Commanding Shepard
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
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- This video contains full spoilers for the Mass Effect trilogy, and depictions of virtual violence and sex --
When Mass Effect launched in 2007, the heroes of western RPGs were typically blank-slate nobodies. But Commander Shepard is different. What does it mean to have a character whose personality and identity is shared between the player and the character?
Footnotes
[1] This role could also be played by the character Kaidan Alenko, depending on who survived the events of Mass Effect 1. To streamline the video, I’m using Ashley whenever I need to talk about the “Virmire survivor”.
[2] There are other possible choices, one of which involves using a "Charm" or "Intimidate" line to get Tali off scot-free without presenting the evidence. This is just one of many examples of the rewards for playing pure Paragon or pure Renegade being far too tempting…
Sources
Mass Effect Interview | IGN
www.ign.com/articles/2007/01/...
John Ebenger | Twitter
/ 1230205582478458880
Mass Effect 3 by the numbers | PC Gamer
www.pcgamer.com/uk/mass-effec...
The Walking Dead: Bringing the World's Smartest Zombie Series to Life | Redbull
web.archive.org/web/2015020921...
BioWare Explains Why There's No Homosexuality in Mass Effect 2 | 1UP
web.archive.org/web/2012072418...
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey director apologizes for forcing characters into a traditional relationship | Polygon
www.polygon.com/2019/1/17/181...
The Witcher History #2 - E3 2004 | ryslaw on UA-cam
• The Witcher History #2...
Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance)
Gone Home (2013)
The Last of Us (2013)
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)
Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)
Pillars of Eternity (2015)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004)
Deus Ex (2000)
Planescape: Torment (1999)
Mass Effect (2007)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)
Mass Effect 2 (2010)
Mass Effect 3 (2012)
Halo 3 (2007)
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007)
Gears of War (2006)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (2018)
Persona 5 (2017)
The Outer Worlds (2019)
Fallout 4 (2015)
Fallout 3 (2008)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm (2017)
Detroit: Become Human (2018)
The Wolf Among Us (2013)
The Walking Dead: Season One (2012)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)
Life is Strange (2015)
Kingdom Hearts III (2019)
Dragon Age II (2011)
Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
Jade Empire (2005)
Dragon Age: Origins (2009)
Dishonored 2 (2016)
Assassin's Creed II (2009)
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013)
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (2018)
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020)
Monster Hunter: World (2018)
Heaven’s Vault (2019)
The Last of Us Part II (2020)
Mafia III (2016)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016)
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2016)
Disco Elysium (2019)
Alpha Protocol (2010)
Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
The Witcher (2007)
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011)
Music used in this episode
Music provided by Music Vine - musicvine.com/
Mass Effect soundtrack used with permission from Electronic Arts
The Witcher 3 soundtrack used in accordance with CD Projekt Red policy - cdprojektred.com/en/videopolicy
Video sections
00:00 - Introduction
03:13 - Part I (Shepard, Commander)
05:41 - Part II (Paragon of Humanity)
20:52 - Part III (Company Man)
28:58 - Part IV (Shepard's Flock)
44:12 - Part V (Create a Commander)
49:14 - Part VI (Commanding Shepard)
52:48 - Ending
Other credits
24 and Fox News © Fox Broadcasting Company
Star Trek © ViacomCBS
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/v/C3BDq/ - Ігри
Aight, here goes
Troy Baker - Joel/Kai Leng (freebie)
Courtney Taylor - Sole Survivor/Jack
Rafael Sbarge - Kaidan/Carth
Keith David - Arbiter/Anderson
Ashly Burch - Parvati/Aloy
Patrick Stewart - Uriel Septim/Picard
Kiefer Sutherland - Snake/Jack Bauer
Quinton Flynn - Raiden/Kolyat
Dave Fennoy - Lee/Ronald Taylor
Elias Toufexis - Adam Jenson/Nikolaos
Stephen Russell - Corvo/Nick Valentine
Keythe Farley - Thane/Kellogg
Jo Wyatt - Ciri/Hawke
Claudia Black - Chloe Frazer/Admiral Xen
Also a bunch of the actors who did the vocal effects for the Warden from DA:O also had other roles, like Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani's actress, so that one shot of the character creator really opens this up :P
Wow, I can't believe someone figured it out so quick! Well done!
@@GMTK Thanks! The only one I ended up double checking was Kolyat (I thought it might have been Jason Marsden or Yuri Lowenthal) but the downside is I now have a notebook filled with a list of names, several of which have been crossed out...
@@GreshFan01 wow
Yea! Well done, Ceiteach! You know your voice actors well!
Wow.
Just wow.
The real question is, who is controlling me, and why are they making me watch an hour long documentary on who has the most input on a fictional space captain?
honestly i doubt anyone actually cares
me
The Reapers have Indoctrinated you.
That would be tubbs tubbs
They like meta stuff is why
"Salarians are lizards"
Liara: I believe they're amphibian.
Javik: They used to eat flies.
@@igorortega6494 And Zaeed, they should have made a game just for him, like a prequel.
@@df6597 sadly Robin Sachs died and I don't think anyone else would be good to voice Zaeed
@@df6597 i think you want to say a spin off
*walks away while looking back in disgust*
So many fantastic lines and dialogues =) thank you ME trilogy.
"Character stick with you regardless of your moral decisions."
*Wrex tries to kill Shepard for wanting to blow up a facility that could cure the Genophage*
And if you sabotage it in ME3, he goes in for the kill again, but that kinda backstabbing Shepard deserves death.
But Shepard doesn't have a choice whether to destroy it or not. So wrex isn't reacting to player choice, he's just reacting the game's plot.
@@DanKaschel That's not entirely true. The way the player decides to handle the situation determines whether or not Wrex tries to kill Shepard. He's got a point there. Not that it matters.. ^^
@@DanKaschel Of course Shepard has a choice - during the mass effect 2 Mordin Loyality mission you can also destroy the cure and have that bite you in the ass too (I may have done that xD)
cant have long lasting ill will if your dead
"hey everyone, this store discriminates against the poor!" Still makes me laugh the shit out of my ass 8 years later
Well alright… but u still hurt my feelings
Makes you do what??? 😂
I said that very line to Mass Effect's facebook page when they were advertising really expensive Bioware merch. They've actually improved since then but everyone really got a good laugh at it, even the admins (not in charge of prices) giggled at it.
"i dont know i dont watch anime" made me exhale slightly in laughter
I laughed for 2 minutes
"How to start a fight on the Internet: method 1"
Star Trek is my favorite anime!
@@willbxtn "of all religions, atheism is the easiest one to troll"
can I get a timestamp?
I like the "giving each character improved plot armour" line - It's accurate but I'd never thought of the loyalty missions that way
For each one of the deaths you earn in mass effect 2 it will kill a companion from a list in a specific order. When you do a companions quest and earn loyalty, you push that character to the end of the list. Therefore you can almost guarantee a death if you do all but one companions death and that this means nothing if you do every single companions loyalty quest.
@@rykermahan9274 actually loyalty matter in me3 some characters will die in me3 if they did not have loyalty in me2.
.
The in-game explanation is that once their loyalty mission has been completed, they can focus solely on the task at hand. Until then, their attention is split.
Jack: "I don't know whether I should Kill him or not"
My Shep (renegade): "JUST KILL HIM AND TAKE YOUR PLOT ARMOUR!!"
Re: There are no reasons not to go Renegade in ME1: Allow me to push back on you on this one, Mark.
In ME1 you get an alignment quest. If you play Paragon you get one where you go and do the right thing and everyone is happy. If you play Renegade it is a bit more complicated. You get a quest to escort a captive. This guy is a total jerk, a provacateur, and the game gives you the option to just say "I'm not taking this crap" and blow his brains out. And it feels very gratifying. The twist is that this is what they wanted you to do. They never wanted this guy to face trial or whatever, they wanted him dead. They knew you wouldn't put up with him - they used Shepard and his Spectre status to do their dirty work because they knew Shepard would just lose patience and kill the guy.
And this actually feels terrible. The game deconstructs the myth of the Renegade. You think you are playing the entire game by your own rules and if you get fed up with something you just smash it and you do what you want whenever you want. And then the game tells you that it has become a weakness, and is indeed undermining your illusory autonomy. By never taking anyone's crap all game you've become easy to provoke, simplistic, and a tool that can be manipulated. All your belief in being a free spirit just reveals a different type of control. I think it's the best bit of storytelling in the first game, and a great example of how being a bit too true to one's desires can end up being every bit a cage as never gratifying them.
"All your belief in being a free spirit just reveals a different type of control."
That hit in a couple of different ways.
or..the guy was just a prick and the alliance knowing your low tolerance of bs would fit the bill. its the military. who doesn't expect to be played by that type of group at this point in Media? you made good points but i tend not to think too heavily about it in this case.
@@JudgeSpektre "or..the guy was just a prick and the alliance knowing your low tolerance of bs would fit the bill"
You are 100% right and we are in agreement on that. The catch is that the assignment was to bring him back alive, but everyone secretly wants him dead so they use Shepard as the guy who can kill him and get away with it. The part that sucks is that they *use* Shepard. Maybe Shepard's into it, but he's still a tool. In the end the free man is still manipulated.
GetDaved *insert something about Thane and being disconnected here*
Damn, that's a great response. Good thinking dude.
Getting the Quarians and the Geth to be friends is honestly one of my proudest gaming moments. Played for and got!
I actually didn't know you could manage to save both legion and tali in ME3, seeing tali throw herself off a cliff after watching her race die was the saddest, hardest gut punch I ever felt in a videogame, it made me feel so horrible that I loaded another save to pick the other option and resume my romance with tali, which I regret to this day. I still feel that my experience with that game was "tainted" by that decision
EDIT: Nevermind, I found the answer here: https : / / masseffect.fandom . com /wiki/Priority:_Rannoch#Aftermath
I never needed that guide since I always get the reconciliation option simply by the way I chose to play the game, but I hope it will help you.
The only thing in that guide that I didn't do was Destroy the Heretics (I usually reprogram them) but still I had more than enough points to get the 'save both' option. Make sure to have a high Reputation bar to pass the check. Play as much stuff as possible before that mission to get more rep. (I'm a completionist myself).
@@federicozacchi6722 If you want, there is a full list of all the specific steps you need to take in ME2 and 3 to have the option to save them both.
That really was one of the biggest moments in the three games for me. The Mass Effect trilogy will probably always have special place in my heart. I've honestly never gotten the other ways that scene can end because of the way I play the game.
one of the few moments in gaming that tested and hardened my religious beliefs. The Quarians represent a creation of God and the Geth represent a creation of man. I obviosly chose the Quarians, as I never got the cooperate option.
"Mom says it's my turn on the Commander Shepard"
Wow. Um, kinky family you got there.
Sweet home Alabama
*gives unplugged Commander Shepard to you so I can still play*
*_"I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite hoehouse in the Citadel."_*
Sweet home, Andromeda.. :D
7:06 - 7:11 "I don't know; I don't watch anime" best line in any GMTK video ever.
Quick, someone persuades him to watch Cory in The House, one of the best anime ever
I can’t like this, it’s already at 69
Haha, 100th like on this glorious comment.
ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.
Seriously though, incredible deep dive into ME. Loved it.
can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations.
Every time I see a photo of a cat with her eyes lit up, I remember this.
This hurts you
Assuming direct control of the dance floor
This game made me both laugh out loud or cry a bucket of tears in front of my monitor. It has it's flaws but i don't care, the journey is worth and i will always love this game.
Cry? What the F? It's a game man..... Grow up
@ Is this reply sarcastic? It isn't really clear.
@ the same way i cried at the end of "The green mile" or during "Saving private Ryan".
I am a human being.
If i get invested enough i express emotion: happiness, rage, sadness..
medias are By Definition the way humans have crafted stories to emote...
From the earlier theatre dramas to movies and game.. is actually one of their purpose.. if a media doesn't make you feel anything or learn anything would you really care investing time in it?
The biggest advantage games have over other medias is that you are not just a passive spectator..
@ "Emotionally stunted" and "grown up" are not the same thing, and you are clearly the former.
GMTK on the length of the video: "Don't worry, this won't be a habit for the channel"
Me: But can it be?
Me: Haha yeah that's good. can you do another one tho? Just as a reminder?
If that patreon gets high enough... but realistically, some topics just don't deserve a 50 minute analysis without ending up padding and fluffing your own arguments up.
We can't leave the "let me talk for one hour about video games" to hbomberguy alone!
"I'm Garrus Vakararian and this is my..." I can't take this scene seriously anymore. thx manslayer
Take a look, it’s tIGht
Shepard, are you ready to be a woman?
Damn right. Damn right. Damn right OWWWWWWWWWWW
Am I your... dirty little secret?
Report to the ship as soon as possible. We'll bang, okay?
When I started with ME1, I went basically full Renegade. I thought it was more fun to push back on everything and my two supporting cast buddies-for-life were Garrus and Wrex for their Renegade attitudes. This all came to a screeching halt when the renegade thing was to kill Wrex. I couldn't do it. The game made me so invested in it that I was suddenly making considered choices, even though I had started by mindlessly pressing the red options. Through ME2 I was playing neutrally, relying on renegade as a fallback for when I the player had no opinion. By ME3 I was almost fully Paragon. I cared about the characters and the world too much to be a bad guy anymore. It's crazy how the writing is so solid my out of game shift in attitude towards the game built a fully believable character arc.
Renegade=/=evil though. Sometimes it does but sometimes it is just the "Dont take shit" option.
....except theres totally a renegade dialouge option to not kill wrex lol
The loyalty missions are actually influenced by by previous character developement, by how much you talked to them and how you stand with them prior to the missions. You CAN get Zaeets and Talis loyalty even if you choose the "wrong" option, you can also lose Jacks loyalty if you pick the wrong choice AND didn't develope the relationship with her prior to her mission.
What you mean by wrong option on Tali's trial? She being exonerated? Didn't she basically want that?
@@renatosardinhalopes6073 Not at the cost of her father's standing. Tali didn't want him being remembered as a criminal.
@@Zoten001 you misread. I'm saying I don't see Tali exoneration (being banned from the fleet) as a bad option
@@renatosardinhalopes6073 It isn't a bad option, but getting her exonerated by reveal what her father did WILL piss her off, thus losing her loyalty. There are other ways of getting her exonerated without using the evidence. Just going that one route will fuck it up.
@@Zoten001 she won't be exonerated if you give the evidence
The element of Shepard's characterization that I found most limiting was their depicted age. I styled my Shepard as an experienced veteran, with a grizzly Admiral Adama face to match, cuz ya know, at the very beginning all you know is he's a career soldier who has risen the ranks to be an elite N7 soldier and a peer in the eyes of Admiral Anderson. This mostly worked in the first game, as Shepard was less of an action-hero doing cool stunts and more of a negotiator - I actually forwent any romantic relationship that game (and those sweet sweet "congrats on the sex" gamerscore points) because it didn't seem appropriate to the character. But as the games progressed, while I was able to keep his face, now the character modeling, animation and dialogue made him more and more youthful, which really didn't jive with the character I had been playing. It affected my perception of the character and really changed the way I acted - but not in a good way. By ME3 my Shepard felt like a full-blown midlife crisis 'divorced-dad-energy' guy hanging out with a bunch of 20-somethings...
I feel like it would not have been that intensive to have a choice of younger/older during character creation and some throwaway dialogue about you, idk, either "looking good for your age" or being "wise beyond your years", something simple.
You kind of touched on a big issue I have with ME2 and 3 - the tone. They feel more like Hollywood summer action movies than the first game, which felt grounded in realistic military practices and an attempt to make it as NOT cheesy as possible.
No matter what you do, Shepard starts ME1 as a 29 year old who's been in the military for 11 years.
The problem is: making the character much younger makes the rank of Lieutenant Commander (O-4) seem totally unrealistic, and making the character much older makes you way less decorated. While O-4 is an impressive rank for a 29 year old, it's pretty standard for a 35 year old and lower than average for someone over 40.
It would be really weird for an elite special forces officer to be way older than the usual age for a promotion. (That problem could have been circumvented by having Shepard be a petty officer, but then it would make way less sense for you to be in charge of a ship, and gaming already has a famous master chief petty officer, one for whom his rank is used more than his name.)
it's o k. he got rebuilt by cerberus and can now headbutt a krogan
Shepard can't be more younger for plot reason such as his rank as a military and all his background as a character, he starts me1 with like 29 years old and ended up with 33 (i don't exactly remember) and about his movement thats because of the gameplay and story, gameplay was so much improved, mass effect 1 was a nightmare, mass effect 2 a little more polish, the third was the perfection, about the story he was rebuilt and improved with cibernetic parts, even chakwas remarks his incredible shape, about the hanging out with a bunch of 20's, what game did you play? liara its old af, garrus its way older than shepard, ashley i'ts almost 30, EDI doesn't count, james it's almost like ashley, zaeed war veteran, wrex old af, you should pay more attention of what you played, not what's more fit to you.
@@darkphoenix2 One of the problems is the writers. Mass Effect 1 was mostly written by two people; Drew Karpyshan and Chris l'Etoile. Drew was (according to the now non-existant blog of Chris l'Etoile) an idealist whilst Chris was a pessimist, leading to a fairly grounded world; not too grim, yet not too bright. Mass Effect 2's lead writer was Mac Walters based on framework built by Karpyshan and l'Etoile (the early drafts had you being rebuilt by the geth, not Cerberus) l'Etoile (who wrote the codex, world descriptions and some of the main missions for mass effect) was regulated to a far more minor role with Walters in charge. He also said in his blog there was a lot of interference from "people who get paid a lot more than [he] do[es]." Drew Karpyshan has in a couple of interviews stated that the information on l'Etoile's blog was correct.
So you had the people who mostly built the universe regulated to more minor roles whilst Walters (who from what I've read was one of the junior writers in the first game) was given writing control presumably because he did what EA executives wanted as the universe wasn't his baby.
48:21 That hidden cuts were so good
Huh, I didn't notice that at first. Neat!
Personally I think the absolute best way to play through the mass effect trilogy is to not lean directly into the renegade or paragon options but rather balance both. I recently completed a "renegade" run of the first game in which I ended on like 80% renegade and 70% paragon. I used intimidate in place of charm, otherwise those stats would be flipped.
This run felt very organic to me, in that Shepard was willing to take the harder path in order to do the right thing, like gassing the colonists or releasing the rachni queen. But shepard wasn't above playing fast and loose with the rules when the time was necessary, using their stature and status to "bludgeon" their way through people who refused to listen. Shepard was still "the hero" who tried their best to save lives, while understanding that sometimes you save more lives by killing the bad guys instead of sending them to trial or whatever.
One of my favourite conversations to use charm OR intimidate on is with the admiral who comes to inspect the normandy. When talking about the cic, charm will talk about wanting to see how effective the turian design is, while intimidate will talk about how good Shepard is at yelling.
Also honorable mention to "She's surrounded by Geth and pointing guns at us! Shoot her!"
When you mention BioWare could have gone the route of having you sabotage or actively work against Cerberus , I think it’s important to note there are missions you can do that are technically aligned with the Alliance and Council, you’re just dragging Cerberus along to get them to help you. Also there is a side mission where you recover decrypted Cerberus info and you have the choice of returning it to Cerberus, keeping it for your own personal use against them, or handing it over to the Alliance so they can at least have some intel on them.
For something that just shows up once in an optional side mission, I gotta say I love that whole idea where you can really further build the whole idea of Shepard’s goals and allegiances. There you can have them subtly go against what Cerberus wants, instead of the usual pattern of doing their missions and complaining about it
So is that the reason that Garrus is the greatest space bro ever?
Or space boyfriend
Best bromance or romance! He’s both of course.
*husband
Wish he could be Shepard's best bro -and- husband, but Bioware wasn't gonna do a gay romance with garrus :(
Garrus is maybe my favorite video game companion ever.
I just want to say that this is double to quadruple the length of a lot of your catalog, with no loss in quality. You've done well, and deserve to feel proud for it.
Thanks! It's important to me that GMTK always has the same productive-value-per-minute, regardless of video length :D
I thought the same thing. It caught me by surprise when I realized it was not the quick video I was expecting and, yet, it didn't feel like a drag.
Shepard's a bit like a democracy, you can choose some things, not everything.
"democracy: ask everyone's opinion and do things your own way"
The Legion/Tali choice was the most heartbreaking moment of the entire series to me (yes, mor than Mordin's death). Because, as Legion dies either way, no matter what you choose, his death in particular is devastating to me. A lot of people don't know that you can save the Geth fleet and then convince the entire Quarian fleet to not attack the Geth, and both armies survive and Tali doesn't commit suicide... but you have to have played ME1 and ME2 and have loaded your progress from those games into ME3.
Not true. I started new game, still got the peace ending.
@Rising Horizon Gaming Well, you also need to do certain things on that playthrough, like saving Admiral Korris instead of his crew so he can back you up in your final engagement with admiral Gerrel. And in the comic book prologue you must have chosen to do all loyalty missions since Tali will otherwise be exiled which also blocks the peace ending.
Allways felt the strongest connection to legion. To me he is shepards mirrior image. Legion goes from consensus to individual, shepard has to do the opposite in the green ending. Both die the jesus death for their people. My Legion died in the vents on my first run. Bad luck for the smellies aka quarians... .
That choice where I saved both was soooo satisfying. How could I let one side perish?
@@Fragenzeichenplatte I know, right.
Face it:
You can fight like a Krogan,
run like a Leopard,
but you’ll never be better
than Commander Shepard.
literally sang that to myself right after finishing the video.
I go back to that song so many times.
All of the his songs about Mass Effect are iconic.
YEEEEEES
Wait, you mean Shepard's favorite store on the Citadel might be OURS?
*Mind. Blown.*
Well I mean, every store on the Citadel is Comander Shephard's favorite. So yeah?
Bro you are my favourite store on the citadel
GOD, I LOVE YOUR NAME. You even have a picture that matches! I need to find a picture of a necktie wearing Togekiss now.
@@presidenttogekiss635 Your name inspires confidence. I will definitely be voting for you in the next election. With your happiness powers, we'll surely save the country.
@@ProfDragonite hehe. Bring joy back to electoral politics lol.
I’d argue that a lot of the reason you can’t sleep with certain characters is less about Shepard’s sexual orientation and rather more about the other characters. Not everyone is gay or bi. Asari typically are, but Tali and Garrus seem to simply... not be interested in pursuing a homosexual relationship.
@Luke Forkum I read that in ME1 it was fair, because Liara is not considered woman nor man. So..Actually nobody gets to be homosexual, both can romance "an Asari". Of course, we all know how Liara looks..:) I didn't notice that there is no gay option for maleshep in ME2..really noone?
@@atiajulia4028 I mean at that point it's honestly semantics. Asari aren't technically women, but for all intents and purposes they can and are designed to be treated as such when it comes to sexuality and what sexual characteristics a person is attracted to.
Yeah, I thought that too. Strange that the video doesn't mention it.
It's pretty clear the only reason is Bioware didn't want to. It's very easy to come up with some half baked reason to put same sex people together... just like irl
Exactly, it gives more perspective on who a character is. If every character could get romanced by either sex it woudnt be as interesting as each character having their own preferences. They would lose the individuality they gain this way. If you attempt a relationship with a character who isnt into shep based on their orientation, they dont shame you, just respectfully decline. It clearly isnt meant to marginalize people based on orientation.
I would argue that curing the Genophage is more than a moral choice: After all, some players may prefer supporting the fun memetic badass of a Krogan like Wrex over currying favours from the seemingly dogmatic and irritating Dalatrass. Yeah sure, Dalatrass, you may have a point in your rationale regarding not curing the Genophage, but no one wants to give a jerk the satisfaction of being right. Did you honestly think Shepards who see Wrex as a bro would betray him for your help? That's not to mention having to murder Mordin to sabotage the Genophage cure.
The game also elaborated on the choice between saving the Quarians and saving the Geth through EDI, who would subtly criticize a Shepard who chose the Quarians by stating that Shepard chose something they are familiar with and that when the time comes, Shepard may choose to sacrifice EDI to save Joker. This statement would sound quite right in the Destroy ending.
I'm inclined to agree. But really, I feel it has to do with how fleshed out your Shepard is, how you perceive the game, story and characters, and also how invested you are in any of that. For instance, making Mordin pick the Krogan side of the argument and opting to cure the genophage no matter what, subtly took most of the choice away from you. Really, aside from it being a massive moral choice, it's also a question of loyalty. Ignoring the morality of the situation, you would choose Wrex AND Mordin. But what if Mordin was trying to stop you from curing it? What if it wasn't you making the right choice and siding with both of your only friends who are involved in the situation, but drawing a line between making the right choice, making a choice of loyalty between two dear friends. While this idea is more true in the choice between the geth and the quarians, that decision is far more rooted in morality. You might disagree, but from the very first game when asking Tali about the war, I'm pro-geth. The quarians were in the wrong 100%, and while geth may not have been friendly over the course of the following 300 years, any conflict between the two groups was always instigated by the quarians. Aside from the heretics, no geth wanted to fight them or anyone. So, if I ever HAVE to choose between the quarians and the geth in 3 (as I've had to do once due to a lack of reputation points at the time), I'd always choose geth. I love and respect both Legion and Tali, as with this choice and the genophage choice, familiar characters are used as a moral face for either decision. But I can admit I love Tali more than I love Legion. And despite that, without a second thought, even though I'd lose Tali AND Legion completely, choosing the geth will always be my direction. Because it's the right thing to do. To conclude, I agree with what you said completely, but taking a wider view, it depends on the situation, context, narrative and consequences. And I love Bioware for making those two situations so different from each other. Sorry for writing a fucking book.
Well, that, and it's not exactly a secret that Salarians aren't great conventional warfighters. Who is going to be more useful to you in a total war of survival? The spindly, fast-talking frog people who prefer to end fights before they begin? Or the goddamn biological tanks who evolved on a 40k-like death world to have multiple redundant backup systems and a true love of combat? Besides, if you make the right choices, you can get a good chunk of the Salarian military to outright rebel and join you reguardless of the Dalatrass' orders.
You don't have to kill Mordin. From what I've heard if you distroyed mealons research and wrex was killed I believe you can tell Morden the korgon are a lost cause
@@dianabarnett6886 Salarians are honestly stupid and don't learn from mistakes. They uplifted the Krogan and witnessed what happened. They're thinking about uplifting the Yahg in that facility on Sur'Kesh...
If Wreav is the Krogan leader and Eve is dead, Mordin will sabotage the genophage and survive.
There's also never a reason to choose between Geth and Quarians if you're resourceful and play your cards right.
ME in game lore states that krogan females are able to lay 1000 eggs annually. With genophage, maybe one or two gets to be born and obviously there's the issue of newborns mortality etc. Thing is that puts krogan at the same level as humans, asari etc. In terms of birthrate...
Curing the genophage means a potential of 1000 little krogans can be born with one female a year. That means, if you would take a male and a female krogan, one of kind, and put them on an empty planet to populate it with modern medicine and all the technology krogan have, and lets just assume that despite curing the genophage, from those 1000 eggs only 500 survive childbirth ( probably way more but just to show you how huge this is), and its 50/50 in terms of gender, and also their kids are able to reproduce with eachother immidiately (but it takes full 12 months to give birth), then after 2 years their population would grow from 2 people to... 126 thousands. 126k. 126.000.
Now imagine millions of them reproducing at that rate.
Cueing the genophage is as dangerous as the reapers and no wonder they constructed the virus. Even if krogan became peaceful, unless there's some 10 child policy implemented, krogan will doom the whole galaxy to die with overcrowding every planet in existence.
So calling curing the genophage the obvious option while not doing so or tricking krogan pure evil renegade is... lets day veery misguided.
Would not mind hour long videos when they are this well put together.
I'll agree that the video was well made, but nearly an hour-long was being to feel like school... it even had a quiz at the end. I feel this would probably have done better as a miniseries a la Boss Keys. I had to pause and take a break multiple times to get through it.
Agreed, watching this went down soo smoothly. Didn't see time pass, almost to a fault!
@@brockormond4131 The video is divided in sections and youtube now makes it easy to navigate if you want to take a break. I don't see the reason to make multiple videos when you can divide it like that.
If you enjoyed this I would highly recommend Noah Caldwell-Gervais channel. Some of the best long form videogame content on UA-cam.
@@brockormond4131 I really like this format personally. Probably the years of training watching documentaries lead me to get used to long videos lmao
48:18 using the people that move across Shepard to swap between maleshep and femshep was so cool. Always impressed by your editing.
Damn this was so smooth I percieved it but didn't even realise it was happening....really great editing!
Roasting Andromeda is kinda a common point, but "No, not you" line still get me pretty hard.
17:15 - Wow, hold on there a second. We sure do see the consequences of saving or killing the Rachnai Queen in ME3. We see that it made literally no difference because if you kill her they just create a new clone and you have to play through the same mission as if you let them live.
The clone betrays you if you side with her, though that happens off-screen, after the mission.
If you let the real queen live you get 100 war assets, if you let the clone live you lose 200.
25:55 "If the player could refuse to work for Cerberus, Bioware would have to make an entirely separate storyline. Not impossible, but probably wasn't within budget, for this game."
*Shows shot of Martin Sheen as Illusive Man*
Watching a video of Tali dying felt genuinely as hard as the first time playing the game. Same as with Mordin. It's a true testament of Bioware's writers amazing work creating these loving, relatable characters.
IKR. I could only get myself to have Tali kill herself on like my 5th playthrough of ME3 and it was still one of the mosth gutwrenching moments in gaming. I'm an avid Tali shipper too tho...
Tell me about it, oh man! On my first playthrough I killed Mordin to try and stop the genophage cure (truly believe it's the right thing to do) and it was seriously so awful. I took so long reloading, in tears, trying to convince him, and when I realised shooting him was the only way to stop it I still had to reload another time cause I just couldn't press the button. Making it be a renegade trigger was so cruel but so effective. Afterwards I was so broken by it, and the conversation with Garrus back on the ship, that I went online to see if there was any way to save him and I restarted the entire trilogy just so I could convince him not to cure the genophage and have him live instead. At least he got to survive after all that. No other game has had that much impact on me though, the writing is amazing, it had me by the heart.
@@Sheechiibii indeed, that's the only way Mordin can survive. Though he's a really old Salarian so not for much longer.
7:30
A common thought around many modern D&D tables is that alignment should be *descriptive* rather than *prescriptive*. Meaning that players should be free to make decisions based on a character being more complex than semi-arbitrary positions on two confusing and abstract axes. And that when they pick up a sentient weapon that only likes “good” wielders that is assessed based on their past actions rather than 2 letters on their character sheet before they even got to know this character. However, what you’ve outlined was often true in earlier versions of D&D, even some now, but it is rarer.
Edit: 20:00
Exactly! This is the same eventual transition that is happening in D&D because these questions are SO much more interesting than good vs evil.
Yeah, never been the biggest fan of alignments because experienced roleplayers understand it properly but don't need it, while less experienced roleplayers probably won't understand it and can end up getting tricked into certain rigid roles that we all know aren't great. Like the unbending lawful good paladin that'd arrest their own mother for jaywalking.
I've played all three ME games about a dozen times now. This is by far the best thoughtful description of this universe I've heard. Well done, thank you!
Everybody asks "who is commander Shepard" but nobody asks "how is commander Shepard".
what about "Why is Commander Shepard?"
Dan Hauswald “When is Commander Shepard?”
"Why is commander shepherd". Wisecrack should do this one
Is commander sheppard?
well, to answer your question...
A 53 minute Game Maker's Toolkit video? Am I dreaming? Let me put on the kettle and turn the phone off.
I actually started watching in the middle of a relatively slow paced movie and cancelled the movie for this.
But if I turn my phone off, the video would stop...
About mass effect on top of it. Its like christmas in June.
31:35 “While moralistic Alliance soldier Kaidan Alenko might think many of your choices are distasteful, he’ll always stick with Shepard.”
Well, at least until Virmire in most playthroughs.
if i can help it hes living through Virmire, after my first playthrough i couldnt stand ash, so unless im romancing Garrus after, he lives, because apparently one full convo at the beginning of the game counts as romancing him
in most vanilla playthroughs* (not my case, fortunately).
And then he'll stick to Virmire instead 🤷♂️
I make a point that whoever Shepard romances, gets to stay with the bomb. Makes for a greater story than "sacrificing the other for your loved one".
21:23 - "The game goes full 3 minutes without offering the player any input"
Metal gear solid 4: 71 minutes, take or leave it.
God that Oblivion character creation screen terrifies me. I love Oblivion but thank goodness technology’s advanced past whatever that “character” was.
But, I thought you wanted 16 times the detail? 🤔
I'll take it over Skyrim's character creation where your only option is a middle aged, dried up drug addict. I mean skooma addict.
jase276 Skyrim’s creation menu is capable of creating a decent looking character, unlike Oblivion
@@PanjaRoseGold My female Imperial and Nords looked awesome thank you very much
honestly I always felt like Shepard's subconscious or something, that all I was doing was introducing thoughts into her internal dialog
I'm not doing it!" " At least take the grenades. So you'll have the option." LOL I dunno why but that exchange is funny as hell XD " I'm not doing it." fucking kills me. XD
'We'll bang, ok?' To me, commander Shepard will always be that legendary male troll. His voice is simply iconic.
Honestly, regarding the whole Renegade vs Paragon thing, I get the feeling that Bioware was largely looking more at the lawful/chaotic spectrum than the good/evil one. There are exceptions, certainly - you mentioned the renegade killing off the people rather than knocking them out with sleeping gas grenades, that's no chaotic good act - but a lot of them are more along the lines of not putting up with due process. The "I see annoying reporter, I punch annoying reporter" style of choices. Those are definitely more law vs chaos than good vs evil.
Punching someone because they're inconvenient to yourself is absolutely a good vs. evil choice. Physical violence for your own convenience. It doesn't get much more easy to call a choice "evil" than that.
Ignoring due process to take out someone you *know* needs taking out is more arguably about law vs. chaos.
@@Eagle0600 So more Lawful Good VS Chaotic Neutral?
@@4shtia As pointed out in the video, it's inconsistent. Sometimes it's something like that, and sometimes it's really just "asshole vs. not asshole".
So basically at times chaotic stupid, and the DM has to stop the campaign from being derailed.
Alignment is all in framing of actions.
Shepard doesn't shoot up a bunch of colonists becaues he just doesn't care about their lives, he does it because sparing them creates additional risks during the mission, and the mission is all the matters.
Shepard doesn't punch a reporter because she's annoying, he punches a reporter because she makes snide insinuations about his organization. Also do note that punching her is the FAILED version of the renegade choice. It represents the worst outcome of that ethical paradigm.
Having said that, yeah sometimes its just asshole vs not asshole.
Woah those transitions where someone or something goes in front of Shepherd and suddenly it's the other gender version was really nifty and super slick, I love that touch!
Loved that too
*Garrus and Tali for life*
But for real, great video. I played through ME long before I began studying game design and have tried to replay it, but getting through all three of the games seemed like a nigh-insurmountable task, then Mark pops up like "Hey guys, let's talk about Mass Effect". Got to not only relive some of the most amazing and the most tragic moments in the story, but I also got to evaluate a truly amazing game from a designer's perspective instead of just a player's.
But, also, no mention of selling out to make a commercial for that one shop. C'mon, Mark.
On my first playthrough of ME3, despite playing as paragon, I reflexively used two renegade interrupts. I never did this in ME2. One was when Udina pulls a gun and I thought he was going to shoot Ashley. The other was after the fight with Kai Leng and he's sneaking up on you. Both these moments stood out to me because I did an action opposed to my intentions based on pure instinct.
So are you asking... Who is assuming direct control of Commander Shepard?
“This hurts you.”
"I know you feel this."
“If I must kill you Shepard, I will”
"I will direct this personally."
I AM ASSUMIMG DIRECT CONTROL OF THIS UNIT
Very minor thing that was weird in my playthrough
Somehow I'd unintentionally romanced Ashley in the first game by just... being nice. When she asked to spend the night together before the final battle I said no. The future games still registered this as having romanced her, though.
So, come the third game where she's suddenly jealous of Tali, it gave me this really weird perception that she was just this Shepard-obsessed woman who didn't understand boundaries, or the fact she'd never had a thing with Shepard in the first place.
Luckily, Ashly is a boring enough character that that weird fluke actually made her more interesting :P
Mass Effect: Romantic Comedy edition
This is a common problem and bug. Happens with female Shepard and Kaidan, too.
Yep, did the same thing with Kaidan in my first playthrough. I was just being nice to him and suddenly there was kissing, which I very much Did Not Want and Did Not Expect Whatsoever. I cringed literally every time the romance was mentioned afterwards.
I never liked Ashley, she was a boring racist lol who wants that?
It's really hard to find a good game that does not equate treating a person good with being in a relationship with them. At leat it's not AS bad as having you buy out their affection, but it still could be improved.
I was about 15 when I played this games, and suddenly a couple of characters (can't remember which) confronted me about flirting with both, and told be I had to choose one... I did not care about either and that was certainly not a choise.
commander shepard being "more defined" is a bit of a cop out i believe, since they voiced the whole game (me1) with a romance between male shep and kaidan and female shep and ashley. they just did not activate it but with a mod that re-enables those dialogue options, male shep even will tell liara "i am only interested in men" when she expresses herself in a way that shepard can interpret as her making advances.
i guess they just got cold feet at portraying two male soldiers on the same crew in a relationship.
A similar thing happened with ME2, where they made voicelines for a romance between Tali and femshep, and then chickened out at the last minute
@@annanilsen5833 I read it was Tali's voice actor who wasn't comfortable recording those lines.
@@kormosmate2 Really? Tali said so many things about violence and genocide but a lesbian romance is too far for the voice actor?
@@Fragenzeichenplatte Appearently, yes. I couldn't find the website i read about this, but i remember it clearly, that this was the reason. The lines weren't even recorded at all.
@Blood in the Water but fem shep was able to romance other female characters?
*Why can't a Renegade Shepard equip only two weapons??*
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Because that would be a Pair-a-gun
The under the hood paragon/renegade spectrum for the party members that's influenced by Shepard for ME1 is really interesting. Too bad it was dropped for ME2/3, but I understand that's quite a lot more work for 10+ members vs 6.
It was dropped because no one noticed it ever. I think ME1 was like a testing ground for what's possible and what works with players.
@@asmahasmalaria8596
From what I remember, Garrus has a few different lines/overall behavior in ME2 depending on Shepard's actions in ME1. (The Game save has variables that remember it for save import to ME2) Nice touch, but as ME is ultimately a set story, you can't really push it far in any direction as the story would have to be adaptable, and let's face it, in late 00s and early 10s the technology might have been there, but no one was ready for 100gb downloads back then.
Another problem with that is if they fully took into account your influence on companions, Shepard could potentially loose the driver's seat in situations, and be forced into outcomes not desirable by the player. It'd be cool IMO, the question is how many players would enjoy it. It's a tough, tough balancing act.
E: So the Garrus thing was actually mentioned in the video, just haven't seen it when I wrote this comment.
This felt like a documentary about one of my favorite series- well done!
Gotta appreciate the editing on the scenes where you cut between Sheploo and Femshep to show how they swapped out the character models.
Mass effect is maybe the only rpg where i really suggest taking your time in the character creation, in all the little details that i usually skip. Unlike other rpgs where you inmediately get a helmet and never again see your face, in mass effect you are going to look at it in a close up for really long time. And, at least for me, it feels really special carrying your same design for three whole games, taking it to the end.
I used the base Femshep from ME3 as my canon one and it was fun recreating her best as I could in ME1 and ME2
Except my femshep from 1 wasn't compatible with 2 for whatever reason and ended up looking entirely different
@@TheMightyShell Oh that sucks, i had no idea that could happen.
@@TheMightyShell yeah FemShep really takes a hit in ME2 import for some reason, I could never get her to look quite as stern as my ME1 Shepard looked
on the other hand base maleshep as the best mug you could get and is very unique in some way. I can't stand watching mass effect footage where shepard doesn't have that default face, there's no way to make a non ugly male
There are a couple of things that often get forgotten in analyses of the ME trilogy.
1, this is experimental story-telling, that had never been tried in such an immersive, fully-voiced way.
2, they're triple A titles where decisions are progressed from the first, into the second, and on into the third.
Most of the issues stem from the artistic and technical challenges of breaking new ground.
The only game to have exceeded the first criteria is the Witcher 3, a game now 5 years old. The only other franchise to even come close to the second criteria is Dragon Age, another BioWare title. CDPR aside, no one, not even current BioWare, looks likely to be allowed to even attempt something so ambitious.
Shepard's story, warts and RGB ending included, might now never actually be surpassed. Which is sad...
I think somehow experimenting in ways to tell a story has been relegated to indie only titles this generation. Even new innovative game mechanics experimented in indie titles 1st before AAA titles even think about implementing something similar.
Maybe due to the extensive use of mocap in AAA games? Instead of just recording 2 different voice lines (paragon/renegade), they have to do 2 different mocap for it? Speculating.
@@NewbOoyNS I think maybe it's all to do with all the suits wanting every game to be like Destiny, and not realising all the folk that like that type of game were already spending all their time playing Destiny. Live Service and well written narrative just do not go together. Writing is hard, and you can't just spam out new words like you ran recolour a cosmetic for microtransactions.
Hopefully they've all learned their lesson since every none-Destiny live-service game has either bombed or performed anaemically.
If the pupported ME remaster does well, maybe we'll see a return to proper storytelling.
Ehhh. Whilst I agree with bringing context into this I really don't agree with your use of surpassed. This specific style, presentation and tech may never be used again but I'm not sure that means we can't do better. Gaming is (and pretty much everything) is littered with ideas that just lead no where. We may never see this style of storytelling again but I'm not sure that's because there aren't better options
@@AI-jl5kp Hopefully the industry can do better, but no has so far. Bifurcating decision trees may be a dead end, but until someone innovates an alternative, what else is there? The Banner Saga did something similar on a smaller canvas, but was never going to garner the same kind of attention as ME. Ubisoft made a go of it with AC: Odyssey, but they were far behind the curve in sophistication, and nothing's going to carry over into Valhalla. We'll soon see if CDPR has anything up its sleeve with Cyberpunk, but even if events will carry over to a follow-up, that's likely to be so far ahead that most of us will have forgotten everything but the broad strokes.
BioWare set out to create gaming's Star Wars trilogy, and kinda succeeded. History has proven that not even Star Wars can do that again.
@@Klijpo hey, warframe exists.
After all this time... this game still gives me goosebumps.
So after watching this vid, I feel like I want to replay the Mass effect trilogy.
Same but I never played it before
Yeah, watching this I was like, damn, here we go again...
Again you mean
In the middle of part 3 and I just want to throw my voice in on how frustrating it was that I had to work for Cerberus because of experiences in the first game. For those who don't know if you pick the survivor background you learn that Cerberus killed your entire squad and experimented on all the survives except for you. All of this is revealed in ME1 where cerberus is mentioned but not really explored. When I continued my character in ME2 I was annoyed that I couldn't even bring up the bad blood between because it wasn't just an evil organization it was an organization that wronged me in a personal way for both Shepard and myself. As I recall if you let your old squad-mate live he even sends you a nasty (though mild) emailing about working with cerberus and all I could think was yep I'm right there with you buddy. -_-
Absolutely. The player should have had the choice not to work for Cerberus at all. It's a crying shame, especially as The Witcher 2 managed to branch off for 40% of the game's content exactly - and this just one year after Mass Effect 2 came out.
Choice or no, Shepard's handing of Cerberus just turns them into an absolute idiot who goes along with everything TIM sets out for them like a dog on a leash. The fucker is well aware of the bugs all over the SR2 and never once thinks to have them removed.
I actually like the unspoken tension the Sole Survivor background gives in ME2. You, and Shepard, know what a bunch of bastards Cerberus really are, but they are the only ones that can help you go after the real threat. It's not like the game doesn't give you several opportunities to voice your displeasure with this arrangement. And you get to have some good 'ole payback in ME3.
Lol, im doing the exact thing right now, and I just played that mission, and feel the same way. I have never done this bacground/mission before, and hoped that there maybe was some new dialouge option in ME2. Sad to see that wont be the case, because I feel exactly the same as you.
@@dianabarnett6886 Yeah I like that. It's disappointing that they didn't even put in a few lines about that, but at least that can be the headcanon. Cerberus is an incredibly useful ally in ME2, so it does make some sense that Sheperd would go along with them despite the massive issues. The whole galaxy is at stake.
Mass effect felt like a gaming event, that was very cool to play and be part of since the begining. A massive story of three games with decisions you carry from the begining to the end. Regardless of the small problems all three games have, the simpler story and gameplay of one and the baffling choices of three, the whole experience was a joy for me. Your video made me want to replay all three of them so bad and take a completely different path, i really hope they came at some point to switch, they would be perfect for it.
I remember having my mind blown when I saw that my decisions will be imported to the second game. And also after finishing the game for the first time, going online and someone commenting on what Kaidan did in ME3 and my reaction being.."who?" and then realizing how very different the game could get.
I feel that I would like to see a good sequel/tribute of this, but at the same time, I'm not interested at all on the Andromeda, and I'm afraid we're never getting a similar trilogy...
ME1 is so dated you'll put it down in first 30 minutes. Unless you're a sucker for pain.
@@MarkRai-ko1sk I played through 1 again the other day on a quest to do a completion run through the trilogy as femshep. Was a long slog and abandoned my initial thought of doing a double run per game before moving on. Got to two and I was so worn out by one I still haven't gone back and finished it
The level of connection you create with characters (not just your character, ALL your crew) is still unsurpassed. Gods, I'd love to have another Mass Effect game now, but alas...
23:05 "I never asked for this" got me unprepared 😆 😆 😆
I really feel like you flourished in this longer type of video as it does not end abruptly, but dwells on topics until everything you wanted to say gets said. I appreciate it.
2:38 Fun Fact: It is physically impossible for a Mass Effect fan to hear this music and not experience goosebumps.
I agree. But which moment gets me even more is at 52:23. The suicide mission is still my favourite moment in the trilogy and when the main theme really kicks off there that almost makes me cry out of excitement every time
Og mass effect ost ftw !
@@Quitchy Vigil is fantastic. So Peaceful.
50:30
Me: YESSSSS ALPHA PROTOCOL IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE
Mark: "The Witcher."
Me: Oh...yeah...that's a great example too...
I like The Witcher and all, but I never really connected with Garelt like any of my Shepards, he was too much of an established character that I simply just felt I was stepping in the shoes of and letting my (very impactful) choices make Geralt involve himself in more of the written story.
Witcher 3 is amazing but I don't feel a sense of wonder and amazement like I do with Mass Effect. Also Alpha Protocol is a perfect example to make about an already established character becoming your character. Mike Thornton is always going to be a charismatic smart-ass but you can choose him to be between a Jason Borne, Jack Beurer or James Bond and again the depth of choices make you feel like this is a character you are creating while still having a based goal.
Watching this video and hearing the music is such a blast of nostalgia. Mass Effect was such an atmospheric, immersive experience.
This is an absolutely stellar video. I love how your videos time and time again shed light on things we knew we liked and disliked about games, but didn't know why, and then define and explore that thing in depth.
I didn't know why I didn't like how Ashley greets Shep in ME2, but it really is because ... well, how can she not like me for a decision the game/world made for me?
And any video that gives me even more of a reason to love Guarrus' character is a winner
For my Shep i actually loved the animations that were used in fem and male Shep that seemed a little "masculine", i was already playing my shepard like a gray jedi, she was walking the line in many different aspects, i had been involved with liara in me1 but started falling for garrus in me2, so she was a middle of the morality road bisexual who had this kind of butch energy, she wasn't interested in behaving within the expectations for her gender roles and her body lenguage mirrored that for me and made it all the more special and personal.
The same thing happened to me when I was playing my fem shep (and I LOVE Hale's VA in this game). This thing about fem shep having some "masculine" animations reminded me of Sofia Helin on the tv show Bron Broen. There's even an interview where she mentions something about men siting with their legs spread instead of crossing them as women are, usually, accostumed. It shouldn't even matter though, but since we live in a society that "demands" some kind of specific behavior from men and women (especially women), this comes out as "weird" or strange.
Here's the segment of said interview:
ua-cam.com/video/ZKkXLB09h3w/v-deo.html
Ironically, the mix of Femshep just being a copy pasta of Broshep along with their personality and the fantastic voice acting results in arguably the best female protagonist in a video game ever. She is charismatic, has morals, is generally bad ass and take no shit from anyone (headbutting a krogan comes to mind), and she is also a pansexual xenophile representing humanity with every choice she makes.
Femshep is clearly the best shep and one of my favourite fictional characters ever.
I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite video on UA-cam
14:05 You think Krogans are rhinos? Lmao that's interesting.
I always thought they were more like tortoises.
Toads
@@Shvabicu It's kept rather amphibious... almost toad-ally so.
One of your best Mark. I truly love this trilogy and while yes there are flows in both gameplay and design; it does a lot of things right. Especially for the sci-fi space genre.
Dude. Wow. What a video. You're all doing such good work, great essays, great great great visuals and editing. All the music was on point, all the dialogue, ducking the sound to talk over etc. Literally everything that's been done to this video is well thought out and very well executed. Sneaking the theme song into certain scenes made me emotive, sneaking battle music into others made me think "HELL YEAH", and acknowledging Garrus as the 2nd most important and well liked character in the series made me REALLY want to turn him renegade in ME1 just to see how much I like him still after that.
Of the ten or so playthroughs my gamebuds and me did over the years, what we felt were our canon playthroughs were those where we just kind of flipped between Paragon, Renegade, or businesslike neutral, depending playfully on our mood and patience with the games. As an action RPG franchise, I feel these games are much more like a Kingdom Hearts or maybe a System Shock, than a Fallout, so that the choices in these games are just another fun bit of flavor gameplay to me, on top of a set and prescribed web of action sequences and story bits. EA marketing, enthusiast press discourse, and fan backlash have frustratingly and often maliciously misrecognized that, and fixated on that, I feel. Loved the thorough and reasoned summation in this video of what the choice stuff in this series actually meant. Thanks
Also, these games did so much more important and influential stuff besides just the roleplaying choice fluff. A lot of the dramatization, gameplay, and audiovisual design that these games innovated/popularized has evidently been of huge influence on how pop scifi looked (even in film and tv), and what stories were told, in at the least ten years following that first game's release.
A list of some stuff that was suddenly everywhere for ten years, when utopian space scifi weirdly got hip again following Mass Effect 1 (aside Adventure games and huge action RPGs structured around dialogue wheels and quicktime events): the clicky-clacky superplastics machinery, the lean biker-style spacesuits, the haptic holograms everywhere, wristmounted superhacker devices, even the slightly animalistic and uncannily deformed human proportions for alien designs, the militarist-startrek type world and its specops soldier dramas, an obsession with AI ethics, an obsession with corporate vs. nationstate governance dystopianism, a renewed idealization and enthusiasm for near future tech R&D and space travel, jet aviation inspired spaceships...
I just had to pause this this because i realized this was only the second video i have ever seen of yours and I must say i'm impressed. It's like listening to an audiobook or watching a movie while working/modeling. Incredible work GMT
This video is incredible. Thank you for putting so much time and effort into analyzing the player-character relationship, as it's something I really care about. Game devs may struggle with giving players what they want, but you've hit the nail on the head.
Damn, this video is incredible, I started watching thinking “I'm not going to watch this 53 minutes video but let’s see what it is about” and before I even realized I was already 45 minutes in so I just watched the whole thing. Great work man, I have a very short attention span and you managed to get my full attention for almost an hour, bravo.
I clicked before I saw how long it was, and when I did I was 30 minutes in wich felt like 10
Yeah I was woke up and saw the video. I was like aight let's check it out and I'll get breakfast and come back to finish it. I realized after an hour with a roaring stomach, that I had forgotten to eat. It was so captivating all the way.
"Maybe Picard would be better, I don't know I don't watch anime" -- clever clever, those Star Wars fans will be mad ;-)
yeah. what's new
:)
Why would we be mad at a joke? Lmao.
Picard isn't SW though.
@@valravnsshadow9422 Yeah you can tell he hasn't seen any Battlestar Galactica before.
Long form, intelligent analysis videos like these make your channel one of my favorites. Keep up the great work!
I love GMTK. Longer videos like this, shorter videos addressing a single mechanic. I love them all! Keep em coming!
"I don't know, I don't watch anime."
Another RPG that does this is Divinity 2. At the start of the game, you get to choose to either create a blank-slate character or choose from six characters with backstories. One side-effect of this is that the custom characters feel even flatter than they normally would because your party members are made up of characters with backstories and you just feel flat. But there also aren't that many backstory characters, just six out of the sixteen race+gender options (8 living, 8 undead). So if you want to play a female dwarf or a male elf, you're just stuck being the least interesting character in the game. Apparently, Larian is trying to fix this problem in Baldur's Gate III, so that should be interesting.
not too relevant to your comment, but I'd just like to point out how amazing it's been accompanying Larian's progress from D:OS to 2 and now to Baldur's Gate.
every game feels like a massive step up and it's plain to see how much they're evolving as a dev, while almost single-handedly carrying the advancement of classic turn-based RPGs.
it's just wonderful and they've set themselves in stone as the studio that hypes me up the most, BG3 being announced by Larian was a HUGE holy shit moment.
That's a great point. In my playthrough, I chose a full team of 4 of the 6 premade characters for this very reason. Though I'd like to point out just in case any readers aren't in the know, Beep bop Robot snot seems to be talking about Divinity: Original Sin 2. Divinity 2 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 are two different games from Larian Studios in the same universe.
@@erickschusterdeoliveira2662 I sure _hope_ that they're developing, because if they give BG3 the "Dvinity treatment" character, story, and immersion-wise, then I'm going to be crushed...
I played as a black Lohse. Sure, you can't be a female dwarf with a great backstory, but there's a lot of customization for each main character.
it looks like they are ruining the feel of BG 3 to make it Divinity original sin 3
It’s definitely not perfect, but 15 years ago it was starting something that still hasn’t been perfected, and that’s definitely worthwhile. It’s still my favorite sci fi franchise.
That was fantastic, and I don't mind watching a video this long, not only because of the amount of things that you cover in it, but that you respected our time spent viewing without adding filler and carefully explaining your thoughts and points.
I've always found that the Mass Effect games do have this little problem where it almost ALWAYS requires a series of choices that either have Shepard be Paragon or have all the squad mates survive till the 3rd game, often because their replacement characters in Mass Effect 3 are generally flat and uninteresting. This does lead to a problem where many players will actually take the time in Mass Effect 2 to get all the important upgrades for the Normandy and make correct choices that guarantee your squad's total survival, resulting in a narrative hiccup where the Suicide Mission where there seems to be little chance of getting out alive, ends up playing like a typical Mass Effect mission with very few consequences.
That being said, one of the more interesting scenarios where a replacement character actually works is with Urdnot Wrex. If you kill him in Mass Effect 1, his brother becomes the new head of the Urdnot Clan. The brother is much more meaner and has more of the Krogan nationalistic attitude compared to Wrex, who wants to lead his people to become more than just warmongerers. So in Mass Effect 3, when tempted with the decision to sabatoge the cure, the case for it strengthens because the brother definitely gives clear hints of probably launching another war in the future.
That's why I feel like, as great as the suicide mission is, it fucks over ME3 because the writers couldn't really involve the crew of ME2 too heavily. So most of them are kind of there but not there.
Another key point is how ME3 tried heavily and also put a lot of pressure on Eve to represent that Krogans could be better. But even with Wrex, if you failed to save Eve, the Krogan future was uncertainly aggressive. For me that played an important role in the decision.
If both Wrex and Eve die (Eve as a result of deleting Maelon's research in 2) the case actually becomes strong enough to talk Mordin into sabotaging the cure (although not Padok Wiks, Mordin's stand-in if he dies in 2).
On my playthrough of ME2, I got all of the upgrades and ensured my squad's survival of the suicide mission, but in doing so I lost the lives of almost everyone the collectors kidnapped prior to the mission. It was a victory in that I was successful and kept my squad alive, but there was still loss of a lot of my ship's crew. The consequences would have hurt a lot more if the game had fleshed out some of those people, though.
@@archmagusofevil I mean aside from Ken, Gabby, Kelly, and Dr. Chakwas (maybe). Other than that, it is possible to get all the upgrades to ensure your squad survives AND complete the Suicide Mission with the entire ship's crew, all by not taking too long before going for the Omega 4 relay and by making appropriate choices during the mission to ensure the crew make it back to the ship.
"must have a soldier's physique" * screens shows the stick arms without a muscle from female sheppard *
I want hambeast femshep. If I can't play ME as Eli from Borderlands then what is the point
@@stufffstufffington Not sure that counts as soldier's physique but I get the idea.
Or you can play as adept Sheppard with wizard physique.
I like Kassandra in AC Odyssey. Strong arms, etc. This is how femshep should have looked like.
In all fairness, Shep in ME2 and 3 was a resurrected cyborg supersoldier. While I'd usually agree stick slim women shouldn't be supplexing bears like Vega, I think this one is kind of an exception.. kind of.
@@CheemsofRegret Ha, interesting, you mean that she could have been extremely strong even if slim because of implants, right? Maybe that makes sense. At least for the players, honestly, I dont think developers thought about that when making Shepard:)
Watching this video after one of Joseph Anderson's, and that "such a long video" comment at the end made me chuckle, thanks and keep up the good content!
What an incredible video, thank you Mark! Took me a few days to finish but honestly so glad I kept coming back
That's why I wonder if Cyberpunk 2077's main protagonist "V" will be in the same place as Commander Shepard and will CDPR won't stumble upon same mistakes Bioware had made previously.
bioware was really pioneering an incredibly complex system, it is absolutely shocking that they did as well as they did. there is room to improve, but the devs did an amazing job for not having a reference point.
"v has come two"
I dont think so. Seems to be alot like dragon age origin + then mass effect in regard to the Main character. Would bet some where between fo4 and me on his scale.
From my understanding it seems that Cyberpunk 2077 will have a system similar to Dragon Age where there is a set narrative V will go on, but you have more fluidity when it comes to choices. You can decide on your V's backstory and then you can make choices that expand to great lengths, and V happens to be fully voiced this time, meaning his/her personality may not change much.
@@ajerqureshi6411 cyberpunk 2077 will also be offering an extreme level character customization of V body that hasn't been seen before in a rpg, example you can go with the regular male V and regular female V if you're feeling adventurous you could make a physically female V but have male reproductive organs or vice versa physically male V but have famale reproductive organs, Heck we know romances will to be tied to the reproductive organs as well both Meredith Stout and Judy Alvarez will will require the V have male reproductive organs. it is yet to be revealed they'll be any male characters that a natural female V and a male V with female reproductive organs can romance.
I've played through the Mass Effect trilogy at least half a dozen times, and I still learned things here I'd never noticed during my time with the games. Great work!
Half a dozen is a healthy amount...
*Sweats thinking about my replay count*
I enjoyed this video so much, it made me realize how much I miss the trilogy🥺 thank you for making it!!
Just wanted to say that I thought this video was really well put together and a pleasure to watch. Nice to see such good content, looking at not only an aspect of one of my favorite game series, but on games in general.
When I first played Mass Effect, I always went with Paragon. I become so accostumed to it that sometime I didn't even read the line, just went with upper because that's the Paragon one, right?
Only time I actually stopped to think about dialogue longer was in one discussion with Ahsley. Her Christianity comes to discussion and Shepard has chanche to state their own religious beliefs. They can agree with Ashley on their belief in god or no. This felt really different than any other discussion so far. It was not about if Shepard was a hero or asshole. It was about what Shepard actually believed in, who they were on more personal level than just "a hero" or "a anti-hero."
My Shepard ultimately believed in God. He had seen so many wonders of galaxy that just couldn't think there wasn't something greater in there somewhere. I'm atheist myself, but I like to think sometimes about my Shepard, a man who believed even after everything he had seen.
I still think that was one the most personal choices in first Mass Effect
Hear, hear!
"There's no atheist in a foxhole"
My Shep tends to believe, too, especially since I generally give him the sole survivor background.
Playing characters that are different from myself has always been interesting. Playing a religious fanatic, not just a Christian, but an evil character in the middle of goodie two-shoes was one of my favorites. I had to really think of how to present her views in a way that would make me, an atheist, go: "I fundamentally disagree with you, but I can't call you irrational."
I played my Shepard as an Atheist but went with "I'm your CO, it's none of my business" option when it came to that moment. What's funny is that after that i went with Ashley to Citadel to kick off the Hanar preacher off the Presidium. kek.
*Calls Salarians lizard people*
Liara: "I believe they're amphibian."
*_Javik has entered the chat_*
They used to eat flies.
@@thechosenundead2718 I love you guys
Javik: Oh? The lizard people evolved?
Liara: I believe they're amphibian.
Javik: They used to eat flies.
Game Maker's Toolkit: "It also leads to strong moments in the narrative. When you meet up with your old Mass Effect 1 squad-mate Ashley Williams on Horizon..."
Me: "Ashley... who??"
Never chose to save Ashley in Virmire mission. And I played the first game at least nine times!
By the way, great analysis of this aspect of the trilogy, thanks!
Ah, a kindred spirit. Let the ashes fly...
Always love your work! Thanks for continuing to put out high quality analytical content about our favorite medium.
9:01 "These are our friends!"
Shepard: "Gun goes PEW PEW"
"Fiercely heterosexual" That's probably the most accurate descripyion of Geralt's sex life.
He bangs more women in a game than James Bond does in a movie.
Well, considering the length of a game and a movie...
Kind of obvious, eh.
It makes sense for Geralt. The lore states that Witchers have a preternatural attractiveness that women find irresistible. At least, that's what the first game said. I never read the books, tbh
@@rogen8094 and that part of the lore is also fiercley heterosexual lmao
@@b.vaegler6983 True. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.
@@rogen8094 not morally at least
Great editing. Didn’t even feel the time go by watching this fascinating work
Hands down, one of your best videos. Thank you for all the hard work sir.