Why did Shepard not get indoctrinated after spending years around Reaper tech?
>>319719075
why would anybody take the plot to mass effect seriously?
Bioware never had good writers. Ever. They had ONE GAME with a decent plot and it was set in a fucking licensed IP.
>>319719075
In Mass Effect Deception it's revealed that Illusive Man put a chip in his brain that basically functions as an "anti Reaper" and basically acts as a second brain. Whenever she's in Reaper presence, her real brain turns off and the surrogate anti Reaper brain turns off.
>>319719239
>Bioware is the Blue Oyster Cult of videogames
>>319719382
*on
>>319719382
>Mass Effect Deception
you mean that shit novel written by a dude who never played the games and is full of huge errors?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XBpMF3ONlI308D9IGG8KICBHfWKU0sXh0ntukv-_cmo/preview?pli=1
>>319719075
Either because Shepard was special, they literally make an entire trilogy focused around the fucker.
Or "he was indoctrinated, that's the point"
>>319719239
I'm not sure if you're talking about baldur's gate or kotor. my vote's on kotor
>>319719075
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck
it still hurts
I still don't understand why they didn't go for the Indoctrination. I mean, they fucking put in so many elements that were almost blatantly alluding to it happening and then it turns out it fucking wasn't? The tweest was that there was no tweest? Disappointing, but not Kai Leng levels of disappointing.
>wow this ending sucks no closure
>IT ends the entire series with Shepard waking up half dead and the Reapers still at large with the battle going on
>seems fine to me
>>319719382
Is that actually canon? What the fuck...
>>319719075
>spending years around Reaper tech?
When?
>>319719916
Basically The IT Theory has a couple good points going for them (Shepard being around reaper tech, the illogical reasoning behind the ending before encountering star child, and those creepy dreams), but the rest is just stretching.
Truth is Bioware's writers are incompetent, but they could've produced better results than what we got if EA wasn't Jewing them out of production time and money.
>>319720242
Let's see here. Shepard hung around Sovereign on a few occasions, nothing too long, so we could throw that out. In Mass Effect 2 they board a derelect reaper for a good couple of hours so that's gotta fuck with you a little bit. In The Arrival DLC shepard spends several days unconscious right next to a unprotected Reaper artifact. In Mass Effect 3 there's reapers all over the place.
People get fucked up for spending like 10 minutes by a Reaper, yet Shepard literally has no side effects for no other reason than muh protagonist
>>319719075
Lazy writing
>>319719075
Is that what non-canon Shepard looks like? I always played as the guy on the box cover, so I didn't know.
>>319719075
plot armor.
>>319721723
pretty sure thats fan art, i dont remember a pool or spa in the games.
>>319722404
It's the default female Shepard in the Citadel DLC.
>>319722404
its from the Citaldel DLC
Indoctrination Theory
2012
"Wouldn't it be great if the game shipped without an ending that came as dlc later? Hey EA, don't bother finishing games, we'll still defend them"
"b-but there is literally no reason to think Shepard is indoctrin..."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP CONTROL/SYNTHESIS FAG. CAN'T YOU SEE DESTROY IS THE ONE TRUE ENDING THAT BIOWARE SO BRILLIANTLY PLANNED? HOW DARE YOU QUESTION OUR LORD CASEYS HUDSON?
2015
"Waaah why are all games shipped unfinished now? What did we ever do to cause this?"
>>319722575
>>319722576
Ah, i only played that DLC once. didn't pay much attention
>>319719075
They did though, didn't you play the ending?
The Illusive man gets them to shoot Anderson because of the subtle indoctrination effecting them throughout the entire series.
Did anybody actually like the Indoctrination Theory or were you all hoping for a canon reason to retcon?
>>319719916
Ok so let's say Shepard is indoctrinated. Where does the story go from there? Does he/she just get on their knees and blow reapers forever?
>>319723268
No, they shoot Anderson in the ending.
The Illusive man talks about it for fucking ever and I listened to it twice to see how different the endings were.
>>319719382
>Shepard
>she
>>319719239
actually i quite liked mass effect 1 and 2 (3 was ok for the first hour)
>>319723569
Ok they shoot Anderson and then?
>>319719075
but the real question is will we finally see female alien nipple when mass effect andromeda comes out
Wow, femshep is actually somewhat attractive. Thats a bioware first.
She looks like Cait from Fallout 4.
>>319719382
>In Mass Effect Deception...
The book so bad the fans of ME had full on fucking modern day book burnings? That book by the guy that didn't know the age of the characters and had one grow out of her autism, or as he put it 'behavior problems as a youth' and an edgy asshole villain that ate breakfast cereal as a way of marking his territory.
I replayed Mass Effect 1 and 2 recently and after reading this thread I have to ask what the fuck I or anyone else was expecting the ending to be. In retrospect, there is no way you can beat the reapers. The Crucible was a Deus Ex Machina. If you take the first two games on their own, there's literally no way you can beat the reapers. Bioware wrote themselves into a corner and it shows in Mass Effect 3.
>>319724008
No you fucking retard it's bioware what the fuck do you expect faggot
more likely there will be male alien nipples
Shepard was indoctrinated, TIM was the hero, he was trying to stop Shepard from activating the weapon that would have wiped out humanity, unfortunately Shepard was too good with his skills. Also TIM was fighting against indoctrination at the same time in the end he failed
>>319721723
So you were also playing as the non-canon Shepard? Because this is the canon one.
>>319719393
Kek.
>>319724346
how's the all salty all the time diet going ?
>>319724293
I can't help but wonder if the Mass Effect games should have been their own self contained adventures. Sort of like an old Sci Fi serial
>>319724293
Well Mass Effect 1 does kinda work as a way of beating the reapers. With the destruction of Sovereign they were basically stuck in the middle of nowhere extremely far away from our universe without a mass relay. They could've easily said "Yeah, The Reapers are still out there, but with no way of activating the mass relay inside the citadel it'd be millions of years before they could get to our universe conventionally."
>>319724008
BioWare has stated multiple times that they are happy with how much skin they are currently showing, fully clothed sex scenes and having a shower scene while still having on the underwear.
I don't even give a shit that they don't want to show skin, it's their business so if that's where they want to draw the company line, fine. But for the love of God stop writing in scenes where people should be naked but aren't.
>Don't want naked bodies in Mass Effect.
>Writes shower scenes and multiple sex scenes anyway.
>>319724293
>I replayed Mass Effect 1 and 2 recently and after reading this thread I have to ask what the fuck I or anyone else was expecting the ending to be
We get in a big space war and through the power of friendship we fight the reapers to a stalemate. Shepard then goes and finds the boss reaper and kills it.
>>319724736
Honestly I think a better direction for the Mass Effect games would have been a series of self contained adventures. Like Mass Effect 2 would have been largely the same but without the Reaper Connection. And Mass Effect 3 could have been a different adventure.
>>319724837
Well they pander to SJWs now, so what do you expect?
I'll tell you what to expect, some new species in Andromeda that's like canonical transgendered or genderfluid or some horseshit
>>319724837
Hell, they could have the fully nude scenes but have austin powers style censor gags instead of Underwear showers.
>>319724293
ME1 ends on a high note. The Reapers are enormously powerful, but by beating Sovereign you've-
>A. Proven that Reapers aren't invincible
>B. Delayed their invasion by decades if not centuries, since they're stuck way out in dark space and the Citadel relay was their only way of getting to Council space in any reasonable time
In other words, you've given the galaxy time to arm themselves against the threat of the Reapers. You can't fight them yet, but when they arrive, you'll be ready. Roll credits, no need for a sequel on that one. Maybe a web series or comic showing the ensuing war a few hundred years later for closure, but that part doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Mass Effect is about stopping the Reapers, and you stopped the Reapers. gg, no re.
Then ME2 comes about and offers about as much plot significance as the hot-spring episode in an anime. Random villain-of-the-week shows up and is vanquished at the end. Pointless, but serviceable filler. The Arrival DLC kinda fucks things up with 'oh they had a secret second relay ALL ALONG' but it's resolved immediately and the story ends basically in the same place as ME1 did.
Then the bit that REALLY wrote them into a corner was ME3 with 'lol reapers are here already'. Like, why? What was the point of the Citadel relay? Why did Sovereign need to plot and scheme for CENTURIES when the Reapers were only a two year flight away? Why didn't they just fly out two years earlier? Why?
>>319724293
i expected it to be some sort of mexican standoff type shit between the cerberus the alliance and the reapers all wanting to control the galaxy and you would have to pick which side
IT is full of holes in addition to being stupid.
Now what makes sense would be if everything after the Prothean beacon in ME1 was a dream and Shepard just imagined himself as a great hero. There are no reapers, Saren is just a terrorist, you failed and imagined yourself to be a hero after falling out of the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime
>>319724837
they showed full on boobs with nipples and man ass in Dragon Age Inquisition, it wouldnt be too far out idea that they will do it again in ME.
>>319724960
You know what I would've loved. A game that just took place on The Citadel. Like a cop game or futuristic GTA type game.
Think about it, exploring all the various alien communites and different socio-economic levels. Going from slummy bars and run down apartments in run down wards to the luxurious embassies in the presidium.
>>319725163
>MY 'it was all a dream, all along' idea makes more sense than YOUR 'it was a dream, all along' idea!
>>319725061
eh i think they're starting to get out of that habit
i mean inquisition was pretty good at least i liked it
>>319725328
>i think they're starting to get out of that habit
>meanwhile inquisition has transgender and gay characters
>>319719239
>>319723704
mass effect 1 had great storytelling, mass effect 2 and 3 really just took a shit on the story. Bioware dropped the writer of mass effect 1 for someone who could churn out shit faster, as you can tell from the credits
>>319725163
what would explain the robot space zombie things then ?
>>319723064
The indoctrination ending was dumb, but it made more sense than any other option.
>Control
Yeah, because controlling the Reapers would totally work. It's not like the entire point of Cerebus and the Illusive Man, the Collecters, and Saren was to show that you cannot control the Reapers, it works the other way around.
>Synthesis
Join the Reapers. Yup. Do exactly what they want you to do. While I agree, this will end the war, its kind of like committing suicide so that you won't get murdered.
>Destroy (As presented in Game)
Somehow annihilate all technology in the Galaxy. Remember, Reapers are fucking everywhere, and it isn't impossible to think they might have some reserves waiting in dark space. If it really does destroy all inorganics or semi-organics (like Shephard), and all tech like the Normandy, this is worse for all current life than the Reapers. Everything is reset to zero and all the mass effect tech is gone forever for the next cycle.
The indoctrination theory suggests that Shephard activates the Crucible which really is a weapon designed to fuck Reapers (and possibly other inorganics, but its unclear on that aspect), and survives. This leads to dead Reapers and a living Shephard. Its a bit ambiguous as to whether or not it kills all Reapers, but it definitely stops the ones in the immediate vicinity.
>>319725061
> canonical transgendered or genderfluid or some horseshit
When people say this I imagine as playing as some slanneshi fuck beast with 12 flailing barbed cocks and 6 pussies shooting out acid. Instead we get gays, lesbians and drag queens
>>319725421
The main story of Mass Effect 2 and 3 are shit. But there are still bits of greatness in there
>Tuchunka, Rannoch and Broing it up with Garrus in 3
>Shadow Broker DLC, Tali's loyalty Mission and everything involving Mordin in 2.
>>319725409
the thing I found absolutely hilarious about DAI's gay characters was that how they gushed over having gay/lesbian and tranny characters, and then the gay guy is a living "flaming gay" stereotype, the lesbian is one of the worst looking and personality in a bioware game, and the tranny didn't matter at all.
>>319725409
so ?
mass effect 1 came out in 2007 and they had gay characters and that was about 6 or 7 years before the whole sjw thing became a thing
just because a game has a gay character doesn't make it an sjw
>>319724293
Supposedly the series was going to be all about DARK ENERGY. Remember that stuff Tali talked about in ME2 when your first met her? That was never followed up on in ME3?
There was some change in staff between 2 and 3, from what I heard the original concept was that ME technology accelerated the progress of dark energy which would eventually destroy the universe. The reapers were harvesting civilisations, which " saved " them while preventing the heat death of the universe.
Or something along those lines, makes you wonder what could have been. Maybe the real solution would have been finding a way to halt dark energy, thereby robbing the reapers of their need to harvest.
>>319725210
Different teams, though who knows how often they move people back and forth between the 2 teams?
>>319725648
Yeah, but it was during that era where people didn't want any adult themes in games because "muh children"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKzF173GqTU
(It's weird seeing Geoff act this way considering how much of a corporate shill he is now)
>>319725680
David Gaider finally left the Dragon age team, I'd laugh my ass off if he's now on the ME team.
>>319725628
>the lesbian is one of the worst looking and personality in a bioware game
I never got rid of a team member in any bioware game, Sera was the fucking first. A lot of bad characters in that game and she was the worst by far.
Fucking sounded like she was written by a drunk toddle.
>>319725842
Drew Karpishian left to work on TOR and then quit bioware to do other shit.
Casey Hudson left to go work for Microsoft on some VR shit
Jennifer Hepler left after DAIII
Bioware has gotten rid of a lot of their key players
>>319725545
IT more suggests that the events aboard the Crucible are entirely psychological, and that the option of resisting the Reapers ends with Shepard waking up.
>>319725627
agreed
>>319725772
Geoff is in a strange position. You can tell he is genuinely passionate about videogames. But at the same time he has to accept how corporate everything is. When he is in more casual settings he drops the corporate act and is actually pretty cool.
>>319726139
i wonder if one day he'll just snap at the VGAs
>>319719239
Jade Empire was bretty gud.
Shame no one knows it exists though.
>>319726279
Wasn't EA literally giving a free copy to everyone on Origin just the other week?
If Mass Effect 3 had a cheesy feel good action movie ending would any of you have bitched? I know it's what I wanted
>>319724178
how do you mark your territory by eating cereal?
>>319726329
Yep. That's how obscure it is. EA doesn't give shit away for free if they think it's popular to make money off of.
>>319726329
Still is.
>>319725648
>just because a game has a gay character doesn't make it an sjw
I agree but the way BioWare promotes their diversity sort of does. Fucking most of the pre-release DA info was about all the different kinds of sexual personalities there were in the game.Still not sure why pan-sexual is different than bisexual but ok, DAI has proud pansexualsMaking a giant deal about Dorian being the first fully gay character ever (even though other companies had done so for years and didn't put it on the fucking press kits). Where Fallout NV had 2 pretty well written gay characters and Bethesda didn't feel the need to go around to all the media patting themselves on the back for it like BioWare does.
Haven't played Fallout 4 yet but based on previous Bethesda games I assume it has some gay characters in it. I haven't seen one story highlighting it like a badge of honor though.
>>319726383
Probably not, but it still would've been stupid.
The problem with the ending is two things.
1) Nothing is properly explained. You are given a hand wave explanation and three choices and have to accept it.
2) There's no expansion on the ending. It just kinda ends with a fuckton of lose ends.
Now the extended cut kinda fixed these options, but if Bioware had one more year to work on the game...
>>319726458
>>319724178
Whos bright fucking idea was it to put Kai Leng in three?
What if Shepard was indoctrinated and synthesis ending was the reaper's way to create reapers more efficiently?
>>319726458
Smacking your lips profusely.
For a badass soldier, Shepard sure does wear some lacy undergarments.
>>319726602
Ok but let's imagine that there is no star child and the three endings are replaced with something less pretentious and retarded. I would have been fine with a Starship Troopers ending where we just fuck the reapers up
>>319726458
You do it in your targets house without them knowing because you put things back exactly as you found them.
If that doesn't make sense to you, congratulations, you have a fully functioning brain. That puts you one up on the author that wrote the book.
Darth Vader vs Vanguard Shepard, who wins.
>>319727170
kinetic barriers can't stop lightsabers
>>319727170
force choke, force push into lava from the high ground, lightsaber. What do you think
>>319727170
Which Vader? Cause I've heard that compared to movie Vader, EU!Vader is fucking terrifying.
>>319727458
compared to movie anything, EU! is terrifying
>>319725545
>Yeah, because controlling the Reapers would totally work
Thats the problem with mass effect 3, aside from destroy the other options are never explored in any detail.
This is not like new vegas where you can work with yes man for 90% of the game, building your empire and getting ready to assrape both the legion and the ncr.
Bioware just gave us the power to control the reapers at the least moment, there was no buildup, no working together with some prothean ai to take over the reapers, you just press a button and the reapers are your cumdumps forever.
I like the control ending because I like the reaper designs, and honestly fuck organics, but bioware really took the easy way out.
Great,now I want to replay ME2
>>319727226
But can a kinetic barrier stop jet fuel?
>>319727986
Jet fuel cant even melt a steel beam m80.
>>319719075
Didnt they revive him/her as a zombie Jesus?
That wouldnt explain the rest though.
>>319727458
It really depends. The old EU was so fucking inconsistent it's crazy, Vader in particular. One work might have him doing obscenely overpowered stunts with his force powers that no other force user could do, another has him getting btfo by yet another mary sue secret apprentice who's barely trained in the force.
>>319726035
Only one of those people were all that important.
Most of the movements are within Bioware, from one team to another.
>>319728195
Don't forget Karen and her unending dicksucking for Mandalorians.
>>319719607
>https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XBpMF3ONlI308D9IGG8KICBHfWKU0sXh0ntukv-_cmo/preview?pli=1
Hahaha, wow
Mass Effect is at its best when there's no plot or very vague plot. Being Shepard and going on various adventures without being tethered to a visible, overarching story is what makes 2 my favorite. Each mission felt like an episode of a TV show, with a beginning, middle, and end, and the illusion of choice was greater.
The new one that's coming out seems to want to go back to a less-restrictive story, so that's great.
>>319728364
fucking mandos
they were cool for a while, then they just became awful with the fact that they were ALL superb warriors no matter the backround. each one was worth a dozen regular troops and could hold their own against a jedi, no matter what.
was just bullshit
>>319728364
Thanks for reminding me. It stung at first but more and more I'm thinking that trashing the EU en masse was a good thing.
I mean, the christmas special was still canon before the disney takeover for fucks sake.
>>319725656
It's still kinda stupider, because the Reapers are intentionally leaving shit around for people to learn Mass Effect tech from, so they grow along predictable paths.
The truth is from the moment the Reapers became the final boss for Mass Effect, Bioware had no idea how to end the series. Hell, how is it even possible for two writers to lock themselves in a room, write the ending entirely by themselves, and then not allow anyone to change it at all in a game of this scale? Ridiculous. That anon was right: Bioware was never going to make it satisfying.
>>319727051
Someone did a mod for that. I haven't played it but there you are.
>>319724837
Do you literally eat shit? Because you pulled that out of your ass.
David Gaider allowed nudity in Inquisition specifically because he thought wearing bras and shit looked stupid essentially. I can't find the article, but it's obvious that they'll do the same thing they did with Inquisition and leave it up to the writers whether or not they add nudity for each character.
>>319725627
Legion was also pretty cool.
>>319732363
>Get Legion right after mission that begins a timer
>If you don't do all missions before getting Legion, you're liable to loose your allies after they get captured
>you're encouraged to finish the entire rest of the game before getting Legion
>Only mission you're ever probably likely to use him for is his Loyalty mission and the final mission
>Not a squadmate in 3
Thanks, Bioware.
>>319732645
The funny thing is that he has a lot of unused files that imply that they planned to make him usable earlier. Lots of unused quest/location specific dialogue.
>>319726458
Didn't he also piss in a potted plant? I haven't thought of that book since /v/ shat on it when it was first released.
>>319732786
They did. Originally it wasn't Cerberus that brought Shepard back, but the Geth. They wanted a tweeeeeest.
It's well known that in the original draft, that Legion's first words were
>welcome back, shepard-commander
As Shep's vision was starting to come back.
>>319732786
If I recall, it was down to how the game was split up onto two discs on console. If you hack him in early, he'll even properly activate all his little dialogs like any other character without further fuckery.
>>319732936
I would've gladly taken this over Cerberus. I'm really not sure what Bioware was thinking there. It's just narratively bizarre.I will never not be butthurt about Sole Survivor Shepard not telling them to fuck off. Or even bringing it up AT ALL. And then I get an angry email from the other squadmate who survived? Fuck you Bioware.
The indoctrination theory is about as stupid as Squall being dead.
>>319720550
>several days next to an unprotected reaper artifact
We know it's less than 48 hours. Apparently that's not long enough to get indoctrinated. I don't know which people got fucked up from being around a Reaper for ten minutes. With the derelict reaper, Mars and the scientists studying artifact Rho, it seems that it takes quite a while for the indoctrination to take effect.
The cerberus team on the derelict reaper did not arrive just a few minutes before you, for example.
>>319733924
>mars
>indoctrination
Must have been thinking of babylon 5.
>>319733182
I don't really fault them for that. I mean yeah an alternative might have been nice but as it was the point was that it was an alliance of need. Basically recognizing that the threat of the reapers was so big that whatever personal vendetta you had was secondary, and I guess give Shepard enough characterization to realize that rather than be a petty little shit.
>>319732936
>>319732786
Legion has dialogue for all the missions, just edit the ini file to unlock. Works with other squadmates too.
>>319719075
He was mentally challenged. You didn't notice?
>>319734115
But you can't even bring it up. There's not even a comment upon it or a pathetic attempt at making an excuse for it.
And to add insult to injury, the whole subplot was completely pointless. Cerberus is dropped like a hot potato in 3, and everyone who mattered defected from them. There aren't even any "good" Cerberus cells who decided to go legit but still do the same stuff. We're just right back to Cerberus as crazy mad scientist terrorists. And nothing they were used for in 2 actually needed them to be there. The crew you're with is so squeeky clean, there's not even an opportunity for frictions of ideologies (aside from Miranda and Jack, and that get's taken care of pretty easily). Cerberus as an organization matters so little in ME2. If it was the Geth sponsoring you, you could get the exact same story with the exact same beats.
>former enemies you work with because no one else is willing to back you
>butthurt former allies ask "why u do dis"
>Can't get official sanction because of who you're working with
>Sponsor has tons of resources and tech they just drop on your lap
The whole thing is so mind bogglingly pointless. I don't understand what Bioware thought this would do for the story.
>>319724293
There were a couple things they could have used to justify a more conventional victory:
In ME1 the Reapers' harvest was already behind schedule. Maybe the extra time meant the Council races developed farther than the Reapers anticipated.
You closed the Citadel relay, so the Reapers would have to get here under normal power, which would take a *really* long time and drain their power reserves, making them weaker.
We managed to reverse-engineer Reaper-grade weapons by ME2, only two years after first contact with the Reapers.
The Collector base was probably full of stuff that could help. The only reason anyone destroys it is because the game only lets you give it to Cerberus, which is really fucking stupid.
In ME2, dark energy is killing a star. Maybe we study that and come up with a plan to lure all the Reapers to one system and use dark energy to make the star go supernova. It could even be a choice where Shepard has to choose whether to sacrifice Earth or an alien world, which would also tie in to one of the series' themes (whether humanity wants to be really independent and human-centric or focus more on integrating into the galactic community).
ME3 threw all this out the window. The Reapers get here in a few months with no mass relay and are no worse off for it, and the writers pull the Crucible completely out of their ass rather than following up on anything they'd built up, all to force their stupid RGB ending. Fuck that.
>>319731085
>I'm an insecure bitch.
1 game having tits out of the last 5 and the one you use as an example isn't even made by the Mass Effect team, ME2, ME3, DA Origins and DA2 all had sex with no nudity whatsoever and ME3 even had people showing in clothes. When people talked about this in the forums the company reply for years would be 'it's our game, we don't want explicit nudity"
>ME4 will have full on gay orgies because Dragon Age showed boobies!
Fuck yourself
I've never liked the idea that being anywhere near any kind of Reaper material leads to indoctrination, as if it were radiation or something. I much prefer it as an ability Reapers possess and have to consciously use.
The codex says you get different effects with quick, brute-force indoctrination as opposed to slow, careful indoctrination. That implies that it's something the Reapers have control over, not something that just happens if you stand next to a Reaper microwave long enough.
>>319735071
>Collector base
They were actually building a Reaper there, so they almost certainly had blueprints of some kind. That would be invaluable in determining their weaknesses. I never played ME3 because of the ending, but do they ever acknowledge that?
>>319734824
There's not really any point in bringing it up. Nearly everyone that knows about Cerberus knows that it's shady as fuck and has done fucked up shit. Tali and Garrus are very quick to remind you of this right away.
Also I'm willing to bet that the reasoning for introducing Cerberus that way was to set them up for ME3. I'd hardly call them dropped. Remember that it's entirely possible to avoid any Cerberus missions in ME1. TIM seemed clearly meant to be a sort of personal antagonist, much like Saren was. It was also pointed out that TIM specifically meant for the crew Shepard was with to appear "squeeky clean" so as to manipulate them into thinking "I guess Cerberus isn't so bad after all!"
I'm not saying the Geth couldn't have worked, but Cerberus fulfilled the same role.
Mass Effect 1 had a shit story. It only had 3 major story moments, and all of these were only separated by dozens upon dozens of meaningless filler quests. You fucking morons have never read a god damn book in your life, otherwise you'd see the terrible writing from the fucking beginning.
>Show vs Tell
Mass Effect 1 told you everything. The codex had a shit ton of content in it, but do you ever get to interact with it in a meaningful way? No, instead you're running around doing boring fucking quests, with shitty gameplay, while boring characters tag along.
Meanwhile, ME2 had a much stronger storyline, stronger characters, and holy shit you actually went places. Hey remember all the troubles the Krogan's were having that we only talked about in the first game? Now you can go to the planet and actually do things!
ME2 was great because it expanded upon the universe, and you actually got to go and do things. You got to know the side characters, who actually had some substance. You got to explore this god damn book you've been reading forever, and the gameplay wasn't fucking insufferably bad anymore.
The best thing that could have ever happened to Mass Effect was the switch in tone of storytelling to make it like CSI in space. It worked so god damn well.
Now, sure, you can complain that the story didn't advance the plot much. And sure it didn't. But you built a team, you experienced the universe, you started finding solutions to all the problems you learned about in the first game, like the Geth and Krogan situations. Shepard was cut loose from the council and able to do what needed to be done, it felt fucking great.
The true problem is ME3, in which the team you spent so much time building is completely thrown away for no reason. Only a handful of problems you've been working to have actually been solved, and most that are solved become so fucking arbitrary.
No one would have a problem with ME2 if 3 didn't turn out to be so fucking shit.
>>319725563
This description reminded me of Fleshcult. And even that writing isn't very good or uses any of the shit in unique and fun ways.
>>319719075
too much jet and psycho
>>319736029
>do they ever acknowledge that?
What do you think?
>>319737628
I'm guessing that it's never even mentioned, and probably wasn't even considered by the writers. It could have been the single biggest advantage we had, and they threw it out for RGB and Starkid.
>>319737016
>Shepard was cut loose from the council
The nigga died and got abducted by Cerberus. Fucking ME2 fans don't even follow the story they only know
>Shoot,shoot,shoot
>>319737740
Holy shit, are you this retarded?
Reading comprehension sure is difficult.
>>319737894
says the nigga that said ME1 was pure mini missions while ME2 had more pointless minimissions
fuck off retard
>>319738057
You need to be 18 to post here.
>>319737016
Never played 3.
Loved ME1.
Played ME2 for about an hour and decided it wasn't worth my time.
>>319724445
>Tyrone Shepard
His name is John, dum-dum.
>>319739342
C A M E L T O E
A
M
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T
O
E
>>319719075
Because they put reaper tech in him/her.
This prevented indoctrination by making Shepard emit his own indoctrination field, scrambling the reaper signal and enabling him to singlehandedly resolve generations long inter-species conflict by indoctrinating the leaders himself and bending them to his will.
>>319726279
I tried replaying it about a year ago and I was really surprised with how fucking bad the dialogue was. I like the combat, and overall plot a little bit, but Bethesda even writes characters better than this
>>319719075
Maybe they actually did! What a twist!
You know, I'm not sure what the Collectors were hoping to accomplish. A single Reaper wouldn't be able to do much. Sovereign only got as far as it did because Saren opened up the Citadel, so it's not like the human Reaper will be able to open the relay to dark space. On the Collector ship they're like "They're gonna go to Earth, holy shit!" but the Collectors didn't have the forces to get past Earth's defenses, let alone fight off the Council if they decided to help.
>>319726461
>EA doesn't give shit away for free
They give away a new game for free each month,
She was already indoctrinated by Garrus' big turian cock.
>>319719075
'cause shepard's autistic
he got made autistic by the beacon
the autism protected him
>>319739270
Fuck off newfag. Tyrone is best Shep.
I lol'd when ME stole the plot of Freespace and still failed hard.
I lol'd harder when DS3 stole the plot of ME3 and did better.
>>319741490
Sure, to force you to use their own origin client.
Its not free.
>>319741824
I was wondering if anyone else noticed the Freespace parallels in Mass Effect.
>>319719382
Why didn't he put it on himself then?
He wanted to control the machines and shepard wasn't to be trusted.
>>319743148
Probably because the writers didn't know what the fuck they were doing.
>>319742383
It doesn't help that 95% of /v/ has never heard of freespace, much less played it.
>>319741852
So what's the definition of a free game nowadays? It has to magically appear on your computer?
>>319725627
>Tali's loyalty mission
You mean the one that set up an entirely different ending for the series but had absolutely zero relevance on the final overarching plot?
>>319724293
If you only take ME1 and 2 into account anons >>319724736 and >>319735071 had the right idea in that destroying the relays would have given the council races time to developed further.
Because the reapers ace card was that they could "time" their harvest in a manner where no civilization was too far gone tech wise. Which means that there was some inherit limit to their capacity to overtake other advance species outside simple energy cost.
>>319744965
>Because the reapers ace card was that they could "time" their harvest in a manner where no civilization was too far gone tech wise. Which means that there was some inherit limit to their capacity to overtake other advance species outside simple energy cost.
Also, their attack always started with a decapitation strike to kill the leaders before anyone outside the Citadel knew anything was wrong. Apparently the Protheans survived for a while even after that. Combine an intact command structure with all the other possible advantages, and the writers had plenty of ways to make victory plausible without the Crucible. They just didn't want to do that because they wanted their "deep" ending.
>>319744965
>>319745571
You could even argue that the Reapers wouldn't go to the trouble of setting up this complex scheme if they could just as easily plow through all resistance with brute force, so they must have some big weakness we can exploit with all the stuff we've built up in the first two games.
>>319744925
The dark energy plot was just as stupid. Even if you accept the premise for why Reapers need to harvest sentient life, there's no reason they have to to it in such a horrific way (i.e. husks, all the monstrosities in ME3, MELTING PEOPLE ALIVE). Harbinger's sadistic and arrogant lines also don't come across as someone who thinks "I know something you don't and I'm doing this for the good of the universe, however much I might regret it."
How is it even possible that a fan theory makes more sense than the fucking real ending?
I mean the real ending makes 0% sense.
It's like they changed it on purpose.
>>319746296
Apparently they didn't even have an ending until a few months before release or something, and two guys wrote it in 15 minutes based on some notes one of them had scribbled on a napkin.
>>319746992
Funny how forced games always turn out shit. Will they ever learn?
>>319746992
And if not for the rest of the team putting up a fight it would have been nothing but combat from the moment kei leng dies until the credits.
Two guys did this and not even their own team had their backs.
Both those people are no longer at bioware and the person who leaked this info is now lead of an entire team .Strange that.
>>319741852
>Its not free.
it costs literally nothing.
I get Origin used to be terrible but its no worse than any other client these days, and miles better than some.
>>319719075
you didnt see the indoctrination theory video didnt you? : ^ )
>>319747127
>And if not for the rest of the team putting up a fight it would have been nothing but combat from the moment kei leng dies until the credits.
That's kind of ironic, considering that one of the two guys (Casey Hudson) didn't want to have a final boss fight because he thought it was "too videogamey".
>>319720550
>>319733924
Reaper indoctrination works through nanites IIRC, which are on their tech, so...could you get sick from being in a sick patients room in a hospital for 10 minutes, breathing heavy and touching surfaces (combat)? Yes. Easily.
If someone ill coughing on you can infect you with a cold, being around, let along bring IN reaper technology is more than enough. It's a ridiculously large plot hole they never explained.
>>319719393
underrated post
>>319747515
I think they were in a situation where they couldn't have a boss fight anyway.
TIM isnt a fighter, and reapers are too much to really work.
Having one for its own sake would have been a poor choice.
>>319745571
That same decapitation strike also shut down all of the Relays for anything that wasn't a Reaper. Enemy fleets are trapped, nobody can reinforce anyone else or attack Reaper supply lines or escape to some bumfuck nowhere place and hide.
The situation the Reapers are faced with in ME2/3 is the absolute worst case scenario possible for them.
>>319719075
Is no one going to comment on how she looks exactly like Cait in Fallout 4? This can't be an accident.
>>319749572
Maybe Bethesda saw how many people on the Internet liked Renegade Femshep and thought they'd make more money if they made Cait look like her and be a "renegade", so to speak.
Doesn't work on me, though, because I played Paragon Maleshep. Also, Fallout 4 isn't very good.
>we can live with the Shepard
No we can't, kill yourself
>kills self
>I can control them Shepard
No, you can't kill yourself
>kills self
Wow, now two seconds after that I can live peacefully with them or control them
Yeah bullshit, the only smart thing to do in that situation is nothing. Sure he kills himself, but just like the other. Doubt, better safe then sorry.
>>319746109
Harbinger was a shit antagonist.
Sovereign gave exactly zero fucks about who Shepard was and what he was doing, until he suicided Saren and was five seconds away from fucking up the entire plan.
With Harbinger they went from Space Cthulhu to Dan Backslide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYHsyCyDvs
>>319750926
Also, Sovereign and Harbinger should have had their names reversed.
>>319745571
>>319749028
>That same decapitation strike also shut down all of the Relays for anything that wasn't a Reaper. Enemy fleets are trapped, nobody can reinforce anyone else or attack Reaper supply lines or escape to some bumfuck nowhere place and hide.
So why didn't they make a beeline for the Citadel after they raped the Batarians and made some husk troops? They took it anyway in the end, so why wasn't it a top priority? It would be a detour, but if they rushed the Citadel, they could kill the Council, shut down the relays and more or less go with their usual routine.
>>319719075
Because the whole Mass Effect series was Shepard's dream.
>>319751245
Presumably because the Council could just hit the big 'turtle mode' button as soon as they figure out what's about to happen and make the Reapers look like a bunch of chumps.
But of course the writers forgot how to write for the last bit of the game and the Reapers took the Citadel and moved it to fucking London, which was apparently a super quick process and/or nobody really gave a shit about it since Shepard only finds out the Citadel's been nicked once he gets to Earth.
>>31974908
Is it ever explained if the mass relays are the fastest method of travel known to man or is it the most energy efficient method of travel?
Because it's also hard to believe that such a society like the reapers could harvest civilizations for untold thousands of years and not have a much better way of travel and invading than using what is essentially relics of technology.
It would be like us still using dail-up internet several hundred years from now stating it's the best way to send information when today we are already working on quantum computing. If the harvest is central to reapers why would they themselves depend on old tech and methods?
It makes sense for why they use it on the council races as a hook and bait but not for them as a means to intercept. Unless the reapers we fought in game are the equivalent of local fisherman who sell fish to grocery chains that well off reapers are too lazy or busy to be bother with.
Which if it was shown to be the case that would be some expert level trolling on the writers part saying how insignificant interstellar tech was to the Reapers that their backwater locals have to harvest us instead.
>>319751595
The relays may be ancient, but bear in mind they are also basically the single most advanced pieces of technology in the ME universe. It took a galaxy-spanning, imperialistic, resource-nicking species (the Protheans) assembling the absolute best minds in the galaxy and giving them virtually unlimited resources to build a little once that could transport an APC.
>>319719382
>she
Fuck off tumblr
>>319725224
I want that, too. That would be a cool, fun time that focuses on what Bioware does pretty well: building a setting you want to hang around in.
>>319754083
That would have been interesting. Mass Effect was a fun universe with a lot of potential before the ending fucked it all up. Bioware went to all the trouble of creating their own universe so they wouldn't be tied down with anyone else's established lore, then they decided to just burn it to the ground in ME3.
>>319726035
>helper gone
thank god the cancer in bioware is slowly dying off
>>319719662
>kotor
Can you not remember the story of kotor?
I mean I would understand if you didn´t, because it was so fucking dull and entirely predictive.
Damn. You guys really hate this game... It's my favorite to be honest...and i know it has many flaws but i gotta admit, i haven't felt the emotions i felt while playing this trilogy for any other game. Which is why it is my favorite. I feel so alone whenever i go in a ME thread (which are rare as well) and all i see is hate. You all keep mentioning older games like Kotor and Jade empire..i tried those games and they just suck, really. I don't know, guess it's a matter of taste. What's sad is that Andromeda is coming soon and nobody is hyped but a few, myself included..
>>319754905
The ending of 3 soured the whole franchise for a lot of people. When 2 came out, people loved it. I remember the endless train of 100+ general threads. Personally, I liked even 3.
But I dread Andromeda. If you compare 1 to 2 and that to 3, you can see more and more EA influence and you can see plot threads dropped, rushed and rewritten in favor of much more simplistic stories and focus on "cool" combat and multiplayer. I was glad that the trilogy ended, before it was fully saturated in EA juices. And then they announced Andromeda and there have been a lot of personnel changes in Bioware since then. This won't end well.
>>319755385
ok, but what i don't get is hating an entire trilogy because of 3's ending. That ending isn't the entire journey. And i didn't even mind the ending. I wouldn't imagine it any other way...a trully happy ending with cake and rainbows seems boring. I like drama, tears and feels
>>319756013
ME3's ending isn't just bad, it effectively destroyed the ME universe until the Extended Cut. Even with the Extended Cut, every ending except Destroy radically changes the universe. Bioware couldn't possibly account for this in any future games, which is why Andromeda is in another galaxy.
Also, pic related.
>>319756395
well...i only played extended cut so i guess that's why i liked it. I know people want a witcher 3 type ending, where it's determined by previous choices but i think it doesn't really matter - it's all the same - the reapers get rekt one way or another. Only difference is the aftermath. And all 3 are bittersweet.
I always try to start me1 but then my characters look retarded ingame
>>319737016
>No one would have a problem with ME2 if 3 didn't turn out to be so fucking shit
ME3 didn't force my Paragon Sole Survivor to work with the racist organization responsible for slaughtering his entire unit.
>>319719075
Bad writing.
They had the sense to made her sexy af in 3 at least.
>>319756725
>I know people want a witcher 3 type ending, where it's determined by previous choices
Yes, that is what people wanted, and it's also what Bioware explicitly promised. Casey Hudson literally said "We don't have an Ending A, B, and C", but that's exactly what we got.
>the reapers get rekt one way or another.
Actually, in two out of the three endings, they don't.
>Only difference is the aftermath.
Those aftermaths are radically different. In one ending you have frighteningly powerful ships looming over everyone to maintain "order" across the galaxy as dictated by one consciousness. In another, everyone in the galaxy has their very being altered against their will. Some people even think this means Husks and such will regain their self-awareness and realize what they've become. The implications of these things are too big to just gloss over.
Have you ever actually watched the original endings from before the Extended Cut? If you haven't, I'd suggest checking them out. It might give you a better understanding of why so many people were so pissed off.
>>319756725
>.i only played extended cut so i guess that's why i liked it
No, that's a misconception. The extended cut is the same as the original, but with more hand-holding for the short bus kids who didn't understand when happy endings were implied.
>>319757251
Also I'm not that guy, but as a note to watching the original ending you should know that the slides only ever showed Liara where the player's love interest goes now. Even if you did the absolute bare minimum with her throughout the games, she still showed up there no matter what because fuck anyone who doesn't think Liara is the best thing ever, I guess.
Why did Shepard wear her bra and panties in the shower?
>>319757798
What was happy about the original endings?
>>319757893
Bioware were probably just too lazy to make a nude character model. After all, these are the people who used a stock photo for Tali's face.
>>319758009
>Control
The Reapers are forced to fix everything they ruined. The cycle is broken. The galaxy is free.
>Synthesis
All the galaxy's people have a common strand that unites them cooperatively to fix what the Reapers broke. The galaxy is free.
>BUT BUT DOESN'T THIS MEAN EVERYONE'S A MUTANT AND WE'RE ALL HALF-ROBOT BRAIN SLAVES AND OH, GOSH, IT'S ALL SO TERRIBLE
If you didn't understand from how the endings were framed that they were meant to be taken as positive outcomes, more desirable than the one where all the AIs are fucking killed and all the races have to rebuild everything from square one, you're a child.
>>319757251
>Actually, in two out of the three endings, they don't.
by that i meant their essence - what they desire to do, those weren't "The reapers" anymore.
>Only difference is the aftermath.
>Those aftermaths are radically different.
that's what i said...they were different - the main thing in common is that the reapers were defeated.
>>319758250
You forget that in all of the original endings, the mass relays are completely destroyed. I don't think even the Reapers can rebuild them all in time for that not to cause catastrophic problems for galactic society.
Synthesis makes absolutely no sense. Author fiat declaring it actually turned out okay doesn't change that. It's still bad writing.
Another thing: Destroy and Control don't even require the Crucible at all. Starkid controls the Reapers, and he's willing to go along with whatever Shepard decides. Here's all Shepard has to do:
Control: "Starkid, pull the Reapers back and put them in standby mode until you can make a control system that won't vaporize me."
Destroy: "Starkid, fly the Reapers into the sun and then deactivate yourself."
>>319724639
that would have been awesome
>>319758883
>Author fiat declaring it actually turned out okay doesn't change that. It's still bad writing
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not here to defend the shitty writing. I'm here to explain why the extended cut does not improve anything. All it does is explain the original endings, which frankly weren't that hard to understand.
(although I'll say this: the problem with Synthesis isn't that it's sappy utopianism, it's that there was no buildup to it that made it seem like it could work. Deus Ex did this plot much, much better.)
>>319760394
It improves a lot of things in the execution, like explaining what the fuck happens to your squadmates in the run and including people who aren't Liara in the pre-activation slides. IIRC it also added a whole bunch of Fallout-style ending slides that explains what happens to all the different squadmates and stuff.
>>319760903
>they left a turd in a burning bag on our doorstep
>they did it again, but this time it's a pretty gift bag
