Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

[bgmnts]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-02-mass-effect-returns-bioware-talks-trilogy-tweaks-and-franchise-revival

Unsure if anyone is interested in this but will be coming this May. I have the games and most of the dlcs so I'm not hugely arsed but it may be nice to play Mass Effect with a bit more polish.

Why don't they just remake these classics with new engines? Can you imagine Metal Gear Solid with the MGSV engine?

[Thursday]

Why don't they just remake these classics with new engines? Can you imagine Metal Gear Solid with the MGSV engine?

Do you really need an answer to this? You can probably guess what the answer probably is.

[bgmnts]

Well I mean its entirely feasible.

[Mister Six]

Probably not financially.

They're not changing the ending (or the lack of multiple endings/meaninglessness of your various choices) so I won't bother. Didn't even bother with ME3 the first time around.

[Chollis]

I often forget Mass Effect exists but I really did enjoy the 1st and 2nd ones. Can't even remember if I finished the 3rd. Gonna get this.

[Bazooka]

I played through the first 3, number 1 and 2 twice. That was when they came out, I doubt I'd pay more than £20.

[The Culture Bunker]

I played through ME2 and 3 several time, ME1 just the once when it was brought out on PS3 - too much of it was boring compared to the sequels.

I enjoyed the storylines, setting and (especially) the characters, but not sure I want to go through them all again.

[druss]

Loved Mass Effect 1, for some reason never clicked with the second one despite it supposedly being by far the best of the lot. Might give it another go with this new edition.

[MojoJojo]

The second one is really stupid in terms of plot. The first one sets up that the reapers as the threat, a team, and Shepard as a SPECTRE whose had some of protean artifact mess with his head.

Second one throws all that away for no good reason. You now work for Cerberus, an organisation that in the first game mostly had warehouses full of waist high walls on otherwise empty planets and committed terrorist attacks. Forget the reapers. I mean, they want to destroy all intelligent life, but let's not worry about them this game.

Now go and recruit this incredibly powerful psychic - she already knows who we are, since we tortured her in horrific experiments throughout her childhood.

The second one gets by ok (and the gameplay improvements were very welcome) because the world setting in the first game was so good, and because it basically ignores the main plot. Plus you can bang the hot redhead on the bridge. But as soon you think about any of the story elements it's really stupid, and it's clear the second game unbolted the wheels which fell off in the third game.

[The Culture Bunker]

Second one throws all that away for no good reason. You now work for Cerberus, an organisation that in the first game mostly had warehouses full of waist high walls on otherwise empty planets and committed terrorist attacks. Forget the reapers. I mean, they want to destroy all intelligent life, but let's not worry about them this game.

Isn't the final bit of ME2 where you take your assembled team and attack the reapers in their own space?

[MojoJojo]

Isn't the final bit of ME2 where you take your assembled team and attack the reapers in their own space?

Well, the initial task the illusive man gives you is that the collectors are on the other side of the Omega IV relay and you're supposed to gather a team to go through it and attack them. Throughout the course of the game you discover that the collectors are proteans converted by the reapers for some unknown reason*. But you don't know that at the start of the game, and it's just a happy coincidence that you end up fighting against the reapers rather than some slavers or something.

*the reason is to build a massive baby. I don't think it's ever explained why they want a giant baby.

[The Culture Bunker]

It's been a while since I played it, but my memory is that Shepherd only teams up with Martin Sheen in a "well, you're taking this universe-sized threat (the reapers) seriously while everyone else ignores it, so I'll work with/for you. For now. Plus you did bring me back from the dead, which is nice." I think the first job he gives you is to go check out some colony that has gone dark, where you discover it's been attacked and the colonists taken away - so to me, it was fairly clear these reapers/the aliens working for them were the bad guys.

I hadn't played the initial game when I had my first ME2 playthrough, which perhaps helped.

[MojoJojo]

Well, it's sort of true you could substitute reaper for collector in the opening and a lot of the problems would disappear. You still have issues with stuff like everyone ignoring the terrifying alien that invaded the capital of the known galaxy a couple of years ago. It made sense in the first game that everyone was ignoring the reapers because they were just legends and Shephard having a few visions. But they actually turn up and started killing people but apparently everyone is still ignoring them for some reason.

[Thursday]

ME1 has the best atmosphere, story writing pacing etc. It has to do all the hard work when it comes to world building, but I do love the more episodic feel to ME2. I like it most when it's forgotten about the main plot and it's not just this "imminent threat to the universe" story. I prefer when things in it are more low stakes. Sort of in the style of a 24 episode series of an American network tv show where there's a lot of bumming around and then they suddenly remember the important story at the end of the series.

[bgmnts]

The second one is really stupid in terms of plot. The first one sets up that the reapers as the threat, a team, and Shepard as a SPECTRE whose had some of protean artifact mess with his head.

Second one throws all that away for no good reason. You now work for Cerberus, an organisation that in the first game mostly had warehouses full of waist high walls on otherwise empty planets and committed terrorist attacks. Forget the reapers. I mean, they want to destroy all intelligent life, but let's not worry about them this game.

Now go and recruit this incredibly powerful psychic - she already knows who we are, since we tortured her in horrific experiments throughout her childhood.

The second one gets by ok (and the gameplay improvements were very welcome) because the world setting in the first game was so good, and because it basically ignores the main plot. Plus you can bang the hot redhead on the bridge. But as soon you think about any of the story elements it's really stupid, and it's clear the second game unbolted the wheels which fell off in the third game.

Well, the collectors are working for the reapers and the reveal about them gives you insight into what the Reapers do.

[The Culture Bunker]

Well, it's sort of true you could substitute reaper for collector in the opening and a lot of the problems would disappear. You still have issues with stuff like everyone ignoring the terrifying alien that invaded the capital of the known galaxy a couple of years ago. It made sense in the first game that everyone was ignoring the reapers because they were just legends and Shephard having a few visions. But they actually turn up and started killing people but apparently everyone is still ignoring them for some reason.

I can sort of ride with the "authorities ignoring/dismissing the threat" angle, as it's a well-used trope in fiction (and real life, to some extent) - my biggest storyline bugbear in ME2 is the ship getting boarded only at the point Shepherd and his whole squad have fucked off for a hour or two.

[MojoJojo]

ME1 has the best atmosphere, story writing pacing etc. It has to do all the hard work when it comes to world building, but I do love the more episodic feel to ME2. I like it most when it's forgotten about the main plot and it's not just this "imminent threat to the universe" story. I prefer when things in it are more low stakes. Sort of in the style of a 24 episode series of an American network tv show where there's a lot of bumming around and then they suddenly remember the important story at the end of the series.

Well, yeah - it is good. I guess the point I'm making is that the problems in the third game started in the second. This isn't an original opinion by the way - https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=27792 is a good but very long break down of it.

But for the most part the storytelling problems in 2 don't impact it. There are still some dumb bits, like Jack working with Cerberus making no sense, and the scenes with the Illusive man* being directed like the dialogue is deep and meaningful, rather than the barely logical nonsense it actually is, but the recruitment and loyalty missions, which make up the majority of the game, are all told pretty well.

Also, Mordin is awesome.

[earl_sleek]

My main gripe with the ME2 story is Shephard dying and being revived. Resurrection is a a trope I really dislike unless it's done very well and it just seems pointless in ME2. If they wanted Shephard having to go rogue as a major plot point then they could have had him/her being framed for something, getting fed up of the Council, or even getting indoctrinated. There was no need for him being killed and Cerberus rebuilding him at all.

That said, it's my favourite of the trilogy. It's got the best gameplay and missions, quality of life improvements of ME1 and the team building stuff is great.

[The Crumb]

I really liked the big mysteries some of the planet descriptions teased. Shame none of it went anywhere.
Stuff like

Ploba is the second, and by far the larger, of Antaeus' two gas giants. Active scans by survey ships have returned tantalizing indications of massive, solid structures deep within the atmosphere, too regular in pattern to be anything natural.

Some believe Ploba is a "Jupiter Brain", a planet-sized supercomputer. Adherents of this theory have fruitlessly beamed signals toward the sunken megastructures, hoping to get the machine's attention.

Others believe that an ancient spacefaring race disposed of their weapons of war by dumping them into the planet. The last attempt to reach and salvage Ploba's "Deep Anomalies" went tragically wrong, and ended with a crew of 12 being trapped and crushed in the gas giant's lower atmosphere

[Mister Six]

The thing that annoyed me about the first game was that you became a Spectre and discovered that bloke (Sarus?) was a baddie almost immediately. How much more fun would it have been to have two or three missions having to deal with Sarus being a big show-off Spectre cunt who totally outranks you, and all the brass treating you like shit, then suddenly GET FUCKED, DICKHEADS, I'M A SPECTRE NOW.

ME 2 was a mess, but the characters were great and I liked the bit where you could just shoot a baddie while he did his big speech and all his mates would look startled before the battle proper began.