Replaying the original Mass Effect Series

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by Gingerbread Demon, Apr 8, 2017.

  1. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    I'm doing this in anticipation of Andromeda. I want to do all the original Mass Effect games and so I'm starting with the original game which I felt was the best of the trilogy.

    Feros is my current planet and with the graphics turned up it's beautiful how this game looks despite being from 2007. I did most of all the citadel stuff before heading to Feros and explored a few of the other star systems. The only mission I didn't complete was the Alliance spy satellite where you have to defuse a nuclear bomb planted by a pirate. I just couldn't do that hacking minigame in quick enough time on all 3 spots to get past that so abandoned the planet.

    For all my gripes against the Mako it really is a fun vehicle. Mountains are no problem because well fuck it's the Mako. It just starts to move slower but inches its way up and then hilarious physics when you topple over the other side of a high mountain.

    I've played this game through a few times and each time it feels different so there's no boredom to be had. I actually liked Feros a lot but do see why people love other places like Noveria which will be coming up next. I'm nearly up to the part with the Thorian.

    My rankings for the original trilogy.

    Mass Effect 8/10
    Mass Effect 2 6.5/10 Didn't care much for loyalty missions
    Mass Effect 3 8/10 with the Citadel and Omega DLC

    I'm also going against the grain and I like the extended cut for the 3 endings, and didn't buy into any of the fan rage because well it's subjective and people adopt a herd mentality with these kind of things.

    The original set was one of the best ever game series. Shits all over Halo. Halo what Halo?
     
  2. Evil Twin

    Evil Twin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Why exactly, if I might ask? Those were the best part of the game in most peoples' opinion.
     
  3. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    I just felt they were an addition to pad out the time. I figured my crew would be loyal for you recruiting / rescuing them, and to me those missions while kind of fun felt like they were tacked on to pad the game out more.

    My favourite part was the final suicide mission as it was big and epic.
     
  4. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    The second game was my favorite, followed by three. :shrug:
     
  5. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    The whole game was "The Dirty Dozen in Space". Getting to know the cast is half the point otherwise you wouldn't care if any of them die in the suicide mission.

    That's not to say the loyalty missions were uniformly great. Jacob's was utterly pointless, unimaginative and quite gratuitously crass. But then so was Jacob, so at least it was consistent.
    I don't know why, but in every game there seems to be one companion that I find just flat out unlikable. Kaiden in ME1, Jacob in ME2, Ash in ME3 (which was annoying since I liked her in ME1 and weirdly, Kaiden suddenly became pretty likeable in ME3!) and now in MEA there's Liam, who I am so far finding to be an obnoxious git.
     
  6. KyleRaynous

    KyleRaynous Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Halo is a first-person shooter, while Mass Effect is an RPG/third-person shooter (the shooter thing mostly from the second game onwards). Out of a matter of preference, an RPG will always be a more complete than an FPS. Also, there was nothing like Halo before 2001 (at least in terms of space exploration), not to mention elements of it inspire Mass Effect.
     
  7. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    I hated Ashley in ME 1 but liked her in the 3rd game so that's interesting how everyone feels about some characters. Miranda was the one that I always felt 50/50 about. Jacob felt like a character that was just plonked in the game and was there to annoy everyone.

    But ME 1 Ashley "I can't tell the aliens from the animals" I wanted an option to grab her and smack her head into a wall whenever she said that.
     
  8. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    I think that was supposed to be a reference to the Elcor & Hannar, but oddly they triggered a line in a scene that featured neither.

    I think a little too much is made of Ash's naivete. I wouldn't call her bigoted exactly, especially given how she reacted to that Terra Prime rep. She just had a world view that made her believe that the aliens were more likely to look out for their own. Given her family history it's easy to see where this would come from. Crucially though, this is the *start* of her character arc, not the end. Depending on your choices, by the end of the game she's more enlightened about the other races through her interactions with the non-human crew...but she's still ready to blow Wrex's head off if called upon. Kaiden on the other hand was a fussy little whiner in ME1, with not much of any real substance to say.
    For me, I don't have to like or agree with a character's POV so long as I find them interesting and challenging.

    In ME3 I felt like they reduced Ash's role so much that any interactions with her after re-joining the crew felt hollow. It was especially flimsy for my renegade vanguard maleshep who'd romanced her, which made the endeavour feel pointless and shallow. It's a shame too since the opening Mars mission made a promising start. A loyalty mission or something similar later on would have fixed all of this IMO.

    Their total absence in the game also hurt Vega as a character, or so I felt. He's carried entirely on the not inconsiderable charms of FPJ. That made him entertaining but not terribly interesting. It didn't help that they couldn't make up their minds how well he already knows Shepard. On the one hand he's supposed to have been her "guard" for (presumably) months prior to the opening, but after that it's as if they'd never even met until that day.
     
  9. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    That's interesting, and funny in that in ME 1 I never bothered much about Kaiden at all, I just found him boring. I've played all the games several times and in ME 2 if you did everything right with Ashley she's actually not that bad to you.
     
  10. Seven of Five

    Seven of Five Stupid Sexy Flanders! Premium Member

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    I love Mass Effect 2. I don't know how many times I've played it now but I've had them all survive, all die, and everything inbetween. Whilst the story didn't feel as epic as the first, I cared the characters, and it's probably my favourite.

    ME3 had a poor original ending, but I'd enjoyed the rest of the game up to that point regardless. The addition of the Extended Cut certainly helped though, and then also later the Leviathan, Omega and Citadel DLC makes it my second favourite.

    In on of my more sadistic playthroughs, I remember killing Mordin so I could fake the curing of the genophage, only for Wrex to find out about my betrayal, so I had to kill him as well. By this point I had already killed Kaiden, and I also didn't save the Quarians from the Geth, which led to Tali killing herself. That was pretty brutal. :devil: I also had a lovely scenerio carefully planned that left me with a squad of just Liara, EDI and James for the game. My memorial wall was so full of names. :o

    ME1 brings up the rear but it got me into the whole thing and after a slow start on Eden Prime and the first few Citadel bits, the game grabbed me and never put me down. In terms of combat I always find this game the harder to replay having to get used to the old system again. :D

    I really enjoyed playing through them all yet again ready for Andromeda, and after finally beating that, having a go at multiplayer and also getting into a New Game+, I would say it falls somewhere in the middle. Definitely good, and it certainly feels like the old universe, but not without problems.
     
  11. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Am I bad for liking how you can punch that reporter in ME 1?

    Conrad Verner... Annoying sidequest character that I have until now avoided and now this time I'm doing those silly sidequests with him.

    One thing I have never bothered to try. When you finish the main story in ME 1 can you go back into the game and play more, say unfinished stuff or is it all gone?
     
  12. VDCNI

    VDCNI Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I never liked Ashley so I think I only have one playthrough where she actually survives into ME3 and I don't remember what she was like there.

    I'd agree Kaiden works well in ME3 though. For my male Shepard who didn't romance anyone in ME1 or 2, finally getting together with Kaiden in ME3 had an added poignancy because they were only getting that chance late in the day.
     
  13. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Can Femshep romance Ashley?
     
  14. VDCNI

    VDCNI Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    No, not even in ME3.
     
  15. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Oh darn it.
     
  16. VDCNI

    VDCNI Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    She can romance Samantha Traynor. I can't remember if they ever said why they made Kaiden a gay romance but not Ashley in ME3. I suppose FemShep always had Liara who's essentially female no matter what they say about Asari.
     
  17. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    You can if you use a save editor. IIRC they had Hale record the romance dialogue for Ash before deciding the characters' orientations and the files are still in the game. The confusing part is that they did it again in ME2, which is odd. I think there's similar femshep audio for Jack, Tali and possibly Miranda too. Not sure if the same is true for the male options.
     
  18. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    I never cared much for Traynor, her voice just irritated me.

    I thought male Shep was all about "lets bang" seems that's a youtube meme haha.
     
  19. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    Oh dear, then you must hate Dragon Age Inquisition. ;)

    Seriously though, Traynor was hilarious!
     
  20. VDCNI

    VDCNI Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I liked Traynor and particularly her friendship with EDI. It was nice to get a human character who wasn't a soldier in the same way as the others. I thought she stood out more than Cortez who was stuck with a dead husband and not much else. I've never romanced her so I don't know how well that was done though.