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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Gaming Mass Effect Series

Discussion in 'Community' started by Valyn, Sep 7, 2012.

  1. Likewater

    Likewater Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2009
    And what type of antagonist is going to plague ME4?

    The reapers are either-dead gone, hooked up the galaxy's population subconsious like ghost in the shell and are all helpfull, or being held in Check By Sheapards will.

    Kind of hard to top Civilization Extinction causeing machine demi-gods tens of millions of years old.

    So what next? the Krogan or Asari empire? and Agressive Expansionist Earth ala Elderscrolls Aldmiri Dominion? Machine uprising ala terminator? Social strife/corprate conspiricy ala Deus ex?

    The Masseffect story was intended to end, and we have seen what happens in videogames who go too long past its natural ending, Metal gear Solid, Resident Evil, how was Halo 4, I have heard everything between Great! and totaly unremarkable, (Apathy is the greated damnation of all, in my book).

    I would think they would do well with fleshing out Star Trek but thats just me.
     
  2. The Man Who Sold the Moon

    The Man Who Sold the Moon Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2012
    Any reviews for the anime by now?
     
  3. Darth_Invidious

    Darth_Invidious Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 21, 1999
    Man, you really have to work on your punctuation. I'm trying real hard to understand what you're saying here.

    As a fan, Halo 4 is kickass great and it's a great continuation of the franchise. But I don't know how I'd feel about an ME4. As you point out, it's gonna be pretty hard to top out the epic conflict against the Space Cyber Cthulus. Second, I still hold ill will against BEAware over all the crap they pulled in ME3 for me to even care about a sequel or prequel, whatever ME4 turns out to be.

    If it's every made, I'd have to hear that it's Bioware's spectacular and epic redemption in order for me to care one whit about it.
     
  4. Likewater

    Likewater Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2009
    Then I guess Halo has avioded the pitfalls of many a franchise, for now.

    Personaly, I sided with Bioware deciding to End the ME franchise on a downer note. Considering ME's constant refrencing of classical scifi, I saw it comming for a while. Twilight Zone, Soylent Green, Bladerunner, Several Star Trek episodes across all series, ST: Wrath of Khan, Battle Star Galactica, the Outer Limits, and Most of H.P Lovecrafts work has downer and depresing endings. Especially since alot of Scifi has origins as cautionary tales, I was taken aback by the virulan reaction to it.

    As a work of Science Fiction, I don't think Bioware has anything to redeem. The Ending Changing it from the Galaxy having to find a new way, instead of relying on the Trap of the Mass Effect Relays and the Citidel was far more honest than the Status Quo continuation/franchising of a series.
     
  5. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    I believe most peoples' problem is more with the execution of the ending than the concept. I have less of a problem with it since I first played it with EC installed, but the combo of having a long-winded lecture from the Caspalyst and initially getting an abbreviated, no-epilogue ending mainly involving a colored flash of light did not please people.
     
  6. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Yeah I fully expected Shepard to die or Shepard to be put in a place where s/he gets no happy ending. Because that's the cliche in storytelling nowadays. My issue with the ending was that it was just crap. There was no explanation for the literal deus ex machina we had show up. There was no epilogue. All your crewmembers were stranded on a planet doomed to die of starvation. The allied fleets were trapped in Earth. Galactic civilization was destroyed. It was just a terrible ending.
     
  7. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    The EC fixed points 2-5; which just leaves us stuck with point 1. Still a suboptimum ending, but at least it works better.

    Finally tried out the new Venom shotgun on N7: Cerberus Attacks(! :p ) . Think I'm going to upgrade that puppy for my arsenal now - it's fun to spot a bunch of cute little Cerberus troopers taking cover in a wrecked building, then bomb them into oblivion with submunitions bounced off the wall behind them. Of course you can use grenades to the same effect (or the M-37 Falcon, which I still haven't tried out), but it's fun to have 26 rounds to work with.

    There's also been a new Appearance pack released, which I won't be bothering with. The three alternate getups for Liara, Garrus, and EDI look cool and all (Garrus gets the Turian version of Terminus Assault Armor), but they don't do anything the stock options don't (boosted power damage for Liara, shields for Garrus, and power cooldown for EDI). There's also a new armor for Shep that might be worth the $1.99 for the stat boosts (25% shields, 25% ammo capacity, 10% weapon/power damage, 10% shield recharge), but it's another ****ing Cerberus armor. Get me a new heavy armor/weapon boost set for Ash (after all, she wears armor in combat, not a swimsuit) and some sick N7 or Spectre stuff for Shep and then I might consider spending $1.99. I'm sticking with mix-n-matching N7 pieces until they can dream up something better than my soldier's 40% added weapon damage and 20% headshot damage.
     
  8. Likewater

    Likewater Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2009
    I hear this alot, And I always ask this question "What did you expect?"

    Deus Ex Machina, thats what the reapers for all intents and purposes are. They Don't require mantiance they dont need supply lines, Even the Crucible is their only chance shot in the dark, that thoes who are constucting it have no real idea what it does.

    Allied fleets Traped on Earth? the Relays werent the only way to FTL just the most convienent. The Krogan and Asari live for Millenia, They cau use Maps and FTL to fly back home with enough provisions. And the Quarians are experts at living on Generational ships.

    The Whole Mass Effect, the social/civilaizational phenomenon (Not the Phyical Element zero phenominon) was based on a Trap. The Mass Relays leaving some Tech behind, levaing the citidel behind, it was created to make Galactic civilization easier for the reapers to destroy, to catagorize as advanced.

    The Conversations with Legion and Mordin Solis where pointing dead at theme of the Mass Effect story. How is What the Salerians Did to the Krogan any Diffrent from a Solar System bas Humanity getting uplifted by the Reapers leaving behind "And idiots Guide to FTL" in the Mass effect relays, or Finding the prothean Archives?

    In A system devoid of Element Zero, what FTL would humanity have developed? What Civilization would humanity have developed?

    There are several Novel series about easy FTL stagnating civilizations.

    Whether one feels if this theme was apprpriate for a Video Game, is onther converstion entirely. But as a work of science fiction, nothing worng with it.
     
  9. Clone_Cmdr_Wedge

    Clone_Cmdr_Wedge Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    What did I expect? I expected something that was thematically consistent. What I got was an ending that took all of those elements (overcoming the odds, strength through diversity, hope) and saw them all being tossed aside at the last minute in the name of "art". Overcoming the odds? Nope. Only way to "win" is to agree with Star Child. You don't agree with him? Too bad, you lose. Strength through diversity? Not according to the Destroy or Synthesis endings.

    Instead, the theme of the ending is "Synthetics are evil". Maybe that was true in the first game, but not by the end of the second game (and most of the third). If we were meant to think that synthetics were "evil", then why were Legion and EDI sympathetic characters? And why was peace and reconciliation between the geth and the quarians possible in ME3? If they were really pushing that, if it was really the main theme, then why have that as a viable outcome?

    Did I expect Shepard to live? Yes. Yes, I expected that there would be an ending where that was possible. Did I think it would be hard to get? Yes. What I got was an ending where Shepard is either dead or left in a pile of rubble with "implications". Satisfying, that is not. Neither is it good storytelling.
     
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  10. Likewater

    Likewater Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2009

    What’s not thematically consistent? The Reapers were always stated to neigh unstoppable, the only difference is Mass Effect kept its word. They really were neigh unstoppable. It’s called Science fiction, they tell these types of stories. You don't always get a “Happy ending.”
    I am not saying you have to like it, But you can't say it was thematically inconstant.

    The ending isn’t Synthetics are evil, Just because the Catalyst believed peace was impossible doesn’t make it so, the Galaxy just screwed around till it was far too late to conventionally oppose the reapers. And because the reapers were simply that powerful the catalyst got to end the series/story on Its terms.
    It Seems to me the biggest complaint about the mass effect ending is that "I don't get to win on my terms". And from the reaction I am seeing I hope more games, and movies and novels start using this theme.

    Cause it’s an important part of the human condition that needs telling. You can do everything right, make all the right calls, and the best you can do is just avoid complete disaster and some times not even that.
     
  11. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    The problem is Mass Effect 2 took your premise and shot it in the face. The whole point of the game was 'Shepard, you may live through this, but you will not bring everyone home' and Shepard always can say 'No, I'm bringing everyone home. We will win' And then once you launch the suicide mission and if you made all the right calls you bring everyone home. You beat the Reapers on YOUR terms. That's the problem with Mass Effect 3. Everyone took the message of 2, which was, 'if you are good enough and make the right calls you can do anything' and felt that's what 3 would be like when instead it's message was 'actually none of your decisions really mattered. There was nothing you could do to change the outcome. This decision here is the only one of consequence. You can't win on your terms. You can only win on the Reapers terms, because they feel like they should let you.'
     
  12. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    Meh. Quite frankly, going off on the ME3 ending has the air of beating a dead horse to the point where everybody gets stuck in the resulting glue.

    Trying to decide on my infiltrator replay whether I prefer the Black Widow over the N7 Valiant for the tough jobs - the Valiant is certainly lethal against rank-and-file grunts and spits bullets like mad, but there's something to be said for taking down a Brute with a couple of headshots. The Black Widow doesn't leave me with much extra weight capacity though - right now I'm going with an oddball mix of that and a Disciple.
     
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  13. Likewater

    Likewater Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2009
    You realize Mass Effect is A trilogy,

    You can Save Ashley or save Kaiden, you can't save both, You can preserve the Alliance fleet, or Lose around 5 cruisers saving the Destiny Ascension and the galactic leadership, you can't save both.

    Yes I guess Mass Effect 2 "fooled" alot of gamers about the franchise with its golden ending. But it was a self deception. You didn't beat the reapers in Mass Effect 2, you beat their minions, their mooks, their flunkies. And even then it took alot of preperation, and seeing that your crew had their head on straight before you made the final fly through. You telling me you can base the theme of an entire franchise, because 1 game let you have a perfect ending against the main badguys Minions?

    Come on, really?

    In Dragon Age, someone is gonna Die or leave you. in that Kung Fu rpg they came out with on the X-box(original) Sugatious Zu died, and The Spirits forced your hand to destroy one or the other in the Possed Girl that Joins your group.

    In ME3 they dont make you sacrifice any of your crew, But they decided to take their pound of flesh by making the reapers the unstoppable force they spent 2 games making them up to be, You do win, but its on the reapers terms.
     
  14. Likewater

    Likewater Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2009
    If you use the Black Widow, arn't you making the choice to rely on your marksmanship more than your powers?

    I probably wouldnt you one cause my aim is crap, i rely on my powers heavly.
     
  15. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Yes and trilogies are supposed to contain a unified core message. ME built up the Reapers are the beings that destroyed the Protheans, then revealed they built the relays, the citadel. And you end the game by beating one in hand to hand combat and giving it a lobotomy before your fleet blows it to scrap. ME already proved that the Reapers aren't invincible. ME2 proved further that not only can you beat them, you can beat them on your terms. You can walk into their backyard and burn it down.

    Up until Mass Effect 3 the message had been, 'The Reapers, they're invincible, you can't beat them.' Followed by Shepard going 'Wanna bet' and proceeding to defeat the Reapers on his terms. Mass Effect as a trilogy dropped it's message in the third game and replaced 'do the impossible, beat the Reapers' with 'Hey, it actually is impossible, psych!'

    ME let you win on your terms. Sovereign didn't show up at the end and go 'Hey Shep, tell you what... go with Saren's plan and we'll let you all live. Or don't and you all die.' No Shepard got to decide the outcome, the Reapers didn't present him the options. ME2, Shepard can win without a single loss and kill a baby Reaper and destroy the Collectors. Harbinger didn't show up and tell Shepard he could or couldn't destroy the base. Then we come to ME3 where the Reaper God is the one who presents all the outcomes to Shepard and forces him to pick one.
     
  16. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    Infiltrators are supposed to be marksmen/women. Granted they have some nice clutch powers like incinerate, sabotage, and sticky grenade; however the main focus is making bullets count. That's why for this character I picked AP ammo as a bonus power and set up her armor for 30% added headshot damage.
     
  17. Likewater

    Likewater Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2009

    Sovereign ran roughshod over the citadel fleet, The Geth were his back up, the flew through a turian cruiser. Even then, it took a Combined fleet and you Shooting Sovereigns avatar distracting is so 2 fleets could bring it down.

    Yes they are not invincible, But that was 1 reaper, And you walked into the back yard of their minions and burnt it down. 1 base, 1 cruiser, the cruiser I might add that walked all over the 1st Normandy. Destroying it in a hand full of shots, what you are ignoring is that the Minions of the reapers, all in all Biological Sock Puppets killed Shepard in the 1st 5 minutes of the second game.

    Shepard had to make sacrifices to win ME1, whether you want to ignore it or not. Make Sacrifices of his crew, sacrifices of the alliance fleet to stop 1 reaper.

    There is A big difference in threat between 1 reaper, and the force that wiped out every galactic civilization, every 50,000 years for over 36 million years. Oooooh Killed one reaper! Guess what, Some raced Killed that reaper you get the IFF from, didn’t help them in the long run did it.

    As for winning against a baby reaper, it was called a reaper larva, it was barely complete, It could shoot and grab on to things. That’s far different from a fully “Grown” Reaper fleet, that are Millions of years old and experts of causing extinctions on a galactic scale.
    It seems like you and many gamers chose to ignore what Mass Effect always pointing out. 1 reaper can do massive damage, their minion’s can kill you right off the bat, wiping out the galaxy is something the do with horrific regularity, and No civilization in Millions of years, has ever been able to stop them. For a self deception that Shepard is some sort of demigod capable beating hundreds if not thousands of entities that can rip through entire fleets with little effort and has scammed the galaxy into predictable behavior and technology, who can warp the vary minds of those who encounter them even while they are dead, are easily defeatable.

    The Galaxy did not spend time preparing, except the Allaince and only in the final months before the invasion. That you can't beat the reapers on Your terms with their own technology, that whas whipped up at the last minuite out of desperation. It was and Ending aw someone who reads and watches sciencfiction I saw comming a mile away. Not the Catyalist, But the fact the Crucible was not going to be some easy Fix all soultion. tat there was not going to be some easy painless victory.
     
  18. Clone_Cmdr_Wedge

    Clone_Cmdr_Wedge Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006


    Admittedly, I probably didn't make myself clear, and wrote down a half-baked idea. What I meant by that the ending wasn't "thematically consistent" was that the central conflict of the trilogy, as well as the characterization of the antagonists (the Reapers) was changed all within 10-20 minutes. The original story for ME1, ME2, and 99% of ME3 was "stop the Reapers from killing us". Suddenly, a god-like figure that controls the Reapers (the Catalyst, aka Deus Ex Machina) shows up, and no one has any knowledge of said god-like figure. The figure then tells Shepard that everything s/he's worked for is toward ending the war between synthetics and organics.

    I'm not saying that Organics vs Synthetics wasn't a theme, but it wasn't the main theme. It was a theme that ran throughout the whole geth/quarian conflict. A conflict that Shepard resolved a couple of game hours prior.


    But he does believe that it's impossible, and that's the problem. "Without us to stop it, Synthetics would destroy all organics. We've created the cycle so that never happens. That's the solution." And of course, his "solution" that's occurred for billions of years involves melting people down and creating Reapers. How does that count as "preserving life" again? And, if he was so intent on "preserving" organic life, then why allow Sovereign to incite the geth, who had no aggressive intentions, to attack organics in ME1? Bare in mind that the percentage geth that did help Saren and Sovereign were a small minority. Also, I'm sure the quarians really appreciated that Destroyer's assistance in their "preservation" in ME3 by upgrading the geth and nearly wiping them out.


    So, the countless deaths on Earth, Palaven, and Thessia (to name a few), as well as the deaths of Mordin, Thane, Kal'Reegar, Emily Wong, Legion, Tarquin Victus, and Anderson weren't "sacrifices" or (several million) "pounds of flesh"?
     
  19. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    As stated previously, carping about the ending gets old fast.

    Finally took the time to listen to the PTSD Asari and the psychologist (I assume) in the hospital. Hmm, guess now I know what happened to Joker's folks on Tiptree ... :(
     
  20. Clone_Cmdr_Wedge

    Clone_Cmdr_Wedge Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Hey, people still complain about One More Day five years after it first was published! :p This is new and fresh by comparison.

    In the interest of peace and harmony though, I'll stop for now.
     
  21. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    Hah, point taken. I'm just not the sort to get stuck on things like that. Meanwhile, I enjoy the rest of the game and I've been busy moving four of my characters up to where they can dive right into Omega this week. Just played through the first two Leviathan missions with my soldier for the first time, with Ash as his Gal Friday rocking a matching N7 Typhoon. "Crowd control" becomes somewhat irrelevant when everything dies fast in a mix of gunfire and explosions.
     
  22. DarthXan318

    DarthXan318 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2002
    On a completely different note ... OMEGA DLC!

    Explosions! Finally a female Turian model! Opportunity to kick Cerberus behind! Aria making a Shepard-style stirring speech! (There was a definite lack of Shepard Stirring Speeches in ME3, I tell you what.)



    Now this, I want. =P~
     
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  23. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    I'm probably not going to jump into this until later in the week, but it looks like you get two new bonus powers - Lash and Flare. Lash obviously being the same power available to Project Phoenix and Batarian Brawler in MP; near as I can make out Flare is like having a big "pre-mixed" one-step biotic explosion on call, with the drawback that cooldown time is hideously long (~20-30 seconds). Then again, at rank 6 it looks like the stats are possibly as high as 1160 damage over a 10.8 meter radius. So it's a good way to pretty much blow up the entire g*ddam room.

    From what I've read General Petrovsky is also going to be a more complex adversary than usual - in the Invasion comic he actually gives a damn about his troops and is uncomfortable with the idea that the Illusive Man sacrificed some of them for a ruse. Given that uniform and chess set, we may have the ME version of Thrawn here.
     
  24. Clone_Cmdr_Wedge

    Clone_Cmdr_Wedge Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    For some reason, I'm picturing that one scene from Predator now... [face_laugh]

    Well, I did watch a playthrough of the Omega dlc, and had a few thoughts on it. I'll keep it as spoiler-free as possible.

    After watching it, I'm not sure what the justification is for the $15 price tag (I have a theory, but that's another story). If it was about $10 (like Levi) I'd say it would be about right. But this? I didn't think it was bad, but I didn't think it was good either. For most of it, you spend somewhere around 2.5 to 3 hours (if what I saw was any indication) running around Omega, most of it shooting up various Cerberus troops with Aria and Nyreen. Rampart Mechs and Adjutants were added, so there's a little more variety there. Although part of me was surprised that the Dragoons from MP didn't make a cameo. Would have expected a couple as bodyguards for Petrovsky at least.

    If there's anything Omega is guilty of, imo, is that it seemed rather boring. After a while the brown corridors of Omega start to look alike. And the music was, again, dull for the most part. For some place that's supposed to be at "all out war," it didn't feel like it to me. Also, there seemed to be some sound and graphic glitches as well (Aria did some weird spinning when she gave her speech...). You can't take any of your squadmates with you (the excuse is that Aria "doesn't trust some of them"), and none of them act like Omega happened or comment on it after it's over, like if it never happened. You would think there would be some mention of Garrus/Archangel, but there isn't. There are a couple of cameos from the ME2, but they're pretty small and are just kinda there. Also, while you get Petrovsky's chess set as a cabin item after you complete Omega, you can't invite Traynor up and play chess with her (I know, I know, small thing. But still, you'd think there'd be something like that.)

    I did like Petrovsky, partly because he wasn't an over-the-top evil bad guy that most of Cerberus in ME3 feels like. And I think what happens to him changes if you play Omega more Paragon or Renegade. Nyreen wasn't too bad either. And Aria was... well... Aria. :p And I would say something about a rumored Aria romance, but some might consider that a spoiler.

    As for what you get for helping Aria retake Omega? A few war assests, the chance to pick up some new weapon mods (like the new high-velocity pistol barrels, omni-blades for shotguns, and enhanced scopes), as well as the chance to pick up the N7 Valkyrie and Chakram launcher if you didn't get those as pre-orders. At the end you get at least two new powers for Shep: Lash (just like the Ex-Cerberus guys in MP) and Flair (which acts as some sort of Biotic explosion, I believe).

    All in all, while I don't think it was bad, I don't think it's worth the $15 price tag. I'd only recommend it if you have the money to spare and A) really like Aria, B) hate having a lose plot-thread hanging (ie Aria sitting in Purgatory going "I'm gonna take back Omega!"), and/or C) feel like you must own every piece of ME dlc. Otherwise, I'd wait for either a sale, or if someone gifts you extra Microsoft Points, if you were interested at all.
     
  25. DarthXan318

    DarthXan318 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2002
    I'm part way through Omega, and I'd have to agree. It's fun, but but Super Awesome.

    Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2