Mass Effect Legendary Edition remaster trilogy

[Semiurge]

But when your character actually chooses those options in dialogue, 90% of the time it's just you acting like an unhinged madman.

 

[Lemming42]

Kaiden is literally just a man with hair who's essentially only there so you can throw him away on Virmire without a second thought.

Huh, I thought the exact same thing about Ashley.

Ashley has a few interesting things about her - if you talk with her you find out she's a weird kind of conservative christian person with a potentially slightly racist distrust of aliens. It leads to a nice moment late in the game on the Citadel where the guy from the ethno-nationalist political party tries to get you to lend your support to his cause, and Ashley tears into him because she thinks he's too overtly racist as opposed to her much milder, friendlier, racism-lite, even though what he's saying is basically just the logical conclusion of her own beliefs (sadly, as usual, Shepard is totally limp here and can't really point this out).

I played Mass Effect when it came out and, like many people in that era, I was an edgy atheist who loved to watch Hitchens DESTROY religious leaders in EPIC DEBATES. I still basically am but I do remember being quite struck by the conversation with Ashley where you can ask her how she can possibly still believe in god when we're out here in space and there's no sign of any deity, and she responds with something along the lines that the universe is so awe-inspiring that it can only have been made by some kind of intelligence. I know that's a centuries-old real world argument that gets used by religious people IRL all the time, but I just didn't expect it to be voiced by a party member in what is essentially a trashy cover shooter game, and it always stuck with me.

There's also this thing where her grandad was a notorious quisling or something who helped the Turians, I forget. Wasn't interested in that at all but it's something else about her character.

They sort of remove that aspect of her character in ME3 and she's basically just a guy with hair at that point. I wouldn't be surprised if most of her dialogue is identical to Kaiden's - I know their dialogue is the same during that fucking awful scene with them on the colony in ME2.

Only thing I remember about Kaiden meanwhile is him droning on for-fucking-ever about getting bullied at tard school.

 

[Caim]

There's also this thing where her grandad was a notorious quisling or something who helped the Turians, I forget. Wasn't interested in that at all but it's something else about her character.

Her grandfather was forced to surrender in the war against the Turians, and while what he did was perfectly logical in a no-win situation, he was demoted out of the way and had his family name forever stained because of this. It's part of the reason why Ashley doesn't like aliens and why she keeps soldiering on even when given shit assignments in shitty looking armor.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Ashley's grandfather did nothing wrong, the entire story feels kinda contrived because it would have been a very difficult decision to make and I'd have trouble believing a military would not only punish him for making the correct choice but punishing his grandchildren for it too.

Imagine you're in a civilian area that's being carpet bombed with the equivalent of nukes from space, and that's basically the situation he was in. Surrender was the only choice he realistically had, you can't fight back against that.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Also is this a self aware poke at Bioware? Or am I reading too much into it

Spoiler

Unintentionally went full circle to make fun of Bioware, despite originally making fun of the people hating on Bioware.
Just file it under "things that aged like fine wine"

 

[J1M]

Ashley's grandfather did nothing wrong, the entire story feels kinda contrived because it would have been a very difficult decision to make and I'd have trouble believing a military would not only punish him for making the correct choice but punishing his grandchildren for it too.

Imagine you're in a civilian area that's being carpet bombed with the equivalent of nukes from space, and that's basically the situation he was in. Surrender was the only choice he realistically had, you can't fight back against that.

Yeah, but imagine the admirals know as much about the real military as Gaider and Hepler.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I think the part about Ashley being a "conservative" Christian stands out so much because it was just years before libtardism went full batshit. Imagine trying to explain this video to zoomers:


It's also likely the reason it's never brought up again at all.

 

[blessed king of longing]

you people have some impressive minute knowledge of the trilogy. but the fact that it's on consoles should tell you everything you need to know. i've replayed the series 2-3 times over the years, it's schlock - enjoy it for what it is, don't sperg about what could have been

Spoiler

and yes, the first game is the weakest. rpg features my ass, the looting system was begging to be put out of its misery

 

[Lemming42]

enjoy it for what it is, don't sperg about what could have been

We're sci-fi fans, eating feces and discussing how it should have been a cake instead is what we do.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

you can easily spot a pleb by asking them what their favorite ME is and the answer is "2"

 

[Pink Eye]

you can easily spot a pleb by asking them what their favorite ME is and the answer is "2"

What's your favorite ME? If you say 2 your a pleb.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

you can easily spot a pleb by asking them what their favorite ME is and the answer is "2"

What's your favorite ME? If you say 2 your a pleb.

1>3>2

 

[Silverfish]

you can easily spot a pleb by asking them what their favorite ME is and the answer is "2"

What's your favorite ME? If you say 2 your a pleb.

2. The first doesn't have vanguard charge (why even live?) and the third has the gay ending.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

you can easily spot a pleb by asking them what their favorite ME is and the answer is "2"

What's your favorite ME? If you say 2 your a pleb.

2. The first doesn't have vanguard charge (why even live?) and the third has the gay ending.

imagine thinking giant mecha shepard is a better ending lmao

 

[Silverfish]

Yeah. I'll take a (shit) giant robot final boss over a long slow-walking segment and three identical endings that don't make sense anyway.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Yeah. I'll take a (shit) giant robot final boss over a long slow-walking segment and three identical endings that don't make sense anyway.

That's cool. I'll classify both as shit and realize the rest of 3 is vastly superior to 2 rather than judging an entire game on the last 5 minutes like a sperg.

 

[Silverfish]

That's fair. I'd never stop a man from being wrong.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I can't even make a proper ranking of the three games tbh, all were kinda meh for different reasons. Don't regret playing them back in the day, but the ME trilogy was altogether a forgettable experience.

 

[Silverfish]

At least Andromeda was jank enough to be funny.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

At least Andromeda was jank enough to be funny.

Andromeda I haven't even bothered playing. And not so much due to the absolute jankfest that it is (or was, depending on how much they've fixed of the various glitches), but due to the subpar writing even by ME standards. And also the newly introduced races, particularly the friendly one whose visual design just registered as cartoony to me.

 

[J1M]

Maybe we could argue about which mission was best, but seems pretty obvious it was Leviathan.

 

[Yosharian]

Andromeda is horrible and not worth playing.

 

[Caim]

Maybe we could argue about which mission was best, but seems pretty obvious it was Leviathan.

Leviathan added a sense of mystery and atmosphere there's not a lot of in Mass Effect. Sure the non-combat scenes were pretty barebones, but the walkup to the reveal was one of the most atmospheric scenes in the series, and not just it was so far underwater your mech was being crushed.

Sure the ending of Leviathan didn't really change all that much even though it very much should, but it was a nice mystery.

 

[Lacrymas]

Only thing I remember about Kaiden meanwhile is him droning on for-fucking-ever about getting bullied at tard school.

But he's hot and Ashley isn't, so I'd take his droning about protecting the Indian girl or whatever in school over Ashley's droning about being a Christian racist, lol. At the end of the day, both of them are just guys with hair, so the choice on Virmire was never anything other than who you find hotter. Ashley could've been interesting if her racism went somewhere, but Bioware have a tendency of declawing their more extremist characters. It speaks volumes that the most radical thing a companion does in the whole of the ME trilogy is Samara turning down Shep.

 

[Caim]

It speaks volumes that the most radical thing a companion does in the whole of the ME trilogy is Samara turning down Shep.

If you romanced Jacob, the only black guy on your crew, in ME2 it turns out that between games he got another woman pregnant and intends to stay with her.

There's a difference between being turned down by a woman old enough to be born during the time Frederick Barbarossa was alive and getting cheated on like that. If you pulled the same stunt in ME2 because you've romanced Kaidan or Liara he calls you out on that, which I don't recall ever seeing in a game of this genre.