Biotic Butts (of the non-Asari kind) - Let's Play Mass Effect

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Biotic Butts (of the non-Asari kind) - Let's Play Mass Effect

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Kaidan is a functional, professional adult who has already dealt with his poo poo. The problem is he's in a genre that's about crazy melodrama, so a relatively professional and normal guy comes off as pretty boring, especially next to Ashley, who is also a professional and functional person but who has understandable flaws and issues that get at some of the major themes of the setting.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2015 09:34

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 14:34

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Asari are space elves. There are always space elves.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 05:18

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Ah, the Consort Quest. When I was Adrian Shepard, my original male infiltrator PC, I was very polite with her and so never got the sex scene.

Which led to a hell of a surprise when I was playing Mary Shepard, a gruff no-nonsense femshep who generally thought mystic mumbo-jumbo was pretty worthless. Imagine my surprise when 'Really? Words? Is that it?' didn't lead to 'I was expecting credits' but rather to that. I couldn't stop laughing.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 08:38

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Judge Tesla posted:

The reason the Asari have the best technology is all because the Protheans hand picked them to lead the next cycle and gave them a fully functional beacon stuffed with technology that would help them prepare the Galaxy for the Reapers return, but instead they sat on the bulk of this information and used it only to better themselves, as mentioned earlier, Javik is very, very displeased when he finds this out.

Never trust elves to lead your desperate alliance against ancient evils. Never, ever. You'd think the long lifespan would make them far sighted, but it actually just makes them incredibly prone to procrastination.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 10:08

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The Turians got in entirely because they had a giant fleet and had just won a war. I imagine their application just consisted of them going 'So, by the way, we're big into killing people.' and looking meaningfully at their shitload of guns, then the council signing them on.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2015 08:38

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Regalingualius posted:

If that was the case, one has to wonder why the krogan (pre-genophage) didn't get put on the fast track to becoming a Council race.

They didn't ask, they just started taking poo poo. The Turians are militarists with a 'meritocracy' who can put a nice face on being the council's muscle, but the Krogan didn't bother with fig leaves.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2015 08:59

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

chesnok posted:

I would argue Multiplayer was the best part of the trainwreck that was ME3.

ME3's MP is like the first multiplayer shooter I really got into.

Especially when I rolled a Battlemaster in the first pack I opened when they came out. Fly around punching people and headbutting giant robots to death and occasionally remember your shotgun's good for more than having a bayonet on it? Hell yes.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2015 09:28

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I always liked the Mako, dumb as it was, because it made Mass Effect feel more like Star Control or Starflight. I missed being able to fly around and poke the galaxy with a stick in later games, even if most of the things you could poke were kind of identical mountains and pre-fabs with a few dudes to shoot for a short sidequest.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2015 22:58

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

EponymousMrYar posted:

The best comparison of Spectres is that they're like Warhammer 40k's Inquisitors. They have a job to do and theoretically unlimited authority to accomplish that job, but unlike Inquisitors Spectres seem to operate in a 'procure on site/in route' manner to equipment and manpower.

Heck, you still have to buy equipment out of the C-Sec's special stocks.

Also like Inquisitors, most of your time as an actual Spectre is spent solving the problems that come from Spectres being a *terrible idea*.

Hello, Saren and your giant underground support network that you built before you decided to betray a council that had almost no way of actually following what you were doing.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 19:26

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Well, yes, I just also appreciate that the story is also about 'Yes we know these are the open world tactical operatives who can be good and evil and whose profession is being PCs. Now look at what a terrible idea they are.'

It feels like a nice bit of self awareness and willingness to poke fun at their own premise some, basically.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 21:24

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Bobfly posted:

I think you're giving them too much credit.

True, considering 2 and 3. Though weren't those by a different writing team?

ME2 was a great game but it was also kinda the start of 'Oooo, look how Dark and Gritty we'll make the galaxy.'

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 22:57

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Up Circle posted:

Mass effect 2 had a lot of good level design and the aesthetics were much better I thought. It was also full of the worst characters ever and everything about the cerberus plot makes me angry. I was very happy that they expanded the Kill one of your squadmembers mechanic into Kill All Squad Members.

Cerberus is basically a one-off sidequest villain that turned into a tumor on the game's story.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2015 00:13

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Zaeed was g'drat great. A big part of it was he was the only guy on the team who wasn't falling over himself for Shepard's approval. The hell did he need it for? He's loving Zaeed. He's seen poo poo.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2015 02:37

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Up Circle posted:

and then in game you never get to punch someones head into mush.

Vanguards. Oh yes, Vanguards.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2015 03:13

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I actually like ME1's plot, etc way more than 2 or 3 even if the gameplay is sorta clunky. It's probably my favorite in the series.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2015 19:14

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

ME3 has really fantastic gameplay, even better than ME2, and a few of the storylines resolve really well (Hello Tuchanka), but it got into a lot of the stuff that makes me feel sorta uncomfortable about the later setting (lots of Politicians Only Get In The Way of Warriors, Soldiers Perfect And Wonderful stuff) a little too heavily and then, well, the ending.

I imagine we'll get to the ending in a year or two. To me, ME was basically a weird sliding scale where the gameplay got better (significantly) and the plot worse with each installment.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2015 19:31

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

SubponticatePoster posted:

Zaeed is so badass he can be disloyal and hold the line solo.

I mean really, what in the galaxy can kill a man who responds to giant cthulhu space cuttlefish by ordering an extra crate of whiskey, a metric fuckton of flamer fuel, and parts to get his lovely favorite old rifle working again?

# ¿ Dec 31, 2015 20:31

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

hard counter posted:

well this is a line between acknowledging the galaxy is run by selfish assholes so being one is just par of the course

One of the things I dislike about ME is how much 2 and 3 make this absolutely correct.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2016 06:35

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Judge Tesla posted:

I'm fairly certain Andromeda is a soft reboot of the setting because trying to account for all possible choices in Andromeda would be a nightmarish clusterfuck, better to start again than have the game tainted with the Reaper poo poo from the trilogy.

I mean, getting rid of the Reapers is a good idea because they were never that great.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2016 16:39

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

They were fine in 1, yes. They only really worked as a distant threat that you foil the poo poo out of by preventing their return or stopping them from pulling off the bullshit that let them curbstomp everyone every other time. You're right that a big part of the problem is that there's just no way to engage the Reapers in gameplay since you're a dude (or lady) with a rifle and they're giant dreadnoughts.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2016 17:02

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

ME2's strongest point was how little it had to do with the Reaper Threat.

Weirdly, they worked great in ME1 because it had a clear idea for how to deal with them: You find out what the gently caress they are, what they have to do to win, and then you prevent that. Simple, but it worked.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2016 07:22

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

SubponticatePoster posted:

I dunno, Shep spent the last 15 minutes of 3 talking to a dead kid

Urrrgh.

loving Starchild.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2016 01:49

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

It was a pair of lovely writers trying to figure out how to end their story in the 11th hour.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2016 01:56

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Ah, Cerberus. The plot tumor of Mass Effect.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 14:05

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The best part is my first PC was a veteran of Akuze. Meaning Adrian Shepard had found out that his whole squad was killed by Cerberus experimenting on what happens when you expose Marines to Thresher Maws (it turns out they die).

There is no option to be even nonplussed about this, just lots of 'Well they're awful but maybe only an unaccountable psychopathic private organization can do the things government is TOO AFRAID TO GET DONE!'

gently caress Cerberus.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 20:07

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

That's the funniest part about Cerberus. They're a constant parade of incredible stupidity. I actually thought for awhile that was intentional, that that was the clever twist. That while everyone was going 'Wow look how efficiently this incredibly, cartoonishly evil organization does things' the results were a constant 'Everyone dead, nothing of use discovered' as a kind of refutation of their bullshit.

Actually Mac Walters is just a really bad writer, instead. :negative:

# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 21:42

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

That final mission in ME1 is one of the reasons I will always like ME1 the best despite its janky gameplay. ME1 felt more like the kind of awesome space opera I was looking for before they went all Grim and Gritty and 'Hey man maybe the Space KKK has good points have you considered that'

# ¿ Apr 6, 2016 16:31

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 14:34

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I always got this odd feeling that Anderson was kinda terrible at his job (being a naval officer and also later being a Councilman because who didn't pick him?) I think part of that comes of him mostly existing to encourage and boost Shepard and not really having much character on his own except to be 'you but kinda less good at things and 20 years older'.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2016 21:07

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