210 réponses à ce sujet

[NICKjnp]

For two playthroughs

[Wolfsfable01]

I believe there is a lot more to the story of Liara that Bioware gave us in ME2. Aside from the ingame story line having read the comics Liara was the only member of Shepards original crew that didnt accually write him off. Ashley/Alinko got promoted and are sent out to spy on you nevermind the fact that you saved the entire galaxy from annilation and the first thing the concil and the Alliance do is line up to ****** on your grave and write you off as the past.



Liara didnt want to leave you while the original Normady was headed down in flames, were was Garrius, Ashley/Alenko? Tali took the information about the geth and returned to the flotilla. First thing that happens when the stuff hits the fan Liara is running through a burning ship looking for you. After your supposed death she is out to get the bastards that took your "corpse" and she hands you over to Ceberus because she knows damn good and well that the Alliance could give a rats ass about you.



And lets not forget it was the Shadow Broker that wanted to sell your corpse to the Collectors. I myself will remain faithful to Liara. She said she was looking for a little payback for a friend and I believe that is exactly what she means I will let the story play itself out. And if my devotion to Liara is unreturned in ME3 then so be it. The hard road is hard for a reason. I guess we will see, but as far as I am concerned Liara is it for me. I like Tali I think of her as a "little sister" Garrus will always be a trusted friend although they did not show devotion to me after my death per say Garrus kept fighting the good fight the best he could, Tali was staying true to her people which is admirable at least. Cerberus has alterer motives at best and will ditch Shepard as its earliest convenice, it has no loyalty just like the alliance.



I guess we will see

[Frotality]

cutthecameras wrote...

Frotality wrote...

it is quite poorly written, because the sole purpose fo this change in character is a cheap attempt to garner more interest in new LIs by making you hate your old one. i would be all for the threat of temptation in the game, but this is the worst way to implement it. instead of having new LI's seduce you, they instead try to make the old ones repulse you (the same for all LIs). liara, kaiden and ash (if shes your LI) all went way out of character in ME2; but did wrex, the one non-romanceable suddenly go crazy bloodthirsty krogan or timid little pacifist? no, hes the same awesome wrex we all know and love. there is nothing dramatic or interesting about thier change of character, its bioware's attempt to make us not care about them, and i have no idea what possessed them to want to do that. i very much hope they can salvage the mess they made with ME1 LIs in ME3, but the damage is done, so i wont hold my breath.

How awesome Wrex is is subjective, personally I think everyone from the original crew has changed to varying degrees. Those who you were closest to, your love interests, will probably stick with you as the ones who have changed the most because you remember them just as they were very clearly. So I think they did a great job of putting you in the shoes of someone who has died and been absent from their world for two years, I think all of this is sorta the point.

the point is wrex didnt see a massive character shift. i remember all their personalities quite clearly, and nothing in the game warranted such ridiculous 180s in character for LIs. its not the fact that they have changed, its the fact that the change is so amazingly drastic with nothing to warrant it and no options for shepard to care about it. it does a horrible job of making it seem like ive been dead for two years; it makes me feel like im still dead and in the twilight zone where level-headed kaiden doesnt bother to question WHY his paragon former CO is in cerberus and the timid asari who has centuries of life left suddenly becomes an apathetic killer with absolutely nothing different to say to the love of her life than to a shep that let her go crazy on therum and was a jerk.

again, the point is to make you not care about them so you dont feel so guilty going after a new LI; this is the only viable reason, all the old LIs do it, your romantic interaction with them is strangely absent with all of them, it is a constant trait of all the old LIs with only one reason that would make bioware actually want to screw up their characters. ash and kaiden at least had the indecency to send you an email explaing things, liara gives you face nuzzle then your relationship is over for all she cares because there not a single line of dialogue or text different for those who romanced her. she is the one character who knew shepard was alive and what he would be doing; she expresses her torment over taking part in it, but somehow really doesnt care about any of it once the culmination of all her sorrow was standing at her office. instead of being horribly conflicted about it, shes completely apathetic, and makes absolutely no mention of your previous romantic shenanigans ever in the entirety of the game. it isnt writing, its a cop out. as saren said, "there is no other logical conclusion."

dont fool yourself otherwise.

[stillnotking]

The lack of any closure with Liara is just another example of the devs going to ridiculous lengths to make your choices in ME1 not matter at all.  The ME2->ME3 transition is going to be the same way, meaning no LIs carrying over and no recruitment of squadmates from any previous game (with the possible exception of Liara, who is the only one guaranteed to be alive).  We're all playing "canon" Shepard's game, with a few very minor dialogue tweaks.

That issue is far and away my biggest disappointment with Mass Effect.  BioWare gets a team of writers and voice actors to create truly amazing characters that fans love, and then undermines their own accomplishment by refusing to allow Shepard to develop lasting relationships with those characters, just because it would require breaking the conventions of the medium.  They need to have a little more faith.  Players will cheerfully go back and replay previous games if it means they can have a truly different story.

[GuardianAngel470]

sergio71785 wrote...

I never really liked either of the romances from the first game very much. I usually picked Liara just because she wasn't a b!1ch. So I had no problems saying goodbye.

I agree.  Neither of the love interests in the first one really spoke to me.  Ash was a xenophobe when the coolest characters were aliens and liara, well, she just felt like a kid.  I mean, she totally loses her virginity to you if you romance her, and frankly, that isn't very appealing.  Now granted, the cut-scene was by far the better of the two but still.

[SurfaceBeneath]

Talogrungi wrote...
Hmm, tricky.

Depends on past history, I'd say. If you didn't
romance anyone in ME1 or ME2 then I'd say the big emotional payoff is
warranted in ME3, same as if you'd stayed faithful throughout ME2.
However, if you cheat in ME2 or choose someone else in ME1 then go
change your mind in ME3 then no big emotional payoff.

Ok, just making sure you wanted treatment for all possible options of romances through the series... even those who choose not to romance should get exactly the same treatment as those who choose to romance 1 or 2 NPCs

Talogrungi wrote...
But yeah, I think it's pretty evident that ME3 relationships will boil down to:

1. Romanced in ME1, stayed faithful in ME2.
2. Romanced in ME1, cheated in ME2 with . <-- OMG CHEETR
3. Romanced no-one in ME1, Romanced in ME2.

Pessimistically, I can imagine that being flagged an OMG CHEETR  will do nothing more in ME3 than prevent you from continuing the ME1 romance with the LI you "cheated" on in ME2.

Bioware already said that there were going to be "consequences" for "cheating" in ME2 on your ME1 LI in ME3.

Like I said previously, chances are Bioware is planning on a love triangle in ME3. A little romantic tension (which we almost never see in video games) to go along with that whole Reaper thing.

[Homebound]

Mobile-Platform-928 wrote...

So I romanced Liara in the first game. Yyyeah. Shepard was female, a lifelong military brat who'd never really had time for relationships--maybe a few rolls in the hay, which taught her not to fraternize and helped her fend off the (intensely annoying) Lieutenant Alenko.

And this fascinating alien lady comes along, flatteringly admits she's interested in Shepard, and they have this awkward but beautiful romance in the midst of the Commander coming into her own as a true Paragon and galactic savior and blah blah blah. (I did end up letting the Council die, but that was because I told Joker to concentrate on Sovereign. IT MADE SENSE. D: I'M NOT A MONSTER.) It's all very touch-and-go. Sometimes Shepard finds herself daydreaming about a handsome Turian who hangs out calibrating down on the lower decks, but usually Liara fills her young head.

I did like Liara! She was a sweetheart, completely different from the rest of her race, who all seemed to be backstabbing political opportunists hiding behind a "oh we're just nice blue alien ladies who would never manipulate galactic events in our favor" facade. I was thinking tenderly of said asari when I began ME2.

I got to Ilium, and the first thing I see when I come in, expecting to hug my lost love, is her threatening to flay an innocent client's skin off. And then comes the weirdness, the coldness, the evasion, the sending me off like an errand girl, and these cryptic hints about a "friend" that she "met" that she "owes something."

Well. I did not like this Liara. No sir. As a character she repelled me, not least of all for her one weird moment of emotion where she admitted selling me to Cerberus. She was...creepy. She was some kind of mafioso now, so ensconced in the political drama that defines the asari race she can't think of anything else.

And at first I was upset. Disappointed. I had the same reaction as all the Liarafans, but with one important difference--blaming Bioware and the devs never entered my head. It seemed to be a consequence of the narrative somehow, which was otherwise stellar (up until the Human Reaper looking like the damn Terminator, but I digress.) Even now, I don't blame them. Could they have handled it another way? Sure. Should they have? I don't think so.

I mean, this was powerful stuff! I'd gone in thinking it'd be easy to be "faithful" to Shepard's love interest, but I ended up having to talk to my wife about what I should do, and having her encourage me to move on, because...well...Liara had essentially broken up with me. I think that might've been the idea, and I don't necessarily disagree with it, looking back now.

My Shepard went on to go through the story, discovering a lifelong friendship with a geth, of all creatures, and letting herself pursue someone she'd already been close to, and always valued--Garrus Vakarian. And oddly, his awkward romancing seemed...more genuine...than all Liara's pretty talk in the first game.

After leaving Ilium, seeing that the person she'd loved had become a mafioso and a lowlife who'd cheated on me when I was "dead", she and I had no second thoughts. Garrus meant more. He'd always been there, and he'd been willing to follow me right into hell twice now.

I didn't feel it was poorly written-- I felt like Liara didn't care, and like she'd become obsessed over someone else that she'd loved and lost, and forgotten about what probably seemed like a fling to her. I had no time to waste on someone like that.

Am I alone in feeling that way? Isn't anyone else kind of "glad she's gone"? :/

People keep forgetting that Liara has almost as much power as the Shadow Broker at this point and might even be more at ME3.  I wonder what she'll do to "you" when she finds out about Garrus.

[medlish]

I stayed loyal. Let's see what happens in ME3.

[SurfaceBeneath]

Just_mike wrote...
People keep forgetting that Liara has almost as much power as the Shadow Broker at this point and might even be more at ME3.  I wonder what she'll do to "you" when she finds out about Garrus.

I don't think so. Not even close.

The Shadow Broker has information that could take down nations. It's only because it carefully parcels it out that the entire galactic balance isn't overturned.

[SurfaceBeneath]

stillnotking wrote...
That issue is far and away my biggest disappointment with Mass Effect.  BioWare gets a team of writers and voice actors to create truly amazing characters that fans love, and then undermines their own accomplishment by refusing to allow Shepard to develop lasting relationships with those characters, just because it would require breaking the conventions of the medium.  They need to have a little more faith.  Players will cheerfully go back and replay previous games if it means they can have a truly different story.

I think you're underestimating exactly what you're asking for. Mass Effect 2 broke all kinds of conventions in terms of genre and no other game to date has done what they have with importing of previous saves and having it amount to anything. But if you're asking that decisions majorly impact the path of the game, you're essentially asking them to make several completely different games and story paths. While that would be cool, its costs and time it would require to make would be completely prohibitive and would probably dilute the story somewhat too. And remember they still have another game in the trilogy to release, and unless they want to release 20 versions of this game, they need to keep things "on rails" until the last chapter at least. Bioware has claimed that it's the third game that is going to actually see the decisions you made in the first two games mature to lasting consequence... so we'll see. However condemning them at this point is premature.

[stillnotking]

SurfaceBeneath wrote...

stillnotking wrote...
That issue is far and away my biggest disappointment with Mass Effect.  BioWare gets a team of writers and voice actors to create truly amazing characters that fans love, and then undermines their own accomplishment by refusing to allow Shepard to develop lasting relationships with those characters, just because it would require breaking the conventions of the medium.  They need to have a little more faith.  Players will cheerfully go back and replay previous games if it means they can have a truly different story.

I think you're underestimating exactly what you're asking for. Mass Effect 2 broke all kinds of conventions in terms of genre and no other game to date has done what they have with importing of previous saves and having it amount to anything. But if you're asking that decisions majorly impact the path of the game, you're essentially asking them to make several completely different games and story paths. While that would be cool, its costs and time it would require to make would be completely prohibitive and would probably dilute the story somewhat too. And remember they still have another game in the trilogy to release, and unless they want to release 20 versions of this game, they need to keep things "on rails" until the last chapter at least. Bioware has claimed that it's the third game that is going to actually see the decisions you made in the first two games mature to lasting consequence... so we'll see. However condemning them at this point is premature.

You're right that I'm jumping the gun, and I don't want to be unfair to BW, but the ME1->ME2 "carryover" basically came down to a few easter eggs and some slight differences in dialogue.  While I agree that it would be unreasonable to ask them to make 20 different games, I don't think it's too far out of line to expect substantially different cutscenes and dialogue options, and perhaps a few different missions, based on momentous player choices in the previous game.

The cardinal rule of game developers is that you don't design primary content that players won't see.  But no one's ever really tried to break it.  I can see ME3 being even more successful than it otherwise would be if BW is willing to break with convention and create some serious points of narrative departure based on choices made in previous games.  I do think that's fairly unlikely, however.

[SurfaceBeneath]

stillnotking wrote...
The cardinal rule of game developers is that you don't design primary content that players won't see.  But no one's ever really tried to break it.  I can see ME3 being even more successful than it otherwise would be if BW is willing to break with convention and create some serious points of narrative departure based on choices made in previous games.  I do think that's fairly unlikely, however.

Well, actually if you want to get technical, and this is speaking as someone from "the business" as it were, this model has been done before, and frequently. Where you might ask? MMOs. Early MMOs were rife with content that only the most elite of the elite could see. This had the curious effect of making those elite hardcore fans that saw that content as actually loving the game all the more, but ensured that those kind of games would have a limited player base.

And then came World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft may have started popular based on its pedigree, however the reason WoW has nearly monopolized the MMO market is that WoW made most content available to anyone with time to spend in it. No longer were people arbitrarily locked out of content and anyone could experience all parts of the game. That has attracted a much larger fanbase than games that limit their content to their audiance.

Now, I'm not saying Mass Effect couldn't personalize our choices a bit more. Heck, just a few extra dialogues acknowledging your background would have been nice. I'm totally for more personalization of the story. But, as you said, developers don't want to design content that not everyone is going to see. If you're trying to make 40 hours of game, by arbitrarily limiting how many of those hours certain players are able to access, your game is certainly not going to be better for it. And you can't just say, "make more!" since they do have a budget and a release date to abide by. They need to find a good medium and stick to that. I think in Mass Effect 3 when they're no longer chained to requiring the game to lead in to another game, they can be a bit more free with that model and actually do the whole "branching storyline depending on your actions throughout the first two games" idea. I hope they do.

Modifié par SurfaceBeneath, 21 février 2010 - 10:47 .

[Nozybidaj]

SurfaceBeneath wrote...

Talogrungi wrote...
I hope that there is a really satisfying emotional payoff for remaining faithful into ME3, 'cos I don't think many people will have managed it.

Just a random comment/question.

Do you think that Sheps who don't romance anyone should receive the same kind of emotional payoff in ME3 as those who engage in the romances in one or both games?

How do you get an emotional payoff in ME3 for staying faithful if you don't romance anyone?

[stillnotking]

SurfaceBeneath wrote...

stillnotking wrote...
The cardinal rule of game developers is that you don't design primary content that players won't see.  But no one's ever really tried to break it.  I can see ME3 being even more successful than it otherwise would be if BW is willing to break with convention and create some serious points of narrative departure based on choices made in previous games.  I do think that's fairly unlikely, however.

Well, actually if you want to get technical, and this is speaking as someone from "the business" as it were, this model has been done before, and frequently. Where you might ask? MMOs. Early MMOs were rife with content that only the most elite of the elite could see. This had the curious effect of making those elite hardcore fans that saw that content as actually loving the game all the more, but ensured that those kind of games would have a limited player base.

And then came World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft may have started popular based on its pedigree, however the reason WoW has nearly monopolized the MMO market is that WoW made most content available to anyone with time to spend in it. No longer were people arbitrarily locked out of content and anyone could experience all parts of the game. That has attracted a much larger fanbase than games that limit their content to their audiance.

Now, I'm not saying Mass Effect couldn't personalize our choices a bit more. Heck, just a few extra dialogues acknowledging your background would have been nice. I'm totally for more personalization of the story. But, as you said, developers don't want to design content that not everyone is going to see. If you're trying to make 40 hours of game, by arbitrarily limiting how many of those hours certain players are able to access, your game is certainly not going to be better for it. And you can't just say, "make more!" since they do have a budget and a release date to abide by. They need to find a good medium and stick to that. I think in Mass Effect 3 when they're no longer chained to requiring the game to lead in to another game, they can be a bit more free with that model and actually do the whole "branching storyline depending on your actions throughout the first two games" idea. I hope they do.

Well, WoW was "breaking the rule" until Wrath of the Lich King (~4 years into the game) -- how many players ever raided Naxx40 or Sunwell?  Probably less than 5%.  And in many ways they are still breaking it.  MMOs by their nature have more content than most people ever see (in WoW, for example, there is the Alliance/Horde split; not too many Horde players level an Alliance character just to see what the quests in Redridge Mountains are like).  Raid content, however accessible they make it, is going to be off-limits to the more casual part of the player base that doesn't want to play for 3-4 hours at a stretch.  Et cetera.  MMOs, especially subscription-based ones, have a much bigger budget to play with than the typical single-player RPG; I'm not sure they are a good comparison.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the fundamental assumption is that players won't be willing to go back and replay ME1/ME2 to get a different experience in ME3.  The more I think about it, and the more I talk to people who play these games, the less reasonable I think that assumption is.  If they treated it as one game in three parts rather than three totally separate games, I believe fans would respond positively.  But I could be wrong, and I don't have BW's marketing data.  I guess we'll just have to see... and like you, I hope they take a few risks.

Modifié par stillnotking, 21 février 2010 - 11:32 .

[Madecologist]

I actually agree with a lot of what SurfaceBeneath said here, so no need to repeat her points. Just seconding their comments.

The only point I will add that is my own is, I do not like the term "cheating". As seen many people prefer to use it in the frame of ah yes, the "Reapers". I can see them air quoting it as they speak. The reason why I don't like it is because many people seem to translate it to cheating (without the quotes) and then start adopting a moral high horse attitude. Hopefully it will handled in a fashion the poster I seconded said it would. That would be what I expect. Appropriate yet reasonably mature consequences, like the ME1 LI calls it off and is hurt by Shepard's ease of moving on would be such an example of it. Not the only one, but one of the possibilities. I noticed now after checking back, even the Bioware writers when they wrote of it in the interviews, used "cheating" or *cheating*. So they too seem to be air quoting it too.

I just wish people would stop acting like those of us that went with a ME2 LI after a ME1 LI are intergalactic space jiggalo/mistresses. It shows a certain lack of insight on how adult relationships work.

Modifié par Madecologist, 21 février 2010 - 11:36 .

[Barquiel]

Madecologist wrote...

The only point I will add that is my own is, I do not like the term "cheating". As seen many people prefer to use it in the frame of ah yes, the "Reapers". I can see them air quoting it as they speak. The reason why I don't like it is because many people seem to translate it to cheating (without the quotes) and then start adopting a moral high horse attitude. Hopefully it will handled in a fashion the poster I seconded said it would. That would be what I expect.

I just wish people would stop acting like those of us that went with a ME2 LI after a ME1 LI are intergalactic space jiggalo/mistresses. It shows a certain lack of insight on how adult relationships work.

The devs call it cheating as well.

...and I am not happy<_<

[Talogrungi]

Don't worry people .. I'm sure it'll all be fine with sufficient Paragon/Renegade points.

[keginkc]

I was dead, even if she thought there was a chance of bringing me back. I don't think anybody who...strayed under those circumstances was cheating.



I just finished the game under similar circumstances with a female that had romanced liara and then flirted with Kelly, and experiencing the scene with the picture of Liara just before the relay has convinced me to do maleshep playthroughs loyal to both liara and ashley. I found that scene to be quite moving, albeit short. And it made me feel much better about my decision to play through Mass Effect 1 without a romance so I could experience the 2nd game's LIs without betrayal.



Of course, this also means I have to play through ME2 enough times to have all the maleshep romances from ME1, all the maleshep romances from ME2, and all the maleshep romances from ME2 cheating on ME1 LIs.



OCD sucks!

[Madecologist]

Barquiel wrote...

Madecologist wrote...

The only point I will add that is my own is, I do not like the term "cheating". As seen many people prefer to use it in the frame of ah yes, the "Reapers". I can see them air quoting it as they speak. The reason why I don't like it is because many people seem to translate it to cheating (without the quotes) and then start adopting a moral high horse attitude. Hopefully it will handled in a fashion the poster I seconded said it would. That would be what I expect.

I just wish people would stop acting like those of us that went with a ME2 LI after a ME1 LI are intergalactic space jiggalo/mistresses. It shows a certain lack of insight on how adult relationships work.

The devs call it cheating as well.

...and I am not happy<_<

You caught me before my edit. As I pointed out, the writers are using the air quotes too. Which means they probably not calling it outright cheating. This said, I do agree it is very bad move on their part. Subtle nuances like that are lost, creating people who see it as they are calling it flat out that. Creating concern (I am also guilty of feeling concern) to others who jump onto a moral high horse and neenering most of us like Nelson from the Simpsons going HAH HAH!

It probably was not the best way for them to put it, probably did not even realise what it would cause. They are writers and game designers, not political spin doctors. All most of the conerned people can do is raise Biowares awareness that they are worried and the choice of words was in bad taste.

[Barquiel]

That's my problem with ME2 Liara.



Non-LI Liara and LI Liara have the same dialogue. Did she move on or not (her drell friend?)...I don't know. Shepard and Liara don't talk about their relationship.

I think it's cheating (not "cheating") if Liara stayed faithful and Feron is just a friend. She wants to rescue him, that makes sense imo.

[Leather_Rebel90]

My Shepard will always be faithful to Liara.

[FrostGun]

Mobile-Platform-928 wrote...

So I romanced Liara in the first game. Yyyeah. Shepard was female, a lifelong military brat who'd never really had time for relationships--maybe a few rolls in the hay, which taught her not to fraternize and helped her fend off the (intensely annoying) Lieutenant Alenko.

And this fascinating alien lady comes along, flatteringly admits she's interested in Shepard, and they have this awkward but beautiful romance in the midst of the Commander coming into her own as a true Paragon and galactic savior and blah blah blah. (I did end up letting the Council die, but that was because I told Joker to concentrate on Sovereign. IT MADE SENSE. D: I'M NOT A MONSTER.) It's all very touch-and-go. Sometimes Shepard finds herself daydreaming about a handsome Turian who hangs out calibrating down on the lower decks, but usually Liara fills her young head.

I did like Liara! She was a sweetheart, completely different from the rest of her race, who all seemed to be backstabbing political opportunists hiding behind a "oh we're just nice blue alien ladies who would never manipulate galactic events in our favor" facade. I was thinking tenderly of said asari when I began ME2.

I got to Ilium, and the first thing I see when I come in, expecting to hug my lost love, is her threatening to flay an innocent client's skin off. And then comes the weirdness, the coldness, the evasion, the sending me off like an errand girl, and these cryptic hints about a "friend" that she "met" that she "owes something."

Well. I did not like this Liara. No sir. As a character she repelled me, not least of all for her one weird moment of emotion where she admitted selling me to Cerberus. She was...creepy. She was some kind of mafioso now, so ensconced in the political drama that defines the asari race she can't think of anything else.

And at first I was upset. Disappointed. I had the same reaction as all the Liarafans, but with one important difference--blaming Bioware and the devs never entered my head. It seemed to be a consequence of the narrative somehow, which was otherwise stellar (up until the Human Reaper looking like the damn Terminator, but I digress.) Even now, I don't blame them. Could they have handled it another way? Sure. Should they have? I don't think so.

I mean, this was powerful stuff! I'd gone in thinking it'd be easy to be "faithful" to Shepard's love interest, but I ended up having to talk to my wife about what I should do, and having her encourage me to move on, because...well...Liara had essentially broken up with me. I think that might've been the idea, and I don't necessarily disagree with it, looking back now.

My Shepard went on to go through the story, discovering a lifelong friendship with a geth, of all creatures, and letting herself pursue someone she'd already been close to, and always valued--Garrus Vakarian. And oddly, his awkward romancing seemed...more genuine...than all Liara's pretty talk in the first game.

After leaving Ilium, seeing that the person she'd loved had become a mafioso and a lowlife who'd cheated on me when I was "dead", she and I had no second thoughts. Garrus meant more. He'd always been there, and he'd been willing to follow me right into hell twice now.

I didn't feel it was poorly written-- I felt like Liara didn't care, and like she'd become obsessed over someone else that she'd loved and lost, and forgotten about what probably seemed like a fling to her. I had no time to waste on someone like that.

Am I alone in feeling that way? Isn't anyone else kind of "glad she's gone"? :/

Liara didnt actually "Cheated" on you. Her relationship with her "Friend" is described more in one of the spin off stories (i cant remember which one). But i dont think she cheated.

[AT_Field]

I didn't like the new Liara but then again I don't think BioWare really intended you to like the new Liara. You're probably supposed to talk about your problems together and make her break down into the old Liara again in Mass Effect 3, further strengthening your relationship in the moment leading up to you nuking the crap out of the reapers in dark space or something.

[Felix Golden]

I was happy to let Liara go, to me, she was the lesser of two evils as it were haha

[Kaosu Haze]

Mobile-Platform-928 wrote...

After leaving Ilium, seeing that the person she'd loved had become a mafioso and a lowlife who'd cheated on me when I was "dead", she and I had no second thoughts. Garrus meant more. He'd always been there, and he'd been willing to follow me right into hell twice now.

I didn't feel it was poorly written-- I felt like Liara didn't care, and like she'd become obsessed over someone else that she'd loved and lost, and forgotten about what probably seemed like a fling to her. I had no time to waste on someone like that.

Read the comic. She teams up with a Drell to try to recover your body from the Shadow Broker(who's going to sell it to the Collectors), presumably the Drell is the friend she's talking about. 
I'm not sure where you're getting this 'cheating' idea from.