Mass Effect Legendary Edition remaster trilogy

[gurugeorge]

I've never seen so many people overanalyzing such a medicore series.

I can understand it. Mass Effect was pretty stunning when it first came out - as I said in another thread, it was from a time when gamers still believed that immersive games could become an art-form, and in many ways Mass Effect showed some of that promise, especially in the context of it being a s-f epic that dealt with many grand themes that had been floating around in s-f since forever. First time playing through, it felt like a proper gesamtkunstwerk, with the added element that only games can have, of you being the character in the story, shaping it as you go (smoke and mirrors of course, but immersive enough to create a fine illusion, with gameplay that wasn't perfect, but good enough to sustain momentum). But really it was both the part-fulfillment of hopes and aspirations from the 80s and 90s, and at the same time the beginning of the decline, and it's been downhill all the way since then (not just the series, but games in general).

I'm playing through Legendary now. Third time playing through ME, second time through the others, and it now feels like an elegy, a slightly rickety but still captivating relic from bygone times, and the beginning of the poison that's killed gaming.

The reason we all worry it like a once-delicious but now cold meal is nostalgia for what could have been.

I'm surprised you can stomach playing through it again. There's no way I would ever replay ME. There are far too many better games out there.

I agree that gaming has declined in a lot of ways, but there are still good games being made. Just not by Bioware.

Ah, you see I'm sort of in the middle area where I like games with good mechanics AND/OR I like immershun. If I can goof off pretending that I'm a space hero on a big adventure for a while, I'm happy enough. Easily pleased, me

 

[HansDampf]

Some of the reasons there was such a strong reaction:
-Mass Effect 2 had more choices and reactivity in its ending. Mass Effect 3 didn't even live up to the bar set by its own trilogy.
-Game director had literally said that the ending would incorporate choices from the trilogy and "not just be pick an ending with buttons A, B, and C".
-Instead of admitting that they ran out of time to execute their full vision or admitting the promises were impossible to live up to, they publicly defended the ending as an artistic choice and refused to change it to preserve "artistic integrity".
-The story and sequel implications of the ending upset people because it's difficult to imagine a Mass Effect game without intergalactic travel.
-No boss fight.
-None of the choices in the trilogy resulted in Shepard living through the ending.
-The version you played includes the (minor) improvements they made with a free DLC. Including the option to refute the 3 buttons ("yellow ending"). So much for "artistic integrity".

- RGB endings with copypasted ending cinematics.
- Starchild's explanation comes out of nowhere and contradicts everything you learn about the Geth and Edi.
- Destruction of Mass Relays means many people are going to die, but the author didn't care.
- The "best" ending (green) has Shepard rape the entire galaxy with space magic.
- And after all that, the game tells you to buy more DLC.

Spoiler

I also think that the ending is where the story finally collapsed in many people's minds. A similar thing happened with Game of Thrones. Most fans only hate season 8 but love seasons 1-7, even though you can see the shit creeping up in season 4 already (edgy book fans will say season 2) and it goes downhill rapidly from season 5 on. But there is still enough good material in there to keep the immersion up if you really want to, until the shit reaches critical mass.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I'm surprised you can stomach playing through it again. There's no way I would ever replay ME. There are far too many better games out there.

I feel like the only reason why anyone cares about Mass Effect is that its basically the only space opera RPG without any major issues in it. Set dressing is important or we'd all just be playing games where one block tries to kill all the other blocks. There aren't a lot of RPGs that allow the player to RP as a space captain exploring the universe. In this sense Mass Effect is one of those games which will not necessarily age, but be completely replaced one day by games that succeed in doing a Star Trek or Star Wars open galaxy experience without feeling like 99.9% of the game is pointless drivel. Until that time, we unfortunately only have Mass Effect, and I guess a few of those officially licensed MMOs for those properties.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

-Mass Effect 2 had more choices and reactivity in its ending.

The suicide mission is not the ending of ME2, the fight with the giant mecha shepard is the end of ME2.
ME2 has an objectively worse ending, this can't be argued. ME3's ending is only considered worse because it's the final one.

 

[J1M]

-Mass Effect 2 had more choices and reactivity in its ending.

The suicide mission is not the ending of ME2, the fight with the giant mecha shepard is the end of ME2.
ME2 has an objectively worse ending, this can't be argued. ME3's ending is only considered worse because it's the final one.

I don't want to debate semantics. Who makes it back to the ship and who died for the cause is part of the ending. That outcome is largely determined by player choice, regardless of whether you consider the ending to be the last mission or the video that plays after the boss dies.

 

[Bad Sector]

The suicide mission is not the ending of ME2, the fight with the giant mecha shepard is the end of ME2.
ME2 has an objectively worse ending, this can't be argued. ME3's ending is only considered worse because it's the final one.

I prefer the mecha ending...

Spoiler

...to the press-a-button-to-choose-ending-sliders-color-filter ending because while none of them is a good ending, the mecha one is at least a boss battle where you need to use the game's gameplay and whichever members end up on your team up to that point based on your previous actions.

Also the mecha is a matter of seconds to introduce itself and have you register what you see and doesn't take that long to beat it either. The ME3 ending's bullshit begins from the moment you enter the beam and is an endless slog of whatthefuckery

 

[Caim]

Just let Marauder Shields kill you, then look up the worst ending on YouTube.

 

[Lacrymas]

This is in this month's Humble Choice along with Desperados 3. If you have even a passing interest in ME, it's worth subscribing (you can cancel any time anyway) especially since Desperados 3 is also a good game. No matter what you think of ME, the entire trilogy with DLC is worth 1 Euro (I.e. 9 games for 10 Euro).

 

[Nano]

This is in this month's Humble Choice along with Desperados 3. If you have even a passing interest in ME, it's worth subscribing (you can cancel any time anyway) especially since Desperados 3 is also a good game. No matter what you think of ME, the entire trilogy with DLC is worth 1 Euro (I.e. 9 games for 10 Euro).

Or better yet, acquire FitGirl's versions of the original trilogy for even less than 1 Euro.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This is in this month's Humble Choice along with Desperados 3. If you have even a passing interest in ME, it's worth subscribing (you can cancel any time anyway) especially since Desperados 3 is also a good game. No matter what you think of ME, the entire trilogy with DLC is worth 1 Euro (I.e. 9 games for 10 Euro).

Or better yet, acquire FitGirl's versions of the original trilogy for even less than 1 Euro.

you have to be on dialup for his repacks to be worth using

 

[Kev Inkline]

This is in this month's Humble Choice along with Desperados 3. If you have even a passing interest in ME, it's worth subscribing (you can cancel any time anyway) especially since Desperados 3 is also a good game. No matter what you think of ME, the entire trilogy with DLC is worth 1 Euro (I.e. 9 games for 10 Euro).

I already have ME1 and ME2 original versions, is H-Choice worth 8 eur - Desperados and ME3, that is?

(they're luring me back with a discount)

 

[Lemming42]

Desperados 3 is one of the best games of the past decade IMO, and ME Legendary Edition feels improved enough upon what I remember of the original games to be worthwhile, so go for it.

 

[Kev Inkline]

I just realized Legendary Edition includes Lair of the Shadow Broker which I don't have, so I guess it's a no-brainer then.

 

[Lacrymas]

I already have ME1 and ME2 original versions, is H-Choice worth 8 eur - Desperados and ME3, that is?

(they're luring me back with a discount)

You can technically get better graphical results from the original trilogy and mods, but LE includes all the DLC and you don't *really* need any graphics mods because it looks sort of acceptable. 8 Euro for both ME:LE and Desperados 3 is worth it, yes. You can gift the other games to friends or prospective lovers.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, has anyone noticed how the codex entry for the Presidium in ME1 says they don't have any problems with criminality because there's constant surveillance? This seems like it would have more massive consequences for the setting than just a throwaway line in a codex entry. It also implies a slew of other political choices.

 

[J1M]

So, has anyone noticed how the codex entry for the Presidium in ME1 says they don't have any problems with criminality because there's constant surveillance? This seems like it would have more massive consequences for the setting than just a throwaway line in a codex entry. It also implies a slew of other political choices.

The Presidium is not the entire station. There are plenty of examples of crime in the wards.

There's also the matter of if the Codex is a meta narrator or if the Codex is presented through the lense of a particular viewpoint, like the Earth government.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

There's also the matter of if the Codex is a meta narrator or if the Codex is presented through the lense of a particular viewpoint, like the Earth government.

Neither, it's a mouthpiece of the council.
You can infer this from the ME2 and ME3 codex having different versions of events than what you actually experienced, the extent of which depends on your choices.

 

[Lacrymas]

This just shows how many more interesting things they could've focused on instead of the Reapers.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This just shows how many more interesting things they could've focused on instead of the Reapers.

found the council shill

 

[Lacrymas]

Is there a way to tone down the lens flares in ME1? They are atrocious and even go through people's heads.

 

[racofer]

 

[Nano]

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

This just shows how many more interesting things they could've focused on instead of the Reapers.

found the council shill

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

pretty sure that's actually the ammo used to bomb the building. you don't even need to fire it, to accelerate it. all you need it to read a sentence or two.
(alright, it wasn't *that* bad, but damn, 90% filler)

 

[Turjan]

I recently got the Legendary Edition of this and went for a full play of the whole trilogy after all these years. Originally, I had played all of ME1, ME2 with all free DLC's but none of the paid ones, and I never got to play ME3 at all. I was curious how the games would fare for me after all that time. I won't go into the "is it an RPG" discussion, as I think all has been said in that regard. Personally, I don't mind that much, given RPG's are just one of the genres I enjoy to play.

ME1 got the most changes in this edition. My memories are hazy, but I had the feeling that the gameplay got a bit smoother. Lifting the weapon restrictions makes the game less of an RPG, but I certainly liked the changes this brought to combat. I didn't expect to enjoy the replay as much as I did. Disclaimer: I never disliked the Mako and had always found those sections quite fun, apart from some of those planetary explorations where the terrain was just bad. Another commonly mentioned annoyance are the elevator sections, but I think those pale against all those empty corridors that probably hide the loading. Other than that, the game was still fun and interesting, even though it's formulaic Bioware of old and very close to KotOR 1 in many aspects. The only DLC included was Bringing Down the Sky, and this one just fits organically into the game. Pinnacle Station DLC was available via a mod, but I quickly noticed that its non-inclusion in the package wasn't a loss. I didn't bother with it more than for a short test. As an aside, I enjoyed the often very subdued music in this game very much, which perfectly set the mood for me. So, yes, this game fared better than I thought and surpassed my memories.

I went on to ME2, and this one went into the opposite direction. I remember I originally thought I liked this a bit better than ME1, but I certainly wouldn't say so nowadays. This may be a replay issue, as the trilogy starts drifting into character-driven gameplay. The main part of the game consists of collecting your team and doing their loyalty missions. I think the replay made clear that the game had more team members than character concepts, and that redundancy becomes very obvious when you already know where everything is headed. I had never played Kasumi (was a paid DLC), and at least she had a fun mission, even though I don't think she's an overly interesting character. A bit too useful in combat though. After a while, all those daddy issues start wearing down on me. I knew DLCs like "Normandy Crash Site" (pure fan service of the rather boring kind), Zaeed (actually not a bad companion quest) or the Firewalker DLC (more gimmicky than the Mako - bah). Of the "new to me" DLCs, Overlord was okay, even if it featured that vehicle and a - to me - somewhat confusing map, which was balanced out by the main plot point. Arrival was "Bringing Down the Sky" part II, this time with forcing you to make the opposite decision. It's kind of a nice bridge to the next game, but I can't say I liked it overly much. "Lair of the Shadow Broker" definitely was the best of the bunch for me. All in all, this sounds more negative than it should, because I still liked the game very much, even though it didn't match the view through my nostalgia glasses.

On to ME3 it was. I don't exactly know why I never played this. It was probably a mix of that ending outcry, the multiplayer aspect and some of the DLC decisions that soured me on the prospect of going through this. The Legendary Edition now has no multiplayer, includes the Extended Ending DLC and has a few ending conditions reworked. I'm aware of the point that managing your expectations has a big influence on the personal perception of a game, so I have to use this as a caveat: I knew the endings were bad. As such, I had more of an "getting it over with" attitude towards that part of the game, and it didn't influence my overall verdict very much anymore. All in all, this game pleasantly surprised me. As I said, I won't go into the "is it an RPG" discussion, as that doesn't really matter that much to me. I was honestly surprised how long this game was. I can't tell for sure, but I had the impression this was the longest game of all three. I was also surprised, how much the game made of almost every tiny decision you made during gameplay. Even seemingly random conversations you picked up when you passed by NPC's could have an effect on your war assets - sometimes, though rarely, even negatively, depending on your decisions. Of course, it's a bit disappointing to see how this rather complex system of collecting points ends in a red/blue/green decision, even though there are quite a few permutations of those endings with regard to NPC's or the game world. There's also the question whether decisions from the last two games should feature that prominently in the third installment, but that's probably a good thing if you are in the "choices and consequences" camp.

One of my other original issues with ME3 were the DLC's, as mentioned before. "From the Ashes" was clearly cut content that was sold separately on day 1 (or close to it, can't remember). Javik was so intricately woven into pretty much all game missions that this becomes quickly obvious. Just compare that to DLC companions of ME2 (Zaeed or Kasumi) which have most of their unique game comments in those Normandy talks. Javik on the other hand has lots of unique dialog all over the game. I don't think this would have been done if that had originally been planned as DLC. Then again, this was non-issue now, given this is now included in this edition of the games. Omega and Leviathan were both enjoyable, and the Citadel DLC was pure fun. Lots of fan service, but of the good kind, and a nice break from the rather bleak main story.

I guess I will say at least something about the endings. I tried two of them (not that I hadn't known pretty much all about them already), just for comparison. I had enough points to get to choose between all endings, except of course those that are bad because of lack of points. The clearly favored ending of the game is the "green" synthesis one. It's the only one where you don't betray any of your allies and companions. It also fits the kitchen philosophy of the game overall, pretty straightforward. I also had the option to choose the only ending where Shepard survives, which is the "red" destroy ending (I think this is a change in the Legendary Edition or the Extended Cut). You will have to sacrifice the Geth and EDI in that case. I would have to calculate if you would be able to gain enough points for this if you destroyed the Geth during the respective story mission or whether you are forced to first "save" the Geth and then destroy them anyway. All in all, I liked ME3 much better than I expected. The game had much more effort and polish put into it than I thought. It's a bit hard for me to compare it to the other two, as my opinions of those are refined by a replay, but I'd say it's still up there.

In the end, I enjoyed my replay and discovery of those parts I had never played before. It's still a solid experience, at least if you are not overly concerned over the "is it an RPG" question.