Some words about Mass Effect 2

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MASS EFFECT 2

Alright, so it's time to talk about another Bioware game again. This time I'll try and make it fast.

At the end of Mass Effect 2, you and your team go on a suicide mission to save your lost crew, and stop the Collectors. It is entirely possible for your party members, and even Shepard to die. There's a way to ensure your characters won't die, which I won't go into, because honestly it's not that important. The important thing is, that I researched this ahead of time, to make sure I didn't lose any party members.

Now, I'm wondering if I fucked up by doing this. Of course, I want MY Commander Shepard to go into Mass Effect 3 without having lost any of the main characters. However, did I cheat myself out of an emotional experience by not playing the game by ear, and paying the price for an error in judgment?

I've heard people talking about it on podcast, and it sounds like I'm really missing out on some intense moments by not seeing any of my crew members die in front of my eyes. Imagine if Garrus, one of my favorite characters, and love interest in ME2 took a bullet to the head right in front of me? I think that would invoke some pretty crazy emotions.

What if I didn't know what I needed to do to save my crew, and was wondering the whole time if someone was going to bite the bullet? Wouldn't that be extremely intense? Wouldn't that be a gaming experience unlike anything I've ever seen before?

I guess I could just answer all this by going back to an earlier save and making every wrong choice I could. But would it be the same now? Not unlike before when I knew everyone was going to survive. I'd know that people were going to die, and that none of these deaths would be "canon" in my Mass Effect universe.

What about on my new Shepard? He's going to be a Paragon this time. It doesn't seem like he'd let party members die. And would it be worth it to let party members die on these new Shepard, just so I can experience the effect it will have in Mass Effect 3? I still don't feel comfortable doing it.

Hm.