General Gaming So I Replayed and Beat Mass Effect. It is flawed but still really great. TRILOGY COMPLETE! (and MEA too)

[Bacon]

3 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I tried Vanguard in ME2, but didn’t care for it. It was completely different, and I don’t really care for that style of gameplay in most shooters. When I played on Insanity and got to the mid point collector ship Ingot completely stuck.

I was going to post my video, but it turns out I didn't save my collector ship gameplay.

 

Overall tho, Vanguard wasn't that bad except for the instances I listed. Please ignore my shitty console aim but here is some of my shitty Vanguard footage @legend

 

[legend]

29 minutes ago, Bacon said:

I was going to post my video, but it turns out I didn't save my collector ship gameplay.

 

Overall tho, Vanguard wasn't that bad except for the instances I listed. Please ignore my shitty console aim but here is some of my shitty Vanguard footage @legend

 

 

[Kal-El814]

On 12/20/2022 at 6:26 AM, Bacon said:

Well that's a bummer. Never played ME2 more than once and that was on FemShep. Wish it was a maleShep but nevermind that. Anyway, I've done Jack's and Miranda's Loyalty mission and passed the speech check, but then, suddenly, ROMANCE!

 

I found this extremely annoying. I only played ME2 once and I usually don't save scum in RPGs on my first time through to keep things "natural" but like... I genuinely thought we were just talking? And now I'm romancing Jack? Oooooookay? Reload.

 

Also reading this thread made me remember how disappointing I thought the in game portrayal of the Krogans was. They're allegedly so deadly that they needed to be genetically purged but they're... just slightly stronger mobs? And the Grunt is just... fine? As a combatant? I get that a game has to be a game but that whole thing feels like one of the series' most missed opportunities other than you know... the ending of the trilogy.

[Bacon]

Well, you can only do so much in game. Like, Krogan are strong, but I feel like they are more used to tell you how strong a non-krogan is. "Oh, this person can take on a krogan 1v1? That means they are strong." But as Shepard you can kill a YMIR mech solo and they are much stronger than a krogan. At the end of the day, they are only flesh and blood. Still tho. In ME2 there are almost no elite krogan. There are plenty of mini-boss enemies with 3 layers of health, except for krogan. It would have been neat if they had like 4 layers of health, but outside of the armor layer it is actually just the red health. Hell, even in ME1, if you kill a krogan and it isn't lifted by biotics, it will get a second wind and be topped off with health instead of dying. You effectively have to kill krogan twice in ME1. Not so much in ME2. 

[skillzdadirecta]

30 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Well, you can only do so much in game. Like, Krogan are strong, but I feel like they are more used to tell you how strong a non-krogan is. "Oh, this person can take on a krogan 1v1? That means they are strong." But as Shepard you can kill a YMIR mech solo and they are much stronger than a krogan. At the end of the day, they are only flesh and blood. Still tho. In ME2 there are almost no elite krogan. There are plenty of mini-boss enemies with 3 layers of health, except for krogan. It would have been neat if they had like 4 layers of health, but outside of the armor layer it is actually just the red health. Hell, even in ME1, if you kill a krogan and it isn't lifted by biotics, it will get a second wind and be topped off with health instead of dying. You effectively have to kill krogan twice in ME1. Not so much in ME2. 

Pretty sure there are elite Krogan in the game in some of the side missions on insanity. Krogan Battlemasters are annoying as hell because they have biotic powers and some Krogan one shot with Melee if they get close enough. That's why your A.I. will always warn you when Krogan are charging. In additon to the second wind that @Bacon was talking about, they also have an immunity ability where they temporarily don't take any damage. They're a pain in the ass on harder difficulties particularly if they get close. And as I said earlier, Grunt is one of my goto squadmates especially on higher levels because he soaks up so much damage and can dish it out. I've always said these games really shine on harder difficulties especially ME2.

[Bacon]

I think only in the Bloodpack sidequests are there any elite krogan. Still, ME2 krogan are much weaker than their ME1 versions. 

[skillzdadirecta]

14 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Still, ME2 krogan are much weaker than their ME1 versions.

Definitely.

[Bacon]

lol

 

videos are time stamped. You only need to listen for like 15-20 seconds 

[Kal-El814]

2 hours ago, Bacon said:

Well, you can only do so much in game. Like, Krogan are strong, but I feel like they are more used to tell you how strong a non-krogan is. "Oh, this person can take on a krogan 1v1? That means they are strong." But as Shepard you can kill a YMIR mech solo and they are much stronger than a krogan. At the end of the day, they are only flesh and blood. Still tho. In ME2 there are almost no elite krogan. There are plenty of mini-boss enemies with 3 layers of health, except for krogan. It would have been neat if they had like 4 layers of health, but outside of the armor layer it is actually just the red health. Hell, even in ME1, if you kill a krogan and it isn't lifted by biotics, it will get a second wind and be topped off with health instead of dying. You effectively have to kill krogan twice in ME1. Not so much in ME2. 

 

That's all true, I just never felt like they played like their in-game description. Kind of like in Star Trek TNG where Worf is always described as this killing machine, but it's a broadcast TV show so he never gets to and also he gets clowned on regularly.   Again I get why, it's mainly just silly to me.

[Bacon]

I think, instead of the random child, BioWare should have killed whoever you saved on Virmire. While this choice would not have been well received by many, it would have at least given Shep a more relatable experience. Your choice to save them was in vain and in the end it didn't matter. You and Shep would be feeling the same thing for different reasons, but you could relate. 

 

My reaction to that kid getting blown the fuck up was the same as my reaction to blowing up those 300k batarians:

 

[Bacon]

Oh god, I have a sudden feeling ME3 will want me to broker some kind of peace with the batarians. I can only hope I don't need them for the best ending. But at the same time, more might bite the dust if they join the fight. God such hard decisions. 

[legend]

12 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Oh god, I have a sudden feeling ME3 will want me to broker some kind of peace with the batarians. I can only hope I don't need them for the best ending. But at the same time, more might bite the dust if they join the fight. God such hard decisions. 

 

Don't worry, none of the endings to ME3 are good  

[Bacon]

1 minute ago, legend said:

 

Don't worry, none of the endings to ME3 are good  

Oh I know how the endings are. I just mean to get the "breath" ending, aka the only way ME4 could happen, you need a high war score.

[best3444]

Because of this thread I fired up the legendary version. I continued a game in ME2 and was pleasantly surprised about the visuals. They looked very good. I might go through all 3 again.

[Bacon]

I don't know why, but I feel ME2 has better graphics over ME3 in the legendary edition. 

 

Also, I'm not a fan of ME3's intro including up to finishing Mars. It doesn't feel right to me. I think it maybe to bombastic. Like a Michael Bay Transformers movie. I know it is the end of life as they know it but it feels too fast paced and high stakes. I know all of these games have pretty much put you right into the combat, but it's not the same this time. I think it might be the lack of a slow intro. In ME1 you have the whole introduction of just talking on the ship. In me2 while the ship is blowing up there is no combat and you move pretty slow. In ME3 you start of with quickly said line on the way to talking to the alliance higher ups that ends in an explosion which has the game rushing you out the door. It sets the tone, but I am definitely a fan of a slow start. That is Something that DA:O did very well and where all the other DA games failed. 

[Bacon]

omg Udina's name is fuckin Donnel?

[PaladinSolo]

23 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

I found this extremely annoying. I only played ME2 once and I usually don't save scum in RPGs on my first time through to keep things "natural" but like... I genuinely thought we were just talking? And now I'm romancing Jack? Oooooookay? Reload.

 

Also reading this thread made me remember how disappointing I thought the in game portrayal of the Krogans was. They're allegedly so deadly that they needed to be genetically purged but they're... just slightly stronger mobs? And the Grunt is just... fine? As a combatant? I get that a game has to be a game but that whole thing feels like one of the series' most missed opportunities other than you know... the ending of the trilogy.

To be fair, Krogans are only a problem in the ME universe cause they would reproduce extremely fast and are violent, not because they're unbeatable in a fight.

[Kal-El814]

6 minutes ago, PaladinSolo said:

To be fair, Krogans are only a problem in the ME universe cause they would reproduce extremely fast and are violent, not because they're unbeatable in a fight.

 

Wasn't it both? I thought battle masters specifically were supposed to be able to defeat whole squads pretty handily.

[johnny]

16 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Wasn't it both? I thought battle masters specifically were supposed to be able to defeat whole squads pretty handily.

yes but krogans can be beaten in a fight 

 

they also live a stupid long time and reproduce quickly. 

[skillzdadirecta]

7 hours ago, johnny said:

they also live a stupid long time and reproduce quickly.

Well they did before the Salarean Genophage. Krogans were a problem because while they could be beaten in a fight, they were extremely tough to kill because they have redundant organs. Couple with their warlike nature and the ability to reproduce quickly, they were a seen as a threat to the galaxy. The Salerans decided to control their numbers by introducing the Genophage rather than wipe them out entirely. 

[johnny]

11 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Well they did before the Salarean Genophage. Krogans were a problem because while they could be beaten in a fight, they were extremely tough to kill because they have redundant organs. Couple with their warlike nature and the ability to reproduce quickly, they were a seen as a threat to the galaxy. The Salerans decided to control their numbers by introducing the Genophage rather than wipe them out entirely. 

yeah. i thought kal was talking about the reasons why they created the genophage in the first place. 

[Bacon]

If I knew I have going to see Kaiden nips every time I talked to him I would have picked Ashley. Like, put a fuckin' shirt on wtf  

[skillzdadirecta]

This thread inspired me to go back and finish my ME2 Legendary edition run. Picked up where I left off last night. Was in the middle of doing Morinth's loyalty mission and then I'm heading through the omega relay. No idea if I upgraded enough shit to keep my crew alive with the ship upgrades and body armor but we'll see. This isn't a golden run ar all, I've done those before. I'll upload some gameplay later.

[skillzdadirecta]

@Bacon Who did you choose for the final mission? Tech Specialist, Squad Leader?

[Bacon]

16 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

@Bacon Who did you choose for the final mission? Tech Specialist, Squad Leader?

Tali who was loyal and Garrus who was Loyal 

Spoiler

Jack who was loyal for biotic shield 

Mordin to take back the survivors

Garrus again to lead the other squad  

 

[skillzdadirecta]

13 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Tali who was loyal and Garrus who was Loyal 

  Reveal hidden contents

Jack who was loyal for biotic shield 

Mordin to take back the survivors

Garrus again to lead the other squad  

 

Same as me except I chose Katsumi as my tech specialist... seems more in line with something she would be suited for. I've also used Legion and Tali on other runs. Garrus is always my go to for the other tasks.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

On 12/22/2022 at 10:13 PM, Kal-El814 said:

 

That's all true, I just never felt like they played like their in-game description. Kind of like in Star Trek TNG where Worf is always described as this killing machine, but it's a broadcast TV show so he never gets to and also he gets clowned on regularly.   Again I get why, it's mainly just silly to me.

well, that’s what coined the trope the “Worf Effect”. Worf or your Worf-like character getting clowned on shows how dangerous or serious the bad guy is or the situation is. 
 

I don’t feel like ME fell into this trope. There is something “Klingon like” about them, but lore so their personalities. And that’s what we get with Wrex or Grunt. We don’t get an unstoppable killing machine. We get their personalities. 
 

they were kind of fearsome in ME1 on Insanity with their immunity and rapid healing. But overall I think it’s one of those things where gameplay doesn’t or can’t match the lore without making the game unbalanced. 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

well, that’s what coined the trope the “Worf Effect”. Worf or your Worf-like character getting clowned on shows how dangerous or serious the bad guy is or the situation is. 
 

I don’t feel like ME fell into this trope. There is something “Klingon like” about them, but lore so their personalities. And that’s what we get with Wrex or Grunt. We don’t get an unstoppable killing machine. We get their personalities. 
 

they were kind of fearsome in ME1 on Insanity with their immunity and rapid healing. But overall I think it’s one of those things where gameplay doesn’t or can’t match the lore without making the game unbalanced. 

Absolutely right... and even with all that, Krogan are still PLENTY tough. Like I said, Grunt is a mainstay in my Mass Effect 2 runs especially when you level him up. He's tanky as hell and does a decent amount of damage. I just beat ME2 the other night (for the 7th or 8th time, I forget) and that Sucide run in the collector base is so awesome. The music in that section is the unsung hero and I'm certain that ME2 has the best overall music of the trilogy.

 

Gonna start a run with the third game soon... and will eventually replay the whole trilogy again I'm sure. Sadly I don't feel the same way about Andromeda... I will replay it too at one point, but that game just was SUCH a letdown.

[Bacon]

Man, like BioWare fucked up. ME3 should have actually been the second ME and ME2 should have been ME3.

 

Mass Effect 2 is almost totally irreverent to the overall plot and the major carry over plot points all happened in ME1 anyway. All me2 did was make it clear that a Reaper invasion is coming and soon. The actual details with the collectors and shit don't even matter. Usually this kinda stuff is pretty pointless to post about but like, here is a new timeline of events. 

 

Mass Effect 1: Shepard must stop Saren only to learn of the real galactic threat, the Reapers. Along the was he counters various labs run by the pro-human terrorist organization Cerberus who are performing strange experiments but they are otherwise unimportant. 

 

Mass Effect 2: Reapers invade. Shepard must gather a galactic army and also deal with Cerberus who are sending out mutated forces in an attempt to stop Shepard from destroying what they might be able to control. Ultimately, Shepard dies but not before destroying the Reapers with the help of Prothean Weapon.

 

Mass Effect 3: We see Shepard's last stand to destroy the Reapers, where he gives up his own life to do so. Years pass and suddenly Shepard awakens. Found by Cerberus, Shepard has been resurrected via Cerberus' Lazarus Project to take on a new threat who has been abducting entire human colonies. Shepard is no longer trusted due to his ties with Cerberus who's meddling almost let the Reapers win. So, Shepard forms a new team and gets some help from a few of his old friends. Shepard learns that a contingency plan set up by the Reapers has the Collectors, a reaper-mutated race of Protheans, harvesting humans in order to create a Human-Reaper Hybrid. The Illusive Man, the leader of Cerberus now wishes Shepard to stop. This new form of Reaper has just been what the Illusive Man was looking for. Shepard tells him to fuck off and destroys the human-reaper. Finally the last of the reapers plans are gone. 

 

Mass Effect 4: The Illusive Man found a way to build the new reapers. But not just human. Shepard must take down the IM. 

 

 

And well, it doesn't really have to be like that but it actually really bothers me how unimportant everything that happened in ME2 was. Maelon could have cured the genophage. Wrex would have the same role. Garrus would end up going to Omega after Shepard died. Liara could still be trying to save Shepard anyway she could and that would have led her to giving Cerberus his body. The geth conflict would work out nearly the same as well. Virmire Survivor would be giga butthurt in the new ME3 and that would instead be resolved in ME4. 

 

Overall pointless to talk about and my ideas are far from perfect, but yeah. 

[Bacon]

 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Yeah, the final mission of ME2 was good, but up until that point it felt like “mandatory side quest” the game. I liked playing ME2, but the main story felt lacking. 
 

it reminds me a lot of modern episodic dramatic tv shows. You can watch many episodes out of order and it’s fine. Some episodes focus on one character or another. A season starts with a strong opening hook, and ends a season with a strong climactic episode that makes you want to tune in next season. 
 

as opposed to ME1 and ME3 that felt more like long form dramatic story telling, where each episode is advancing a larger story to get you to a climactic finale. They still kind of follow a 3 act structure too. I think their pacing is helped by the fact we pretty much get our full cast of crew in the first act. The rest of the game can then be dedicated to advancing the plot. 
 

I have always suspected that there was cut main plot line content. A third and maybe even a fourth colony or something before activating the IFF. But I suspect they were running out of time. Had ME2 been built upon ME1’s systems they might have been able to have a larger feeling story. But the drastic overhaul and change in direction forced some stuff to be cut. ME3 was built upon ME2’s systems, and it felt like there was more to play that tied into the main plot with bigger locations. 
 

 

[Bacon]

Andromeda was only 5 bucks... Might as well play them all.  

[Bacon]

The ending cutscene to the thessia mission was really good. It is just a shame this Kai Lang character is some rando who sucks balls. I don't care if this shitter was in some book or whatever, this was a very bad call. There have been so many characters that could have been repurposed into an indoctrinated tool for Cerberus. Like, wow! Imagine if the person who you left to die on vermire was used in place of kai lang. Would it make sense? No. But has Cerberus been shown to magically revive the dead? Yes. 

 

Man I hate making critiques like that as I hate it when youtubers do it but fuck, man. Almost anyone would have been better. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

5 hours ago, Bacon said:

The ending cutscene to the thessia mission was really good. It is just a shame this Kai Lang character is some rando who sucks balls. I don't care if this shitter was in some book or whatever, this was a very bad call. There have been so many characters that could have been repurposed into an indoctrinated tool for Cerberus. Like, wow! Imagine if the person who you left to die on vermire was used in place of kai lang. Would it make sense? No. But has Cerberus been shown to magically revive the dead? Yes. 

 

Man I hate making critiques like that as I hate it when youtubers do it but fuck, man. Almost anyone would have been better. 

to be fair, there’s dead, and then there’s dead and atomized. 
 

but I like the idea of Cerberus obtaining DNA from some military alliance medical record bank or something. Flash cloning them to make them an adult within weeks, and train/program them like some kind of Clockwork Orange thing, where they think they’re the real thing and HATE Shepard. 

[Bacon]

1 minute ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

but I like the idea of Cerberus obtaining DNA from some military alliance medical record bank or something. Flash cloning them to make them an adult within weeks, and train/program them like some kind of Clockwork Orange thing, where they think they’re the real thing and HATE Shepard. 

That would have been great. What is important is giving a personal connection to the bad guy who is actively fighting you. Doesn't matter if he works for TIM or not. Their animosity feels empty. Kai is honestly no different than the hundreds of faceless Cerberus soldiers Shepard has kill along the way. He is just some guy.