Mass Alex: Mass Effect 2 - Part 03

This series is the reason I became premium!

Yes!! New episode is here!! I actually celebrated with the classic 'one hand in fist shaking ' thing you see in tennis!

Hurray!

Oh boy, so you're new. There's so much premium stuff to check out. I think it was Contradiction that made me sign up for real last time.

Should've been a Vanguard, so much fun

MOR-DIN

SO-LUS

*clap clap clapclapclap*

Just buy the health and weapon upgrades as soon as possible. You'll only make it harder for yourself as you keep playing by waiting until much later. You'll be getting a constant stream of credits as you complete missions anyway.

Also, the weapon upgrades apply to your entire squad (it says this right on the descriptions while you're shopping), so no reason to skip over any of them even if it's for an upgrade to a weapon Shepard doesn't use. The whole team gets stronger, and that's always a good thing!

If Alex doesn't like Zaeed by the end, he belongs in prison.

Zaeed with the background slide-in.

I wouldn't say there's much there to like... Zaeed and Kasumi being these less-than-fleshed out additions to your party was a bit of a bummer.

No need to be stingy with those credits, they are plentiful. You'll be able to afford nearly every upgrade as you progress through the game.

I've completed ME2 three times and I have never seen that Patriarch quest - how? I don't know!

Sounds like someone needs to spend twenty years in prison!

Obviously, they're not as deep as the main crew (although I disagree about Kasumi, she got a LOT more development in her DLC than Zaeed did), but he's a neat salty mercenary asshole that's fun to use from time to time.

Alex, please use cover more, thanks.

Great episode! Mordin is one of my favorite characters from the entire series. Just a reminder to @alex and @vinny to keep using cover constantly and keep getting your paragon level up as quickly as possible. You'll need it for the loyalty missions.

Also, as others have said, feel free to spend freely buying upgrades. They affect you and your whole team and you'll find plenty of credits along the way to keep buying stuff as long as you keep doing side missions. Remember to go back next episode and tell that couple that the coast is clear for them to head to Mordin's clinic too (unless it's too late for that now).

Sentinel is really the best class for Alex to pick. Tech Armor is going to give him a wider margin of error for not taking cover as battles shift around and forces Alex to relocate. I feel like if he stayed with Vanguard the charge ability would put Alex in situations he might not escape from. Just because you can charge, doesn't mean you should.

I found Sentinel to be really boring, but Tech Armor should help Alex get out of some bad situations he might otherwise have died from.

If memory serves, you have to upgrade the ammo in order to make them available for the whole squad.

that damn helmet. there is an option ffs !

Also - noy holstering when not in combat is driving me insane. good game

I'm a huge fan of Sentinel: it gives you such a good spread, because you're given the bread-and-butter of basically every aspect of powers: you get Tech Armor for defence, you get that Warp-Throw combo for the biotics, you get Frost and Overload for your tech combo, and you have access to decent guns as well. It doesn't have any of the fancier, more specialised skills that the other classes get, but it's really got just about all the bases covered across the board.

FYI, there's a short hidden sidequest on omega if you take a drink from the batarian bartender downstairs in afterlife. You guys nearly stumbled into it near the start.

If it wasn't clear, just as an fyi you don't need to map a teammate power to use it, you can just use it from the wheel

Was that Ben Shapiro at the end?

Either that option's really well hidden then or they're both blind. Googling/looking at past comments seems to suggest that it was a thing in ME3 only, unless you mod the game. I'd download the game to triple check it myself, but I think I trust the interwebs on this.

Also this series continues to be excellent.

That classic NFS4 track in the club.

Really enjoying the series.

I forget, does ME2 have the melee attack, it was that a ME3 thing? Might be useful to Alex for the times an enemy gets in close.

Mass Alex is the best feature on the site! Keep it up guys.

@glots said:

It is Mass Effect 3 only, but you can just have no helmet in this one and the game will still show the helmet when you're on planets or areas which don't have oxygen or whatever, where you need the helmet. It's basically the same, unless you want one of those non-N7 helmets.

@chummy8: Think it was Mario Party Party and Metal Gear Scanlon for me.

Oof, it's probably because I've played the ME series so many times, but them having trouble navigating the relatively small maps and being unable to find where stuff is (or simply overlooking it)... I know this game to the point that it makes me a horrible person.

I'm sorry. This is an awesome feature. Don't change anything.

(Please order that drink from Forvan)

There is a reason I set the captain's quarters music to Callista as soon as I knew it was an option.

RIP Saki Kaskas

Vinny, I'm begging you, please get a bullet list or watch a video to refresh your memory a bit because you're killing me with telling Alex wrong info all the time.

@bobulus: If memory serves it's got a rudimentary pistol-butt melee that sort of staggers the enemy a bit and does minimal damage. It's only really meant for emergencies and isn't great. None of the Omni-blade (AKA big fuck-off energy sword) stuff yet, that's ME3.

The best part about talking to Shisk the vorcha is getting to hear Mark Meer.

I think vinny forgot to tell alex about skill combos. Lift + Warp = explosion. Lift + Throw = uhhhh big throw?? I forgot if there's more.

lol...thinking 3/4 mods is a lot

If you're still alive and not dead, I'm pretty sure this is the one where I read off Christina Norman's (the lead gameplay designer) blog post about it.

You can find it here: http://blog.bioware.com/2010/01/06/enemy-defenses-in-mass-effect-2/

If indeed you are dead due to what I told Alex, I'm sorry. I will start a petition to have what currently remains of Bioware at EA retroactively change the rules of engagement to more fit your memory, in your honor of course. With Anthem and and the state of things, I'm not sure if this will happen quickly or before more episodes go up, so don't haunt me with your wrathful spirit. Thanks!

Watching Alex run circles around himself in the Omega markets is quite something, though I appreciate that he's off exploring different rooms on his way through combat areas, you'll often find many useful upgrades or resources that way or just some small story stuff.
(Now that you have Mordin you can spend planet resources on upgrades at the research terminal in his room!)

It doesn't seem to have been a huge issue quite yet but you really want to be taking cover all the time, enemy attacks like rockets and biotic pushes will knock you off balance if you're out of cover or caught as you're peeking out.

Also when you're out of a certain range and you don't see the outline around the enemy that means they're too far away for abilities to home onto them, you want to get at least that close unless you're rocking a sniper.

RE: Abilities; You can activate them and target enemies while in the radial menu, and much like the tech armour the elemental ammo are toggled and does not run out. I'm playing a soldier and switching between disruptor and incendiary ammo depending on the enemy and popping concussive shot as a throw equivalent.

I only have to activate it at the beginning of a mission, so keep that in mind if you have members who have different ammo types.

Anyway, another fine episode of Mass Alex.
Mordin is a very interesting character but can be a bit abrasive, anything involving the Genophage will obviously bring fourth some troubling opinions and involvements.
Eagerly anticipating Alex meeting new characters and species! I jumped back into a late game and have now seen the starting hours again, interested to refresh myself on the middle chunk I'm currently spotty on.

I don't recall people having issues with the story, just the final boss. And I didn't have a problem with that either.

One day Alex will use warp

why are they still wearing the helmet....just take it off....please.....pleaaaaaaseeeeeee.....

TAKE OFF THE HELMET @alex #FREETHEBUN

Hey Alex, great job so far and hope your enjoying it.

Just a quick tip for those pesky pyro guys, shoot them in the fuel tanks and they will explode after a few seconds so you can basically just fire and forget!

Some more backseat gaming: With the basic weapons being an exception, all weapons are variants and none are strictly better than the others. Try them out, especially as you get new ones, but don't be afraid to go back to old ones.

Also, the AI (in this case Zaeed) can't really handle charging weapons very well, you'd be best off equipping them with basic trigger->fire weapons.

edit: rewatching a couple fights, I think "can't handle very well" may have been an understatement. Did Zaeed even fire a single shot at any time?

It's more a response to its structure compared to Mass Effect 1.
ME2 takes a more "heist" approach to its story; gather a team, ready all the gear, go on a suicide mission, as opposed to chasing a defined and charismatic villain through space. I personally tend to prefer ME1's story structure, premise, and novelty, but respect ME2's commitment to character and build up.

I think what they're talking about is that classic gamer shitstorm of "it's not the same so it's ruined!" so take it with a grain of salt. People threw a hissyfit over ME3's ending too and I was personally satisfied with it.

Zaeed is a shallow, garbage dlc character made to convince people to buy the game new back when people were buying used games.

Please take the helmet off in the next episode or wear the vizor instead. Your hairbun is clipping through the helmet because of your mod. It also just looks really silly to walk around with a helmet. Like imagine if Han Solo walked around with a bicycle helmet.

Best series! Great episode ya'll.

Loving the new season so far. Even when I'm like "Just buy it, buy everything."

If he wasn't dead before...

RIP burncoat

mordin is the best

@vinny the unique ammo types from powers only affect the whole squad once you rank up the respective ammo powers to max level and evolve them into the "squad [ammo type]" powers (spoiler tagged just in case alex wanted to avoid game mechanics spoilers for whatever reason)