Mass Effect Trilogy

[Iucounu]

The yellow ending is implied to be the most hopeful because even though everyone is wiped out the archives liara creates will give the next cycle the knowledge needed to break free without destroying the relays.

Isn't that odd too, valuing the defeat of reapers and preservation of relays higher than everybody's survival? And all that for the benefit of some unknown future species?

 

[J1M]

The yellow ending is implied to be the most hopeful because even though everyone is wiped out the archives liara creates will give the next cycle the knowledge needed to break free without destroying the relays.

Isn't that odd too, valuing the defeat of reapers and preservation of relays higher than everybody's survival? And all that for the benefit of some unknown future species?

They will ignore the lore about the mass relay tech being totally impossible for them to understand and replicate. And ignore all of the extremely widespread starvation caused by immediate destruction of the galactic supply chain.

From the perspective of someone that wants Mass Effect 4, I have seen Shepard can be brought back to life after being brain dead, burned, and frozen, simply with human technology already available. So I am not worried about him.

A clean slate setting where the existing races reappear with new dynamics because they went nearly extinct is fine with me. So are new races with new politics. (Also, making all of humanity literally descended from Shepard because humanity was wiped out is a take I haven't seen in a game before that might be interesting to explore.)

But a flaccid Mass Effect where you can only explore as far as an FTL drive can take you with a homogenous rogue gallery is a guaranteed flop. See: Andromeda.

 

[Iucounu]

A clean slate setting where the existing races reappear with new dynamics because they went nearly extinct is fine with me.

Just let Sara Ryder return with the Ark, and the Milky Way is repopulated in no time...

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Nah, Andromeda can keep the gay and trannies. Milk way it's for based hot people only.

 

[Akachi]

It wasn't that hard. Surely you can't expect to get the "best" ending by skipping much of the content?

In contrast, the "best" endings in the Krogan and Geth sub-plots require making correct dialog choices throughout all three games (and yet the only reward you get are some different cutscenes, that you might as well watch on Youtube).

Yes, I expect to get the best ending in a single player cRPG without doing pointless filler that shouldn't be in a good game to begin with, and without playing multiplayer. Fortunately, save editors existed and it was easy to edit the value.

Best ending for the Krogans was to ensure they can't cure the genophage after what they did in the past to warrant it, and shoot the not-Mordin impostor clone in the back when he tries, who you could tell wasn't the real one because he had a different voice and didn't understand it to be the right decision the way the real Mordin did. For the Geth, it was obviously to wipe them out of existence as punishment for their bad writing and retconned behaviour where they went from one of the few good pieces of scifi writing at the end of Mass Effect 2 to being anthropomorphised robots that want to be human with your former companion as their robo-Jesus.

Both choices may have given you less points, not sure, it's been too long. Maybe that's part of it, classic Bioware C&C: the consequence for not making stupid decisions naïvely thinking every kind of alien could live together in harmony happily ever after—in spite of it being obvious that's what the writers actually think—is you must waste your time or play MP, or you won't find out for yourself the best ending is as equally trash as all the others!

From what I remember the whole series didn't have a single real consequence for anything, you could never get locked out of something, be forced to do something differently, or miss out on more than flavour, filler, and window dressings.

I think it's great fan fiction. Considering how bizarre the ending is, it's not unreasonable to wonder wether the writers had hidden some kind of narrative easter egg in it. But of course Bioware is much too shallow for such subtleties, it's more like something I'd expect from say Frictional Games' Soma.

As fanfic sure, it's not that it was a bad idea, but it was never presented as fanfic. Fans coped by making up a better story than what anyone actually got in the game, then trying to find "evidence" to support it. It was better conceptually than what Bioware writers actually came up with, which made Bioware look even more pathetic, but I call its faithful forum posting adherents copium-induced psychotics since it was 100% obvious it wasn't what had actually happened in the game. It would definitely be unreasonable to think Bioware writers (ME3's no less) came up with it and intended it themselves.

 

[Iucounu]

shoot the not-Mordin impostor clone in the back when he tries, who you could tell wasn't the real one because he had a different voice and didn't understand it to be the right decision the way the real Mordin did.

Interesting idea. I suppose adherents of the Indoctrination Theory may have reacted in a similar way to the ending (I'm not implying you're a psychotic here ).

Maybe that's part of it, classic Bioware C&C: the consequence for not making stupid decisions naïvely thinking every kind of alien could live together in harmony happily ever after—in spite of it being obvious that's what the writers actually think—is you must waste your time or play MP, or you won't find out for yourself the best ending is as equally trash as all the others!

Yes, it's assumed that the player shares Bioware's dream of an inclusive utopia, that's why it's the hardest outcome to achieve (and because utopias are hard to make true, something even Bioware must realize). Alas this also means that more realistic players won't get a real challenge, but I guess Bioware cares more about ideology than gameplay.

From what I remember the whole series didn't have a single real consequence for anything, you could never get locked out of something, be forced to do something differently, or miss out on more than flavour, filler, and window dressings.

True, main characters that get killed are always replaced by a generic NPC, perhaps with slightly different dialogs or cutscenes. At worst you miss some brief sidequest (a couple of minutes long at most).

When I really like a game I may try to achieve every outcome in multiple playthroughs, even if I don't agree with the "ideology" of each outcome. But it usually takes more than different cutscenes to make me replay an entire game (let alone three games).

It would definitely be unreasonable to think Bioware writers (ME3's no less) came up with it and intended it themselves.

Indeed, they've even admitted it themselves: "We Weren't That Smart" - Mass Effect Writer Likes The Indoctrination Theory, But It Was Created By Fans

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The yellow ending is implied to be the most hopeful because even though everyone is wiped out the archives liara creates will give the next cycle the knowledge needed to break free without destroying the relays.

Isn't that odd too, valuing the defeat of reapers and preservation of relays higher than everybody's survival? And all that for the benefit of some unknown future species?

They will ignore the lore about the mass relay tech being totally impossible for them to understand and replicate. And ignore all of the extremely widespread starvation caused by immediate destruction of the galactic supply chain.

From the perspective of someone that wants Mass Effect 4, I have seen Shepard can be brought back to life after being brain dead, burned, and frozen, simply with human technology already available. So I am not worried about him.

A clean slate setting where the existing races reappear with new dynamics because they went nearly extinct is fine with me. So are new races with new politics. (Also, making all of humanity literally descended from Shepard because humanity was wiped out is a take I haven't seen in a game before that might be interesting to explore.)

But a flaccid Mass Effect where you can only explore as far as an FTL drive can take you with a homogenous rogue gallery is a guaranteed flop. See: Andromeda.

They should just reboot the whole thing. Just say you’re doing a Final Fantasy and that the next Mass Effect is unrelated to the previous trilogy, but nevertheless has returning aspects like alien species and classes. Would be a good opportunity to set everything back to the basics of what was interesting about the first game anyways: A not so secret special agent in space with a license to kill. Give them more wiggle room to take bigger swings with the whole film aesthetic thing too...and that ‘80s film aesthetic of the first game was the coolest thing about the whole series. Could do one game styled as noir, another as a grimy grindhouse film, go more pulp, give it a B movie feeling; they could do a like with that original filmness of the first game if they so wished and take it in other directions in a big way.

 

[mediocrepoet]

They should just reboot it as a porn series for their die hard fans and call it Mass Erect.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Sounds gay.

 

[Modron]

Sounds gay.

Probably would have less gay content than the actual games.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Mass effect x Other Worlds = ??? (What else could be stacked in that romance)?

 

[Theodora]

Story aside, how well did they age with the remasters?

 

[Tacgnol]

Story aside, how well did they age with the remasters?

Remasters are okay (I played the remastered ones last year), but they totally broke mod compatibility if that's an important factor. Some of the big mods might have been ported over by now though.

One of the big things for me was they can all be played at 144hz without any issues, which was impossible with the original trilogy.

 

[Theodora]

Remasters are okay (I played the remastered ones last year), but they totally broke mod compatibility if that's an important factor. Some of the big mods might have been ported over by now though.

Not really, all I'm interested in are mods to adjust the UI for 21:9 and those are made for the remasters anyway.

Mostly just wanted to know how the game itself aged, since 3D games are so strangely hit or miss with that compared to 2D and isometric ones (I guess maybe in part because we, more often, have much fancier or elaborated-upon versions of the same or similar gameplay).

 

[Iucounu]

I might actually like a game where some worried Andromeda colonialists return to the Milky Way 1800 years after the ME3 Refuse ending, encountering a Milky Way where all the planets have been turned into ancient ruins over time (similar to Ilos) and only savages and scattered pockets of civilization remain hiding from the Reapers. Liara's defeatist beacon should of course be ignored (maybe she just forgot to turn it off).

Or a game after the Destroy ending, where no relays means that longer trips take a century each, and as a result also send you one century forward in time each time, so travelling must be strictly tied to a main plot spanning many centuries.

Many have also requested a prequel during the first war with the Turians. Might be interesting, except that prequel plots usually means unsurprising endings.

All romancing and LGBT must go, of course. Nowadays I have zero tolerance for that.

They should just reboot it as a porn series for their die hard fans and call it Mass Erect.

From what I've seen ME is more about relationships than porn.

Still wouldn't expose children or teenagers to this though:

 

[Tacgnol]

Mostly just wanted to know how the game itself aged, since 3D games are so strangely hit or miss with that compared to 2D and isometric ones (I guess maybe in part because we, more often, have much fancier or elaborated-upon versions of the same or similar gameplay).

First one still has awful floaty controls, poor UI and poor gunplay. Others feel fine for the most part.

 

[Maxie]

ME1 overheating guns at least offered a modicum of RPG. ME2 picking up thermal clips scattered everywhere was such a fucked up downgrade i was stalking the streets screeching at random people for two weeks having beaten ME2.

 

[Akachi]

Interesting idea. I suppose adherents of the Indoctrination Theory may have reacted in a similar way to the ending (I'm not implying you're a psychotic here ).

Fair.

Yes, it's assumed that the player shares Bioware's dream of an inclusive utopia, that's why it's the hardest outcome to achieve (and because utopias are hard to make true, something even Bioware must realize). Alas this also means that more realistic players won't get a real challenge, but I guess Bioware cares more about ideology than gameplay.

I've always been perplexed by this utopian attitude that seems so common when it comes to scifi—how does the way you think alien species should be treated in a galactic civilisation have anything to do with present views/politics IRL? To them the connection seems obvious, e.g if you think krogans are dangerous and the genophage should be kept intact, that's no different from thinking one human race should do that to another human race, and that's why they make sure players who play the ME series the way I did will get called "racist" by NPCs (increasingly after the first game).

It's so absurd to me to even make the comparison, as if treating another biological species where the difference is at kingdom level is the same as racism to where that should be apparent to everyone, and it's really bizarre to me how ideological it seems for such people, since I think of it as so separate from real issues that it makes no sense to care about unless you were worried about actual extraterrestrials being mistreated IRL. To them, I guess thinking krogans are dangerous and being pro-genophage is identical in concept to if you support actual racism and eugenics. It's odd considering their views they allow players to make choices like that.

Missed opportunity in how they always made paragon choices the "right" ones with good outcomes in my opinion, would've been much more interesting if it varied and everything wasn't always so simple and obvious.

They should just reboot it as a porn series for their die hard fans and call it Mass Erect.

They should have an idea of how many people might be interested already, after all Bioware sells body pillows on their official store.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Those body pillows of Tali Zorah and Liara are somewhat interesting in so far as I’m not sure I can imagine modern BioWare actually having tits like that on a character in the game. Yet they’ve got no problem selling merchandise showing the characters like. Maybe they should also try to sell their video games.

 

[Iucounu]

I've always been perplexed by this utopian attitude that seems so common when it comes to scifi—how does the way you think alien species should be treated in a galactic civilisation have anything to do with present views/politics IRL? To them the connection seems obvious, e.g if you think krogans are dangerous and the genophage should be kept intact, that's no different from thinking one human race should do that to another human race, and that's why they make sure players who play the ME series the way I did will get called "racist" by NPCs (increasingly after the first game).

It's so absurd to me to even make the comparison, as if treating another biological species where the difference is at kingdom level is the same as racism to where that should be apparent to everyone, and it's really bizarre to me how ideological it seems for such people, since I think of it as so separate from real issues that it makes no sense to care about unless you were worried about actual extraterrestrials being mistreated IRL.

It could be absurd anthropomorphization, or maybe they think that once alien species are able to create technological civilization they'll have a lot more in common with us due to convergent evolution? But I suspect Bioware just uses aliens as loose allegories for other human races or cultures. That could also explain the interspecies romancing, maybe they're just thinking about human interracial/cultural relationships.

To them, I guess thinking krogans are dangerous and being pro-genophage is identical in concept to if you support actual racism and eugenics. It's odd considering their views they allow players to make choices like that.

In Bioware's defense they do support both views in that case. For example, in ME3 it's admitted that Krogans destroyed their own planet even before having contact with other species (and so can't blame it on the genophage). Maybe the game also treats players as naive liberals if they're anti-genophage, can't remember.

Speaking of Krogan, you'd think a liberal player would abhor the Krogans' inherently violent culture, but it seems many such players are remarkably fond of characters like Wrex or Grunt, completely glossing over these characters' non-liberal attitudes. Then again, Western liberals often do the same with non-Western cultures as well in various issues (such as Islam vs LGBT, or racism between non-Westerners).

Missed opportunity in how they always made paragon choices the "right" ones with good outcomes in my opinion, would've been much more interesting if it varied and everything wasn't always so simple and obvious.

At least in ME2 you can also succeed (in say the Morinth quest) by choosing either Renegade or Paragon choices exclusively thoughout the game. Maybe that's considered having a strong character? It's mixing Renegade and Paragon depending on situation that's a recipy for disaster (at least with Morinth).

 

[ind33d]

ME1 overheating guns at least offered a modicum of RPG. ME2 picking up thermal clips scattered everywhere was such a fucked up downgrade i was stalking the streets screeching at random people for two weeks having beaten ME2.

Mass 1, like Assassin's Creed 1 and Watch_Dogs 1, is very underrated. The entire gaming industry has nosedived since the PS3 era to the point that decade-old 8/10s are better than current AAA titles.

Even Bioware knows Mass 1 is the best in the trilogy or they wouldn't have tried to soft-reboot it with Andromeda

 

[Modron]

Assassin's Creed 1 is very underrated.

I think you meant to say the sequel.

 

[Maxie]

Assassin's Creed 1 is very underrated.

I think you meant to say the sequel.

way to out yourself as a fucking pedestrian
ezio's trilogy is decline

 

[Theodora]

Assassin's Creed 1 is very underrated.

I think you meant to say the sequel.

Pretty groundbreaking for all its flaws.

Still pisses me off that they watered everything down to "hold button and move stick" for the entire parkour system.

 

[Iucounu]

ME1 overheating guns at least offered a modicum of RPG.

Just curious: what has that mechanic got to do (or not) with RPGs? I agree that ammo boxes everywhere is silly.

Mass 1, like Assassin's Creed 1 and Watch_Dogs 1, is very underrated.

Most people seem to like the plot, lore, dialogs and music of ME1. What else is underrated about it? Surely not the menus: Mass Effect: Massive Interface Fail Part II

Even Bioware knows Mass 1 is the best in the trilogy or they wouldn't have tried to soft-reboot it with Andromeda

Only reboot thing I noticed was that some of Andromeda's planets looked just as plain as ME1's.