The lights are on
Let me begin this news story by noting that there's some information in this post that some may consider to be a spoiler for Mass Effect 2. It's information that BioWare has been pretty open about, but nonetheless: You have been warned.
As anyone who's followed Mass Effect 2's pre-launch hype knows (or anyone who's played through the game since launch), it's possible for your game to end with main character Shepard (along with most or all of the Normandy crew) dying. Both BioWare and some loading screen text in the game have coyly hinted at what this means for Mass Effect 3, but we wanted to be certain.
Thankfully, producer Casey Hudson was willing to give us the clear facts on what happens to your save file if your Shepard dies in Mass Effect 2:
"Dead is dead. Mass Effect 3, as with the rest of the trilogy, is Shepard’s story. If you have a dead Shepard at the end of Mass Effect 2, that saved game won’t import into Mass Effect 3. You can play Mass Effect 3 if you died in Mass Effect 2 of course, but you’ll have to create a new Shepard. Harsh? Yes. But we wouldn’t be serious about the concept of a suicide mission if you couldn’t die and your death didn’t have serious consequences."
So there it is! Just in case you weren't 100 percent certain, now you know just how seriously you should take the end-game consequences in Mass Effect 2.
For more about Mass Effect 2 from Casey Hudson, be sure to check out our Afterwords on the game in the April issue.
Email the author Phil Kollar, or follow on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Game Informer.
hrm... xD
You must be a moron to die in Mass Effect 2.
Is it bad that everyone lived through my first playthough and now all I can think about is playing again and making sure everyone dies, lol!
The only person that died on me was legion I made a save from right before the final mission tho so all I gotta do is finish his upgrades and apologize to Miranda for going with jack in their fight reply the final mission (about 1 hour) and I should be good.
Btw anyone else think Mass Effect Galaxy was the BEST game for $2 in the history of mankind?
@ Jacob Grim
lol
I think its pretty hard to die in the end game, the only way to die is if u do nothing, no side missions no loyalty missions, and no talking to any crew member, all u have to do is recruit everybody. And BAM! Ur dead in the end.
I lost 1 person my first playthrough, freakin Tali kept dyin.
wow. lol
I lost two party memebers that I didn't care about, but Shepard and the rest made it through. How does no one get killed? Would you need a guide to know that or did I miss something obvious?
Has anyone actually had their character die in ME2? I'm not even sure what you would have to do to kill off your Shepard. Any chance some one could let me know? I might actually wann a play through it again to try it!
@Tanooki and others asking how to have Shepard die: Basically, I think you've got to make a lot of wrong choices at the end and go into that final mission without doing many of the loyalty missions. So either you're rushing through and not thinking about it much, or you're actually trying to have him die.
i went out of my way trying to die at the end mission and failed. which means i lived. i was pissed.
@ Phil Kollar
Actually I'm wondering how everybody lives. I've seen a few people say they didn't lose anyone at the end. Anyone know how you do that?
I think the only way you can have Shepard die is if you want him to die. I beat the game with everyone surviving, and I think if you want everyone to die you basically have to not get any of the ship upgrades, send the wrong people on the wrong specialist tasks, and not have anyone loyal to you. IE. Piss off everyone, don't upgrade anything, and make nothing but poor choices.
@Tanooki: Oh, I did that. :) Just a matter of being very very very smart with your choices. Making sure everyone is loyal helps too.
Everyone survived on my playthrough! Thanks too Tali, Miranda, Garrus, Samara, Thane, Legion & Grunt!
Are you able to stay living at the end of Mass Effect 2?
thats something to think about
Ok I have my answer now. Have a look (spoilers) at this link to see everything you need to do in order to make sure everyone lives:
mycheats.1up.com/.../xbox_360
So it looks like you'd never know all of that without using a guide. I don't feel so bad now. Didn't know y'all was cheatin'.
How is this a bad thing? And yeah, it's harder to die in Mass Effect 2 than to keep everyone alive.