As a hardcore renegade Shepard, do you do loyalty missions?

[Gerfreckle]

Obviously from a pragmatic gameplay perspective it's essential to do the loyalty missions for a "better" result in the suicide mission (unless of course you consider the lives of your crew to be unimportant), but I was wondering how people handle the loyalty missions when they're doing a full renegade roleplay. Because, generally speaking, a true renegade Shepard would NOT have any interest in helping out his whiny crewmembers with their personal problems, but from a gameplay perspective that approach is counter-productive because it 1) means the suicide mission will go pretty poorly, and 2) it cuts out a TON of missions from the game (and the loyalty missions are usually the best missions).

Do you guys just do the loyalty missions anyway, and simply choose the renegade options every time on them, or do you actually avoid them entirely because your renegade Shepard doesn't give one ♥♥♥♥♥ about his crew?

[orthostatic]

I bust through that 4th wall like the Kool-Aid man, and do the loyalty missions just for the gear and experience gains. If I were RPing a one man army, I'd ignore them except maybe for Zaeed and Kasumi.

[alexander_dougherty]

Yes, because a loyal squad is less likely to shoot you in the back.

Renegade should mostly be viewed as ruthless and amoral rather than evil

[Jan]

RPG rule number 1: Never skip quests, enemies and optional areas. Gather all the loot and XP. So yes, I do all the things. You can also take renegade options during those missions. Imo there are a lot of situations were the "good" option is just right (I mean who would yell at Joker?). On the other hand you will find a bunch of situations were the "bad" options is just badass cool.

[Hartford688]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Yes, because a loyal squad is less likely to shoot you in the back.

Renegade should mostly be viewed as ruthless and amoral rather than evil

This. Renegade isn't necessarily a psychopath, or or evil. Is just the character who will get the job done, even if there is collateral damage.

And building the strongest team possible plays to getting the job done not effectively.

[Six of Saturn]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Yes, because a loyal squad is less likely to shoot you in the back.

Renegade should mostly be viewed as ruthless and amoral rather than evil

Agreed. I mentioned on another thread about my last playthrough on this game being one of my most favorite. I ended with about 85%/15% Renegade/Paragon. That was with curing the Genophage Eve died though and I even took responsibility for it to Wrex at funeral, we were not buddies but I had his respect, united Geth and Quarians, and romancing Kaiden in 3 which takes some Paragoning(I just made up a word). Got all the speech resolutions to deal with TIM and Saren. It felt right in the end compared to others I have done. IDK.

[Gerfreckle]

Originally posted by Six of Saturn:

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Yes, because a loyal squad is less likely to shoot you in the back.

Renegade should mostly be viewed as ruthless and amoral rather than evil

Agreed. I mentioned on another thread about my last playthrough on this game being one of my most favorite. I ended with about 85%/15% Renegade/Paragon. That was with curing the Genophage Eve died though and I even took responsibility for it to Wrex at funeral, we were not buddies but I had his respect, united Geth and Quarians, and romancing Kaiden in 3 which takes some Paragoning(I just made up a word). Got all the speech resolutions to deal with TIM and Saren. It felt right in the end compared to others I have done. IDK.

Aside from curing the genophage and helping Legion, which other major paragon choices did you make that fit consistently with your overall renegade playthrough?

[Six of Saturn]

Originally posted by Gerfreckle:

Originally posted by Six of Saturn:

Agreed. I mentioned on another thread about my last playthrough on this game being one of my most favorite. I ended with about 85%/15% Renegade/Paragon. That was with curing the Genophage Eve died though and I even took responsibility for it to Wrex at funeral, we were not buddies but I had his respect, united Geth and Quarians, and romancing Kaiden in 3 which takes some Paragoning(I just made up a word). Got all the speech resolutions to deal with TIM and Saren. It felt right in the end compared to others I have done. IDK.

Aside from curing the genophage and helping Legion, which other major paragon choices did you make that fit consistently with your overall renegade playthrough?

I started 3 with about 15% Renegade and maybe 3-5% Paragon rep. I made no other real huge Paragon decisions. I think much of it came from being loyal to my crew past and present. Like allowing Miranda Alliance access, and Dialog defending Legion and the Geth from the Quarians on the Normandy. It really was a ruthless method to missions and my enemies, Integrity to my allies Shep.

[ADhalism]

Originally posted by Jan:

RPG rule number 1: Never skip quests, enemies and optional areas. Gather all the loot and XP. So yes, I do all the things. You can also take renegade options during those missions. Imo there are a lot of situations were the "good" option is just right (I mean who would yell at Joker?). On the other hand you will find a bunch of situations were the "bad" options is just badass cool.

first rule of role-play games is to play like youre grinding out steam achievements?

[Champ Paper]

Depends. I've beaten this game many times and in order to spice up new playthroughs, I try to mix up my preparation for the Suicide Mission. Sometimes, that involves doing minimal loyalty missions, for sure.

[Dr.Abscondus]

I don't think you understand the meaning of renegade in this game. You don't play as a renegade just to be an incompetent asshat. The renegade is just as focused on completing the mission of destroying the Reapers as the paragon. The renegade is just a little more ruthless and less diplomatic about doing it. That means you don't get valuable assets killed for no reason. You assemble the strongest team possible which means gaining the loyalty of your crew. If you're going to carry over a save to ME3 you do not want half your crew to be dead. If you're just messing around with the game then you can do want you want just to see what happens.

[Gerfreckle]

Originally posted by Dr.Abscondus:

I don't think you understand the meaning of renegade in this game. You don't play as a renegade just to be an incompetent asshat.

No need to be condescending, mate. I've played the ME trilogy several times, and ME2 in particular about 7 or 8 times. I specifically mentioned why a hardcore renegade Shepard MIGHT not do the loyalty missions from a roleplay perspective (i.e. not caring about his crew's personal problems). I wasn't saying I agreed or disagreed with that thought.

[Champ Paper]

Originally posted by Gerfreckle:

Originally posted by Dr.Abscondus:

I don't think you understand the meaning of renegade in this game. You don't play as a renegade just to be an incompetent asshat.

No need to be condescending, mate. I've played the ME trilogy several times, and ME2 in particular about 7 or 8 times. I specifically mentioned why a hardcore renegade Shepard MIGHT not do the loyalty missions from a roleplay perspective (i.e. not caring about his crew's personal problems). I wasn't saying I agreed or disagreed with that thought.

Sometimes the game is more fun when you play an incompetent asshat. It's all about how you wanna play it and your mindset.

[Valhenstrogg]

After just starting a pure Renegade play-through, my guiding philosophy will be to accept every quest and squad-member possible, so as to maximize my pure Renegade potential.

Playing pure Paragon, you accept quests and squad-members in an altruistic feedback-loop; helping others, gives you more rewards, and leads to more opportunities, to be helping others.

However, if you want your Shepherd to seize every opportunity, for maximum bad-ass-itude: you have to play like a Paragon to get the choice, then pick Renegade anyway, just to truly revel in it.

[Mati_Lublin]

From RP perspective: yes, because my slaves crew will be focused on a mission/won't have a reason to shoot me in the back AND usually it means some gratification for me.

[GlorFindel1983]

Of course you do loyalty missions; you just do them Renegade style and if by doing so you can't get all Squad members loyal; that's just the way Renegades play!