Tali all the way! Followed closely by liara. Pretty basic I know, but those are the best girls in the Galaxy
I don’t think Liara was a romance option in ME2 which made Tali the easy choice.
But Liara is pretty great too. Love her.
Let the moon’s shining light find two lovers with its rays
Though I know that dawn will set us apart on separate ways
I will hold this night in memory for all my living days
Now unmasked, I feel your skin on mine…
Liara, on Illium Facebook: (clicks “it’s complicated”)
You can have a quasi-romance with her in the Shadow Broker DLC, I think. I remember being disappointed that you had to buy a DLC to continue a romance from ME 1 to ME 3.
Yes, there’s a scene in Shadow Broker that reflects a romance with Liara from ME1. You can continue it, or tell Liara you want to break it off.
However, if you skip Shadow Broker, and don’t romance anyone in ME2, you can easily rekindle things with Liara when she reappears in ME3. If you did romance someone else in ME2 after having romanced Liara in ME1, she will confront you in ME3 and ask you to break off the other relationship before resuming.
It’s pretty clear the BioWare designers regard this romance as “preferred/canon” and make it as easy as possible for you to maintain it across the games.
(I’ve lost track of my number of playthroughs and the various permutations I’ve tried. It’s in the double digits, though.)
I just thought it was kind of lame that there was no possibility of continuing a romance from ME 1 to ME 2 even though most of the squadmates from ME 1 show up in ME 2 in some form or other. (One of many minor gripes I have about ME 2.)
There’s a long thing I read one time (maybe here?) That basically laid out how Liara is the true hero of Mass Effect and is actually the most loyal squadmate. It was really cool. Ever since then I’ve had a soft spot for her
This pleases me greatly.
(In my ideal version, they also… um… deflate EDI.)
EDI didn’t bother me as much as the ridiculous boob armor for Liara in ME 3.
Not missile launchers?
The frequent camera angles on her ass were gratuitous yet I cannot say my inner 16-year old wasn’t titillated. A part of me felt it was a bit much and a part enjoyed it, crude as it was. Miranda was beautiful and it is hard to say (for a heterosexual male anyway) that it is not pleasing to see.
Which was probably their intention. Dialing it back some will be an improvement though.
I haven’t read the article, but I already hate it because Miranda is barely a step above Jacob as the worst of all ME squadmates.
(Original trilogy, not Andromeda)
I agree…it’s been awhile but I know I almost never chose Jacob as a squadmate and Miranda was only in a squad a bit more than Jabob for me. Usually cuz I felt like she deserved a turn. Jacob was a little too righteous for me. Mostly though I just didn’t find them useful in a mission.
Honestly, I never felt my squad picks really changed much. It seemed it was usually me doing 85% of the work (there were a few missions where it seemed to make a difference).
I used Miranda in ME2 very frequently; I found Overload and Warp were great ways to damage shields and armor (respectively) and she gave a mild boost to squadmate weapon damage to boot.
My least favourite companion from ME2 is easily Thane (to the extent where I have a hard time remembering his name). Not because of his powers, which are fine (although I find sniper rifles fairly useless on squadmates and Throw and Shredder Ammo are less useful on hard levels where you need to strip off shields/armor first). But I find his back story boring, his personality flat, and I absolutely cannot stand his stupid reliving-memories schtick.
He’s pretty cool in ME3, though.
I got an A on an advertising project in grad school because I wrote a magazine ad for jewelry in the same Short. Punchy. Tone. that Thane’s memory relapses are.
I do get your point about him though, he doesn’t really have the best powers and if I need someone to compliment my biotic warrior build, I’m using Grunt or Garrus
My go-to was Grunt or Garrus with Tali.
I was an Infiltrator with a sniper rifle using tech attacks. My tech attacks were my standard way of fighting, and I saved my sniper rifle ammo for really big things.
Thane never seemed to have anything to offer me either.
I’m that boring guy who usually chooses Soldier and uses an assault rifle almost exclusively (this apples to basically every video game I play, not just ME). What I want is squad mates who follow my lead, soften the enemies up for me, and stay out of my line of fire. That’s why my default squad was Garrus and either Tali or Liara. Those three have the best banter, too.
As for romance, Tali is a great girl, but Liara is a woman.
Tali was best for crowd control because of wonderful Chikkita (or whatever she called her drone).
Get near a big bad and just say “here, play with this” while I wail on him with bullets. Good for husks too (but the best for them is still shockwave)