Mass Effect 2/Tropes N-S: Difference between revisions

* [[Neuro Vault]]: 'Grayboxes', which are basically implanted computers, allow memories to be stored in them as well as enabling perfect recall. {{spoiler|Kasumi's loyalty mission (from the [[Downloadable Content]]) is to retrieve one of these, containing her ex-partner's memories of their time together... plus some sort of giant secret about the Alliance.}}.

** Except for being a [[Badass]], {{spoiler|Legion}} is nothing like the trailers described it. The trailers make it seem like it's [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|stalking Shepard]]. In actuality, {{spoiler|it doesn't even show up until the start of the last act, which triggers the events leading to the climax of the game.}}. And instead of being a [[Stalker with a Crush]], it's a super calm, super nice robot, a geth version of Conrad, yet completely sane.

* [[New Game+]]: With some exceptions, carried over characters will be exactly as strong as a newly created one, [[Bag of Spilling|which is to say, not at all]].<ref>Dying and being revived over the course of two years will do that to a person.</ref> A level-60 character carried over from the first game, however, will start at level 5 and get a whole slew of other bonuses as well. Additionally, a rich character carried over from the first game will start off the second game rich. You can start a new game with a ''Mass Effect 2'' character. You keep your levels and your abilities, but not your squadmates (though their levels are tied to yours, and they still have the same number of stat points available to distribute) or your upgrades. You do have to mine for those again.

* [[NGO Superpower]]: The game places you in the hands of Cerberus, a human supremacist terrorist organization which owns multiple deep-space habitats, funds multibillion-dollar resurrection projects, builds bleeding-edge spacecraft, and decks its people out in spiffy uniforms. [[Affably Evil|They take good care of you, and all they want in return is for you to give humanity galactic supremacy.]]. After the abuse you'll take from the Council, you might just give it to them. Subverted in that, though they have [[Fiction 500|absurd amounts of capital]], {{spoiler|EDI will eventually tell you that there are approximately 150 Cerberus OPERATIVES organized into three cells according to EDI, something that is quite believable given how terrorist groups organize in the real world. Case in point, the "Black Hand"/Unity or Death, which had less than 400 members total and even fewer in the inner circle, but who caused [[World War I]]. They're basically [[The Irish Question|the IRA]] [[In Space]].}}.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]:* On the second lava planet in the ''Firewalker'' DLC, you activate a panel that brings an abandoned base's generators online... which disturbs the lava flow to the point that the whole region starts to erupt.

** The ending of Arrival. BIG TIME. Sure, you {{spoiler|stopped the imminent Reaper invasion by literally ''minutes''}}, but at the cost of {{spoiler|300,000 batarian lives. And they know you're to blame. As it turns out, Shepard gets to spend the time between the end of ''Mass Effect 2'' and the start of ''Mass Effect 3'' in prison, not because he's being tried for what he did, but because if he wasn't, the Batarians would go to war with the Alliance. On top of that, you just BLEW UP A FUCKING MASS RELAY}}!

*** This inverts if you're playing as an Adept. You can munch through the Collectors' biotic barriers like they're toffee, whereas the mercs' shields are like kryptonite. Blazing through the Collectors probably sounds appealing -... but the cost? Every other character in the game becomes impenetrable, and you're expected to cut through them with a pistol and a sub machine gun. Good luck! However, if you are playing with a bonus talent from the start, take Energy Drain (Tali's Loyalty power) so you can cut some slack on your tech-oriented squadmates.

*** Possibly the MOST FRUSTRATING BATTLE on Insanity (and most other difficulties) is the final "room" on Horizon, where you have to deal with a pair of Scions. With a couple waves of Husks [[Sarcasm Mode|for fun]]. If you get hit by both Scions at the same time, you're dead. If both are after you and one of them clips you, the other one WILL hit you too. And you will be dead. Hell, if one hits you with two Shock Waves in a row, you're dead. All while you're scrambling back and forth trying to avoid the Husks coming at you from both sides. It's no wonder many players [[Good Bad Bugs|exploit]] the fact that those scions won't attack until you enter the room, but they can still be seen (and thus sniped to death) if the player positions themselves correctly. There is also possibility of exploting the room architecture to almost completly eliminate danger Husts pose to Shepard by climbing on one [[Insurmountable Waist High Fence|of the large crates]] lying in the area. This makes fight significantly easier.

*** The Derelict Reaper is basically the same one-two combo of Scions and Husks, but given that you'll be a higher level and can generally see the Scions coming from further away it's usually not QUITE as bad. Still vastly more difficult than anything else the game throws at you which doesn't involve both Husks and Scions at the same time. But it'll be okay. You've been getting all your upgrades, right?

**** Let's take a moment to talk about {{spoiler|the Collector trap}} on insanity. Whoever thought that it would be fun to stick you on an isolated platform with virtually no cover while scions, collectors, and the ever-taunting Harbinger beat you mercilessly and repeatedly into the ground needs to be kicked in the beanbag. Due to the arrangement of the platforms in this room, your squadmates will die so often and so easily that you will come to despise them.

** Very late in the main game, {{spoiler|Joker being [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]] by a Collector during the ambush results in one of these.}}.

** If you do not unlock the valves for your chosen Tech expert during the [[Suicide Mission]]. It will lead to an abrupt [[Game Over]].

** The ending of the ''Overlord'' [[Downloadable Content|DLC]],: if you fail to stop the rogue VI from {{spoiler|uploading itself to the ''Normandy''}}, you are treated to a scene where {{spoiler|1=[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygeLJ64FxUc it takes over EDI,], presumably setting off a technological apocalypse.}}.

** During the ''Arrival'' [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] , {{spoiler|if the ever-present timer of Reaper Apocalypse actually runs out, you get treated to a cutscene of the Reapers harvesting the galaxy, including major characters. Afterwards, you get a Critical Mission Failure.}}.

** Also during ''Arrival'', {{spoiler|if you waste too much time while escaping from the asteroid, a cutscene will play showing the collision with the Alpha Relay, presumably expunging Shepard and his/her crew.}}.

* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: [[Lampshaded]] by Shepard during the ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' DLC.

** Averted elsewhere -: there are handrails and safety notice everywhere in the geothermal plant on Aite, and the oil refinery on Zorya, and on the Ceberus installations {{spoiler|onboard the derelict Reaper.}}.

** There isn't a single enemy to fight on the way through the crashed geth ship in the ''Overlord'' DLC, which does nothing to prevent it from being downright terrifying due to the atmosphere and the constant threat of the [[Scare Chord]]-like screams of the VI. Fighting several dozen geth on the way out is far preferable to having to take the "safe" route a second time. The fact that you're walking past dozens, maybe hundreds of inactive geth, makes it even worse. At any moment, you expect them to stand up and start shooting... but they never do. Player with fragile nerves tend to freak out more and more as nothing continues to happen.

*** There's also a sidequest on a space station where everyone's been killed by the computer virus corrupting the station's VI. Throughout the mission you expect to have it turn on you at some point, but it ''never'' happens. Even knowing this on subsequent playthroughs, it still doesn't make the mission any less creepy.

** {{spoiler|If you destroy the Collector base in the [[Suicide Mission]], Legion}} comments that Shepard chose the path of technological self-determination, the path that the {{spoiler|true geth}} took when presented with {{spoiler|Sovereign's offer}}, and then makes a comment that says basically this.

** Renegade Shepard is gradually being shown to be this way with Saren. Particularly notable at the end of ''Arrival'', with {{spoiler|Hackett warning Shepard that, Spectre or no, s/he will be called to task for killing three hundred thousand batarians, just like Saren was being called to task for attacking Eden Prime.}}.

* [[Offhand Backhand]]: A Renegade Interrupt in the Project Overlord DLC gives you the option to do this to a Loki mech that your team mates have recently [[PunA Worldwide Punomenon|disarmed]].

* [[Offing the Offspring]]. {{spoiler|Samara's duty}}, which leads to one of the more painful scenes when she talks about why she has to kill {{spoiler|Morinth.}}.

** Later in the game, when {{spoiler|the Collectors do it again to the SR-2}}, he ''starts'' with "Oh, Shit!". He then follows it up about a dozen times during his subsequent panic.

'''Shepard:''' I was only mostly dead. Try finding that option on government paperwork. }}

** {{spoiler|His [[Only Sane Man]] status is ramped [[Up to Eleven]] in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', losing the [[Jerkass]] along the way.}}.

* [[Operation Blank]]: Project Lazarus. [[Meaningful Name|Which brings Shepard back to life.]]

* [[Out with a Bang]]: Some asari are ardat-yakshi, "Demons of the Night-Winds", born with a rare genetic disorder that causes their [[Male-to-Female Universal Adaptor|Female-To-Whatever Universal Adaptor]] to barbecue the nervous system of whoever they couple with -... stealing their [[Life Energy]] and enhancing their intelligence and biotic powers in the process. That's right, some of these Space Elves are [[Horny Devils]]! Those in question insist that the experience is the most pleasurable thing imaginable even in its lethality, but would they say otherwise?

* [[People Puppets]]: In the ''Overlord'' DLC, {{spoiler|Shepard is briefly controlled through his/her synthetic implants by the human/VI-hybrid.}}.

* [[Percussive Pickpocket]]: In the mission ''The Crime in Progress,", Shepard has to settle an argument between a volus and a quarian. The volus on the Citadel accuses a quarian of intentionally bumping into him and stealing his credit chit while the quarian denies it.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: Cerberus. They {{spoiler|revive}} Shepard and the crew of the ''Normandy'' consists of a lot of nice people who just want to protect humanity. Some players can't even understand why {{spoiler|Ashley/Kaidan calls Shepard out on [[What the Hell, Hero?|working with Cerberus]]}}.

* [[Planet of Hats]]: Justified. At one point, Mordin Solus remarks on the atypical genetic diversity among humans compared to other spacefaring races, and how this encourages other species to use them for experimentation.

* [[Playable Epilogue]]: If Shepard survives, the player can go back and finish everything that hadn't been previously completed. In addition, the [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] packs ''Lair of Thethe Shadow Broker'' and ''Arrival'' are intended to be played after the main campaign is finished, although they can be completed at any time.

* [[Plot Armor]]: {{spoiler|Miranda}} won't die before the final confrontation with the {{spoiler|Human-Reaper}}, even if she's not loyal. In fact , {{spoiler|she can still get carried off by Collector swarms (certain death for anyone else) and pop up fine in the very next scene, with no comment from anyone. Shepard is arguably even [[Genre Savvy|aware of this]]; if anyone else gets carried off, Shepard screams their name in horror. If Miranda gets carried off, Shepard just stares after her, as if saying 'eh, she'll be fine.'}}. Once the final boss shows up, {{spoiler|Miranda}} can die like any of the other crewmemberscrew members.

** The nerve stimulation systems for the encounter-suit-wearing species are ''supposedly'' there to allow tactile interaction with the world outside the suit. But the potential for [[Electric Instant Gratification|so much more]] is so obvious that discussion of ''those'' uses are pretty much the only times the systems are ever mentioned (see the quarian in the "Eternity" lounge and the volus at the Serrice Technology sales stand, and {{spoiler|Tali}}, whose Shadow Broker dossier uses this to suggest some degree of sexual frustration).

** The one rule on Omega -: "Don't ''fuck'' with Aria."

{{spoiler|'''Sidonis:'''}} ''[[Oh Crap|...fuck.]]'' }}

** If you take Jack into the Citadel's restroom up in the Dark Star nightclub, she recalls an incident {{spoiler|where she was ambushed by both prisoners and GUARDS in a bathroom, killing two in the process, but failing to stop the rest}} back in Purgatory. She never forgot. And neither did they.

** The (non-canon) worst ending. Shepard succeeded in destroying the Collectors, but at the cost of [[Everybody's Dead, Dave|everyone]] aside from {{spoiler|Joker}}. {{spoiler|Joker}} is left alone to try to warn the entire galaxy about {{spoiler|the coming of the Reapers}} without any of the unique skills Shepard and Coco. brought to the table and ''just'' enough data recovered to show that {{spoiler|the Reapers are on the march.}}.

** {{spoiler|The end of ''Arrival''. Shepard defeats the Reapers and buys the galaxy some time. However, an entire solar system was destroyed by Shepard's hand, the batarians are looking to use that as an excuse for war with the Alliance, and Shepard must stand trial. And the Reapers haven't been stopped, only delayed}}...}}

* [[Rainbow Pimp Gear]]: Whether this is averted or played straight is under the player's control, as you can now fully customize the color, camouflage patterns, and tint of your armor. Played ''very'' [[Hypocritical Humor|straight]] at the start of the game -: Ashley, Liara and ''Kaidan'' will run up to you in white/pink Phoenix armor during the opening scenes. Justified for Ashley as this is her default outfit from both games, but heads into full-on "WTF?" territory with Kaidan, as his default armor is a very plain dark grey Onyx armor.

* [[Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil]]: The loyalty sidequests include blowing up a facility where children were experimented on, helping hide the sister of one of your allies from her abusive father, and assassinating gang leaders and space vampires. Jacob's mission is to find his father, whose ship had sent out a distress beacon ten years after it went down. Those ten years were spent eliminating the male members of the group and breaking down the women to serve as sex slaves. One resolution to this mission is to allow Ronald to be left to the zombies who are now trying to kill him. Among your team are gang leaders, killer [[Mecha-Mooks]], gang leaders, intergalactic thieves and [[Ax Crazy]] [[Psycho for Hire|Psychoes for Hire,]], every one of them approves this fate.

** In Tali's loyalty mission, {{spoiler|one of the admirals officially transfers Tali to the ''Normandy'' on the assumption that her human captain will either refuse to defend her or defend her inadequately at her court martial. Yeah, he was pretty much ignorant of the walking [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] and [[Father to His Men|Father and/or Mother to His/Her Crew]] that is Commander Shepard.}}.

** Another variation is Miranda. Explicitly assigned to the ''Normandy'' to keep an eye on Shepard and represent Cerberus interests, {{spoiler|if you complete her loyalty mission, take her into the final battle, and choose to blow up the Collector base, she pretty much flips the Illusive Man off when he orders her to stop Shepard.}}.

* [[Recruiting the Criminal]]: Most everyone you recruit for your squad are either outright psychopaths (Jack), assassins (Thane), mercenaries (Zaeed), thieves (Kasumi) or otherwise operate at least a few degrees outside the law (Samara). Then the ones who work directly with Cerberus (Miranda, Jacob and other crew members) are working for a shady organization with unclear goals. Outside that, some have questionable pasts (Mordin) or are just dangerous to have around (Grunt, Legion). The only people who have given you no reason to mistrust them are Joker, Garrus and Tali.

* [[Red Shirt]]: In the opening, there is a crewman on the ''Normandy'' identified only as "Ensign"." {{spoiler|She dies.}}.

* [[Redundant Researcher]]: Remember Chorban from [[Mass Effect (video game)|the first game]]? You get an email from him saying there's something fishy with the Keepers. [[Now You Tell Me|Really?]] But his [http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Chorban#Mass_Effect_2 email] contains conclusive proof of the [[Eternal Recurrence|extinction cycle]], yet he [[Cassandra Truth|has just as much luck as Shepard getting people to look at it.]].

** The FENRIS, LOKI, and YMIR brands of defense mechs. FENRIS mechs resemble dogs (a side character even addresses them as literal "dogs" instead of mechs). YMIR mechs are [[Humongous Mecha|huge]]. LOKI mechs don't seem to fit their name at first until you realize that, of all the mech types, they ''by far'' cause the most trouble (often by malfunctioning or being hacked).

*** Legion reveals Sovereign's real name to have been Nazara, akaa.k.a. Nazareth.

* [[The ReptiliansReveal]]: The krogan and the drell.

* [[Robots Enslaving Robots]]: More or less the function of the heretic virus in Legion's loyalty mission. Though, interestingly, it's used not just to show what [[Jerkass]]es the heretic geth are, but also pose the central [[Heel Face Brainwashing|moral dilemma of the mission.]].

** With the ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' DLC, Shepard (male and female) can reconcile with Liara and pick the relationship back up

* [[Rousing Speech]]: Played straight and still awesome when Shepard gives a quick speech to his/her team at the end of the mission {{spoiler|on the Collector base, right before the final confrontation.}}.

** {{spoiler|Legion}}'s name comes from [[The Bible]], and the [[Cosmetic Award]] for completing his loyalty mission is called "A House Divided", which also comes from the Bible -: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

* [[Sacrificial Lion]]: {{spoiler|Poor, poor ''Normandy SR-1.''}}.

* [[Sapient Ship]]: {{spoiler|The ''Normandy'' itself becomes one of these}} near the end of the game {{spoiler|after EDI's shackles are removed and she takes complete control of the ship.}}.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: The ''Normandy SR1 SR-1'' {{spoiler|getting torn apart}} by the Collector cruiser. [[Player Punch|Punches the Player in the gut. Hard.]]

'''Liara''': That security upgrade made a lot of people unhappy! }}

'''Liara''': Still better than the Mako. }}

* [[Sequel Hook]]: "''Arrival"'' sets up {{spoiler|the basis for Shepard being in prison at the beginning of the third game}}.

** A rare example of this trope letting you complete a portion of the game ''later'' than intended. It is possible to complete Mordin's loyalty mission after the suicide mission. That isn't this trope;: nearly every non-story mission can be completed [[Playable Epilogue|after the "end" of the game]]. What ''is'' this trope is the fact that you can complete Mordin's loyalty mission ''even if Mordin is dead''.

* [[Service Sector Stereotypes]]: Most games, the barman is the local repository for news and gossip, right? Apparently, in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', that is the function of the news kiosk. The barman just serves drinks. [[Lampshade Hanging|Humans are always making that mistake.]].

** Not just the news kiosk. In the prequel comic book ''Redemption'', there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to this when an elcor Liara is trying to get information from sarcastically asks if she thinks he's the bar's information minister.

* [[Shaped Like Itself]]: Used by the Extremely High Biotic God Niftu Cal. "I am a great wind that shall sweep everything before me like a... a great wind!"

* [[Shell-Shock Silence]]: Briefly;: when Shepard experiences a near-hit from an explosive device, the sound goes fuzzy and muted for a few seconds. But only a few seconds, still nowhere near long enough to avert [[Steel Ear Drums]].

* [[Ship Sinking]]: Shepard has three opportunities in ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' to ask about the nature of Liara and Feron's relationship. The answer all three times is that it's strictly platonic.

** More like 'Short Range Firearms' in general. Yes, shotguns have an effective range of ~10 meters, and this is unrealistic. Meanwhile, assault rifles have an effective range of ~25 meters, and sniper rifles around 100 meters... and these are also unrealistic. In real life, assault rifles have listed effective ranges in the hundreds of meters, and many sniper rifles can hit targets a kilometer or more away.

* [[Sidequest Sidestory]]: theThe game has you tracking back the source of infected mech VIs in order to prevent further outbreaks, and the Blue Suns quest line in which you shut down a piracy operation.

* [[Skele-Bot 9000]]: {{spoiler|The Human Reaper.}}.

* [[Somebody Else's Problem]]: What's that, Shepard? Saved the Council? Destroyed a Reaper in the middle of the Citadel? They promised you support in your hunt for the rest of the [[Cosmic Horror]]s and their eternal gratitude? {{spoiler|Not so much.}}.

* [[Space Clothes]]: The ESRB rating describes generally the events of Shepard's romances, one of which involves "unzip[ping] a future-blouse.". They're not generally silly enough to qualify as [[Space Clothes]], being about as different from modern clothes as modern clothes are from 19th century clothes. It's more an aversion of [[No New Fashions in the Future]].

* [[Stalking Mission]]: Thane, being an assassin, has Shepard participate in this during his loyalty mission. Somewhat subverted, though, {{spoiler|since the target you're stalking is not Thane's, but someone else's.}}.

* [[Starship Luxurious]]: Despite being a combat-ready ship, the ''Normandy SR-2'' has quite a few luxuries on board. Like lots of space. And a bar. And leather seats. But not decent food. (Youyou ''can'' remedy that last part, if you want.). Joker himself is very excited about the fact it has leather seats.

* [[Stealth-Based Mission]]: The first part of the ''Arrival'' DLC has an optional stealth component. Being stealthy isn't required to clear the mission, and the combat you engage in if you go gung-ho isn't that difficult, but you get an [[Cosmetic Award|achievement/trophy]] for completing the area undetected.

* [[Stealth Pun]]: Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib states not all quarians can serve aboard ships with great names such as the "Defrahnz" or "Iktomi.". It would be ''very'' embarrassing for English-speaking humans to have the last name of "[[wikipedia:Vas deferens|vas Defrahnz]]" or "[[wikipedia:Vasectomy|vas Iktomi]].".

* [[Stock Puzzle]]s/[[Stock Video Game Puzzle]]s: A logic grid puzzle as a part of Liara's quest in the sequel. There are five persons -: turian, salarian, etc., and five jobs: merchant, killer, observer, etc. If you saw one logic grid puzzle, you saw 'em all. You need to find out who is Shadow Broker's assistant, the Observer. The correct answer is {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope|none of the above]], because ''all five are male'', and Observer referred to herself as a female once. The whole thing is fake, and the Observer is actually her secretary.}}.

** The ''Overlord'' DLC has two [[Set Piece Puzzle]]s—ones: one involving moving giant tiles so you can get to the other side of a flooded room and another involving using several controls in order to summon a broken elevator.

* [[Storming the Castle]]: Going through the Omega-4 Relay to assault the Collector Base, arguably the whole point of the plot.