Three weeks ago, I left a post about how I geeked out on a lot of Mass Effect 2 previews. Before release, EA and Bioware dished out a lot of details on returning characters, new characters, and even the ending. I'll try not to unnecessarily spoil more than EA spoiled themselves.
The first few minutes of any story is fair game to spoil. The Normandy crashing, Shepard dying and then joining a white human-supremacist group is just the set-up. Preview videos went way further than that though, and revealed stuff that happens 20-30 hours in.
Let's start with the ending. You, and/or any of your squad can die during the climax. Dialogue and loading-screen tips hint at this throughout. I'm used to not being able stay dead in a video game, especially during the second part of a trilogy. Without knowing this, I probably would've foolhardily rushed to the final mission without preparing. I still managed to lose one of my favorite allies and was shocked when it happened. You win this one, Bioware.
Of the new characters to join the squad, Legion, a Geth, is the most surprising. Or at least he would've been if I didn't know about him from the start. When you want to surprise an audience by bringing a character from an enemy faction to the player's side, it helps not to tell them about it from the get-go.
On to the returning characters. One of the first allies you recruit is Garrus - a rouge ex-cop from the first game. This is presented as a surprise; he isn't referred to by name until you find him, and the camera tantalisingly avoids his face until the last possible moment. Shepard acts surprised and happy to see him again, but I had already worked out who "Archangel" was.
Tali also returns, but the circumstances under which she rejoins Shepard aren't straightforward.
So the EA marketing machine spoiled a few surprises in Mass Effect 2 for me. Bioware games are huge though, so they still had surprises great and inconsequential in there. I wish they had gone into less detail about characters that could have surprised me, especially Legion, who joined my squad at least 20 hours in. Ultimately, EA wanted a massive marketing push and I should've been able to control myself and ignore media coverage.
