The Awakening

Now comes the fun part: character customization. Construct Commander Shepard's mug to your fancy, but once you exit the Lazarus Project Shepard's look will be final. Continuing tailoring Shepard's core personality and character class, and when ready the game begins proper.

Shepard goes through a lapse of consciousness before a voice over the intercom rouses the slumbering and now groggy Shepard. It's Miranda. She informs him that the ship is in dire straits and that he needs to get moving. Grab the highlighted M-3 Heavy Pistol along with its thermal clip further up and prepare to quickly learn how to use it. Shepard is soon attacked by LOKI mechs, which go down after a few direct hits. Take cover as needed, destroy the oncoming opposition, and proceed through green-lit doors to your destination. Not too long after the initial skirmish with hostiles, Shepard runs across a fallen comrade's M-100 Grenade Launcher.

Equip this shiny new toy by going into your weapons inventory and use it on the trio of enemies below. There's a movable platform to the right; use it to descend to the scrap metal-littered catwalk and dash through the jet of flames. The first accessible door leads to a room devoted to research on…presumably Commander Shepard himself. There's a wall safe, whose elementary security can easily be bypassed by simply matching up the icons. Just woken up and here you are already with credits flooding into your pocket!

A man is seen standing his ground against enemy waves just beyond the next door. You learn that his name is Jacob. This time around you'll notice that more dialogue options have sprung up on the left side, allowing you to dig up some much-needed answers on the present situation. The dialogue options on the right usually steer the conversation toward a conclusive end; it's better to exhaust the left side of options for investigative purposes. Jacob, however, doesn't have the time nor patience to be your information squeeze toy right now. The rest of your questions will have to wait until after you help him neutralize the immediate threats. Jacob possesses Biotic abilities that will prove very useful for quick disposal of the mechs. Feel free to play around with them.

As promised, Jacob opens the floor to any pressing questions Shepard has. Jacob spills the reduced-fat beans version on the Lazarus Project, Miranda, the Normandy crew, and this hectic situation. When ready, Jacob follows you as a squad member and lends you his Biotic powers. While he will automatically respond appropriately to danger, you can take full advantage of his abilities as well. Follow the linear path toward more enemies and to the source of a distressed Wilson.

Unfortunately, when you find Wilson on the ground, he's badly wounded and requests Shepard for some first aid assistance from the Medi-Gel station on the wall. Grab the Medi-Gel and patch up Wilson, who declares the debt is now even. Some discussion regarding the possible identity of the traitor ensues with Miranda popping up as one of the potential candidates. Wilson seems very eager to place the blame on Miranda, but any further discussion becomes disrupted by an enemy invasion. Barging through the exit doors, several mechs have taken the fight to Shepard, Jacob, and Wilson. Luckily, the newest addition to the squad, Wilson, has the Overload ability that will make short work of the new invaders.

With the enemies neutralized, Jacob continues the conversation, revealing who they're working for and that they're trying to recruit Shepard for their purposes. Whatever your reaction, it's time to head out. In the hallway, spot the Data Pad on the ground and hack it to receive some credits. This hacking puzzle involves matching up a pre-set code sequence that is displayed at the top and a series of other code sequences slowly scrolling upward. You must identify and match up the correct code sequence with the pre-selected one three times within a time limit for a successful hack.

The squad meets more resistance in the hangar, and the action only heats up as they probe deeper in. As if on cue, more mechs come to life and react aggressively to your presence. Don't forget the fact that you have very powerful and useful allies at your disposal. It would be wise to use their abilities and extra firepower to your advantage as you tread through these danger zones. We strongly advise going up the right-hand side to avoid being ambushed by more mechs. Through the facility's exit, we bump into Miranda, who is alive and well, to Wilson's dismay.

Remember that you earn (and have been earning) Paragon and Renegade points depending on how you react to the following developments. At this point, you also get to pick apart Miranda's brain for any other information you would like to delve deeper into.

The remaining survivors ship out for an audience with the Illusive Man at the Cerberus outpost. Follow the path down to be taken to the Illusive Man. It turns out that Shepard's initial meeting with the Illusive Man isn't exactly as he thought it would be, but no matter--there are still answers to be had and Shepard wants them one way or another.

You come to a lull in the storyline, a period between finishing up the meeting with the Illusive Man and the newly assembled crew's setting off for the mysteriously disappearing colony of Freedom's Progress. Use this intermission to talk to Miranda and Jacob in order to farm either more Paragon or Renegade points before departing. If you have Squad points to spend, do so now and, when ready, move out to Freedom's Progress.