I picked this up last year and never got around to it. I am finally going through the games now and am making a dent into ME2. Mass Effect 1 has not aged well but still has a pretty great story. I blazed through it but missed a lot of side content because I wanted to get to ME2. ME2 still slaps and I am loving it so far. I have not touched 3 yet but does anyone have any tips for ME2 beyond completing all loyalty missions and Upgrading the ship fully. I just wanted to open this forum to chat the trilogy.

Make sure you talk to Mordin enough for him to bring up his musical theater background.

@banefirelord: Thank you for this very important tip. I am very excited. I talk to Mordin as much as possible because he rules.

@yankeesmcav1: if you have the DLC, go ahead and do those. Here's a few comments grabbed from dusty memory:

• Overlord is fantastic. Bit slower pacing and more intrigue in the narrative, that develops in what can be an unexpected way for you. Then, depending on your choice, the resolution gets a call-back in ME3.
• Lair of the Shadow Broker is equally good. It comes loaded with more action set-pieces, a faster pace, a guest starring spot by a familiar face, and one of the coolest locations in the Mass Effect universe. It also includes one of the coolest designed characters as you come into the climax of that story.
• Firewalker is take it or leave it. More content and some fleshing out of the universe, but it mainly takes place in a different vehicle.
• Normandy Crash Site is a straight call-back to the first game. Not terribly exciting, but contains loot and 'stuff'.
• Arrival was a swing-and-a-miss for me, but did contain good story. Finish the main game and then hop on that, as it directly ties into the third game.

For story-related reasons: don't stop to clean up side missions when the second game wants to thrust you into immediate action along the critical path. The outcome will shift dramatically if you even deviate a bit, and if memory serves there's time to clean up after you finish the main story.

One piece of advice is to save the Arrival DLC until after you complete the main story. That DLC came out like a year after the game launched and is canonically set after ME2 and shortly before ME3. However, for reasons I still don't understand that mission becomes available like 30% of the way into the game. You're forced to view the mission briefing right away, but you can hold off doing it until after the main story is done (you are able to continue playing the game after the story is over to do DLC and remaining side content).

To add to this, once you acquire the Reaper IFF, the game will give you a very limited amount of time before it forces a plot event on you that pushes you toward the endgame. How you respond to that event will affect the story going forward. So, if you care about getting the "best" possible ending, you'll want to do all the available important things like loyalty missions and ship upgrades before you acquire the Reaper IFF. The game will then give you enough time to do the one important side mission that becomes available after acquiring the Reaper IFF before it activates the crucial plot event.

@ll_exile_ll: I did mention that in my list. 😉

@millaj: you're absolutely right about that one side mission. I had forgotten about it.

As for the rest of the specifics, it is my hope that the completely spoiler free text I wrote implies the timing. In that way avoiding mentions of story-related missions or MacGuffins (I love that mission!)

Just a word of warning which might read like a ‘get woke son’ comment, but Overlord is actually pretty problematic in the story it tells if you think about it for more than 5 seconds, so just prepare yourself for that.

@ithas2besaidkvo: Before discussing it I'll wait for @yankeesmcav1 to actually finish the DLC, allowing for input from the person that's actually discovering this for the first time.

@ithas2besaidkvo: that’s the only DLC I know about but I have heard how that plays out and it sounds very icky to me. I’ll play it but I do know about that one’s twist.

@rahf: Indeed. The game pretty clearly telegraphs that MacGuffin very early on, which is the only reason why I felt OK mentioning it.

@yankeesmcav1: I suppose the underlying conceit is icky, depending on how you view things and what you consider acceptable to include in entertainment. The themes playing out, and the central conflict at the heart of the story, may be deemed "not allowed" nowadays. But on the other end they bring a genuine impact to the story, if you ask me. The fact that plot unfolds the way it does, and the final revelation, was a true stab in the gut. But it was also what made the pay-off and final choice worthwhile and meaningful. Your view of a character as both Shepard and the player.

Overlord is problematic in the sense that decisions are made, and can be made, that would be deemed monstrous or abhorrent by many. That is Mass Effect and that is storytelling when it is at its best, if you ask me.

Shame you've had it spoiled. I think you'll find that final moment quite wrenching, still.

@rahf: I was just meaning in terms of the ableist themes of the DLC, not necessarily the story itself, which I think is impactful and thought provoking (I say this as a physically 'able' person who hadn't even thought about the issues of the DLC before I read some articles on it long after I played it).

I can't imagine anyone going renegade in that story. You'd have to give away a part of your soul first.

@rahf: I respect your opinion on the story and I’m not having a go at anyone in this thread. I just had a moment where I read those articles articulating why it’s problematic and I thought, ‘Damn, these are really salient points that I as someone who doesn’t have a close association with anyone on the spectrum never actually thought about’.