22 réponses à ce sujet

[Ferretinabun]

I've decided to do a ME trilogy run where all my actions are down to the roll of a dice. I will retain control over spending XP points, over deciding which side-quests are worth my time, and possibly to remain in conversation when my only other option is to quit, but apart from those, I will let the dice decide everything, including mission order, who I bring on missions, all my dialogue choices, and of course, the plot decisions.

 

The aim of this is to let the game play itself with as much randomness as possible and see what sort of Shepard emerges. Who they are, what they will do, what crewmates they like/support. This should inject some more fun and freshness into the playthrough as I have no idea how things will pan out.

 

I wanted to post my playthroughs in game-appropriate forums, so here is a link to my ME1 playthrough:

 

http://forum.bioware...46559-chaos-run

 

Here's a quick recap:

 

Gender: Female

Name: Sandra

Class: Infiltrator

Background: Spacer

Profile: Sole Survivor

Romanced: No-one

 

I think I'm looking froward to my ME2 runthrough even more; I can't wait to see who - if anyone - will survive the final mission. The game does introduce QTE's, of course, but I will even be deciding whether or not to perform those randomly too.

 

I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I will.

[Vazgen]

Will you do loyalty missions based on a random generator as well? She might end up dead that way lol

[Ferretinabun]

Yes indeedy. And there's still Morinth to watch out for too...

 

To be honest I haven't really considered what I'd do if Sandra didn't survive ME2 (and I'm sure there are people hoping for it, given her ME1 run). I'll probably say that that's officially where Sandra's story ends, and then do a ME3 run as a 'what if she had survived' scenario, just to see.

[a_mouse]

I would think that paragon/renegade decisions made at random would cause Shep to appear mentally unstable.  Should be interesting.

[Ferretinabun]

Part 1

 

Sandra staggered her way through ME2's explosive opening with a surprisingly level head. She kept her cool when both Kaidan and Joker were panicking. Seems despite her flaws, Sandra Shepard is good in a crisis.

 

Then... boom. And the galaxy is a marginally safer place.

 

Until two years later when Sandra wakes up to fight her way through a Cerberus station. Her top priority was clearly getting the Hell out of dodge, and she went through the prologue's dramatic twists asking a pretty bare minimum of questions from both Jacob and Miranda. Which makes sense - she's under fire and staying focussed. But even when she met TIM in the safety of another base, she still completely neglected to ask after her old ship or crew. They were obviously far from the forefront of her mind. Maybe she was just bitter since they snubbed her for the Miss Congeniality Award for ME1.

 

Also interesting to note was Sandra's acceptance of Cerberus. When Jacob initially made the big reveal, Sandra declared she would 'never work with terrorists'. Good to see she still remembers them from ME1 (though she only actually completed 2 of the 3 Cerberus missions). Yet when Jacob - and later, Tali - probe her about joining Cerberus, she says she's doing it for the sake of humanity rather than insisting that she hasn't joined them. So yeah, she's grown to accept herself as a Cerberus agent pretty damn quickly in my book - to the surprise of absolutely no-one who has read my ME1 playthrough, I'm sure.

 

Speaking of Tali, Sandra clearly still dislikes her. Their meetings went about as poorly as they could possibly go. She threatened Tali for pulling a gun on her, tried to refuse to cooperate with the Quarians to find Veetor (twice), and then refused to let her take him to a medical bay. Can't a Quarian ever catch a break with Sandra around? I swear it'll be nothing short of a miracle if Tali makes it to the end of this trilogy.

 

But Sandra wasted no time trying to get on Miranda's bad side too. She twice openly reminded Miranda which one of them was in charge, baited her about being jealous that she wasn't the focus of TIM's attention any more, and then had the cheek to ask what was up with the attitude. In the face of that antagonism, Miranda's cool aloofness was kindof understandable. I can see this is going to be a fun, catty relationship. She seemed to like Jacob a little better - at least, she seemed interested in him and asked all about him. Does she have a crush, or is he simply the only person to talk to who isn't Miranda?

 

And that just left the rest of her new crew. She was nice to Joker and Dr Chakwas so she's presumably glad to see them. But she pulled up both Kelly Chambers and the two engineers for being informal around her! Got discipline the troops to let them know who's cracking the whip, dontcha know...

 

Right, time to fill up this tin can with a few squadmates. TIM and Miranda both recommended she start with Mordin Solus and so, given her respect for them both and the fact that she's such a team-player, Sandra obviously decided to start with...

 

... Jack. Obviously she's feeling psychically drawn to someone whose opinion of Miranda matches her own.

[Vazgen]

Hmm, Cerberus alignment huh? I expect her to side with Jack all the time and then troll her by choosing Miranda

[birefringent]

Throwing down my random Shepard for ME2 summary:

 

Again No romance.

Got Spectre status back.

Got 300k Batarian's dead.

Saved David Archer from his Overlord brother.

Kasumi destroyed her greybox. Then she got incinerated. "No time to upgrade now!" Guess it wasn't so important.

Completed Lair of the Shadow Broker. Saw a vid of some Asari looking at Liara's picture, but never met that mysterious Asari.

Modded save file to get the proper paragon greeting from Conrad. Then lied to him about stopping terrorists.

Jacob's dad arrested.

Geth heretics blown to bits.

Saved Maelon's data, but poor Maelon did not survive the encounter. Heard Mordin sing about his glorious kill.

Tali exonerated. She also got to do the techy stuff in Omega 4.

Shepard couldn't waste time with Thane's loyalty, or Garrus, Zaeed's, Miranda's, Grunt's.

Helped Samara take down her crazy daughter. Samara held the bubble at Omega 4.

Met Patriarch once. Didn't help Aria with her Patriarch problem though. Wonder what happened to him?

Gave packages to Ish.

Jack let Aresh live.

Helped Gianna Parasini again.

Returned the Kirosa family data.

Convinced Ereba to be together with Charr.

Helped Shiala with Feros.

Got Harrot's discount, not sure how though.

Destroyed the Collector base, with only Kasumi dead. Crew survived.

 

Seems like Shepard's policy for not wasting too much time on pointless stuff paid off once more. Haven't finished ME3 yet. Will be interesting to see if things go as smoothly again.

 

[Ferretinabun]

You made it through the final mission with only one casualty? I'm very impressed. That's got to be tough.

[birefringent]

You made it through the final mission with only one casualty? I'm very impressed. That's got to be tough.

And here I was feeling rather disappointed. I was hoping to get a nice mess with lots, if not everyone, dying. But noooooo. Lady Luck hates me.

Now I just have to keep it together but I got this strong urge to redo it and hope for a worse outcome

 

Well, hope bad things happen in ME3 finally, or else Lady Luck is gonna do some explaining to my shotgun.

[Ferretinabun]

Part 2

 

In the shuttle on the way to Horizon, Sandra Shepard took a few moments to reflect on the mission so far...

 

Firstly, there was Jack. Sandra had been guarded when she'd first met her. She'd also lied about giving her the Cerberus datafiles - but was unimpressed when she later found out that Jack had found them for herself. Several missions had also come and gone before Sandra even went to talk to her. I think she might be a bit scared of Jack...

 

In fact, I think she might be scared of Zaeed as well. She was not at all chatty when she first met him (and interrupted him wailing on a poor Batarian). She helped him with his personal mission the very second they'd left Omega - don't want to keep him waiting! When he blew the refinery, it was clear Sandra was conflicted about leaving the workers to die, but Zaeed insisted and she... went with it. When a big, scary mercenary says jump, Sandra jumps. Mind you, it'll serve her well to have a loyal Zaeed in the final mission - totally worth the collateral damage.

 

Mordin was the next on her list, and Sandra was surprisingly generous in the slums. She gave the Batarian medi gel and cleared a safe passage to the clinic for the trapped couple. She also had no problem with the looters - everyone's got to make a living, amirite? As for Mordin himself, she did cut him off once when he was rambling, but apart from that seems happy to talk to him, so I don't think he's annoying her that much. Welcome aboard, you crazy, chatty Salarian genius.

 

It also seems Sandra has warmed to Garrus (when did that happen?!?!?). She sounded pleased to see him, and even left him a squadmate to keep him alive while she cleared out the lower levels of his apartment. Isn't that nice - Sandra doesn't want to dead, Garrus. That's a step up from the last game. What can have happened in the six months between ME1 and 2 that made her change her mind? Secret affair? Has Garrus joined Terra Ferma? Or maybe Sandra's just developed an obsessive interest in calibrations. She hasn't actually taken him anywhere, but plenty more game to go.

 

And speaking of warming to crewmates, Miranda appears to be growing on her (like a fungus). She's taken her out on every single mission so far (until Horizon), so she clearly appreciates a good squadmate. Of course, being an Infiltrator, Sandra does a lot of sniping, and Miranda says 'Good shot' whenever she gets a headshot. I'm not saying the key to getting on Sandra's good side is stroking her ego, but...

 

Then there was also the Krogan. After a bitter battle and the premature death of Okeer, Sandra ended up with a genetically modified Krogan in stasis. After careful consideration, she decided to... keep him sealed away. Zaeed and Jack are as much 'violent and scary' as Sandra can handle, I think. Now, does it count as Grunt being dead if we never woke him up...? If so, first crew death and we're not even halfway through the game. Bravo, Sandra.

 

We also swung by the Normandy crash site to place a memorial where Ashley spent hours polishing her rifles, and then the Citadel to pick up Kasumi, touch base with Councillor Anderson, get reinstated as a Spectre, and pick up the most important member of the Normandy crew - SPACE HAMSTER!            I shall call him Lavista - Hamster Lavista. This one's for you, little buddy. Whatever happens, I'll make sure you're safe! Turns out Sandra's not much of a fish person though and decided against against them, but screw them. They always die on me anyway.

 

Now, time for our first run in with the Collectors. No wonder she's brought Jack along (and is no doubt praying that that little raging wrecking ball stays pointed in the right direction).

[Bear43]

These are just gems to read! I am looking forward to the next installment. I am still of the opinion that Sandra is severely bipolar and should be tucked away on meds someplace

[Ferretinabun]

You know, that really does make a lot of sense. Perhaps I should add it to the headcanon. It truly is baffling trying to work out Sandra's motives sometimes.

[Grandillusion]

I'v always liked the "little raging wreaking ball" myself. Love this thread.

[Ferretinabun]

Part 3

 

Sandra and Jacob managed to jog to the end of the Horizon mission comfortably in the wake of Locomotive Jack and bumped into an old friend - Kaidan. The fact that she had quite the crush back in the day didn't mean Sandra was going to go weak at the knees, however. The boy was not pleased she was teaming up with Cerberus, and she was not in the mood to apologise for it. Again, she championed Cerberus ("they're not the real enemy here") rather than stress she wasn't working for them, so I think she's getting pretty comfortable in that Cerberus uniform...

 

Back on the Normandy and with three more dossiers in hand, Sandra did the rounds with her crew to find Miranda and Jacob were both stressing over family issues. Sandra's idea of sympathetic support was to hear them both out - but then promise nothing.

 

Instead, Sandra dug through her old emails (hate those days) and found one from TIM that sounded urgent - about rescuing a captured Cerberus hostage. In the manner of workers everywhere who stumble on an old-but-urgent-at-the-time email, Sandra jumped right on it with over-compensatory efficiency.

 

And yet... when she got there the operative was dead. (Whoops. Maybe it really had been as urgent as it sounded.) But it turns out he'd been part of Rachni experiments - like the ones Sandra found in ME1, the ones that had led to the slaughter of her crew on Akuze. This was a nasty reminder of the part of Cerberus Sandra hated, so she sent the data straight to the Alliance. Cerberus are a necessary evil for now, but that doesn't mean the monsters among them should be forgotten.

 

Then it was off to recruit Tali. Which was a surprise, as she's never really seemed to LIKE Tali. But maybe (as she claimed to Tali later) she wanted to reconnect to old, non-Cerberus people. Or maybe a Normandy just doesn't look right without a purple Quarian poking around the engineering room. Either way, after hiking over a pile of dead geth and quarians (including Khal Drogo Kal'Reegar - I told him to stay down, but he did insist...) Tali returns to the fold out of some frankly bizarre delusion that she and Sandra have been trusted friends at some point.

 

Jack's sob story: listen, promise nothing, trololololo...

 

Mordin's sob story: listen, promise nothing, trololololo...

[Ferretinabun]

Part 4

 

As the sob stories mounted, Sandra obviously thought it was time to cheer her crewmates up. She could barely walk five paces around the Normandy without bumping into someone staring wistfully out of the window and sighing. Enough of the angst, people! Top of Sandra's priority list was Jacob and his pert buns, finding his father in a bad episode of Star-Trek-meets-Lord-of-the-Flies, ultimately leaving him to face the wrath of the crew he betrayed. All good so far - until Miranda shows up and reveals she sent Jacob the tip-off for the sake of 'an old debt'. All of a sudden Sandra was snippy and obsessed with Jacob and Miranda's relationship, ultimately nipping her romance with him in the bud. Jealousy is not a good look on you, Sandra.

 

Garrus' sob story: listen, promise to help, trolol... wait, what? Oh, okay, add it to the pile. While we're on a run of loyalty missions, and all.

 

Then off to Tuchanka to help our second-favourtie crew member - Mordin. Ultimately, it's difficult to play this mission without being too judgemental on the genophage and Mordin's part in it, but somehow Sandra managed it. She was surprised when he came out with something spiritual, but by and large she never challenged nor overly praised his work. Which led to the impression that Sandra GETS Mordin. She simply understands he did what he had to do without ever really judging him for it. An impression reinforced when she stopped him killing Maelon "You're not a murderer!" Sandra might have treated the ME1 fan-favourite like trash, but she'll be damned if she'll make the same mistake twice! She ultimately convinced him to destroy Maelon's data though. I'm sure we won't be needing that any time soon.

 

Tali's sob story: listen, promise nothing, trololololo...

 

Kasumi's loyalty mission is always pretty much by the numbers (except that for the first time I found you can actually sneak into Donovan Hock's bedroom instead of having to bluff the guard) until the end when I destroyed Keiji's greybox for her.

 

And then TIM summoned Sandra for a tip off - a disabled Collector Ship! I had considered leaving the weapon I took to the roll of the dice, but I decided not to - I've been in control of Sandra's builds so far and I think this is just an extension of that. It's a gameplay choice, like spending XP, rather than a plot one. So the Widow it was. Plus, I think this is the first time I've ever taken Jack on this mission, and using Shockwave on the floating platforms section is hilarious. Between Shockwave and the Widow, Jacob was purely set-dressing in the most fun mission of the game so far!

 

Back on the Normandy, Sandra was fuming at finding out she'd been led into a trap! Damn TIM and damn Cerberus! I'm sure she'd be looking to screw them over in return if she hadn't already done so by sending that data to the Alliance... He also told her about a derelict Reaper they might want to raid. Miranda advised building up the team a bit more, but Jacob wanted to go straight for it. And Sandra was apparently under the illusion she could still charm Jacob into bed. She agreed to go straight to the Reaper.

 

Hear that ticking noise, Sandra...? A countdown has begun.

[Ferretinabun]

Part 5

 

Sandra returned from the Derelict Reaper with a little surprise for everyone - a geth! Merry Christmas, guys. Sandra decided to activate it, and after establishing that she 'doesn't co-operate; she gives orders', welcomed the newest member of her crew. Then she went off to get tipsy with Dr Chakwas and toast... the Alliance. Still not over TIM sending you into that trap, Sandra?

 

Glowing with brandy, Sandra suddenly decided that Tali was her 'besht friend' and now was the time to clear her name! She stuck to Tali like glue as she faced the courtroom, telling everyone how great she was and how much she loved her. But turns out the only thing that really impresses a Quarian court is fighting. So it was off to recapture Tali's father's ship. She tenderly comforted Tali when she found her father dead, but it must have been on the way back to the floatilla that Sandra sobered up and remembered she doesn't like Tali because back in the courtroom she handed over that evidence faster than a winning lotto ticket. Poor adorable, trusting, loyal Tali. So much fun to troll.

 

Except now I think Tali's grown a bit of a spine. Something tells me she's not going to get over this as quickly as she usually does.

 

Now nursing a hangover, Sandra decided that she'd missed having Miranda as her buddy (hadn't taken her for 8 missions now), so went to Illium with her to build bridges. After a quick check-in with Liara and Gianna Parasini (failing once again to be of any help to her. Maybe in the third game, eh?) it was off to go and rescue Miranda's sister. Sandra was pretty fatalistic when she found Niket had betrayed Miranda, and decided not to stop her from shooting him. Which I loved because it meant I got to hear the best line in... well... the best line ever written:

 

"I'll miss you, Niket"

 

BANG!!

 

"... figuratively speaking."

 

     

 

She didn't convince Miranda to introduce herself to her sister, but she'd done enough to reassure her they were best buds.

 

Back on the Normandy, during a check-in with Mordin, he told her that he didn't think a romance between the two of them would work. 

 

 

Normally this is just a humourous wink-to-camera about Shepard not being in a relationship, but it felt like quite the slap in the face for romantically-frustrated Sandra. Maybe her 'thanks for letting me down gently' wasn't as sarcastic as it sounded. Dammit, even the Salarian doesn't want Sandra. She'll just have to grow old and turn into a crazy hamster lady.

 

She had just decided Jack was giving her threatening 'when is it time for MY mission?' looks and set a course for Pragia, when the Normandy was attacked and the whole crew except for Joker abducted by the Collectors. Sorry Jack. With the squad back on board, Sandra took the opportunity to shoot EDI down 'You're equipment, not crew' (there's gratitude for you), but once again sided with Jacob that there was no time to waste rescuing the crew! Which means...

 

... it's Suicide Mission time!

 

Out of 12 possible crewmates, only 9 have been recruited (Grunt is in stasis, and I never got round to Samara and Thane)

Only 5 of them are loyal - Miranda, Jacob, Mordin, Kasumi and Zaeed.

But I do at least have all the relevant ship upgrades.

 

Anyone want to hazard a guess on how this will go (aside from 'downhill fast')?

[Ferretinabun]

Part 6

 

When I started this chaos run, I was really looking forward to the suicide mission as a particular highlight. Having no idea who would live or die, I thought, would add to the drama. Which it certainly did. Except I found that almost all the possible options were bad ones. Especially if you're arrived at the SM with only a half-prepared crew. Nevertheless, time to find out where the chips would fall:

 

After crossing through the Omega 4 Relay with, yet again, no romance scene (at this rate I'll be lucky to end up with the Javik's Citadel sex scene) the Normandy was attacked by flying oculuseseseses. Sandra took Mordin and Jack down to fight them off, and thankfully I had upgraded the ship enough to make it to the Collector base (and yes I did leave that to chance).

 

No loses yet.

 

Then it was time to pick a tech-infiltrator. It was a dangerous job, so Sandra picked Garrus. He's good with tech - he must have picked up a few things doing all those calibrations, right? Baring in mind how amazing Jack has been in all the Collector missions so far, she was the obvious choice to lead the second team, while Sandra took Tali and Kasumi to accompany Garrus. Sadly the Turian took a bullet right between the eyes getting those doors closed.

 

Garrus died.

 

Then Sandra stumbled on Doctor Chakwas and the crew. Delighted at having arrived in time to save them, she totally scuppered that good deed by sending them back the way they had come with no escort. I'm pretty sure we've cleared the path for you guys...

 

Crew all dead.

 

Jack was the natural choice for the Biotic Bubble generator, seeing as she's the most powerful biotic, like, ever. And besides, it was her idea. And Sandra really didn't want to poke the bear while they were inside a Collector base. She picked Kasumi to lead the second team, while she took Legion and Tali in Jack's biotic bubble. But at just the crucial final moment, Jack got distracted by a vision of her old cell on Pragia laughing at her, still all in tact and unexploded, and dropped the shield long enough for the seeker swarm to carry off Legion. Normally I'd say that was a nasty way to go, but it kinda makes me wonder what the seekers are going to do with a Geth... In any case, he's not coming back, and we meet up with the second infiltration team in time to see Kasumi get taken out. God rest you, sweet anime Mary Sue. :-(

 

Legion dead.

Kasumi dead.

 

Time for the big showdown, and there was no way Sandra wasn't going to have Jack by her side. Terrifying as she is, she's still a terror to fight - plus it gave Sandra another chance to enjoy the sight of Collectors being thrown off those flying platforms by Shockwave, which NEVER gets old! She also took Jacob in a final hope that seeing her in action with the Final Boss would make him swoon over her. Good luck on that one, love.

 

They made short work of Harbinger and his human Reaper baby, and suddenly TIM showed up (on the console of Jack, of all people. I'm sure she loved that) and suggested saving the base. Now Sandra hates Tim and Cerberus at this point, but let's be honest - she still hates the Reapers more. So she gritted her teeth and decided TIM was the lesser of two evils - she decided to purge the base.

 

But then Harbinger and the foetus Reaper showed up for round two. Jack helped the other two defeat them and escape with their lives, while she herself got crushed by falling wreckage. Rather a result for Sandra there. She radioed her other squadmates who confirmed that everyone had survived except Tali; condemned by her own lack of gratitude to Sandra trying to save her ass in court - there's dramatic irony for you.

 

Jack died.

Tali died.

 

And so the Suicide Mission ended with 5 squad casualties plus the rest of the crew. Miranda, Jacob and Zaeed all made it - along with, I am DELIGHTED to say, Mordin!! Seriously, he's the 'squishiest' squadmate, and I though he was a goner for sure. But that's the fun of a chaos run; you just never know!

 

I was tempted to call it a day and go straight for ME3 right here, but I decided to do the rest of the ME2 missions just because I could - and I was curious to see how those mission would go in a chaos run. There's still a galaxy to save, after all, so I can headcanon that Sandra is just gathering a crew in preparation to face the Reapers.

 

Onward - with an eerily empty Normandy.

[Ferretinabun]

Part 7

 

The Suicide Mission may have been behind her but Sandra still had a galaxy to get ready for a Reaper invasion. And the juiciest lead she had on that was the kidnap of a Dr Kenson. And so began the most boring, bland mission of Sandra's career. I'm sorry to sound like a bore, but Arrival is a genuine SLOG. Maybe I miss having companions with me, but I find the mission more of a chore than any other in the entire trilogy. I'd rather go look for all those damn Asari Writings and Keepers in ME1! Even a Batarian holocaust can't raise my interest in this beyond 'meh'. It always plays out pretty much the same.

 

After a catch-up with Hackett and promising to turn herself in for trial eventually (how lenient of him), she grabbed Miranda and Zaeed for the infinitely more enjoyable Overlord mission. Despite being pretty Paragon for most of her interactions here and scolding Dr Archer for all the pain he's caused, she nevertheless ultimately left him to continue his experiments on his brother and make it 'worth all the pain'. Which isn't really a decision I think makes much sense after Legion has already been recruited - surely Shep already knows at that point that communicating with a (non-heretic) geth is as easy as simply talking to it...?

 

Still, on with crew collection, and Sandra went first to pick up her Asari justicar. She decided not to man-handle Pitne For when interrogating him, and even returned incriminating evidence to him rather than hand it in to the officers. She also knocked out the Biotic God for his own good, so I think it's pretty safe to say she's not got anything against Voluses. As with Legion, she made it quite clear Samara was expected to follow orders, but beyond that happily welcomed her aboard.

 

Then she decided to catch up with the slowest assassin in history. Seriously, Thane's been on this job for ages. It'd be quicker to post Nassana cheeseburgers every day and wait for her to die of a heart attack. But when Sandra shows up shoving mercs out of windows and man-handling Salarian workers, Thane decides it's the perfect cover for his strike. Perhaps he thinks no-one will notice him considering the trail of destruction Sandra leaves in her wake. Which is fair enough. Sandra was professional meeting him (though Shep does mention the Collectors in this scene so it plays out rather more ridiculously than Samara's recruitment mission if you do it post-SM), but summoned the intimacy to say she was sorry when he told her he was dying.

 

Samara's sob story: listen, promise nothing, trololololo...

 

Except with little else to do, Sandra went straight there. In the Afterlife VIP club, Sandra squandered many opportunities to peak Morinth's attention - ignoring the guy selling tickets to what was obviously being telegraphed as Morinth's favourite band, refusing to even talk to Harfin and letting the barman talk her out of buying a round of drinks. However, she did start a fight with a couple of Turian thugs, scare off a Turian harassing a dancer (are we surprised Sandra is good at the missions involving fighting Turians?) and having a bit of a dance, so Morinth called her over. Sadly, Sandra has the conversational nouce of a toddler. She bored Morinth, telling her 'power is safety' and flatly refused to do drugs, and when she inexpertly probed the topic of local artists 'a sculptor called Nef', Morinth made her excuses and disappeared - for good. Obviously she's not THAT dumb. Does that mean both Banshee Morinth AND Samara will show up in ME3, I wonder...?

 

Thane's sob story: listen, promise nothing, trololololo...

 

Over at the Citadel, Sandra had no problems beating the information she needed out of Mouse, or punching someone to the ground for simply getting in her way when she was trailing Talid, but when it came to Elias Kelham she was oddly reluctant to lay a finger on him despite telling Thane to be the good cop. If you've got an expensive lawyer, Sandra will think twice about giving you a black eye. But she still played the Spectre card when the lawyer showed up, and that got him talknig. She distracted Kolyat at Talid's apartment, letting both him and the Turian get away unharmed, and after a touching reunion with Thane, Sandra convinced Bailey to employ Kolyat on the quiet (as what, exactly? A personal assassin? It's never made clear) and headed off for a final check-in with Liara.

 

Starting with Liara's revelation that she saved Sandra when she first died, Sandra was rather nice to her throughout, comforting her after taking down Vasir and promising to find her friend. And why not? After all, Liara has some killer dialogue in this mission, and Singularity pretty much rocks. When they had finally taken down the Shadow Broker, Liara tried to invite herself on board the Normandy to 'take a break'. Sure; but maybe later. I like you, Liara but let's not get too friendly here - I know how eager you can be.

 

First, Sandra's got to go and hand herself in to the Alliance for genocide...

[Ferretinabun]

So that's my ME2 chaos run. And I have to say, it went rather better than I had hoped.

 

Thank you all for reading. Hope you enjoyed it.

 

Join me for the final instalment where we'll find out exactly what sort of shape Sandra will be leaving the galaxy in.

 

http://forum.bioware...6570-chaos-run/

[Jononarf]

I think this should be an actual mode a player can choose for any Bioware game from now on. 

 

Dumb question: is there a mod for ME1-3 or all Dragon Age games that actually does this for ALL dialogue choices, paragon/renegade actions? If so I would definitely love to try it out. It would make new playthroughs interesting and yet help increase replay ability. 

[Ferretinabun]

ME3 does have an Action Mode that picks your dialogue choices for you - though I don't know if the responses are randomised or favour the paragon/renegade options...

[ForgeDark]

Bav awoke inside a lab, with no idea what was going on. The last thing she remembered was telling Kaidan to follow orders (which she of course expects from everyone on the crew), and shoving Joker into an escape pod. She scrambled her way out, meeting Jacob in the process. Ever incurious, she asked no questions, and was particularly confused later when Jacob told her she must know who Cerberus was. Bav didn’t undertake any of the Cerberus missions in Mass Effect, so her transition to Cerberus operative shouldn’t be too much of a problem. She had no problems with Miranda killing Wilson, afterall killing squadmates is standard protocol for Bav when orders aren’t being followed – never mind a full scale betrayal.

 

Bav was fairly amicable with TIM, tried to make conversation with Miranda, and seemed to be getting on well with Jacob. All in all, I think the Cerberus lifestyle suits her. Out on her first mission, Bav ran into Tali – the only crew member from the original Normandy that Bav had ever shown any friendship towards. The Quarians drew weapons, always a big no for Bav, and she very quickly reminded Tali of what happens to people who threaten her (poor old Wrex). Not one to trust people, Bav decided she didn’t want to work with the Quarians, and handed Veetor over to Cerberus despite Tali begging her not to. Not sure this friendship is going to last…

 

On the Normandy, she got off to a bad start with Kelly, telling her she wouldn’t be so informal to not call her Chambers. Miranda tried to open up about her genetic modifications, but Bav has no interest in her crew’s personal problems. She did agree recruiting Mordin was the best course of action, so they set a course over to Omega.

 

Mordin’s assistant didn’t survive meeting Bav, and Bav showed no remorse over the situation – telling Miranda and Jacob the guy had got himself killed. Bav showed a bit of effort toward Mordin, letting him ramble on, the uncharacteristic friendliness toward him must be a reflection of how desperate she was to recruit the scientist.

 

Despite talking to Aria about Archangel’s situation, Bav decided if the merc was any good he would definitely be able to hold out a little longer, so she decided to head out and collect Jack from the prison ship. Bav is definitely a member of Miranda’s Cerberus cheerleading squad, and she lied to Jack about letting her get access to the data when aboard the ship.

 

Bav decided it was time to catch up with Anderson, and docked at the Citadel (she had told Miranda Udina was councilor, although actually she'd decided not to bother having a say in the matter - I figured in that case Udina is who would be chosen from the two). She told Bailey she wanted to remain dead, and wasn’t impressed that Anderson had summoned the Council. I still can’t fathom why Bav decided to save them at the end of the last game, in the meeting she was as disrespectful as ever. She said 'Screw You' when offered her Spectre Status, telling the Council she didn’t answer to them and supported Cerberus throughout. Udina came in, and for once I had some sympathy for the guy when he asked Bav ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’

 

 Bav finally decided to show some pity to the long suffering Archangel – if he’s managed to survive this long then he must be good. She’d never got on particularly well with Garrus, but hadn’t had any major disagreements either, so she wasn’t too welcoming when she discovered Archangel’s true identity. She didn’t bother to leave Garrus with any support, figuring she didn’t want him back if he couldn’t hold off a few mercs on his own. She did soften up a bit after Garrus was injured, telling him back on the Normandy that she was glad he was here.

 

Bav was pretty angry that Jack had gone behind her back to get the data, and warned her not to ‘violate the integrity of the ship again’. I'd heed that warning Jack

 

TIM asked Bav to go on a side mission, and Bav agreed showing Cerberus the respect she never showed the Alliance or Council. She recovered the data, and without hesitation decided it was better off back in Cerberus hands – what had the Alliance ever done for her?

 

It was then time to visit Okeer, but ultimately Bav decided not to open Grunt’s tank. She’d had enough trouble with the last Krogan on board.

 

Over on Horizon, Bav had no sympathy for the mechanic that had hidden away. Meeting Kaidan again didn’t have any emotional impact on Bav – she’s not one for friends. She of course supported Cerberus throughout the entire conversation, and was pleased Miranda was there to back her up on her view that the Alliance was useless and would blame Cerberus for everything. 

[paramitch]

Ferretinabun, that is one of the best and funniest things I have ever read on these forums. Thank you for sharing those installments.

 

I laughed out loud, just picturing the other characters' confusion and befuddlement. Can you imagine their expressions when SandraShep leaves the room? There have to be a lot of shrugs, rolled eyes, and utterly dazed, WTF? expressions.

 

My favorite part was her boozy adventures, Mean Girls semi-friendship with Miranda, and the awful trolling she did on poor Tali.

 

It was great reading about the adventures of Sandra, the world's most unstable Shepard, and here's hoping she finds romance in ME3 at least (hee)!

 

(But honestly it all worked out for the best -- Jacob's a terrible boyfriend. Seriously. She can do better.)

 

And ForgeDark, if Bav paired up with Sandra, we'd certainly have an unforgettable Thelma & Louise pairing. The galaxy might never recover!