History Analysis / MassEffect2

* '''Mordin, Samara and Tali ''can'' die, but Loyalty is not relevant to their fates.'' For Samara, you prevent it with a Paragon interrupt. Tali's fate depends on the RobotWar, but you're not locked into a choice; you get to make it on the spot. And Mordin is killed during the first game, before he's introduced: if Wrex survives Virmire, as he did in [[https://www.ign.com/articles/mass-effect-legendary-edition-infographic-player-statistics-paragon 94% of cases]], Mordin locks in his HeroicSacrifice. (You can convince him to become a War Asset if both Wrex and "Eve" are dead -- [[GuideDangIt did you know]]?)

!The Beauty of ''Mass Effect 2'' Ending

''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is the most universally adored part of the original ''Franchise/MassEffect'' trilogy, and despite its gameplay refinement and improved variety, ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' could never supplant its predecessor. Part two had something its sequel didn't: a mind-blowingly epic ending that left every player in awe. But what exactly made the ending of ''Mass Effect 2'' so amazing? Although the magnificent cutscene direction and musical composition contributed a lot to it, the key to the awesomeness of ''Mass Effect 2's'' endgame segment lies in the gameplay design and the story scripting of the entire SuicideMission.

Meanwhile, the three winning choices are all people who have extensive experience in leading combat teams for a long time. Miranda has her engineered smarts, and serves as one of the top three of Cerberus. Garrus, of course, led a team of a dozen killers on Omega for eighteen months, and survived the whole station being out to get him all along. Jacob seems like an odd choice, given that he has never served a command position according to Miranda, but Miranda is simply wrong. Jacob has served in command before: in the Corsairs. The Alliance Corsairs are deniable anti-pirate captains who hire their ships to the Alliance. Jacob used to be a captain himself! And his field? Ship-boarding, which is exactly what the team is doing now.

Since there is no InUniverseGameClock in the game, the time is measured by the number of completed missions[[note]]"Missions" means exactly that, objectives in the Journal. Doing other things, no matter how time-consuming, such as going shopping for better gear or prospecting for needed upgrade resources do not advance "time" by one second. But if you'd forgotten to give Dr. Chakwas her bottle of ice brandy and hand it over now? Completed mission, and the clock ticks. You should undertake one and only one listed objective after recovering control of the ''Normandy'': Legion's loyalty mission.[[/note]] between two events, specifically, the kidnapping of the ''Normandy'' crew by the Collectors and the start of the Suicide Mission. In practical terms, this delay can have only three values: short (at most one story mission or assignment), middle (one to three assignments and no story missions), and long (anything above that).

This set is a mix of story-relevant upgrades, gameplay-relevant upgrades, and even purely cosmetic upgrades (Med-Bay Upgrade). Only the three story-relevant upgrades (Heavy Ship Armor, Multicore Shielding, Thanix Cannon) have impact on the course of the Suicide Mission. The availability of all upgrades is directly derived from R*, since they can only be unlocked for purchase by talking with a specific squadmate.

## IF S* = R* THEN "No One Left Behind"
## IF (S* <> R*) and (Shepard lives) THEN "Against All Odds"

Players may note that on both choices in which Miranda gives explicit advice, she is wrong: she recommends against Jacob as fireteam leader, and volunteers herself as the biotic. Jacob can successfully lead the fireteam, and picking Miranda as the biotic will get somebody killed. Why is the XO, Shepard's second-in-command, who's been guiding the player all game, suddenly wrong? Because this is the first test to see if you were paying attention. Miranda herself will warn players that being enhanced does not make her infallible, and that she can err and her errors can cause disaster. Moreover, Miranda is not in command -- you are, and there is a reason for that. You are being asked to make correct decisions, not blindly follow what the game tells you to do.

As Doctor Chakwas points out, the crew and colonists the party rescues are in no shape to fight. The party now has to decide whether to return the crewers under protection, back along the mostly-cleared path that Shepard's fireteam took, or to send them back unescorted. Who are the correct choices to send? The answer is all of them, since you just cleared the path behind you. Who, then, to send? The Weak Links, who have little to contribute to the close-quarters battle that follows.

** Miranda is the anti Kaidan. Both are Sentinels, both are on your team in the very beginning and both are extremely loyal to their chosen organizations. But while Kaidan adopts more of a restrained, let's try diplomatic means first approaches and generally has a "they're no different from us" attitude towards humans, Miranda is the cold calculating ruthless pragmatic type who believes strongly in a human survivalist ideology.

!!The HoldTheLine death calculus

|| '''5+'''|| [[note]]because only four squadmates can have an HTL score of 0, an average score 0.0 is impossible with 5 or more defenders[[/note]] || 3 || 2 |||| 1 || 0 ||

The way the mechanism works, in brief, is to take the ''average'' of the scores of the Hold The Line team, and compare it to a table which indicates how many of them will be killed. '''The Magic Number is 2'''. If the average is equal to or greater than 2, everybody makes it. Otherwise, the designated number of casualties are removed according to a prioritized list.

* With 5 or more members:
** 2.0 or better -- No deaths
** 1.5 to 1.9 -- 1 death
** 0.5 to 1.4 -- 2 deaths
** Under 0.5 -- 3 deaths

* With 4 members:
** 2.0 or better -- No deaths
** 1.0 to 1.75 -- 1 death
** 0.5 to 0.75 -- 2 deaths
** 0.25 -- 3 deaths
** 0.0 -- All dead

* With 3 members:
** 2.0 or better -- No deaths
** 1.0 to 1.67 -- 1 death
** 0.33 to 0.67 -- 2 deaths
** 0.0 -- All dead

* With 2 members:
** 2.0 or better -- No deaths
** 0.5 to 1.5 -- 1 death
** 0.0 -- All dead

* With 1 member:
** 2.0 or better -- Survives
** Under 2.0 -- Dies

* Mordin, Tali, Kasumi, Jack, Miranda, Jacob, Garrus, Samara/Morinth, Legion, Thane, Zaeed, Grunt

* Ashley has Concussive Shot, Disruptor Ammo and Inferno Grenade, making her similar to Zaeed in combat performance. However what separates her from Zaeed is that she can command loyalty with her squadmates and has a genuine bond with her squad, which means she can lead the Fire Team as well as having a HoldTheLine score of 3 by default due to combat experience and 4 if she romanced Shepard and a desire to stay alive to make sure Shepard can escape, however if they was unfaithful her score will drop to 2. Clearly divided by Shepard decision to moving on.

** The Citadel itself underwent a large change. In the first game, it was a relatively calm place with side quests there comprising primarily of talking to people to Charm or Intimidate them to see reason, helping people out with certain mundane problems that do not neccesarily involve killing, or make you do the killing somewhere off world. Even C-sec is presented as this ObstructiveBureaucrat run but mostly benign force, not tolerating CowboyCop types or corrupt drunks. Attitudes towards humans are also generally welcoming except for two blowhards. Come this game, there is much more of an air of hostility towards humans, C- sec is a more intrusive, restrictive and aggressive police force, not above making people "squeal a little". Now you have to deal with a dangerous demagogue politician, a protection shakedown racket, an assassination attempt, even an entire mercenary base of operations. The former drunk cop who just skimmed a little here and there has now gone full blown criminal with some extremely powerful muscle, and even the helpful Avina terminal now tattles on you to C-sec under certain conditions.
* Your squadmates are also polar opposites of what you had in VideGame/MassEffect1. Let's see how

** Grunt is the anti-Wrex. Wrex is old, wizened, adopts a MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch attitude and is generally jaded about the future, while grunt is a very young aggressive BloodKnight. Wrex genuinely cares about his people while all Grunt wants out of his people for now, is enemies to kill.

Tali ought to have survivability if not the ability to protect herself, since she does have a combat drone and is shotgun qualified, as well as having prior strike op experience from her time on the SR1. But her score is only 1 because in actuality she is devastating against synthetics but weak against organics. AI hacking is useless against organics, and getting close in to use her shotgun means she drains her shields, but unlike Legion who can just boost his shields, Tali has to drain something else's energy to boost her shields back up. Collectors are organics with biotic barriers, neither of which is a source of energy for Tali's shields. And once she is down to just her armor, she goes down very easily since all it takes is one suit rupture for the allergy to kill her. This experience may be why her Energy Drain works on barriers too in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''; experience fighting Collectors has taught her to prep for dealing with enemies other than Geth.

* Phase I (steps 1 through 4) consists mostly of cutscenes and evaluates the player's initiative and readiness to go beyond the explicit instruction in preparation for the SuicideMission--namely, to discover and to acquire Secondary Resources without an obvious indication to their usefulness. It punishes the insufficiently prepared players by handicapping them in phase II via the loss of some Primary Resources, but, ingeniously, makes this seem like a PlotlineDeath by denying the player any immediate agency in it, as well as giving only vague hints at how it could have been prevented. To further throw the player off-balance, loyalty, while essential everywhere else, provides no [[PlotArmor protection]] to crucial Primary Resources in this phase.

Since there is no InUniverseGameClock in the game, the time is measured by the number of completed missions between two events, specifically, the kidnapping of the ''Normandy'' crew by the Collectors and the start of the Suicide Mission. In practical terms, this delay can have only three values: short (at most one story mission or assignment), middle (one to three assignments and no story missions), and long (anything above that).

The first choice is to send all of the party members except for Shepard and three others off to divert the attention of the Collector swarms. Shepard must pick one person to serve as the squad leader for the other party members (which could be as few half a dozen alive or fewer, if you had no ship upgrades, never decanted Grunt, sold Legion, and didn't get the DLCs). The choices consist of the whole roster. So why are there only three right choices? Thane, Zaeed, Samara, and Legion all have extensive experience in fighting, as do Tali and Mordin. So why does picking anybody but the two Cerberus operatives and Garrus result in catastrophe?

As Doctor Chakwas points out, the crew and colonists the party rescues are in no shape to fight. The party now has to decide whether to return the crewers under protection, back along the mostly-cleared path that Shepard's fireteam took, or to send them back unescorted.

Let's look at why the secret Hold The Line scores for all members, when loyal and unloyal, are what they are:

* Her score drops to 1 because she is distracted by Morinth still running around inflicting DeathBySex.

The main appeal, driving force, and resources of ''Mass Effect 2'' are the [[PlayerParty thirteen recruitable companions (squadmates)]] of Commander Shepard[[note]]which includes both the two {{DLC}}-only companions and the secret squad member Morinth[[/note]]. The entire game revolves around them, and the Suicide Mission is quite consciously a FinalExamFinale level, taking the form of a weird {{Puzzle|Game}}[=/=]DeckbuildingGame hybrid. The deck-building aspect comes from the fact that the outcome of the endgame depends largely on what "deck" (i.e. which squadmates) you bring with you to the Omega 4 relay. The puzzle aspect is owed to the complex but static set of rules that determine your success or failure in the Suicide Mission--rules that are pretty obvious if you pay attention to your squadmates beforehand.

The main appeal, driving force, and resources of ''Mass Effect 2'' are the [[PlayerParty thirteen recruitable companions (squadmates)]] of Commander Shepard[[note]]which includes both the two {{DLC}}-only companions and the secret squad member Morinth[[/note]]. The entire game revolves around them, and the Suicide Mission is quite consciously a FinalExamFinale level, taking the form of a weird {{Puzzle|Game}}-DeckbuildingGame hybrid. The deckbuilding aspect comes from the fact that the outcome of the endgame depends largely on what "deck" (i.e. which squadmates) you bring with you to the Omega 4 relay. The puzzle aspect is owed to the complex but static set of rules that determine your success or failure in the Suicide Mission--rules that are pretty obvious if you pay attention to your squadmates beforehand.

The main appeal, driving force, and resources of ''Mass Effect 2'' are the [[PlayerParty thirteen recruitable companions (squadmates)]] of Commander Shepard[[note]]which includes both the two {{DLC}}-only companions and the secret squad member Morinth[[/note]]. The entire game revolves around them, and the Suicide Mission is quite consciously a FinalExamFinale level, taking the form of a weird {{Puzzle|Game}} and DeckbuildingGame hybrid. The collectible card aspect comes from the fact that the outcome of the endgame depends largely on what "deck" (i.e. which squadmates) you bring with you to the Omega 4 relay. The puzzle aspect is owed to the complex but static set of rules that determine your success or failure in the Suicide Mission--rules that are pretty obvious if you pay attention to your squadmates beforehand.

Thane is another interesting anomaly. You would think that as a highly skilled sniper with damage dealing biotic attacks, he would be capable of protecting not only himself but others too? No, his score is only 2 because he was trained to be a slippery infiltrator and assassin, not as an infantryman. He may not recognize squadmates in tactical peril, and thus sit by while they soak up damage. Also, he has a degenerative lung disease, which affects cardiovascular performance. He therefore is incapable of tanking.

* On a side note, after Mordin, Thane is the single most useless squad member on the Suicide Mission: he isn't an ideal choice for any Specialist missions and his HTL score is low. That may be why he seems to be the default squaddie to report to Shepard in the checking-up-on-HTL cutscene--in an ideal playthrough, that's basically his only spotlight moment. Alternatively, this may be a way to encourage the player to run him in Shepard's main team: he may not be a good Specialist or at holding the line, but he's extremely good at slaughtering Collectors.

Jack is another interesting case. Her ammo power, shotgun ability, biotic powers including the shockwave that can wreaak a path of destruction over an area, should make her an excellent squadmate for holding a position and saving others. But her loyal score is only 1 because she is the epitome of a GlassCannon - can deal lots of damage but goes down like wet tissue paper. This is why she is an excellent candidate not for holding the line, but for accompanying Shepard on the end run to the central control panel.

Tali ought to have survivability if not the ability to protect herself, since she does have a combat drone and is shotgun qualified, as well as having prior strike op experience from her time on the SR1. But her score is only 1 because in actuality she is devastating against synthetics but weak against organics. AI hacking is useless against organics, and getting close in to use her shotgun means she drains her shields, but unlike Legion who can just boost his shields, Tali has to drain something else's energy to boost her shields back up. Collectors are organics with biotic barriers, neither of which is a source of energy for Tali's shields. And once she is down to just her armor, she goes down very easily since all it takes is one suit rupture for the allergy to kill her.

Kasumi is actually the worst squadmate for a combat mission like the SM, because being a ClassyCatBurglar means she has no combat prowess at all. She has no armor, no health boost, shield boost or fortification to soak up damage, can only wield light weapons and her InvisibilityCloak is only for StealthHiBye not for maneuvering into position for a kill like Infiltrator Shepard. Overload is useless against Collectors, while her shadow strike and flash bang grenades can only stun and incapacitate, not kill. Her abilities are therefore completely useless and ends up only being TheLoad for the rest of the squad. So, she deserves the measly 1.

!The HoldTheLine death calculus