I played through LE and when it started making references to Cerberus from ME1 and I called bullshit. Apparently I was wrong. I did just get here. I was always curious if they were just forced into the story or if they were there to begin. Good to know the continuity is there.
Same here. I remember the blast I had exploring each planet and scouring every mile with the Mako, and now that I have the LE, I'LL have the pleasure of doing it again !!!
Same here, @@E1N9A8N0DA. I just gotta have another game of Civilization VI: Gathering Storm on my custom map as Babylon. After *this* game of Civ VI I will start a new game on Mass Effect: LE.
@@adamgray1753 More like forced as allies in ME2, players were forced to work with terrorists without any say in it even if you express your dislike for the organization/Illusive Man.
Mass Effect 1: Cerberus is so shady and evil like you would not believe. Mass Effect 2: ehhh you know Cerberus is really misunderstood. They're just trying to- Mass Effect 3: Cerberus is so shady and evil like you would not believe
Mass effect 2 explores a plotline that I've only ever seen a couple of sci-fi books/movies/games ever do. At what point do bio-altered soldiers accrue debt for their own modifications? If you don't pay, do they repossess your organs? What about implants, or even prosthetics? If you're a modified soldier, you might be burdened with millions of dollars of debt. You also might live for centuries. Are you reasonably expected to work hard and pay off debt for longer than most people ever live? So many questions. Mass effect 2 shows just how quickly a modified soldier might get sick of being a slave, and how easily they could break their bonds.
@Samar3n in mass effect your entire body is cerberus technology. They lord that over you time and time again. You're in their debt, and weather you like it or not you must do what they tell you. Not a lot of stories like that
@Samar3n He is talking about the plot lines that are possible when writers- be they for film, games, or TV- can have if they explore the choice the writers did with ME2, that being people-specifically soldiers- are modified, but are not the ones who pay for those medically related costs. He is suggesting that one possible exploration of this is when does the modified soldier become responsible for the debt incurred by their modification- or even if they are ever held financially responsible for those costs.
The way Cerberus are shown in ME1 is a lot more in line with how they are in ME3. Cerberus seeming to be more on the good side in ME2, was probably just the Illusive Man trying to get Shepard on his side.
Oh yes exactly The elusive man was just bullshiting his way and sweet talking us mixing with joker and Dr chukwas and other crew that he knew basically you find all that information aboard the Cerberus HQ by looking at vids
It is also noted that Cerberus generally acts in several cells, completely separate from one another except their connection to the Illusive Man. Chances are they were still doing the questionable stuff, just kept it out of the Lazarus cell.
Cerberus in ME1 was a prohuman alliance military black ops organization. Cerberus in ME2 seemed more like a privately owned prohuman shadow corporation.
I'd say they had faced the same sorta situation as the League of One (tldr basically extremely classified Salarian military group that was exposed as a part of a deal with the Asari on first contact, they then assassinated the Salarian government which got the STG on their ass and hunted them all down. Rumors indicate there was a surviving 13th member however), cept of course our man Jack Harper knew how to get Cerberus and himself out alive.
Shame there wasn't a proper conclusion to the Sole Survivor ark in ME3, would have been nice to encounter Tombs in 3 and then try to explain your actions and recruit him for the war effort. Ending just with Tombs mail in ME2 is a bit of a let down.
To be equally fair to the game, if you take the interpretation that the ENTIRETY of ME3 was an indoctrination attempt, as shown by the blurriness of the game right at the impact of the first Reaper attack in Vancouver, and not just the last 20 minutes of the game, Toombs would have been a way to halt the Indoctrination attempt, hence why the Reapers wouldn't have allowed him to be a part of the attempt. And by ME3, the odds of running into Toombs naturally would have been slim, so seeing Toombs in any form would have been a dead giveaway something wasn't right in Shephard's mind. It would make sense in that context why the Toombs angle was dropped.
@@thecornettmultiverse except the development team has said that the 'indoctrination theory' isn't true. you don't see Toombs in ME3, and in ME2 when you get that mail, he specifically states that if he sees you, he's going to try and kill you. in fact he was trying to put together a team specifically to kill you for joining up with Cerberus. So even if Toombs had shown up, he woudl have been gunning to kill you, and been prolly just a mildly annoying named bullet sponge in some side mission.
Sole survivor shepard didnt have enough exclusive interaction with cerberus the entire trilogy. Always wanted sole survivor shepard to be extra hostile against them as much as i hate these bozos.
It really bothers me how Cerberus became the center of the franchise. Hell the Illusive Man in the second wenches away Shepard's in the story. Thus making Shepard's spectre status meaningless. If the writers were smart they could of used that as an excuse for Shepherd to do whatever it took to find a way to stop the Reapers. Instead it just doesn't matter.
@@spartanq7781 part of the problem was that Cerberus just became lame villians in ME3. In 2 there was some interesting things about them since they were supposed to be focused on the Reapers. Only problem is that the entire plot of ME2 became about the Collectors which really are not nearly as great a threat as the Reapers. sure they are abducting coloneys. Reapers take over entire worlds and process entire planets. They are a bigger threat.
For all these games get right they get so much wrong, the idea that Sheppard doesn't comment on Cerberus intentionally massacring her whole team is insane
I feel like a lot of these missions were kind of just an excuse to have players fight more diverse enemies besides geth and pirates, etc. Bioware put all that work into the rachni, thorian creepers, and husks and wanted to get a little more use out of them, I think.
Yup. It’s too bad that these side quests mostly felt like total 100% filler and not very fun though. Many are never mentioned again, and the ones that are only get a few seconds of screen time in ME2. The cerberus ones are the exception I guess, but even then the Cerberus in ME1 feels completely disconnected from the one in 2. Luckily the side quests in ME2/3 were much more varied (even if the ones in 2 were still pretty irrelevant overall).
A group of men wearing odd armored clothing wearing Cerberus's emblem on the spot where their hearts ought to be has begun to knock on your front door, Big Dan Gaming. Will you answer the door? A) Fuck no! B) *silence except for you busting your butt as you fall out the farthest window of your home* C) "Hi, guys! How's it going?" D) If I don't acknowledge the situation the situation can't progress. Sooo... LA LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!
One thing that bothered me about this is that when I picked the Sole Survivor backstory, and you discover Cerberus basically caused the incident where everyone you knew died, Shepard is not automatically pissed off more at the beginning of ME2. Even during the Shadow Broker mission, this gets brought up, and I ended up agreeing with my opponent. Sad that these details don’t make a bigger impact on the story after ME1.
I just did all of this yesterday, spent all sunday completing every side quest in the game. "Message coming in, patching it through", every damn time I fast travel.
@@notacockgobbler2054 I'm on citadel after ilos now, gonna finish it after work. Then start ME2 and maybe resume New Vegas, been weeks since I last played that. Mass effect is hogging all my time.
@@shubhamgupta4919 Mass Effect deserves to hog all your game time! ;-p But, I feel you. I also play GTA Online and Conan Exiles, recently bought Horizon Zero Down, but have not touched any of them since finally starting LE1 (with mods, of course.)
yeah I was always wondering why they so surprised when they find out that Cerberus was doing on sanctuary, I mean they literally found out simular thing three years ago
I didn't see anything that made anyone seem surprised. Miranda knew something was fishy, that's why she goes there as well as to get her sister. she then tries to broadcast what she finds. I think the only surprise that they had was that a) they managed to get it to work, and b) the Reapers took an exception to it...like they actually diverted forces specifically to deal with the fact that Cerberus found a way to hijack thier soldiers. I took most of the rest of the commentary as more of a 'christ man, this crap AGAIN?! how many people do you gotta kill before you realize this is a stupid idea.'
You can also bring up these missions to Miranda during a conversation in ME2 (iirc it's the same conversation where you have the option to romance her). You can tell her that you ran into Cerberus a few years ago and saw the experiments they conducted with Thorian creepers, rachni and husks. Miranda will simply dismiss it by saying Cerberus was trying to find expendable soldiers so they could fight wars without human casualties. It always irked me that Cerberus has such a presence in all three games, but the narrative simply switches from them being totally evil in ME1, kind of alright in ME2, and then totally evil again in ME3. I know that Cerberus were evil all along and Shepard's alliance with them in ME2 was just one of convenience, but it would've been cool to explore more of a morally grey area in ME3, where a Renegade-leaning Shepard could second-guess himself on whether they were fighting for the right team with the Alliance.
I think the switch is because of what ME2 tried to accomplish. Illusive man hand pick sympathetic faces but loyalists to Cerberus. Some like Kelly Chambers has obligation to report their findings behind Shepards back. SO, Cerberus just put on human face in order to not lose Shepard - there were only 150 people in Cerberus then and judging by Shepard's record (especially if War Hero) - Shepard might even solo them. So, they used people who were too loyal and even believed in Cerberus (like Miranda who had over time discovered the truth and you could see how her inner stable world was shaking and then completely destroyed inside because she really trusted Cerberus but Shepard opened her eyes) OR they used "persuasion" tactics to force people to act nice. So, everybody in ME2 was supposed to be nice person to Shepard. (Judging by how many people left Cerberus and joined Shepard later in ME3 - Illusive man must have picked the least rotten individuals within the group and used them to trick Shepard. However, my Shep saw through it immediately and I had the mindset "I trust my crew, Miranda and Jacob, Kelly, Kenneth or Gabriela BUT Cerberus itself? Shady at best, war criminals truly)
@@Dark_Voice I think the 150 number is bull. I know EDI said it, but it makes no sense. We see at least 50 in ME1. We see entire Cerberus facilities FULL of (dead) personnel in ME2 (think Overlord, Firewalker, Lazarus, etc.)
@@totallytubular618 Yeah 150 senior members of Cerberus makes more sense. Each of them controlling at least a thousand staff members from different divisions like military, politics, research.
I don't think BioWare has ever depicted Cerberus as "kind of alright" in ME2. Cerberus members (i.e. TIM, Miranda, partly Jacob) want to make you see (of course) Cerberus as not so bad, but you know the truth if you played ME1, and can even tell anyone in Cerberus, TIM included, you don't trust Cerberus and you are using them cause they are the only ones reacting to collectors. In the end, the true nature of Cerberus shows up again (TIM wants you to keep the base, to build his own Reaper), and you can send him to hell for the last time.
@@Dragon81205 Actually the option exists even if Chakwas survives the second game. You just have to ask and accept Michel's offer first before you take on Chakwas'. Its easy enough to miss but as long as you don't welcome Chakwas immediately its doable in that situation.
I always hated how we had to work with Cerberus after all those missions in me1 But also it kinda works out because the Alliance was lowkey on ass most of the time about everything anyway.
Thanks for breaking down all the Cerberus quests in ME1. It had been so long since I played ME1 before the trilogy remaster that I totally forgot Cerberus was setup before ME2. Although they did seem a lot more incompetent in their early days as Joker pointed out.
What do you mean " a lot more incompetent?" They are still completely incompetent. Project Overlord, almost everyone died. Earlier than that Subject Zero on Pragia, ended with everyone dead accept Jack and the other test subject. All their shenanigans in ME3, basically caused them to become a mostly defunct organization. The only thing that ever panned out for them was the Lazarus project, and even THAT blew up in T.I.M's face. Since we basically stole some of his best people, his ship and hi A.I. and gave them to the Alliance. Lets not even start on all the innocent bodies they dropped a long the way. Their body count is only rivaled by the Reapers. Cerberus is the poster child for epic fail, they got themselves indoctrinated, and turned into butt puppets for the Reapers, like a bunch of scrubs. They are no more competent in ME3 than in ME1.
Honestly I completely missed Cerberus on my first ME1 playthrough. The first time I replayed it and encountered Cerberus missions I was like "woah they planted all this foreshadowing that's so cool!!".
When me2 was being promoted i think they had a promotion talking about how they needed a seedy organization for their story so they looked back at the lore of the first game and ground cerberus in quite a few if their side missions, it fit so they adapted them and the story to fit the organization. In mass effect 2 the plant the seeds to what was saposed to be the cause of the reaper attacks, dark matter. I have come across a couple of lines mentioning it. But when writers left and the bioware got bough to ea they had major changes. I think cerberus is an excellent example of using your world building to your advantage, not pre planned story telling.
Yeah, I don't think it was planned out. Bioware has never really big on subtlety. They could have made Cerberus shady in ME1 rather than outright villianous, but they didn't. I suspect that Cerberus was just supposed to be a bad guy organization in ME1 to fill out a few side-missions.
Then you think about it and you realize that ME2 retconed Cerberus to hell and back, they no longer are a Black Ops unit gone wrong, they are super secret Super Power who rival the Alliance
Like someone else mentioned; foreshadowing, kind of, but also retconning it in ME2. In ME1 it seems like it's some Alliance black ops group that is fairly new to the galactic scene. Come ME2 it's now an extra-governmental organization that's been around since about the First Contact War. It's to the point where Shepard being totally unaware of it in ME1 feels like a Navy SEAL not knowing what ISIL is.
Wow. I've played ME1 dozens of times, but never went to the doc at the right time. So I never knew who Barnes really was. Well, next run I'll do it myself. Thanks, dude.
Counterpoint: The Illusive Man had been indoctrinated WELL before the events of the ME trilogy, as explained by the comic books. If he was aware of the Reapers before that point, it stands to reason that he'd know about the husks and therefore would be interested to see how they were made to adapt the process.
I remember being f*cking upset to learn that we'd team with Cerberus in ME2 after I spent all these side missions killing them and their failed experiments. 😆
Yep! Then worse when you find out that Cerberus had been so heavily retconned to become the single greatest black ops organization ever put to video games.
I was frustrated that ME2 didn’t give us the option of taking the SR-2, reporting the location of Cerberus HQ to the Alliance, and dealing with the Collectors without the aid of a human-supremacist terrorist organization. That’s what my Shepard would have done, and it felt like a flaw in the game that we weren’t even given the option. My Shepard would NEVER have stuck with Cerberus after seeing all the atrocities they committed in ME1. When I saw Ashley on Horizon, I thought the game would give us the option then, but no. Instead, I have to argue with Ash when she’s the one who clearly is in the right, not us.
@@davidc. I usually save Ash, not because I like her more, but because it's the smarter tactical decision on the ground. Ash goes with the Salarians because they are squishy and need a tank (and because serving alongside aliens might help her get over her xenophobia), and Kaidan is the obvious choice for arming the bomb with his technical skills. Then, I pick up Ash and the Salarians because saving 5 lives is better than saving one, preventing the Geth from rearming the AA gun is critical for our survival so we can stop Saren, and leaving someone at the Bomb site to hold the position to the death to make sure it goes off just makes more sense. So while I like Kaidan more, he usually is the one to die for role-playing reasons. It also makes the sacrifice more meaningful, because he is the only other old friend of Shepard's aside from Joker and Chakwas left. And he absolutely deserved to be the next human Spectre. Ashley, on the other hand, is much less worthy, and WANTS to martyr herself. Forcing her to overcome her family's past and earn honor without sacrificing herself makes her character arc stronger.
Me2 basically doesnt touch any of this, and essentially paint Cerberus as not as bad. The fact shepard should be personally traumatized by then and lost his entire squad to them, he shouldve been far more hostile and resistant to working with them. Always hated how little Shepard acknowledges the scenarios hes in. Me2 was too focused on the new characters, and not enough about the reapers and trying to stop them, and the implications of me1's lore. I think ashley and kaiden are not wrong to mistrust Shepard to be fair, he doesn't explain himself very well, and Cerberus is know for messing with and genetically engineering alliance soldiers. It would be like seeing your comrade working for isis after seeing them blown up.
The Illusive Man has dialogue in ME3 that mentions him deliberately surrounding Shepard with people who would ingratiate him to Cerberus. The entire mission on the SR-2 is is tailored to distance Cerberus from its evil stuff in ME1.
In 2 you can confront Miranda about all the monsters Cerberus created. She justifies it as they were trying to make an army of non sentient beings so people would no longer have to fight in wars. That’s all well and good until you remember combat robots exist in mass effect 2 lol.
ME2 is a fundamentally broken game. No part of the main storyline for it is competent, much less good. It's basically 100% about recruiting your team and their backstories, but they needed to come up with something to facilitate that. What's worse is that the way they were forced to split it up (by the fact that the 360 was still using DVDs) means that you don't really get to experience much of that backstory for half of them, because your first conversation with them often ends up being the one where they pour out their hearts about their sole unfinished business in this world, basically moments after meeting them from your perspective.
@@louis8487 Your comments about combat robots are why I'm mildly suspicious about The Qurians intentions with the Geth. The Geth have a very large and very dangerous army. One has to wonder what Qurians wanted with all those resources. If they'd been able to take back control what would they have done with them.
I might be wrong or maybe it changed for legendary edition, but for 5:48 I think Kahoku's body is always just in the third area you check, while the creatures stay the same. So if you check the base with rachni soldier and drones first and second, then his body will be in the one with thorian creepers.
Technically Cerberus has always been aware of the Reaper threat since the Illusive Man was involved with some kind of reaper artifact the Turians were using during the First Contact War. This is also how Saren learned about the Reapers, who incidentally helped the Illusive Man prevent the Reaper artifact from being used to create Turian super-soldiers. I forget exactly which media outlet this was covered within though I believe it was one of the comics.
Its the was First Contact Comic. I have the issues ^^ He got indoctrinated slooowly after his eyes got struck by the device in that Turian "religious" temple. Turns out the monks were all indoctrinated husk turians and attacked the characters too.
@@Radwar99 Doesn't even necessarily have to be rushed. Can just forget or miss certain quests or just want to get on with the game at some point. I've had past ME playthroughs where I realize afterwards I missed some encounters and quests. And I'm someone who takes the game pretty slow and does most of it on a given playthrough. Imagine someone who isn't doing all of that can just decide they don't wanna keep doing a ton of side quests.
The whole thresher maw plot point is why I don’t play sole survivor anymore, it should have been at least addressed ME2- the Akuze ambush is one of the 3 defining backstories
I think the writers were kinda betting on the fact that not everyone was a completionist with ME1. "I think I remember..."? If I ran into a splinter group that converted a whole settlement to husks, or was solely responsible for the death of my team (sole survivor), I'm pretty sure I'd have nothing to due with said group in any way, resurrection or not.
I remember bringing up the experiments to Miranda and she justified on their tests, but I wanted to know from her on finding Admiral Kahoku’s body in one of those tests and that he sent a message to Shepard that they are after him.
Cerberus vanished a few months ago. Months. That always bothered me because clearly the Illusive man had stopped punching the clock with the alliance for a long time before that from what we see in ME2. The Teltin Facility was in operation (and then not) a long time before that.
Cerberus was retcon'd quite a bit in ME2. In 2 & 3 there's almost no reference to its origin as Alliance black ops and its history is expanded pretty extensively.
Exactly, @@mediumvillain. The only time your Shepard character really acknowledges Cerberus as the inter-stellar terrorist organization they truly are is near the beginning of ME2. Over the course of ME2 from then onwards Cerberus acts as your greatest frenemy. Quite frankly, ME2's storyline really effed up everything Mass Effect. There would of been nothing wrong with your Shepard slowly becoming more the Spectre your Shepard character had become in ME1 over the course of ME2. Cerberus would of been still around doing their thing. You could work with them up to the entire game or something like that, or have your choice of going solo with your squadmates from ME1, or just plain solo the entire time. I guess my ideas are too ambitious.
@@adamgray1753 As I played the series for the first time just last month, this is how I thought it would be. A lot of interactions in ME1 seemed to split along pro-human vs pro-alien lines. I thought ME2's Renegade/Paragon options would depend on whether you bought into TIM's speeches (renegade taking action with no time for ethics) or essentially went back to being a proper Spectre (paragon with a focus on cooperating with the Council/Alliance and maintaining ethics). IIRC, early ME2 gives you a few chances to either report something you found to TIM, send it to the Alliance, or keep on the Normandy for later. I was pretty excited to act as a double agent against Cerberus but it just never materialized. I also expected crew loyalty to be tied to Shepard's choice to either trust Cerberus or lean away from them, but again, nothing came of it but the fight between Jack and Miranda.
An interesting fact about the name Cerberus. In Greek mythology Cerberus was the name of a three-headed dog that guarded the gates to the underworld. But he wasn't there to stop people from getting into the underworld he was there to stop people from getting out.
Also coincided with the fact that they named the relay near Pluto (Roman equivalent of Hades) Charon after the Boatman of the River Styx, basically wrote itself why they called themselves Cerberus.
Ironic that cerberus was trying too create a super soldier , I wonder if the research they were conducting factored into them being able too save Shepard
Since I rarely replayed the first game, I had completely forgotten Cerberus was indeed present in some of the side quests! It’s so amazing to rediscover the game 😄
Cool how Cerberus goes from some shadowy black ops group that you can learn more about in side quests to being a major player in the series and that it isn't forced.
My bf has never played mass effect, and im a completionist who bought ME:L to enjoy nostalgic playthroughs. Hes watching me play ME1 that first time.. and he asks "these Cerberus guys seem important do you see them in other games?" 😬🥺 I played it off and told him yeah, some.. After ME2 started ive had the best laughs at him over that😆
It baffles me, that no one at Bioware thought, some of us would have a massive problem with Cerberus in ME2, as an ex serviceman and I’d lost friends on Akuze and found out Cerberus were to blame, I’d be gunning for them with a passion
The illusive man's backstory answers a lot of questions that are in this video also it's cool to see when you compare the two what direction that Mass Effect will be taking
I would have loved if completeing these even *slightly* affected the dialogue in 2 or 3. Especially if you found Toombs, and survived Akuze. There's so many times Shepard was being humble, and somewhat depressed, some of those he's told "But you were a sole survivor, that's how good you are!". Would have been nice if he even mentioned Toombs...
If you complete these Cerberus missions in ME1, the dialogue with Garrus, where he says that he is worried about Shepard, changes slightly and it becomes more clear his motivation to stay with Shepard to cover his / her ass.
"They're conducting illegal genetic experiments, trying to create some kind of super-soldier!" So, in a nutshell, Cerberus is what you get when you take ONI from Halo and have them kicked out of the government. Does the Spartan program ring a bell for anyone? Not to mention that TIM does remind me of Parangosky and Halsey from the Halo novels; the former being a spook who has no problem taking out admirals who cross her, the latter wanting to advance humanity's evolution via genetic experimentation.
Good point, I'm surprised that line/project didn't get directly incorporated into future games. Maybe Lazarus could have used their data as a way to accelerate Shepard's resurrection or it could have been the basis for any non Reaper enhancements the Cerberus foot soldiers in ME3 had.
I've completed Mass Effect 1-3 about 4 times, keep exploring every map to the fullest, I've never had the Racchni wave fight on Stix, not sure if I'm just not remembering it, but goes to show that even after a few hundred hours of play time I can still find new stuff :O
Hey Big Dan. So, in my most recent playthrough of Mass Effect I came across the rachni side quests which are some of my favorites in ME1 and came to a super interesting theory about those side quests. It always bugged me that at the end of those side quests you trace the rachni back to a space station that was sending them all over and find out about the cerberus connection and that's it. Nothing else ever is brought up about it aside from Shepard mentioning cerberus experiments involving rachni in ME2. The thing that bugged me most is that they mention a "master control unit" they used to control the rachni and keep them from being crazy like the ones on Noveria but we never get to deal with it or learn anything about it. In my most recent playthrough I realized that there is a very good chance that the "master control unit" does indeed make another appearance in the series in ME3. I think that the "master control unit" and the "rachni zombie/fake queen" in ME3 are one and the same. It's not a perfect theory and there would certainly be a good amount of research to do before I'd call it super plausible but I would love to know your thoughts on it and perhaps see a video on it. Sorry this comment is so long I have a habit of rambling but thank you for your time.
When the legendary edition came out it was my third time playing the first game and the first time I was a completionist for Mass effect 1 cause the mako handling is better, I discovered cerberus's little secrets very interesting thanks for the video
I remember doing that one side quest with the rachni troops and setting up the defenses against them but never to one with the Cerberus entry logs. Makes me wonder if there are any other ME1 side quests I missed?
I think you can also find a crashed Freighter with Thorian Husks nearby that likely belonged to Cerberus, though I can't remember what planet it was on
Damn, this is my favourite Mass Effect game.. and I know that the second one is the best, and the third one had the best combat (for me) but.. this one has got so much climate and discovering new races, mass effect etc. That was amazing for me.. I vish that they remake Mass Effect 1 with the combat system from Mass Effect 3 but I know Its never gonna happend...
I like Cerberus' presentation most in ME1. Working in small cells, operating through mercs and proxies, so dangerous that even an Alliance admiral isn't safe from them. I prefer that to the way they have their logo stamped everywhere in ME2, or having a giant army in ME3.
Cerberus was inconsistent in all games. The first one showed an organization trying to create super soldiers and failed. The second one showed an organization with a much larger capacity that is running several massive projects (rebuilding Shepard, Overload station to control the geth, investigating delerict reapers, tracking the shadow broker, rebuilding the collector homebase ). The third one Cerbrus can invade other home plants, running a massive army that is fighting everyone.
I do not understand why people complain about Cerberus becoming evil. They were evil all along. Mass Effect 2 it is just TIM trying to get you into seeing them better.
I dont read the comics, but I know that they explain that The Illusive Man was indoctrinated during the First Contact War when he found some Reaper artefact. This explains how they know about the Reapers in Mass Effect 1
You know what, I never did any of those missions in my original playthrough of Mass Effect 1. And when I played Mass Effect 1 legendary edition I rushed through it just so I can get you Mass Effect too. So I literally had not known any of this Cerberus stuff. Knowing this completely changes my understanding of Mass Effect 2. Now it makes a lot more sense as to why various crew members were upset with Shepard for joining servers. Thank you very much for sharing this.
It impreseme HOW MUCH content ME has, i have finish like 3 times (1 with the legendary edition) and have NEVER found this mission and ALWAYS pick sole survivor, because of this, it makes kinda sense to working for Cerberus in ME2 because sheppard never discoverd this! Pnce i finish ME3, i might start from the one again have to much to discover
This video is perfect for me. I completed ME1 but left the Kahoku side mission hanging. I just started ME2 and immediately recalled the Cerberus name and that they were probably up to no good. Interesting. My Shephard thus doesn't really know what they've been doing because I didn't further investigate on Kahoku's request. I only knew that they're shady.
ME1 is much darker than 2 and 3 is much more mysterious even the background music adds to the atmosphere , i really wish play mass effect 1 first time again
Oh with the Cerberus Rachni quest there is a dialogue bug, if you have encountered Cerberus before the mission your squadmates are supposed to comment with knowledge from your previous encounter however do to this flagging bug they will always act like they never heard of Cerberus.
Ah, that's good to know. I was wondering why Wrex asked about them. I had already done all the other Cerberus quests up to that point so I was like - dude you should know this lol
@@GamingMasterAnthony It may be more of using a save editor to check a variable in your save similar to the glitch with Verner in ME2, there is a video on TH-cam that has the dialogue available though.
See stuff like this is why I fully understand where the Virmire survivor is coming from. Yeah they make some leaps in logic with their skepticism, but it’s not like it’s without reason.
My first mass effect game was mass effect 2 so i had loyalty to cerberus before the alliance. Now i despise them i gladly wiped them out in mass effect 1 and 3 rip Admiral.
all Cerberus projects have a hand in bringing someone back to life, the plant zombies and the teeth can animate bodies and the fluids of the thresher maws is an "alpha" preditor substance or something heavily complex in organic evolution. mix that with high advanced robotics from the husks, and the psionic nature of the plant. you have something you can take it all with to bring someone back to life.
Honestly I love how Cerberus was used in ME1
I played through LE and when it started making references to Cerberus from ME1 and I called bullshit. Apparently I was wrong. I did just get here. I was always curious if they were just forced into the story or if they were there to begin. Good to know the continuity is there.
Same here. I remember the blast I had exploring each planet and scouring every mile with the Mako, and now that I have the LE, I'LL have the pleasure of doing it again !!!
Cerberus was forced into ME3 as the co-antagonist, @@thomasprout9298.
Same here, @@E1N9A8N0DA. I just gotta have another game of Civilization VI: Gathering Storm on my custom map as Babylon. After *this* game of Civ VI I will start a new game on Mass Effect: LE.
@@adamgray1753 More like forced as allies in ME2, players were forced to work with terrorists without any say in it even if you express your dislike for the organization/Illusive Man.
Mass Effect 1: Cerberus is so shady and evil like you would not believe.
Mass Effect 2: ehhh you know Cerberus is really misunderstood. They're just trying to-
Mass Effect 3: Cerberus is so shady and evil like you would not believe
Mass effect 2 explores a plotline that I've only ever seen a couple of sci-fi books/movies/games ever do.
At what point do bio-altered soldiers accrue debt for their own modifications? If you don't pay, do they repossess your organs? What about implants, or even prosthetics? If you're a modified soldier, you might be burdened with millions of dollars of debt. You also might live for centuries. Are you reasonably expected to work hard and pay off debt for longer than most people ever live? So many questions. Mass effect 2 shows just how quickly a modified soldier might get sick of being a slave, and how easily they could break their bonds.
@Samar3n in mass effect your entire body is cerberus technology. They lord that over you time and time again. You're in their debt, and weather you like it or not you must do what they tell you. Not a lot of stories like that
@Samar3n He is talking about the plot lines that are possible when writers- be they for film, games, or TV- can have if they explore the choice the writers did with ME2, that being people-specifically soldiers- are modified, but are not the ones who pay for those medically related costs. He is suggesting that one possible exploration of this is when does the modified soldier become responsible for the debt incurred by their modification- or even if they are ever held financially responsible for those costs.
@Samar3n You asked what the guy was talking about. I tried to explain it to you.
For Mass Effect 3, take out the shady side and add in cartoon villainy, that'll be more accurate
I've always been upset ME2 doesn't even let us bring up Kahoku
You can indirectly bring him up when talking to Miranda.
Vasir references him in her final cut scene
He is mentioned in a news segment.
IIRC the only time I hear him directly mentioned is on Horizon when VS is angry at Shep. (I think at least Kaidan does?)
Or Akuze
The way Cerberus are shown in ME1 is a lot more in line with how they are in ME3. Cerberus seeming to be more on the good side in ME2, was probably just the Illusive Man trying to get Shepard on his side.
Perspective is everything. You always want to believe you’re the “good guy”. Regardless of the colors you wear.
Different cells. Also, I believe Cerberus commando units operate on a different command chain.
Oh yes exactly The elusive man was just bullshiting his way and sweet talking us mixing with joker and Dr chukwas and other crew that he knew basically you find all that information aboard the Cerberus HQ by looking at vids
It is also noted that Cerberus generally acts in several cells, completely separate from one another except their connection to the Illusive Man.
Chances are they were still doing the questionable stuff, just kept it out of the Lazarus cell.
Iirc, Chambers in ME3 basically confirmed that TIM wanted to get a bunch of friendly faces around Shepard to get him to trust Cerberus
Cerberus in ME1 was a prohuman alliance military black ops organization.
Cerberus in ME2 seemed more like a privately owned prohuman shadow corporation.
Well, they are somewhat analogous to the CIA, and honestly, either of those descriptions could fit the CIA.
And in ME3... Space Al Qaeda. But with better guns.
I'd say they had faced the same sorta situation as the League of One (tldr basically extremely classified Salarian military group that was exposed as a part of a deal with the Asari on first contact, they then assassinated the Salarian government which got the STG on their ass and hunted them all down. Rumors indicate there was a surviving 13th member however), cept of course our man Jack Harper knew how to get Cerberus and himself out alive.
Well, Cerberus went rogue in ME1.
Miranda in Me2 tells you that the Operatives you ran into in the first game, was part of Cerberus's military arm. Hence all the commandos.
The illusive man is probably the richest man of the damn universe, this guy as so much projects going on, so much laboratories, outposts that's crazy
I mean have you seen his office
He is bill gates
Stupid Jack Harper
He’s literally elon musk not bill gates
@@chandrastar5939 That means he's not the richest...
Shame there wasn't a proper conclusion to the Sole Survivor ark in ME3, would have been nice to encounter Tombs in 3 and then try to explain your actions and recruit him for the war effort. Ending just with Tombs mail in ME2 is a bit of a let down.
I agree.
I guess we really needed Vega.
Is there a pay off for the other 2?
To be equally fair to the game, if you take the interpretation that the ENTIRETY of ME3 was an indoctrination attempt, as shown by the blurriness of the game right at the impact of the first Reaper attack in Vancouver, and not just the last 20 minutes of the game, Toombs would have been a way to halt the Indoctrination attempt, hence why the Reapers wouldn't have allowed him to be a part of the attempt. And by ME3, the odds of running into Toombs naturally would have been slim, so seeing Toombs in any form would have been a dead giveaway something wasn't right in Shephard's mind. It would make sense in that context why the Toombs angle was dropped.
@@thecornettmultiverse except the development team has said that the 'indoctrination theory' isn't true. you don't see Toombs in ME3, and in ME2 when you get that mail, he specifically states that if he sees you, he's going to try and kill you. in fact he was trying to put together a team specifically to kill you for joining up with Cerberus. So even if Toombs had shown up, he woudl have been gunning to kill you, and been prolly just a mildly annoying named bullet sponge in some side mission.
Sole survivor shepard didnt have enough exclusive interaction with cerberus the entire trilogy. Always wanted sole survivor shepard to be extra hostile against them as much as i hate these bozos.
It really bothers me how Cerberus became the center of the franchise. Hell the Illusive Man in the second wenches away Shepard's in the story. Thus making Shepard's spectre status meaningless. If the writers were smart they could of used that as an excuse for Shepherd to do whatever it took to find a way to stop the Reapers. Instead it just doesn't matter.
@@spartanq7781 Yeah, for how much the spectre title is hyped in ME1, we actually never end up doing anything with it.
@@kolosmenus In the second and third game that is. It does matter in the first game.
@@spartanq7781 part of the problem was that Cerberus just became lame villians in ME3. In 2 there was some interesting things about them since they were supposed to be focused on the Reapers. Only problem is that the entire plot of ME2 became about the Collectors which really are not nearly as great a threat as the Reapers. sure they are abducting coloneys. Reapers take over entire worlds and process entire planets. They are a bigger threat.
For all these games get right they get so much wrong, the idea that Sheppard doesn't comment on Cerberus intentionally massacring her whole team is insane
The world building in the first mass effect is completely unparalleled
Yeah one of the reasons it’s still my favorite despite the comparatively clunky combat.
I feel like a lot of these missions were kind of just an excuse to have players fight more diverse enemies besides geth and pirates, etc. Bioware put all that work into the rachni, thorian creepers, and husks and wanted to get a little more use out of them, I think.
Duh. Why waste the assets😂 Remember this was 2007.
Yup. It’s too bad that these side quests mostly felt like total 100% filler and not very fun though.
Many are never mentioned again, and the ones that are only get a few seconds of screen time in ME2. The cerberus ones are the exception I guess, but even then the Cerberus in ME1 feels completely disconnected from the one in 2. Luckily the side quests in ME2/3 were much more varied (even if the ones in 2 were still pretty irrelevant overall).
Big Dan: *Exposes Cerberus*
*Illusive Man has left the chat*
A group of men wearing odd armored clothing wearing Cerberus's emblem on the spot where their hearts ought to be has begun to knock on your front door, Big Dan Gaming. Will you answer the door?
A) Fuck no!
B) *silence except for you busting your butt as you fall out the farthest window of your home*
C) "Hi, guys! How's it going?"
D) If I don't acknowledge the situation the situation can't progress. Sooo... LA LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!
i use legion as my xbox profile pic
Big Dan: *Talks about Cerberus related missions in Mass Effect 1 while casually friendly firing upon the back of Liara's head.*
Dirty xeno
@@magicalmanfromwonderland xenos even try to look like us, cause they know we are the best
Slap some medigel on it. Good to go
If Liara complains, @@BigDanGaming, slap her on her butt while sporting a cheesy grin.
One thing that bothered me about this is that when I picked the Sole Survivor backstory, and you discover Cerberus basically caused the incident where everyone you knew died, Shepard is not automatically pissed off more at the beginning of ME2. Even during the Shadow Broker mission, this gets brought up, and I ended up agreeing with my opponent. Sad that these details don’t make a bigger impact on the story after ME1.
I just did all of this yesterday, spent all sunday completing every side quest in the game. "Message coming in, patching it through", every damn time I fast travel.
Lmao I also spent all Sunday doing side quest
@@notacockgobbler2054 I'm on citadel after ilos now, gonna finish it after work. Then start ME2 and maybe resume New Vegas, been weeks since I last played that. Mass effect is hogging all my time.
@@shubhamgupta4919 I’ve got feros to do then virmire then probably even more side quest
@@shubhamgupta4919 Mass Effect deserves to hog all your game time! ;-p But, I feel you. I also play GTA Online and Conan Exiles, recently bought Horizon Zero Down, but have not touched any of them since finally starting LE1 (with mods, of course.)
yeah I was always wondering why they so surprised when they find out that Cerberus was doing on sanctuary, I mean they literally found out simular thing three years ago
I didn't see anything that made anyone seem surprised. Miranda knew something was fishy, that's why she goes there as well as to get her sister. she then tries to broadcast what she finds. I think the only surprise that they had was that a) they managed to get it to work, and b) the Reapers took an exception to it...like they actually diverted forces specifically to deal with the fact that Cerberus found a way to hijack thier soldiers.
I took most of the rest of the commentary as more of a 'christ man, this crap AGAIN?! how many people do you gotta kill before you realize this is a stupid idea.'
You can also bring up these missions to Miranda during a conversation in ME2 (iirc it's the same conversation where you have the option to romance her). You can tell her that you ran into Cerberus a few years ago and saw the experiments they conducted with Thorian creepers, rachni and husks. Miranda will simply dismiss it by saying Cerberus was trying to find expendable soldiers so they could fight wars without human casualties.
It always irked me that Cerberus has such a presence in all three games, but the narrative simply switches from them being totally evil in ME1, kind of alright in ME2, and then totally evil again in ME3. I know that Cerberus were evil all along and Shepard's alliance with them in ME2 was just one of convenience, but it would've been cool to explore more of a morally grey area in ME3, where a Renegade-leaning Shepard could second-guess himself on whether they were fighting for the right team with the Alliance.
I think the switch is because of what ME2 tried to accomplish. Illusive man hand pick sympathetic faces but loyalists to Cerberus. Some like Kelly Chambers has obligation to report their findings behind Shepards back. SO, Cerberus just put on human face in order to not lose Shepard - there were only 150 people in Cerberus then and judging by Shepard's record (especially if War Hero) - Shepard might even solo them. So, they used people who were too loyal and even believed in Cerberus (like Miranda who had over time discovered the truth and you could see how her inner stable world was shaking and then completely destroyed inside because she really trusted Cerberus but Shepard opened her eyes) OR they used "persuasion" tactics to force people to act nice. So, everybody in ME2 was supposed to be nice person to Shepard. (Judging by how many people left Cerberus and joined Shepard later in ME3 - Illusive man must have picked the least rotten individuals within the group and used them to trick Shepard. However, my Shep saw through it immediately and I had the mindset "I trust my crew, Miranda and Jacob, Kelly, Kenneth or Gabriela BUT Cerberus itself? Shady at best, war criminals truly)
@@Dark_Voice I think the 150 number is bull. I know EDI said it, but it makes no sense. We see at least 50 in ME1. We see entire Cerberus facilities FULL of (dead) personnel in ME2 (think Overlord, Firewalker, Lazarus, etc.)
@@totallytubular618 Yeah 150 senior members of Cerberus makes more sense. Each of them controlling at least a thousand staff members from different divisions like military, politics, research.
without human casualties, while using Husk who are human zombies... make sense
I don't think BioWare has ever depicted Cerberus as "kind of alright" in ME2. Cerberus members (i.e. TIM, Miranda, partly Jacob) want to make you see (of course) Cerberus as not so bad, but you know the truth if you played ME1, and can even tell anyone in Cerberus, TIM included, you don't trust Cerberus and you are using them cause they are the only ones reacting to collectors. In the end, the true nature of Cerberus shows up again (TIM wants you to keep the base, to build his own Reaper), and you can send him to hell for the last time.
I just had a double take.
You're telling me you can take Doctor Michel as the doctor in ME3?!?!?! I never knew that after so many playthroughs!
The original doctor in the first two game need to die in the second game to make that possible.
@@Dragon81205 Actually the option exists even if Chakwas survives the second game. You just have to ask and accept Michel's offer first before you take on Chakwas'. Its easy enough to miss but as long as you don't welcome Chakwas immediately its doable in that situation.
I found that out after type that
You can also fight Jack and Legion in the second to last mission.
Yeah even on my 5th playthrough, I'm discovering new things each time. This game is marvelous for completionists, you just can't.
I always hated how we had to work with Cerberus after all those missions in me1
But also it kinda works out because the Alliance was lowkey on ass most of the time about everything anyway.
Thanks for breaking down all the Cerberus quests in ME1. It had been so long since I played ME1 before the trilogy remaster that I totally forgot Cerberus was setup before ME2. Although they did seem a lot more incompetent in their early days as Joker pointed out.
What do you mean " a lot more incompetent?" They are still completely incompetent. Project Overlord, almost everyone died. Earlier than that Subject Zero on Pragia, ended with everyone dead accept Jack and the other test subject. All their shenanigans in ME3, basically caused them to become a mostly defunct organization. The only thing that ever panned out for them was the Lazarus project, and even THAT blew up in T.I.M's face. Since we basically stole some of his best people, his ship and hi A.I. and gave them to the Alliance. Lets not even start on all the innocent bodies they dropped a long the way. Their body count is only rivaled by the Reapers. Cerberus is the poster child for epic fail, they got themselves indoctrinated, and turned into butt puppets for the Reapers, like a bunch of scrubs. They are no more competent in ME3 than in ME1.
He explained all of them except UNC: Hades' Dogs.
Honestly I completely missed Cerberus on my first ME1 playthrough. The first time I replayed it and encountered Cerberus missions I was like "woah they planted all this foreshadowing that's so cool!!".
When me2 was being promoted i think they had a promotion talking about how they needed a seedy organization for their story so they looked back at the lore of the first game and ground cerberus in quite a few if their side missions, it fit so they adapted them and the story to fit the organization.
In mass effect 2 the plant the seeds to what was saposed to be the cause of the reaper attacks, dark matter. I have come across a couple of lines mentioning it. But when writers left and the bioware got bough to ea they had major changes.
I think cerberus is an excellent example of using your world building to your advantage, not pre planned story telling.
I mean, they tried to, but what they are in Game 1 and what they are in Game 2 are completely different things that just share a name.
Yeah, I don't think it was planned out. Bioware has never really big on subtlety. They could have made Cerberus shady in ME1 rather than outright villianous, but they didn't. I suspect that Cerberus was just supposed to be a bad guy organization in ME1 to fill out a few side-missions.
Then you think about it and you realize that ME2 retconed Cerberus to hell and back, they no longer are a Black Ops unit gone wrong, they are super secret Super Power who rival the Alliance
Like someone else mentioned; foreshadowing, kind of, but also retconning it in ME2. In ME1 it seems like it's some Alliance black ops group that is fairly new to the galactic scene. Come ME2 it's now an extra-governmental organization that's been around since about the First Contact War. It's to the point where Shepard being totally unaware of it in ME1 feels like a Navy SEAL not knowing what ISIL is.
Shepard: Corporal if you kill him, you're a criminal!
Toombs:😥
Shepard: But I'm a SPECTRE, they won't question me.
Toombs: 😃
Wow. I've played ME1 dozens of times, but never went to the doc at the right time. So I never knew who Barnes really was. Well, next run I'll do it myself. Thanks, dude.
I'm so glad I discovered this channel. Please don't ever pull an, "I should go" move for real and stop uploading. You're doing amazing work bro!
Its decent content, i just wish he didnt ask for likes and subscribes twice in the same video.
Or make click-bait (at best), &/or flat-out misleading (at worst) video titles with spoiler-filled thumbnails, for all two people who care about that.
We need that Corporal Toombs video, Danny boi!!
Counterpoint: The Illusive Man had been indoctrinated WELL before the events of the ME trilogy, as explained by the comic books. If he was aware of the Reapers before that point, it stands to reason that he'd know about the husks and therefore would be interested to see how they were made to adapt the process.
I remember being f*cking upset to learn that we'd team with Cerberus in ME2 after I spent all these side missions killing them and their failed experiments. 😆
Yep! Then worse when you find out that Cerberus had been so heavily retconned to become the single greatest black ops organization ever put to video games.
I was frustrated that ME2 didn’t give us the option of taking the SR-2, reporting the location of Cerberus HQ to the Alliance, and dealing with the Collectors without the aid of a human-supremacist terrorist organization. That’s what my Shepard would have done, and it felt like a flaw in the game that we weren’t even given the option. My Shepard would NEVER have stuck with Cerberus after seeing all the atrocities they committed in ME1. When I saw Ashley on Horizon, I thought the game would give us the option then, but no. Instead, I have to argue with Ash when she’s the one who clearly is in the right, not us.
@@KoPT01 saved ash bruh
@@davidc. I usually save Ash, not because I like her more, but because it's the smarter tactical decision on the ground. Ash goes with the Salarians because they are squishy and need a tank (and because serving alongside aliens might help her get over her xenophobia), and Kaidan is the obvious choice for arming the bomb with his technical skills. Then, I pick up Ash and the Salarians because saving 5 lives is better than saving one, preventing the Geth from rearming the AA gun is critical for our survival so we can stop Saren, and leaving someone at the Bomb site to hold the position to the death to make sure it goes off just makes more sense.
So while I like Kaidan more, he usually is the one to die for role-playing reasons. It also makes the sacrifice more meaningful, because he is the only other old friend of Shepard's aside from Joker and Chakwas left. And he absolutely deserved to be the next human Spectre.
Ashley, on the other hand, is much less worthy, and WANTS to martyr herself. Forcing her to overcome her family's past and earn honor without sacrificing herself makes her character arc stronger.
Omg yes
Me2 basically doesnt touch any of this, and essentially paint Cerberus as not as bad. The fact shepard should be personally traumatized by then and lost his entire squad to them, he shouldve been far more hostile and resistant to working with them. Always hated how little Shepard acknowledges the scenarios hes in. Me2 was too focused on the new characters, and not enough about the reapers and trying to stop them, and the implications of me1's lore. I think ashley and kaiden are not wrong to mistrust Shepard to be fair, he doesn't explain himself very well, and Cerberus is know for messing with and genetically engineering alliance soldiers. It would be like seeing your comrade working for isis after seeing them blown up.
Yeah I did all these quest in ME1 and Shepherd barely says anything about it
The Illusive Man has dialogue in ME3 that mentions him deliberately surrounding Shepard with people who would ingratiate him to Cerberus. The entire mission on the SR-2 is is tailored to distance Cerberus from its evil stuff in ME1.
In 2 you can confront Miranda about all the monsters Cerberus created. She justifies it as they were trying to make an army of non sentient beings so people would no longer have to fight in wars. That’s all well and good until you remember combat robots exist in mass effect 2 lol.
ME2 is a fundamentally broken game. No part of the main storyline for it is competent, much less good. It's basically 100% about recruiting your team and their backstories, but they needed to come up with something to facilitate that. What's worse is that the way they were forced to split it up (by the fact that the 360 was still using DVDs) means that you don't really get to experience much of that backstory for half of them, because your first conversation with them often ends up being the one where they pour out their hearts about their sole unfinished business in this world, basically moments after meeting them from your perspective.
@@louis8487
Your comments about combat robots are why I'm mildly suspicious about The Qurians intentions with the Geth. The Geth have a very large and very dangerous army. One has to wonder what Qurians wanted with all those resources. If they'd been able to take back control what would they have done with them.
Something to the effect of “if rachni soldiers had been at Eden Prime the colony might have been saved”.
This game is so deep. I already beat this game twice this year and I still had no idea this quest exists.
what a nice hint that the Rachni are not savage beasts when you look at Kahokus body
I might be wrong or maybe it changed for legendary edition, but for 5:48 I think Kahoku's body is always just in the third area you check, while the creatures stay the same. So if you check the base with rachni soldier and drones first and second, then his body will be in the one with thorian creepers.
Technically Cerberus has always been aware of the Reaper threat since the Illusive Man was involved with some kind of reaper artifact the Turians were using during the First Contact War. This is also how Saren learned about the Reapers, who incidentally helped the Illusive Man prevent the Reaper artifact from being used to create Turian super-soldiers. I forget exactly which media outlet this was covered within though I believe it was one of the comics.
Sounds like one of the books tbh
Its the was First Contact Comic. I have the issues ^^
He got indoctrinated slooowly after his eyes got struck by the device in that Turian "religious" temple.
Turns out the monks were all indoctrinated husk turians and attacked the characters too.
9:57 "I'm a Spectre. No one will question me!". Meanwhile, the Coucil: Lets question everything he does for two games stright!
I honestly didn’t know Cerberus was even mentioned in ME1
I don't know how you could've missed this.
@@Radwar99 If you don't do the Admiral's side quest I guess it might be easy to miss them.
@@ChipCheezey Well, I do all quests and I've never understood people who rushed through games.
@@Radwar99 Doesn't even necessarily have to be rushed. Can just forget or miss certain quests or just want to get on with the game at some point.
I've had past ME playthroughs where I realize afterwards I missed some encounters and quests. And I'm someone who takes the game pretty slow and does most of it on a given playthrough. Imagine someone who isn't doing all of that can just decide they don't wanna keep doing a ton of side quests.
Same here
not too mention EDI who was the rogue AI on the Moon ended up in their posession.
which makes her message to you in binary that much more eerie and sad
She was a VI in ME1 not a full AI.
To
The whole thresher maw plot point is why I don’t play sole survivor anymore, it should have been at least addressed ME2- the Akuze ambush is one of the 3 defining backstories
I think the writers were kinda betting on the fact that not everyone was a completionist with ME1. "I think I remember..."? If I ran into a splinter group that converted a whole settlement to husks, or was solely responsible for the death of my team (sole survivor), I'm pretty sure I'd have nothing to due with said group in any way, resurrection or not.
I remember bringing up the experiments to Miranda and she justified on their tests, but I wanted to know from her on finding Admiral Kahoku’s body in one of those tests and that he sent a message to Shepard that they are after him.
Reportedly, Big Dan disappeared after publishing this story.
Cerberus vanished a few months ago. Months. That always bothered me because clearly the Illusive man had stopped punching the clock with the alliance for a long time before that from what we see in ME2. The Teltin Facility was in operation (and then not) a long time before that.
Teltin had gone rogue, even by Cerberus standards. They were hiding their experiments from TIM
Cerberus was retcon'd quite a bit in ME2. In 2 & 3 there's almost no reference to its origin as Alliance black ops and its history is expanded pretty extensively.
Exactly, @@mediumvillain. The only time your Shepard character really acknowledges Cerberus as the inter-stellar terrorist organization they truly are is near the beginning of ME2. Over the course of ME2 from then onwards Cerberus acts as your greatest frenemy. Quite frankly, ME2's storyline really effed up everything Mass Effect. There would of been nothing wrong with your Shepard slowly becoming more the Spectre your Shepard character had become in ME1 over the course of ME2. Cerberus would of been still around doing their thing. You could work with them up to the entire game or something like that, or have your choice of going solo with your squadmates from ME1, or just plain solo the entire time. I guess my ideas are too ambitious.
@@adamgray1753 As I played the series for the first time just last month, this is how I thought it would be. A lot of interactions in ME1 seemed to split along pro-human vs pro-alien lines. I thought ME2's Renegade/Paragon options would depend on whether you bought into TIM's speeches (renegade taking action with no time for ethics) or essentially went back to being a proper Spectre (paragon with a focus on cooperating with the Council/Alliance and maintaining ethics).
IIRC, early ME2 gives you a few chances to either report something you found to TIM, send it to the Alliance, or keep on the Normandy for later. I was pretty excited to act as a double agent against Cerberus but it just never materialized. I also expected crew loyalty to be tied to Shepard's choice to either trust Cerberus or lean away from them, but again, nothing came of it but the fight between Jack and Miranda.
An interesting fact about the name Cerberus. In Greek mythology Cerberus was the name of a three-headed dog that guarded the gates to the underworld. But he wasn't there to stop people from getting into the underworld he was there to stop people from getting out.
Basically Ghost Rider except a dog, because Ghost Rider is sent to hunt down any soul escaping from hell
@@FSUSean2112 cerberus didn’t leave the underworld but k
@@Cthulhuwarlord oh yes but some of their associates did
Also coincided with the fact that they named the relay near Pluto (Roman equivalent of Hades) Charon after the Boatman of the River Styx, basically wrote itself why they called themselves Cerberus.
RIP Kahoku. Guy was just trying to give closure to his dead unit and Cerberus killed him. One more reason Cerberus was always evil.
That was an amazing video. Loved that new me1 info. Plz do a whole guide on the lone survivor mission
Ironic that cerberus was trying too create a super soldier , I wonder if the research they were conducting factored into them being able too save Shepard
To and too are different words
@ tell that to someone who cares lol this is TH-cam go get some 🐱
I believe Miranda references the rachni experiments if you confront her about it-if you went all the way through the Cerberus subplot in ME1.
Since I rarely replayed the first game, I had completely forgotten Cerberus was indeed present in some of the side quests! It’s so amazing to rediscover the game 😄
Cool how Cerberus goes from some shadowy black ops group that you can learn more about in side quests to being a major player in the series and that it isn't forced.
I was so happy to pick all this up on my first playthrough because I knew how important the group would be
found you recently and you're my now my favorite youtuber for mass effect content
My bf has never played mass effect, and im a completionist who bought ME:L to enjoy nostalgic playthroughs. Hes watching me play ME1 that first time.. and he asks "these Cerberus guys seem important do you see them in other games?"
😬🥺
I played it off and told him yeah, some..
After ME2 started ive had the best laughs at him over that😆
Good content, simple and straight to the point, no annoying persona, and stuff like that. You come across as a sweetheart to be honest. Keep it up!
This is so clearly presented! Your dedication to and comprehension of Mass Effect is truly impressive. Thank you for your service lol
It baffles me, that no one at Bioware thought, some of us would have a massive problem with Cerberus in ME2, as an ex serviceman and I’d lost friends on Akuze and found out Cerberus were to blame, I’d be gunning for them with a passion
As I have been playing ME1 LE, I have begin to ponder if Banes is the Illusive Man.
The illusive man's backstory answers a lot of questions that are in this video also it's cool to see when you compare the two what direction that Mass Effect will be taking
Btw, Cerberus is also involved with the Luna rogue VI mission in ME1
Isn't that rogue VI actually like a prototype of EDI?
@@TheMarkoPolo2011 yes.
I would have loved if completeing these even *slightly* affected the dialogue in 2 or 3. Especially if you found Toombs, and survived Akuze. There's so many times Shepard was being humble, and somewhat depressed, some of those he's told "But you were a sole survivor, that's how good you are!". Would have been nice if he even mentioned Toombs...
If you complete these Cerberus missions in ME1, the dialogue with Garrus, where he says that he is worried about Shepard, changes slightly and it becomes more clear his motivation to stay with Shepard to cover his / her ass.
"They're conducting illegal genetic experiments, trying to create some kind of super-soldier!"
So, in a nutshell, Cerberus is what you get when you take ONI from Halo and have them kicked out of the government. Does the Spartan program ring a bell for anyone? Not to mention that TIM does remind me of Parangosky and Halsey from the Halo novels; the former being a spook who has no problem taking out admirals who cross her, the latter wanting to advance humanity's evolution via genetic experimentation.
Good point, I'm surprised that line/project didn't get directly incorporated into future games. Maybe Lazarus could have used their data as a way to accelerate Shepard's resurrection or it could have been the basis for any non Reaper enhancements the Cerberus foot soldiers in ME3 had.
I've completed Mass Effect 1-3 about 4 times, keep exploring every map to the fullest, I've never had the Racchni wave fight on Stix, not sure if I'm just not remembering it, but goes to show that even after a few hundred hours of play time I can still find new stuff :O
Those missions are unlocked after finishing Noveria.
Hey Big Dan. So, in my most recent playthrough of Mass Effect I came across the rachni side quests which are some of my favorites in ME1 and came to a super interesting theory about those side quests. It always bugged me that at the end of those side quests you trace the rachni back to a space station that was sending them all over and find out about the cerberus connection and that's it. Nothing else ever is brought up about it aside from Shepard mentioning cerberus experiments involving rachni in ME2. The thing that bugged me most is that they mention a "master control unit" they used to control the rachni and keep them from being crazy like the ones on Noveria but we never get to deal with it or learn anything about it. In my most recent playthrough I realized that there is a very good chance that the "master control unit" does indeed make another appearance in the series in ME3. I think that the "master control unit" and the "rachni zombie/fake queen" in ME3 are one and the same. It's not a perfect theory and there would certainly be a good amount of research to do before I'd call it super plausible but I would love to know your thoughts on it and perhaps see a video on it. Sorry this comment is so long I have a habit of rambling but thank you for your time.
I love how Shepherd doesn't let people kill if they're going to get in trouble because he could do it if he wants
Yes.
When the legendary edition came out it was my third time playing the first game and the first time I was a completionist for Mass effect 1 cause the mako handling is better, I discovered cerberus's little secrets very interesting thanks for the video
I remember doing that one side quest with the rachni troops and setting up the defenses against them but never to one with the Cerberus entry logs. Makes me wonder if there are any other ME1 side quests I missed?
I think you can also find a crashed Freighter with Thorian Husks nearby that likely belonged to Cerberus, though I can't remember what planet it was on
Love this video makes it extra interesting, as it’s interesting to find out info before Shep in ME 2
The fact it's so easy to miss makes them that much more interesting
The compounds always had a creepy music in em that makes the story in those compounds a lot more ... Impactful
the thorian boss theme is the creepiest one i think
Damn, this is my favourite Mass Effect game.. and I know that the second one is the best, and the third one had the best combat (for me) but.. this one has got so much climate and discovering new races, mass effect etc. That was amazing for me.. I vish that they remake Mass Effect 1 with the combat system from Mass Effect 3 but I know Its never gonna happend...
So I’m wondering if any new fans of Mass effect are watching this, or if it’s only us longtime fanboys 😂
Yep I’m binging this mans videos after beating ME1 and 2 gonna start 3 soon so sad to see this amazing trilogy coming to an end for me :(
Me
Oh, I'd wager both. I'm something of a newbie, myself
Sole survivor shep should absolutely despise Cerberus
Do the full video on the Tombs mission. I can't remember how I did it, a refresher would be cool.
If you read the comics, Illusive Man had been in contact with Reaper Tech at the end of the First Contact War
I like Cerberus' presentation most in ME1. Working in small cells, operating through mercs and proxies, so dangerous that even an Alliance admiral isn't safe from them.
I prefer that to the way they have their logo stamped everywhere in ME2, or having a giant army in ME3.
Ah, the good old exploration quests in ME1.
Cerberus was inconsistent in all games. The first one showed an organization trying to create super soldiers and failed. The second one showed an organization with a much larger capacity that is running several massive projects (rebuilding Shepard, Overload station to control the geth, investigating delerict reapers, tracking the shadow broker, rebuilding the collector homebase ). The third one Cerbrus can invade other home plants, running a massive army that is fighting everyone.
I must have missed the beginning I was exploring and got a distress beacon and found them all dead. Then I had to talk to the Admiral.
Makes operation overlord looks like a sensible idea. Before they hooked David up of course.
Its cool how these side quests are occassionally referenced in ME2
I just finised ME 1 yesterday, and I didn't even know that you can zoom in with the mako lol
Admiral Kohoku deserved better than what he got!!! Fight me!!!
Really Apprechiate this! I found the ME1 side quests horribly tedious so I never found these!
I do not understand why people complain about Cerberus becoming evil. They were evil all along. Mass Effect 2 it is just TIM trying to get you into seeing them better.
Wrex: "Nice to see humans...are consistently...STUPID!" Well said Uncle Wrex, well said.
I dont read the comics, but I know that they explain that The Illusive Man was indoctrinated during the First Contact War when he found some Reaper artefact. This explains how they know about the Reapers in Mass Effect 1
You know what, I never did any of those missions in my original playthrough of Mass Effect 1. And when I played Mass Effect 1 legendary edition I rushed through it just so I can get you Mass Effect too. So I literally had not known any of this Cerberus stuff. Knowing this completely changes my understanding of Mass Effect 2. Now it makes a lot more sense as to why various crew members were upset with Shepard for joining servers. Thank you very much for sharing this.
It impreseme HOW MUCH content ME has, i have finish like 3 times (1 with the legendary edition) and have NEVER found this mission and ALWAYS pick sole survivor, because of this, it makes kinda sense to working for Cerberus in ME2 because sheppard never discoverd this! Pnce i finish ME3, i might start from the one again have to much to discover
You should do a vid on Dr.Chakwas vs Dr. Michell. And show the differences.
This video is perfect for me. I completed ME1 but left the Kahoku side mission hanging. I just started ME2 and immediately recalled the Cerberus name and that they were probably up to no good. Interesting. My Shephard thus doesn't really know what they've been doing because I didn't further investigate on Kahoku's request. I only knew that they're shady.
ME1 is much darker than 2 and 3 is much more mysterious even the background music adds to the atmosphere , i really wish play mass effect 1 first time again
Oh with the Cerberus Rachni quest there is a dialogue bug, if you have encountered Cerberus before the mission your squadmates are supposed to comment with knowledge from your previous encounter however do to this flagging bug they will always act like they never heard of Cerberus.
Ah, that's good to know. I was wondering why Wrex asked about them. I had already done all the other Cerberus quests up to that point so I was like - dude you should know this lol
Did they fix it in the legendary edition or was this video the legendary edition?
@@GamingMasterAnthony Played the Legendary Edition and the bug is still present.
@@Trialwolf wtf! At least tell me there’s a mod to fix it, I want to hear the dialogue
@@GamingMasterAnthony It may be more of using a save editor to check a variable in your save similar to the glitch with Verner in ME2, there is a video on TH-cam that has the dialogue available though.
I don't think I've ever gotten that one with the rachni attacks. I guess I just don't check that planet for some reason.
These would be great characters for my list of most forgotten characters.
See stuff like this is why I fully understand where the Virmire survivor is coming from. Yeah they make some leaps in logic with their skepticism, but it’s not like it’s without reason.
There are also ExoGeni staff that have been turned into Husks on Trebin, likely where Cerberus got the Dragon's Teeth from as none are there with them
I can't wait to hear those other dialogs wheels from Tombs.
Wow I missed almost all of those side quests accept for Admiral Kohoku. I have some new things to do in my current playthrough
My first mass effect game was mass effect 2 so i had loyalty to cerberus before the alliance. Now i despise them i gladly wiped them out in mass effect 1 and 3 rip Admiral.
all Cerberus projects have a hand in bringing someone back to life, the plant zombies and the teeth can animate bodies and the fluids of the thresher maws is an "alpha" preditor substance or something heavily complex in organic evolution. mix that with high advanced robotics from the husks, and the psionic nature of the plant. you have something you can take it all with to bring someone back to life.
Hey! Commander Shepard is waving at us from over there in that Cerberus medical facility!
Oh Holy Shit, we blew up all the research that spits in the face of nature and God that allowed Cerberus to being us back as a Cyborg Zombie.
With all the "bringing the dead back to life to serve as soldiers" Cerberus and Umbrella would get along quite nicely
That's a terrifying thought but didn't Cerberus also experimenting with Rachni, Thresher Maws, and Thorian Creepers?