Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10
- Approximate time: 35-80 Hours
- Offline: 1000/1030 ?
- Online: 0
- Missable Achievements: 20 – Loyalty and Suicide Mission survival achievements, Big Game Hunter, Friend or Foe, Master at Arms, and some upgrade/combat achievements.
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 (2 if you haven’t played Mass Effect 1).
- Glitched achievements: 2, "Revenge!" and "Broke, Blind and Bedlam."
- Cheats: None
- Does difficulty affect achievements?: Only "Insanity."
Introduction:
Carrying on the previous story of Mass Effect and Shepard’s mission to prevent the return of the Reapers, you will encounter a vast, immersive world of new environments and characters.
If you have played through Mass Effect and completed the game at a respectable level and have a good amount of completed quests, be sure to import your character into Mass Effect 2 to enjoy the rewards.
The only real difference between the Japanese version (this version) and the 'regular version' is the lack of DLC. As well as the fact this version is uncompletable as the Zaeed and Kasumi DLCs are broken/unplayable. Which make the related achievements impossible.
Abbreviated Walkthrough:
There are several achievements, which are very easy to miss out on, based around the ally (loyalty) missions. There are also several weapon and biotic achievements which are easy to miss. It is possible to get all the achievements in one playthrough by starting with an imported Shepard and playing on insanity, but that would be making things very difficult for yourself. For the sake of this walkthrough, it is suggested you start on casual, normal, or veteran. The achievements are a bit easier this time around, and you can expect to get 600-925 (max if you import) gamerscore your first time through if you don’t play on insanity.
Loyalty Missions:
Once you recruit a new squad member you will find out each one will need help at some point through out the story. You can ignore these missions if you like but you will be better off if you complete them. You can either talk to Kelly Chambers (located to the right of the galaxy map) or the crew as you wander around the ship. Make sure to talk to all squad members after each main or side mission.
Importing Your Save:
When you first start up a new playthrough, there will be an option to import a Mass Effect 1 save. Make sure you have one on your hard drive or memory unit in order for this to work. It will take into consideration: your major plot decisions, certain side mission decisions, and depending on your level, you will start out with more resources and a higher level (max level 5 if you were a 60 in ME1.) You will also get the achievement ‘Long Service Medal’ in only one playthrough using an imported character.
Playthrough 1 - Normal:
The bulk of your achievement will be earned through playing on Normal. By the time you finish the game you should be around level 26 which will carry over into your second playthrough.
All weapon and biotic achievements can be done within this playthrough, you don't need to directly use the biotics. If you keep two biotic squad members you can use their powers to earn the achievements.
You will want make sure you enter the Omega 4 Relay with the majority of your squad loyal by completing their respective loyalty missions. Please read the guide for more information on these missions. Finding minerals and researching specific upgrades is also a key part of surviving the finale. You will also want to build a relationship with either male or female characters depending on your own Shepard’s gender.
Most achievements will come naturally while playing through the story missions.
Playthrough 2 - Insanity:
Before you start playing through on insanity you should have completed at least one playthrough of the game to level up. Starting on this skill won't benefit you in any way, as you won't be strong enough to take on most tasks, and it can get quite frustrating. Doing a second playthrough is also useful, as you will start with 200,000 credits and 50,000 of each resource, which will help you get upgrades quicker.
At this point you shouldn't have to do much apart from continue the story and collect your last few achievements if you missed any on your first playthrough.
Clean-up:
Assuming you survived the suicide mission, you can play after the credits. If you missed any weapon/power/side-mission achievements, you might be able to get them by exploring planets and doing any N7 missions you may have missed. Partial playthroughs may be required if you are unsuccessful with this.
Conclusion:
While this game is uncompletable which is a bummer, it's still essentially vanilla Mass Effect 2 so it's definitely still worth playing and enjoying all over again.
Depending on how you have played the game you should find most of the achievements fairly straightforward but will require careful decisions to avoid several playthroughs. You shouldn’t have too much difficulty, aside from your insanity playthrough, which is quite challenging compared to last time. Good luck on your suicide mission!
[XBA would like to thank KillerBEA & Sirius for this Roadmap]