CRITIQUE: Mass Effect - A textbook example of great storytelling
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- An in-depth analysis of the first Mass Effect game. Videos on Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 will be coming in the next couple of months.
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The great thing about the squad members is how they're not typical of their race. Garrus is fed up with C-Sec procedure and bureaucracy, where Turians stereotypically love order and hierarchy. Liara is a geeky young introverted archaeologist in a race of ageless and wise socialites. Wrex is a weary and introspective Krogan who tried to find peace with his enemies, and Tali is an outgoing and open-hearted Quarian from a race of typically insular and suspicious spacefarers. In doing so, each of them explains their people better through the contrast.
Kaiden and Ashley also represent both sides of Humanity in this galaxy; Kaiden represents the changes Humanity have made and the ways they've adapted, while Ashley speaks of the challenges still to come for Humanity and how they need to be prepared. They contrast, too - Ashley is wary of other species but scorns those who outright hate other species, while Kaiden is an optimistic explorer with a story about how much the need to change for the future has cost him.
It's good stuff all round.
Your upload schedule is great because I forget you exist for like a month at a time like a dementia patient but then you pop up on my feed and it’s like I’ve rediscovered you all over again
Charlie!
That's high praise coming from you! Your vids are only similar to those on this channel in how they are fucking excellent!
It's as I always say : Play Mass Effect 1 for the universe and lore, play Mass Effect 2 for the stellar characterization, play Mass Effect 3 for the gameplay improvement and play Mass Effect Andromeda if you need help letting go of the franchise.
That was all too painfully true. I'd also add "Play Mass Effect 3 for tears and a good conclusion to all characters except for Shepard"
With mass effect 3 there's no reason to ever brother play all 3 link together
I said a good conclusion for everything but Shepard himself. The Genofage, the Quarians and Geth, the Rakhni, Anderson, your companions... The only stupid thing was that Catalyst bullshit.
TheHalogen131 I somewhat agree with you. I think the conclusion to anything related to the reapers was half assed as well. Basically the entire actual ending was pretty bad.
I prefer the gameplay in the original Mass Effect. It's a little clunky but it definitely feels more like an RPG as opposed to a shooter with RPG elements.
In ME1, Shepherd and his team don't know Eden Prime was attacked by the Geth. They wasn't sent there to help the colony. They were sent there to recover the beacon. The Geth attack was a surprise for them.
The conversation with Sovereign is one of the best moments in scifi history.
And the conversation with Vigil.
It was alright
@@xeagaort yes lol. Anytime a game isn't a total embarrassment:
This is literally the best thing ever. Of all time
its such a shock moment as well when you get to virmire. your still thinking saren is the big bad guy and sovereign for all you know is still a ship. its only in that first conversation 60% into the game that you finally learn. hang on a second saren is just a puppet. the ship is the real bad guy.
No
Garrus didn't soften at all with my playthrough. He became cold-blooded and extremely pragmatic, which works wonders in setting him up to becoming Archangel. That character arch felt so good and logical.
I want to point out one thing about the choice to save the council. It's a Paragon option not only because you save the council but because you save Destiny Ascension. A massive warship with a crew of 10k people. You sacrifice a few hundred human lives to save 10k aliens.
it is also a way to show that humans can work with other species and are not in it only for themselves ... since it is one of the complaints other races have against humans
And the council are civilians, politicians or not, and the crews of the human vessels are all military, and, fair or not, it is viewed more acceptable to sacrifice military lives for civilian then the other way around.
I saved the council on the Ascension by instinct.
Someone else might have gotten it wrong.
LOL.
Frankly, given the stakes, saving the Ascencion is irresponsible. I mean, you know you can save the Ascencion and still kill Sovereign because it's a video game, but committing your reserves too early to save a vessel that is now combat ineffective is a big risk. And if Sovereign wasn't defeated, the crew of the Ascencion wouldn't have even been a noticeable bump in the casualty statistics.
@@jasonfenton8250 That's it, Vermire did such an effective job with the forced sacrafice of a squad member, I didn't knew I could save the Ascension without consequences the 1st time around.
It wasn't about Council vs human ships, but about wether Sovereign would do more damage if we don't focus, including civilians on the Citadel wards. So despite paragon playthrough I sent with the neutral ignore the council option. Hacket's voice still gives me the chills "All ships concentrate on Sovereign, nothing else matters, I repeat nothing else matters."
"Playing Mass Effect reminded me more of sinking into a good book than it did playing an RPG." So true, one of the reasons why the Mass Effect series is so enjoyable to play.
Which is why Andromeda was so terrible I mean they hired this girl: ua-cam.com/video/UheC38wpRYg/v-deo.htmlm41s to be a writer.
Sounds oxymoronic
Mass effect left a hole in me that no other game can fill. It’s so unique
35:50
Your soldier got the 'Throw' ability due to you having a completed save of a Vangard playthrough.
Konsaki goes to show how little
research he does.
@@xeagaort
I played ME all of them several times, over and over
And it is just now, 25 March 2022 that I realized why I have the "Throw" ability, from this YT comment, 3 years ago.
I believe It is not about "little research".
It might be, as in my case, a momentarily less understanding of some features among many features.
Jenkins was great, I loved doing his loyalty mission ;-)
For a moment I was like "Wait, was there a squadmate I forgot."
LOL game game
look like that was unloyalty mission. So his amount of shields were reduced as a reward. 😄
Ashley's views on the aliens at the beginning of the game aren't just racism. They're rooted in what happened to her grandfather during the First Contact War, which the Turians unfairly attacked the humans and went hard on them despite them not knowing any of the galactic rules at the time. Because her grandfather got massively screwed over due to him trying to save human lives during the war her family was shamed for it and she's got a lifetime of pent up anger regarding it. Like you said she does develop past this especially with the influence of Paragon choices, but talking to her she's got a lot of depth and frankly she was my favorite squadmate from ME1.
The Mass Effect trilogy are my favorite pieces of fiction ever! The villains, supporting cast, soundtrack, story and world will never be matched imo!^^
Well..Yeah!
Until Witcher 3 came in....
I'm still amazed that we never got a "Mass Effect" movie. FFS they just released a "Monster Hunter" movie - youre tellin me there's no studio out there that realizes what a blockbuster ME film couldve been like?
that conversation with Sovereign is one of the best speeches ever, love his voice
I had a great first impression of Ashley, her "racism" felt believable
Yyup, dare I say grounded. And her love for poetry was an absolutely adorable suprise. Too bad it's nowhere to be found in the later games, and her face is full of botox by 3.
Ehh, all the easier to dump her as Tali became an option.
@@janosd4nuke dude what the hell is wrong with you
I never played as pure paragon or renegade - always just picked options that seemed appropiate for the moment and I had a great time. And if you play as mostly paragon with some renegade inbetween (when those seem a better choice) you can still get all important dialogue choices at the end. This always seemed like a more fun way to play this game.
Iirc getting throw on your soldier is a bonus for finishing the game as a vanguard first, each class gives a choice of bonus ability on further playthroughs.
As I recall, the bonus talents were tied to achievements, i.e. kill this many enemies with this gun to unlock it as a special or use this ability on that many enemies to unlock it.
@@Bonsaiweed yup that's true
BonsaiWeed You're right, i'm mixing it up with the loyalty skills from ME2
"Kinda makes you wonder if humanity could just sit this one out." That would've been a hilarious twist.
This is such a well made critique! I agree, I don't think we'll ever see another Mass Effect again.
The Rachni Queen actually refrences a point in their history when their song had become corrupted. This was Sovereign trying to control them as he did the Geth much later. But as we all know the krogen was up lifted and used to kill them
You don't have to max out one extreme for a full experience.
During my first ME1 playthrough, I played as a mix Shepard who was slightly more Renegade than Paragon but I had invested my points in both charm and intimidation.
This way I was able to access every option, got Saren to commit suicide although I had the other option also available.
My family grew up with a Shepard mix was a good boy, but sure he could be a bad dog sometimes. We loved him anyway despite being just a mutt.
Ha ha ha ha
A good video and a fair review, though you got some things plainly wrong. Over all I thought your review of Mass Effect's strengths and weaknesses was very honest, accurate, and fair.
1.) You are not forced to take the Throw power for a soldier. If you are doing new game+ you can pick a bonus power, which could be Throw or Pull or Singularity or a tech power like hacking. Anything you want.
2.) A minor thing, but the mission at the start of the game is not a rescue mission; it becomes that, but at the very start the mission was just a retrieval mission to grab that Prothean beacon. It is only when you arrive that you find the geth attacking.
3.) The series was NOT well planned out ahead of time and the examle you cited for that is actually a COUNTER example. The only thing planned about the series in advance was that there would be three games and that Shepard would stop the Reapers at the end. That's the extent of the planning. I won't go into it here, but a close analysis of the story-telling in all three games pretty conclusively proves that the story was not planned at the start. Bioware just made each game without future events in mind. The series would probably have had a much less controversial ending if everything had been planned and some of the weaker story/character bits could have been avoided or fixed.
Not a criticism really, but I wish the "Ashley is a racist" meme would die. She doesn't advocate anything hateful or derogatory. Perhaps she is being slightly paranoid, but it is realistic that a military officer (or NCO in her case) would be concerned with the preserving military secrets. If you read Revelation then you should have an understanding of how cynical the politics in Mass Effect is. In essence, it is just true to life. Governments, allies, people, nations, they act in their own interests, not in the interests of others. Such systems, such organisms, couldn't evolve in the first place if they were dominated by altruism and not self-preservation.
Also, I listened to this video while driving my slave home from work then I wore this on my other slave.
great coment man tnx! I dislike Ashley but she is not a bad persen or rasist just very awarnes or living in past
Hey I'm at 36:05 and you stated that the soldier was forced to take the throw ability but this isn't the case. You had throw unlocked as a bonus ability, likely from using it alot as a Vanguard. You could have gotten other abilities unlocked for your soldier as well if you used them more like Lift and Barrier. For example when I wanted to play an adept I needed to get 75 kills with either a shotgun or assault rifles to have that as a bonus ability for the adept, so I rolled a soldier killed enemies til the achievement was unlocked and then started my actual character
I always prefer good/evil morale systems in a RPG with story choices over a system without.
I know that everybody always claims that you have to choose to play either of the two extremes and that is true.
However with no morale system I find that most games don't exploit the different shades of grey so that you can play your D&D allignments to your hearts content. No, in most games it's just 3-5 very very very similar shades of grey.
I like to play evil in RPGs, but I simply can't do that in modern RPGs anywhere close to the extent I can with RPGs with a morale system.
I don't know how I got here, and I don't remember subscribing to this channel.
Then again, I've probably spent at least a quarter of my life drinking, so fair enough.
Weird, I just started playing ME1 again, and this comes out.
The mission to Eden Prime wasn't a rescue mission it was a shake-down mission. Granted I don't know what that is but I assume it's going to Eden Prime, show off the Normandy, knock on a few doors and that's it.
The Asari aren't asexual, their mono-gender. If they were asexual, then they wouldn't have sex or reproduce.
"Objective" is just that, an objective. If the objective for a game is to make a fun story with good characters and good gameplay and it reaches that objective, then it succeeds if it didn't then it didn't.
The hacking minigame on the pc is fun, the one on the Xbox is stress inducing.
Well, the sexual orientation asexual and the biological term asexual are two different things. But even so you're right because Asari do have sex so their reproduction isn't strictly asexual, it's more of a weird kind of parthenogenesis.
The intent of the mission was to retrieve the Prothean Beacon, although that isn't explicitly known to the crew other than Nihlus and Captain Anderson until.
Hacking on PC was extremely simplified so that scrubs wouldn't cry about not being able to open a box filled with precious loot. The console version of hacking requires 0,3s~0,9s reaction time from a player, aka skill.
Just because the game portion has a good story doesn't make it a good game, it's a bad game with a good story.
True but a game can have multiple objectives.
Coco Estrada
Thanks for your hard work in making this video. I recently introduced my best friend to Mass Effect series. We are almost done with his playthrough of 2, very excited to see how he handles the Reaper IFF and Suicide Missions.
damn I actually enjoyed Andromeda but when you said you couldnt remember the villain from the games name I suddenly realized I couldn't either...but I remember Saren and the Illusive man very clearly. I still don't think Andromeda was as bad as people say but this video helped me realize some of its faults.
Oh, Andromeda really was a piece of crap in story, dialogue, and characters. We now have _much worse_ examples of bad writing, but when it released, Andromeda was the biggest offender.
They tried to use complexity in place of elegance, quantity in place of quality.
The Scourge, the disruptive force upsetting the apple cart; The Remnant, the ancient, mysterious race with advanced technology; the Kett, an alien race with unknown goals; the Exiles, a political headache that falls on you; the conspiracy.... They needed _just one_ of these to craft a compelling story around. By structure, you learn of all of these different plotlines by the time you get your own ship - Introduction, Planetary Prologue mission, arrival at "HQ," fact-gathering, take-off. These are all relevant storylines, all having an impact on your mission. It makes for a convoluted mess. And it's just the opening.
In ME1, the storyline is Saren's connection to the Geth. From introduction to take-off, Saren is the only storyline that matters to you. Saren is the disruptive force; Saren has the data from the ancient race; Saren controls the alien race with unknown goals; Saren is the political headache that falls on you; Saren is the conspiracy to unravel. It's simple and concise, elegant in execution. In Andromeda, it's not simple, it's not concise. Not all the storylines are connected. You can easily become confused as to which plot you're following.
The dialogue is atrocious, a first-gen look at what we now refer to as "Modern Audience" schtick. It was written to represent a vocal minority on Twitter, not to make sense in a grand narrative. Which is why it's so bad - Mass Effect is 160 years into the future. Why is the dialogue designed to appeal to a social clique on a specific internet platform in the modern day, instead of made to be timeless or to be unique to the galaxy of the future?
And the characters - they're acceptable, but clearly not on the same level as other characters created by the same developer. They would be just fine in most any sci-fi series, but this is _Mass Effect._ Shepard's trilogy was loaded with some of the most amazing characters in the genre - it's difficult to accept mere adequacy after being spoiled for so long.
Mass Effect 1 is the best fusion of shooter and RPG elements, while rough around the edges you can forgive Bioware due to the budget and technological limitations they had, after all they were still a middle market studio, and as such what they lacked in polish they made up for in depth and content.
Me: Man mass effect was awesome.
Friend: Yeah... What was with that fourth game?
Me: ..... What fourth game?
Friend: You know mass effect andr-
Me: *We dont talk about that*
Andromeda isn’t THAT bad. I replayed ME trilogy this year while replaying bits of andromeda. Honestly I’d say ME1 was only a tiny bit better than andromeda. But the sequels help really make that trilogy a powerful series.
@@Xxsorafan I don't mind Andromeda... It was a decent game in which I was lucky enough to avoid any bugs... However it failed to live up to the standard I would want or expect from probably my favourite game franchise of all time...
Total sidenote, but do you guys remember that fiasco where you couldn't make your character white. As in, they had locked the skin tone slider so that you had to have some level of darker skin.
God, that game was a dumpster fire, in so many more ways than one :P
5 years 👋
$40 million 👋
@@simplesimple8203
How much went into Coke and up in Smoke?
"Dies quicker than me in a battle royale game"
That's actually a great one!
I'm just into my first playthrough of ME2, previously hearing how it's the best of the series, but for me ME1 is still way more engrossing game. I still can't get over how they implemented reloading Ajd tried to correct it in the lore with some bullshit story about heat sinks and how it's an improvement over continuously firing in Me. It doesn't make any sense. I loved these fact I don't have to search for ammo all the time in ME, and it is made their righting more unique.
I think it's assumed the protheans knew about humans, even if you don't do the side quest, considering there was a prothean ruin on mars.Also the VI you fight on the moon is revealed to be EDI.
Is the VI in ME1 (in that case holy poop, I missed a big detail for this long?!)? Or are you talking about that fight on Mars in ME3?
@@revu34 yeah the one on the moon is edi
Cerberus acquired and I believed played a part in the VI on the moon going rogue, they used that VI as a base to create EDI. EDI mentions she was just gaining awareness on the Moon.
The Protheans knew of humans and other races and placed tech/beacons to help "shape" those "lesser races" to eventually be assimilated into Protheans. However once the Reapers started their attack on the Protheans they severed all contact with humans and other races in hopes the Reapers saw these lesser races as too primitive to harvest.
BrooksP Huh, interesting. I need to refresh my ME lore knowledge.
Protheans experimented on early homo sapiens cavemen
You must have unlocked an 'achievement' on your first playthrough with Vanguard by using 'throw' a lot. On your subsequent playthroughs you can choose a bonus power based on which achievements you've unlocked. So I've been adept with a shotgun, or vanguard with singularity ability etc.
Biotics aren't inconsistent ; your stats and armor/addons against the enemies determine if you go rag dolls or the enemies go rag doll or fly
I personally had no problem with the Mako, since i played with xbox and the controller made it pretty easy to control. Also, I loved the ammount of micromanagement options on ME1 that were compleatly lackin on 2 and partly in 3. Havent played Andromeda since I saw the memewave and desided to put my monays elsewhere
Its shame that you did play the other games before ME1. It's by far the best in my opinion, and most enjoyable when played first
So one thing with the Feros Thorian creepers I didn't realize until playing LE for the first time is that there's another non-lethal option besides the knockout grenades: melee attacks. They will also take the creepers out without killing them. That made it much easier to go paragon since I could just smack down ones that got too close to me or were too spread out for a grenade.
This was the first game I bought for Xbox 360, back in 2008. I played it relentlessly. The atmosphere is amazing. The intro music sets a beautiful mood that lets you know you are in for some really special. I have played it 5 or 6 times since then, years apart, and will probably play it again. This is a classic, and in my opinion the greatest game in the series.
I LOVE this game. It's easily in my top 10. A fun thing to do in this game (if you don't know): If an enemy is charging at you (like Krogan tend to do) and you hit them with Lift, they will quickly rocket up and into another galaxy!!
Always love watching your videos. One of the highlights of my days. Thank you.
I love it when a Mass Effect video appears on my home page. I don't know who you are Chris, but I'm a very simple man. I see Mass Effect content, I click.
Keep up the good work. You are one of the best game reviewers on UA-cam and deserve a bigger audience.
Thank you, Chris. This was a great review, especially as you *somehow* managed to condense your thoughts about a game/series (and in the coming months the series as a whole; I'm so excited!) that I personally could have gone on about in excrutiating detail for hours (how you can see a developer/process evolving in "game time", as in from game to game; the game's/series's impact on the genre and industry; how its somewhat of a case study on how not to manage a series; and look I'm doing it now, I'll stop lol).
You're great, keep it up!
Am I the only one who saved Kaidan?
I saved him too. I found him way more likable than Ashley.
Gertrud Bondesson Hooray! Finally, somebody who liked Kaidan!
I did too on a subsequent playthrough. If I remember correctly, he then reveals a lot more of his backstory which makes him a far more sympathetic character than he initially appears.
Only coz i felt guilty for what i did in kotor darkside playthrough
Deadfast, I saved him in the first playthrough. I don't think I ever saved Ashley.
You can choose one extra ability for your second and following playthrough based on what classes you have completed the game with. Because you played the first playthrough as vanguard you got to choose the throw ability for the soldier. I have completed the game with all classes so I have a list to choose my extra ability from.
At 35:48, as you have already played once, you have unlocked some of the ability Achievements, and they allow you to add an ability to your starter class, even if the given ability is not part of their set of skills. Soldier, Infiltrator and Engineer have no biotic abilities off the get go, only if you add it after unlocking it. I can tell you've used Throw a lot in your first playthrough, to have unlocked the Achievement for it.
35:48 Thats not how it works, the game has achievments and by getting them you get bonus for your next run. You got the achievment for using Throw a lot so the game allow you to pick it as a bonus power for your next Sheppard.
this is the game that i liked the most, because after years no one could introduce a science fiction saga like they did with Mass Effect 1 and i loved the simple story: unmask villain>chase villain>save the day>uncover the truth behind.
This is pure space opera, they slowly introduce you to the history and make you play along the way, fantastic story writing & direction, the only bad part is just the beginning since there is too much information that you can maybe quit or love this until the last second (best fking ending credits of any game).
In ME2 while superior in lots of ways i feel let down by the story....
Whats the point of the story? in ME2? it's not consistent, no one cares about the collectors in the big scheme, you fill like you have a good ride but you are just in a filler story because the main one would be ME3, i feel like wasting time knowing companions that i don't even need (while i enjoyed knowing them) the majority will be of no use when the day to fight the reapers comes and why the fk they kill shepard for this story? whyy? there are a lot of ways, this game feels like they killed everything that make ME1 good just to make you more comfortable for when the 3 comes since it would be a lot or shooting since it's a epic galactic war everywhere.
You can unlock other abilities for the soldier, other than push, if you do multiple playthroughs. I never found a problem building up renegade points. I always found a mix of both renegade and paragon options is the best way to max one since having more conservation options is always best.
Otherwise great video. Spot on. ME1 is my favorite game in the series. I am surprised you didn't talk about the inventory system, it was far worse than the combat system. I kinda like the combat.
The original Mass Effect is the best sci-fi I've ever experienced on any medium.
Hi, what do you think about Hyperion trilogy by Dan Simmons ? I have enjoy The Expanse also (the show is quite influenced by Mass Effect neat style).
Cheers
I think I have to second that. The only thing that makes me immeasurably sad is that i will never be able to experience it for the first time again.
Great video on one of the greatest games ever made. The entire trilogy is my favorite game series ever.
You might want to spend more time next time you review an RPG. Felt a bit superficial at some point, but for the most part, you were on point. *Good review.* However, I have some additional notes to add if you don't mind. So here's my critique of CRITIQUE: Mass Effect - A textbook example of great storytelling:
1. Saren is as 2D as character writing goes. What are you talking about?
2. You could've chosen 'I'm not leaving.' option. It does exactly the same as Paragon/Renegade option but doesn't give you any "karma" points for it. Silly you :)
3. You should try Benezia fight on Insanity on a New Game (fresh new character). It's... how do I put it? It's """""fun""""".
4. By the way, you don't need to level Charm/Intimidate. It levels itself when you reach specific gameplay points in the game. When you have 10% out of a 100% of Paragon/Renegade bar filled it gives you first 1 Charm and 1 Intimidate point, then you get 1 Charm and 1 Intimidate for becoming a Spectre, then, when you reach 25% out of a 100%, you get yet another 1 Charm and 1 Intimidate, and lastly, you get 4th set of 1 Charm&1 Intimidate for hitting 75~80% out of a 100%. Do this 3 times in a row (finish the game 3 times in a row) and you got yourself fully maxed out Shep with maxed Charm and maxed Intimidate and you saved yourself 24 points in total. Especially handy when you play as an Adept or as an Engineer since they have a crapload of skills and not enough skill points to max them all out.
5. Canon Shep is actually neutral, your talking with companions is just your tendency to be good or perhaps you like to interrogate people (in a good way). Canon Shep kills the Council, can't see anything 'good' about it; pragmatic, yes.
6. Also, dude, I don't know whether you played other BioFail games or not but experienced/intelligent players know that no matter what you say in a BioFail game you will always get the opposite answer. For example, you meet a scumbag, and you would say "we should send him to jail", and your companion would then reply with "We should just kill him. He doesn't deserve the right to live.". And you would get this if you say "We should kill him.", to which your companion(s) would say "The guy's a scumbag, but we shouldn't lower ourselves to his level. Let the police take him to jail." Sadly, even KOTOR 2 has the same annoying "opposite reply" issue. Especially with Kreia, which is really annoying since she's the only intelligent person in the entire game with whom I'd spend my whole life talking to. EDIT: I forgot why I wrote this particular point but I'm sure there was something in the vid that triggered me to write this.
7. Jesus Christ and how is killing bribed mercs on Noveria is considered to be a Renegade option? WTF were you smoking, my dude?
8. Picking Liara first doesn't help you with anything when you get to Benezia. She's just there to provide extra lines of dialog, nothing else. Actually, if you're trying to beat the game as fast as possible it's best to pick her up when other 3 planets are done. Saves a fuckton of time by not talking to her after each planet you visit. None of the companions in ME Trilogy do anything that alters gameplay. Dragon Age, perhaps, but not Mass Effect.
9. Regarding combat in ME1, there are 3 main issues with it. Bullet spread per shot, bullet travel lag/bullet travel lag when used with tactical pause, and of course, pathetically made ability hitbox registration.
10. About Insanity. It's bad. Like, I've played ME1 for 10 years now, both on consoles (yes, PS3 AND Xcocks 360) and PC, and you never stop hating it. Thresher Maws are just bad. Remember Jedi Academy's worms from that mission, name of which I always seem to forget? They're the absolute same. They pop up randomly plus some 50% chance of knowing what were your last coordinates. Or perhaps it registers your first 3 seconds of movement so that's where it pops out.
11. UNC planets did, in fact, were designed with automated procedurally generated software.
12. You mentioning that Prothean Artifact from which you get this piece of info regarding Protheans and how they observed humans have put a smile on my face. Not a lot, actually, I don't think any other reviewer ever mentioned this, and that is, in my opinion, biggest lore thingy you get right till you get to Mars in the 3rd game.
13. About the bugs, you encountered while playing ME1. It seems the trigger for these bugs lies in the hardware. Basically, what type of CPU, GPU you have. It also depends on which Windows you use. Sometimes it's physics logic error. That's when you see Mako propelling into the air when you drive it on a flat surface.
I guess this is it. If I didn't mention anything else then you probably were correct in your analysis or maybe it's a minor detail which isn't worth dying for, so I'll let it slide (how generous of me). 8.5/10 in total.
The End.
excellent review/critique so you earned another sub...
one of the things that bugged me with the ME story line was the save the universe in all 3, i really would have loved to see the geth take the front stage rather than soverin in the first, with the reaper only being something you find out about on virmire , they never got as much time in the story as i think they deserved...
i would have loved if Saren and sovereign's involvement had been hidden until much later, giving you time to explore the universe looking for clues as to why the geth suddenly attacked outside the veil at eden prime, looking for the beacon, making Saren's objections to a human specter be much more believable rather than in your face villain gloating, forcing the player to dig for clues out and around the galaxy, fx novaria would have been a very interesting place for the matriach to reveal information on Saren and the geth
The talk with Sovereign on Virmire is one of the most awesome scenes in all media
Found your channel through your Andromeda critique, intrigued to see what you have to say in this video!
I went back to it and played through all three games 15 times this year. I'm a pro at it now....LOL.
I will return to the Mass Effect universe again soon. It's addicting. Commanding my own ship and crew helps me forget i'm a nobody in the real world. The temporary reprieve is great.
Someone else might have gotten in wrong.
Being a nobody isn't so bad in an imperfect world, because nobody is perfect.
Ha...ha...ha...ha...haaaaaa.
For a game that first sold in 2007 followed by game 2 in 2009, and game 3 in 2012......it still holds people's interest.
22:38
Infinite Paragon/Renegade Points Exploit Edit
1. On Noveria. You are given a side mission leading you to speak to Lorik Qui'in, a turian, at the bar. A mission progression choice enables you to encourage him to testify in a court case. You can choose from either a Paragon or Renegade dialogue option if you have at least 5 points in charm and/or intimidate. Choosing either of these options will give you a reward of 24 Paragon or 25 Renegade points respectively. The conversation will end but you can talk to him again. Ask about a different topic (i.e. Matriarch Benezia), then choose "Another question". The option to convince him to testify will reappear. Repeat this for infinite Paragon and/or Renegade points. This bug appears to exist across all 3 platforms (Xbox360, PS3, PC).
Here ya go. Now you can be whatever you want.
Or just enable and console give yourself couple billion renegade and paragon points(I think they cap at 9 999 points)
1st pet: Romulus - Ball Python
Mom maiden: Buealy
In the Lorik Quinn mission, you're supposed to take the mission as the paragon. Shepard's response will be, that he/she will do their best to limit unnecessary deaths, to which, Lorik will give additional info on how to persuade the first few guards to leave the area. The other guards that attack you later are bad. They attack first and they're receiving bribes to shake down Lorik, therefore, you're justified in killing them. You'll not receive any renegade for doing so.
Regarding the combat, I think biotics look and feel their best in ME1 (even though they can ragdoll you to no end). I also love how Shep moves while aiming down sights.
Yes! I was hoping you'd cover Mass Effect one day!
You can also rat out that noveria assistant for the card and the salerian kills her
My favorite part of ME1 was the combat. Your weapons, armor, and powers/skills make a definitive difference in your combat capabilities. Properly spec out yourself and you can basically become an unstoppable juggernaut. It just needed a reduction in available weapons and armor.
Have you ever watched Patalog's videos? He manages to max out both meters and get all the possible endings in the same play through. Admittedly he uses his previous plays to do it. He also manages to use stealth a lot in Prey. Something you said was impossible. You should watch his videos.
when you were talking about the super repetitive side quests all I could think was - this must be where the DA2 dev team got their start.
Great video, big fan of this series. Looking forward to your Mass effect 2 and 3 videos!
So I didn't focus on the paragon or renegade options during my 1st playthrough, I just chose whatever seemed more appropriate for the situation and my mood at the time. I had enough points to choose either option on most conversations not too far in. I only afterwards found out how many people think about it as a light and dark side, but it doesn't have such a large impact on the game at all. I'm not going to limit my option for min-maxing paragon or renegade point, it's not a decision then.
When you're talking around the 36 minute mark about how easily stuff kills Shepard, I can't help but notice that you have basically zero shields. Of course everything kills you in one hit. Even when you're playing a class without a lot of armor, you can and should be using armor mods to supplement that.
You killed Kaidan? You monster! He's an amazing character and very useful as buffer/medic. On my first playthrough as FemShep he eventually became her love interest. Ashley is so bland and annoying that on my second run I regretted letting her live and never took her out on a mission.
Dude shut up
Infiltrator has the most rewarding combat IMO. It definitely has a high learning curve and you start out extremely weak but by the end of the game when you have yourself fully upgraded and skilled out it makes for some extremely satisfying combat, especially if you are the type that enjoys micromanaging your squadmates. Send your mates into forward covered positions, plan out their abilities, and sit in the back picking off the enemies while they are distracted. I've played through the trilogy a half a dozen times and all but one playthrough was with the infiltrator. Try out an infiltrator insanity run if you ever feel up for it. It's a real chess game.
Beat this game a few days ago. Very unique and really well done.
While in ME1 both Kaidan and Ashley are equally bland, in ME3 Kaidan is a much warmer character. He is well fleshed, cool and overall better than Ash. At least in my opinion.
Kaiden was always warmer, he was the guy you went to for his opinions on the missions and he would always be spot on with his interpretations.
That's possible. I beat my chest, I didn't care much for neither Kaidan nor Ashley in ME1. Garrus and Wrex were my go-to choices, sometimes spiced up with either Tali, or Liara :)
Kaidan had the same VA as Carth Onasi in KOTOR and I could help but compare the two. Kaidan just annoyed me to death, and his character seemed to completed irrelevant to the story
Cero Ashura I always liked Kaidan better, Ashley just felt rude and selfish all the time, and she always ragged about your alien teammates being untrustworthy despite most of them being the most loyal and sympathetic characters in the game. While Kaidan is a bit bland sometimes, his troubles with his biotic powers at least gave him something to do and talk about, I don't remember anything about Ashley besides her being xenophobic to aliens and wearing Barbie-colored armor.
They are equally useless but I didn't like Ashley's attitude. I am the asshole in the squad dammit.
Remember getting a demo of mass effect 2 on ps3 I hadn't heard of the first one but after playing the demo ended up buying a 360 all 3 games and all dlc. Best game series of all time imo.
Played andromeda for about an hour and havnt touched it since.
I always saw the Renegade and Paragon points needed for certain action as a personal limiter. Putting points in them were essentially Shepard putting those limiter away, breaking some barriers in his own mind. Some Renegade or Paragon options need a proper asshole to be chosen, or a completely selfless person for Paragon choices.
Like, you can be a "bad" guy but you can't bring yourself to be a COMPLETE ass and just kill a nobody. The more asshole or good you are, the nicer or worst you become. Human don't just become good or bad, they go down or up depending on previous life choices.
The Mass Effect series has never interested me, but this video was well done and made me consider giving it a spin! Always enjoy the content. Thank you!
Reason why saving the council is the paragon choice is due to the fact that they're evacuating on the Destiny's ascension. That ship, as told by some spontaneous volus, has a crew of 10.000, whilst the crew of the Alliance ships destroyed equalled to ~800 (If I recall correctly).
Therefore you save more people by saving the council, whereas letting them die you're also letting 10,000 people die, and you put humanity as the forefront on the council, basically cheating your way to a supreme position. Hence the renegade points.
The thing about saving the Council, though, is that you're not just saving those three people but actually the Destiny Ascension, which is the Citadel's flagship and is staffed by nearly 10,000 crew members. I'm not sure whether they're all Asari - because it's an Asari ship - or of different races but letting the Council die also means killing those 10,000 crew members with them. I know they don't really frame the decision like this in the game but technically there's a lot of death either way. The decision is more about humanity first or galaxy first.
New subscriber here! I fell in love with Mass Effect almost immediately upon playing it and I've gotta commend you on your ability to set aside your rose tinted glasses to address its shortcomings.
My first pet was a dog named Chance who had no teeth and vicious breath, but the biggest heart in the world, and my mother's maiden name is Best. Keep up the great work!
great video.
anyway, i loved the mako + the planet views were quite beautiful, and once you get your skills up the weapons handle a lot better. pistols have always been the best all-round weapon in ME1, don't really need anything else
Great critique Chris! ME is my favorite series so I enjoyed this thoroughly and look forward to seeing the remaining critiques of the rest of the trilogy. 1 minor mistake though, you aren't given the throw power as a soldier because they're forcing a biotic power onto you. By playing as a vanguard in your first playthrough, you unlocked that power as an extra power for your following playthrough. You likely unlocked assault rifles as an extra power by playing as a soldier. So if you were to now play a 3rd playthrough, you'll have a choice in extra powers of assault rifles or throw regardless of the class you choose. Anyhow, great job as always Chris and I'm looking forward to your future critiques.
First pet: Muneca (Spanish for doll)
Mother's maiden name: Not going to give it as it's normally a security question. lol.
That Sovereign speech towarda the end of the game glued me to my seat. I like the rest of the cool Mass Effect speeches, but that one is different somehow.
Being told you are nothing but a dust particle in the vacuum cleaner of life (something I already knew) was just awesome. The complete assuredness of the Reaper was just refreshing. An enemy with 0 doubt in their ability. It's so cool.
I CANNOT believe it took me 13 years to finally complete this game. I bought the trilogy and I have started, and restarted the fjrst countless times due to either losing save data, losing intrest, not having much fun, etc. But I finally told myself with the global pandemic, I was going to do it. And honestly, I'm really shocked it took me this long. I love the really difficult choices you have to make. As soon as I completed the first, I moved directly into the sequel, and so far, it's even better. Not just the combat, of course. Natural evolution of a video game. But the tension and the nearing threat. It feels like war is just around the corner.
Now, can we PLEASE, for all that is just, PLEASE, can we get a Kotor III? Honestly, Kotor with the combat of Mass Effect would just... rule. It would simply kick ass so hard that ass would have to find something else to get kicked for a while to recover.
Mass Effect was such a good game.
Hopefully one day it gets a sequel.
The Kaidan/Ashley choice is one of the most interesting in all Bioware games. Everyone I talked to (and saw videos made by) has a clear preference of one over the other and is baffled that other people could save the other teammate, since their own choice is the "obvious" one. 😂
Sovereign dialogue might be the best part of the series. You spent the entire game being a champion for humanity, proving its worth to a well established space order, feeling like you are hot shit showing up all these aliens who underestimate you... Then you are introduced to Sovereign, and he makes you feel truly insignificant; trying to wrap your head around the concept of synthetic life predating all organics, and that this whole galactic system you spent all this time immersing yourself in is built by their design.
Gotta love the ME1 shotgun that you can use effectively from almost any distance.
Throw isn't something forced when playing a soldier. Shepard gets a bonus skill to level in any playthrough after your first. The bonus skills you can select are based on which achievements you've done. So you only had the throw achievement and maybe the weapons ones from your first playthrough. Since a soldier gets all the weapons you wouldn't pick them as a bonus skill.
One more thing; on the dialogue wheel I don't think that right top and bottom right are always paragon and renegade responses. Sometimes those seem to be used for agreement/disagreement and don't jive with how a paragon/renegade would behave, at least that's how it seems to me.
33:53 this really summarizes my feelings perfectly, but from the other side. I went into andromeda explicitly challenging it to "make combat fun". see I grew up on 90's jRPGs. Combat was never 'big' for me. Mass Effect 2 and 3 had 'somewhat fun' combat. And I love Mass Effect. I said "if any game can make me enjoy shooty combat, supposedly, its this one (andromeda), so I challenge the game to make combat fun.". and it did. Combat in andromeda is fun. But as you said, Andromeda is "Wet turd of a story, cardboard cutout characters, terrible glitches, and boring quest design." And despite that, I went in looking for fun combat, and found fun combat, and therefore think of Andromeda as "not that bad*" with a *"as long as you understand the criticisms about the only part of the game being good is combat"
I also found renegade to be inconsistent in tone. I've played through all three games in the trilogy several times, but I tend to do it the same way every time. I know that defeats a major purpose of replaying, but I found the renegade route to be too all over the place, and unless you've played through so many times you've memorized every response (which I just about have) you can't know if you're going to be a pragmatic realist or just an asshole for no reason. I would've liked to play Shepard as a bit more nuanced, but the paragon route is far more consistent, which really increases immersion. I essentially just play through to experience the story again because it's so good. I like 2 and 3 (except the ending), but I feel 1 is the most pure Mass Effect story and lore.
Right on the money, you are. It is such a shame (and Chris mentions this) that the most efficient way to play the game is Paragon.
Just only pick the renegade option when you want to. Even when the system as it its worst at locking you into the binary - which is ME1 - you still have plenty of freedom to not pick renegade options and still max out your renegade meter halfway through the game.
I do a few renegade interrupts in ME2 just because they're too good to pass up.
Coco & Suarez. Fun watch. Looking forward to your work on the rest of the series.
The Lorik Qui'in quest isn't a renegade quest. It's completely neutral. Your behaviour on this quest and in the dialogue before determine whether or not it's renegade or paragon.
Insanity difficulty is really fun, I seriously recommend it for 2 and 3
You know, I've played the first mass effect game for around 300 hours (2 playthroughs plus 2 new game+ runs) and I'm only JUST learning that you can fucking zoom with the gun on the mako... LOL that would have made so many battles much easier! :'D Great review/critique btw, I'm going to watch your videos on 2 and 3 as well. Mass Effect was a huge part of my life when it first came out and got me into the whole rpg genre. It wasn't perfect by any means, but definitely a stepping stone in videogame history!
the literal destruction, not just of mass effect but bioware! the studio behind it in general, due to microtransactions, horrible buisness practices and straight out forced political agendas like in andromeda is such a sad thing to see. i had feelings for all of the characters, garus, liara, mordin. those where unique characters which had hours to develop themself and in relations to you and other crew members. i remember running all arround the normandy after every mission, just so that i wont miss a scene between crew members or new Dialoge options.
i still have fantasys and dreams about those games. i whished they would build a movie franchise like starwars out of mass effect.
what political agendas? that game would've probably been shit no matter what because of it's story and general gameplay. can we stop blaming the sjws for fucking EVERYTHING
@ Fish Sticks: because they hired writers this like this girl: ua-cam.com/video/UheC38wpRYg/v-deo.htmlm41s to write the script and the whole team was more worried about virtue signaling on twitter than making a good scifi story.
you can have political opinions and still do good shit my dude. to think there's a correlation here is asanine. find us actual proof that it influenced their ability to write and maybe you'll be taken seriously, until then, you look like an asshat.
People see what they want to see. In the Mass Effect series one of the main non-machine antagonists was Cerberus, a xenophobic organisation headed by a white man. Yet nobody complains about "forced political agendas" in the original Mass Effect series.
@@MrLukasboys cerberus is simply logical? Most powerful industry leaders are white man, every human is afraid of the unknown to a certain degree! So cerberus is just the immunesystem of the human race.
Had Humanity discovered the Prothean ruins on Mars some 100 years later, they would have had 50,000 years to build. With their rate of expansion, which would be greater without the Council holding them back, nor any other significantly powerful species being present to compete, they would have been able to stand against the Reapers far better than most, if not all of the other cycles. Providing they didn't become benevolent and idle, they probably wouldn't need the Crucible to defeat them.
Great vid man! 😎😎
Totally new to your channel, but we managed to play Mass Effect pretty similarly. I had played 2 and 3 a while back and only just played through 1 a little over a month ago. Adored the game, definitely think it has aged well.
Quite nostalgic, man I would love to get the trilogy on my switch :D even the annoying resource mining I could survive again. I played all three games several times. It really the best story in games ever, for me at least.
The immediately dying squad mate is also called L Jenkins. So, points for making the immediately to-be-replaced squad mate (as you can only have 2 at any given time and the game gives you another one just moments later) a nod at an internet meme.
Apparently, he played through the game, twice.
Yet, he still mispronounces many of the names (Garrus as "Garrius", Rachni as "Rak-nee", etc).
Therefore, one must assume this is not a mistake, but a conscious decision.
That's the most British thing.
I literally cannot even remember the name of the main antagonist of Andromeda.. ME1 has always been my favorite, hard to beat that opening sequence.
Can't say I disasgree with practically anything said.
Oh and I am looking forward to Siege of Dragonspear, as I recently bought and enjoyed it and noticed everyone hated it for some undisclosed reason, and now that I think of it the whole expansion had a weird feeling to it, like I'm abducted in an alien ship and the game was what I was dreaming about to forget the experiments.
Also, I have this weird Dejavu as if I've written those exact words several times somewhere, so uh, yeah.
I feel as if I've read these words before... O.O lol
Hugh Shaftner Oh god, what have I done