Mass Effect General Thread

[Necrosan]

I really enjoyed ME2 and it made me realize that a game where you just fuck around with your crew in space would've been a great concept. I would totally buy a game where you solve crimes with Garrus as your partner.

Having the game only be tangentially related to the Reapers also helped since I never liked them to begin with. I think the games shine the brightest when they are not in the equation.

Lair of the Shadow Broker was a fantastic DLC and it was made two years after the game released, which is something unheard of in modern gaming. I wish more games did this. I would be all over DLC for old games like ME1-2, Oblivion or New Vegas. Would be an interesting experiment.

 

[Mexican Molotov Marauder]

I'll forgive everything bioware does with the gender faggotry if they keep the paragon/renegade system, and just have the paragons as allies and renegade as transphobic chuds.

Never happening. Transphobia in not permissible in modern games, not even from villains. And don't even dream about them letting the player not be a heckin wholesome ally. Gone are the days where you could be a genuinely massive piece of shit in an RPG.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

I really enjoyed the trilogy.
Paragon/Renegade are grey morally as fuck; neither is a full hero or a asshole. Is basically how you gonna end a mission.
Garrus, Wrex, Tali, Liara (at a certain point), Miranda, Jack, Thane, Grunt, Kazumi, Legion, Samara, James & Javick are my favorite companions so far.

 

[Miller]

I've started playing ME2 Legendary Edition the other day. I've forgotten how big of a downgrade the game was in terms of gameplay. I have added a bunch of mods and it's way better.
I recommend the Combined Ammo Mod. It removes the thermal clip crap, instead your weapons regain ammo slowly (like the cooldown in ME1).

I really enjoyed ME2 and it made me realize that a game where you just fuck around with your crew in space would've been a great concept.

so... Mass Effect 1?

 

[Necrosan]

so... Mass Effect 1?

I enjoyed both a lot but I would be lying if I told you that I think ME1 plays better, other than seeing people ragdoll all over the place, I did not enjoy to play it that much. The Thorian quest and whatever the Battarian DLC was called were great.

Sidequests in 1 were meh at best in my opinion. I also do not enjoy the Reapers thing at all, especially in 3 when they re-wrote them to have even more generic motivations.

 

[Deus Exica]

really enjoyed ME2 and it made me realize that a game where you just fuck around with your crew in space would've been a great concept. I would totally buy a game where you solve crimes with Garrus as your partner.

I maintain the franchise should have become purely episodic following ME1. Using Shepard as the connective tissue across several adventures would have been fine and would have kept the franchise from having to rely on a deus ex machina to stop the impossible reaper threat.

 

[Burning Bridge]

Is this the thread where we bitch about console plebs (and also gaming journos) ruining another CRPG franchise, albeit this one is real time TPS vs tactical isometric turn based. I will always remember how fucking pissed I was playing ME2. All strategic options gone, game is now a cover based TPS, abilities are complete ass, and goddamn ammo management.

 

[KittyGremlin]

I really liked the Mass Effect series, even three.

We may have been too harsh on ME3, I'm gonna be real here. It is only a mediocre game when compared to the previous entries. Most story-driven games today pale in comparison and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

 

[Rockzo]

The modding community could use a focus. It's made up of talented individuals that back ported Pinnacle Station for ME1 to ME1LE because Bioware lost the source code. They are a discord group however. During the Spiderman pride flag debacle, one of the reddit mods said he would straight up ban people from Reddit or Nexus if they tried to remove gay mods and the like. Wish I could find that post again.

There's more ancient drama in Giftfish. Decent modder that made Better dreams and ME1 Recalibrated but then decided to delete everything after Nexus ruled that mods uploaded would not belong to the creator. Scuttlebutt from what I remember is Giftfish quit over gay discord drama because the Femshep - Miranda/Jack gay romance mods were being pushed back in 2021, this probably isolated her from the community and caused her to delete everything.



The r/drownedmods thread for the Better Dreams mod has been banned from Reddit, so it's kinda hard to track down 3 year old drama information.

Other than that Legendary Edition is still being worked over, EGM just hit 1.0 for that a few weeks ago. The community moved over to LE from the original trilogy for the simple reason that the games are now on a 64 bit engine. Trying to mod ME3 armors on a heavily modified 32 bit Unreal 3 engine resulted in opening the armor screen and crashing the game. Good times.

Ding Dong Bannu

 

[WTBOnlineFather]

game is now a cover based TPS

Vanguard is still fun as fuck as it gets around this change

 

[Testacles Maximus]

I’ve been playing the Legendary Edition lately and I’ve been busting at the seams wanting to talk about it with someone. The writing is top-tier, and the combat system gets better with each game. Mass Effect 2 would be my all time favorite game if Fallout New Vegas didn’t exist.

That said, Mass Effect 3 did a lot of things that are bullshit. They minimized the amount of dialogue choices you have. And with the dialogue choices you do have, Shepard is always too nice, even if you go full renegade.

I play a paragon Shepard, but in 3 I end up choosing renegade dialogue options because the paragon ones make Shepard nice and patient to an extent I would call unreasonable.

I’m not gonna try to make nice with the Illusive Man after he’s spent the whole game fucking up the war and experimenting on innocent civilians, I’m gonna put a bullet between his eyes and get back to work.

Incidentally, the Illusive Man is a fucking idiot in the third game. Six months pass between the second and third game and in that span of time he went from being a dangerous but well-meaning maverick to crazy enough to pour Reaper tech into his soldiers and himself like it was water.

Then there’s the stupid fucking kid. With the game’s graphics, his facial expressions always look goofy and vacant, to the point that I laugh any time I see it, and the voice actor makes the kid laugh by saying “ha ha ha” instead of actually laughing.

I can’t take a character like that seriously, but it wouldn’t really be a problem if they didn’t make him the personification of Shepard’s grief and anxiety throughout the entire game. Shepard had two games’ worth of dead friends and lovecraftian nightmares, he was already motivated enough.

I wish they hadn’t explained the origin of the Reapers. The reapers claim in the first game that they have no beginning and no end, and it’s theorized by other characters that their motives and goals are impossible for lesser beings to comprehend. I love that. The prothean VI at the end of the first game says all that matters is stopping them, not understanding them. Works for me.

I liked that a whole lot more than the explanation 3 gives us. I’d be fine with them dropping some hints here and there regarding their motivation, but don’t tell us exactly how and why they exist. I never expected or wanted an explanation. They had no problem demystifying the reapers, but the second anyone asked Bioware to show Tali’s face they were like “ambiguity is better”.

I didn’t like that they shoehorned that IGN journalist into the game. There are two pre-established reporter characters in the series, and I would have happily welcomed either one of them onto my ship before I’d let the walking obscure cameo set up shop.

As for the ending, there’s nothing I can say about it that hasn’t been said a thousand times. I didn’t like it, most people didn’t like it, and the extended cut didn’t make it any better.

I know it sounds like I hate the third game, but I don’t. Not at all. I still consider it an above-average AAA game, there are just a lot of problems that could have easily been solved before it hit the shelves. I’ll probably post again about everything I love about the series, but this post is long and autistic enough.

 

[Checkerboard Hero]

Finally some representation.

 

[Back me up!]

I still miss ME3 multiplayer. Looking back I think it was the first gacha game I've ever played.

 

[Breadquanda.]

The modding community could use a focus. It's made up of talented individuals that back ported Pinnacle Station for ME1 to ME1LE because Bioware lost the source code.

Oh god, yes. I remember staying in some chatroom on one of the modding websites for a long time back in 2014-2015 talking to some of them and they were very nice people. I wish I had stayed in contact with them.

We may have been too harsh on ME3

I agree. It had a lot of issues, but I loved the game. It also had some cool DLCs, especially Citadel was memorable for me and I liked imagining that it was after the ending. I can't remember how I justified that, but I'm sure it was a relatively common cope.

I maintain the franchise should have become purely episodic following ME1.

I wish they would do that following ME3, it would be perfect. They have such a great cast of characters and a great lore backing and setting. Having a bunch of cool games showing the less life-or-death missions of Shepard and his team would be wonderful. Unfortunately, they will never do this.

Garrus, Wrex, Tali, Liara (at a certain point), Miranda, Jack, Thane, Grunt, Kazumi, Legion, Samara, James & Javick are my favorite companions so far.

There are very few companions I don't remember fondly, honestly. But yes, my favourites are probably like... Kaidan (shut up), Miranda, Kasumi, EDI, Wrex is interesting too, Jack, Legion and Thane. Yes, Liara becomes a very good friend at a certain point. Honestly, I can hardly even say since they are all so interesting. I don't even hate Jacob all that much, given how irritating he is. His loyalty mission in ME2 is also very interesting and memorable. Zaeed has such an interesting South-African-mercenary-in-space character and I enjoy that. Aria is really cool too, if you can count her as a companion during her DLC.

Lair of the Shadow Broker was a fantastic DLC and it was made two years after the game released, which is something unheard of in modern gaming. I wish more games did this. I would be all over DLC for old games like ME1-2, Oblivion or New Vegas. Would be an interesting experiment.

Wow, I never actually thought just how exceptional this really is. Two years is such a long time and it was such an amazing DLC. How far they have fallen.

Safe bet, Andromeda was already totally sexless and chalked full of ugly white women and browns. I fully expect multiple long lectures on the nature of space pronouns.

Even the males in Andromeda were absolutely hideous beasts, with the exception of perhaps default male Ryder. What an incredibly stupid game. I might be 'looking back in anger', but all of the additional races just remind me of disgusting Disney Star Wars Marvelised nonsense.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

Citadel was memorable for me and I liked imagining that it was after the ending. I can't remember how I justified that, but I'm sure it was a relatively common cope.

There’s actually a mod out there that shifts it around so Citadel does happen after an altered ending where you survive.

 

[WTBOnlineFather]

Zaeed has such an interesting South-African-mercenary-in-space character and I enjoy that.

Zaeed is the best character in all of Mass Effect period. RIP Robin Sachs. It's a shame his DLC was so shit gameplay wise because every line of that goddamn bastard's dialogue is a goddamn gem.

 

[KittyGremlin]

Zaeed is the best character in all of Mass Effect period. RIP Robin Sachs. It's a shame his DLC was so shit gameplay wise because every line of that goddamn bastard's dialogue is a goddamn gem.

Him, Mordin and Miranda are my favorites tbh

 

[Anon88]

Is it worth buying the Legendary Edition just for the DLC? I have my old disks but they didn't include the DLC so I've never played any of them before.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

Is it worth buying the Legendary Edition just for the DLC? I have my old disks but they didn't include the DLC so I've never played any of them before.

I would say yes. It would be an exaggeration to say the DLC doubles the amount of content in 2 and 3, but it comes damn close, and it’s all fun.

 

[Breadquanda.]

There’s actually a mod out there that shifts it around so Citadel does happen after an altered ending where you survive.

Wow, perfect. I can't remember if I had this mod. I might have. It's really how it should have been...

Regarding the episodic thing, I think one of the best things in the series is old pre-established characters revealing themselves again and showing up around various places across the galaxy like a true saga. Smaller, little episodic entries could really capitalise on this. There are so many iconic and established characters and settings. If only we did not live in such a hideous clown world.