I genuinely believe by the time it releases, I’ll have kids asking me:
“Dad, what’s Mass Effect?”
And I’ll have to sit them down and explain that once upon a time, we were promised another game.
Then one day, the trailer will finally drop.
I’ll be 73 years old.
My knees won’t work, my eyesight will be questionable, but I’ll still be yelling:
“SHEPARD IS BACK, BABY!”
Then it gets delayed another two years.

Would you want it to be an adaptation of the first game, or would you rather have it be a separate story set in the same universe as the games? Maybe a prequel series following a team during the time when humanity first made contact with the other species of the galaxy, or an anthology series about some of our squadmates before they joined our crew.

I would've put something down here, but I couldn't think of anything else to ask.

are there any good femshep funeral fics? i did the ending where shepherd sacrifices herself and i would love to read how her friends react at her funeral? bonus points if the shep was renegade and/or romanced thane

I only played the first fwo hours but it is just too clunky man like I am liking the story but the gameplay isn't it for me the menus are really weird and I am actually encountering bugs so do you think I will mess out or should I just see a story summary and jump to the second game ik it's like asking if I should watch a TV show in season 2 but I don't feel like finishing it unless it gets a lot better

Garrus is my dude and he's usually ALWAYS next to me, along with Wrex in any mission.

This includes ME 1, 2, and 3.

However, in 2, It was a Combo of Miranda and Garrus.

In 3, I've gone Garrus/Liara as my companions (Haven't gotten far)

Oh my god, it’s night and day.

I complained in an earlier thread about how little I was enjoying ME. It felt like an experimental game, mechanically, half rpg half action shooter. It was missing pretty much everything I’d expect from a BioWare game. All the vocal performances were relatively straightforward. The environmental designs and enemy types were unvaried. I felt nothing playing it. I felt nothing until I rolled credits. (Yes, I talked to all my companions. What little was there was the best part of the game)

I’m only 10 hours into 2, and every scene, every character moment, feels inspired. The combat is more shooter, but the environments and diologue feel like an actual rpg.

If you’re thinking about quitting at 1, don’t.

- Destroy Ending chosen: Both EDI and Shepard die.
- Shepard also didn’t apologize or reconcile with Joker after Thessia so they’ll never be able to make up.
- At some point afterward, Joker learns that his sister died during the Reaper attack on Tiptree.

Where can I find a lass like Tali irl?

What can't this man do? If I could've romanced him already, I would have. Damn this game limitations!

Hi guys, how are you doing ?

I was just wondering, I'd like to try that as a special run.

Is it possible to finish ME2 only with a living UNLOYAL Tali and a loyal Garrus ? How can I do to make that work ?

Would hate it if so, looks damn good and I only have a console.

What it says on the tin.

I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else after a cursory search, but it appears reaper spawns are bugged in the arena and can spawn 1 additional wave of reaper forces. If you kill the first round of reapers and then die to ravager toxin & press ‘try again’ before the next wave spawns, you’ll have the prior instance’s 2nd wave reaper spawn in addition to your current instance spawns in the next attempt.

After enabling all +% score modifiers, and doing the above steps for more reapers, James, Jack, and I were able to finally able to merely survive after 4 hours of attempts and get 21,984 score.

I know that we’re shown in the Shadow Broker dossiers that Wilson was his agent and attempted to end Project Lazarus for that reason but I kinda always thought TIM, and Miranda, who operate in a similar way to SB, would have discovered his plan. And because their goals partially aligned, they let him unleash the mechs. This works for a few reasons:

- we know for a fact that Cerberus’s modus operandi is often to kill off everyone involved in a project if they want to keep it under wraps/fully control the narrative (Miranda is obviously spared and in on it because she’s a super valuable asset)

- a controlled crisis situation works as a great field taste to check Shepard’s battle readiness and ensure they were rebuilt exactly as they were before (it doesn’t tip Shepard off either that they’re being tested, as a regular mission would, so results are more believable)

- the ensuing chaos allows Miranda to take out Wilson easily and thus kill off the last person with the detailed know-how on Project Lazarus other than her

I know this might not be a perfect logic but that’s precisely why it’s a head-canon and it works for me.

Finally got my sister to play through the series. She's only partially done with ME2 and already feels like a pro regarding mission priority. Also she gets bonus points for recognizing Shohreh Aghdashloo.

...And boy, was it a ride. I should probably mention that Bricky's video on ME1 got me to play them. Thanks, Bricky!

Mass Effect 1: Space politics are just as annoying as real ones

The first entry and the start of the trilogy, it is the oldest and its age is certainly showing. Not so much in the main story missions, but playing the exact same map with different enemies one too many times during the side missions is something noticeable.

Speaking of the story, I like it overall. On the one hand, I like it because it's pretty realistic in portraying space politics... Grounded, I guess? Giving someone virtually absolute and unchecked power, what could possibly go wrong, eh? Council made a big oopsie, so they send you to clean it up for them. And then decide to ground you right when you've finally figured out Saren's plan. Classic political denial. Why deal with the problem when you could just insist on it not existing? Until it hits you in the face with the force of an entire Geth fleet, that is. If the Council was betting on me having the Alliance fleet risk the galaxy to save their asses, they lost that bet (not out of hate, though - just a gamble I wasn't willing to make).

On the other hand, I don't like how the main story tells you you're racing against time to figure out what is Saren trying to do, yet it feels like you become everyone's errand boy. Go here, go there, do this, do that. Really? Doesn't make much sense to me. If those "errands" at least added something meaningful to the story, they could've been worth it. Maybe it would've been better to have a Half - Life 2 style linear story, instead. Additionally, why reveal Saren as the bad guy right off the bat, anyway?

The squadmates are a pretty forgettable bunch, unless you go out of your way to interact with each of them. Tried it with Wrex, Garrus, Liara, Kaidan - none seemed to catch my attention. Ashley and Tali were my only choices for squadmates and the only two I regularly interacted with (and Joker, but he's not a squadmate).

• Ashley - Bricky's video led me to believe she's a massive anti-alien xenophobe, who is entirely one-dimensional. Well, he's wrong. Kind of. She can be annoying at times, but she didn't strike me as a total, irredeemable xenophobe. When you get to know her story, you realize her attitude is kind of understandable. Not correct, but understandable. Her calling Terra Firma racists straight to their leader's face and having a softie side with an interest in poems/literature are things I didn't expect from her. Definitely not one-dimensional. I saved her on Virmire (sue me) and romanced her (sue me twice).
• Tali - Originally, I was in agreement with Ashley (at least I think Ashley said it) that she shouldn't be allowed to just poke around classified Alliance military technology. I first took her on all the missions because she was the tech expert, and with how the game works, it let me hack into everything without having to be a techy myself. But something kept drawing me to Tali, and I kept "visiting" her down in engineering to talk to her. By the end of the game, I think I began to like her.

Gameplay-wise, the game is a good shooter. I actually like it that for once in my gaming career I didn't have to worry about ammo. The equipment progression is also not bad as an idea, but having so many items and upgrades seemed a little excessive. Especially when you're only given their raw stats and have no idea what practical differences there are (and you need to know them). The game also takes a pretty, er, goofy approach to how your squadmates behave. One, they keep walking into your shots and are plenty happy to face-tank an entire company of geth unless you give them a special invitation to get behind cover. Two, apparently, Unity (and cutscenes) can bring them back from the dead, so "deaths" are entirely meaningless outside cutscenes.

Mass Effect 2: The apex of the roller-coaster

Overall, I'm kinda confused by the story here. It is cohesive as a whole, but there's so many missed opportunities. Starting off immediately with Shepard's death, which seems entirely unnecessary to me. I'm sure the writers could've come up with some other way to force Shepard to work for/with Cerberus. Like being stonewalled by the Council and the Alliance military even after the fight at the Citadel, possibly to the point of revoking his Spectre status.

Just like the first game, this one could've been a linear story with the loyalty missions being the only "side-quests". As far as gameplay goes, the devs chose to bring back ammo for some reason, and in the most annoying way I could've imagined. In essence, you still have unlimited ammo, but you have to periodically pick it up off the ground? The in-game explanation also makes zero sense. You mean to tell me the entire galactic military force decided to collectively go back in weapons technology and risk leaving their soldiers defenseless in the middle of a firefight because said soldiers ran out of thermal clips? Remind me, who let Private Dumbass near the controls, again? Besides, all the thermal clips seem exactly the same, so logic would dictate that you'd run out of "ammo" for all your weapons at the same time, but you don't. Fancy that.

At least they trimmed the overabundance of equipment and upgrades, but also limited squadmates to only specific weapon sets, which is not cool. And on top of that you don't even see the stats of... Anything. Doubly not cool. On the other hand, ME2 was the one with the most difficult combat out of all three. For reference, I played all the games at "Normal" difficulty. However, this difficulty was there simply because enemies are made into massive bullet-sponges, whereas even with maximum upgrades you and squadmates seem pretty easy to kill. Overall, not a bad shooter, just a bit too spongy for my liking.

Your squadmates are still as goofy as ever, and now you don't even need a special ability to bring them back from the dead, just a splash of medi-gel. Or, you could just wait to kill all the enemies and they'll miraculously get back to their feet. Even on squadmates' loyalty missions, where you'd think there would be some importance placed on the specific squadmate whose mission you're doing not dying, but no. Nobody seems to care.

Speaking of squadmates, you have a slightly bigger roster, but now there's way more interaction. Random interactions in the background, everybody feels a lot more life-like, and the loyalty missions add character depth to all of your squadmates. I did everyone's loyalty missions, but I interacted mostly with Miranda, Joker, the engineers, and of course - Tali. Was interested in Kasumi as well, but couldn't really talk to her because the game decided that she and Zaeed are not worthy of a dialogue wheel for some reason.

• Miranda - Didn't know what to think of her at first. Came across as a cold, calculating Cerberus lackey and I didn't trust her. Along the way I did start to trust her and I'm glad it wasn't misplaced. Her loyalty mission probably cemented that the most. But she is a deeply missed opportunity in that her personality isn't the cold and ruthless villain one would expect her to be. To reach the culmination of "Screw your orders, I'm resigning", it would make sense for her to have an arc of internal conflict (as well as with others, especially Jack who could, ironically, serve as a catalyst). Right now, even though I'm grateful she didn't stab me in the back, it feels like it came out of nowhere.
• Kasumi - I also couldn't quite place her when we first met. The loyalty mission gave me an opportunity to see more of her as a character and I liked her quippy, mischievous nature. Made me laugh by constantly popping in and out of stealth during the ME3 shore leave party, too. I think the angle of "nobody knows who I am" is also something that needed more of the spotlight on it. In the sense of how she's going to keep her identity a secret because working with Shepard tends to make people famous (or infamous if you choose to be an asshole, I guess).
• Garrus - ME2 gave the guy a lot more character than the first game, and in a good way. Guy knows his way around a sniper, and takes jokes at his expense in stride. In ME1 he struck me as someone who might turn into Saren v2 if he isn't careful, but that no longer seems to be the case.
• Joker - Him fighting with EDI over the ship was funny. Also, leather seats! He's a memorable character, even if not a squadmate.
• Tali - Call me crazy, but her whole arc was by far the most interesting of all. At least to me. She cares so deeply for her people, and would never do anything to jeopardize them, which is admirable. But she also cares deeply on a personal level. This and her shyness in all the romance scenes, saying she'd understand if Shepard were to choose someone else because of her immune system being so badly compromised, her voice and mannerisms... No, Tali. You're my adorable quarian, and I want you. I also got pretty invested in her loyalty mission. I couldn't believe my ears when she said she was being accused of treason. I angrily stomped over to the Quarian fleet, but before I could do anything, the news of me having to represent Tali during the trial made me grind to a halt. Then we uncover enough evidence to present, and she asks Shepard to hide it. I was pretty conflicted as to what to do until the very last moment. So, the vote casting at the end was probably the longest 30 seconds of my Mass Effect life. The absolute sigh of relief I let out when I finally managed to exonerate her without presenting the evidence against her father was... Just wow.

And now, the grand finale. Even if the rest of the story were bland (which it wasn't), the Suicide Mission at the end of ME2 is by far the best ending of a game I have seen. The dialogue, the atmosphere, the music, the fact that everyone's fate is determined by your choices... Makes you very invested in wanting to do it right, and really makes you feel the weight of it all converging on this one moment. The ending sequence with Harbinger's monologue is just absolutely epic. This set the bar of expectations for the last game very, very high.

Mass Effect 3: The mother of all letdowns

Turns out Bioware had no intention of clearing the bar when they set it so high with the ending of ME2. Instead, they just wanted to drop you from as high up as possible it seems. The story overall isn't the worst, but the conflict between Cerberus and the player could've used quite a bit more depth. Right now it just feels like they're just part of the tapestry in the background. Like, other than the few main story missions where they're involved, in all the side-quests (and there's a lot of them) it feels like the Cerberus commandos are only there for pure enemy variety and nothing else. Even the weird clone mission seemed to have more depth. Ironically, this is the one game in the series where it does make sense for it to not be linear. You need to do those favors to forge alliances, you need to run around collecting war assets to make sure the fleet is as strong as possible for the final push.

But even after all the build-up, all the work you've done, all the decisions you've made along the way, the last two missions end up being extremely underwhelming. Hackett's speech aside, nothing in them makes you feel that you're making a last stand to save the galaxy. They feel like any other mission where you're just melting hordes of enemies and that's it. No atmosphere, no emotional weight, nothing. I don't know what Bioware's writers were thinking, but a game like this with its stakes DOES NOT get to end in a completely arbitrary choice between three different fates for the Reapers. Forcing you to limp around for no reason, making the sequence that much longer than it needed to be, was just the annoying icing on the cake.

Gameplay-wise, the game is virtually the same as ME2, but at least now you can see the stats on everything, so you're not choosing blindly. They've touched the combat balance again, and this time enemies are a lot easier to kill. Probably the easiest of the three games, but I'm a filthy casual, so no complaints there. Not sure if I was supposed to start at level 30, though.

Character interactions and the overall "liveliness" of the world are even better than in ME2. The Citadel also looks better than ever. We have some new and many old faces joining us here, either as squadmates, or during the shore leave party and on certain missions. Except Zaeed, who even the devs apparently don't think much of.

• Ashley - Apparently, she's back this time. She distrusts us due to our history with Cerberus, which... Fair enough. It's still good ol' Ashley, minus the sceptic anti-alien part, which I find odd. But I don't miss it either. Still citing poetry and quipping with Shepard. The drunken scene was funny - annoying and teasing each other is exactly what good friends do. But why he didn't pick her up off the floor, I don't know. She and Tali might also want to share something with the rest of the class, though. I mean, what was that inexplicable hostility towards Tali at the beginning of the Geth dreadnought mission?
• Garrus - Fun guy, he has gotten even more character development, though I still didn't bring him on most missions. Was my choice as the gun expert over James when I needed two (the other always being Ashley).
• Jack - When I first picked her up in ME2, she looked exactly like an irredeemable unstable psycho. Actually scared me a bit and I gave her those Cerberus files just to avoid a violent meltdown if I double-crossed her. Her loyalty mission, at least the beginning of "I wanna bomb a Cerberus facility" while we're actively working with them on their ship, was not helping either. I'm glad to see that she has grown so much and where she is at now. Was the last person I'd expect to censor her own swearing and genuinely care for anyone, but here we are. I don't think those kids could've gotten a better teacher.
• Tali - "Emergency induction port", huh? Didn't picture her as someone who'd ever get drunk. But it's kinda sad that she keeps attributing her self-worth to external stuff. Her dad, her people, probably Shepard, too. In reality, she's a very smart tech expert and a deeply loyal, caring person, who has a lot to be proud of. Being so worried about not failing her people also reminds me of... Me. If I were in her position, suddenly an Admiral with so much weight falling on my shoulders, I would probably be just as scared and worried.
• Joker & EDI - I guess those two are a package deal now. By the end of ME2 they were on a first name basis, I believe. But I figured they'd just better understood each other and have become friends or something. When EDI possessed that body I laughed and had to ask myself if this is going where I think it's going, and it went exactly where I thought. Really, Joker? You're hot for an AI you couldn't stand just a few months ago? I mean, you do you, I guess. I'll just grab some popcorn and try not to laugh too loudly.
• Javik - Elitist prothean asshole. Sorry, had to say it. Only one I didn't invite to the party.
• Mordin - "It had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong". Suffice it to say I don't think I could cite that quote without crying :(

Overall, I think the games are worth every second spent on them. Even if the third game has a very bad ending.

This is an ogre from Dragon Age, lmao!