Board 8 > Playing through Mass Effect LE

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ah, interesting.

When I get around to my Renegade fem shep run maybe I'll try to kill as many squadmates as possible. If only to see what changes.

Haven't played much the past week.

Just done a couple of 'side' assignments. The Grunt/Rachni and the Turian bomb and other Cerberus side missions.

I will say 3 pretty much perfected the gameplay aspect. Everything from combat, gunplay, environments even the objectives themselves are different enough to not make all the side stuff boring. 1 was terrible at this, 2 was improved by a lot, and 3 just worked all the kinks out to make it all pretty enjoyable. So far none of them feel like filler to extend the amount of hours you play.

I never knew Kirrahe could show up and die on the Citadel while protecting the councilor. Or maybe I did and just totally forgot about it. Cool and unexpected moment for me.

Tuchunka is a great mission btw and the Kalros taking down a Reaper is still awesome.

Heck yeah Tuchanka is great

So Thane straight up never appeared at the hospital and I am not sure why. I know he doesn't appear until your second visit, and you have to get the message in your terminal(I got it), and I religiously check HUB areas after every mission just on the off chance I miss something, and that includes checking the hospital(and every other area on the Citadel). He just never showed up.

Not sure if I missed something.

Though looking into this it appears that some other players run into this as well. Wonder if it's bugged out.

Is this why Kirrahe showed up instead?

Might be bugged, yeah. Kirrahe is only supposed to show up there if Thane is dead or you never spoke with him before the attack.

Got it.

At least I got something new to see out of it. Thanes name is on the the wall in the Normandy now. R.I.P

Yikes, I'd almost restart an ME3 playthrough if a bug caused Thane to be dead

The Adas anti-synthetic rifle is stupidly strong, especially if you combine it with incendiary ammo. I know I've mentioned it before, but it melts basically everything, even on Insanity. As far as I can tell the only downside is the small capacity.

Was this a regular weapon at launch or was it a DLC weapon? It's crazy good.

DLC.

Having access to all the DLC weapons from the Spectre terminal from the get go in the LE makes for some overpowered options.

Sorozone posted...

I get for story reasons and "urgency" but that's also kind of thrown out the window in 3, iirc. Where you obviously need to stop the Reapers in 3, but first let me do this, and this, and this....oh, and also this.

I just want to mention that I said this earlier, and just for some reason, totally blanked that the Protheans fought the Reapers for years before they were finally conquered and destroyed. So this isn't as bad as I originally thought.

Yeah, it isn't a quick instant destruction when the Reapers invade. It's a slow demise.

Even in the Refuse ending, Liara says that it took a long time before the Reapers finally won.

We needed like a fourth game where youre still fighting the reapers after a few years

we're theoretically getting a 4th game supposedly but it won't be that

I think the reapers actually showing up deserved to be a two-part game

Wish they did a bit more with Leviathan. It teases you with Reaper origin info, and it also just flat out mind wipes a Reaper. It gives you just enough, no more no less. Also has the unfortunate, albeit small, dreaded escort mission.

I should like everything about this DLC, but I think it's still on of the weaker ones in the series.

Doing Omega now. Aria is still one of my favorite side characters. Top bad bitch in the galaxy(outside of Renegade Femshep).

Yeah, Leviathan was okay. Should've been better.

Imagine having some of the most important lore of a series relegated to a slapshod DLC. Lore that could redefine the narrative, better elucidate the ending decisions and rationalize(not justify) a seemingly irrational galactic presence.

Oh wait! That DID happen!
Mass Effect needed Leviathan earlier than 3 and written better than 3 made it.

Omega is weird. I do like the overall level and design. Exploring other parts and getting to know the other parts of Omega is cool. Even the final encounter is pretty fun. Nyreen is cool but I have a hard time caring.

If it had more to do with the overall story and became a HUB world again I think I would like it a lot more.

The gameplay is fun but I don't care for the rest of Omega

I was never a huge fan of Aria though

Dont know if this is a hot take, but the Quarian admirals are immensely stupid.

Like what was Gerrel thinking after you disable the Reaper signal on the dreadnaught? I punched him and kicked him off the Normandy. Blows my mind that he thought it would be a good idea to potentially kill Shepard and another Admiral on board when the threat was already gone. Hell since Xen loves geth so much it would have been a prime opportunity to get an intact dreadnaught ship if he had any foresight.

Obviously if Shepard dies you get a game over, but let's just say they destroyed the dreadnaught and killed Shepard and Tali while they were still on board. They would have just doomed the galaxy and likely would have made enemies with the Krogan and Turians because of the alliance with humans/Shepard.

I think it's made worse when Raan tries to empathize where Gerrel is coming from. When I have been empathizing with them since 1! Like we know you have been at war with them forever, but this situation/war could have been avoided from the beginning. Legion said as much. Instead the hot head move that got them into the war, almost got me and my team killed too. Quarians are in desperate need of new leaders.

yeah they really make it difficult to sympathize with the quarians in ME3

Yeah I was going to lump all the Quarians together and was gonna say they are better off dying, but I didn't really want to go the whole genocide route. Especially because there are some other Quarians that are actually smart!

If it came down to it though(and I know I can broker peace between the two), I would choose the Geth over them. I dunno. Kinda feels like they wrote themselves in a corner and them going to war was the simplest solution. Especially considering the choice in Mass Effect 2 with the heretics didn't really matter.

The choice with the heretics does matter, just not in the way you might expect

Sure. In the sense that more casualties/less causalities can happen to each side depending on what you did which results in war assets at the end, but I don't count that as mattering. It's a number(and I am well past the threshold for assets at this point) You can still broker peace between the two regardless of what you your choice was in 2.

Unless you mean something else?

Well, you have to hit a certain number of "points" to actually be able to broker peace, and the points are determined by choices you've made regarding the geth and the quarians in 2 and 3.

That being said, there's a decent bit of leeway in the point system, so even if you make a "wrong" choice or two, it shouldn't stop you.

It's interesting to see the shift regarding the Quarians in the ME world through ME3. The race practically brings every negative sentiment down upon themselves. They create a galactic threat, they become an immense burden on the galaxy due to their enviro-suits, they actively defy galactic rules set up by the Council. Worst of all, the ones that are respectable(like Tali) get raked over the coals(how she was treated when she first arrived on the Citadel in ME1). It's baffling how the Geth can actually be made sympathetic after everything the series shows of them.

Good job, Legion! It wouldn't have happened without you!

Yeah the Quarians are are a conundrum. I get why people like them(although I think people use Tali as an extension of them). It's probably my least favorite race of aliens in the game. Except for maybe the Vorcha? How much vorcha lore is out there anyway? Are they more than just fodder? lol

We know they have short lifespans and they're basically immune to disease, that's about it

oh right and practically no other species likes them

I'll have to do a ranking of the alien races at the end of this.

That would be cool

Sorozone posted...

Yeah the Quarians are are a conundrum. I get why people like them(although I think people use Tali as an extension of them). It's probably my least favorite race of aliens in the game. Except for maybe the Vorcha? How much vorcha lore is out there anyway? Are they more than just fodder? lol

I like most every Quarian you run into outside (or before) the Flotilla. The idiots who don't listen to Tali at the beginning of ME2 are the exception, but only one of them really even had a voice.

Getting a bit of Mass Effect burnout. Taking a quick detour to start FF7 Remake/Intergrade. Made it to the slums. Enjoying it so far.

Almost done!

I am! I will be finishing it within the next 2 weeks. I think the only critical missions are Rannoch, The Asari world whose name I am blanking on, and the end missions and Citadel DLC. Been trying to play the past couple of days but just don't have it in me to play past 20 minutes. Needed a quick change. Plus I planned on playing FF7 Remake along side Andromeda because I knew burnout would be coming, just came a bit sooner than expected!

Saved admiral Koris. Fun little mission. Varied objectives.

Disabled the Geth server. Also fun, for a different reason. Going into the consensus was neat with all the backround information regarding the Geth and the war. Plus the Primes all stepping aside as you leave was a cool moment. The level itself was boring. It also made the Quarians look even worse in hindsight.

Rannoch defeated. Fun mission. I totally forgot the Reaper came out of the ground. Also this was the hardest mission so far on Insanity. The 3 primes at the end destroyed me in 3 shots. All I really could do is run around in cover and try to get two next to eachother so I could take 2 out as soon as possible, once it was down to one it was easier. Except one time when he was right behind me after I took out the other two.

Saved everyone, Geth and Quarians working together. Too bad the Geth gonna be gone by the end of this.

Gonna finish up some of the minor fetch quests and citadel errands then started the Citadel DLC, and then head to Thessia.

Well I should say I saved everyone but Legion. RIP king.

Rannoch the best

Legions sacrifice only to kill them all later anyway lol

It's so fucking stupid that Destroy affects all AI but Control just affects the Reapers.

kevwaffles posted...

It's so fucking stupid that Destroy affects all AI but Control just affects the Reapers.

I mean, its a lot harder to control something than to destroy it.

well they had to make it so that everyone didn't just pick Destroy since it'd be an option with no downsides if all it did was destroy the Reapers

Leonhart4 posted...

well they had to make it so that everyone didn't just pick Destroy since it'd be an option with no downsides if all it did was destroy the Reapers

I mean that's clearly the reason but then they paint a very idealized outcome to Control and Synthesis despite the obvious potential issues there.

Well you also have to give people incentive to pick them

I'll get into the endings once I am there just so it is fresh on my mind! Inching closer to the end anyway, but still destroy all the way!

Citadel DLC. First, I totally forgot how this is how it starts. With the dinner date with Joker than being attacked and chased through that area. Or well, not chased? Followed, ambushed? And while I appreciate the stealth they attempted to provide, it wasn't the best. Having the one pistol was quite difficult to manage on Insanity. I ended up just plowing through and ignoring most enemies because it was becoming a pain in the ass.

Oh yeah, the Wrex scene is awesome. Stopped once we got back to the apartment, and the rest of the crew arrives. Honestly all I really remember about this is clone Shepard.

Citadel hype

Citadel best DLC ever? Or at least it was my favorite at the time.

In the Mass Effect series, yes!

Best DLC of all time is The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine though