A Game Mass Effect 2 Contest Goes Live

Mass Effect 2 is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare Edmonton, with assistance from BioWare Montreal, and published by Electronic Arts. The game is the sequel to Mass Effect, and was released on PC and Xbox 360 in North America and India on January 26, 2010, Australia on January 28, and Europe and New Zealand on January 29.

Plot
Mass Effect 2 begins in 2183, shortly after Mass Effect. On patrol to locate and destroy any remaining geth, the Normandy and its commanding officer, Commander Shepard, are attacked. The crew is forced to evacuate. Joker, the helmsman, continues piloting the ship and is rescued by Shepard. Before Shepard can board the escape pod, Shepard is sent flying and debris slices through his/her suit as the Normandy is attacked again. Shepard dies from asphyxiation and his/her body enters a nearby planet’s atmosphere.

Shepard’s body is retrieved by Cerberus, an extremist pro-human organization. Over the course of two years, attempts are made to bring Shepard back to life via the Lazarus Project. Shepard awakens in 2185 aboard a Cerberus space station that is under attack. After Shepard aids Cerberus agents Jacob Taylor and Miranda Lawson, Shepard is granted an audience with the Illusive Man, who explains that Shepard was revived and ‘upgraded’ in return for his/her aid combating a new threat. Human colonies have been attacked, their colonists missing. The Illusive Man believes this is the work of Shepard’s old enemies, the Reapers, the race of mechanical dreadnoughts that periodically harvest the galaxy once galactic civilization reaches a certain point.

Shepard and his/her team investigate a recently attacked colony and encounters Tali, one of Shepard’s former squad members, and discovers the mysterious insect-like Collectors were behind the attack and are responsible for abductions at other human colonies. The Illusive Man places Shepard in command of the Normandy SR-2, modeled after the original. With the Illusive Man’s guidance, Shepard recruits a team for what is assumed to be a suicide mission.

The Illusive Man provides Shepard with dossiers regarding potential recruits: a salarian scientist, a vigilante named Archangel, a krogan warlord, and a powerful but psychotic biotic. The salarian, Mordin Solus, is found on Omega, working to stop a plague engineered by vorcha who are working for the Collectors. Archangel is also on Omega, and is actually Garrus Vakarian, one of Shepard’s previous squad members. The krogan warlord, Okeer, is found attempting to create the perfect krogan through unethical genetic research; when Okeer is killed he leaves his creation, Grunt, in Shepard’s care. The biotic, Jack, revealed to be a woman, is also known as “Subject Zero.” Cerberus arranges for her to be purchased from the prison holding her; Shepard travels to the prison ship, but is betrayed by the warden, who attempts to capture Shepard for a bounty. Shepard escapes and rescues Jack, who joins the team.

The Illusive Man reveals that a human colony is under Collector attack, and dispatches the team to save the colony. He notes that one of Shepard’s surviving crew members, either Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams depending on who the player sacrificed on Virmire in the first game, is stationed at the colony. Shepard arrives with his/her team and battles the Collectors; a third of the colonists have already been taken away. Shepard reunites with his/her former ally, who leaves feeling betrayed by Shepard working for Cerberus.

Shepard is provided with dossiers on more potential recruits: an asari Justicar, a drell assassin, and Tali. The Justicar, Samara, joins the team after Shepard investigates the Eclipse mercenary group and its involvement in a murder. The drell assassin, Thane Krios is in the midst of an assassination mission. Learning of Thane’s next target, Shepard finds Thane, who dispatches his target and joins the team. After she is rescued from an immense geth force, Tali joins Shepard.

The Illusive Man reveals that the Omega-4 relay – beyond which lies the Collector base – requires Reaper technology for the Normandy to navigate through it. Cerberus located a derelict Reaper, destroyed millions of years beforehand, and sent a science team to recover the device – an IFF transponder. Shepard discovers that the Cerberus science team members have been killed. Battling his/her way through Husks, Shepard recovers the IFF and salvages a friendly geth before destroying the ship’s core. Shepard may turn the geth over to Cerberus or activate it. If activated, the geth designates itself as Legion and joins the team.

Shepard departs with the recruited members on a shuttle towards their next mission as the Normandy prepares the IFF for testing. After the IFF is activated, the Collectors board the Normandy. Joker is forced to give control of the ship to its onboard A.I., named EDI – a potentially dangerous move. Gaining control of the ship, EDI pilots the Normandy away from the Collectors and rids the ship of all enemies, but the entire crew barring Joker is taken. Shepard’s hand is forced – Shepard can either complete secondary missions and sacrifice his/her crew, or go through the Omega-4 relay to rescue the Normandy crew.

After traveling through the relay, the game may proceed in different ways. Depending on whether Shepard enters the Omega-4 relay quickly, has upgraded parts of the Normandy, and has earned the loyalty of team members, any combination of crew and team may survive the final mission, including Shepard himself/herself. Shepard fights his/her way to the core of the Collector space station and discovers the Collectors have been constructing a new Reaper, made from the genetic material of the abducted humans and fused with the advanced technology of the Reapers. EDI suggests this is how all Reapers reproduce. Shepard targets the weak points of the machine, which is in the early stages of construction, and it collapses.

The Illusive Man suggests the team keep the station intact to allow research on its technology; any garnered information would be valuable in the coming war against the Reapers. Shepard may destroy the station or use a radiation pulse to kill the Collectors and allow Cerberus to take control of the station. After Shepard and his/her team destroy the Reaper, the surviving squad members escape to the Normandy. The Normandy undergoes repairs following the mission; somehow, Joker acquired schematics of a Reaper. Just before the destruction of the station Harbinger releases control of the Collector General. Harbinger and the rest of the Reapers awaken from hibernation, and begin emerging from dark space and start their long journey towards the Milky Way, setting the stage for Mass Effect 3.

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