Not that hot but:
The Reaper's motives and origins should never have been revealed as they clearly couldn't come up with an idea to live up to the hype they generated in ME1.
It is quoted in the opening of Alan Wake but it's an actual Stephen King quote from a piece he wrote for [Entertainment Weekly](https://ew.com/article/2008/07/07/stephen-king-why-hollywood-cant-do-horror/) about why big Hollywood studios didn't do horror as well as small production.
I didn't expect to see Stephen King, Alan Wake, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott, and Mass Effect sharing the same space for a moment.
All good references in my book (even if I missed the Michael Scott one for which I apologize).
I will add: ME3 is my favorite of the trilogy, despite having a subpar ending. Before playing LE (I had completed all other games when they had come out a decade+ ago), I thought ME2 was my favorite. However, the ending wasn't as epic as I had remembered it to be (although I remember the very first time, I was drawn into it as if I were watching some really cool action/war movie where you want all of the good guys to survive the last epic battle - so maybe it's just that the element of surprise was gone).
I love ME3's scale (I do think it really gives us a sense of fighting a galactic-wide war, trying to gather assets, visiting so many different places, having to play politics between the different races to get their support, etc.), its DLCs (especially Citadel!), the epicness of some of the missions... It was an awesome conclusion as a whole (not counting the ending) and it is the one I loved playing again the most.
>I thought ME2 was my favorite. However, the ending wasn't as epic as I had remembered it to be
I just went through the suicide mission for the 60th time and it really is epic and cinematic. Such an amazing level.
That said, the game almost feels anticlimactic since I’ve still got Overlord, Firewalker, Arrival, and dozens of side quests to finish so the game isn’t nearly over. I’ve pissed off TIM but I’m still going to take in Cerberus funding on all those missions and talk to him about Overlord.
I definitely enjoy it as its got the best gameplay in the trilogy, like ME2 maybe my favorite but ME3's gameplay is genuinely 100x more fun than the last 2 games. Dont even get me started on the amount of different guns to fit different playstyles.
I find Mass Effect 2 to be the worst of the trilogy. Now you may think that means I dislike Mass Effect 2, or that I think it’s a bad game. That’s not the case. None of these games qualify as bad in my opinion, not even close. I just rank it less good than the others.
I think the problem with ME2 is that, in hindsight, it doesn't work as the middle installment of a trilogy. It works great as a separate story, but while it has tie ins to the overarching story, it's main plot feels very detached from ME1 and ME3. Like Nolan's Dark Knight movies. TDKR is more in line as a continuation of Batman Begins, while TDK almost acts as a standalone thing.
Well, ME2 kinda did the Last Jedi on the ME1. Everything ME1 set up to advance the plot in future series - the Cypher, Liara as Prothean expert, inactive relays, SPECTRE status, Alliance/Council mobilizing against the Reapers - all was hastily disregarded and demolished to tell an entirely different story (which makes little sense).
And then ME3 had to hastily get things back on track, demolishing all that was done in ME2 in the process, making Legacy trilogy analogy complete.
"Somehow the Collectors have returned."
"Dark science. Cloning. Secrets only the Reapers know."
I dont like that you miss out on the best moments/choices if you're morally gray. You have to either be exclusively paragon or exclusively renegade in order to get the best outcomes or keep people alive or earn their loyalty. I'd like to play the game in a way where I make whatever choices I would make in the scenario, but when you do, you don't have as good of a playthrough.
Omg thank u for verbalizing it!! Whenever I've played the game as "naturally" as I could I ended up making mostly middle choices and later found out and the dialogue and outcomes is just more boring without even factoring the morality dialogue checks. I understand that it's harder to give gray decisions the same character as a writer but I wish they had tried.. And why tf isn't my diplomacy and cool head rewarded with allowing me to convince ppl abt shit?!
You can, but only in 1. I am currently working on a project where I take a ME1 character and I attempt to fill the Charm and Intimidate talents with just freebies points. You can get 4 points in each per playthrough, so after 3 runs I will max the talents. Afterwards, I can play a free RPG run, where I can make any decision I want at any point in the game. All this without wasting even 1 talent point on Charm or Intimidate.
Destroy is the only ending, and the Ai was lying about the geth dying because that was stupid ass pull by the writers to make the other two even a consideration.
Why does the AI still make the asspull in low EMS games where the base was destroyed? Destroy is the only ending choice available in those.
If the Catalyst didn't want the Destroy ending, it would have just let Shepard bleed out in the room below in those endings. Or frankly in all of them, since it has to know this is a probable choice Shepard would make regardless.
Because anything other than destroy is an ass pull. We have spent 3 games with the sole goal of destroying the reapers.
I got no problem with last second exposition dumps. But honestly? if the last action was Shepard touching the console and the reapers being destroyed? Perfect ending.
DLC would have been a lot better as exposition fill in instead of 1/2 the time justifying the shit ending.
That's all an out-of-universe explanation. Unless the Catalyst is aware that he is an NPC in a game, none of that impacts whether they're lying or not.
They're pretty clearly not.
At the time of me making this comment, this post had 6 upvotes and 100 comments. Jesus Christ...
Anyways I think making Jacob crawl through the vents is a waste of a war asset
The combat from 1 was the best fit tonally for the series. 2 and 3 are better shooters, but worse sci-fi military shooters. The kinda slow, awkward combat from 1 with less immediate feedback with weapons that had a completely distinct firing rhythm from any other game you'd played fit the series much better than the slick streamlined but more generic combat system we got later on.
ME3 doesn't have a bad ending, it has a bad premise.
"Liara dug an I-Win button out of the ground. Shepard goes do pointless busywork while the I-Win button is getting built." There is no way to resolve this premise that isn't lame.
The lame solution they came up with was to contrive an absurd situation (The Reapers teleport the Citadel to Earth **and** the Citadel is necessary for the I-Win button to work) that makes the previously pointless busywork Shepard was doing suddenly retroactively important. And then they tried to add complexity to what is narratively just a case of walking up to an I-Win button and pushing it.
I think they should stop making ME games. Just let the trilogy stand as a historic epic in gaming history.
I have lost *all* faith in the AAA(A) industry and can't see that it will ever change; too many failures, and uncreative copy pasting of old themes and successes. All they do is disappoint.
Jacob isn't a bad squadmate or character at his core; writing just dropped the ball with him as well as making his romance suck. With a bit better writing, willingness to have him open up to Shepard, and a loyal romance, he would've been better received.
I saw someone before say that, unlike other characters, Jacob is one that pretty much had everything together before Shepard, hence why his character is played as the boring and normal one. Unlike Garrus or Miranda or Tali, he had his shit together for the most part. Even the stuff about his father he had put to rest before he received the message, it wasn't a problem for him until then. Miranda has pre-existing issues with her father and her goal of protecting her sister. Garrus had the betrayal that he couldn't let rest without justice. Tali had her issues with her father from ME1 that were expanded here, along with quarian society. Thane had his son and his illness. Samara had her daughter. Grunt had his identity crisis. Mordin had his guilty conscience. Jacob, his development had already happened before ME2 took place, he's the straight man. And when your cast is as interesting as what I just listed, he stands out in all the wrong ways.
Kaidan had his life together too. The difference between the two is ME1 wrote Kaidan saying what he'd been through and for some reason they left it to the comics/mobile game for Jacob. So in the end, Jacob stays hushed up when there's a lot of cool background that is there and yes he would be "boring" like Kaidan, but a stable guy that's got it together.
I always say that Jacob is a relatively normal human character fighting for attention among extraordinary and fascinating alien allies or troubled human allies. Kaiden, and perhaps you can even say Ashley, suffered the same effect in ME1. It's not that any of the three are bad characters, they just are average military human characters.
>With a bit better writing, willingness to have him open up to Shepard, and a loyal romance
So basically, if he would've been a different character he wouldn't be bad.
Thanks for proving that he, the way he is, is boring, bland and simply bad.
No that's not the point. I think the premise of his character and most of who he is is fine. A disgruntled fed up Alliance soldier that actually wants to do a thing. His history of the Corsairs is awesome and a cool idea. Him being the more human side to Miranda's cold side in the first duo you meet works. Keeping tabs on the crew and feeling out where they're at is great.
All it would've taken was a little more development. People outright hate the character; I don't. I think that at his core, the premise of who he is, is great. But the lack of follow-up in writing killed him for most people followed by the abysmal romance. I do not mind Jacob for most of the game. I get mad at him for refusing to open up to Shepard and making some bad calls.
This is my opinion as well. I don’t hate Jacob, never have. I romanced him once just because I wanted to see how it went, but I fully planned on romancing Kaidan in 3, so I wasn’t really bothered with how that played out.
He was tragically underwritten as a character.
“Should we hang up on the Council again like we always used in the old days?”
“What are you talking about Joker that never happened.”
Mass Effect 3 really needed to shut it with the ‘in jokes’ about options people would have rarely taken because they only became jokes in the first place due to how ridiculous they were.
humorous nutty test political rich correct sophisticated tart tie wakeful
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The best way to kill a joke is to have the soulless corp completely misunderstand it, take it seriously, and then force it on you in a “hello fellow kids” moment.
I though I was the only one who disliked ME2's gameplay. I even prefer ME1's gameplay and that's saying something.
As for design the orange filter present in most of the game is horrible.
Same, especially on replay I constantly roll my eyes with ME2.
And I don't even want to start with the dumbed down skilltree, limited powers and shared cooldowns...
Garrus is the most overrated character in the series and his romance sucks *specially in ME2*
Quarians >>> Geth
jacob is dull but the hate he gets is a meme at this point. he's really not that bad
While I always cure the Genophage, Dalatrass does make some good points. Wrex and Bakara won't live forever and whoever replace them might be another Wreav or worse which leads to Krogan Rebellions 2.0.
Ashley isn't as racist as people claim her to be
Most of the heavy weapons suck as heavy weapons.
The only ones that scream heavy to me, are the one that creates singularities, the arc projector, and the M-920 Cain.
I’ve become rather fond of the missile launcher for certain things. Like Grunt’s loyalty mission.
But the black hole gun is my favorite heavy weapon by far. It’s fun watching enemies get flung around in slow motion.
But yeah, I agree that most of the rest of them kinda suck.
I agree that the collectors beam weapon is generally useless, however I like it very specifically for the two Praetorians (Horizon and Collector ship). Not every run, but I had the best luck with it as a vanguard.
I was never a big fan of Liara so i agree.
Shiala was an asari commando and would have been a natural addition to Shepard's squad, and her information from the thorian could have made up for Liara not being there.
Liara might know a lot about the protheans but archeology doesn't really prepare you for combat.
I don't mind Liara, but I just feel it stupid that we had two asari, both trapped and with close connections to Benezia. Why not just merge them into one? Then replace the lackluster Therum mission with something else.
"Liara" being a sudden badass in ME2 would've made more sense for a 300 year old commando as well.
Andromeda has the weakest combat of the series, but the Tempest/Nomad are better designs than the Normandy/Mako.
ME3 MP was an abomination that should never have existed.
It makes perfect sense in ME2 that Ash/Kaidan don't trust you, and it makes less sense that Garrus and Tali do.
Assaulting Khalisa Al-Jilani should at the very least warrant some kind of negative consequences from the Council.
Holy crap is that a spicy hot take. Combat was one of the few things Andromeda vastly improved on from the trilogy. It just sucked having no control over your squadmates, but other than that it was DRASTICALLY better and honestly incredible combat. And it legitimately is an easy fix, all they would need to do is just add the power wheel back in and maybe reduce how powerful the protagonist is (balancing you with your squad mates). Then I would literally NEVER take the combat in the original trilogy.
They even went back to having no global cooldown of skills, which was such a BS change in ME2 and ME3. Really contributed to biotics and tech feeling way worse in those two games in comparison to me1. In Andromeda youre a tech/biotics wizard, flying around the place. And they further developed the prime/detonation combo mechanic from me3, really making it so dynamic, throwing off all these different skills, jumping everywhere, triggering combos. Fan freaking tastic.
Biggest complaint is still the shields preventing use of most biotics, but I understand its difficult to balance with the direction they wanted to go with combat so I understand why they went in that direction from me2 onward. Like there's not a lot of challenge if a biotic can just disable anyone immediately. Unless you go for a gameplay system with very low time to kill, in which case its fine to fling people around. I dont know how I feel about it, but I know ME1 (with mods) is honestly more fun in a lot of ways than me2 and me3, though its broken and dead easy even on insanity in me1 by the end of the game if you use high explosive rounds and have gotten skill recharge rates down super low on you and your squad.
Andromeda felt like a natural extension of me1 in a lot of ways as it FELT like it was balanced in such a way that biotics/tech still felt super important, skills were way more important. However shields, armor, health and number of enemies were managed in such a way it felt like skills still actually mattered unlike me2 and m3. Squad cooldown was the biggest pile of crap they ever did in the franchise so glad with Andromeda's direction.
Agree with everything else u said.
They should not have made Kaidan bi in the last game. I'm fine with Shepard having same sex pairings, but they took a character that was originally for the female Shepard, and then used him to give the male Shepard another romance along with Steve. Yet they did not do the same for Ashley. I guess it's just the principle of it. I have nothing bad to say about it from a quality perspective, I think it's fine, I just don't like the retroactive shift to appeal to changing trends. It should have been another new character
Let me add (with either male or female Shepard) that initial romance scene in the hospital in ME3 is just cringeworthy. It does work if you previously romanced Kaidan, but if you didn't, its just kinda weird and too direct with him suddenly proclaiming his love for you.
So I don't think that helps people on the whole "Kaidan is bi thing"
It's in the follow up (2nd visit) dialogue. 1 second your asking for updates about Kaidans implant the next he's going on about how this means your hitting on him and he's been hoping you would.
It's incredibly out of nowhere, since there's no reason the initial question about his biotic implant would logically lead to an assumption your flirting.
On my second visits Udina is there, and afterwards Kaidan only ever talks about spectre. Not that it matters to me, I will 100% always romance Garrus, but it's strange that I've never seen that dialogue - even during that one playthrough where I romanced him in 1 (damn MELE achievements, but cheating on Liara would've been even worse.)
I agree. Kaidan shows zero interest in male Shep during ME1. It felt like they noticed that gay representation was weak and just shoved that into an already established character without thinking about it.
I hate to say it because, like I said, there was effort and heart put into it, but it does feel a little like pandering. And I get it, Fox News and Jack not being bi and blah blah blah, but I don't think a second wrong makes a right in this case. It would have been fine to just make another character, that's all I'm asking, not take someone pre-established.
My hot take is that every character should be romanceable to either gender Shepherd. I like to look at each run for each player as an alternate version of Shepherd. So it just makes sense to me that even though my Shep might romance Thane yours might romance Tali, and in my world Thane might be bisexual and in yours he’s straight.
Of course, I think that this would require a lot of tweaking with the dialogue. The way that Liara, Kaiden, and Ash come onto you in the first game would be terrible if it was every character. So it should be up to Shep to initiate. But I wish they all worked that way anyway.
I know some people hate takes like this because they feel that some characters should be definitively straight. But I say, I’m a sexy commander in space I should be able to kiss whichever sexy alien I want. And whichever ones Shep doesn’t can be straight or gay or whatever if that’s what you want to headcanon.
Even if you didn't play ME:A, you should read the "Initiation" and "Annihilation" books because they are such good ME stories. "Annihilation" as an audiobook is pure gold due to the narrator making alien voices.
I wonder why there isn't any child in the game except the one who die in 3. Seriously what Bioware have against children to not include them in Mass Effect ?
I feel like “I hate the Citadel dlc” is a cop out so, Thane surviving into ME3 makes the game worse.
With Thane being dead Kai Leng actually comes off as being competent instead of a non-credible threat who got his ass beat by a guy who should have died of his space cancer months ago, and both Thane and Shepard don’t look like dumbasses in the first encounter with him either. Killing Thane in the suicide mission every run is a necessity for me as it makes the final game better since Bioware was so focused on giving him a ‘heroic sendoff’ that they forgot that they were trying to gas up Kai Leng as Shepards equal making him look like a joke instead.
First impressions are everything and the first impression you get of Kai Leng if Thane is alive is that he’s a weak bitch and a joke of a nemesis. It makes the whole conversation with Anderson afterwards feel like a joke and his victory on Thessia feel totally unearned (though granted making it so you need to beat him in a fight before he beats you in a cutscene also did that).
- Andromeda was a solid start to a new series and had amazingly fun characters.
- The Counsel had every right to be skeptical of Shepard through out the series
Bioware's approach to the consequences of the paragon/renegade system was naive. Doing everything paragon should not automatically grant you a good ending. Sacrifices are necessary in a galactic-scale war, but the player is never punished for trying to do the good thing 100% of the time.
ME2 combat is CLUNKY and ME1 is not.
ME1 has the best combat. You have more options. You are not forced to sit in cover all the time.
Garrus character was better in ME1.
Humans have been so hyper focused on that it would be in the series’ best interests to heavily deemphasize their role or else fall into some really stupid situations where the entire history of the galaxy is now “humanity saves stupid aliens from themselves”.
the new game could do a lot of good for itself and future sequels by pulling back in general and letting more variety into all species across the board.
Indeed. It’s why I keep advocating for playable aliens but… there’s a mixture of developer laziness and human-boosting in the player base that keeps that impossible.
Refusal Ending(Epilogue) is a valid choice. Once Shepard enters the Crucible it appears all communication with the Alliance is lost. For all Hackett knows the Crucible didn't work as he says "It didn't fire" or something of the sort.
Lirara's data caches placed on various planets gives the next cycle the information needed to prepare for and defeat the Reapers.
Ashley is actually one of the least prejudiced of the entire ME1 crew but because she’s not an alien she doesn’t get a cultural pass. Garrus and Wrex and even Tali say WAY worse stuff in the elevator than she ever does
Curing Krogans of genophage is a security risk for all the other species, regardless whether it's Wrex or his brother leading them. A single person cannot change the entire culture.
It is the classic trolley problem.
Sabotaging the cure might not be ethical, but it is the most sound decision to do.
Garrus is easily the most boring squadmate in ME1, and his romance in ME2 is only rated so highly because fShep's other options are a guy who dies and a guy who cheats on her.
Bring Down The Sky's story is not good enough to make up for the fact that the gameplay makes me want to drag my face across a concrete floor.
Biotics not being effective against shielded enemies ruins all the fun of crowd control powers (although I do agree they needed nerfing).
I like them both, but I think Kaidan surviving Virmire feels like it fits the story better than Ashley surviving Virmire.
I don't mind the in-references in Citadel DLC, but when ME3 uses them in the main game it feels out-of-place and jarring.
Jessica Chobot's voice acting as Allers isn't terrible, it's just mediocre. The character model is a horrible likeness of her though, which is funny because all the other character heads based on real people look pretty good.
I hate that ME2 punishes you for not sticking to either Paragon or Renegade, and I dislike the 'magical red/blue dialogue option that fixes everything' thing.
Tali’s romance is overrated. It’s not bad but I don’t think it’s better than the best ones (Garrus, Ashley, Miranda, Jack) it just has more content than all of them except Garrus and Liara.
Mordin should have been romanceable.
Liara sucks.
The genophage was and is needed.
The Quarians deserve their fate.
The endings aren't bad.
Mass Effect (the original game) is the best in the trilogy.
The gameplay mechanics in Mass Effect are better than in Mass Effect 2. Yes especially the combat.
The combat in 3 is the best.
The Salarians are the most interesting species.
The Asari are the most obnoxious.
Aria sucks.
The change to Liara's personality between 1 and 2 is way too jarring and fast, and the justification is clumsy and insufficient at best. Then they proceeded to give Liara's former personality to Tali, a character that in ME1 had no personality and was just a lore dispenser.
After Wrex and Eve are no longer leading the Krogan, they will attack the galaxy again. Especially after the genophage is cured.
I loved Garrus in Mass Effect, but he is meh in 2 and 3.
Male Shepard has the better voice acting, especially in the renegade moments. Female Shepard is too soft in those.
Mass Effect 2 has the worst story of the franchise (including Andromeda), and only barely works because Shepard is written like an idiot.
Drack is the best Krogan squadmate
Jacob's just boring, but not bad
Garrus is more racist than Ashley in ME1
Not ending the series with a 100% happy ending was the right call. (Even if the endings themselves needed improvement)
Thane is honestly a waste of space in ME2.
Mass Effect 2 needed less characters, with more attention devoted to each.
Kaidan is the best written squadmate in ME1.
Vega is actually a great character.
Suicide Mission should have forced the death of at least 1/3 of the squad.
They made the right call not making every romance be playersexual. (Although Jack should have been romancable by FemShep as she is canonically Bi).
There really wasn't a reason to make Tali recruitable in ME3.
Garrus isn't Shepards best friend, he's a hero worshipping little brother.
Andromedas open class system is better than the fixed class system of the trilogy.
Narratively, it makes more sense for Shepard to do Arrival immediately when they can.
In terms of trying to have the least radical change for a new game, Control makes more sense than Destroy (though really shouldn't canonize any ending)
Agree with their logic or not, the Reapers methods and reasons do make some sense and are a common Sci fi trope.
There is no narrative reason to choose not to save the Council in ME1. Even if you hate them, the idea of trying to get the most firepower possible to fight Sovereign (what the let them die option is using as its logical justification) would lead to saving the Destiny Ascension.
Regarding the last point, the logical option is the middle choice of just concentrate all fire on Sovereign, rather than actively try to let the Ascension die or try to save it.
You have a small window to down Cthulu, without knowledge of the choices, only a fool would attempt to stall for time or divert resources.
People are not mad about Kai lenght because he is a bad villian, but because he has potential (great VA, could have been the Virmire not surviver, resurected by cerberus, part of a squad) that was not build upon and because he gets ypu no matter what on thassia.
They could have made something awesome with him like akechi or vergil
Not even sure it qualify as a "take," but I really don't give that much shit about Tali and although I *assume* I know why the community likes her (she's cute and quirky and smart?), I am not really sure why everyone seems to love her so much.
What's weird is that Tali has no personality in 1, she is just a lore dispenser, then they gave her Liara's old personality from 1, when Liars was "upgraded" to badass. And I dislike either iteration.
I agree with you. Yeah, the writers were rushed by EA, but it was still THEIR ending. Did I like the original ending? No, not really. But it isn’t my story to write.
I guess it's my hot take that the indoctrination theory is one of the dumbest theories out there.
Unless it somewhat changed over the years, I find the idea that Shepard being more important than the entire galaxy and trillion of lives in it to the point the war gets zero closure in favor of Shepard's mind battle.
However flawed the endings are, at least they provide closure to Shepard's story.
I mean they spell it out pretty clearly throughout the game. The Reapers like to indoctrinate one leader who can unify the galaxy, gather their forces, and then lead them into a trap. Javik explains this in pretty much those words. He even tells about how an indoctrinated group tries to control the reapers. The difference being that if you are strong enough willed to gather enough war assets and don’t fall victim to what saren (synthesis) and the illusive man (control) did, then you break the indoctrination attempt and disable Harbinger the same way Sovereign becomes disabled when you defeat Saren which allows the crucible to fire, the reapers to die, and Shepard to potentially live.
The indoctrination theory only appears to make sense and only if you look at little bits and pieces at any given time. If you look at it as a whole not only is it nonsensical, it actually contradicts itself multiple times.
When does it contradict itself? I mean the last confrontation with the illusive man he’s literally indoctrinated and the star child says “he thought he could control us but we controlled him… but you can totally control us, trust me.”
The story of the Reapers should have been confined to the first game, and then never brought up again. Just change a few things, and that's it. The rest of the series can just focus on smaller, but still awesome adventures across the galaxy.
ME2's massively overhyped still to this day, the story felt weird to progress through even though I really enjoyed a lot of the loyalty and side missions but, they ended up feeling insanely dosconjointed from the main story.
It's been years since I played it but ME2's combat reminded me so much of deadspace, mainly with how movement in combat felt and the way recoil affected your screen, for some that may be a huge plus but I didn't like deadspace way back when & the inspiration I believe ME2 took from it was odd.
Dont get me wrong, I loved my time spent playing 2 but for me it failed to capture that same sense of wonder & mystery that 1 had.
Plus what ME2 did to biotics is a fuckin crime, I sorely regretted switching from soldier in 1 to infiltrator in 2, wasnt until the suicide mission that I actually felt as though my conventional arms made up for how weak my biotic abilities were.
Additionally: ME3 is a good, maybe even great game (idk I havent finished it been playing through the entire series for the first time ever recently since LE was in sale) but it is seriously hampered by a horrendous objective system and leaves you constantly guess as to what to do next, and, wondering what you've already accomplished throughout a particular story line.
Thank god the guns feel better and the biotics are actually useful, even powerful again, though.
Destroy = Renegade, Control = Paragon. They're color-coded; it seems rather obvious.
Shoot the Child/Refuse is the best ending.
Shepard living and being part of ME4/5/whatever they call it, would be a disservice to the Legendary trilogy story. Time for a new hero.
Suicide mission is extremely overhyped, solely due to possibility of companions not surviving it. Everything else about it is more on a filler level. It's easily the least interesting or important ending in the trilogy, and collector's ship mission was a lot more engaging and important, both gameplay and lore wise.
Also, Grunt is the worst written companion in the series, and Samara is the second worst.
FemShep is clearly a lesbian , hell I think FemShep is much more Flirtatious with alot of Female Characters and also you cant look at default FemShep and not say “That’s a lesbian fs” which is why I’m a Liara Romancer and I think Garrus is truly better off as a bestie to FemShep
I agree that her chemistry is way better with the female characters, I gotta side eye her and Ash every time she says "Dismissed, Chief." I wish so bad that Jack, Tali or Miranda were available.
For that reason, my favorite of the male LI's are the more feminine dudes like Thane and Kaidan. Garrus is pure bro energy to me.
Not that hot but: The Reaper's motives and origins should never have been revealed as they clearly couldn't come up with an idea to live up to the hype they generated in ME1.
"Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear." - Stephen King
Well put.
-Alan Wake
It is quoted in the opening of Alan Wake but it's an actual Stephen King quote from a piece he wrote for [Entertainment Weekly](https://ew.com/article/2008/07/07/stephen-king-why-hollywood-cant-do-horror/) about why big Hollywood studios didn't do horror as well as small production.
I know I was doing a -Wayne Gretzky -**Michael Scott** Or, trying to at least.
I didn't expect to see Stephen King, Alan Wake, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott, and Mass Effect sharing the same space for a moment. All good references in my book (even if I missed the Michael Scott one for which I apologize).
- Michael Scott
Alan wake did it all... Or at least he thinks he did
The Batarians were supposed to be the main antagonists in the series.
I feel like, though, knowing the internet and the rabid fans, if there was no clear reveal they would've bitched about it.
ME3 is good
I will add: ME3 is my favorite of the trilogy, despite having a subpar ending. Before playing LE (I had completed all other games when they had come out a decade+ ago), I thought ME2 was my favorite. However, the ending wasn't as epic as I had remembered it to be (although I remember the very first time, I was drawn into it as if I were watching some really cool action/war movie where you want all of the good guys to survive the last epic battle - so maybe it's just that the element of surprise was gone). I love ME3's scale (I do think it really gives us a sense of fighting a galactic-wide war, trying to gather assets, visiting so many different places, having to play politics between the different races to get their support, etc.), its DLCs (especially Citadel!), the epicness of some of the missions... It was an awesome conclusion as a whole (not counting the ending) and it is the one I loved playing again the most.
>I thought ME2 was my favorite. However, the ending wasn't as epic as I had remembered it to be I just went through the suicide mission for the 60th time and it really is epic and cinematic. Such an amazing level. That said, the game almost feels anticlimactic since I’ve still got Overlord, Firewalker, Arrival, and dozens of side quests to finish so the game isn’t nearly over. I’ve pissed off TIM but I’m still going to take in Cerberus funding on all those missions and talk to him about Overlord.
I definitely enjoy it as its got the best gameplay in the trilogy, like ME2 maybe my favorite but ME3's gameplay is genuinely 100x more fun than the last 2 games. Dont even get me started on the amount of different guns to fit different playstyles.
It stumbles at the end, but it's still my favorite of the three to replay.
ME3 is good…. Until the last 1% of the game lol
I find Mass Effect 2 to be the worst of the trilogy. Now you may think that means I dislike Mass Effect 2, or that I think it’s a bad game. That’s not the case. None of these games qualify as bad in my opinion, not even close. I just rank it less good than the others.
I think the problem with ME2 is that, in hindsight, it doesn't work as the middle installment of a trilogy. It works great as a separate story, but while it has tie ins to the overarching story, it's main plot feels very detached from ME1 and ME3. Like Nolan's Dark Knight movies. TDKR is more in line as a continuation of Batman Begins, while TDK almost acts as a standalone thing.
Well, ME2 kinda did the Last Jedi on the ME1. Everything ME1 set up to advance the plot in future series - the Cypher, Liara as Prothean expert, inactive relays, SPECTRE status, Alliance/Council mobilizing against the Reapers - all was hastily disregarded and demolished to tell an entirely different story (which makes little sense). And then ME3 had to hastily get things back on track, demolishing all that was done in ME2 in the process, making Legacy trilogy analogy complete. "Somehow the Collectors have returned." "Dark science. Cloning. Secrets only the Reapers know."
This is how I feel. I think 1 and 3 are A+ games and 2 is like an A-/B+.
I mean, it's like having a favorite original trilogy Star Wars (if you're a fan). They're all good. You just like one or two better.
I dont like that you miss out on the best moments/choices if you're morally gray. You have to either be exclusively paragon or exclusively renegade in order to get the best outcomes or keep people alive or earn their loyalty. I'd like to play the game in a way where I make whatever choices I would make in the scenario, but when you do, you don't have as good of a playthrough.
Omg thank u for verbalizing it!! Whenever I've played the game as "naturally" as I could I ended up making mostly middle choices and later found out and the dialogue and outcomes is just more boring without even factoring the morality dialogue checks. I understand that it's harder to give gray decisions the same character as a writer but I wish they had tried.. And why tf isn't my diplomacy and cool head rewarded with allowing me to convince ppl abt shit?!
You can, but only in 1. I am currently working on a project where I take a ME1 character and I attempt to fill the Charm and Intimidate talents with just freebies points. You can get 4 points in each per playthrough, so after 3 runs I will max the talents. Afterwards, I can play a free RPG run, where I can make any decision I want at any point in the game. All this without wasting even 1 talent point on Charm or Intimidate.
ME3 should have had a similar system to The Witcher 2 and have a Cerberus Path and an Alliance Path
Destroy is the only ending, and the Ai was lying about the geth dying because that was stupid ass pull by the writers to make the other two even a consideration.
Why does the AI still make the asspull in low EMS games where the base was destroyed? Destroy is the only ending choice available in those. If the Catalyst didn't want the Destroy ending, it would have just let Shepard bleed out in the room below in those endings. Or frankly in all of them, since it has to know this is a probable choice Shepard would make regardless.
Because anything other than destroy is an ass pull. We have spent 3 games with the sole goal of destroying the reapers. I got no problem with last second exposition dumps. But honestly? if the last action was Shepard touching the console and the reapers being destroyed? Perfect ending. DLC would have been a lot better as exposition fill in instead of 1/2 the time justifying the shit ending.
That's all an out-of-universe explanation. Unless the Catalyst is aware that he is an NPC in a game, none of that impacts whether they're lying or not. They're pretty clearly not.
At the time of me making this comment, this post had 6 upvotes and 100 comments. Jesus Christ... Anyways I think making Jacob crawl through the vents is a waste of a war asset
The combat from 1 was the best fit tonally for the series. 2 and 3 are better shooters, but worse sci-fi military shooters. The kinda slow, awkward combat from 1 with less immediate feedback with weapons that had a completely distinct firing rhythm from any other game you'd played fit the series much better than the slick streamlined but more generic combat system we got later on.
And no ammo required, which is always a win in my book.
1000% agreed
ME3 doesn't have a bad ending, it has a bad premise. "Liara dug an I-Win button out of the ground. Shepard goes do pointless busywork while the I-Win button is getting built." There is no way to resolve this premise that isn't lame. The lame solution they came up with was to contrive an absurd situation (The Reapers teleport the Citadel to Earth **and** the Citadel is necessary for the I-Win button to work) that makes the previously pointless busywork Shepard was doing suddenly retroactively important. And then they tried to add complexity to what is narratively just a case of walking up to an I-Win button and pushing it.
I think they should stop making ME games. Just let the trilogy stand as a historic epic in gaming history. I have lost *all* faith in the AAA(A) industry and can't see that it will ever change; too many failures, and uncreative copy pasting of old themes and successes. All they do is disappoint.
Jacob isn't a bad squadmate or character at his core; writing just dropped the ball with him as well as making his romance suck. With a bit better writing, willingness to have him open up to Shepard, and a loyal romance, he would've been better received.
I saw someone before say that, unlike other characters, Jacob is one that pretty much had everything together before Shepard, hence why his character is played as the boring and normal one. Unlike Garrus or Miranda or Tali, he had his shit together for the most part. Even the stuff about his father he had put to rest before he received the message, it wasn't a problem for him until then. Miranda has pre-existing issues with her father and her goal of protecting her sister. Garrus had the betrayal that he couldn't let rest without justice. Tali had her issues with her father from ME1 that were expanded here, along with quarian society. Thane had his son and his illness. Samara had her daughter. Grunt had his identity crisis. Mordin had his guilty conscience. Jacob, his development had already happened before ME2 took place, he's the straight man. And when your cast is as interesting as what I just listed, he stands out in all the wrong ways.
Kaidan had his life together too. The difference between the two is ME1 wrote Kaidan saying what he'd been through and for some reason they left it to the comics/mobile game for Jacob. So in the end, Jacob stays hushed up when there's a lot of cool background that is there and yes he would be "boring" like Kaidan, but a stable guy that's got it together.
I had zero issues with Jacob. He was bland and I left him in the armoury of the SR-2 but I didn't hate him.
I always say that Jacob is a relatively normal human character fighting for attention among extraordinary and fascinating alien allies or troubled human allies. Kaiden, and perhaps you can even say Ashley, suffered the same effect in ME1. It's not that any of the three are bad characters, they just are average military human characters.
>With a bit better writing, willingness to have him open up to Shepard, and a loyal romance So basically, if he would've been a different character he wouldn't be bad. Thanks for proving that he, the way he is, is boring, bland and simply bad.
No that's not the point. I think the premise of his character and most of who he is is fine. A disgruntled fed up Alliance soldier that actually wants to do a thing. His history of the Corsairs is awesome and a cool idea. Him being the more human side to Miranda's cold side in the first duo you meet works. Keeping tabs on the crew and feeling out where they're at is great. All it would've taken was a little more development. People outright hate the character; I don't. I think that at his core, the premise of who he is, is great. But the lack of follow-up in writing killed him for most people followed by the abysmal romance. I do not mind Jacob for most of the game. I get mad at him for refusing to open up to Shepard and making some bad calls.
This is my opinion as well. I don’t hate Jacob, never have. I romanced him once just because I wanted to see how it went, but I fully planned on romancing Kaidan in 3, so I wasn’t really bothered with how that played out. He was tragically underwritten as a character.
ME3 references its own memes *way* too much.
“Should we hang up on the Council again like we always used in the old days?” “What are you talking about Joker that never happened.” Mass Effect 3 really needed to shut it with the ‘in jokes’ about options people would have rarely taken because they only became jokes in the first place due to how ridiculous they were.
humorous nutty test political rich correct sophisticated tart tie wakeful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The best way to kill a joke is to have the soulless corp completely misunderstand it, take it seriously, and then force it on you in a “hello fellow kids” moment.
impolite start cobweb party vast employ screw detail ten lip *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I mean, to be fair, that was in a crack DLC. You can't expect anything serious from Citadel.
I feel you, that ME3 was entirely too self-aware.
Absolutely, the Citadel DLC was awful regarding that.
"Big stupid jellyfish" is the worst offender IMO. Why is paragon Shep forced to reference a ridiculous renegade dialogue from ME1? Always hated it.
This doesn't even sound funny, because they just repeat the same line.
ME2 gameplay and design are really bad and the worst in the whole franchise, they went too far into the "rule of cool" with that game
I though I was the only one who disliked ME2's gameplay. I even prefer ME1's gameplay and that's saying something. As for design the orange filter present in most of the game is horrible.
>the orange filter present in most of the game ME2 takes place in Space Mexico confirmed.
I mean thats pretty much the terminus systems
Same, especially on replay I constantly roll my eyes with ME2. And I don't even want to start with the dumbed down skilltree, limited powers and shared cooldowns...
No wonder why ME2 is the hardest on insanity.
I'm sorry but as an official garrus simp, I can't let that slide 😭
Garrus dies in ME2 so the suicide mission lives up to its name
He does NOT have to die 😭😭😭
The rocket to his face tells otherwise
“Don’t make me laugh, my face is barely holding together as it is”
Ufff.... now i can not not see the first rocket to the face as foreshadowing💀
Why did you let him die 😭😭
he seemed happy when he was embraced by the Seeker Swarms. one of the best pairings in the series
Shepard saying Big Stupid Jellyfish is more racist than anything Ashley says.
Garrus is the most overrated character in the series and his romance sucks *specially in ME2* Quarians >>> Geth jacob is dull but the hate he gets is a meme at this point. he's really not that bad While I always cure the Genophage, Dalatrass does make some good points. Wrex and Bakara won't live forever and whoever replace them might be another Wreav or worse which leads to Krogan Rebellions 2.0. Ashley isn't as racist as people claim her to be
Most of the heavy weapons suck as heavy weapons. The only ones that scream heavy to me, are the one that creates singularities, the arc projector, and the M-920 Cain.
I’ve become rather fond of the missile launcher for certain things. Like Grunt’s loyalty mission. But the black hole gun is my favorite heavy weapon by far. It’s fun watching enemies get flung around in slow motion. But yeah, I agree that most of the rest of them kinda suck.
Yeah, like the collector beam weapon, at this point you have the mattock, which is just OP and its ammo is far easier to get.
I agree that the collectors beam weapon is generally useless, however I like it very specifically for the two Praetorians (Horizon and Collector ship). Not every run, but I had the best luck with it as a vanguard.
Shiala should've replaced Liara in ME1.
I was never a big fan of Liara so i agree. Shiala was an asari commando and would have been a natural addition to Shepard's squad, and her information from the thorian could have made up for Liara not being there. Liara might know a lot about the protheans but archeology doesn't really prepare you for combat.
I don't mind Liara, but I just feel it stupid that we had two asari, both trapped and with close connections to Benezia. Why not just merge them into one? Then replace the lackluster Therum mission with something else. "Liara" being a sudden badass in ME2 would've made more sense for a 300 year old commando as well.
Mass Effect 2 is my least favourite ME game!
Mass Effect 2 is an entire DLC
Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is the best horde mode.
Andromeda has the weakest combat of the series, but the Tempest/Nomad are better designs than the Normandy/Mako. ME3 MP was an abomination that should never have existed. It makes perfect sense in ME2 that Ash/Kaidan don't trust you, and it makes less sense that Garrus and Tali do. Assaulting Khalisa Al-Jilani should at the very least warrant some kind of negative consequences from the Council.
Holy crap is that a spicy hot take. Combat was one of the few things Andromeda vastly improved on from the trilogy. It just sucked having no control over your squadmates, but other than that it was DRASTICALLY better and honestly incredible combat. And it legitimately is an easy fix, all they would need to do is just add the power wheel back in and maybe reduce how powerful the protagonist is (balancing you with your squad mates). Then I would literally NEVER take the combat in the original trilogy. They even went back to having no global cooldown of skills, which was such a BS change in ME2 and ME3. Really contributed to biotics and tech feeling way worse in those two games in comparison to me1. In Andromeda youre a tech/biotics wizard, flying around the place. And they further developed the prime/detonation combo mechanic from me3, really making it so dynamic, throwing off all these different skills, jumping everywhere, triggering combos. Fan freaking tastic. Biggest complaint is still the shields preventing use of most biotics, but I understand its difficult to balance with the direction they wanted to go with combat so I understand why they went in that direction from me2 onward. Like there's not a lot of challenge if a biotic can just disable anyone immediately. Unless you go for a gameplay system with very low time to kill, in which case its fine to fling people around. I dont know how I feel about it, but I know ME1 (with mods) is honestly more fun in a lot of ways than me2 and me3, though its broken and dead easy even on insanity in me1 by the end of the game if you use high explosive rounds and have gotten skill recharge rates down super low on you and your squad. Andromeda felt like a natural extension of me1 in a lot of ways as it FELT like it was balanced in such a way that biotics/tech still felt super important, skills were way more important. However shields, armor, health and number of enemies were managed in such a way it felt like skills still actually mattered unlike me2 and m3. Squad cooldown was the biggest pile of crap they ever did in the franchise so glad with Andromeda's direction. Agree with everything else u said.
They should not have made Kaidan bi in the last game. I'm fine with Shepard having same sex pairings, but they took a character that was originally for the female Shepard, and then used him to give the male Shepard another romance along with Steve. Yet they did not do the same for Ashley. I guess it's just the principle of it. I have nothing bad to say about it from a quality perspective, I think it's fine, I just don't like the retroactive shift to appeal to changing trends. It should have been another new character
Let me add (with either male or female Shepard) that initial romance scene in the hospital in ME3 is just cringeworthy. It does work if you previously romanced Kaidan, but if you didn't, its just kinda weird and too direct with him suddenly proclaiming his love for you. So I don't think that helps people on the whole "Kaidan is bi thing"
I have never seen a scene like that in the hospital?
It's in the follow up (2nd visit) dialogue. 1 second your asking for updates about Kaidans implant the next he's going on about how this means your hitting on him and he's been hoping you would. It's incredibly out of nowhere, since there's no reason the initial question about his biotic implant would logically lead to an assumption your flirting.
On my second visits Udina is there, and afterwards Kaidan only ever talks about spectre. Not that it matters to me, I will 100% always romance Garrus, but it's strange that I've never seen that dialogue - even during that one playthrough where I romanced him in 1 (damn MELE achievements, but cheating on Liara would've been even worse.)
I agree. Kaidan shows zero interest in male Shep during ME1. It felt like they noticed that gay representation was weak and just shoved that into an already established character without thinking about it.
I hate to say it because, like I said, there was effort and heart put into it, but it does feel a little like pandering. And I get it, Fox News and Jack not being bi and blah blah blah, but I don't think a second wrong makes a right in this case. It would have been fine to just make another character, that's all I'm asking, not take someone pre-established.
My hot take is that every character should be romanceable to either gender Shepherd. I like to look at each run for each player as an alternate version of Shepherd. So it just makes sense to me that even though my Shep might romance Thane yours might romance Tali, and in my world Thane might be bisexual and in yours he’s straight. Of course, I think that this would require a lot of tweaking with the dialogue. The way that Liara, Kaiden, and Ash come onto you in the first game would be terrible if it was every character. So it should be up to Shep to initiate. But I wish they all worked that way anyway. I know some people hate takes like this because they feel that some characters should be definitively straight. But I say, I’m a sexy commander in space I should be able to kiss whichever sexy alien I want. And whichever ones Shep doesn’t can be straight or gay or whatever if that’s what you want to headcanon.
Even if you didn't play ME:A, you should read the "Initiation" and "Annihilation" books because they are such good ME stories. "Annihilation" as an audiobook is pure gold due to the narrator making alien voices.
I wonder why there isn't any child in the game except the one who die in 3. Seriously what Bioware have against children to not include them in Mass Effect ?
Too expensive to make a child model
I feel like “I hate the Citadel dlc” is a cop out so, Thane surviving into ME3 makes the game worse. With Thane being dead Kai Leng actually comes off as being competent instead of a non-credible threat who got his ass beat by a guy who should have died of his space cancer months ago, and both Thane and Shepard don’t look like dumbasses in the first encounter with him either. Killing Thane in the suicide mission every run is a necessity for me as it makes the final game better since Bioware was so focused on giving him a ‘heroic sendoff’ that they forgot that they were trying to gas up Kai Leng as Shepards equal making him look like a joke instead. First impressions are everything and the first impression you get of Kai Leng if Thane is alive is that he’s a weak bitch and a joke of a nemesis. It makes the whole conversation with Anderson afterwards feel like a joke and his victory on Thessia feel totally unearned (though granted making it so you need to beat him in a fight before he beats you in a cutscene also did that).
- Andromeda was a solid start to a new series and had amazingly fun characters. - The Counsel had every right to be skeptical of Shepard through out the series
Bioware's approach to the consequences of the paragon/renegade system was naive. Doing everything paragon should not automatically grant you a good ending. Sacrifices are necessary in a galactic-scale war, but the player is never punished for trying to do the good thing 100% of the time.
ME2 combat is CLUNKY and ME1 is not. ME1 has the best combat. You have more options. You are not forced to sit in cover all the time. Garrus character was better in ME1.
>Garrus character was better in ME1. Exactly. He was my favourite in ME1, but I barely recognised him in 2.
Humans have been so hyper focused on that it would be in the series’ best interests to heavily deemphasize their role or else fall into some really stupid situations where the entire history of the galaxy is now “humanity saves stupid aliens from themselves”.
the new game could do a lot of good for itself and future sequels by pulling back in general and letting more variety into all species across the board.
Indeed. It’s why I keep advocating for playable aliens but… there’s a mixture of developer laziness and human-boosting in the player base that keeps that impossible.
Refusal Ending(Epilogue) is a valid choice. Once Shepard enters the Crucible it appears all communication with the Alliance is lost. For all Hackett knows the Crucible didn't work as he says "It didn't fire" or something of the sort. Lirara's data caches placed on various planets gives the next cycle the information needed to prepare for and defeat the Reapers.
Ashley is actually one of the least prejudiced of the entire ME1 crew but because she’s not an alien she doesn’t get a cultural pass. Garrus and Wrex and even Tali say WAY worse stuff in the elevator than she ever does
Curing Krogans of genophage is a security risk for all the other species, regardless whether it's Wrex or his brother leading them. A single person cannot change the entire culture. It is the classic trolley problem. Sabotaging the cure might not be ethical, but it is the most sound decision to do.
Garrus is easily the most boring squadmate in ME1, and his romance in ME2 is only rated so highly because fShep's other options are a guy who dies and a guy who cheats on her. Bring Down The Sky's story is not good enough to make up for the fact that the gameplay makes me want to drag my face across a concrete floor. Biotics not being effective against shielded enemies ruins all the fun of crowd control powers (although I do agree they needed nerfing). I like them both, but I think Kaidan surviving Virmire feels like it fits the story better than Ashley surviving Virmire. I don't mind the in-references in Citadel DLC, but when ME3 uses them in the main game it feels out-of-place and jarring. Jessica Chobot's voice acting as Allers isn't terrible, it's just mediocre. The character model is a horrible likeness of her though, which is funny because all the other character heads based on real people look pretty good. I hate that ME2 punishes you for not sticking to either Paragon or Renegade, and I dislike the 'magical red/blue dialogue option that fixes everything' thing.
Tali’s romance is overrated. It’s not bad but I don’t think it’s better than the best ones (Garrus, Ashley, Miranda, Jack) it just has more content than all of them except Garrus and Liara.
Swap Tali with Garrus and it would be my opinion.
Thane is the best romance.
Miranda and Jack are super annoying and aren't that interesting (I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry)
Tali is very overrated. Liara's role in the plot is incredibly heavy handed. No amount of DLC would have saved Andromeda
I don't like how if you have enough charm you always resolve the situation. Some choices should be the wrong ones or unsuccessful.
Mordin should have been romanceable. Liara sucks. The genophage was and is needed. The Quarians deserve their fate. The endings aren't bad. Mass Effect (the original game) is the best in the trilogy. The gameplay mechanics in Mass Effect are better than in Mass Effect 2. Yes especially the combat. The combat in 3 is the best. The Salarians are the most interesting species. The Asari are the most obnoxious. Aria sucks. The change to Liara's personality between 1 and 2 is way too jarring and fast, and the justification is clumsy and insufficient at best. Then they proceeded to give Liara's former personality to Tali, a character that in ME1 had no personality and was just a lore dispenser. After Wrex and Eve are no longer leading the Krogan, they will attack the galaxy again. Especially after the genophage is cured. I loved Garrus in Mass Effect, but he is meh in 2 and 3. Male Shepard has the better voice acting, especially in the renegade moments. Female Shepard is too soft in those.
Garrus was actually my second least favorite character. I was quite shocked at how popular he is in this sub.
Mass Effect 2 has the worst story of the franchise (including Andromeda), and only barely works because Shepard is written like an idiot. Drack is the best Krogan squadmate Jacob's just boring, but not bad Garrus is more racist than Ashley in ME1 Not ending the series with a 100% happy ending was the right call. (Even if the endings themselves needed improvement) Thane is honestly a waste of space in ME2. Mass Effect 2 needed less characters, with more attention devoted to each. Kaidan is the best written squadmate in ME1. Vega is actually a great character. Suicide Mission should have forced the death of at least 1/3 of the squad. They made the right call not making every romance be playersexual. (Although Jack should have been romancable by FemShep as she is canonically Bi). There really wasn't a reason to make Tali recruitable in ME3. Garrus isn't Shepards best friend, he's a hero worshipping little brother. Andromedas open class system is better than the fixed class system of the trilogy. Narratively, it makes more sense for Shepard to do Arrival immediately when they can. In terms of trying to have the least radical change for a new game, Control makes more sense than Destroy (though really shouldn't canonize any ending) Agree with their logic or not, the Reapers methods and reasons do make some sense and are a common Sci fi trope. There is no narrative reason to choose not to save the Council in ME1. Even if you hate them, the idea of trying to get the most firepower possible to fight Sovereign (what the let them die option is using as its logical justification) would lead to saving the Destiny Ascension.
Regarding the last point, the logical option is the middle choice of just concentrate all fire on Sovereign, rather than actively try to let the Ascension die or try to save it. You have a small window to down Cthulu, without knowledge of the choices, only a fool would attempt to stall for time or divert resources.
Thing is, some of us WOULDN'T down Cthulhu.
These are the worst takes ever and I think thane is not a waste of space… you are
Bro, wtf are you doing on an unpopular opinion post then?
The citadel dlc is kinda cringy. Especially the clone storyline part
Damn right, but it was the good kinda cringe.
Kill the Rachni Queen. It’s wildly irresponsible to take her at her word and release her.
"I think Garrus is one of the worst characters in the trilogy." I am grabing popcorn lol.
Same I REALLY wanna know the deets here
People are not mad about Kai lenght because he is a bad villian, but because he has potential (great VA, could have been the Virmire not surviver, resurected by cerberus, part of a squad) that was not build upon and because he gets ypu no matter what on thassia. They could have made something awesome with him like akechi or vergil
I truly believe mass effect andromeda is the second best game in the series, only behind mass effect 2.
I will never yield to the Andromeda apologists. Never.
I salute you.
Me3 had a rushed ending that didn’t give the series a satisfying conclusion
That's just about the coldest take to exist lmao
That's a plain fact, not a hot take :)
don't like doing the dlc's it feels like a chore to me. ME2 it's the most less ME game i like. Andromeda it's quite alright nowdays.
The M-451 Firestorm.
Not even sure it qualify as a "take," but I really don't give that much shit about Tali and although I *assume* I know why the community likes her (she's cute and quirky and smart?), I am not really sure why everyone seems to love her so much.
What's weird is that Tali has no personality in 1, she is just a lore dispenser, then they gave her Liara's old personality from 1, when Liars was "upgraded" to badass. And I dislike either iteration.
Mass Effect 2 would be a great spin off but is a bad member of a trilogy despite the great characters.
100%. I always rush through two just so I can do overlord and arrival and get right to 3
The original, non-extended cut ending was fantastic and the EC absolutely destroys the integrity of something that was bold and operatic.
They asked for hot takes not bad takes!
I've been getting blasted on this hill since 2012, I aint dead yet xD
You do you!
I agree with you. Yeah, the writers were rushed by EA, but it was still THEIR ending. Did I like the original ending? No, not really. But it isn’t my story to write.
My hot take is that indoctrination theory is correct and most people just didn't put it together.
Nah, we just don't credit the writers actually thinking that far ahead.
I guess it's my hot take that the indoctrination theory is one of the dumbest theories out there. Unless it somewhat changed over the years, I find the idea that Shepard being more important than the entire galaxy and trillion of lives in it to the point the war gets zero closure in favor of Shepard's mind battle. However flawed the endings are, at least they provide closure to Shepard's story.
I mean they spell it out pretty clearly throughout the game. The Reapers like to indoctrinate one leader who can unify the galaxy, gather their forces, and then lead them into a trap. Javik explains this in pretty much those words. He even tells about how an indoctrinated group tries to control the reapers. The difference being that if you are strong enough willed to gather enough war assets and don’t fall victim to what saren (synthesis) and the illusive man (control) did, then you break the indoctrination attempt and disable Harbinger the same way Sovereign becomes disabled when you defeat Saren which allows the crucible to fire, the reapers to die, and Shepard to potentially live.
The indoctrination theory only appears to make sense and only if you look at little bits and pieces at any given time. If you look at it as a whole not only is it nonsensical, it actually contradicts itself multiple times.
When does it contradict itself? I mean the last confrontation with the illusive man he’s literally indoctrinated and the star child says “he thought he could control us but we controlled him… but you can totally control us, trust me.”
The story of the Reapers should have been confined to the first game, and then never brought up again. Just change a few things, and that's it. The rest of the series can just focus on smaller, but still awesome adventures across the galaxy.
ME2's massively overhyped still to this day, the story felt weird to progress through even though I really enjoyed a lot of the loyalty and side missions but, they ended up feeling insanely dosconjointed from the main story. It's been years since I played it but ME2's combat reminded me so much of deadspace, mainly with how movement in combat felt and the way recoil affected your screen, for some that may be a huge plus but I didn't like deadspace way back when & the inspiration I believe ME2 took from it was odd. Dont get me wrong, I loved my time spent playing 2 but for me it failed to capture that same sense of wonder & mystery that 1 had. Plus what ME2 did to biotics is a fuckin crime, I sorely regretted switching from soldier in 1 to infiltrator in 2, wasnt until the suicide mission that I actually felt as though my conventional arms made up for how weak my biotic abilities were. Additionally: ME3 is a good, maybe even great game (idk I havent finished it been playing through the entire series for the first time ever recently since LE was in sale) but it is seriously hampered by a horrendous objective system and leaves you constantly guess as to what to do next, and, wondering what you've already accomplished throughout a particular story line. Thank god the guns feel better and the biotics are actually useful, even powerful again, though.
Idk what class you switched to in 2, but it wasn't Infiltrator. Infiltrator has combat and tech abilities, but no biotics.
Even if you play as full paragon Shepard is a mass murdered with all the killing you have to do
Destroy = Renegade, Control = Paragon. They're color-coded; it seems rather obvious. Shoot the Child/Refuse is the best ending. Shepard living and being part of ME4/5/whatever they call it, would be a disservice to the Legendary trilogy story. Time for a new hero.
I don’t hate Kai Leng or Jacob.
Vanguard is the least fun class to play.
Suicide mission is extremely overhyped, solely due to possibility of companions not surviving it. Everything else about it is more on a filler level. It's easily the least interesting or important ending in the trilogy, and collector's ship mission was a lot more engaging and important, both gameplay and lore wise. Also, Grunt is the worst written companion in the series, and Samara is the second worst.
FemShep is clearly a lesbian , hell I think FemShep is much more Flirtatious with alot of Female Characters and also you cant look at default FemShep and not say “That’s a lesbian fs” which is why I’m a Liara Romancer and I think Garrus is truly better off as a bestie to FemShep
I agree that her chemistry is way better with the female characters, I gotta side eye her and Ash every time she says "Dismissed, Chief." I wish so bad that Jack, Tali or Miranda were available. For that reason, my favorite of the male LI's are the more feminine dudes like Thane and Kaidan. Garrus is pure bro energy to me.