Mass Effect 2: The "Ultimate" Playthrough

Thought I'd do something a little different from the norm and talk about something I've been doing for the past week.

If you've watched my latest "Road to Seriously 3.0" video, and have seen the description, you would know that not much progress has been made due to me having to play Mass Effect 2 again. This was because I wouldn't be able to import my data into Mass Effect 3 otherwise, as my save file was created on my old Xbox 360 Elite console.

I decided to start my playthrough last Friday (the 17th), and had initially hoped to get most of the upgrades, about 80% of the side missions done, all main missions completed, everyone loyal, and everyone surviving the suicide mission. With that in place, I began my "final" playthrough of ME2.

About 10 hours in (I was preparing to do Grunt's recruitment mission), I had a sudden urge to explore everywhere I could, finding everything I can, and doing everything available to me (Obsessive Completion Syndrome, anyone?). I diverted away and started doing every side quest available to me from the first disc. I also mined quite a few planets in order to get the necessary minerals for outstanding upgrades.

After doing that, I got back to the main quest, recruited Grunt, and completed the mission on Horizon. At this point, I had to swap discs. It was also at this point that I decided to make this my "ultimate" playthrough of Mass Effect 2. What does the "ultimate" playthrough entail?

• Every main mission complete.
• Every side mission complete.
• All crew mates loyal.
• All crew mates surviving the suicide mission.
• All upgrades obtained.
• All armour pieces obtained.
• All DLC completed.
• A huge majority of dialogue options exhausted.
• A huge majority of codex entries obtained.
• Max level character (Level 30)

With those goals in mind, I invested another 25+ hours doing everything I possibly could.

At this time of writing, I only have 2 things left to do:

• Complete the suicide mission.
• Complete the "Arrival" DLC.

(I'm leaving the Arrival DLC until last as it provides the perfect transition into ME3.)

I also chose my character to go down the Paragon path, and my character's love interest is Jack (she's the only one I haven't seen yet).

Apart from those 2 things, I have exhausted every possible thing that the game offers, and let me tell ya, it was one hell of a ride. Seeing places I hadn't discovered initially, seeing sides of people I never came across in my previous playthroughs, it was like playing the game back in January 2010, when it was all new and fresh. This is why I love RPG's, and, more specifically, this is why I love the Mass Effect universe.

I'll provide a full write-up tomorrow once I've finished the game, and will provide statistics and my full opinion on the game. I may even put up a video too.

Until next time.