33 replies to this topic

[Archmage Silver]

Here's the official Mass Effect 2 companions thread! ME2 features 12 joinable companions, of which 2 are from DLC.

Personally I'm thinking I'll take Garrus with me most of the time like I did in ME1, but I'm not so sure about the second spot though... Mordin Solus and Grunt seem interesting enough. I'm definitely not interested in taking Subject Zero though, based on the material so far.

The romances from ME1 will continue through ME2 and ME3, but the romance options from ME1 won't be joinable in ME2.

The confirmed new romance options for a male Shepard are: Miranda Lawson, Subject Zero, Kelly Chambers and Tali.

The confirmed new romance options for a female Shepard are: Jacob Taylor, Thane Krios, Kelly Chambers and Garrus Vakarian.

Note: Most of the character pages contain spoilers.

Confirmed Crew (Verified personally):

• Tali
  
• Grunt
  
• Legion
  
• Samara
  
• Thane Krios
  
• Jacob Taylor
  
• Subject Zero
  
• Mordin Solus
  
• Garrus Vakarian
  
• Miranda Lawson

• [DLC] Kasumi Goto
  
• [DLC] Zaeed Messani
  
  

Edited by Archmage Silver, 13 March 2010 - 11:33 AM.

[Eleima]

Yay!! We get to have Garrus come along!!! Like you, I'll probably have him tag along, but then again, I'm rather curious about having a Salarian on board, and... a Geth? That should certainly make for interesting plot twist.
Like you, I have no interest whatsoever in Subject Zero: seems like the angry Renegade chick, and well... *shrug*
Other potential crew members that intrigue me are Jacob Taylor, Grunt, and Thane Krios. I'll probably take Tali out once or twice, too.

Argh, why do we only have two spots on the team, why??? why?!?...

By the way, nice little image you've cooked up there, ArchmageSilver!!!

Edited by Eleima, 28 December 2009 - 11:41 PM.

[Archmage Silver]

Yeah, I could use a third spot as well, but I guess the ME games are just balanced differently combat wise from Dragon Age: Origins. Having only two squad members at a time has its own charm as well though. On SuZe, I wonder if BioWare really built her up to be an angry renegade or is there a plost twist there somewhere? Then again it is a suicide mission.

Thanks, I decided to do a collage of the companions in Photoshop, but I kept adding more details to it - and I just couldn't resist signing it after I managed to dig up the font BioWare used for the ME logos.

[Kaeloree]

Of course there'll be a plot twist; it's BioWare. *g* SuZe is one of the characters I'm most looking forward to for that reason, since the developers have said a couple of times there's more to her than meets the eye.

[Bluenose]

So who from that list do you think can be trusted? All of my Shepherds are likely to believe Tali won't ever let them down or betray them, and most of them will feel the same about Garrus (a couple had some serious arguments about ethics with him which resolved in ways that don't make him as trustworthy). Other than that, I think Samara and Thane are likely to be reliable. Grunt and SuZe are also unlikely betrayers, but they won't be coming along on diplomatic missions. Absolutely no trust in Miranda and Legion, and very little in Jacob or Doctor Mordin (there's something about Salarians I find really creepy). Now I expect some of this to turn out to be wrong, and I'm pretty sure all the characters can be made reliable, but with some I'm sure it will be harder to achieve. And I'm hoping for a chance to make my distrust plain with the Cerberus lackeys.

[Eleima]

That's funny, I thought Jacob looked kinda trustworthy, but then again, what do I know? Tali and Garrus are definitely trustworthy in my book.

I've had one thought regarding companions though... We'll have eight to pick from, whereas we had "only" six to choose from in the first opus. Since we still have just two spots on the team, that'll definitely be leading to some frustration on my part: think of all the interjections and banters you'll be missing out on! Think that's an ingredient for replayability? It'll certainly keep me coming back from more, and trying out different, um, "combos" (for lack of a better word).

[Archmage Silver]

Frankly, I'd only trust Tali and Garrus at this point. The rest are a bit dodgy at best (though interesting), but like said, it's early to come up with anything conclusive. If I absolutely had to pick someone now, I'd say Samara (just read her description).

SuZe's plot twist better be good if I'll ever take her along - all I can think of being her plot twist ends being some sort of a cliché; tough exterior-softie inside™, tragic past or even more twisted than given credit for... etc.

[Philiposophy]

Not surprised that only a few characters are coming back, given what might have happened to Wrex, Kaidan and Ashley in the last game. Good to see Garrus back, I always quite liked him. Tali I'm not so concerned about, was never really drawn to her too much.

I think I'm most intrigued by Thane, Mordin and Legion, since they're all something really new.

Grunt looks like he could be fun too. I mean, Wrex was hilarious, and Grunt seems to be Wrex without any restrainsts.


Really looking forward to this game

[Archmage Silver]

Only a few companions coming back as joinable, but you'll see everyone who survived in ME1 during the course of ME2.

[Cal Jones]

Is it me or does that shot of Miranda look like Michael Jackson?

Haven't read up on ME2 much at this point other than viewing some of the early trailers. Very much looking forward to it but as I'm somewhat behind in my gaming (Dragon Age just arrived and I haven't even installed it yet) I won't play this right away. But that's good as it allows Bioware to patch it and stuff.

Glad to see Garrus back - he was one of my faves. I hope he doesn't get killed off for that reason.
Do we know which are the new romances? (I heard SuZe was one - I'm guessing Jacob is an option for da laydeez).

[Archmage Silver]

Miranda is modeled after and voiced by Yvonne Strahovski. Apparent hair color change between them makes a difference though.

Concerning the romances, I'll quote my previous posts from another topic here for future reference:

Well, I was just digging around for ME2 information again (yes, I have no life whatsoever) and came up with these tidbits concerning romance options previously discussed in this thread:

• Romance interests from ME1 from won't be joinable in ME2 (Exceptions might happen temporarily)
  
• This is supposedly because BioWare wants to keep them around until ME3 (They could otherwise die in ME2)
  
• Romances from ME1 can still continue in ME2 despite the NPCs being unjoinable
  
• Pursuing any of the ME2 romance options will break up any carried over ME1 romances
  
• It is also possible to break up your ME1 romances in dialog before pursuing the ones in ME2
  
• You can ultimately continue your ME1 romances until the end of the trilogy (ME3)

Obviously ME3 is still wide open when it comes to NPCs, so I couldn't say how it will all work out, which NPCs will be joinable etc. I reserve the right to edit this post at a later date should any of these points prove inaccurate.

It looks like I was at least partially correct in my previous post (romances spanning over the trilogy).

There's some speculation about the options yet, but the confirmed options for a male Shepard are:

• Subject Zero [Confirmed by Casey Hudson]
  
• Kelly Chambers [Confirmed by Thomas R. Roy]

That's it for the confirmed new romance options really, the rest are just speculation at this point. I'm not entirely convinced about Kelly Chambers though, so take that one with a grain of salt. There's no knowing whether her romance is just a temporary romantic encounter.

Likely romance options for a female Shepard in my opinion (also rumored):

• Thane Krios
  
• Jacob Taylor

Likely additional romance options for a male Shepard in my opinion (also rumored):

• Miranda Lawson

Obviously there are people calling for romances with Samara and Tali, but I don't personally believe those will happen, because a) ME1 already had an asari romance and b) quarian biology issues.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 03 January 2010 - 05:38 PM.

[Vicen]

Very cool...this game looks like its going to be quite epic indeed!

[Archmage Silver]

Yeah, I'm definitely hyped up about ME2 now - and it's released so soon after Dragon Age: Origins that it seems almost too good to be true. Might be a bit of a dry season after ME2 though, but right now I couldn't care less...

[Archmage Silver]

Added DLC companion Zaeed Messani. I don't know if he counts toward the 10 companion maximum or not, but if he does, Legion might not be joinable after all.

Confirmed ME2 romanceables:
Miranda Lawson
Subject Zero
Kelly Chambers

Jacob Taylor
Thane Krios

Additionally, there will be returning characters that were not potential love interests in the original Mass Effect but will be potential love interests in Mass Effect 2. Who these characters are is currently unknown.

[Archmage Silver]

Updated the first post. Legion is now confirmed as a joinable companion, I've seen a screenshot from the leaked ME2 version. Also confirmed is Zaeed Messani, the DLC assassin. He will be added in addition to the 10 base game companions.

There are some new rumors concerning another DLC companion - I'll get you the facts as soon as they are made available.

Confirmed Crew:

• Tali
  
• Grunt
  
• Legion
  
• Samara
  
• Thane Krios
  
• Jacob Taylor
  
• Subject Zero
  
• Mordin Solus
  
• Garrus Vakarian
  
• Miranda Lawson

• [DLC] Zaeed Messani

[Archmage Silver]

Well, we're now all clear on the romances:

The romances from ME1 will continue through ME2 and ME3, but the romance options from ME1 won't be joinable in ME2.

The confirmed new romance options for a male Shepard are: Miranda Lawson, Subject Zero, Kelly Chambers and Tali.

The confirmed new romance options for a female Shepard are: Jacob Taylor, Thane Krios, Kelly Chambers and Garrus Vakarian.

[Eleima]

Wow!!!! *Four* romance options for each gender??? I only expected two, maybe three, and we get *four*. Wow.
It almost seems unrealistic to have so many people attracted to your Shepard.

Edited by Eleima, 25 January 2010 - 05:06 AM.

[Archmage Silver]

Heh, yeah, it does seem like they really put some work into it. My Shepard won't be pursuing any of the new romances though, as I romanced Ashley in ME1. Of course, you can always cheat on your ME1 romance interest, but I can't personally condone that even in games.

Fortunately the ME1 romances continue again in ME3 with the romance interests being again joinable with a high degree of certainty. And it's not like you don't get to see the ME1 companions at all in ME2.

Something I remembered reading earlier, I just had to go find it now:

[quote name="http://xbox360.ign.c...366p2.html"]But just because you started a relationship with one character, that doesn't mean you'll finish it with him or her. "I also think that some of the very same people who are worried that their love interest from the first one won't be a squad member will probably end up cheating on their love interest from Mass Effect 1 anyway," said Hudson. "The ones in Mass Effect 2 are really compelling. That will be an interesting thing, too, to see whether people can stay true to their Mass Effect 1 love interest on the level that you'd think they would. The great thing is that we can track this with Achievements and find out if people did this."

All of the cheaters out there should prepare to become a statistic. Hudson told IGN that he thinks BioWare will make that data public. "That's part of what we're interested in doing in an ongoing basis," he explained, "to let players see how others are engaging in the Mass Effect story."[/quote]

[Eleima]

Oh, I also intend to pursue my romance with Kaidan, but I'm fairly certain I'll have another Shepard try out the Thane, Jacob and Garrus romance, of course! I have to say I'm rather curious to find out with the ME2 romances will carry over to ME3 as well... But I'm jumping the gun a bit there.

[Archmage Silver]

Heh, indeed. Right now I'm focused on getting my hands on Mass Effect 2 first.