I dumped Jacob in Mass Effect 2

[air_show]

I'm playing the Legendary Edition because I am a nostalgia slave who lives in the past. I'm pretty much playing my character the same as I did the first time through. Elliot Shepard, Infiltrator, Paragon... etc etc. Picking all the same romance options: Flirting with Kaiden and Liara then sticking with Liara when she doesn't get offended by me angling for a threeway. Then romancing Jacob in 2-

Then something changed. I got through all of Jacob's romance dialogue and was like, "Wait a minute, I'm not into this at all. Dude is trying way too hard to take control of every flirtation and I'm not digging the chemistry one bit." So I dumped him and went after the frogman with the sexy voice instead. Let it never be said that replaying old games can't lead to new experiences.

 

[Falselogic]

Literally everyone in the universe deserves better than Jacob

 

[Violentvixen]

Kaiden, Ashley, James and Miranda might be worse than Jacob? Really all the human romance options are pretty lame people, being single seems bad. I guess if I could date Anderson or Hackett that might be cool? Or the doctor on the citadel whose name I can't remember.

 

[Purple]

Kaiden, Ashley, James and Miranda might be worse than Jacob?

Counterpoint: None of those four, that I recall, ask you to come visit their dad on Planet Sex Slave, where the only thing to eat is roofies.

Which pairs extra creepy with how visibly horny you are in all your late-game interactions with him regardless of whether you're doing his romance option stuff.

 

[ArugulaZ]

From my experience, Jacob was a big old bowl of nothin' as a character. There's a mission where you hunt for his estranged father (played by Phil LaMarr!), and you get the impression that he's still young and has no idea what to do with his life. Unexciting is better than unpleasant, and Miranda is exactly that; spoiled, self-assured, and included in the game to give randy male players their RDA of girls with big boobs in skin-tight uniforms. I know that in a playthrough you're going to be forced to make a decision that sours at least one of your crew members toward you, preventing you from engaging in dialog with them, and I think Miranda was my choice. It's not like you're missing out on much if you can't talk to her anyway.

I found the most engaging characters to be the Asari; intelligent, philosophical, and enlightening. It reminds me of having a rare one-on-one chat with some of the better professors I had in college. I didn't engage in too much interstellar hanky-panky throughout my run, but I do recall a mission where I had to romance a sex vampire Asari so her mother could bring her to justice, and hot damn was she difficult to pin down. Incredibly satisfying to finish, though.

Do we need spoilers for this? I played through this game a decade ago, but I know it's been given a remake, and people probably won't be keen on having the plot points ruined.

(Damn, I loved this game. It lived up to all the promises of the flawed first game, and then some.)

 

[Violentvixen]

Counterpoint: None of those four, that I recall, ask you to come visit their dad on Planet Sex Slave, where the only thing to eat is roofies.

I get that you're joking, but the whole point is he had no idea what happened to his dad and is absolutely horrified to learn what he's done so that's kind of only a positive for him. Edit: Unless there is a different dialogue option or followup scene where he isn't horrified?

Unexciting is better than unpleasant

Yeah, exactly this.

But still, any non-human character, or being single is better than the human options.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

It's really how the romance terminates in ME3, especially w/o Citadel, I take it, that makes it so special. (Shepard is still grateful the baby's named after her? that's that?) Never played femshep or done this romance.

Re: romance in ME. No strong opinions and I ignore it until ME3, where male Shepard get get gay. In the context of the trilogy, the application is incredibly Equal Rights. (not really a complaint, and I definitely wouldn't revisit the series if they didn't do it)

 

[Felicia]

Unexciting is better than unpleasant, and Miranda is exactly that; spoiled, self-assured, and included in the game to give randy male players their RDA of girls with big boobs in skin-tight uniforms. I know that in a playthrough you're going to be forced to make a decision that sours at least one of your crew members toward you, preventing you from engaging in dialog with them, and I think Miranda was my choice. It's not like you're missing out on much if you can't talk to her anyway.

 

[Alixsar]

Imagine playing ME and not hating or at least being disinterested in the human characters. Imagine this world, and how terrifying it must be.

Zaeed is the best human because he's literally one note and that one note is "Oi I Saw Snatch Ten Years Ago and Now I'm Writing a Character for Bioware"

 

[Rascally Badger]

I forgot Zaeed existed. Well, I thought Thane was Zaeed and don't recall Zaeed at all.

I also missed out on all the romance options in ME 2 because I romanced Liara in ME1 and since I was playing through the trilogy all at once I decided to keep that going.

 

[Violentvixen]

The remaster is the first time I'm seeing Zaeed and yeah. Imagine if Kicks from animal crossing was a human assassin I guess. I never really used him because Garrus is better in just about every way.

 

[Issun]

I went the Jacob route when I played and then didn't realize that the scene where Shepard does the sex wasn't automatic like in the first game, so the love(?) went unconsummated.

It's just as well. I just pretend she and Tali hooked up offscreen instead. You can't tell me who my Femshep loves, BioWare.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I don’t know how someone could say that every human party member is a complete waste of a character slot when Kasumi is right there.

Her and… I guess Kelly?

 

[Violentvixen]

I don’t know how someone could say that every human party member is a complete waste of a character slot when Kasumi is right there.

Her and… I guess Kelly?

Fair, this remaster is the first time I've ever seen Kasumi but she seems cool. Kelly has never survived, oops.

 

[Bongo]

This time through the remaster I found myself liking Kaidan better than I remember. But then he died. So it goes.

Zaeed and Kasumi are fun and all, but I personally have to favor James for my favorite human party member. Be sure to assign him to complete a hacking task at some point.

 

[Violentvixen]

Oh, I forgot about Traynor. She has way more personality than Kelly although I don't know if she's a romance option. At least you'd know to buy her a fancy toothbrush as a gift! Ultimately though banging your secretary is such a creepy trope and I've had friends and family be cheated on with their spouse's secretary so I couldn't bring myself to romance either of them even if I was interested.

This time through the remaster I found myself liking Kaidan better than I remember. But then he died. So it goes.

Zaeed and Kasumi are fun and all, but I personally have to favor James for my favorite human party member. Be sure to assign him to complete a hacking task at some point.

Okay, you've got me curious. Gonna try this if I can.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Traynor is a lesbian LI. I've only played MaleShep and a lot of her interactions with him are kind of bad (hot tub - the writers are going "u know u want to... too bad u can't... unless u play femshep... HOT") but what are you gonna do. She's fine outside of that stuff. One thing to note is her VA didn't record anything for Leviathan. (best DLC) Everyone else has dialogue after every mission (including Steve, her gay counterpart who also has dialogue during a mission) but I missed some of it bc she had nothing to say so I assumed no one else did.

Kelly bad. IMO.

 

[Bongo]

You have to take Kelly to dinner in order to ask her to feed your fish, and you have to ask her to feed your fish and save her life in order for a certain kind of fish to survive to the third game, and you need to complete a full NG+ run keeping that fish alive from start to finish in order to unlock a research project that gives you a 10% damage bonus.

However, once you've asked her to feed your fish, you don't have to take it any further, and nobody else will acknowledge anything.