Musing on the Mass Effect 2 team.

** Warning: Spoilers Below **

So as I've finished ME2 for the second time, I have to take a moment to muse about the team selection. Granted part of the fun is finding new teammates and doing their subsequent loyalty quests, but for every really cool, in-depth character offered, there is a half-ass carbon copy added moments later. The redundancy in the game is mind boggling. Honestly I would have preferred half the team and a better fleshed-out story. And when you consider you can only take TWO team members with you at any given time (even on the freaking suicide missions!) it begs the question of why in the hell we needed so many damn characters. Lemme break it down for you:

Miranda & Jacob: Okay I get why these two are the exact same character. They are your token human love interests and there had to be one for men and one for women. Also they are opposite poles on the moral compass; Miranda is a cold, calculating "whatever it takes" sort of person where as Jacob is the "this doesn't feel right..." warm, fuzzy end of the compass. However if you look beyond their sex and race, they're the same damn character. Moderate shooting abilities, mild biotics, flat, boring personalities and stories... meh. Both of them stayed on board my ship except for when I dusted them off for their loyalty missions.

Grunt & Zaeed: Easily my two favorite characters of the entire game, and my escorts on ANY missions that allowed me to freely choose. However I gotta admit they're the same character in every way except race. Both are violent, battle-hungry and callous individuals who offer the "kill them all!" responses to any situation. Zaeed is a little more morally ambiguous, but is definitely the hooker with the heart of gold character. Almost every line out of Grunt's mouth is gold, and his loyalty mission is super fun. Both prefer shotguns and are great for close-quarters combat. Personal love of both characters aside, you could have done with one or the other, and I'm going to have to go with Grunt on this because what is an ME game without a blood-lusting Krogan? (and I'm bitter that Zaeed wasn't a romance option)

Samara & Subject Zero (aka Jack): Ugggggggh. I don't know which of these characters annoys me the MOST. I'm going to have to go with Subject Zero/Jack simply because she's the angry girl stereotype. Hot and showing lots of skin, but spouting off ridiculous "tough girl" statements, I spent her entire loyalty mission wanting to strangle her. Not to mention her loyalty mission felt like the equivalent of an Oscar vehicle movie (Revolutionary Road, anyone?). The developers wanted me to feel sorry for her, but I just couldn't. I didn't try so hard to breeze through any other mission in the game as I did hers. She's a powerful biotic but so is her carbon copy, Samara, and she's a heck of a lot more interesting. Though Samara definitely irked the hell out of my inner-feminist with her ridiculous DD boob job. Ugh. Shephard needed an option to ask her to zip up her damn jacket. That aside, her story was far more developed and her loyalty mission was actually kind of fun. Keep her, throw Jack in the trash.

Thane, Legion & Garrus: I totally admit to squeeing when I saw Archangel revealed as Garrus. Joy! I always had a thing for the annoyingly straight-laced Garrus in ME, and was overjoyed at the prospect of him being a romance option in ME2, though his romance scene is unarguably one of the least, *ahem* fulfilling. But I digress. Garrus is a sniper and a helluva good shot. He's also an alien. To me the part of "alien sniper" had been filled. But then in walks Thane. Finding Thane was definitely a fun trip, and his intro scene is nothing short of cinematic. HOWEVER, why the hell do I have this person on my team?! He reveals he's dying which tells me he won't be in ME3, and he's an alien sniper, a role that has already been filled. What is he doing here?! I was so wildly unimpressed with Thane that I didn't even bother to do his loyalty mission the first go-around which resulted in his death in the suicide mission. *sigh* Waste of time. Last in the carbon copy world we have Legion, who I also genuinely liked. He was the only copy (oh look, another alien sniper!) that I enjoyed and understood because it looks like the geth will be playing a major role in ME3. But sadly he, too, sat on the ship save his loyalty mission because I already had an alien sniper.

Mordin & Tali: While not copies in abilities, these two both fell into the "Huh. Okay..." category. I'm not really sure why they bothered to bring Tali back, other than her buddy is Jayne Cobb (holy cameo, Batman!). Her loyalty mission was easily the most emotional of all as I felt genuine sadness for the outcome, but why is she on my team? She spends the entirety of her conversations telling me that Cerberus did a good job rebuilding the Normandy and everything looks good. What are you here? Oh, that's right, the male Shepard needs a female alien love interest. Gotcha. Mordin is definitely an interesting character, and the fact that he sings Guilbert and Sullivan is definitely worth his being on my ship (along with his warning against chaffing), and his loyalty mission is also very emotional and interesting. But other than offering me a few useful upgrades, I never quite understood why I have him on my team. Like Tali he could have shown up to help and then disappeared.

I get the impression the designers had a bunch of great ideas and just weren't sure where to cut. Or they wanted to offer lots of options. Don't want Garrus as your alien sniper? Try the frogman! No frogman? Try the geth! Ehhhhh... I guess my complaints wouldn't be so irksome if I were allowed more than TWO team members. Seriously? TWO?! Give me Grunt, Garrus, Miranda, Samara, & Mordin and call it a day.

But then that's just my opinion on the matter.