Kai Hohiro wrote...
How exactly were Garus and Tali integrated into the plot after the Citadel? Or Wrex other than on Virmire?
Loyalty and recruiment missions like Garus', Thane's and Tali's had ten times more character building than anything offered by the party members in ME1.
That emboldened part? Yeah, thats nonsense. What the loyalty missions were were simply "problems" that needed solving, most of which by gunning down hordes of enemies.
They "elaborate" on what the problem is during the mission with a few scant dialogues, but once its finished, its packed up and gone.
It isnt just about having a plot sensitive role, like Mordin. Its the fact that the ME2 crew are mainly resources. They have an almost completely faceless role in the plot outside of their recruitment and loyalty missions.
Tali is Tali in ME1. In ME2, shes one of the interchangable "tech specialists". They took that weakness of ME1 making the characters interjections interchangeable based on a paragon and renegade perspective and applied it to their roles in the game.
But fundamentally, thats the difference. Its not just that Tali, Wrex or Liara have unique roles in the plot itself, but its also the fact that they just have unique roles full stop.
So many of the ME2 squad could be removed from the game and it not change in the least because of that its not even funny.