Board 8 > Mass Effect Legendary Edition Part 2 *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wow this is shorter than I expected. I think I'm already at the main boss.

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Fighting a giant human Reaper seemed so dumb in 2010, but now I appreciate schlock so it's pretty great.

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poor sad collector general dude

:(

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Yeah, ME1 definitely has the better ending sequence from Ilos onward.

I'm still gonna go and finish all the ME2 DLC but man I had to skip ahead to ME3 for a second just so I could jam to that awesome character creation music.

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KamikazePotato posted...

Okay, so then they failed at meeting most people's individual wishes.

I think that at the end of the day people expected too much, but Bioware failed more than the fans overreached.

To me, Mass Effect is the composite of all my choices, and the ending is just one choice among many. I don't think it wipes out everything that happened before and all the various permutations that are possible. The choices matter to me because I made them and I get to see the consequences of them. If a character is there or not there in ME3, it's probably because of something I did or didn't do, and that's pretty darn cool.

Regardless, we don't need the Captain Buzzkill move of "you know none of your choices actually matter" to someone enjoying the game just because SMuffin isn't here to do that anymore. That vacancy doesn't actually need to be filled.

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I began ME3 last night (played only a few minutes, not even reaching the first enemy encounter). Is it just me, or does this intro make the game seem less polished than ME2? Dialogue/scene transitions, camera angles, and the menu systems all strike me as more boilerplate and less refined here than in the middle game.

Also, Anderson's sprint animation cracked me up more than anything in ME2 - it's almost reminiscent of ME1 jank.

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Leonhart4 posted...

To me, Mass Effect is the composite of all my choices, and the ending is just one choice among many. I don't think it wipes out everything that happened before and all the various permutations that are possible. The choices matter to me because I made them and I get to see the consequences of them. If a character is there or not there in ME3, it's probably because of something I did or didn't do, and that's pretty darn cool.

This is how I always approached it too. To me they absolutely matter.
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I think all your choices in Mass Effect matter more than in most games. I do feel, though, that you kind of have to manipulate the plot to tell the story you want to tell.

If you're going for the Destroy Ending, there's no reason to save the Geth. Sorry, Legion/Legion VI.
Control Ending means you should probably rewrite the Geth Heretics.
Synthesis and Refuse endings allow for any culmination of choices, though personally I think it's a better "Refuse" story when everything just doesn't come together and the Galaxy proves it's not ready yet. And a better Synthesis ending if you end the Genophage AND save both the Quarians and the Geth.

Each choices makes sense in its own way, but I feel its tailored toward people having a certain attitude, rather than developing attachment to certain characters.

For example, you might save the Geth because you like Legion, but the Reapers? You don't meet a single Reaper who makes you fall in love with them like Legion does for the Geth. So it'd make sense to save the Geth, but destroy the reapers. But ultimately saving both Geth and Quarians trend toward the Syntehsis ending, where we see the Geth helping the Quarians despite being mortal enemies -- which foreshadows synthesis, where the Reapers help the galaxy despite being mortal enemies. But you can literally choose to destroy the Quarians (Sorry Tali!), save the Geth, and then Destroy the Reapers as well. (I'm not sure anyone chooses this). The sacrifice seems so pointless, at which point it makes a bit more sense if you choose to 'refuse'. No choice. This galaxy isn't ready. In the Refuse ending, I think your choices matter simply because it's the culmination of WHY we failed. So the next civilization can learn from Glyph where everything went wrong. I think all the endings make some sort of sense, but you kind of have to play toward the one you're going to choose.


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Hmm... is a pure melee Vanguard build viable? I'm looking at the level up options for a Vanguard's Biotic Charge and Fitness, and it seems like you can optimize your build to spam Charge and hard-hitting melee attacks - playing the whole game like this really appeals to me.

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Punchguard probably works ok on normal but I can't see it being viable on insanity.

I'm pretty sure there are a few places where melee just isn't possible at all.

Also I'm not charging and brute forcing a Banshee.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

Hmm... is a pure melee Vanguard build viable? I'm looking at the level up options for a Vanguard's Biotic Charge and Fitness, and it seems like you can optimize your build to spam Charge and hard-hitting melee attacks - playing the whole game like this really appeals to me.

It's tremendously fun. I liked Charging into Dark Channel, then Nova, then heavy melee

I did it to fucking everything during me3, even Banshees most of the time

But yes obviously you can't do it to absolutely everything, and when I did an Insanity run I played as an Infiltrator because it seemed like it'd be impossible.
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Feros beated, what a creepy location

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Feros was kinda miserable upon replay.

Just not a great looking area.

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Oh yeah, it's just brown and ugly, but it's nice seeing a fresh reaction to all the weird vibes it gives off.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

I began ME3 last night (played only a few minutes, not even reaching the first enemy encounter). Is it just me, or does this intro make the game seem less polished than ME2? Dialogue/scene transitions, camera angles, and the menu systems all strike me as more boilerplate and less refined here than in the middle game.

Also, Anderson's sprint animation cracked me up more than anything in ME2 - it's almost reminiscent of ME1 jank.

yeah ME3 is a weird step down in a lot of ways. maybe a sign of rushed development. but the combat is arguably better.

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BioWare jank is almost endearing at this point.

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No guns for Vanguard can be rough, but once you get the spirit bomb from the Omega DLC it becomes a godlike build.

There are also plenty of pistols that won't add enough weight to suffer any penalty to recharge time.

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Seeing the contraption David Archer is hooked up to with update visuals is even harder to look at.

Like why is any of it necessary to interface with the geth? He looks like a Hellraiser victim.

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oh boy mass effect three time

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I had to go back to ME2 to finish Arrival.

Hot take: I think it might be my favor ME2 DLC.

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That is indeed a hot take, because Arrival is bad.

Arrival > Shadow Broker is a hot take indeed

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Yeah what

The only decent thing about Arrival is the lines from the enemies as you survive the five waves.

Everything else about is bad or boring, and Shadow Broker is superior in every way.

Yeah, I love the "Shepard won't go down!" moment. Surviving all the waves was a real thrill.

The rest of it, not so much.

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Honestly replaying Shadow Broker I was shocked how short it was. I guess ME3 DLC spoiled me, but even Overlord was longer.

I guess if you're big into the postgame flavor text then Shadow Broker is kinda neat (especially Grunt's internet searches), but the actual mission was pretty whatever.

I loved Arrival because it actually tested my abilities as a player, and showed how much I had relied on squad mates during my playthrough.

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Oh and I loved the ticking clock mechanic and then the final push where you see yourself hurtling towards the mass relay.

Then Harbinger shows up but he's no Sovereign.

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I guess it serves to explain why Shepard is where he is at the beginning of ME3. Still don't like how it forces you to kill 300,000 batarians though

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Batarians are the shittiest, though.

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TheRock1525 posted...

Batarians are the shittiest, though.

They're pretty bad, but there's some good hidden moments with them in the third game.

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I like how all these races can do space travel but a bunch of them still have slavery.

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*Cries in not being able to Batarian Hatesurf on Multiplayer anymore.*

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TheRock1525 posted...

I like how all these races can do space travel but a bunch of them still have slavery.

I think it's only the Batarians (and well, the since-gone Protheans and Leviathans)

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Disappointed: we didn't get to see an elcor in combat.

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Dancedreamer posted...

I think it's only the Batarians (and well, the since-gone Protheans and Leviathans)

Asari have it, too. You attempt to get an "indentured servant" purchased by Synthetic Insights, and the asari that gives you the assignment is labeled "slave broker."

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TheRock1525 posted...

I like how all these races can do space travel but a bunch of them still have slavery.

Why would having space travel end slavery? Better technology doesn't make people less inherently shitty.

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TheRock1525 posted...

Asari have it, too. You attempt to get an "indentured servant" purchased by Synthetic Insights, and the asari that gives you the assignment is labeled "slave broker."

I beleive the difference here is that slavery is specifically a thing on Illium, while for Batarians it's a cultural norm for their species.

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KamikazePotato posted...

Why would having space travel end slavery? Better technology doesn't make people less inherently shitty.

We managed to largely eliminate slavery before we even invented a car.

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slavery still exists in the world today

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also someone believing in slavery is a super easy way to get players to hate them in fictitious universes

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Slavery exists everywhere. The USA's version is the prison system, which incentivizes jailing minorities and poor people so they can be put to work under enforced labor for basically no pay.

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LeonhartFour posted...

slavery still exists in the world today

Not as a major cultural element like it does for the Batarians.

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TheRock1525 posted...

Not as a major cultural element like it does for the Batarians.

well it's a major cultural element for the player because we aren't told much about batarians as a whole and have very, very few positive interactions with them at all

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LeonhartFour posted...

well it's a major cultural element for the player because we aren't told much about batarians as a whole

Well they kidnap entire planets and put a chip in their brain without anesthetic.

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well yeah they're meant to be as close to "pure evil" as you can get in a series that usually tries to give its villains some level of nuance

even the Reapers get more nuance than the batarians

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The Batarians are pretty awful in general as an addition to Mass Effect. Didn't make a lot of sense to add them in the first place.

Vorcha and Drell they came up with good reasons you may have not seen them in ME1 at all, but Batarians are just too prominent for them to have never showed up once through the main game.

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They do show up in ME1, though. They just ain't welcome on the Citadel.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

but Batarians are just too prominent for them to have never showed up once through the main game.

Gotta disagree here. They cut ties with the Council well before the series started and retreated to Batarian space where they broadcast nothing but propaganda. Of course you're not going to see them when you're not hitting Batarian space, they're Space North Korea.

Yeah my Colonist Shepherd wasn't called the Butcher of Torfan in the first game for nothing.