Mass Effect Trilogy

I just beat the Trilogy for the first time over the passed few weeks. If you'd be interested in reading my thoughts as I go along, I can post a thread where I reported my thoughts.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/threa...e-here.322240/

If not, here are my thoughts in brief:

2 was by far the best game.
Best squadmates were Wrex, Garrus, Miranda, Jack, Mordin, Thane, Legion
Favorite NPCS are: Anderson, Aria, Illusive Man
The first game was the worst.
3's lack of dialogue options and forcing a personality on Shepard really put me off at first but it does get dialed back some later on.
My favorite races were Krogan, Asari, Volus and Reapers.
Harbinger's lack of importance in 3 was another reason teh game was very disappointing. I expected him to be the end boss of 2 and when that didn't happen I expected him to be a boss in 3. Yeah....bummed that didn't happen.

If you're interested in a brief summary of my Shepard, I played Femshep because I love Jennifer Hale. I played her as a loyal soldier through-and-through. First she was loyal to the Council because she was a Spectre.She ddi everything for the greater good. Then the Council turned their backs on her and so she devoted herself instead to Cerberus who, in addition to RESURRECTING HER, also were the only ones trying to stop the Reapers.

...and then they betrayed her too. So by ME3 my Shepard was very disillusioned and just fed up with everything. I had always played a mostly Renegade Shep but by 3 she was definitely evil.

If you want a list of my major choices or the ones I really remember....

ME1:
Saved the Council
Killed the Batarian terrorist at the expense of his hostages
Saved the Rachni Queen
Talked Wrex down

ME2:
Gave Collector Base to Cerberus
Left David in Project Overlord
Had Jack kill the other Praggia survivor
Let Mordin kill Maelon but saved Maelon's research
Exposed Tali's father's crimes. Tali subsequently died on the Suicide Mission. Boohoo.
Let Garrus kill Sidonis

ME3:
Got Refusal Ending
Left Rachni Queen to die
Went ahead with curing genophage
Sided with geth
Executed Samara's last daughter

My Shepard is Loyal - that is her defining characteristic. I couldn't play full Renegade because she wasn't ambitious or a needless jerk. Of the many things you can say about my Shep, she was never hungry for power. She will serve and protect and that is all. That might make her Lawful Evil because she commits herself wholly to a cause/person, even if that cause/person is morally questionable. She left those workers to die in Zaeed's mission because he said there was no time to save them. She let Jack kill that other guy because it seemed to be what Jack wanted to do. Basically, as someoene lse put it, she's the type that, when a friend shows up with a corpse, would say "I'll help you hide the body" as opposed to "WTF????"

That's why I felt Refuse made the most sense for her. She wasn't about to determine the fate of the galaxy. She's just a soldier, nothing more.

It's also why she cured the genophage, in spite of the salarian temptation. She had promised to help the krogan and turians and Wrex and Mordin and to go back on her word, no matter how much she had fallen, was beyond her.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and I liked it. My chief complaint is Femshep had very little in the way of interesting romance options. I romanced Liara but I'd much ratehr have romanced Jack. Jack IS bisexual game! Way to contradict yourself by not letting me be with her. Asses. Apparently only a penis can cure her trauma.

And of course the best romance option for Femshep in 2, Morinth, will KILL ME if I am with her. Bleh.

EDIT:

Whoops, this should go in the RPG forum. My bad.

Stopped reading when you didn't include Tali in with best squad members. :colbert:

Stopped reading when you didn't hail the Mako as the greatest vehicle in a video game ever. :colbert:

Yeah your lack of Tali is just pure ridiculousness. The only squad members who died in my game were Mordin (because he is a redeamed genocidist if that's even a word), that old lizard dude with the awesome voice who died of lung cancer or something, and the evil relative of Samara. I totally let Jack kill that guy too. smurf that guy but pretty much everything else I did was paragon. My love interest was originally Kaiden but I quickly shifted that that to Liara when I realized she was far less boring and had a deeper connection (obsession) with Shepard.

The gameplay of the first one was the worst (it was the first) but the story of the first was probably the best! Calling it the worst? pft. As for femshep relationships, you didn't like the garrus option? Or the Thane one? or well a lot don't like kaidan but I like him... But you say you didn't like the romance options but only list the other female option.

Jack was bi?

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Originally Posted by Freya

The gameplay of the first one was the worst (it was the first) but the story of the first was probably the best! Calling it the worst? pft.

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100% this. I can sympathize with not liking 1 since I was pretty hard on it during my review and I'm a fan. It's going to be a massacre by the time I get to 3. Speaking of 3, I need to finish that game some time.

I hooked up with Liara my first playthrough and stayed loyal to her through and through, but smurf it second time around I'm banging Garrus.

The first game had the best gameplay. The rest of them fell down a hole of COVERBASED SHOOTAN' and that's boring.

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Originally Posted by Shauna

The first game had the best gameplay. The rest of them fell down a hole of COVERBASED SHOOTAN' and that's boring.

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You're boring.

Literally every third person shooter* that came out in the last generation was a cover based shooter. Forgive me for enjoying the ability to run'n'gun at least a little bit in the first ME.



*Note: May be exaggerating for effect

No. Enemies forever.
jk I <3 u

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Jack was bi?

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One of the first things she talks to you about is how she was "with' a couple, as in both a man and a woman.

She was also gangraped by the male crew of a ship that "rescued' her.

Honestly, Femshep and Jack be a lot less uncomfortable.


Garrus is a great bro but he isn't my type in terms of romance.

And Thane was a nice choice but I didn't realize he was a romance option until it was too late. Also he was dying so....that kinda put a damper on things.

Also Harbinger was amazing, a big reason why 2 is the best and 3 is disappointing.

It's been forever since I played 2 so I didn't remember any of that. I agree it's stupid she's only a romance option for Male Shep, and that Fem Shep has a lot less options than Male Shep in general.

Best Character.

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Originally Posted by Shauna

Literally every third person shooter* that came out in the last generation was a cover based shooter. Forgive me for enjoying the ability to run'n'gun at least a little bit in the first ME.



*Note: May be exaggerating for effect

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That's why you play as something with Biotics. Vanguard in Mass Effect 3 is the most hilarious and fun thing.

I was lazy when creating my initial Shep, so he was pretty much default everything. Just mashed A until I got to the game.

Maybe doing other things would have been more fun. Not that I didn't have fun! I just found that the shootan' bits became a bit lamer.

I always played as the soldier and still prefer 2 and 3's gameplay to 1. There were still plenty of areas where you needed to take cover to not die in 1 and the latter games just made it so much easier to do things.

It made it more difficult to not die from three shots from the enemy when standing out in the open because there was the expectation for you to always be in cover. :colbert:

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

Overall, it was a lot of fun and I liked it. My chief complaint is Femshep had very little in the way of interesting romance options. I romanced Liara but I'd much ratehr have romanced Jack. Jack IS bisexual game! Way to contradict yourself by not letting me be with her. Asses. Apparently only a penis can cure her trauma.

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Maybe she just friendzoned you. Get over it :colbert:

Hey! Jack said she wasn't in "the Girls' Club."

Plus she would have no reason not to love my Shep. My Shepard was always very nice and supportive of Jack. Considering how Jack is in ME3, encouraging her psycho killer conditioning was the right decision.

maybe Jack just didn't like all the scars... I thought they looked nice myself.

Then again, nobody ever comments on them. Which is weird, especially in 3 where they are like, grotesquely red and inflamed. Everyone just stares at Shep like they don't see it. Maybe they're all just really polite.

The aliens might just think that's how humans sometimes look like

Does anybody remember who their first choices were for the ME2 endgame?

For hacking the base's machines and opening the door, who better to send than a super advanced machine? I chose Legion.
For an experienced leader everyone would follow in the second team? Garrus.
For a biotic to hold up the field through the nano-swarm? Jack. She was created to be a super biotic.
For someone to guard the Normandy crew to safety? Grunt. Krogan are born meat shields.

Let's see. I think the first one was Tali, Garrus led the second team, the Asari was my biotic field, and I can't remember who the last one was.

ME3 just keeps falling apart the more I think on it.

Harbinger, the clear Big Bad of 2, has no real role in 3.

My poor Morinth becomes just another Banshee, no matter what you do. That really is a smurf You from BioWare.

Yeah I thought ME3 was super weak for how much I loved 1 and 2. It just felt like it lacked direction. There was no sense of urgency because planets were only being assaulted during cutscenes. Otherwise you were fine to just chill and take your time on a bunch of side missions that just felt like padding. Other than the Krogan and Tali missions, I guess. Those were pretty baller.

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Originally Posted by Shoeberto

Yeah I thought ME3 was super weak for how much I loved 1 and 2. It just felt like it lacked direction. There was no sense of urgency because planets were only being assaulted during cutscenes. Otherwise you were fine to just chill and take your time on a bunch of side missions that just felt like padding. Other than the Krogan and Tali missions, I guess. Those were pretty baller.

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Pretty much. We wait three games to see the Reapers and they mostly just chill out in the background. Cerberus may as well be the main villains of the last game.

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

ME3 just keeps falling apart the more I think on it.

Harbinger, the clear Big Bad of 2, has no real role in 3.

My poor Morinth becomes just another Banshee, no matter what you do. That really is a smurf You from BioWare.

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Unless you kill her in 2.... Like you really replaced Samara with Morinth? o.o

I've yet to complete the Trilogy. I was really impressed with ME1 despite being forced out of my comfort zone in some areas and despite some poorly designed elements like the inventory section, and the Mako sections.

I honestly didn't care for ME2, the plot was largely an excuse plot that I didn't feel really moved the story forward and I was really turnd off by how much they streamlined the gameplay to make it really feel like a typical Third-Person shooter with some dialogue tree options to make it feel like an RPG. Granted, several new cast members were awesome (Mordin anyone?) but others were duds like Miranda and the Asari options. Hell I think the DLC characters were a bit more fun than some of the actual important characters. Still the gameplay changes made going through ME2 feel a bit like a chore and everyone I've talked about the third game says it's even worse so I've been putting off finishing the series.

The second game's story does kind of fall flat when you look at the trilogy as a whole, I'll give you that.

Love the Mass Effect trilogy in general. The gameplay didn't have the depth of something like KOTOR, but the shooting was fun and it did have a lot of narrative depth. Yes, the ending was kinda weak, but everything up to that point was superb and very engaging. As far as I'm concerned Bioware created the finest and most interesting sci-fi universe since Star Wars. Maybe there are some books out there with better ones, but I've not read them. In terms of movies and games though, Mass Effect is a triumph in terms of world building and interesting characters.

I'm looking forward to see what they do with the 4th one... I'm just hoping we get to explore the aforementioned universe a bit more. Like, we've done the human thing now. We've been a human Spectre on our human spaceship fighting for humankind. And yet we all know the most awesome character was Garrus. So I'm really hoping in the next game we can be a Turian commander instead. Same formula, different culture, but still close enough to humans that it won't be completely confusing.

Doubt they'll go that route because the world is boring. But I can dream.

Yeah, while I did have good fun playing ME2 (and the whole trilogy in general) I think it did next to nothing to advance the storyline that was started in ME1. It mostly feels like one big diversion with a great part of the game being focused on Shepard helping the rest of the cast deal with their own personal issues (side quests) in order to win their favor and to ensure a better ending. It did improve a lot on the gameplay aspect over ME1 tho specially the shooting mechanics which were rather clunky on the first game.

As far as ME3 goes, I think that if it weren't for the ending (which was quite controversial and didn't work on many levels, never mind the extra content they added to it with a patch afterwards) it would have been received much better.

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

Does anybody remember who their first choices were for the ME2 endgame?

For hacking the base's machines and opening the door, who better to send than a super advanced machine? I chose Legion.
For an experienced leader everyone would follow in the second team? Garrus.
For a biotic to hold up the field through the nano-swarm? Jack. She was created to be a super biotic.
For someone to guard the Normandy crew to safety? Grunt. Krogan are born meat shields.

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Hacker: Legion because hackorz skills are da best
Leader of team b: Garrus because Miranda tried to be taking over trout completely. Fall back, son.
Biotic shield against swarm: Samara but Jack would have been fine too really. I just like Samara more as a character.
Guard the Normandy: Tali, Grunt, and that merc dude (forgot his name). I know the Tali thing is random but I had no idea where to put her since I didn't choose her for the hacker but probably should have sinde Legion is a stronger fighter than her. She totally died when I first tried it, so I corrected that by placing her as a hacker the second go around and then Legion took her place.

Mass Effect 2 spoilersI went through Mass Effect 1 and 2 to make the Worst Import Ever for Mass Effect 3. Basically I tried to make the worst choices possible. So at the end of Mass Effect 2 everyone was dead except Morinth (I think, could have been Miranda?) and Zaeed. Then I did Zaeed's loyalty mission and he died. When I loaded it up into ME3 it was just super lonely and depressing. Everyone was either missing or replaced with some weird doppelganger. Now that I have the Citadel DLC I'm thinking of revisiting it but I think that might just destroy my soul.

Also Jennifer Hale really killed it in this series. So badass xD

How could that possibly have been fun? lol When you say revisit, you mean replay? You're afraid to have a real team? :P Kudos for that though, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone actively sabotaging the game like that and still playing through the whole thing

Oh I had another save file where everyone lived and everything was exactly how I wanted it first, the Worst Import Ever was for my second Mass Effect 3 playthrough xD

I kind of want to see how the Citadel DLC will be affected, but I have a feeling it will just be mega depressing.