My casualties were Zaeed, Samara and... (sigh) Garrus. The swarm got him. I almost cried out, "No, not Garrus! Take Jack instead!"

 Zaeed died and I have a feeling it was because I saved the civilians on his loyalty mission and, him being pissed, took him back with a normal relationship.   
 
What bummed me out the most was that Tali died. You know we needed a technical specialist to go through the pipes and I figured not only was she loyal, but me and her go way back and I like the character. I got her through that part (barely) but she died later on which is a bummer come ME3.  Samara and Jacob was my go to people for squad leadership and Jack as biotic obviously, all of whom survived. I rolled with Garrus and Grunt, who survived. My non-combatant crew didn't make it but I have a feeling the defense crew would get hit hard if I split them up, so I don't feel too bad on that one.  
 
Poor Tali, first I missed her pilgrimage story in the original, then I let her take the fall in the trial (hey it was her choice) and then she took the bullet.  

" @XII_Sniper said:

Tali and Legion are pure tech, nothing else, so they won't die in the vents.

Wrong.  All my companions were loyal.  I sent Legion into the vents and he died to a headshot in the cinematic while attempting to close the door.  Probably need maxxed out upgrades. "

Miranda died (is that her name? The Cerberus chick).  Everyone else, including the Doc, Kelly and random crew dude survived.  Tali in vents, Garrus leads second squad, Jacob escorts surviving crew back, Samara biotic field, Garrus leads squad again...Grunt and Miranda with me entire time.  Legion and Miranda not loyal, everyone else was.  Playing the game again super evil and super good, gonna see what happens.

Latest playthrough I lost Tali, Thane, Samara, Jack (and gave Legion to Cerberus).  I was playing a 'human supremacist' style game so I was keen to thin the alien numbers.  Jack dying was unexpected though.

Squad lived, Crew Died;(

I had Mordin eat it in the face, a Miranda got killed in the end

Everyone survived my first playthrough, luckily.

Tried the mission twice. First time Mordin died, and the second I sent him as the escort and he and everyone survived.

sighhh 
 
jack (we were gonna be pirates together :( ) 
 
garrus T__T 
 
just a car (whatever) 
 
green snake face (whatever he wanted to die) 
 
alien doctor (oh well..i got what i needed from him and he deserved it anyway) 
 
i think thats all 
 
oh and most of the crew. i got some back though including my love interest, the old doctor lady

For me it went
 
1st play - Tali died, Grunt died
2nd play - Zaeed died, Tali Died
3rd play - Thane died, Miranda died, Samara died

On my PC play the crew, garrus, and jack died, but on my 360 play which had my ME1 import, everyone survived.

i only had Thane die on me, which kinda sucked, since he was one of my favorite characters in the game..i am interested in playing through the game againg, to see just how differently this last scene will pan out,

Grunt died. Got eaten by the swarm. And my entire crew also died. I thought ME1 was intense at the end, but this was even more so. Too bad it ended too soon. I would have wanted a celebration or something like at the end of Dragon Age. The end credits music was dissapointing compared to ME1 though. Love the ME1 end song. Still great game.

All survived, crew survived.
 
Legion in vent, Samara swarm shield, Jacob crew escort, Garrus leading other team.  Garrus and Tali with me at the end whilst everybody else defended.
 
I liked the structure of the last mission, but it was a weak ending compared to the first game.
 
It'll be interesting to see how they handle ME 3 given that every ME 2 party member could potentially be dead.  They avoided making ME 2 party members out of anybody that could potentially be dead from ME 1 (Ash, Kaidan, Wrex) -because it would be a ton of work that might never get seen - so does that mean no ME 2 characters in ME 3?  I wonder.

So, my second playthrough didn't go so well. I didn't upgrade the ship properly and stuck to Renegade to the very end. Technically Samara died too, but that was before the suicide mission.
 
o Tali 
o Jack 
o Grunt 
o Mordin 
o The whole damn crew (Kelly & Chakwas saved at first, but sent them off with no escort)
 
Poor Kelly. My Paragon char couldn't save her and my Renegade Lady just didn't give a shit. The whole thing was kind of hilarious, actually.    

Thane went into the vents and ate a missile to the head, Mordin stupidly lagged behind after Jack's shield went down and got reaved by bats, Gears of War style.

" so does that mean no ME 2 characters in ME 3?  I wonder. "

Tali, reload, Legion, reload, Legion, reload, nobody.

Tali, Grunt, and Jack died on my first finish. I also sent Dr. Chakwas to her certain doom.

If jack is is vanguard when you level her up, will that kill her if you have her as your sheild person.

The first time I lost a lot of people. Jacob, Thane, Tali and Jack. I lost Jack because I sided with Miranda when they had an argument (naturally, since Miranda is so fucking fine) and she hated me ever since. I didn't really mind losing Thane since he was dying anyway, and Tali/Jack were never really interesting characters to me anyway. I'm a little bummed about losing Jacob, though; lost him at the door.

" For those that had everyone survive.... who did you send into the vents in the beginning of the assault? Cuz Mordin does not cut it he dies lol. Has anyone saved Kelly Chambers? "

" @Jiggah: Every time I send in a Loyal Tali, she always gets owned when closing the doors. "

I just finished my first playthrough. I'm really bummed about losing Garrus, since he's probably my favorite character. I took him along in my team thinking it would guarantee his survival, but he ended up getting eaten by the collectors. I also lost Jack, since I sided with Miranda and didn't have high enough Paragon to keep them both loyal. I don't really mind losing her, but I don't think I'll be using this as an import for ME3 without Garrus. At least I didn't lose Tali, I was afraid she would die a few times, but she made it through in the end.

Hopefully I can get everyone to survive in my second playthrough. 

I had to replay the level several times, tip: you can save right before pressing the last valve release on the mission, this made replaying a lot faster.
Took Tali into the valve
Grunt escorted the crew back
Jacob led the distraction
The asari (cant remember her name) did the biotic shield
For the boss take the two weakest (Mordin and Thane) so that they will not die
Also make sure everyone is loyal

Legion was my only non-loyal squad member, and he died after doing the hacking in stage 1.
Every other squad member was OK. Jack did the biotic shielding against the bugs, Grunt escorted the doctor back and Miranda lead both alternate fire-teams for me with no problems.

" Everyone...... till I decided to go to gamefaqs to see how this really goes down. "  

Like I said, all the right choices to make are almost painfully obvious. Just think about it for a second and don't send just anyone out to do a job. They tell you who they need for any particular job (the exception being the escort). There's no reason you shouldn't be able to put two and two together and realize that Tali and Legion are tech experts (they have AI hacking), or that Miranda/Jacob/Garrus are all trained to be squad leaders, or that they spent a whole lot of time hammering it into your head that Samara and Jack are biotic killing machines who will have the biotic power necessary to maintain a huge shield.

"

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

You can still do one mission before the crew starts dying - preferably the Legion one. Two missions and it's Kelly and half the crew, three or more - only Chakwas survives. And she can die too if you don't send anyone to escort her or put someone who is not up to the job.

Mordin died in the vents because he is not a tech specialist. It's either Tali or Legion. In general, Mordin is quite dieable, so put him in the boss team for the best results.

Tali or Legion get popped because either a) there's a jackass on the second fireteam - Miranda or Garrus fit (and probably Jacob), putting Grunt or someone else results in failure, as they're not leaders or b) the player's team got lazy.

Full loyality is required for people that are not in your squad, especially when you do the swarm with Jack and Miranda.

Also, for every missed upgrade you lose a squad member when still on the ship - it'll be Tali, Jack, Thane.

"

Thane died in my first game. Im working on my 2nd playthrough now i will keep you posted.

Everyone made it through my first time, tali in the vents, miranda leading the first time,  
garrus the second, kept thane with me whole time warp does wonders. Everyone lived even the crew, my question is what happens when you take the tech from collector ship, anyone know??

Tali and Jack died for me.
 
I lost Jacks loyalty by pressing the wrong option in the Miranda and Jack fight.
 
I never gained Tali's loyalty as i told the commity about her Dad.
 
Died like either of them and im glad that there wont be a Tali in the next game!

1st time: Tali and Zaeed (I thought Zaeed would be a good squad leader)
2nd time: Everyone lived but the Normandy crew was wiped out.
3rd time: Everyone lived, including every single crew member.

Zaeed died because i set him as the fire team capt. I knew i should have stuck with Garrus he was fine the for the first portion of the mission, but i wanted to spice things up a bit with Zaeed taking point.

No one. It was tense until you realise that it asks for direct skills like tech specialists meaning it's easy to work out who dies and who lives. Great mission though. I would have liked more where it felt like the whole team was together.

Zaeed and Legion died for me, plus the crew. I feel like it wouldn't be very much of a suicide mission if no one died. The crew dieing was just unfortunate.

Just completed the game for the first time and my suicide mission was a blood bath Mordin, Tali, Jack, Thane, Samara and Legion all died and for a second at the end i thought Miranda had died till she appeared from behind Grunt..

I will have to replay it see if i cant do better. 

I had a lot die.... They all were loyal too... I had Thane die when we were attacked in the ship (was shot or something), then i had Garrus shot in the face while closing the doors... Then I had Tali getting shot and dieing.... then Jack got taken by the bug things... I was like NOOO WHY DIDNT THEY TAKE MIRANDA AND JACOB?! THEY SUCK!! (in my game)