main
side
curve
  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. Nobody145

    Nobody145 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Feb 9, 2007
    I think as far back as ME1's ending it was clear Bioware sort of wrote themselves into a corner. Sovereign literally smashed through at least one cruiser on its way through the Citadel fleet and even the entire Fifth fleet can't take down its shields, but conveniently Sovereign seems to be concentrating on the Saren-corpse fight so that when it is destroyed then its shields finally fall. Adding Thanix cannons to their arsenal might have made the odds more even, but then the ME games are all about Commander Shepard doing everything, almost nothing is accomplished unless Commander Shepard is there to push the button.

    Yeah, ME3's Destroy ending still really sucks. ME2's "suicide" mission or some of the sidequests are usually preferable in that the "normal" ending still requires sacrifices, but that if you get everything, carry over your ME1/2 saves, found every Matriach writing in ME1, then Dr. Conrad Verner would turn out helpful and your entire ME2 squad could survive ME2, compared to Ashley or Kaidan dying at Virmire, and even in ME3 for a pure paragon or renegade ending requires some squad members' death (Thane at least), yet if you worked hard in ME2 many more survived. Then in the very end, the most... traditional option of blowing up the Reapers also requires wiping out loyal EDI and the potentially helpful geth. The other endings are even more crazy and weird so that already set a low standard. And that's not even going into the whole "break the mass relays permanently" that they edited out in the Extended Cut as no mass relays mean no galactic civilization period.

    I think the protheans were probably significantly more advanced than the species of Shepard's cycle. Partially its a storytelling requirement, that the Citadel races be somewhat advanced but not too advanced, and that everyone be at about the same tech level, despite many of the races having been in space for centuries (and at least two species literally living that long and beyond), whereas the new Systems Alliance reaches parity pretty fast (well, it entered the galactic stage on mostly peaceful terms, but its not like turian scout ships could survive an Alliance fleet even at first contact). But the protheans were on the verge of building their own personnel sized mass relay (the Conduit at Ilos and its counterpart on the Citadel) and apparently the Citadel races... never bothered (based on something Aethyta, said in ME2)? Which makes the asari look even lazier when they had a working prothean beacon for centuries but never even donated it to the Crucible effort until it was too late.

    But then a lot of the ME trilogy also involves everyone shooting themselves in the foot while Shepard has to do everything. Apparently just super-powerful enemies aren't enough for a "dramatic" story anymore, the heroes have to sabotage themselves just as much if not more these days. The post-RotJ NJO novel series, SWTOR (partially), Harry Potter, probably plenty others.

    Before ME3 I had hoped that a concentrated arms build-up would lead to more of a slugfest instead of a slaughter, but then turns out all of ME1 only bought... three years at most? Two years between ME1 and 2, and I think ME3 starts six months after the Arrival DLC? Compared to the protheans changing the keepers on the Citadel which probably bought decades for the next cycle, as then Sovereign had to fight to get to the Citadel, not that it did much. Considering how near unstoppable the Reaper capital ships were, they could probably have taken out more resistance faster, but then they already had earth partially harvested so it probably didn't matter that much to them. Which is probably why they didn't bother with taking the Citadel earlier, before sneak attacks ensured the Reapers would wipe out all the leaders and get all the top info instantly, now even if the Reapers quickly overwhelmed the Citadel fleet (which they probably did), they still wouldn't get the records which would lead to a quicker victory. You'd think they could still use the Citadel to shut down the relay network, but then one also wonders whether control of the mass relays couldn't be used against the Reapers. But then I think a codex entry mentions the Reapers used all the mass relays, including the dormant ones so aside from a quicker victory, the Citadel wasn't that super-important until the Catalyst was discovered. And then one tries not to think too much about how the Catalyst invalidates most of ME1.... :p

    I still wish we had seen at least some dreadnaughts successfully taking on Reapers, instead of the same old Reapers blowing up ships (which looks cool, but still). According to the codex, multiple dreadnoughts can take out a Sovereign-class Reaper, but of course the problem is that even if it was 1-1 Reaper vs. dreadnought, they're still seriously outnumbered and every engagement the allied fleet would still lose dreadnoughts far faster then they could replace them. Faster than Reapers could build more of themselves, but still not fast enough. And that's not even going into how bad the ground battles were.

    ME always had a few plot holes, which got worse by ME2 and were huge problems by ME3 (such as why Sovereign had to bother with using Saren and geth as ground troops when the Collectors were there), as well as how much control they always had over the mass relays. In ME1 according to Vigil sounds like the Reapers won overall almost instantly and then just gradually repurposed every isolated prothean population. Now according to Javik, sounds like the protheans still put up a pretty good fight for decades after the Citadel fell (with the Reapers continuing to come up with new monstrosities), but still lost eventually. But guess the point of a lot of Shepard's appeals/threats for cooperation was that if the species of the galaxy didn't work together now, there would be no chance later... now that it convinces many of them, and even the more willing require a few concessions (the turians want krogan reinforcements on their homeworld, and they're probably the only ones actually sort of holding their own, the krogan want the genophage cured, the quarians want their homeworld back), compared to the asari and salarians. And I'm not even going to bother bringing up how minor the rachni turned out to be.
     
  2. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    Regarding the use of Saren thing - He was a Spectre with big influence and obviously very smart in the strategic sense. Sovereign as a lone Reaper presumably felt it needed a general of some kind to marshal the forces it had available, who better than the top Spectre of the time? Someone the Council would not easily suspect or be willing to criticise.

    Collectors just seem like drones, powerful and organised sure but mainly just Prothean Husks. Perhaps Sovereign was not given authority by Harbinger to use Collectors, it was there on a solo mission so perhaps it was instructed to indoctrinate its own forces as part of that mission to see how easy it would be and what races were vulnerable (synthetic Geth easier to manipulate since they saw Sovereign as a god). Later on when covert advanced harvesting was tried out and forces needed on a larger scale, Collectors were sent out by Harbinger.
    Geth are tough with advanced weapons and powerful ships, enough to do what Sovereign needed and likely to obey Saren without question since that is what programmed slaves are designed to do. Collectors perhaps were more problematic in that sense, potentially unwilling to accept orders from Saren. Plus they were of limited number being an instinct organic species whereas Geth are artificial and can create more of themselves.



    But I get issues with the plot of the trilogy, overall inconsistency is an issue. Sci-fi does have a tendency though to be littered with plot-holes so it's nothing new, often best just to over-look and accept them.
     
  3. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    I think the primary problem with using the Collectors from the outset is that they seem to have been an active group in the Galaxy. Both the Illusive Man, and Mordin (by extension, the Salarian STG) seemed to be pretty familiar with them. So, in the underworld and espionage communities at least, they were known quantities. Had they openly pursued a malevolent agenda, they would have drawn a cripplingly heavy response. As it was, even their fairly low profile strategy in the second installment managed to attract the attention of Cerberus, one of the largest criminal syndicates in known space. Saren was an option that gave them more flexibility and freedom of movement, as his actions could be attributed to his rogue ambitions in a way the coordinated movements of a unified alien fleet never could.

    The more problematic part is why the Reapers threw so much effort into these sorts of covert maneuvers if it would only take a year or two to fly in directly in the first place. Especially when their power proved so overwhelming. They as well have forgot the first two games and started right on with the full scale invasion. That frankly would have worked out better for them.
     
    SithLordDarthRichie likes this.
  4. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    I've said it before, but I think the trail of tears that is ME 3's storyline comes out of the fact ME 2 was a brilliant storytelling experience that nonetheless didn't actually do much to advance the story of Shepard and the Reapers. ME 2 adds a massive new bunch of buds and blossoms to the rosebush of ME 1's plot and does nothing canonically to trim it back: you can literally prove 'em wrong that going through the Omega Four Relay is a suicide mission. Indeed you can keep it from being a suicide mission for anybody on your team and then end the game cruising round the galaxy in a hotted-up Normandy with a crewload of ultimate badasses. And then ME 3 has to somehow condense that big rosebush down to a single question: do you defeat the Reapers or not?

    The Collectors in particular don't, in retrospect, make a lot of sense for the reasons you suggested, Jabba. They're controlled by the Reapers, certainly, but their Part In The Plan is to simply grab enough humans to build a new Reaper. Let's leave aside (I promise I didn't mention him to trigger off your rage again, Jabba ;) ) the Catakid's testimony that each cycle ends with the construction of a new Reaper, and the Reapers haven't even invaded when you nuke/neutron bomb the Collectors' base. What's the point of the Collectors at all if the Reapers would have done that job anyway? Had the writers put in some sort of plot linchpin for why it had to be a human Reaper and why it had to be before the Reapers arrived, that might've alleviated the problem somewhat. As it is - zip.

    The weird part is, if ME 2 had ME 3's rough structure -- a plot railroad with a near-downer ending -- and ME 3 had ME 2's rough structure -- scramble frantically around the galaxy, getting emotionally invested with your crew in side missions, culminating in a final shot before the buzzer to defeat the Reapers -- the series probably would have worked out all right.
     
    Circular_Logic likes this.
  5. Circular Logic

    Circular Logic Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2013
    I agree with the sentiment here that the Mass Effect trilogy was hampered by numerous storytelling fumbles and contrivances that, IMO may well have stemmed from Bioware's desire to kowtow to new players with each new installment. Remember when Mass Effect 3 was advertised as the "best point to begin the saga" (or something along those lines) despite the fact that new players would miss so much of the magic and story told in the first two games? They tried to make each game stand on its own as a self-contained story, often to the detriment of the overall plot of the three games. For instance, they introduced the Collectors in the second game with absolutely no hint they ever existed before in Mass Effect 1 (Drew Karpyshyn actually introduced them first in the novel Mass Effect: Ascension, released two years before ME2). They served the purpose of being ME2's primary antagonists and servants of the Reapers, but the overall goal of trying to find a way to stop the Reapers was never advanced in the second installment, and instead introduced via a MacGuffin in ME3, the Crucible. So other than introducing the player to new characters and giving them a sense and spirit of the Mass Effect galaxy, ME2 could have easily been done away with in advancing the overall plot. No progress was really made between ME1 and ME3 in stopping the Reapers until Liara discovered the Prothean plans for the Crucible during the 11th hour. Thanks to this decision to digress from the overall goal of stopping the Reapers in ME2, Bioware was setting itself up for failure in ME3, making the whole MacGuffin / Deus Ex Machina ending all but inevitable.

    IMHO, Bioware was a little too ambitious when crafting the story of the trilogy. They wanted to create a grand space opera with settings and characters that keeps the player engaged and connected to the universe, which they largely succeeded in doing. For that I applaud their ambition. But they overreached in creating this supposedly invincible threat of the Reapers and ended up being forced into a rushed and unsatisfying conclusion, since they wanted to keep this idea of the Reapers being seemingly unstoppable while giving the player a chance at achieving a "victory", however Pyrrhic. Really, had they had a better effort in structuring the story of the second game to get Shepard to find a means to defeat the Reapers right from the get-go, as opposed to helping Cerberus destroy the Collectors, it could have set things up better for ME3 without the need of a Deus Ex Machina or even a MacGuffin that's introduced right at the start of the third installment.The Collector base decision was very inconsequential in the grand scheme of the series.

    It's already been established that the Reapers are not invincible, hence why they felt the need to use the Citadel relay in the first place to shut down the whole relay network and decapitate the galactic government in every other cycle but the current one (besides the convenience of reducing harvest time). Certainly, Shepard foiling Sovereign's plans and destroying the Alpha Relay put a crimp on the Reapers' schemes. But it still begs the question why didn't the Reapers go straight for the Citadel and attempt to shut down the network again? They really made things harder for themselves by systematically wiping each system out without shutting down the network, allowing Shepard to unite the galaxy against them. They were not going about the harvest in a way that would minimize their losses, and in fact often fought a war of attrition (which could still work thanks to the production of nearly limitless husks, and indoctrination). Now, I don't believe the races of the ME3 galaxy, even united, could have defeated the Reapers conventionally, particularly with how divided the races were initially, and with technology far inferior to the invading forces, but they certainly did not need to introduce the Starchild at the end along with the three four choices.

    Ultimately, thanks to all the myriad subplots and loose ends introduced in the first two games that had to be tied up, there was less time spent on the overarching plot of stopping the Reapers, and the story really suffered for that. Bioware did do as good a job as they could to conclude these side stories after having painted themselves into a corner, but they really could have avoided this had they planned the whole thing through ahead of time, paying attention to the many potential plot holes that ended up stemming from their lack of adequate preparation. In short, the Mass Effect trilogy had a lot of potential, but thanks to numerous gaffes and misdirection by the writers, it was never fully able to live up to it. But, story aside, it was a great RPG that made you actually care for and invest in the universe and the cast of colorful characters inhabiting it.
     
  6. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    The Star Wars OT had a similar problem in that ROTJ ended up basically with the same plot as ANH (Empire builds ultimate weapon, Rebels launch offensive to destroy it) since Lucas had used up his original ending idea in part 1 because he didn't think he'd make more movies.


    ME3 certainly works better if you've played the other 2 games, mainly because you are invested emotionally in the various characters from before and so their fates have a stronger impact. The galactic untity stuff if you go for it is pretty inspiring overall, it's just a shame the ending has so many issues. That and the game being largely fetch-and-carry missions, but I guess that is better than driving about all over planets endlessly in ME1
     
    Circular_Logic likes this.
  7. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    I think you are all correct that the second game is essentially superfluous in terms of plot advancement.

    However, I do think we can find an explanation for the Reaper's strategy, under-explained though it was. It seems to me that the Reapers don't actually have anything better than Mass Effect technology, improbable though that may be. After all, it's the plot of the Arrival DLC. Therefore, I think it most likely that they don't traditionally just capture the Citadel to cripple galactic government. They capture the Citadel because they need it to coordinate their own forces efficiently. While they could launch a frontal assault and beat the Council Races there, they couldn't do so safely without the element of surprise. That is, they run the risk that the current organics would destroy the Citadel rather than lose it in battle, crippling the war efforts of both sides and ruining their cyclic trap to boot. So perhaps it was just safer to move as a fleet and avoid the Citadel, given that alternative?
     
  8. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    Reapers may only have advanced to a certain level and aren't able to go above that (the level set by/of the Leviathans?). If the Citadel is the Crucible that houses the controlling AI it makes sense they can't go beyond that level of tech.
    That level is still beyond the capabilities of any of the races in the ME games and likely would be for a few more cycles to come especially if Reapers kept destroying civilisation at a set point all the time.


    As for the Citadel, if they don't need it to beat the enemy why go straight for it? They can harvest worlds without it, only if they saw it as a threat or wanted to disable the relays would they go there really.
    Also, could the races living there not close it and therefore prevent Reaper entry?
     
  9. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    Depends on whether they know how to operate it. From what I remember it's only the Reapers who manage to close the thing up. The codex does say it can be closed in time of battle, but I don't think it indicates whether the Council knows how.
     
  10. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    I think this summer, I'll buy the original ME for the PS3.
     
  11. Clone_Cmdr_Wedge

    Clone_Cmdr_Wedge Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Pretty sure the Council/C-Sec/whoever can open and close the arms when they want to. Soon after Sovereign and his geth buddies arrive, an asari commander tells someone to seal the station. Saren later on is seen in the Council Chambers at the controls, and we cut to the Citadel's arms closing. After dealing with Saren (and before Sovereign ASSUMES DIRECT CONTROL* of him), Shep uses the same console to open the arms.

    And my $0.02 about why Sovereign didn't use the Collectors... Maybe they were Harbinger's personal troops or something, and maybe he and Sovereign didn't get along? *shrug* Best I got right now.

    *I couldn't help myself. Sorry.

    I didn't have too big a problem with the Crucible in principle. Yes, it should have been discovered earlier, but it didn't bother me too much. If BioWare had used some technobabble and Handwavium to make the Crucible shut down the Reapers so your forces to destroy them, or allow you to control them from a near impregnable fortress as Lord High-God-Emperor Shepard, Protector of the Universe (or whatever title you want), then it would have been better received. Combine that with a final battle on Earth that was a combination of the Suicide Mission from ME2 and the Battle of Denerim in Dragon Age: Origins, and you would've had one of the greatest finales in Sci-fi gaming history.

    I think that's what drives me crazy when I see that MEHEM mod. It's not perfect, and it does nothing for the battle on Earth, but it shows how close, and how relatively simple it would have been to make a somewhat logical and satisfying conclusion. Most of what that mod is, is just taking out CataKid and rearranging some scenes that were in the EC (Destroy ending mainly). If one guy could do that in about six months, imagine what BioWare could have done in the three to four-ish months that it took them to create the EC if they went that route.

    I think that sums it up pretty nicely.
     
  12. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    Seems more likely they would be more difficult for Saren to order around, which made the Geth a better choice since they were sythetics that Sovereign could easily take control of and would do whatever his puppet general told them.
    Plus they are pretty tough, and there are loads of them.

    Perhaps Harbinger just didn't want to waste using the most powerful race of past cycles (Protheans) that he had at his disposal for a routine solo Reaper mission when he had other plans (as shown in ME2).
     
  13. Nobody145

    Nobody145 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Feb 9, 2007
    I'm pretty sure the Council can close the Citadel whenever they want, its part of what makes the Citadel such an appealing base of operations. If any enemy fleet shows up, just close the arms and poof, they're an impregnable fortress. That's why the prothean Conduit was so important for most of ME1, it was basically a backdoor into the Citadel, as if Sovereign and a geth fleet had just shown up, the arms would have closed and it would have taken who knows how long for them to break through. Well, no idea how well the Citadel would hold up to Reaper firepower, but it would probably take a single Reaper a while to break through the Citadel armor, hence why Saren sneaked in first and took over the control center and close the arms once Sovereign was inside.

    Not sure the Citadel is needed to coordinate Reaper forces, they do fine without for most of ME3. Heck, Harbinger seemed to be pretty senior, until in ME3 when it didn't even talk and barely appeared before Shepard's indoctrinated nightmare, er, the ending. :p Although that then goes into the really unpleasant territory of if the Catalyst was always the heart of the Citadel what the point of the keepers opening the Citadel mass relay was, and no one wants to go there.

    Yeah, ME2 was kind of a... sidestory, and with how quickly the Reapers arrived (their FTL is definitely significantly faster, at the very least it only took them a few months to go from that batarian system in Arrival to another mass relay, which would usually take years in a normal ship), seems kind of unnecessary. And not sure if they ever bothered to explain why the human reaper was a different shape. I was hoping we would see more Reaper designs than just the giant squid, but oh well. The giant squid design was also explained as being based on the Reapers' creators, the leviathans.

    Hm, not sure how advanced the Reapers can be. Significantly more advanced than most races, but then, though I hate the ending, the Leviathan DLC digs into that question a bit more with how the Catalyst is searching for a way for organics and synthetics to co-exist so as long as they're powerful enough to outgun every other race, the Reapers don't need more firepower. And the mass relays and carefully selected leftover tech (no mentions of exactly how each previous died for instance) are all meant to ensure no species comes up with some really strange tech that could turn out really effective against the Reapers somehow.

    Funny how the geth changed from ME1 to ME3. In ME1 we thought they had just ended up worshiping a much older machine, then in ME2 turns out the majority of the geth are nice enough on their own, then by ME3 they're directly being controlled by a Reaper out of fear of the quarians. You'd think the heretics would have just been directly controlled by Sovereign, but then it probably wasn't worth the effort back then.
     
  14. Circular Logic

    Circular Logic Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2013
    Here's a pretty comprehensive, nearly hour-long video of all the possible deaths in Mass Effect 3 (excluding the low EMS EC squadmate deaths by vaporization, since this was made before the EC came out):



    Some of these are pretty epic, others pathetic, and still others very tragic. Regardless of how casualty-averse your Shepard is, R.I.P. Thane, Legion, and Anderson (and Mordin too for 99% of players).
     
  15. Clone_Cmdr_Wedge

    Clone_Cmdr_Wedge Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    ^^ Don't think I could ever watch all of that... :_|About the main four though:

    Mordin had the best one, especially (well, mainly) if he actually cured the genophage. If you played a Shep that had said the genophage was wrong, or that he should help the krogan, it just seemed right, and was written fairly well. I don't think I'll ever hear him sing "Scientist Salarian" in ME2 without thinking of that scene... :_|I might even go so far as to say it's one of the best scenes in the game, if not series.

    Thane's was pretty good too. A couple of nitpicky bits about the fight (namely Shep and Co standing around watching Thane and Kai "The Cereal Ninja" Leng go at it), but the part overall was good, especially the scene in the hospital.

    Legion's, at least when it came to the peace outcome or siding with the geth outcome... I might be in a minority on that one. I don't really like that one, mainly because it felt arbitrary to me, especially if you got the peace ending. It was like someone said "Wait, we can't end this on a happy note! Kill someone!"
    Person 2:"Who?"
    Person 1: "Uh.... Legion!"
    Person 2: "Why? How?"
    Person 1: "I don't know. Make something up!"

    I'll admit, part of my feeling on that one might be colored after playing through the whole game. But even then, I remember having a "Wait, what?" sort of response after Legion's "code dissemination" explanation.

    Although, Legion's scene (and Tali's, technically) does bring up a sort of funny story ("funny" in a black comedy sort of way). When my younger brother was going through Rannoch the first time, he couldn't get the peace ending (It was something he didn't do back in ME2 I think.), so he had to side with either the quarians or the geth. Well, he sided with Legion and the geth, mainly thinking that if he couldn't have both characters, he'd side/save the one he liked more and recruit that character.

    Needless to say, the joke was one him after that part played out and he got neither one.

    As for Anderson's... well, the first time I went through that with my first femShep, the first Shep I made and took through all three games, and he said "You did good, child. I'm proud of you..." There may have been some dust blowing around in the air at that point, and getting into my eyes...

    And then CataKid/HoloJoffrey showed up and ruined it. I know that issue's a dead horse that's been beaten so many times over the past year that it's an unrecognizable pulpy mass, but for me that thing really did take all of the emotion built up over the previous 5-10 minutes, especially the bit with Anderson, and blew it all up, tossing it aside like so much trash as soon as he showed up and started spouting his nonsense.
     
  16. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    Still on a New Game Plus playthrough with my soldier, and I decided to do a little addition exercise. Stacking up the weapon damage boosts from combat mastery, adrenaline rush, ammo powers, intel terminal upgrades, and armor pieces my soldier!Shep can dish out something on the order of 177% bonus damage on each shot, not counting any power damage modifiers I think. Geez, no wonder it's turning into a slaughter-fest with a Typhoon X, or any weapon for that matter. I can load up with a Typhoon X, Piranha X, and Executioner X and still maintain a 50% cooldown bonus, which is not too shabby. Or, using the ultralight materials mod for the sniper rifles, I can do a Typhoon X/Black Widow X and still be 5% in the blue. Might have to use that at some point just for laughs ...
     
  17. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Yeah Legion was just kinda 'hey we won, wait what? Legion what do you... OH CRAP YOUR DEAD!' I mean it was literally, 'Hey Shepard I'm going to sacrifice myself now(dies) There was no buildup or anything it was just so random and out of the blue.

    Legion should've gone out in a blaze of glory. You try and take down the Reaper but you can't, Legion steps out throws you outta the way and goes on an epic sniping spree hitting every weak point on the Reaper until he fires an incindeary round right into it's main gun and mortally wounds it. Then he goes over and begins downloading the Reaper upgrades and transmitting it to all the Geth but the strain and damage fighting the Reaper, coupled with the immense amount of information he's downloaded are too much and he begins shutting down, but not before having a heartfelt goodbye with Shep and Tali, maybe finally explaining why he has Shepards armor as he finally achieves true individuality and sentience and dies knowing he has a soul.
     
  18. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    At which point the fanboys start whining "How come this wasn't the story of Legion vs. the Reapers, not the fleshy ape Shepard?" :D
     
  19. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    Feeling like a veteran in MP now, and my last six months' worth of posts on the subject here make me shake my head in amusement.

    Although my favourite, on current weapons (goddamn Random Number Generator store won't give up a Typhoon to me :mad:but is perfectly content to give me higher levels of the crappy Collector Sniper Rifle :mad::mad:) I'm still having most fun, or most effectiveness, with a Turian Soldier armed with a level 1 Hurricane. Or as I call him, the Turricane. I can regularly pull top score on Silver, at least, with him. Marksman just turns it into a very light, very fast bullet hose. Second favourite -- a very close second -- is the Krogan Shaman, because what's not to like from a guy who can set off biotic explosions on his own, annoy everyone else in the game with Shockwave spam, and headbutt other Krogan players? (I had a great time last night when I lucked into a game with a Krogan Shaman and Krogan Warlord. I quickly changed from Turricane to Krogan Vanguard. Last guy was an asari, I think. The game turned into a ROFLfest as we three morons ran up (charged, in my case) to everything in sight, including Geth Primes. The "look" on the Geth Prime's face was priceless. It didn't know which way to turn as the Warlord bashed it, the Shaman beat it up with Warp/Shockwave, and I hosed it with the Kal'reegar shotgun, or the lolreegar as they call it on BSN since it's basically a flamethrower for electricity. And after each big kill or each wave, there'd be this sort of mass "HOO-AH!" ritual where we basically bashed heads with one another or did heavy melees until the next wave came through. I couldn't stop cackling throughout.)

    On Gold, which really I only play for credit farming now because I really can't be bothered, I'm still only competent with the Volus Engineer. But it's still a glorious love affair. I like getting messages from randoms I play with saying "lol thanks dude you saved me like fifteen times", and in one memorable scene where I charged in, tac-cloaked, and healed a dude on his last medi-gel when he was sitting five feet from a Banshee ... well, the guy's mic was on and he was speaking German, I think. But when I did that, it was like "gerhfuiodhf -- oh! HERO! THANK YOU" :D :D
     
  20. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    Good god, please tell me someone YouTubed the krogan killfest there :D

    The Hurricane has kind of fallen by the wayside for me in SP since I picked up the Lancer in Citadel, but I'll still carry it occasionally as a backup weapon. On the N7: Fuel Reactors mission I went in with a Hurricane X, Piranha X, Executioner X, and Falcon VII; my logic being to carry the Hurricane as a shield-stripper loaded with disruptor ammo. I was impressed that I kept a good cooldown bonus with that load. Of course, I never actually used the SMG - used the Piranha for up-close work, the Executioner to pop a few Marauders on the overheads, and used the Falcon a few times for husk-roasting. First time I've used that gun in a fight; usually I'm content to give it to Vega, activate squad cryo ammo, and watch him make popsicles.

    What I'm having a surprising amount of fun with is the Valiant X with piercing and thermal scope mods; I'm rediscovering why I fell in love with that gun on my first playthrough. I've had a couple missions where I've cleared a room by sniping mooks through the walls. Otherwise, it's great for just training it on a choke point and popping everything that comes through. I hardly even activate adrenaline rush since the fire rate and reload are so fast that I can afford to miss a few shots.
     
  21. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    So basically, this?
     
  22. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    I wish. :( And this ROFLfest with Krogans depends on having Krogan players who know what they're doing. I had another Krogan buddy show up in a game last night who didn't. Level 9 Sentinel charging Brutes and Ravagers head on with no support, anyone? On Silver? I wound up on the floor more than running around because I kept having to go revive him. :(
     
  23. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    To be fair, a real Krogan probably would just charge in there regardless so at least they were keeping it true to character :p
     
    Saintheart likes this.
  24. Clone_Cmdr_Wedge

    Clone_Cmdr_Wedge Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Heh, even on Gold the geth feared my KroGuard. [face_devil] Especially if I had other good players who knew what they were doing. My general tactic was what any good krogan would do: Charge, heavy melee, charge, heavy melee, charge, heavy- oh wait I have a shotgun? It was harder with anyone else since they had instakill units, but the Cerberus Phantoms were pretty fun to kill. Charge, followed by a heavy melee that had a chance to send them flying. It was even better if it was by the edge of a map.

    As for the Reegar Carbine, I don't know about you, but I always called it Vera. :p
     
  25. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    I must admit I'm still trying to understand the vagaries of the Dark Lord Reegar. Possibly it needs at least a few levels on it before it starts getting really useful. :D