, especially Chakwas, Gardner, and Gabby and Ken in engineering. She's surprised at Miranda agreeing with her about destroying the Collector base and enjoys that Jacob likes the way she announces her Cerberus resignation. Aside from the one thing each person says about the mission, only Thane has additional dialogue where he talks about how the Dantius contract he was on when we found him was one where he'd resolved to die because he didn't know how to keep living. And Legion has stuff to say about the nature of his consciousness and the uniqueness of his existence. He also has memories to share so long as Shepard allows him access through EDIs firewalls.
The access is allowed and Legion plays back the earliest memories of the Geth. It comes just 15 minutes after the Geth "woke up." She immediately makes the connection between "waking up" and the Geth calling their conflict with the Quarians "The Morning War." It didn't take place in the literal morning, it was because the Geth had just woken up.
The recording is of a Geth household unit designated 431 asking "Creator, do these units have a soul?" and the Quarian freaking out, demanding to know where the Geth learned this word. In the ensuing exchange the Quarian quickly states that no, Geth have no souls, only organics do. When asked, Legion says it wasn't the first time Geth had asked about a soul, but it was the first time a Quarian was terrified by the question.
With no missions left there's really nothing else to do in ME2. I don't believe that anybody out in the universe has anything to say about the Suicide Mission, so next time we'll likely import her Level 30 Sentinel with a full Paragon bar and mostly full Renegade bar into ME3.
At the risk of going down the ending rabbit hole, my girlfriend is excited about seeing how it all plays out. She wants to live happily ever after and have the Council and everybody finally acknowledge that Shepard was right and congratulate her for saving everybody.
Oof. I kept it neutral and "Well we'll see how you play it out."
I think 3 has a lot of good payoff and interaction up until you get to Priority: Earth, and then it shits the bed. But the other 90% of the game (fuck Priority: Thessia) is really good! Lots of great moments! And it has literally the best DLC of all time.
Maybe ruined is too hard. But it did derail it hard enough that I think they really struggled with what to make a sequel out of.
Her history with the tropes of sci-fi may also color her enjoyment of it. Especially certain works they were clearly aping at the end.
Great ending though. A house party and goofy Citadel adventure? Bold choice, but very satisfying. I heard rumors that there's an alternate ending which focuses on the reaper invasion of Earth instead, but I don't know anything about it.
I believe my previous experience with NWN2 has helped my feelings on ME3.