Making the decisions about who to assign to what task was really cool though and genuinely felt like pressure was being put on me, even if I'm not really sure what the hidden mechanics behind each choice were and how much things could have changed if I'd made the obviously-wrong choices. Like at one point, Miranda (who was leading some diversion squad) got shot in the stomach but just shrugged it off, and as I understand it, if I hadn't done her loyalty mission she would have arbitrarily died from the same shot. Similarly, Samara (who was doing the biotic shield) got exhausted and nearly collapsed near the level exit, but then suddenly got a burst of strength and made it through the door, so I'm guessing she'd have died there if she'd been unloyal. I had everyone loyal except Thane, who survived anyway, and all the ship upgrades, so I didn't get to see any of the hilarious death scenes.
The end result feels a bit thin - if you buy all the upgrades and do everyone's missions, they seem to be guaranteed to survive, which removes a lot of the appeal - but I'm not really sure how they could have done the same thing in a way where squadmates die as a result of your actions without it feeling fairly arbitrary.