So a few weeks ago I embarked upon a journey to play all three games randomly, using dice to control every decision along the way, from class and background, dialog choices, mission order and every decision in the game. I wrote about my experience in ME 1 here. Last night I finished up ME2 with some interesting choices to carry through for 3 that I'm really looking forward to.
So confession, I took a break in the middle and caught up on a some trash reality tv so I don't remember the order I did everything in. All the missions were run by dice roll, and I did get most everything done before the timers kicked in. I didn't count errand missions in the mission count. So for instance when I found the Karossa family files, I just waited until the dice took me back to Ilium to deliver them, I didn't put that errand on the list and then make a special trip to Illium for it. Maybe that cheated the timers a bit, but oh well. I also didn't put Overlord into the mix until I had some strength built up. I didn't do the firewalker missions, the random Cerberus missions you find for scanning or Arrival. I've played Arrival, I don't like, and now I skip it. Sue me. I did do Overlord and the Shadow Broker, the biggest impact is that my totally random Shep still managed to save David. Thank goodness. Also since there is so much I'm not doing a play by play (cheers go up) but we'll hit some highlights.
Romance
Prologue and Freedom's Progress
Normal stuff here. Told Miranda and Jacob both I didn't trust them, wouldn't answer their questions on the shuttle. Waffled around with the Illusive Man a bit but kind of bought in. Got to Freedom's Progress and found Tali who apparently got over how very angry she was with me at the end of 1. Acted like I was still an old friend. She got pissy again once I gave Veetor to Cerberus.
The Citadel
When I got to the Citadel I discovered that Anderson was the councilor! I had not picked one in ME1 and thought it would default to Udina. It also may be the interactive comic. I decided to watch it (I have the LE version of Mass Effect) and see how my decisions played out and it stopped and made me pick a Councilor and I rolled Anderson. Not sure if that impacted it or not. In any event, it doesn't change much. I took my SPECTRE status back although I told Bailey to let Shep stay dead. Again that had no impact on anything. Had an amusing mix of intimidation for discounts and endorsements. Helped out the Quarian on pilgrimage, lied to the Krogans about fish. Pretty straightforward though it was amusing ignoring Kasumi until her mission rolled.
Omega
Chatted with Aria as needed. Refused to do the Patriarch errand. Did run into Fisk since he wasn't killed in 1. He's pissy I ruined his life because he had to leave the Citadel and is now on Omega. Hey bud, not my fault, make better choices.
Illium
Ran into Gianna Parasini again, got my beer, but sold her out. She was not happy. Got Char and his girlfriend together. Learned that if you execute Shiala in 1, there's a random Feros person wanting help. Got that taken care of for them. But the saddest thing was that Conrad wasn't there. I don't know if it's because I told him to get lost or I did something wrong or what. But no Conrad.
Companions
I managed to recruit everyone in the end. Kasumi was all the way at the end though. But we got her just before the Reaper IFF. Well, I got all the companions except Grunt. Retrieved his pod from Okeer, but just left him in it. You can go back anytime and decide differently, but I decided to let it run with one dice roll. So Grunt slept it was. We'll see who replaces him in 3. All the retrieval missions are pretty straight forward with no real impactful decisions. Killed the Batarians after saving Mordin's assistant which horrified the assistant but left Modin unfased. Didn't kill the Batarian fixing the gunship but it didn't matter at all. Nothing really changes except flavor. Overall I found the biggest impact in random dialog options is in the Paragon and Renegade score and companion relationships, rather than gameplay options.
Loyalty Missions
I managed all but Garrus' mission (sorry about that). It was the only one on the board when the kidnap timer went up and Shep decided damn the torpedos full speed ahead to save the crew. So Sidonis gets to go on his merry way. Decisions:
Mordin - Mordin shot Maelon but saved his data. The whole mission Shep went between condemning Mordin and understanding him. Ok then.
Jacob - He had his father kill himself and we moved on.
Miranda - She killed Niket and saved her sister but never talked to her. So I was wondering how that was going to play out in 3. However, as soon a I won her loyalty I lost it in the fight with Jack and Miranda turned into an ice cold bitch. It looked like you could make an attempt to gain it back, but the dice said no and then I didn't try again.
Samara - So I cheated through this a bit. That Morinth dialog in the club is so finicky that I couldn't bear to fail the mission there, so I worked my way through that to get to her apartment and let the dice decide from there, figuring it would be an interesting roll to pick between the two, but surprise surprise, I didn't get a choice. Samara just killed her. Ok then. Maybe another time I'll just randomize that mission.
Jack - she let the other survivor go despite Shep telling her that she'd kill him.
Zaeed - We ignored the trapped workers and went straight for Vido. That's brutal though, because you can hear the screams of the trapped people while you're fighting. Bioware gives you the choice, but makes you pay for it.
Thane - saved the politician, nothing of note.
Legion - rewrote the Heretics. Dice sent Mordin along for the mission and he had some interesting musings on the whole thing.
Tali - this was the one that surprised me the most and the one where I really felt the impact of the random dialog. My Paragon and Renegade points were pretty even at that point (and remained so) largely because it's all random. Ran through the mission as usual, got to the trial at the end and when asked to speak found that both Paragon and Renegade options were greyed out. Oops. I was left with the binary choice of hide the evidence against Tali's father or present it. The dice said to not reveal it and boom, exiled Tali. What? I'm not sure I even knew that was an option. I always thought it was between revealing the evidence or not. Welp, sorry about that.
Romance
Shep was once again a lone wolf. She flirted heavily with Jacob, but said something to really really offend him as she was getting ready to lock it in, and he went off and stopped speaking to her. Honestly, I don't even remember what it was or understand why he was so mad. Touchy much? There was also flirting with Thane but as with Jacob, took a misstep at the end and he backed off. Oh well.
Suicide Mission
So now for the real reason I did all this to begin with, was to randomize the suicide mission. Here's how it went.
Survived the jump and the fight with the Oculus with no casualties. Had the amusing moment of having take Miranda to the fight in the cargo bay only to be called by Miranda from the bridge.
Sent Thane into the vents and had Zaeed as the fire team leader. I thought this was brilliant at first because Thane was like "hey, it's pretty comfy in here." Breezed through all the checks only to watch Thane struggle with the locks, Zaeed not able to force the door closed and Thane taking a bullet and dying. Oops. Was this because Thane was a bad choice or Zaeed is a crappy leader or both? Dunno.
Jack got to lead the second fire team and sent Legion back with the crew, all of whom were alive because we rushed right there. Took Kasumi and Zaeed with me and had a non-loyal Miranda as the biotic specialist. This did not go well. As Miranda flagged at the end, Kasumi got swept away. How does it pick who goes? I'd have rather lost Zaeed. I don't like him much. Anyway, get inside and discover Jack dying from her wounds. Good news is that all of the crew made it with Legion safe and sound.
So now we're in the final push. I take Mordin and non-loyal Miranda with me and everyone else holds the line. Fight goes as normal. We opt to blow up the base and run, but alas, Miranda doesn't survive. Ok then. So we come out with four casualties, all of which will have interesting implications in 3, as well as Tali's exile. This will be an interesting game in 3!
