I want to have a Mass Effect thread. What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3? What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO?
>>338392528
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3?
the combat was better than 2
some parts of the story were ok
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO?
i loved the mako
cyborg saren was dumb
Well I liked Rannoch and Tuchunka in Mass Effect 3. Honestly what disappointed me most was that there was genuine flashes of brilliance among the mountain of bullshit that was Mass Effect 3. Hell, Most of the little character moments were great.
i hate that charm/intimidate didn't upgrade by itself and you had to waste valuable talent points just to get the good dialogue.
ME1
>soldier is god among men, literally james bond in space
>ME2
>soldier is undeniably most OP class, but boring as shit to play
>ME3
>soldier is both boring as shit and terribly weak
>>338392528
3: the character moments, for example when cerberus attacked the citadel and ashley/kaidan were between you and that guy
1: all the side missions are basically go to planet and clear base
On a side note, who here believes in the indoctrination thory?
>>338392930
I never found the soldier weak in ME3.
Me:1 Loved everything but the Inventory
Me:2 Loved it all can't really think of anything apart from the lack of Mako
Me:3 Loved it all apart from the ending, lack of Mako and vanguards in multiplayer
The item system in the first game sucked, but they should have fixed it instead of dropping it to dumb down the game for the call of duty crowd.
I guess the part on Tuchanka in ME3 wasn't bad, but it wasn't enough to get me to finish the game.
>>338392528
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3?
Mars music, multiplayer, tuchanka, geth's dreadnought and rannoch.
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO?
Copy pasted base.
>>338392528
The clunkyness.
>>338393319
>On a side note, who here believes in the indoctrination thory?
It was not implemented, there is no theory, its just a better plot that we came up with and devs ware like fuck that, we can't let a bunch of fans out write us
>>338392789
It was also kind of annoying that there was no sort of bonus at all for neautral characters.
It was order/chaos or somewhat uneasy order/chaos.
>>338393319
I prefer the original plot to the game that involved dark energy destroying the universe.
>What was something you liked about ME3?
The Multiplayer
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect?
The weird "look to the left and leave" animation for sidequest conversations.
>>338395217
But without it the ending literally makes no sense, I once watched a two hour long documentary about it and I'm fairly convinced that it's true
>>338392528
They had the perfect excuse in the indoctrination theory. Faggots.
>>338395808
Even with it the ending doesn't really make sense. They should have had it end with a replay of the Saren encounter. You've become convinced that what you're doing is the right course of action, a number of your party members have betrayed you, and you're just about to complete your plan to defeat the Reapers. But then the traitors arrive and explain that you've been indoctrinated and the game gives you the chance to kill yourself or turn into a bio-mechanical monstrosity to fight them.
I liked the weapon variety in 3. Shitty parts of 1 were the prefab pieces of shit you went to for 95% of the side quests and weapons lacked any impact until you got mods like the Armageddon rounds.
>ME1: I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign!
>after ME1: Nah it's Nazara tho
Sure, why not.
>People liked ME3
Not even counting the SJW shit, they butchered the story, fired the writer, retroactively ruined the series and shat on people with on disc DLC.
If you are hyped for the next Mass Effect game, you don't belong on this site.
>>338392930
>Soldier
>God among men
>Most OP class
That's not how you write Infiltrator.
>>338395261
>>338395261
This. I played a Renegon where I took the most sensible options that would result in best possible outcomes without being a beta bitch who is all hugs and rainbows. You fuck with me or mine, you're dead, but I'll not let innocents get hurt.
It was really hard because the game wouldn't let me get enough Paragon/Renegade points to improve both approaches enough and there was no middle ground.
>>338392528
I liked pretty much everything about ME3 except for the plot that starts to really go wrong at the end.
What sort of logic revolves around: Machines decide machines will kill creators (organics) so they decide to kill organics? What happened to the more interesting dark energy theory?
>>338397652
>the plot that starts to really go wrong at the end
Did you only play the end
>>338397415
>fired the writer
Drew moved to work on TOR, not fired.
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3?
It eventually ended.
That's really all I can think about it that I liked.
But even when it ended, it ended on a shitty prompt.
See picture.
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO?
Inventory management.
You should now proceed to kill yourself, OP.
>>338393319
>On a side note, who here believes in the indoctrination thory?
I do. But there wasn't as many evidence of Sheppard being indoctrinated as that documentary suggested. Only things I can think of were that kid and the nightmares. Sheppard never really goes close enough to a reaper before ME3 when the indoctrination was meant to have started to be influenced.
>>338397652
I always liked the notion that the Reapers were harvesting organics to hook them up into a kind of VR 'afterlife' which would let them continue to enjoy their existence but at a much lower cost in power and damage to the universe as they are eventually folded into Reaper society.
And that you had already been harvested and the story in the game was just repeating events that had already happened as the hive mind in the Reaper born from your cycle was maturing.
>>338397751
No, I played the entire trilogy.
The plot of mass effect was always a bog standard star trek style space opera. It only starts to get iffy because a potential plot about dark energy was ditched in favour of Reapers killing organics only because organics make robots that kill them. Up until ME3's final act it was at least consistent enough to pass.
>>338397465
It was weird that they even gave you a choice, since everyone one would just pick Paragon/Renegade anyway.
Also, there's no way to buy DLC on Steam. The ME2 deluxe addition doesn't have half the game in it. Fuck off EA, I don't want Origin.
>>338398414
Origin was truly the worst thing to happen to the series.
Vanguard was fun as fuck to play in ME3 and multiplayer was surprisingly good.
Still can't bring myself to replay the games because of the immense disappointment, even 4 years later.
>>338392528
>Mass Effect 1
It was good overall. Didn't mind the MAKO. Boss fights were boring imo
>Mass Effect 2
Loved the cities, the characters, the weapons, the dlc. The story was kinda bland but playing as a badass mercenary was a lot more interesting than playing as a generic soldier. Boss fights were a lot better.
>Mass Effect 3
Hated the war atmosphere, plain boring, and you're forced to give a fuck all the time. Characters were ok, boss fights were great, story was boring but it had its moments. The Omega DLC was great.
I hope Mass Effect Andromeda let's you play as a mercenary again
Citadel dlc was pretty great too
>>338392528
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3?
Multi, the way you could play both Para and Renegade if you wanted, Vangaurd class both in SP and multi.
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO?
Menu management. Being able to talk Saren into murdering himself was pretty dumb, as was cyborg saren.
>>338399129
>Citadel dlc was pretty great too
>>338399243
It was pure fanservice.
I liked the Leviathan DLC desu
>>338395551
>Melee high-fiving
Good lord that was fun.
>>338392528
Do I drop the series after playing the first game?
>>338398398
>Kaiden is now gay
>Illusive Man is just Saren 2.0
>ME2 characters are cameos
>Self insert has PTSD
The MAKO was my favorite part though
>>338399471
Yes. ME2 shits the bed at the prologue
>>338399243
I liked the clone plot.
>>338392528
I hated the billion DLCs. It was a new level of DLC disgusting. Cutting out very good story parts which would enhance the experience 100% depending if you have them, or not.
>ME1
I liked everything about it. The inventory was a mess but I poured so many hours into that game. It was the only game I played back in high school.
>ME2
I liked this one a lot too, I didn't like how they made some gameplay changes (reloading vs cooldown) and the plot felt more like it was a spinoff after awhile, but it was still a solid game.
>ME3
I liked a lot of ME3 but many things felt forced, and the plot was a massive fucking mess. The ending felt terribly rushed and the pacing was allover the place. Even still, it definitely was a solid shooter-type game.
If you take a step back and look at all games together, the way they handled the plot is really all over the place and just wrong. Which makes sense since they changed writing staff.
ME1 is fine as it is, great actually. It's learning of the existence of the Reapers and dealing with an incursion with one of their vanguards.
ME2 however is like they just said "we know these Reaper things exist, but here are these other things called Collectors that the Reapers use" which just causes more holes and questions than giving answers. ME2 should have been investigating the Reaper threat, like finding out about the Collectors through plot advancement and learning what they do than having them established as a plot device that has been around for centuries like they say they have been in ME2 (which doesn't make any sense). They could have even made ME2 learning about the Crucible, so it wasn't shoehorned into the first 10 minutes of ME3 as a deus ex machina.
ME3 should have been the culmination of all your efforts in ME2. It wasn't. All three games essentially became standalone titles with very minor things that tie in to the previous ones if you ported save files. Things that ultimately don't matter. If lots of people died in ME2, in ME3 they just have stand-ins that do the exact same jobs, instead of making the characters they replace seem and feel pivotal to the plot.
>>338397875
The whole end part doesn't make any sense without the theory why does the kid hologram changes his voice to harbinger's if you shoot him? Also there was the arrivad dlc in which he was unconscious for two days next to a reaper artifact
>>338392528
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3?
The inter party banter throughout the hub was quite well done
The weapon mechanics were good, as was the weight/power balance
Vega was a surprisingly good addition. He didn't tread on any toes, wasn't an obnoxious self insert, and got on well with the crew.
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO?
The inventory clusterfuck
ME3 was fun to play blind if you went through the trilogy. When you play it blindly or with established personalities (Aka not picking one path for maximum paragon/renegade points), it does have a bigger effect plot wise.
>>338400275
>They could have even made ME2 learning about the Crucible
Yeah that would have made things much better. It feels like they had no idea how to finish the story when they were done with ME2.
The Crucible thing came outta fucking nowhere.
>>338399129
>>338399243
>>338399331
DID SOMEONE SAY ACTIVATE SING-ALONG MODE?
>>338400275
cont
They also turned Reapers into mysterious monstrosities of machine and cyber-sentience into stupid monsters that cull the galaxy of races capable of building AIs, specifically to prevent AIs from killing all organic life. Even though Reapers are, for all intents and purposes, hyper advanced AI killing organic life...yeah it's fucking dumb.
The original plot concept that the Reapers exist to "preserve" the knowledge of an entire empire/race was a lot better. I much preferred Karpyshyn's original ending. Choose to solve the problem of dark energy tearing apart the universe on your own and cast the Reapers out entirely, or sacrifice organic life to maintain the knowledge of centuries in the form of a Reaper in the hope they find a solution to it. It leaves a very open-ended ending and it also poses an actually important decision.
They should have kept rolling with the whole dark energy thing because it's something that's also grounded in suspension of disbelief. Dark energy is a real thing and it's been speculated that if the concentration of it changes it will seriously fuck shit up (look up the big rip). The concept that using mass effect based technology creates inconsistencies with the dark energy in the galaxy (makes sense, since it's ultimately the manipulation of dark energy to effect mass) also creates a plot point that is actually understandable.
They just really fucked up so much shit with the series. They're all solid games but they did not turn into what they wanted, nor what the fans wanted.
>>338392528
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3
As shit as Leviathan was, I had some nice quotes
The story in ME3 was amazing, with dlc included, I never played it without dlc so I don't know the pain of "pick a color then nothing happens" with no epilogue or after credits scene or anything. The epilogue dlc was spot on though. It's still my favorite game series.
>>338401018
>mfw finding out the reapers are just mechanical space aboleths
>>338400835
Deus ex machina's are fine, but the point of a deus ex machina is it also functions similarly to Chekhov's gun. That increases the effect of the machina because it makes the audience go "ohh wow, so that thing I saw in the first act that nobody really paid attention to did turn out to be super important!"
You can tell they tried to do that by putting the Crucible plans in the Mars archives. Those archives are consistently mentioned throughout the series as humanity's first contact and experimentation with element zero and finding alien technology. But it's a half-assed attempt at checkhov's gun. It feels less like that and more like they just wrote that in for plot convenience.
The biggest problem with Mass Effect happened at 2. Although 2 and 3 were great games they didn't feel like Mass Effect, there was no companion customization, no exploring planets, no rpg elements, just a collection of guns (ala call of duty) and different looks that really didn't change much and your companions had recolors of the same outfit unless you bought the dlc which was pointless because it was mostly aesthetic.
>>338401014
Yeah, the plot-twist which the appearance of Sovereign caused was really neat, and like a true first part of a trilogy should; by raising more questions.
I am not familiar with the ending you are writing down, but when the whole "something with dark energy and dying of suns" plot started with Tali, i thought it would tie in with the Reapers.
But no! Genocide and circular logic for great revelation!
>>338401595
It wasn't about the deus ex machina that I didn't like (Although admittedly I would have respected it a bit more if it would have had a bit complex solution)
Just a simple mention in earlier games, so I wouldn't feel like the writers came up with it out of desperation when the deadline closed
>>338401014
continuing a bit more here
Going back on the dark energy thing, if they continued to roll with that it would also make sense in the context of ME1.
The whole concept of it is that using any mass effect technology fucks with the concentration and distribution of dark energy. In ME1, Sovereign tells you that they force civilizations to develop along the paths they desire, by using mass effect technology (our technology). At first it doesn't make sense that the Reapers, which exist to preserve information and knowledge in this original plot, would want to exacerbate the dark energy problem by forcing an entire galaxy to use mass effect technology, it does make a lot of sense if you look at it from another angle.
What better way to get someone new to something to learn than to just throw them in the fire and tell them to figure it out? The Reapers knew that by making civilizations use this technology to advance and develop they would all eventually discover destabilizations in dark energy the more the technology is used (kinda like that one Star Trek TNG episode where it's discovered using warp drive can create rips in the space-time continuum). They would all also come up with their own ways of trying to fix the problem somehow.
While the Reapers may have the knowledge of possibly millions of generations, they're out for NEW concepts, and new ideas. And you won't get any new concepts or new ideas by spoonfeeding information. That only comes about from your own desire to learn and solve.
>>338392528
>like about 3
Mordin going out was done well
>dislike about 1 besides MAKO
I liked the MAKO you fuck.
Uh... not being able to sell multiple guns at the same time, when I got my inventory full it was a hassle to sell them all.
>>338402091
If you look up mass effect dark energy ending you'll get the general gist of it. Drew Karpyshyn was still working on ME2 and he tried to write in his dark energy concept into it but Mac Walters didn't want that. It became a very small mention in ME2 presumably so that, if Drew stayed with the writing staff for ME3, that would have tied into the plot and played a massive role.
>>338402502
you know I think what irks me and other players most about the weak reason the Reapers, and the weak plot the final conclusion had, was that the other plot-lines were good and memorable.
Wrex, Mordin, and the krogans? Hell yeah! Grunt too!
Tali, Legion, and the quarians? Satisfying or tragic.
Even the Asari, or the Turians were played well in my opinion.
So how come the great finale ended up so much below expectations?
>>338399243
It really was. All the bullshit in ME3 was pushed aside and it felt like it was developed by people who actually enjoyed the series, not people trying to please tumblr. It had a lot of neat shit going on, was pure fun with plenty of cheese, and it was built for your waifu no matter who she was.
Fuck the sing-a-long though. How they let that sneak through is beyond me.
>>338402983
The ending was just rushed. I remember reading about the whole thing from some of the writing staff. Most of what we got in the ending was not meant to be final, it was more or less a third or fourth draft that somehow got the greenlight to be final even though it wasn't.
The whole earth section is just all sorts of weird. The pacing is way off. It doesn't feel like there's lots of shit happening. Where's the army of krogan rushing in and killing reaper troops? Where's all the Asari adepts that I saved holding off Banshees with shields? Where's the army of Geth destroyers and primes? Where's all the fucking HUMANS at!?
It just feels so lackluster in comparison to how it was hyped up. The whole earth mission screams "placeholder" to me. Even the first time I played the game it felt like a placeholder. It felt like more was supposed to be there but it just wasn't.
>>338392528
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3
The little parts. You know, Joker/EDI storyline, chatting with your niggas in the Citadel and the bits between missions.
Also Javik. He's no Zaeed but he's great.
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO
Ashley and Kaidan were two wasted characters. They had great concepts but ended up being as boring as Jacob.
>>338403298
>It just feels so lackluster in comparison to how it was hyped up.
It wasn't just mere hype. It was well-founded expectation. All the other things we were given, were better, so it's natural we expected better as well.
Like compare that wave of faceless mobs at the end of ME3 to the suicide mission of ME2, or just that single final confrontation/bossfight with Saren from ME1.
>>338392528
>liked about ME3
"Leaving Earth" on the soundtrack
>Hated about ME1 other than the Mako
The corrugated cardboard environment of Noveria's starting point, and the bugs therein like inexplicably getting stuck on a platform less than one foot in height, then watching as my comrades did the same thing and having to load an ancient save
>>338403779
As much as I don't like Noveria I always find myself loading up a save where I first show up there around Christmas time when it's snowing. It's pretty comfy desu.
Was I the only one who felt the series could be better if they shelved the Reaper plot after the first game?
>Cant use the citadel to instantly enter the galaxy
>All the reapers lie dormant, no wake up call
>traveling to the galaxy normally would take centures.
It could easily be left as a threath that is still out there, but not something that can be dealt with right away. Because lets face it, there is no way to write a satisfying conclusion to that plotline, better leave it as a the lovecraftian horror it is.
>>338392528
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3?
Multiplayer, space ninjas, the soundtrack, more Tali content.
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO?
Going back and re-playing it, feels stiff as fuck. Balls of dust exploration which something a simple probe could assess, should have only been MAKO worthy if there was something legit down there.
>>338404247
It bothers me that the reapers,immortal machines that see various alien races come and go in a blink of an eye, were so impatient that they had sovereign book it it so he could find the key under the carpet and get them into the galaxy faster. The reapers were like a few years away anyway, that should've been no time at all.
>>338402983
I honestly hate how the Quarian/Geth part played out.
It was interesting before because it explicitly wasn't black or white.
The Quarians were slavers, and the Geth were guilty of genocide.
Both had their reasons, and it wasn't entirely good or bad, but the fact remained that neither had their hands entirely clean.
Both had their hotheads, and both had peacemakers trying to bridge the gap.
ME3 ruined that by making the Quarians the objective bad guys and the Geth good boys that dindu nuffin
>>338392528
>What was something you liked about Mass Effect 3?
Combat was decent
sound effects, audio in general was superb.
>What was something you hated about Mass Effect 1 other than the MAKO?
combat system was clunky, and that fucking inventory system
>>338404830
Honestly they could've just let you shoot Gerrel and Xen so the others would retreat. No planet recovered but no more deaths, a neat bittersweet ending.
>>338404830
I didn't feel that way. To me it felt like the geth just got over killing all those quarians, and the quarians were just too tired of this whole thing to care anymore.
That and the fleet of race-harvesting abominable intelligences doing their thing on the galaxy.
>>338404830
To be fair, you spend a bunch of ME1 beating up and hating geth. They were right for trying to fill out the gaps in the conflict.
>>338403949
That does sound comfy. I just don't like the boring base at the beginning; the walls look like packing cardboard and the layout really annoys me.
I always enjoy the choice of which character to nuke too.
The inventory system is something I really like too, since no game since really gives me the option of personally outfitting an NPC with good equipment.
But I like ME2 as well despite the SSV Daddy Issues coming in to land.
>liked about ME3
Diverse mission types were nicer, changing things up a bit from some planets.
>hated about ME1
For all the settlements and colonies, space didn't have much to look at. Almost no hubs at all, felt sterile.
>>338404705
Thats what bothers me, iirc in Mass Effect 1 its stated that Sovereign wake up the other reapers and create a shortcut that allows them to travel instantly from the deepest darkness of dark space
Which apparently is just a couple lightyears outside the galaxy, also a few Reapers are already awake with the capability of ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL over one of their slave races. Why cant they just ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL over the Keepers in the Citadel too?
>>338405457
Because.... reasons ?
>>338405176
The problem there is that Legion filled that niche perfectly, and then they gave us Gerrel, Xen and Koris to balance it out.
Gerrel being a supporting figure that's also a portrayed as an arrogant warmaker, while Koris is antagonistic yet sympathetic was a Masterstroke in ME2
>>338405328
Forgot to pic related.
>>338404830
I think they did the right thing in ME3 with them. Think about it from another perspective. The Quarians freaked out when they saw that the Geth started to show signs of sentience, and they reacted by attempting to commit genocide on something that got out of their control.
If they had never done that I don't think the Geth would have turned into the boogeymen they were made out to be. The Geth only ever retaliated for their own survival, and rarely made contact outside of their own region of the galaxy until Sovereign influenced them. And even when that influence happened there were still plenty of other Geth in existence that did not want to follow the Reapers. They just wanted to stay where they were, not be bothered, and do their own thing. They WANTED to be isolated. And the only reason they ever fought back was out of fear for their own survival.
Both sides did bad shit, but the Quarians fired the first shots that made things worse.
>>338392528
3: I was pleasantly surprised at how fun the multiplayer was, even if it was completely unnecessary.
1: Inventory naming and management sucked, no unique loot
Bioware's path is probably the most tragic of anything else in vidya for me. I loved KOTOR and Dragon Age Origins and ME1 so much, and then to see everything ruined so horribly was really terrible. Tali's character-breaking suicide, the gay pandering everywhere, DA2's asset re-use. It hurts.
>>338405457
>>338405546
They truly are beyond our comprehension
>>338405701
>Bioware's path is probably the most tragic of anything else in vidya for me. I loved KOTOR and Dragon Age Origins and ME1 so much, and then to see everything ruined so horribly was really terrible.
Amen
>>338405457
>Why cant they just ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL over the Keepers in the Citadel too?
They explicitly went over why this didn't work. Pay attention next time.
>>338403087
>not people trying to please tumblr
they literally admitted to going to tumblr for story ideas for that DLC
>>338403087
>It really was. All the bullshit in ME3 was pushed aside and it felt like it was developed by people who actually enjoyed the series
It was developed by people who thought that what the Mass Effect universe needs is some Jersey Shore horseshit; "Let's get to know our crew as being basically reality-TV watching/imitating zeroes who will dance on command despite the biggest apocalypse that is even slightly understandable going on"
Just. Fucking. NO.
>>338403087
>Hey Shepard I know billions of people are dying by the hour and all life as we know it could end in a few weeks but hey man take some time to relax at the citadel
Speaking to Sovereign in Virmire was great.
Maybe it created too much hype about the reapers though and later couldn't deliver.
>>338392528
> Liked about ME3
The subplots were generally pretty good . ME2 and ME3 had a lot of quality in the more personal interactions, like everything to do with the genophage. ME3 mostly dropped the ball on the main story, which was a pretty big deal, but was still only like half the game, not the entire game.
> Hated about ME1
Inventory system. I guess I'm in the minority here but I much preferred the upgrade system in ME2. The notion that you started with good baseline weapons and then made them even better with usually illegal modifications felt a lot more plausible and fit the theme of being in a less lawful part of the galaxy where you're amassing resources.
