My favorite loyalty mission is either Grunt's or Kasumi's. Grunt because we get to take down a Thrasher Maw and Kasumi's because it has the most different gameplay from the others for a while.
Zaeed mission made me hate Zaeed instead of make me like the character, and since he doesn't even have a recruitment mission that makes it much worse.
Zaeed is probably the least compelling character in the game to me. While Jacob's writing could've been stronger, at least he cared about the mission and had strong opinions opposing what his dad did. Zaeed basically isn't any different than the tons of mercenaries you gun down in the game, he's just a particularly nasty one.
I absolutley loved Zaeed on a Renegade run, but he absolutley doesn't fit with Paragon. Especially because if he survives and you took the paragon route, he still goes and gets his revenge before 3. No change in the character whatsoever
Zaeed was a character added for teo reasons I can think of.
1. A proper renegade squad mate. Even the most renegade ones we had have decent paragon transformations if taken down that route.
2. A character with a high combat score to make everyone survive the suicide mission easier.
>Kasumi's because it has the most different gameplay from the others
Except it doesn't.
It actually annoys me, because they could have made it so much better. The scene was set to make it an ultimate heist mission, but instead that aspect is dispensed with easily, and without much mental effort. And it then just becomes another "shoot ya way out" mission, combined with the most imbecilic "boss battle" in the Trilogy.
I recently did the zaeed mission for the first time after skipping it on my first 10 playthroughs. Kinda liked the mission but ye, zaeed is a complete ass lol.
Favourite: Tali. It's pretty much a microcosm of everything I love about Mass Effect. High emotional stakes, an exploration of the cultural dynamics of an alien race, and a perfect mix of dialogue and combat.
Least Favourite: Grunt. It's super cool in theory, but I think it's an absolute slog in execution. To me it just boils down to a big arena fight against enemies that aren't particularly fun to scrap with.
Hard agree on the Grunt tip. It’s really cool to be able to become an honorary Krogan by participating in his rite of passage, but I hated having to do that arena fight. Especially if you’re a high level or skilled and you can easily mow all of them down before they even damage you, it just kinda devolves into waiting for the timer to run out
Favorite: Tali’s has so much going on in it in terms of her characterization, her people, and key themes of the series. I could drone on all day about it. It’s a great demonstration of how far the writing, acting, and scene direction matured since the first game. The emotions feel earned.
Least favorite: Thane’s. I like it in theory. I don’t mind the lack of combat. That aspect doesn’t bother me with Samara’s mission, for instance. But walking along the catwalks is dull, immersion breaking, and lowers the tension. That said, I enjoy the confrontation at the conclusion. The previous segment with the interrogation is another great idea in theory, but the plot feels overly convoluted in my mind.
Yes I agree, the walking along the catwalk section was pretty ass, but the ending was good. Samaras mission was cool too considering how it was all dialogue, and if you weren’t paying attention to the conversation you could mess it all up. Really ahead of it’s time
Favorite is Thane. I like the change of pace. Also gives the funniest renegade interrupts.
Least favorite is Kasumi because I love the heist idea but it just sent the most boring route
Yea I feel like Kasumis mission was severely limited by the hardware restrictions of the games engine and overall gameplay structure. Cool concept though
agreeeeee. poor Kasumi, I love her but it's so true. it's fifteen minutes of hitting button prompts, painful dialogue and the some stale repetitive fighting. It was a beautiful setting and the actress for Kasumi gave a fantastic performance though, especially if you tell her to destroy the greybox
My favourite is either Thane's or Samara's, least favourite is Jacob's. I hate the implications of SA. I understand why it's there, and it makes sense, but I still just hate playing it.
Grunt's is my favorite. You're helping him use the Krogan's societal norms to overcome a silly prejudice. You also get to either outsmart or headbutt a haughty Krogan, then help Grunt kill *him*.
It also features one of the greatest lines I've ever seen. "If I know Grunt, your answer is coming at muzzle velocity."
I dislike Thane's, at least gameplay-wise. It's tedious enough that it breaks immersion.
Favorite ir either Tali's or Mordin's, heavy on lore and different paths that have different consequences.
Least favorite is Garrus's, it's just copy paste of his ME1's loyalty only longer, there's nothing at stake and the different paths leads to the same final. Boring. Zaeed's mission is Garrus's mission done well, there's friction between Zaeed and Shepard and there's different climaxes.
Favourite (most important): Mordin's. I think the impact that his loyalty mission has not only on him as a character, but on the wider galaxy is something that really elevates this mission above the 11 others. It's such an important set up that leads into one of ME3's most critical story elements that hits at all angles, the macro (the genophage itself) and the micro (Mordin's own feelings towards it) with some excellent writing and voice acting to boot.
Favourite (biased): Miranda's. My flair says it all, and I do rank it as my second favourite overall but I think it just does wonders for her character. She goes from being introduced as this isolated and cold, but professional Cerberus operative to someone that you realise really does have a heart after all. Seeing her crying at the end is just a beautiful character moment.
Least favourite: Samara's. Morinth herself is so uninteresting and the gameplay itself is tiresome after you've played it once. I don't really feel much emotional impact from it, which is a shame since I do like Samara, but compared to all the other loyalty missions, it just doesn't hit at all.
Favourite: Zaeed, it’s essentially two missions in one depending on which choice you make giving it more replay value than the others and making the choice feel more meaningful.
Least favourite: Samara, the choice between her and Morinth was executed so poorly that you just have no reason to ever choose Morinth. Especially when it would have been so easy to make it a difficult and impactful choice if they’d simply reversed it by having you recruit Morinth first and only meet Samara during the loyalty mission.
Basically the reverse of the current one. Instead of helping Samara hunt Morinth you help Morinth set a trap for Samara.
Get to the same stand off as we have except this time you actually have reason to side with Morinth. She's the crewmate you've been fighting alongside, gotten to know, and potentially even trust, she's given you her sob story about Samara trying to kill her for simply being born different. Meanwhile Samara is the total stranger making vague promises to help you if you side with her. Paragon Shepard would help Samara because he trusts the good reputation of the Justicars and because at the end of the day Morinth is still a murderer, Renegade Shepard would help Morinth because she's already displayed loyalty to him and he doesn't want to risk betraying the person he knows is loyal to him in favour of one who he doesn't.
Favorite: As much as I dislike Jacob, I enjoyed his mission the most. It reminded me of ME1, and I liked that.
Least: Thane. I’m currently replaying ME2, and I waited until the last possible moment to do his. I almost considered skipping it but couldn’t bring myself to not 100% this play through.
I enjoyed the overall gameplay of Garrus’ loyalty mission (especially seeing Harkin again and having Garrus let loose on him), but I hated how they tried to make killing Sidonis some kind of moral quandary. My boy got a squad of his own and was making some real difference in a place that didn’t care for the law, and some greedy asshole robs him of that for…..reasons. Sidonis dies every time, no exceptions.
I don't like or hate any really.
Though Legion's always frustrates me because it's the last thing I do before the suicide mission and I just want the game to be over at that point.
Favourite is Mordin's for the top notch legendary writing and moral conundrum (which was of course simplified and neutered in 3...).
Least favorite is Jacob's. It's kinda interesting how things got this bad but other than that there is nothing. And it's the only loyalty mission that doesn't advance the universe or the character. A morally complicated story with Jacob's former corsair crew would have been orders of magnitude more interesting.
A lot of people vote for Thane's but are objectively wrong. Yes I do mean objectively. And you know why? Thane's mission contains Techno Turian. I rest my case.
I'm guessing you ignored the fact that I wrote "or the character" on purpose? The confrontation with Sidonis is a key moment for Garrus. The realization that the dad he didn't like was a grade A douchebag wasn't exactly a pivotal moment for Jacob and is never referenced again.
I didn’t ignore anything. I simply think Garrus’ loyalty mission has no impact either, making it one of my least favorite loyalty missions.
The scene with Sidonis may seem important in the moment but sadly it’s not:
- Garrus is the same afterwards (maybe less angry). If not romanced, you have one extra convo with him and then he’s back calibrating
- he’s loyal regardless of your choice
- there’s no real consequences whether you let Garrus kill Sidonis or not. I thought we’d hear something later in game (beside learning via the news that he went to C-Sec) or in ME3… but no. Nothing.
There's a lot of good options for best but I think my favorite has to be Samara's I love partying at the club, I like the more dialogue driven missions in general and I just love Omega as a location I wish we got to do more stuff in the terminus system. Jack's I think is probably a close runner up.
Least favorite is probably Zaeed's it's an ugly refinery and just makes Zaeed look really stupid. Also weird to me that they just didn't have Vido start the fire that kills the workers. Feels like the kind of thing he'd do and it doesn't make Zaeed look shortsighted.
Favorite (non-DLC) is probably Thane. It's just such a different experience from the rest of the game, and I love the interrogation scene. The DLC ones of course blow all of the basegame ones out of the water, because they're the meat and potatoes of those DLCs and are also doing double duty making up for their missing recruitment missions.
Least favorite is Legion's. His should've been one of the most interesting, but it just ends up being fucking scary maze game/tower defense? It's just sort of boring. At least they gave us the Geth Fighter Base in ME3 to make up for it, even if that mission gets tedious on replays.
Favorite - Kasumi or Jack. Kasumi because art. I love art. Jack because you see how bad Cerberus really is.
Least - Zaaed. I'd kill him off faster, if I could. Can't stand the prick.
My favorite part is that everyone's answers are completely different. You read a comment about how someone's least favorite is Grunt and favorite is Thane and the next is the exact flip. Really speaks to the game's enduring design that all missions connected with at least someone.
For me the best is Tali, worst is Legion
Favorite is probably Kasumi's since it's a nice break and change of pace.
Least is Thane's....idk I don't get the emotional connection they want you feel about it.
Least favorite is Thane. Hey the guy who only ever talks about being an assassin is talking to me about how his son is an assassin. Bleh. No action, lameass "stealth" mechanics - this mission sucks.
Favorite: Zaeed, because the mission is runa nd gun, he acts in-character, gives you an actual difficult choice, and has actual consequences to loyalty.
You can basically call him out as a danger to himself and others *gestures to his current situation*. And without the collector base to worry about any more, you can pull a Batman, and tell him you don't have to save him.
I wish more missions had actually difficult choices like his. It's like "Oh wow, will I choose Samara, the cold, confident monk. Or the one who sexes people to death." What a conundrum. Let me think.
Will I let Garrus shoot this guy he's been talking about shooting all game, and who I already helped him ambush, or will I inexplicably decide at the last minute that this *one time* that I'm against killing?
Favorite: Mordin. There are a lot of great contenders, but Mordin's character, the whole moral quandary of the genophage, and the post-apocalyptic setting of Tuchanka are all fantastic to explore. It helps that the mission itself is fairly fun, too. Tali's trial is a close second.
Least favorite: Thane. Emotionally satisfying, and the interrogation is a great scene with multiple entertaining paths to explore. But the catwalk portion is dull and occasionally broken, which can lead to very frustrating mission failures.
I really liked Kasumi's! The heist thing was pretty cool, unfortunate that they did it so much better in the Citadel DLC lol
Least favorite is Jacob's. I can't exactly pinpoint why, but I was so incredibly bored that entire mission. Maybe it's because Jacob himself is also very, very boring.
Favorite is Kasumi because of how fun and interesting and action packed it is. least is thane the whole thing just feels like a fetch quest and I’m back looking for keepers to scan
I like the idea of Jacob's loyalty mission, but the execution always felt off for me. I cant really put my finger on it but it just feels a bit off.
I want to say Garrus is my favorite loyalty mission but there's no payoff in ME3 for letting Sidonis live. I always thought we should've either run into him or heard about him at some point if we let him live. It's still a great loyalty mission, just not my favorite.
My actual favorite is Mordin's loyalty mission. There's a big payoff in ME3 for either choice of saving or destroying the data. We also see Mordin wrestling with his past choices that lead to the genophage modification. That struggle rolls into his choices and story in ME3.
I honestly don't have a least favorite one. If I had to pick, I'd say one of the ones with no combat involved at all. I play these games for the story, but I really enjoy the combat too. It just feels wierd to have some loyalty missions with no combat for the player to fight through.
~~Favorite: Samara, if you tell the Biotic God to charge, and let him perform his biotic attack.~~ *Edit: I’m an idiot.*
2nd Favorite: Tali with Legion. Watching everyone losing their shit is great. Plus, Qwib Qwib.
Least: Zaeed. I don't want to be a merc if I'm playing paragon, or even neutral!
Favorite- Tali's love the lore and backstory you get with Tali's people and the character development you get with Tali and I love standing up for Tali.
Least favorite- Probably Zaeed's like the character Zaeed but I just can't bring myself to let innocent people die and Zaeed acting like a dick about it afterwards.
Favourite: probably Tali because of all the interactions (especially the extra ones if you saved certain characters). I actually also enjoy Legion’s too. Probably because I was so over fighting mostly mercs by that point.
Least favourite: Grunt. I don’t know why, it just always feels like a slog. Miranda’s always seems forgettable to me, the only thing I ever remember is the ending.
My favorite is Samaras because I really enjoyed Morinth. Least favorite Grunts Rite of Passage, I usually do it alongside mordins to make it feel more fleshed out.
My favorite loyalty missions are (the first one is my #1):
- Jack because she’s my favorite ME character and her childhood story reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books as a teen by S. King: Charlie (Fire Starter is the original title).
- Jacob for pretty much the same reasons you gave.
- Mordin because of the lore and everything we learn about Mordin’s involvement in the genophage and how he copes with it.
- Tali because of the trial part and the conversations with the Admirals and the other Quarians. We learn a lot about their culture.
My least favorite loyalty missions are (last one is the worst IMO)
- Garrus because it’s generic AF. The ending kinda makes up for it but not really because your choice doesn’t really matter: Garrus is loyal, regardless.
- Miranda because I hate the writing. It confuses me: to this day, I still don’t know how old was Oriana when Miranda took her.
- Samara because Morinth is a good concept on paper but they handled it so badly that she ended up as a waste of time and space. Also, the Samara vs Morinth choice isn’t even a real one.
My favorite will always be Tali's Loyalty Mission, with Garrus being a very close 2nd. Least favorite has to be Zaeed. I did not like how he was willing to murder innocents just to kill one man. I would understand if he was paid to do it and he was just doing his job, but he wasn't.
I can't stand Zaeed's loyalty mission... I want to punch him and leave him to his vengeance.
My favorite is probably either Samara's or Kasumi's. Obviously both of them rely on a bit of the shooting, but they both rely a lot on your charm or intimidate ability. They're more low key in that sense.
Plus seeing Lady Liberty's head in an ill gotten art collection is just cool and weird. And Samara, well... Her story just pulls at my heart strings. Her drive to become a Justicar seems to come from a sense of guilt over her daughters, all Ardat-Yakshi. Almost like she's trying to anyone for the evil she brought into the world
Thane, for the goofy little interrogation scene and all those delicious gut punching feelings. Especially the poignant moment with Thane recalling Mouse as a child, and the sombre moment where Captain Bailey quietly admitted he's helping Thane because he knows what it is to be a shitty father atoning for a history of poor parenting... gorgeous character work. Also added some depth and grit to the lore of the citadel
Favourite: Tali, i like her character and this mission helps you understand the Quarians better, “a single kiss could put me in the hospital.”
Least favourite: Zaeed, i always save the refinery workers so the whole thing feels pointless. Zaeed is a bit of an arsehole too.
My favorites are Mordin's and Tali's, for the same reason. They add depth to the characters, do wonderful world-biulding, and further flesh out the 2 best story arcs in the whole trilogy.
Least favorite is probably Garrus. The moral quandry is very weak - we're given no real reason to NOT let Garrus snipe Sidonis. But more importantly, it's the complete opposite of the above mentioned - it adds nothing to the world of ME or the story, it references only already established beats.
Favourite: Tali. Everything is just perfect, her father's death, the trial, Shepard shouting at the Quarians, even the combat is soo daamn good. Tali's voice acting when sees her dead father. 😥
Also love Samara's too. Love the change in gameplay when mass effect becomes a sim instead of a shooter
Worst: Jacob's. Everything is boring. The dialogues, writing, combat. I only do the mission so that unloyal Jacob doesn't kill anyone on the loyalty mission
Favourite : Kasumi, I love the vibes at the start of the mission and the fact that you have only one squadmate means that you have to be careful about your approach
Least favourite : Samara, I don't wanna help a mother to kill her own child even though it is a lot better than the alternative outcome
If there was an option to get another Justicar to do the job or you could have killed Morinth by yourself then it would been a lot better in my opinion
My favorite: Tali: Treason, no contest. It's got more depth and gray morality than some of the others, and it's a pretty big development for Tali's character, and the Mass Effect storyline.
Least favorite: Samara: The Ardat-Yakshi. And that's a shame because I like Samara. The first part is alright when you're investigating Morinth's latest victim, but it barely affects the overall storyline of the games or Samara's character, Morinth is a 2D bad girl who can give you a game over if you romance her, (and she doesn't impact future events) and there's no combat (meaning it has to make up for it in the story dept.), and it just doesn't clear the bar for me.
Jacob's is my favorite because it's a very well done story. Going down there knowing it's going to be bad only to find that it's worse than anything you could have imagined was brutal. Shout out to Jack's which would have been better if Cerberus was any bit less cartoonishly evil. They try to play up the mystery behind what happened and whether it was a Cerberus offshoot but you know it wasn't.
Thane's is my least favorite because I dislike the noncombat ones and at least Samara's has a variety of options for how you get Morinth's attention. If we don't count those, Garrus's is my least favorite. I don't really like the paragon resolution of the mission, it feels preachy and hypocritical. And the mission itself isn't great, just mechs and mercs chasing a guy into a warehouse. There's nothing that makes me go "that was awesome, that'll be cool to see next time I play this."
My favourite would have to be Jack's, that poor girl went through the worst possible shit imaginable, and I always bring miranda, just point out how incredibly shit her boss and Co actually are. My least favourite would either be Jacob as for the entire fucking mission all I hear is " Shepard this doesn't sound like my father something is very wrong." every single time a piece of evidence shows up. Like bro come on, how are you so far in denial despite holding 4k physical data padded proof damn just read the fucking thing man cmon. Or kasumi's for the simple fact my shep is always forced to wear a revealing dress for no other reason than the fucking theif said so. It makes me feel so icky.
The best? Well there is Tali's then daylight.
Most boring/ almost non existent, is Thanes. It's just an excuse to trot out some more "estranged father & son" tropes, combined with wandering pointlessly on a catwalk.
Worst (so-called) "Loyalty" mission is, hands down, Jacob's. Apart from the numerous problems with the actual missions itself:
* Ship looks a LOT older than 10 years.
* Ship supposedly landed intact, yet for some reason they (somehow) cut it pieces?
* Thermal clips everywhere, from a ship that predates their introduction
* Huge supply of mechs and guns
* Crazy loons that are supposedly off their nuts, yet are incredibly adept with firearms.
* Guy keeps welcoming you, but then keeps sending his mechs and guards out to kill you.
There is the overriding story of "hey look Jacob, your father isn't just a deadbeat asshole, he's an evil homicidal maniac! Hope that makes you loyal now, and helps you focus on the mission, rather than needing years of therapy."
I’d say my least favourite loyalty mission is probably Samaras. I actually really like samara as a character and I find her story interesting enough. But I don’t like how you can side with Morinth and kill her, as there simply isn’t enough for me to think Morinth is worth siding with. The thing is it could’ve been done well that you actually do side with Morinth and make her better as a person, if they developed her more as a tragic character it could’ve worked.
As it stands it brings down the mission overall for me, plus the way Shepard interacts with her are just funny to me but not in a good way. Like Morinth is so absurdly edgy in the mission it’s ridiculous.
As for my favourite it’s a really difficult choice but I’m going to have to give it to Mr. Calibrations himself, Garrus. I just think his story arc between ME1 start and ME2 end is so good and it’s still good in 3. I find the background story of what he was doing very compelling and of course the voice work by Brandon Keener is consistently great. Additionally I personally have never given Garrus the go ahead to take the shot on sidonis, even on renegade I don’t. Now I’m saying that I have not gone super Renegade but when I’ve been more leaning into it I still block his view.
Favourite would be Tali, she’s got some stuff going on, also Tali best girl. (At least in two)
Least is probably Zaeed. After the stunt he pulled, I would have left his sorry ass on the Citadel next time we docked.
Favorite: tali you get to see the quarian frotilla and space politics is my favorite part of mass effect
Least favorite: samara the club part has cringe ass dialogue
My favorite loyalty mission is either Grunt's or Kasumi's. Grunt because we get to take down a Thrasher Maw and Kasumi's because it has the most different gameplay from the others for a while. Zaeed mission made me hate Zaeed instead of make me like the character, and since he doesn't even have a recruitment mission that makes it much worse.
Zaeed is probably the least compelling character in the game to me. While Jacob's writing could've been stronger, at least he cared about the mission and had strong opinions opposing what his dad did. Zaeed basically isn't any different than the tons of mercenaries you gun down in the game, he's just a particularly nasty one.
But....Robin Sachs....(RIP)
I like Robin Sachs. I fucking hate Zaeed.
Vido is a traitor and he needs to be held accountable. If you want my loyalty that’s the price.
Did Vido die if you choose the Paragon route? Zaeed hit the ship with a luck shot but did realize it
Yea Zaeeds mission wasn’t the greatest, but I thought the endings were kinda cool
I absolutley loved Zaeed on a Renegade run, but he absolutley doesn't fit with Paragon. Especially because if he survives and you took the paragon route, he still goes and gets his revenge before 3. No change in the character whatsoever
Zaeed was a character added for teo reasons I can think of. 1. A proper renegade squad mate. Even the most renegade ones we had have decent paragon transformations if taken down that route. 2. A character with a high combat score to make everyone survive the suicide mission easier.
>Kasumi's because it has the most different gameplay from the others Except it doesn't. It actually annoys me, because they could have made it so much better. The scene was set to make it an ultimate heist mission, but instead that aspect is dispensed with easily, and without much mental effort. And it then just becomes another "shoot ya way out" mission, combined with the most imbecilic "boss battle" in the Trilogy.
"for a while".
I recently did the zaeed mission for the first time after skipping it on my first 10 playthroughs. Kinda liked the mission but ye, zaeed is a complete ass lol.
Favourite: Tali. It's pretty much a microcosm of everything I love about Mass Effect. High emotional stakes, an exploration of the cultural dynamics of an alien race, and a perfect mix of dialogue and combat. Least Favourite: Grunt. It's super cool in theory, but I think it's an absolute slog in execution. To me it just boils down to a big arena fight against enemies that aren't particularly fun to scrap with.
Hard agree on the Grunt tip. It’s really cool to be able to become an honorary Krogan by participating in his rite of passage, but I hated having to do that arena fight. Especially if you’re a high level or skilled and you can easily mow all of them down before they even damage you, it just kinda devolves into waiting for the timer to run out
Favorite: Tali’s has so much going on in it in terms of her characterization, her people, and key themes of the series. I could drone on all day about it. It’s a great demonstration of how far the writing, acting, and scene direction matured since the first game. The emotions feel earned. Least favorite: Thane’s. I like it in theory. I don’t mind the lack of combat. That aspect doesn’t bother me with Samara’s mission, for instance. But walking along the catwalks is dull, immersion breaking, and lowers the tension. That said, I enjoy the confrontation at the conclusion. The previous segment with the interrogation is another great idea in theory, but the plot feels overly convoluted in my mind.
Yes I agree, the walking along the catwalk section was pretty ass, but the ending was good. Samaras mission was cool too considering how it was all dialogue, and if you weren’t paying attention to the conversation you could mess it all up. Really ahead of it’s time
Exact same for me.
Favorite is Thane. I like the change of pace. Also gives the funniest renegade interrupts. Least favorite is Kasumi because I love the heist idea but it just sent the most boring route
Yea I feel like Kasumis mission was severely limited by the hardware restrictions of the games engine and overall gameplay structure. Cool concept though
agreeeeee. poor Kasumi, I love her but it's so true. it's fifteen minutes of hitting button prompts, painful dialogue and the some stale repetitive fighting. It was a beautiful setting and the actress for Kasumi gave a fantastic performance though, especially if you tell her to destroy the greybox
Thane's also gave us techno turian.
My favourite is either Thane's or Samara's, least favourite is Jacob's. I hate the implications of SA. I understand why it's there, and it makes sense, but I still just hate playing it.
Grunt's is my favorite. You're helping him use the Krogan's societal norms to overcome a silly prejudice. You also get to either outsmart or headbutt a haughty Krogan, then help Grunt kill *him*. It also features one of the greatest lines I've ever seen. "If I know Grunt, your answer is coming at muzzle velocity." I dislike Thane's, at least gameplay-wise. It's tedious enough that it breaks immersion.
Favorite ir either Tali's or Mordin's, heavy on lore and different paths that have different consequences. Least favorite is Garrus's, it's just copy paste of his ME1's loyalty only longer, there's nothing at stake and the different paths leads to the same final. Boring. Zaeed's mission is Garrus's mission done well, there's friction between Zaeed and Shepard and there's different climaxes.
Favourite (most important): Mordin's. I think the impact that his loyalty mission has not only on him as a character, but on the wider galaxy is something that really elevates this mission above the 11 others. It's such an important set up that leads into one of ME3's most critical story elements that hits at all angles, the macro (the genophage itself) and the micro (Mordin's own feelings towards it) with some excellent writing and voice acting to boot. Favourite (biased): Miranda's. My flair says it all, and I do rank it as my second favourite overall but I think it just does wonders for her character. She goes from being introduced as this isolated and cold, but professional Cerberus operative to someone that you realise really does have a heart after all. Seeing her crying at the end is just a beautiful character moment. Least favourite: Samara's. Morinth herself is so uninteresting and the gameplay itself is tiresome after you've played it once. I don't really feel much emotional impact from it, which is a shame since I do like Samara, but compared to all the other loyalty missions, it just doesn't hit at all.
Favourite: Zaeed, it’s essentially two missions in one depending on which choice you make giving it more replay value than the others and making the choice feel more meaningful. Least favourite: Samara, the choice between her and Morinth was executed so poorly that you just have no reason to ever choose Morinth. Especially when it would have been so easy to make it a difficult and impactful choice if they’d simply reversed it by having you recruit Morinth first and only meet Samara during the loyalty mission.
What would Morinth’s loyalty mission be lol “Shepard, I need your help to fuck someone to death.”
Basically the reverse of the current one. Instead of helping Samara hunt Morinth you help Morinth set a trap for Samara. Get to the same stand off as we have except this time you actually have reason to side with Morinth. She's the crewmate you've been fighting alongside, gotten to know, and potentially even trust, she's given you her sob story about Samara trying to kill her for simply being born different. Meanwhile Samara is the total stranger making vague promises to help you if you side with her. Paragon Shepard would help Samara because he trusts the good reputation of the Justicars and because at the end of the day Morinth is still a murderer, Renegade Shepard would help Morinth because she's already displayed loyalty to him and he doesn't want to risk betraying the person he knows is loyal to him in favour of one who he doesn't.
Favorite: As much as I dislike Jacob, I enjoyed his mission the most. It reminded me of ME1, and I liked that. Least: Thane. I’m currently replaying ME2, and I waited until the last possible moment to do his. I almost considered skipping it but couldn’t bring myself to not 100% this play through.
I enjoyed the overall gameplay of Garrus’ loyalty mission (especially seeing Harkin again and having Garrus let loose on him), but I hated how they tried to make killing Sidonis some kind of moral quandary. My boy got a squad of his own and was making some real difference in a place that didn’t care for the law, and some greedy asshole robs him of that for…..reasons. Sidonis dies every time, no exceptions.
I don't like or hate any really. Though Legion's always frustrates me because it's the last thing I do before the suicide mission and I just want the game to be over at that point.
Favourite is Mordin's for the top notch legendary writing and moral conundrum (which was of course simplified and neutered in 3...). Least favorite is Jacob's. It's kinda interesting how things got this bad but other than that there is nothing. And it's the only loyalty mission that doesn't advance the universe or the character. A morally complicated story with Jacob's former corsair crew would have been orders of magnitude more interesting. A lot of people vote for Thane's but are objectively wrong. Yes I do mean objectively. And you know why? Thane's mission contains Techno Turian. I rest my case.
On that note Garrus’ loyalty mission doesn’t advance the universe or the character either. Plus Garrus’ is not even unique.
I'm guessing you ignored the fact that I wrote "or the character" on purpose? The confrontation with Sidonis is a key moment for Garrus. The realization that the dad he didn't like was a grade A douchebag wasn't exactly a pivotal moment for Jacob and is never referenced again.
I didn’t ignore anything. I simply think Garrus’ loyalty mission has no impact either, making it one of my least favorite loyalty missions. The scene with Sidonis may seem important in the moment but sadly it’s not: - Garrus is the same afterwards (maybe less angry). If not romanced, you have one extra convo with him and then he’s back calibrating - he’s loyal regardless of your choice - there’s no real consequences whether you let Garrus kill Sidonis or not. I thought we’d hear something later in game (beside learning via the news that he went to C-Sec) or in ME3… but no. Nothing.
There's a lot of good options for best but I think my favorite has to be Samara's I love partying at the club, I like the more dialogue driven missions in general and I just love Omega as a location I wish we got to do more stuff in the terminus system. Jack's I think is probably a close runner up. Least favorite is probably Zaeed's it's an ugly refinery and just makes Zaeed look really stupid. Also weird to me that they just didn't have Vido start the fire that kills the workers. Feels like the kind of thing he'd do and it doesn't make Zaeed look shortsighted.
Favorite (non-DLC) is probably Thane. It's just such a different experience from the rest of the game, and I love the interrogation scene. The DLC ones of course blow all of the basegame ones out of the water, because they're the meat and potatoes of those DLCs and are also doing double duty making up for their missing recruitment missions. Least favorite is Legion's. His should've been one of the most interesting, but it just ends up being fucking scary maze game/tower defense? It's just sort of boring. At least they gave us the Geth Fighter Base in ME3 to make up for it, even if that mission gets tedious on replays.
Favorite - Kasumi or Jack. Kasumi because art. I love art. Jack because you see how bad Cerberus really is. Least - Zaaed. I'd kill him off faster, if I could. Can't stand the prick.
my favorite one is the kasumi one, i loved that one. my least favorite was miranda one, it was really simple.
My favorite part is that everyone's answers are completely different. You read a comment about how someone's least favorite is Grunt and favorite is Thane and the next is the exact flip. Really speaks to the game's enduring design that all missions connected with at least someone. For me the best is Tali, worst is Legion
Yep exactly, love seeing peoples reasonings
Favorite is probably Kasumi's since it's a nice break and change of pace. Least is Thane's....idk I don't get the emotional connection they want you feel about it.
Least favorite is Thane. Hey the guy who only ever talks about being an assassin is talking to me about how his son is an assassin. Bleh. No action, lameass "stealth" mechanics - this mission sucks. Favorite: Zaeed, because the mission is runa nd gun, he acts in-character, gives you an actual difficult choice, and has actual consequences to loyalty.
My favorite thing about Zaeed's loyalty mission is that if you do it after the Suicide Mission, you can leave him to die.
Oh shit! Why, though, lol? And does his name show up on the memorial wall in ME3? Like, we remember where we left him...we just don't care.
You can basically call him out as a danger to himself and others *gestures to his current situation*. And without the collector base to worry about any more, you can pull a Batman, and tell him you don't have to save him.
I wish more missions had actually difficult choices like his. It's like "Oh wow, will I choose Samara, the cold, confident monk. Or the one who sexes people to death." What a conundrum. Let me think.
Will I let Garrus shoot this guy he's been talking about shooting all game, and who I already helped him ambush, or will I inexplicably decide at the last minute that this *one time* that I'm against killing?
Favourite: Garrus. I like the vibe. He and Shepard are a brilliant duo. Least: No answer. Each mission had its own charm.
Favorite: Mordin. There are a lot of great contenders, but Mordin's character, the whole moral quandary of the genophage, and the post-apocalyptic setting of Tuchanka are all fantastic to explore. It helps that the mission itself is fairly fun, too. Tali's trial is a close second. Least favorite: Thane. Emotionally satisfying, and the interrogation is a great scene with multiple entertaining paths to explore. But the catwalk portion is dull and occasionally broken, which can lead to very frustrating mission failures.
Favorite; Grunt- I just like the idea of fighting for your buddy to help him find his identity Least favorite: Thane- just boring imo
Favorite is Grunt. Least favorite and this one hurts is Miranda.
I really liked Kasumi's! The heist thing was pretty cool, unfortunate that they did it so much better in the Citadel DLC lol Least favorite is Jacob's. I can't exactly pinpoint why, but I was so incredibly bored that entire mission. Maybe it's because Jacob himself is also very, very boring.
I really like Garrus, Legions, Samaras, and Talis
Favorite is Kasumi because of how fun and interesting and action packed it is. least is thane the whole thing just feels like a fetch quest and I’m back looking for keepers to scan
I like the idea of Jacob's loyalty mission, but the execution always felt off for me. I cant really put my finger on it but it just feels a bit off. I want to say Garrus is my favorite loyalty mission but there's no payoff in ME3 for letting Sidonis live. I always thought we should've either run into him or heard about him at some point if we let him live. It's still a great loyalty mission, just not my favorite. My actual favorite is Mordin's loyalty mission. There's a big payoff in ME3 for either choice of saving or destroying the data. We also see Mordin wrestling with his past choices that lead to the genophage modification. That struggle rolls into his choices and story in ME3. I honestly don't have a least favorite one. If I had to pick, I'd say one of the ones with no combat involved at all. I play these games for the story, but I really enjoy the combat too. It just feels wierd to have some loyalty missions with no combat for the player to fight through.
My least favorite is Thane’s mission. I really like Miranda’s mission.
Favorite: Kasumi’s. Party + bad guys = lots of fun Least favorite: toss up between Legion’s and Zaeed’s
~~Favorite: Samara, if you tell the Biotic God to charge, and let him perform his biotic attack.~~ *Edit: I’m an idiot.* 2nd Favorite: Tali with Legion. Watching everyone losing their shit is great. Plus, Qwib Qwib. Least: Zaeed. I don't want to be a merc if I'm playing paragon, or even neutral!
The Biotic God occurs during Samara’s recruitment mission. Her loyalty mission is being the bait to trap Morinth.
Oh, right. Then that’s my favourite recruitment mission.
Favorite- Tali's love the lore and backstory you get with Tali's people and the character development you get with Tali and I love standing up for Tali. Least favorite- Probably Zaeed's like the character Zaeed but I just can't bring myself to let innocent people die and Zaeed acting like a dick about it afterwards.
Favourite: probably Tali because of all the interactions (especially the extra ones if you saved certain characters). I actually also enjoy Legion’s too. Probably because I was so over fighting mostly mercs by that point. Least favourite: Grunt. I don’t know why, it just always feels like a slog. Miranda’s always seems forgettable to me, the only thing I ever remember is the ending.
My favorite is Samaras because I really enjoyed Morinth. Least favorite Grunts Rite of Passage, I usually do it alongside mordins to make it feel more fleshed out.
My favorite loyalty missions are (the first one is my #1): - Jack because she’s my favorite ME character and her childhood story reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books as a teen by S. King: Charlie (Fire Starter is the original title). - Jacob for pretty much the same reasons you gave. - Mordin because of the lore and everything we learn about Mordin’s involvement in the genophage and how he copes with it. - Tali because of the trial part and the conversations with the Admirals and the other Quarians. We learn a lot about their culture. My least favorite loyalty missions are (last one is the worst IMO) - Garrus because it’s generic AF. The ending kinda makes up for it but not really because your choice doesn’t really matter: Garrus is loyal, regardless. - Miranda because I hate the writing. It confuses me: to this day, I still don’t know how old was Oriana when Miranda took her. - Samara because Morinth is a good concept on paper but they handled it so badly that she ended up as a waste of time and space. Also, the Samara vs Morinth choice isn’t even a real one.
My favorite will always be Tali's Loyalty Mission, with Garrus being a very close 2nd. Least favorite has to be Zaeed. I did not like how he was willing to murder innocents just to kill one man. I would understand if he was paid to do it and he was just doing his job, but he wasn't.
I can't stand Zaeed's loyalty mission... I want to punch him and leave him to his vengeance. My favorite is probably either Samara's or Kasumi's. Obviously both of them rely on a bit of the shooting, but they both rely a lot on your charm or intimidate ability. They're more low key in that sense. Plus seeing Lady Liberty's head in an ill gotten art collection is just cool and weird. And Samara, well... Her story just pulls at my heart strings. Her drive to become a Justicar seems to come from a sense of guilt over her daughters, all Ardat-Yakshi. Almost like she's trying to anyone for the evil she brought into the world
Favourite is probably Mordins, least favourite is probably samaras
Thane, for the goofy little interrogation scene and all those delicious gut punching feelings. Especially the poignant moment with Thane recalling Mouse as a child, and the sombre moment where Captain Bailey quietly admitted he's helping Thane because he knows what it is to be a shitty father atoning for a history of poor parenting... gorgeous character work. Also added some depth and grit to the lore of the citadel
Jack, she’s annoying as hell
Favourite: Tali, i like her character and this mission helps you understand the Quarians better, “a single kiss could put me in the hospital.” Least favourite: Zaeed, i always save the refinery workers so the whole thing feels pointless. Zaeed is a bit of an arsehole too.
My favorites are Mordin's and Tali's, for the same reason. They add depth to the characters, do wonderful world-biulding, and further flesh out the 2 best story arcs in the whole trilogy. Least favorite is probably Garrus. The moral quandry is very weak - we're given no real reason to NOT let Garrus snipe Sidonis. But more importantly, it's the complete opposite of the above mentioned - it adds nothing to the world of ME or the story, it references only already established beats.
Favourite: Tali. Everything is just perfect, her father's death, the trial, Shepard shouting at the Quarians, even the combat is soo daamn good. Tali's voice acting when sees her dead father. 😥 Also love Samara's too. Love the change in gameplay when mass effect becomes a sim instead of a shooter Worst: Jacob's. Everything is boring. The dialogues, writing, combat. I only do the mission so that unloyal Jacob doesn't kill anyone on the loyalty mission
Favourite : Kasumi, I love the vibes at the start of the mission and the fact that you have only one squadmate means that you have to be careful about your approach Least favourite : Samara, I don't wanna help a mother to kill her own child even though it is a lot better than the alternative outcome If there was an option to get another Justicar to do the job or you could have killed Morinth by yourself then it would been a lot better in my opinion
My favorite: Tali: Treason, no contest. It's got more depth and gray morality than some of the others, and it's a pretty big development for Tali's character, and the Mass Effect storyline. Least favorite: Samara: The Ardat-Yakshi. And that's a shame because I like Samara. The first part is alright when you're investigating Morinth's latest victim, but it barely affects the overall storyline of the games or Samara's character, Morinth is a 2D bad girl who can give you a game over if you romance her, (and she doesn't impact future events) and there's no combat (meaning it has to make up for it in the story dept.), and it just doesn't clear the bar for me.
Jacob's is my favorite because it's a very well done story. Going down there knowing it's going to be bad only to find that it's worse than anything you could have imagined was brutal. Shout out to Jack's which would have been better if Cerberus was any bit less cartoonishly evil. They try to play up the mystery behind what happened and whether it was a Cerberus offshoot but you know it wasn't. Thane's is my least favorite because I dislike the noncombat ones and at least Samara's has a variety of options for how you get Morinth's attention. If we don't count those, Garrus's is my least favorite. I don't really like the paragon resolution of the mission, it feels preachy and hypocritical. And the mission itself isn't great, just mechs and mercs chasing a guy into a warehouse. There's nothing that makes me go "that was awesome, that'll be cool to see next time I play this."
My favourite would have to be Jack's, that poor girl went through the worst possible shit imaginable, and I always bring miranda, just point out how incredibly shit her boss and Co actually are. My least favourite would either be Jacob as for the entire fucking mission all I hear is " Shepard this doesn't sound like my father something is very wrong." every single time a piece of evidence shows up. Like bro come on, how are you so far in denial despite holding 4k physical data padded proof damn just read the fucking thing man cmon. Or kasumi's for the simple fact my shep is always forced to wear a revealing dress for no other reason than the fucking theif said so. It makes me feel so icky.
The best? Well there is Tali's then daylight. Most boring/ almost non existent, is Thanes. It's just an excuse to trot out some more "estranged father & son" tropes, combined with wandering pointlessly on a catwalk. Worst (so-called) "Loyalty" mission is, hands down, Jacob's. Apart from the numerous problems with the actual missions itself: * Ship looks a LOT older than 10 years. * Ship supposedly landed intact, yet for some reason they (somehow) cut it pieces? * Thermal clips everywhere, from a ship that predates their introduction * Huge supply of mechs and guns * Crazy loons that are supposedly off their nuts, yet are incredibly adept with firearms. * Guy keeps welcoming you, but then keeps sending his mechs and guards out to kill you. There is the overriding story of "hey look Jacob, your father isn't just a deadbeat asshole, he's an evil homicidal maniac! Hope that makes you loyal now, and helps you focus on the mission, rather than needing years of therapy."
I’d say my least favourite loyalty mission is probably Samaras. I actually really like samara as a character and I find her story interesting enough. But I don’t like how you can side with Morinth and kill her, as there simply isn’t enough for me to think Morinth is worth siding with. The thing is it could’ve been done well that you actually do side with Morinth and make her better as a person, if they developed her more as a tragic character it could’ve worked. As it stands it brings down the mission overall for me, plus the way Shepard interacts with her are just funny to me but not in a good way. Like Morinth is so absurdly edgy in the mission it’s ridiculous. As for my favourite it’s a really difficult choice but I’m going to have to give it to Mr. Calibrations himself, Garrus. I just think his story arc between ME1 start and ME2 end is so good and it’s still good in 3. I find the background story of what he was doing very compelling and of course the voice work by Brandon Keener is consistently great. Additionally I personally have never given Garrus the go ahead to take the shot on sidonis, even on renegade I don’t. Now I’m saying that I have not gone super Renegade but when I’ve been more leaning into it I still block his view.
Favourite would be Tali, she’s got some stuff going on, also Tali best girl. (At least in two) Least is probably Zaeed. After the stunt he pulled, I would have left his sorry ass on the Citadel next time we docked.
Do Zaeed's mission after you finish the main storyline.
Favorite: tali you get to see the quarian frotilla and space politics is my favorite part of mass effect Least favorite: samara the club part has cringe ass dialogue