"Mass Effect Revisited" On 3/20/2015 at 2:25:40 AM, Seth Rex started the thread: This is the first of a trilogy of threads concerning my playthrough of the Mass Effect Trilogy.
The character is Adam Shepard, and I am just starting my career as a soldier. This'll be interesting cause I haven't played the whole trilogy from first to third game yet. In fact I haven't even played the first Mass Effect on PS3 all the way through yet until hopefully this playthrough.
**Spoiler for the first game** I can never kill Wrex on Virmire. Even when playing renegade. I tried it once and just reloaded a previous save. The Genophage storyline is fantastic.
Msg #5: On 3/22/2015 at 4:14:32 AM, Compy01 replied, saying: I loved the Mass Effect trilogy and they are three of the best games I have ever had the pleasure of playing, unfortunately, the ending to the third game was so despicably awful, that it has soured my taste of the games forever. Fortunately I will still always carry the excellent memories right up to the point of the (you-know-what-I-mean). I can never return to the games though, knowing that conclusion is the one that awaits me. Replies: 6
Msg #6: On 3/22/2015 at 9:08:38 AM, Narrator replied to Msg #5, saying: Compy is not correct. Replies: 8
Msg #7: On 3/23/2015 at 10:19:11 PM, Seth Rex replied, saying: Well I finished the first Mass Effect. It was pretty awesome doing a lot of the missions and man it's amazing when you're trying to skip out on some of the sub missions and you end up getting stuck into them anyway. Onwards to Mass Effect 2.
Msg #8: On 3/24/2015 at 4:56:33 AM, Stealth Raptor2 replied to Msg #6, saying: Not necessarily. I feel the exact same way he does. Maybe that will change someday, but not while I can still remember that bitter disappointment at the conclusion. Replies: 10
Msg #9: On 3/26/2015 at 1:57:31 AM, Grizzle replied, saying: Did anyone else play ME3's multiplayer? I know I've played with Narrator several times, but I'm wondering if anyone else enjoyed it as well?
My favorite multiplayer classes were definitely Quarian Engineer or Asari Adept. Though, when they added the bonus races, it was hilarious watching a Volus Adept rolling around and wrecking the enemy's shit.
Sadly, the multiplayer was kind of dead last time I checked. Maybe I'll try to get into a match tonight for nostalgia sake.
Msg #10: On 3/27/2015 at 2:26:45 AM, Narrator replied to Msg #8, saying: You can both be wrong together then.
I'll defend the shit out of the ending to the death. If the ending isn't your thing because you want *SPOILERS* a simple good guys crush bad guys with big guns ending, fine. But every reason that people give for why it's bad "It doesn't fit, it makes no sense because of what they said in arrival, it's a cookie cutter ending where none of your choices mattered," etc all hold no water, and some are just down right incorrect.
Even worse than just not liking it, is the painfully stupid indoctrination theory which is almost as stupid as people thinking *Spoilers for lost* they were dead the whole time on Lost.
The first two games had basically established that a reaper invasion would utterly outclass the alliance in conventional weaponry, and that made it a bit awkward to come up with a plausible way for humans to win which is why the premise for the third game was a bit contrived. The ending was ambitious but came across as masturbatory and pretentious 2001 psychobabble.
Msg #12: On 3/27/2015 at 9:11:10 PM, Raptor Vinny replied, saying: I've yet to see a rational explanation as to why the ending is bad. I'm all in with Narrator on this one. Seems like retards are just hoping for bad endings these days so they can bitch on the internet and feel smarter than writers of a triple A game. LOL COLOUR CODED ENDINGS GUYS! YOUR CHOICES DON'T MATTER!
Ok maybe if you're ignorant and didn't pay attention to the ramifications of what you chose and you needed the extended cut to spell it out for you.
Ford, how was it contrived? The Protheans had already left remnants and clues throughout the entire first game. It was always about studying the protheans for ways to beat the Reapers. I think it is a cool commentary on how evolution can be cultural and technological instead of just biological.
And the ending HAD to be masturbatory. It's the ending of one of the most epic series in scope in video gaming history. People were expecting something on a grand scale.
Msg #13: On 3/29/2015 at 12:25:47 AM, Narrator replied, saying: I'm not really sure what "masturbatory" in the context means, but if it means something like it taking itself too seriously, or introducing something at the last part just for the sake of being weird, I get why it gives that impression but I don't think it does.
The "star child" conversation is one of my favorite parts in the series and that type of scene happens a lot in this type of story. In Lost, when Jack talks to christian for the last time in the finale and when Harry Potter sort of dies " and talks to dumbledore before waking up both resemble this scene, and they both introduce something new at the last second but that ties everything before together.
The catalyst and the following choice pretty much ties the whole series together. The theme of the series has been the struggle with AI and to control them, destroy them, or coexist with them. Even going back to ME1 when you find the rogue AI on the citadel, it states that all organics wish to control or destroy AI. In ME2 the 3 quarian admirals basically mirror the final choices. Xen wants to control the geth, Gerrel wants to destroy them and Khorus wants to coexist.
There are other themes thoughout the game that tie in to the reason the catalyst gives for the reapers. By destorying and harvesting the organics the reapers impose a systematic and orderly way to do the inevitable and, they find their own clumsy way to achieve synthesis by fusing machine and organic in the form of reapers and their husks, But this of course isn't done right because it is only done by a machine, and it takes shepard, an organic to actually do it right (If you chose synthesis)
Msg #14: On 3/29/2015 at 8:46:53 PM, Raptor Vinny replied, saying: Shepard himself is a fusion of synthetic and organic after ME2 so there's a tie in there as well with your main character. And there's EDI and Legion who you have very personal relationships, influencing your decisions at the end. It helps that EDI and Legion are possibly the most fleshed out and well written characters in the series.
Msg #15: On 3/31/2015 at 12:49:45 AM, Compy01 replied, saying: The main criticisms of ME3 seemed to be that it was rushed and dropped the ball a few times. Don't get me wrong, it was an astounding game in a lot of ways, but it was the first Mass Effect game that had me thins 'huh?' and 'what?'
Flaws in the writing crept in really early in the game. There's just, the Crucible? It was never explored or mentioned in either of the first two games. And don't tell me 'oh it's because Shepard was decommissioned-blah-blah,' it was just shoehorned in to the last game.
In the second game, they established reaper codes existed and they could be used to the detriment of the reapers. In my own perfect Mass Effect world, the third game would have gone something like this: the race that perished in the last cycle (can't remember their names, it's been 3 years since I played it) completed a code to shut down the reapers, but wisely did it in secret and scattered areas across the galaxy. But they never finished the job. Basically the same thing they did with the crucible but using a plot device they already had in ME2. Shepard's job would be to locate the fragments of the code - the data or whatever that completes it - and eventually uses the Citadel to activate it at the end.
And anyway, so what if I wanted a good ending? Just have the shit ending as the canon ending if you want, but give us something that made the game actually worth playing. In the original shit ending - before they retconned it with the DLC (but curiously avoided admitting they did) - the best case scenario was everybody died and everything was pointless. It was actually harder to fuck it all up and make a shit ending than to make a good ending. It was like they went out of their way to purposely make the ending as terrible as possible. Just have a shit, canon ending, and have a non-canon good ending for the love of God!
Then there was that weird Japanese - Digimon villain who seemed totally out of place. He started doing all this marital arts shit when Shepard shot at him. Replies: 16
Msg #16: On 3/31/2015 at 6:50:40 AM, Narrator replied to Msg #15, saying: "here's just, the Crucible? It was never explored or mentioned in either of the first two games. And don't tell me 'oh it's because Shepard was decommissioned-blah-blah,' it was just shoehorned in to the last game."
Yeah, the next game introduced something new. Crazy right? I never understood this complaint in any story. The last chapter introduces a new thing that links the others together. In Harry Potter it was the Deathly Hallows, in Lost it was the heart of the Island. In ME 2 the collectors weren't mentioned before, were they shoehorned in?
"In the second game, they established reaper codes existed and they could be used to the detriment of the reapers. "
No, the only thing they established was that the reapers had an identify friend/foe device, and that device allowed them to pass through the omega 4 relay. And if you recall, the code ended up being a detriment to the normandy crew.
"in the original shit ending - before they retconned it with the DLC (but curiously avoided admitting they did) - the best case scenario was everybody died and everything was pointless."
I dunno what fucking game you played but that was not the best case scenario. What the fuck are you talking about right now?
If you inferred that if you chose destroy ending, the fleets are stranded on earth, and thus would die because it can't sustain them, I forgive your incorrect inference, but it is incorrect. The stranded ships still have FTL, even if the relays were destroyed beyond repair. They have FTL because of their ME fields, and can theoretically reduce the mass of their ships to almost massless (Rather than having negative or imaginary mass which is what they must have to travel FTL in the first place) So by doing that they can travel at almost the speed of light back to their home planets. It would take a long time but for the people on the ships, almost no time at all. Relativity.
If you're not referring to that, and you chose destroy and got the ending where everyone actually died, then you sir, fucked up. That's not the best case scenario at all.
Choosing any of the other options, which I don't find worse (I prefer synthesis) the reapers can repair the relays and using their superior ftl, transport people back to their home planets within weeks or months in real time.
"Then there was that weird Japanese - Digimon villain who seemed totally out of place. He started doing all this marital arts shit when Shepard shot at him"
Kai Leng was in the ME universe before ME3
"And anyway, so what if I wanted a good ending? Just have the shit ending as the canon ending if you want, but give us something that made the game actually worth playing. "
lol fuck off. If you don't like the ending so be it, but you not liking it doesn't mean it wasn't worth playing. First off, even if the ending is shit, it doesn't ruin the experience you had while playing. Second, it is a story, and someone telling a story is under no obligation to answer to the whims of people experiencing it. If George RR Martin writes an ending that I dont like, then I don't like it. That doesn't take away me like of the show before nor do I say hey, GRRM can you write an ending that isn't part of your story for me?
Also, I'd like to address the alleged "original ending" that had to do with the dark matter plot. The reapers were doing what they did because people were overusing the Mass Effect and that was causing dark energy to accelerate the destruction of the galaxy (DE responsible for haestroms sun dying faster than usual) The DE line is interesting and I hope the 4th game is about that, but that ending would have made absolutely no sense. On top having nothing to do with the main theme of the games... If the reapers are trying to solve the dark energy problem, why the fuck would they build the mass relays for civilizations to find and guide their development around the mass effect technology? The solution to that problem is to take away the fucking mass relays, lol. Fucking idiotic.
Msg #17: On 4/3/2015 at 6:52:45 PM, Raptor Vinny replied, saying: A game can have a grim ending. Why do gamers feel like they are owed the opportunity to save the princess? Replies: 20
Msg #18: On 4/4/2015 at 3:36:53 AM, Seth Rex replied, saying: I've come to realize that I don't actually hate the ending. But I do think the Extended Cut DLC enhanced it. Replies: 19
Msg #19: On 4/4/2015 at 5:10:57 AM, Raptor Vinny replied to Msg #18, saying: I agree that the extended cut is BETTER. So I guess I can't complain about the efforts of the haters.
I just think the hate was so ridiculously overboard, as if Bioware killed their families. Nerd overreaction is so rampant on the internet.
Msg #20: On 4/13/2015 at 8:42:54 AM, JPController replied to Msg #17, saying: Reminds me of Halo. But at LEAST It's changing a little with H5.
Msg #21: On 4/15/2015 at 3:29:02 PM, Velociraptor87 replied, saying: I think Mass Effect 2 or 3 is part of one of the recent Humble Bundles, if there's anyone out there that hasn't scored it yet. Dead Space 2 is part of that bundle too.
