Mass Effect 2 Day#7: The Return of the Space Casanova

Day 7 is a welcome return to Mass Effect 2 after my stint with Heavy Rain. The game remains good. I find another team member in what is a pretty well done setting and story. I am also clearly too sexy for this game given how many women are throwing themselves at my character. A bit more formula in the works in the level structure, but it’s overall more of the good. Spoilers within.

Ahh, back to Mass Effect. This feels nice. I’m back on Illium, and a quick check of my journal tells me I’ve still got one more crew member to get on this planet, as well as a couple of subplots. As I’m getting back on the quests, I find a guy looking for data I picked up somewhere. I don’t really know what this is about because I’ve been in a different game for so long, but I take the Saurian’s thanks and reward. I also go to the person who got me access to Thane (the assassin who joined my crew); it turns out she left the world, but thanks me for helping to get rid of the evil CEO.

I then find Siala, an Asari that I saved from slavery by the Geth in last game.  Oh yeah, Xeogeni and that Thorian plot — this is vaguely familiar.  She’s here because some of her people on Xhu’s Hope were sick and signed a deal to get medical help from a group on Illium, but they also agreed (accidentally) to some invasive procedures. I talk to the representative of the company that ripped them off, and in that conversation, I paragon her to get her to talk about her family and that convinces her to release the Zhu’s Hope people from their contract.  I take a second to buy some new star charts and then I talk to Siala again. She thanks me in a surprisingly flirty way, inviting me to check in with her if I’m in her neck of space.

Finally finding my plot point on the map, I talk to an Asari named Dara about the Justicar, the team member I’m looking for. She tells me about Samara — she’s a Justicar, which makes her ruthless to lawbreakers and following her own code. We hail the cab to go find her. There’s a CS of a detective talking to a Volus merchant about his partner’s murder, telling him not to leave. I arrive and talk to the  merchant — he’s being hunted by mercs or at least he thinks he is, and his partner is dead as a result. I find the detective and she tells me the Justicar is investigating the crime scene. With her permission, I go to the crime scene. It’s a series of alleys, and within, I fight a group of Asari mercs called the Eclipse as I’m looking for Samara. I see a CS of her attacking killing some of the mercs when they refuse to surrender. I talk to her, and she tells me she needs the name of a ship to find her current target. The detective comes to take her into custody, and she agrees to go for one day before she’ll start killing the police to regain her freedom. But if I can find the name of the ship, she’ll join me and leave Illium. I have to talk to Volus merchant again and pass on a renegade action as I confront him. He reveals he sold the mercs some bad drugs.  He doesn’t know which ship the suspect left on, but when I crack my knuckles, he gives me a passcode to their base. I head into elevator that leads to the base, and that triggers a loading screen.

I head into the Eclipse base and  fight Eclipse. There’s some toxic stuff in crates throughout the level that gets kicked around when shot. When it releases, there’s a meter that has some toxicity rating — I don’t understand it but I stay away while the meter is on screen. I stumble into a nice scene. I find a single Eclipse member hiding in a room. She tells me she’s new and hasn’t killed anyone yet. But during the conversation, she quickly pulls a weapon,  so I take the renegade qte that appears and we shoot her. There’s more general fighting and along the way, I find a data file where I hear that I was right to kill young merc (she in fact murdered the Volus partner).  There’s more fighting including the destruction of a gunship. I unlock a door by bypassing security, and inside, I find shipping manifest that proves the Volus merchant from before is a criminal. I find another Volus high on some biotic drug, and I use a paragon action to slap him and stop him from rushing off to his death. I eventually get a CS of a final room and the Eclipse leader. There’s a final fight with tons of toxic smoke around, but my allies pretty much take that one out. I stick around to do one hack for some credits and then head back to the port. Once back, I give Samara the name of the ship, and she comes with me, swearing herself to my service so that she will follow me over her normal code. I reveal the killer and turn in Volus as smuggler to the detective, and then return to the Normandy.

Back on the ship, Jacob and Samara bond. I flirt with Kelly (my assistant) and have dinner with her; that happens off-screen and it gives me 5 paragon and 5 renegade(?) She also agrees to watch my fish for me. I read a message from Miranda’s sister thanking me for the help. I then talk to Miranda, and she flirts with me too! I am the space Casanova over here. I stop in at the Doctor and she thanks me for the brandy drink. I get a loyalty mission from Garrus to help him find some guy Sidonis who betrayed their old team. I talk to Samara briefly to no consequence. I find Thane and he too has a loyalty mission — something about his forgotten family. There’s a creepy moment where he talks about ignoring his son in this totally robotic fashion. I have no idea what that was. Anyway, he wants to find his son because the son has “disconnected”. Finally, I go talk to the Elusive man when I hear he wants to talk with me. He tells me there was a distress call from a Taurian ship that stopped a Collector ship; he wants me to check it out. I agree and we immediately head out there.

There’s a CS with Shepherd and Joker as we approach the Collector ship, and that ship is massive. The Normandy AI tells us there are no breaches on the Collector ship, but the drive core is off-line. There’s a CS as Normandy pulls up on the collector ship.  We take an away vessel on to the ship and when we arrive on the ship, I call it a night.