My suspicion is that they make a raw ME2 Shepard out to have been a renegade in ME1 because it predisposes new players to accepting their new role in [ORGANIZATION REDACTED]. If Jacob pointed out in the prologue that Shepard loves people of all races and saves all the woodland creatures, it might cause some cognitive dissonance when you find out you're working for [ORGANIZATION REDACTED]. It certainly causes cognitive dissonance when you've played ME1.
It's pretty clear from the major choice in the ME2 endgame that ME3 Shepard will also be kind of a dick. ...From that perspective, it may be that BioWare just considers the renegade choices more interesting. They certainly make for greater conflict.
For what it is worth I thought the Shepard/Kaidan relationship in ME1 was relatively comradely, but I'm not particularly sensitive to these things. I suspect it may have a lot to do with the dialogue choices you make. Personally, I find the Shepard/Liara relationship to be less appealing because it's hard to engage it without feeling like you're taking advantage. Liara comes down with a bad case of hero worship, and it's never really clear whether she wants Shepard for who zie is or what zie is.
Good luck getting a hold of ME1 -- it's a good story, and worth playing, although you are really going to miss ME2's system. ME1 was rough around the edges.
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It's pretty clear from the major choice in the ME2 endgame that ME3 Shepard will also be kind of a dick. ...From that perspective, it may be that BioWare just considers the renegade choices more interesting. They certainly make for greater conflict.
For what it is worth I thought the Shepard/Kaidan relationship in ME1 was relatively comradely, but I'm not particularly sensitive to these things. I suspect it may have a lot to do with the dialogue choices you make. Personally, I find the Shepard/Liara relationship to be less appealing because it's hard to engage it without feeling like you're taking advantage. Liara comes down with a bad case of hero worship, and it's never really clear whether she wants Shepard for who zie is or what zie is.
Good luck getting a hold of ME1 -- it's a good story, and worth playing, although you are really going to miss ME2's system. ME1 was rough around the edges.