<![CDATA[Giving Mass Effect a second chance]]>My first playthrough of Mass Effect was a bit…disappointing. Not in terms of gameplay or story, but rather in that it was clear from my list of gained achievements, I had not played enough of Mass Effect. For one thing, here’s four that I did not get by the time credits were rolling:

Scholar (25G): Find all primary Alien: Council Races, Extinct Races and Non-Council Races codex entries

completionistCompletionist (25G): Complete the majority of the game

soldierallySoldier Ally (20G): Complete the majority of the game with the Alliance soldier squad member

kroganallyKrogan Ally (20G): Complete the majority of the game with the krogan squad member

Upon initially meeting my multicultural cast of playable characters, I picked Ashley Williams and Urdnot Wrex as my partners in crime saving the world. They stuck out to me as interesting people/dinosaurs, and I faithfully used them in every mission possible. Granted, I really only followed the main storyline. Did some hopping and skipping around the galaxy, but the amount of planets was overwhelming, and the select few I picked to visit seemed to be nothing but barren wastelands. So yeah, I guess I missed a ton of sidequests.

So last night I loaded up my previous save and started a second campaign with my existing Paul Shepard. He’s already at LV 40 so we’ll see how it goes. I’m, however, for the sake of things, contemplating using alternate characters just to experience the story differently (I’m also being a total renegade/poophead to people). I know, I’d like the above achievements, but really, any two ally achievements will be good enough for me because it’ll at least show that I’ve played a “majority of the game,” whatever that turns out to be in Mass Effect.

So, any suggestions on who to go with for the second playthrough? I just arrived at the Citadel, and I dig the Throw and Lift abilities, mostly because my Shepard is an engineer and lacks the Jedi oomph.

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