Mass Effect 2/Unused Text

Alternate Horizon
These lines indicate that Horizon would have gone quite a bit differently, with Ashley/Kaidan having a much bigger role:

Alternate Tali Loyalty
The conflict between the quarians and geth was originally going to have an even bigger role in Tali's loyalty mission, with Shepard doing an "investigation" of sorts. In the final game, speaking with the admirals and commenting on the quarian-geth conflict is completely optional. These entries also reveal that Tali's father was at risk of being exiled, not Tali herself.

Cut Alarei Sidequest
Not all of the scientists on the Alarei would have died during the geth attack:

Early Grunt Death
This journal line indicates that it would have been possible to kill Grunt after releasing him from the tank; in the final game, you can only wound him as a warning.

Early Kasumi Loyalty
Like Zaeed, Kasumi had a completely different loyalty mission during development. Early journal entries:

This was likely changed because of how impersonal it seems; most of the loyalty missions in the final game involve someone or something very close to the squadmate. In the final game, a big theme of Kasumi's loyalty mission is her connection with her late lover/partner-in-crime Keiji.

However, remnants of this early loyalty mission still remain in the final game; Kasumi's name is mentioned during an Illium news story in connection with Nava Corp.

Early Kasumi Recruitment
Unlike Zaeed, Kasumi doesn't have an outline for a recruitment mission, although there is a slightly different dossier for her than in the final game:

Again, Kasumi doesn't have a last name here, although her description is largely the same, the primary differences being her title ("The Saboteur" instead of "The Master Thief") and the place where you meet her (Illium instead of the Citadel).

Early Zaeed Loyalty
Zaeed's loyalty mission was completely overhauled during development, getting a new name and an entirely different plot. Journal entries for the early mission:

And unused dummy text:

Early Zaeed Recruitment
Zaeed was originally to have a recruitment mission of his own:

(It's worth noting that in the final game, Korlus is where Grunt's recruitment mission is.)

There's dev notes left over with an outline of how Shepard's first meeting with him would have gone:

(Again worth noting: Korlus in the final game doesn't have any "bad sections." Korlus is the "bad section.")

Normandy Crash Site Notes
Notes from the "Normandy Crash Site" mission which reveal that it wasn't going to have static flashbacks like in the final game:

And cinematics:

Strangely, this section of notes also includes notes for the ending of the "Project Firewalker: Prothean Site" DLC assignment, which was released after this.

Nice spelling errors.

Random Assignment Scrap
Exciting!

*ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION*
This email indicates that it would have been possible to choose to leave Legion's body on the derelict Reaper. In the final game, Shepard automatically orders his/her squad to bring it onto the Normandy.

From an old friend from Virmire
The reason why this was cut is the mention of the "stasis field used in the human colony attacks"--in the final game, the Collectors use seeker swarms to abduct people. Why they decided to cut it entirely instead of doing a minor rewrite is unknown.

Probe Retrieval
This is obviously a trigger for a side mission that was never implemented.

Unused Shadow Broker Dossiers
These three dossier entries were meant to be included in Samara's section of the Shadow Broker dossiers (found in the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC), but ultimately left out.

Character Creation Testing
The entirety of the Mass Effect fanbase is still bitter that this wasn't left in.

Early Sidequest
Probably an early version of "N7: Anomalous Weather Detected."

Oculus Fight Notes
Note how the main character's name is spelled wrong. Way to go!

Turbonium
Probably a placeholder from before the devs decided what elements to use as resources.

Cut Planetary System
Like all the other planetary systems in the game, the planets in this system are theme-named; in this case, the theme is "utopias." In order, the names of the planets refer to Plato's Republic, Henry David Thoreau's Walden, Samuel Butler's Erewhon: or, Over the Range, Mary E. Bradley Lane's Mizora, the titular island from Aldous Huxley's Island, and a nickname for the Pacific Northwest (inspiration for loads of utopian rhetoric).

Early Heavy Weapon Ammo Name
Heavy weapon ammunition is referred to as "power cells" in the final game.

Early Squadmate Upgrade Descriptions
While this text specifically doesn't appear in the game, most of these upgrades are in the final game. Some differences: Kasumi and Zaeed don't have upgrades in the final, Grunt gets the M-300 Claymore shotgun, and Miranda and Samara/Morinth's upgrades are switched.

Early Weapon System
Judging from the looks of this, we should probably be glad this feature got scrapped:

Lusarn System Communications Relay
Lusarn is the system where Horizon is located, so this could possibly have something to do with that.

ME1 Persuade System
A small remnant of ME1's Charm and Intimidate skills:

Scrap Strings
(Cut character? Early name for Matriarch Aethyta?)

Note for a cutscene which didn't make it into ME2 (but sounds a lot like something that would happen during ME3).

Note for some random cutscene.

Note for a sidequest.

Sparky
An early version of the robo-dog available in Mass Effect 3. Well, the collector's edition.

An Unexpected Cameo
In return for stealing the players' hard-earned credits in ME1, the devs stole the SLC's place in ME2.