@whiskeysour1179

1 year ago

The trilogy is best on your first run, with no spoilers. The illusion of consequence is as strong as possible, and you can make mistakes or achieve success yourself. I jumped on Virmire early and didn't have the charisma to save Wrex, Ash killed him for me. It was extremely frustrating, and I got a little too focused on the rep stats as a course correction, but that meant I had no problem smoothing out the Miranda/Jack argument or the Tali/Legion dispute. I got with Liara in ME1 and ignored romance in ME2 to wait for her (didn't have LotSB), and that made the reunion in ME3 much more satisfying. It also went towards seeing Tali and Garrus end up as a couple, which was so satisfying since they were, predictably, two of my favorites, and I very nearly went for Tali in ME2. It was a nice reward for staying in character. I saved all of my squadmates on the suicide mission, but I took slightly too long to get there so I lost my other crew to the Collectors, which was particularly frustrating. I really liked Chambers, even disregarding her stripper dancing, and I missed the engineers for the rest of the series, too. I saved the Quarians and the Geth first try, and I was absolutely elated that I'd done something that seemed impossible, making peace and protecting my two favorite races at the same time. I let Ash die on Virmire because I never liked her anyway, and Kaidan was a real bro the rest of the series. It made more sense, as Kaidan was a higher rank with more experience and talents, and it was great to see him become a Specter and know that I helped him climb that high, and he deserved it. I did my best to put Anderson in power and protect human interests, but Udina beat me in the political arena because Shep is not a politician, he's a big damn hero. It all felt earned, the wins and the losses, and I was satisfied with the writing even at the times when I thought, "Ah, that's how they deal with that decision, well I guess they had to rein it back in for the story of later games." I understand the frustration that comes from seeing the puppet strings, but I don't think it's reasonable to ask for so much consequence to choices, especially while disapproving of the broken quest chains that can come from dead squaddies. If a character dies, it makes good sense that their quest line should collapse, and you should be punished for your failures. Yes, the games use a pretty heavy coating of contrivance to try to plug plot holes, but considering the complexity of the project and the real limitations of games and dev teams, Mass Effect is special because it sells the Hero Space Captain experience so well. Yeah, it can be ham-fisted in how it manages consequences or determined success and failure, I really dislike the entire crew kidnapping bit and the mechanics of its resolution are pretty bullshit, but it worked when there was enough uncertainty there to sustain my suspension of disbelief. Your criticisms are fair, and I'm glad you didn't like the series--otherwise I wouldn't have had this video to enjoy, right?--but I do think you are asking a little too much. And that's fine too, we improve by asking for too much and then climbing to capture that out-of-reach goal. It's just important to remember to have reasonable expectations as well as respectable aspirations. No one can say you didn't give the series a fair shake. Thanks for your hard work.

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