i know Im randomly asking but does anybody know of a trick to get back into an instagram account? I stupidly lost the account password. I appreciate any help you can offer me.
@Leonard Keanu thanks so much for your reply. I found the site thru google and im waiting for the hacking stuff now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
29:00 The paragon / renegade system is basically a leveling system for Shepard's persuasion skill. From using diplomatic dialogue wheel options you get points in Paragon. With sufficient use you will unlock the blue Paragon dialogue wheel options that are previously gray and inaccessible. Provided you put in your "level up points" in paragon on the character skill screen. Same goes for Renegade. Meaning they are not ultimately Shepard's reputation, but his/her capability to argue along diplomatic and authoritarian lines. A benefit of this system is that both styles can be improved independent of one another, rather than having good and bad points cancel each other out. Rather than reputation of being good or bad, Shepard will be recognized across the galaxy for his/her plot related choices. Concerning Wrex, there is actually a very small side quest you can complete ahead of launching the Viremire mission to ensure Wrex's loyalty toward you regardless of paragon or renegade score. Lovely of old Bioware to include this option for those that might want to play a true neutral Shepard playthrough.
@Zachary Moore I agree with you there, that for the best narrative experience, you should put all of your points into Charm or Intimidate. I think they could've done a better job with giving the player more freedom on this front. Because by doing this, you gain access to the dialogue options that actually make a difference most of the time, and then also making the combat much more challenging because you lack the combat upgrades. It's almost like that's how the game was meant to be in the first place. But then again, I'm no game designer, and there are many other factors that go into developing and marketing a game for the masses.
The important story choices should always have the option to skip the need for charm or intimidate by playing the game. Like in Tali's trial, if you've saved Veetor and Kal'reegar, spoke to the admirals you get to rally the crowd and win, regardless of your paragon or renegade scores.
In my final playthrough of 1 and 2 in preparation for 3 coming out I played it as a "good, no nonsense character" I punched people and shot enimies in dialogue, but overall did the good options in the story, saved the council etc. Having played the game through a lot already I knew you could lock of in these ways. I was able to get though the entire thing without locking of any options, with a small focus on renegade. I was basically being an asshole to get the right thing done. It's the character I used for ME3 and it worked perfectly. Though I don't entirely disagree with what the video is saying I don't think he's giving it quite enough credit. Several conversations can be locked out if you encounter them too early even if you're beelining being evil
22:11 "A cutscene plays and Saren throws a temper tantrum in the middle of a K-Mart because his mom, Titty McWhispers, wouldn't buy him a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playset." Solid gold
35:20 Eden Prime is a colony founded by humanity (Systems Alliance) inside the Attican Traverse (a vast region of space considered the frontiers of Council space) but on the borders of the Terminus systems. The Terminus systems are regions of space not governed by the Citadel Council nor the Systems Alliance, instead characterized by anarchy or local powers in a "wild west" fashion. The councilors are unwilling to send fleets into the Attican Traverse because of a non-military interventionalist policy for the region, however encourage expansion and new colonies. Eden Prime is close to the lawless Terminus systems so sending fleets might provoke conflict. The Geth, being an isolationist illegal AI "race", are also a huge wild card never before seen leaving their specific region (beyond The Veil). So it's dangerous and not absolutely necessary. Space politics! Isn't it amazing.
An easy way to think about it is the Neutral Zone between Fed and Cardie space in Star Trek. After all, the reason the Maqui arose was because the Fed colonies in the Demilitarized Zone is because Fed ships can't go into the region regularly without risking conflict
25:40 C-SEC is basically something closer to a police force with FBI investigation capabilities. Spectres (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance) are appointed by and answer to the Citadel Council directly. They are basically "above the law", are largely untouchable by bureaucracy, have clearance for high-level information and arms etc. C-SEC could investigate crimes suspected to be committed by a Spectre, but don't have the jurisdiction to prosecute etc. Instead it might be presented to the Citadel Council, and if necessary they would likely send another Spectre agent to deal with an agent gone rogue. It's a very provocative sci-fi take on the limitations of the rule of law VS the crude nature of sentient society where making "exceptions" may result in vast pragmatic benefits.
Again, I'm super happy to be playing these games again, even though Spider-man is calling me, and Blops just dropped... Should say something about the state of games.
I think the combat in the first game feels a bit janky (on consoles). I'd probably dislike it if I played on insanity. On normal or easy at least I can get through it quickly. I think the other elements (story etc) are a lot better. I never get bored of the plot or characters in Mass Effect 1.
@@StratEdgyProductions Spiderman was really good! I'm trying to knock a few games out before RDR2 drops. That game will be life for a LONG, LONG time. A 'state on games' sound good! Do it up!
@Tesla-Effect Have you tried it? If not, please do! I couldn't see it being played on anything lower. I've never even played any ME game on any difficulty lower, especially in the later games. No elitism is meant to be inferred here: I think it makes the combat more satisfying. But if you only want the narrative, nothing is wrong with that!
Depends on the playstyle for me. Infiltrator and Soldier are always good for insanity, Mage and Engineer feel unsatisfying when you need too many cooldown cycles to kill stuff and Vanguard loses its class fantasy when it's too squishy.
34:52 1.) Small forces are harder to spot and easier to maneuver. 2.) The guy you're chasing after has gone rogue and is experienced at evading detection. 3.) Space is exceedingly vast. Finding a watch, let alone a bigass ship is the old needle in a haystack scenario.
Anton Tek9bahran I didn’t really like him so I saw it as a way to get rid up of worthless space on the ship, also when he pulled a gun on me I saw that as his eventual betrayal. (Room gasps, “someone actually didn’t like wrex? Impossible)
26:27 Asari a single sex species understood to be/ interpreted to be female by humans. Asari breeding with another species will result in only Asari babies, where the partner genetic material will act as a "random seed" or scrambler of the Asari genes. IIRC according to the lore the baby won't actually have any genes from a paternal species (at least in case of AsariNon-Asari matings). From an evolutionary standpoint mating within the own species is highly unlikely to itself cause genetic degradation / inbreeding depression. This because Asari as a species evolved on their homeworld Thessia without any interstellar contact. There for sure is a strong cultural and social norm to not mate Asari + Asari. "...some have even taken on Krogan as lovers." What, are you racist!? :D
It is mentioned by Samara in 2 and 3 that inter Asari breeding has a higher chance of producing Ardat-Yakshi. That alone is likely a huge contributor to the stigma.
Good review! The ME1 and ME2 lore is way deep and actually goes into some detail about stuff you had questions about. So I think you could enjoy going for all the little side quests and stuff outside the main story areas if you replay them. Did you know for instance that you can go to the Moon in ME1 and disable a haywire AI to earn a class upgrade? And that AI is the origin of Edi in ME2. Well, thanks for the video!
I wanna make a comment about what you said at around 12:00 : First of all, while technically it is a 'fetch quest', it is well established even in the brief time of the game thus far, that a Prothean beacon finding is one of the most important happenings in the galaxy and can have consequences beyond imagining for both good and ill. That's why you send a cutting edge ship and an elite operative to fetch it, it's not contrived at all, it perfectly stands to reason. Secondly, Nihlus clearly states this would be one of several missions to asses Shepard's abilities.
"Recommend going to Artemis Tau first." - yeah ... on higher difficulties you better grinded the galaxy map for every last piece of experience and gear you could find befor going there or the "boss" fight will soft lock your game ^-^
...or just sell everything you find before and during the Citadel, buy a master Spectre weapon as soon as you become one, and faceroll the rest of the game no matter what difficulty. Bonus points for cheesing the Normandy quartermaster by only buying the Kassa Fabrication and Serrice Council licenses.
I have ptsd from that battle with the krogan master. The metallic sound all over. Tiny space, geth approaching, laser beams. The krogan throwing toxic pies. Him running towards me *cries in playing infiltrator on insanity level*
It’s funny when compared to “the masses” my favorite part of ME OG was the mako, specifically because of its handling and its use in open planetary exploration. I recently bought the second game thinking they improved the vehicle. Only to be disappointed they got rid of it. (I’ll do my research next time.) I personally think ME OG is the best game in the entire series
I always found the Mako to be pretty fun and easy to handle - you just need to practise. It can be plenty fun to use the booster to jump over incoming projectile and dodge stuff. Then running stuff over is pretty fun too. You don't even need to stop to shoot - just drive, use the booster and pow pow pow. Only thing is those thresher maws and some things can one shot you if you're not careful.
If someone could please tell me the name of the music at 12:35, I'd love them forever. Spent the past 2 hours looking through the royalty website... Thanks for the content Strat!
It makes no sense that your leaning towards renegade or paragon impact what you can say, it shouldn't be a stat you need, just a stat that reflects on what you have decided to do.
Not sure what you're talking about, a lot of those side quests were amazing story pieces and stumbling upon them made it feel like there are things beyond what is presented in the main story that is happening all around the galaxy
I've got to apologize here, but I don't think this video did a very good job at selling your point. Instead of an essay, you gave what was essentially a book report- telling us what happened in the book play by play. It's needless fluff that distracts from the thesis. I came to hear your thoughts on the matter, and that was only really shown in the last two minutes of a nearly hour long video. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the video, but I don't think it was effective in achieving its stated goal.
Yeah, I got the same feeling just by watching 2 minutes of this. Can you sum up the infinite list of all the crap and mediocre good things he mentioned in this video? I honestly don't want the experience of traveling down a memory lane. Been playing this game since its launch back in '07. So listening to him talking about how the devs came up with this project is pointless and stupid at this point in time. You can find all that stuff on the internet where the devs had many interviews discussing Mass *E*. Found out everything there is to find. Figured out how the engine works, and much more. I would just like to know the summary of this video so I can quickscope a like or a dislike for this video. 50 minutes of nothing is boring to watch. If I'm not hooked in the first 1-5 minutes then the chances are it's gonna be boring :) EDIT: LOL, just watched the last 2 minutes as you mentioned. Starts at 48:35-ish. What a load of horsecrap. There's nothing hardcore about ME Trilogy. Stats are worthless for the most part since they don't have a very good description of what they're doing and which metric they use for those stats. Strategic turn-based combat? [insert Jackie Chan's meme here]. Are you fucking kidding me? There's no strategic element to this game. ME1 is using tactical pause, nothing else. Jesus fucking Christ. If anything ME1 and its consecutive continuations simply reiterate on Knights of the Old Republic's modified combat since Neverwinter Nights and Jade Empire's targeting system and karma system. I might unsub. Never heard so much bs in such a short amount of time.
I think he did a efficient job at establishing a idea and illustrating his points. The video was a response to a idea, a common egocentric opinion, that Mass Effect 1 is bad because of its combat.
@Fuzzy Dunlop Mass Effect 1s' combat was, objectively, better than its sequel. Many gamers disagree but only cite little more than their subjective feelings (that's narcissism). I hate Halo 3, as a example, & have had to work through my blind distain to see H3s' pros. Objectively, it's story & dialogue is of low quality (same as Destiny) but its gameplay is largely improved over Halo 2. Did this assist you?
@@Proctor_Conley It assisted me in understanding your rationale behind using the word, though I feel it was a poor choice as "narcissistic" usually denotes a morbid self-attention, while this can totally entail the egotistical belief that one's own subjective feelings are empirical when they are not, it's more commonly - and accurately - used in regards to physical aspects or to aspects which make up an individual rather than the particular thoughts the individual expresses. For instance, one might more accurately display narcissism in thinking "I have an amazing capacity to review games" instead of expressing the thought "The combat in Mass Effect 1 is garbage, because of [X subjective reason]". Narcissism is something that involves self-regard, essentially, and while what you stated could be seen as a "symptom" of narcissism or behavior indicative of someone who could ALSO be narcissistic and so it's very closely related the differences in meaning were still apparent enough that it tripped me up when first reading it within the context which it was used and I felt I needed clarification to know if I understood your meaning. A word more appropriate for this context would be "egocentrism" which specifically deals with the inability to discern the subjective from the objective.
37:34 The side quests on Feros are meant to incentivize engaging with the NPCs to learn about the colony and provide forshadowing and clues that something nefarious is going on underneath the surface. Pun intended. They are meant make the player feel some sympathy for the NPCs living there and the curious mental troubles afflicting some. This is a setup for the end of the Feros "main quest" where you return and find all inhabitants mindcontrolled and aggressive, leaving it up to the player to kill them or make considerable effort in incapacitating them with gas grenades or melee close-up strikes. Maybe the moral choice is how far you're willing or able to go to save as many as possible? I know I used to run out of gas grenades, but I do see your point. I agree there isn't much to the side quests themselves though. And hell yeah running Geth over with the Mako is great!
I think Mass Effect has been a net negative on the genre for the mere fact that introduced Dialogue Wheels which spread like a Plague and eternally ruminate on their inherent inferiority to Dialogue Trees
How are dialogue wheels different from dialogue trees other than how they look? And what makes them inferior? This isn't a refutation of your argument. I just genuinely don't know.
Perhaps it's not necessarily how it looks but simply the stigma it got @LOL Icon . I personally prefer trees because of this and it seems to be reflected a lot in most games with RPG. Dialogue tree games actually have role playing options while wheel is lazy.
Dialogue wheels usually simplify thingd down to six(/four) options, many of which. Follow a very predictable pattern as opposed to say... the infinity engine games where you could have genuinely deep conversations. In other words, dialogue wheels are a cover for mostly linear conversation and continue to get worse. Examples: Fallout 1 x Fallout 4
Yeah that is actually true. I was thinking more so that if someone actually tried to flesh out a dialogue wheel, then they could add lots of different choices, but then that sort of design would fit a tree dialogue much better than wheel because wheel is too small.
If i think back to classic point and click adventures, you had your whole sentence that would come out of your mouth in front of you, you wouldn't be hit off guard by "wait what, that's not what i meant!". In a dialogue wheel, the options are condensed into what the developer feels the general sentiment would be like, preferably single word or two short words at most. But often they lay out the tree options first or try to make them recognisable and recurring, and fit the dialogue to it later, rather than considering what the person could actually feasibly say in this situation and then design the dialogue tree around that, leading to a disconnect. Plus you know for certain that half of those wheel options lead not only to exact same ultimate outcome, but also to the exact same words being spoken, so it's very obvious artificial padding. It has a smell of sorts.
For me on my first playthrough, the game became real with the Vermire mission. When I was forced to make the chose, who gets to live and who gets to die. Before this mission I was treating the game more like "just another shooter with stats". I did the Vermire mission right after leaving the Citadel. ME1 is my favorite ME game and probably my favorite game overall.
Just a quick note about the first mission, and how lacking it would be as a test if there were no incidents. Nihlus mentions that this is only the first in many missions where he would be evaluating Shepard. Presumably this just happened to be the first mission after the evaluation started. The mission wasn't necessarily chosen as a test by itself. Saren's betrayal, and Shepard's uncovering of evidence, is what fast-tracked his Spectre status.
"I don't want to ruin the game for that ONE person that hasn't played it yet.." *40 minutes earlier* "Basically I want to know, if Wrex is going to die on Virmire because of my roleplay playthrough." "Saren's outrage makes no sense, because we don't yet know he's controlled by Sovereign".
Hey I’m from Buena Park too :0 used to live in castlehood apartments not far from knotts. Good chance you drank with some of my friends or my brother in law at one of those bars haha
46:30 The Rachni choice was one of the high points of ME1 for sure. It was unfortunately a big disappointment in ME3 though, seeing as the mission is almost exactly identical regardless of option. The Queen even recognizes and acknowledges to you the effects of Sovereign's indoctrination in all the Rachni who fought in the Rachni wars (hundreds of years ago). I just find it unbelievable that with Sovereign destroyed in the end of ME1 the Rachni queen and her children still somehow were indoctrinated with no living Reaper in the galaxy, and extremely few reaper artifacts laying around in the galaxy. I think the original intention got dropped either for lack of time or was rewritten by an inferior writer. Drew Karpyshyn was lead writer for ME1, ME2 and three novels set in the "universe" of Mass Effect. The novels were pretty good too. So. For my personal head canon I don't count ME3 as being what happened after 1 and 2.
Maybe because like so many other flubs in later games it was written by Chris L'Etoile who left in the middle of ME2's production alongside Drew K and Brian Kindregan. The writers that succeeded him didn't understand or care about his contributions or they couldn't live up to it. BioWare started hiring people from their community and fanfic writers after they became an EA studio.
Mass effect 1 definitely still holds up, however the Normandy feels quite empty/dead compared to Mass Effect 3. There are many mods for Mass Effect 2 and 3, but fewer for 1. Graphical improvements are definitely necessary.
I can tell you why the Paragon/Nemesis system is implemented the way that it is. ME1 was developed for Xbox 360 and had to support achievements. And some jackass on the dev team probably thought it would be cool to make sure players had a paramour and or didn't miss out on nifty busy work/lore missions on the citadel. Which I would guess is why you have to earn the points rather than attaining after dialogue points. It was to give an artificial padding for completionist/new game+ mode on the console where you could go back through as many times as you wanted after initially beating the game, re-roll and explore the dialogue in another way. Also helping with future-proofing ME2 by allowing the player to replay a totally maxed out character in the manner they wanted and then port THAT character into ME2. Ya know, when the character port worked and didn't brick 100+hours of play time. :/
I've tried to get into Mass Effect multiple times, but just couldn't finish a playthrough for the following reasons: 1) My brother was also playing it at the time and with one console in the house, we had to take turns using it. I got tired of not watching him play to prevent spoilers and sort of had a vicarious experience through him. 2) I found the gameplay annoying (tried to be a sniper). When it comes to real-time combat with pause-based strategy, I prefer an isometric game like Baldur's Gate. Hell, in order for me to finish Dragon Age on XBox 360, I chose the lowest difficulty after reaching a certain point with werewolves, IIRC, that were wrecking my shit. To me, the game that did what I wanted Mass Effect to do (but didn't) was Alpha Protocol, the best worst game I've ever played.
The combat in Mass Effect 1 honestly wasn’t that bad. If you flesh it out and don’t immediately dismiss it as being clunky, you can have a lot of fun. Especially on Adept.
Enjoyed the essay! Reminded me of fond memories spent with a buddy of mine doing some 3am speculating on the nature of the Reapers before the second game came out and basically shit-painted them into a corner. Good times! That said, I'm not sure I *get* this new style of intro. The man-in-shadow bit was more distracting than anything else.
IMO best thing that lured me the most was renegade concept - most games typically set us up with choosing between good and evil, selfless or selfish meanwhile ME tried, to varied success, sell us a bit more on idealistic moral person vs practical and ruthless person. We're not evil in 90% of renegade choices (as I said, varied success), we're still fighting for good of the galaxy and humanity, it's just we try to pick simplest methods with high chance of success, even if it has a higher price of lives or property, just because we're willing to cross the rules if endgoal is not a matter of benefit by survival.
I chose to play as an infiltrator on my latest playthrough and I agree, I hate the sniper rifles in this game. But it makes me think a lot more about how I approach different scenarios, how I build my squadmates and where I position on the battlefield. The pause menu for combat also helps with this. But I love how much depth the first game had with options for customizing your experience, something the sequels didn't continue. All of the different weapon mods made me stop before engaging in combat to equip weapon mods that gave my squad and I damage bonuses to that specific enemy type. And the ability to drive the Mako around what is a very large, albeit mostly empty, unique planet landscape in search of loot and hidden outlaw camps and bases made the experience of traveling across the galaxy and exploring all the more meaningful. Finding hidden avenues to approach the scattered bases on these planets to try and take out the defense turrets quickly before charging in head first in your Mako to mow down the helpless bandits GTA-style was an unforgettable experience, mostly because the game never told me to do that. That's the unique charm of the first Mass Effect that the other games didn't capture IMO. With that being said, Mass Effect 2 is still my favorite.
yeah I pretty much agree with everything here; I'm pretty sure I made at least 8 full playthroughs. Along with the fully realized world, the music in this game gave me a constant feeling of being in space, a clean, futuristic feeling. ME2 could never do that for all of its improvements. The feeling I get from hearing the main theme is a huge part of what kept me playing without fatigue despite the notoriously long loading times (console version has even longer loading times).
We loved your personal take on this prolific game, a game with the types of peaks and valleys that would make the Mariana Trench blush. Keep up the wonderful work!
I finished Mass Effect Legendary a few months ago. I saw a former roommate beat the first game. I beat the second & third myself. Over a decade later I did my first ME1 to ME3 import same character throughout run. NOTHING has been able to top the experience. The story, the characters, dialog, ALL OF IT. It truely is the only game that made me feel like a true second life & more. Nothing has topped it. Even with a few bugs, odd interactions, & the commonly disliked endings (i personally don't mind them actually, but understand the dislike.) It is not a perfect game to me, but it is a spectacle to perfect game. EVERYONE, should play this.
I know it's an old vid and I usually comment without reciprocation on newer ones, but I wanted to say something here too, two things to be precise. First: I love you, Strat, you're the coolest boomer on the internet aside me that I know of. Second: Eden Prime wasn't suppoused to be a grand test for Shepard, Nilus says explicitly (if you pick one of the investigate options, I think) that this simple mission is suppoused to be just one of a series of missions during which he'd evaluate Shepard for his role of a spectre, so it's not that bad plot at this point, I remember playing it for a very first time, and I remember that line and that I expected to do a few missions with Nilus (Nihlus?) as a sort of intro/training, Eden Prime took me by surprise tbh. P.S. I'd lick your bald head, if you'd lick mine.
The mission on Eden Prime was supposed to be the first one with Nihilus to evaluate Shepard, so starting slow, get to know Shepard as a person before going on a mission, but well. That's not what happened But there was a reason it was meant to be a simple fetch quest
The person who described that all they felt was recoil when they shot someone, was actually a British SAS operator who took part in a hostage rescue at an embassy.
Are you from the mid Atlantic originally? No offense, but yr dialect sounds grimey (just like mine). Wouldn't be surprised if you were from Philly, DC, or my own Baltimore (especially with those juicy fronted O's). I'm about 10 mins into the video and so far, so good!
I'm compelled to point this out: if you put ranks into your Specter skills early, and play a balance of both Paragon and Renegade throughout the game, then until the VERY END of the campaign, you will pass every paragon and renegade check.
About Paragon/Renegade thing. There's a trick some people miss, only your big choices matter - you could play the game 90% of the time exactly the way you want to play. Pick renegade every time you can, but when it matters - choose paragon, and you will be paragon. Basically - choose what alignment your character has, and how he prefers to handle things. Using renegade check doesn't equal to being a renegade, vice versa. You choose your goal, alignment is a means to that goal. As long as you have 60/40 reputation, and you complete side quests - game will not lock you out of any alignment checks. Even when you have 50/50 - only the toughest checks will be locked out, and they don't really matter, you will have enough for important stuff. PS: Didn't mean to make your eyes bleed, my English is still bad, sorry
even though me trilogy has its fundamental flaws (me3 obv, but me2 mostly for me) it still holds a very special place in my heart. why? one word - immersion. ps: won't watch the whole video of this type.
Ramming enemies with the Mako is fun indeed :) I did it all thetime. As for the combat, against the thorian creepers and husks, there is a viable option, Give shotguns to your guys (even if they can't use it well), andput sledgehammer mods on them. Basically them mods that give it more knockback chance. Guaranteed stunlock for the melee enemies. And Immunity can be dealt with. Warp lowers damage protection by a lot (Overload does it by a little too), Neural Shock knocks them out before they can use it, a free kill. And Damping increase their cooldown times. As you said, tactical combat.
Here ya go, no need to mod. Infinite Paragon/Renegade Points Exploit Edit 1. On Noveria. You are given a side mission leading you to speak to Lorik Qui'in, a turian, at the bar. A mission progression choice enables you to encourage him to testify in a court case. You can choose from either a Paragon or Renegade dialogue option if you have at least 5 points in charm and/or intimidate. Choosing either of these options will give you a reward of 24 Paragon or 25 Renegade points respectively. The conversation will end but you can talk to him again. Ask about a different topic (i.e. Matriarch Benezia), then choose "Another question". The option to convince him to testify will reappear. Repeat this for infinite Paragon and/or Renegade points. This bug appears to exist across all 3 platforms (Xbox360, PS3, PC).
12:55 Yeah, being on fire and mostly annihilated will do that to a place. 16:04 Don't get me wrong I love this game, but when you can use the following two strategies to win every time on the hardest difficulty, it might be a little shallow: Immunity, Immunity, Immunity, Immunity, etc. or if you want to mix it up Barrier, Lift, Barrier, Lift etc.
I dunno, for me, I saw enough to convince me that it was destroyed; Sovereign was really enough to do that on his own, but the burning terrain and the Geth everywhere especially combined with the lack of living people which were then replaced by the Husks cinched my ability to extrapolate the destruction.
I've never had any problem having enough Paragon or Renegade points to do what I wanted. Then again I played those games so much I had timetables for how long it would take to finish a planet.
Dialogues can only be well used from the beginning the second time we play with the same character. Points spent the first time remain the second time we play.
I almost gave up Mass Effect after the first after all the ripping and running on the citadel on the first visit. I gave 2 a chance and fell in love with the series.
Edward Snowden? I'm on to you! EDIT: I've always loved that "Recoil" joke, it's been told in the service (and about the service) since at least the Vietnam war, but nobody can actually come up with a source for the quote. I think it's more indicative of a sense of professionalism and cool detachment that snipers are thought of possessing out of necessity. It could be any sniper, or any professional soldier. I think that gives it more weight than if we had a name to put to it, say Carlos Hathcock for example. I think that mindset is cross-cultural, and is imbued in those specialized roles by nature of training and experience. EDIT EDIT: I know you're in - or were recently in - the military so I figure I'd ask since you brought it up in the video and I've always been curious - how far does the "never leave a man behind" ethos really go? If going to retrieve a comrade's body would almost certainly result in more casualties wouldn't it be the more responsible thing to stay put until the situation calmed down? Perhaps keep tabs on 'em unless otherwise ordered? What if it's a situation (though this perhaps isn't the modern experience due to asymmetrical warfare being the norm in this day and age) where there's a massive offensive and a patrol or other smaller detachment is caught in the middle and has to bug out or be over run? Or there's a sniper using a dead (or god-forbid) wounded comrade as "bait"?
im surprised you didnt mention that the guys that made the ALOT, MEUITM, and MERLIN mods were offered jobs at bioware and played a big part in remastering the trilogy. a modders dream. just a fun fact
My favorite part about mass effect is the story. Now I understand that at times it can be downright terrible but it’s the good parts that keep me going. It’s the exploration of this universe that had me so excited to pick up the controller again and again to see where Shepard would end up and to see other characters grow and change. I take in my fair share of garbage media that mostly wastes my time but I can say without a doubt I loved mass effect 1-3.
Fun fact about Darwin and homozygous relations. He married his first cousin and had 10 kids. I can’t remember if he made his discoveries after having already done so, but the irony is amusing. And yes, the paragon/renegade options in Mass Effect are problematic to say the least. That’s why I always exploit them to max in both 1 and 2. I think 3 actually solved that issue really well.
this video is beautiful but i don't understand how you can find installing the texture pack that makes this game look 5 years younger as a pain in the ass lmao, you literally just have to download it and install is with an automatic installer
Mass Effect 1 REQUIRES the MEUITM massive texture mod to make it playable these days. It eliminates much of the jaggies, replacing almost all textures with high-res versions.
"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus systems." The "robot planet" isn't in the Terminus systems it's located inside a nebula known as the persius vale. The Terminus systems are like, independent space. A whole sector of the galaxy that deigns to govern itself instead of following council rule. Generally they're quite lawless, and they're the main play area for the second game. The reason the council don't react more strongly to the geth attack on Eden prime is that Eden Prime is in the Terminus systems, not council space, and the council has routinely chastised humanity for setting up colonies in such lawless space.
Just started listening to you and I heard dat MF Doom beat in the background...I was starting to think that RPG nerdom and good hip hop didn't mix....Zaric didn't apprieciate my C.R.E.A.M comment!
why is the bass mixed in so loud? Compared to your other videos even at high volume it's difficult to actually make out what you're saying because the bass is really overpowering and kinda blows out the definition
Mass effect is just KOTOR without the Star wars branding. Light side, dark side Paragon, renegade Skill bars and game pausing. Space magic. Six designed classes that focus on magic, skills and direct gun/weapon combat abilities (Kotor 1 had 6 classes.) I know I'm being fairly reductionist, but there's a shit ton of comparisons (Even Strat-edgy pointed out the title crawls are reminiscent of Star Wars and even uses the term space magic.)
15:33 "The villain never thinks they're the villain of their own story." I'm rewatching (more listening) to your older stuff right now while I content myself with the Diablo II mod for Grim Dawn, and this line happened. I immediately thought of Borderlands II and Handsome Jack who is considered among the absolutely best written (and voiced) villains of just about any video game ever. And then I wondered, "I don't recall a Strat video about BL2 or Handsome Jack... oh, sure enough, I don't see one." Good sir, I and my hard earned Patreon -hand out- donation humbly request, nay, strongly suggest, NEIGH *pbpbpbpbl* righteously DEMAND a video on that precise topic. Perhaps even in contrast to Borderlands 3 and the Calypso Twins who--I have heard--are less interesting and well written than a 90's Saturday morning cartoon villain. Sounds like a topic right up your analytical and casually adult humor alley.
If you play a Earthborn/Ruthless Shepard his apparent sociopathy in the renegade options is pretty easy to understand in context of his character. Letting the council die means letting more of Earth's fleet survive. Either way you're choosing one group over another but that doesn't mean I would say it's not renegade of course. It's just not an inherently absurd or out of left-field decision. And editing the Paragon/Renegade levels is a result of simply not understanding the system.
This might be a few years late, but around the 32:00 minute mark when Strat is talking about how the Consort mission(s) is/are pointless and has no real bearing on the game or world, besides that sweet sweet lore. It is both true and not true. She gives you an amulet (or some trinket, the particulars aren't important) and she explicitly says that she doesn't know what its purpose or point. But she knows you'll need/find use for it. And this is where the aforementioned both 'mattering and not mattering' comes into play that I talked about earlier. The only time the little trinket in question will come into play is that you will, and if you are playing this game correctly, are exploring all systems and all worlds. Not only for the lore, but you get all that juicy cash, XP, items, missions, and little bits of IRL science info so i strongly recommend that anyone playing this do play game in this pseudo completionist style of play. Because if you don't you will miss out on the purpose of the trinket. The trinket is used on one of the 'side worlds' (of which there are many and the exact name of the planet is fuzzy. But hey if it gives people another reason to do a play through of ME1 like I did last week. Then thats all I can hope to do) where on the map it will be another point of 'debris' or a point of interest. You know, one of those titles that downplays what the find will be. But I think in this case it is to the betterment of the 'hit' when you find what you seek after taking the Mako over a god damn infuriating mountain range. You will find another Prothean beacon, while granted it doesn't look the 'New Age Flagpole' that the other beacons look like in game. I think its better they use the chance to show off the cool little silver ball and accompanying structure. And when you go up the use the beacon in question in you get this, and I mean this with 100% sincerity and in a good way, short story about how one of Shepards ancestors (and I mean like caveman ancestor here) responded to the protheans observation of his tribe and him. And it really interesting when you think about the impact, if any the proteans had on our own growth. At least in universe that is. As well as it also helps give more weight to javiks comments on humans history of living in caves and stuff in ME3. Though to properly give shit where shit is earned. While this 3rd beacon viewing is saved as one of the 'milestones' that carries from game to game. I have found no where in any of the main 3 games where this comes up or influences anything. And a passing glance at the ME wiki confirms my theory. Though hey maybe its just something we all missed so I rather doubt it. So that was a REALLY fucking massive whiff. But its whatever I guess, I would say it reminded of Fallout 4 and Kellog being in Nicks brain that is alluded to once and never done anything with. But I think this whiff predates this massive fuck up by a few years. So yay? I think? Anyway thanks to coming to my TEDX talk sponsored by GameFuel! Sub and like and all that dumb shit lol. Love all your videos Strat, and I hope I can make killer stuff like yours one day on my own channel! Keep on kicking ass my dude! P.S. Pardon spelling, grammar, and the all over the place feel to all that.
![“อาร์ต พศุตม์” เกือบเอี่ยวทุกคดีดัง เอ๊ะไว้ก่อน ไม่มีอะไรได้มาง่ายๆ | แฉ 16 ต.ค. 67 [2/3] | GMM25](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0Gx-0-kUBv8/mqdefault.jpg)
"This will be the first of several missions together."
-Nihlus, while explaining how you'll be assessed as a spectre candidate
I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one that picked up on that
i know Im randomly asking but does anybody know of a trick to get back into an instagram account?
I stupidly lost the account password. I appreciate any help you can offer me.
@Ian Iker Instablaster :)
@Leonard Keanu thanks so much for your reply. I found the site thru google and im waiting for the hacking stuff now.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Leonard Keanu it worked and I now got access to my account again. I'm so happy:D
Thanks so much, you really help me out :D
29:00
The paragon / renegade system is basically a leveling system for Shepard's persuasion skill. From using diplomatic dialogue wheel options you get points in Paragon. With sufficient use you will unlock the blue Paragon dialogue wheel options that are previously gray and inaccessible. Provided you put in your "level up points" in paragon on the character skill screen. Same goes for Renegade. Meaning they are not ultimately Shepard's reputation, but his/her capability to argue along diplomatic and authoritarian lines. A benefit of this system is that both styles can be improved independent of one another, rather than having good and bad points cancel each other out. Rather than reputation of being good or bad, Shepard will be recognized across the galaxy for his/her plot related choices.
Concerning Wrex, there is actually a very small side quest you can complete ahead of launching the Viremire mission to ensure Wrex's loyalty toward you regardless of paragon or renegade score. Lovely of old Bioware to include this option for those that might want to play a true neutral Shepard playthrough.
Yeah, the skills are called Charm and Intimidate after all.
@Zachary Moore I agree with you there, that for the best narrative experience, you should put all of your points into Charm or Intimidate. I think they could've done a better job with giving the player more freedom on this front. Because by doing this, you gain access to the dialogue options that actually make a difference most of the time, and then also making the combat much more challenging because you lack the combat upgrades. It's almost like that's how the game was meant to be in the first place. But then again, I'm no game designer, and there are many other factors that go into developing and marketing a game for the masses.
The important story choices should always have the option to skip the need for charm or intimidate by playing the game. Like in Tali's trial, if you've saved Veetor and Kal'reegar, spoke to the admirals you get to rally the crowd and win, regardless of your paragon or renegade scores.
In my final playthrough of 1 and 2 in preparation for 3 coming out I played it as a "good, no nonsense character" I punched people and shot enimies in dialogue, but overall did the good options in the story, saved the council etc. Having played the game through a lot already I knew you could lock of in these ways. I was able to get though the entire thing without locking of any options, with a small focus on renegade. I was basically being an asshole to get the right thing done. It's the character I used for ME3 and it worked perfectly.
Though I don't entirely disagree with what the video is saying I don't think he's giving it quite enough credit. Several conversations can be locked out if you encounter them too early even if you're beelining being evil
22:11 "A cutscene plays and Saren throws a temper tantrum in the middle of a K-Mart because his mom, Titty McWhispers, wouldn't buy him a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playset."
Solid gold
12:00 no, Nihlus explicitly says that Eden Prime is “the first of many missions together”
35:20
Eden Prime is a colony founded by humanity (Systems Alliance) inside the Attican Traverse (a vast region of space considered the frontiers of Council space) but on the borders of the Terminus systems. The Terminus systems are regions of space not governed by the Citadel Council nor the Systems Alliance, instead characterized by anarchy or local powers in a "wild west" fashion. The councilors are unwilling to send fleets into the Attican Traverse because of a non-military interventionalist policy for the region, however encourage expansion and new colonies. Eden Prime is close to the lawless Terminus systems so sending fleets might provoke conflict. The Geth, being an isolationist illegal AI "race", are also a huge wild card never before seen leaving their specific region (beyond The Veil). So it's dangerous and not absolutely necessary. Space politics! Isn't it amazing.
An easy way to think about it is the Neutral Zone between Fed and Cardie space in Star Trek.
After all, the reason the Maqui arose was because the Fed colonies in the Demilitarized Zone is because Fed ships can't go into the region regularly without risking conflict
25:40
C-SEC is basically something closer to a police force with FBI investigation capabilities. Spectres (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance) are appointed by and answer to the Citadel Council directly. They are basically "above the law", are largely untouchable by bureaucracy, have clearance for high-level information and arms etc. C-SEC could investigate crimes suspected to be committed by a Spectre, but don't have the jurisdiction to prosecute etc. Instead it might be presented to the Citadel Council, and if necessary they would likely send another Spectre agent to deal with an agent gone rogue.
It's a very provocative sci-fi take on the limitations of the rule of law VS the crude nature of sentient society where making "exceptions" may result in vast pragmatic benefits.
Playing the game on INSANITY is the only way to appreciate the combat, baby! Mass Effect is my favourite sci fi universe OF ALL TIME! My GOD!
Again, I'm super happy to be playing these games again, even though Spider-man is calling me, and Blops just dropped... Should say something about the state of games.
I think the combat in the first game feels a bit janky (on consoles). I'd probably dislike it if I played on insanity. On normal or easy at least I can get through it quickly. I think the other elements (story etc) are a lot better. I never get bored of the plot or characters in Mass Effect 1.
@@StratEdgyProductions Spiderman was really good! I'm trying to knock a few games out before RDR2 drops. That game will be life for a LONG, LONG time. A 'state on games' sound good! Do it up!
@Tesla-Effect Have you tried it? If not, please do! I couldn't see it being played on anything lower. I've never even played any ME game on any difficulty lower, especially in the later games.
No elitism is meant to be inferred here: I think it makes the combat more satisfying. But if you only want the narrative, nothing is wrong with that!
Depends on the playstyle for me. Infiltrator and Soldier are always good for insanity, Mage and Engineer feel unsatisfying when you need too many cooldown cycles to kill stuff and Vanguard loses its class fantasy when it's too squishy.
Just looked up tons of mass effect videos this morning and now this comes out, perfect timing
I always thought that the name "eden prime" was like "greenland". The name isn't meant to be descriptive, it meant to market to explorers
I always thought it was weird that they called Citadel Security "C-Sec".. cuz it sounds like C-section...
@@brovid-19 Now that's descriptive
@@brovid-19 literally never had that thought once
Did you ever play Spec Ops: The Line? It would be interesting to see your opinions on that one.
Yes pls!
34:52
1.) Small forces are harder to spot and easier to maneuver.
2.) The guy you're chasing after has gone rogue and is experienced at evading detection.
3.) Space is exceedingly vast. Finding a watch, let alone a bigass ship is the old needle in a haystack scenario.
losing wrex
losing wrex
losing wrex
losing wrex
DOES NOBODY DO HIS SIDE QUEST?
Jake I did and got him killed
Wrex dyeing Broke my heart so i reloaded an old save and saved him
Anton Tek9bahran I didn’t really like him so I saw it as a way to get rid up of worthless space on the ship, also when he pulled a gun on me I saw that as his eventual betrayal. (Room gasps, “someone actually didn’t like wrex? Impossible)
@@ryanelliott71698 What didn't you like about him? Was it the scales? I think it was the scales.
26:27
Asari a single sex species understood to be/ interpreted to be female by humans. Asari breeding with another species will result in only Asari babies, where the partner genetic material will act as a "random seed" or scrambler of the Asari genes. IIRC according to the lore the baby won't actually have any genes from a paternal species (at least in case of AsariNon-Asari matings). From an evolutionary standpoint mating within the own species is highly unlikely to itself cause genetic degradation / inbreeding depression. This because Asari as a species evolved on their homeworld Thessia without any interstellar contact. There for sure is a strong cultural and social norm to not mate Asari + Asari.
"...some have even taken on Krogan as lovers."
What, are you racist!? :D
It is mentioned by Samara in 2 and 3 that inter Asari breeding has a higher chance of producing Ardat-Yakshi. That alone is likely a huge contributor to the stigma.
He is against Quads.
It's like if cousin marriage caused psychopathic genetic errors in humans... just scarier.@@hole-sawbear1500
Easily my favorite RPG, I love 2 and 3 but never we're amazing as that first game that made me feel like I was on a amazing space adventure
I saw the title of this vid...and immediately in the back of my mind, a voice echoed..."I WILL DESTROY YOUUU!"
“ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!”
Good review! The ME1 and ME2 lore is way deep and actually goes into some detail about stuff you had questions about. So I think you could enjoy going for all the little side quests and stuff outside the main story areas if you replay them. Did you know for instance that you can go to the Moon in ME1 and disable a haywire AI to earn a class upgrade? And that AI is the origin of Edi in ME2. Well, thanks for the video!
I wanna make a comment about what you said at around 12:00 : First of all, while technically it is a 'fetch quest', it is well established even in the brief time of the game thus far, that a Prothean beacon finding is one of the most important happenings in the galaxy and can have consequences beyond imagining for both good and ill. That's why you send a cutting edge ship and an elite operative to fetch it, it's not contrived at all, it perfectly stands to reason. Secondly, Nihlus clearly states this would be one of several missions to asses Shepard's abilities.
"Recommend going to Artemis Tau first." - yeah ... on higher difficulties you better grinded the galaxy map for every last piece of experience and gear you could find befor going there or the "boss" fight will soft lock your game ^-^
...or just sell everything you find before and during the Citadel, buy a master Spectre weapon as soon as you become one, and faceroll the rest of the game no matter what difficulty. Bonus points for cheesing the Normandy quartermaster by only buying the Kassa Fabrication and Serrice Council licenses.
I have ptsd from that battle with the krogan master. The metallic sound all over. Tiny space, geth approaching, laser beams. The krogan throwing toxic pies. Him running towards me
*cries in playing infiltrator on insanity level*
It’s funny when compared to “the masses” my favorite part of ME OG was the mako, specifically because of its handling and its use in open planetary exploration. I recently bought the second game thinking they improved the vehicle. Only to be disappointed they got rid of it. (I’ll do my research next time.) I personally think ME OG is the best game in the entire series
I always found the Mako to be pretty fun and easy to handle - you just need to practise. It can be plenty fun to use the booster to jump over incoming projectile and dodge stuff. Then running stuff over is pretty fun too. You don't even need to stop to shoot - just drive, use the booster and pow pow pow. Only thing is those thresher maws and some things can one shot you if you're not careful.
EA was the reaper that turned Bioware into a husk... And now Mass Effect is dead 😔😣😞😭
If someone could please tell me the name of the music at 12:35, I'd love them forever. Spent the past 2 hours looking through the royalty website...
Thanks for the content Strat!
It makes no sense that your leaning towards renegade or paragon impact what you can say, it shouldn't be a stat you need, just a stat that reflects on what you have decided to do.
Not sure what you're talking about, a lot of those side quests were amazing story pieces and stumbling upon them made it feel like there are things beyond what is presented in the main story that is happening all around the galaxy
I've got to apologize here, but I don't think this video did a very good job at selling your point. Instead of an essay, you gave what was essentially a book report- telling us what happened in the book play by play. It's needless fluff that distracts from the thesis. I came to hear your thoughts on the matter, and that was only really shown in the last two minutes of a nearly hour long video. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the video, but I don't think it was effective in achieving its stated goal.
Yeah, I got the same feeling just by watching 2 minutes of this. Can you sum up the infinite list of all the crap and mediocre good things he mentioned in this video? I honestly don't want the experience of traveling down a memory lane. Been playing this game since its launch back in '07. So listening to him talking about how the devs came up with this project is pointless and stupid at this point in time. You can find all that stuff on the internet where the devs had many interviews discussing Mass *E*. Found out everything there is to find. Figured out how the engine works, and much more. I would just like to know the summary of this video so I can quickscope a like or a dislike for this video. 50 minutes of nothing is boring to watch. If I'm not hooked in the first 1-5 minutes then the chances are it's gonna be boring :)
EDIT: LOL, just watched the last 2 minutes as you mentioned. Starts at 48:35-ish. What a load of horsecrap. There's nothing hardcore about ME Trilogy. Stats are worthless for the most part since they don't have a very good description of what they're doing and which metric they use for those stats. Strategic turn-based combat? [insert Jackie Chan's meme here]. Are you fucking kidding me? There's no strategic element to this game. ME1 is using tactical pause, nothing else. Jesus fucking Christ. If anything ME1 and its consecutive continuations simply reiterate on Knights of the Old Republic's modified combat since Neverwinter Nights and Jade Empire's targeting system and karma system. I might unsub. Never heard so much bs in such a short amount of time.
I think he did a efficient job at establishing a idea and illustrating his points.
The video was a response to a idea, a common egocentric opinion, that Mass Effect 1 is bad because of its combat.
@@Proctor_Conley How is that narcissistic?
@Fuzzy Dunlop
Mass Effect 1s' combat was, objectively, better than its sequel. Many gamers disagree but only cite little more than their subjective feelings (that's narcissism).
I hate Halo 3, as a example, & have had to work through my blind distain to see H3s' pros. Objectively, it's story & dialogue is of low quality (same as Destiny) but its gameplay is largely improved over Halo 2.
Did this assist you?
@@Proctor_Conley It assisted me in understanding your rationale behind using the word, though I feel it was a poor choice as "narcissistic" usually denotes a morbid self-attention, while this can totally entail the egotistical belief that one's own subjective feelings are empirical when they are not, it's more commonly - and accurately - used in regards to physical aspects or to aspects which make up an individual rather than the particular thoughts the individual expresses. For instance, one might more accurately display narcissism in thinking "I have an amazing capacity to review games" instead of expressing the thought "The combat in Mass Effect 1 is garbage, because of [X subjective reason]". Narcissism is something that involves self-regard, essentially, and while what you stated could be seen as a "symptom" of narcissism or behavior indicative of someone who could ALSO be narcissistic and so it's very closely related the differences in meaning were still apparent enough that it tripped me up when first reading it within the context which it was used and I felt I needed clarification to know if I understood your meaning. A word more appropriate for this context would be "egocentrism" which specifically deals with the inability to discern the subjective from the objective.
37:34
The side quests on Feros are meant to incentivize engaging with the NPCs to learn about the colony and provide forshadowing and clues that something nefarious is going on underneath the surface. Pun intended. They are meant make the player feel some sympathy for the NPCs living there and the curious mental troubles afflicting some. This is a setup for the end of the Feros "main quest" where you return and find all inhabitants mindcontrolled and aggressive, leaving it up to the player to kill them or make considerable effort in incapacitating them with gas grenades or melee close-up strikes. Maybe the moral choice is how far you're willing or able to go to save as many as possible? I know I used to run out of gas grenades, but I do see your point.
I agree there isn't much to the side quests themselves though. And hell yeah running Geth over with the Mako is great!
I agree, the side quests just made me curious about what was going on.
I think Mass Effect has been a net negative on the genre for the mere fact that introduced Dialogue Wheels which spread like a Plague and eternally ruminate on their inherent inferiority to Dialogue Trees
How are dialogue wheels different from dialogue trees other than how they look? And what makes them inferior?
This isn't a refutation of your argument. I just genuinely don't know.
Perhaps it's not necessarily how it looks but simply the stigma it got @LOL Icon . I personally prefer trees because of this and it seems to be reflected a lot in most games with RPG. Dialogue tree games actually have role playing options while wheel is lazy.
Dialogue wheels usually simplify thingd down to six(/four) options, many of which. Follow a very predictable pattern as opposed to say... the infinity engine games where you could have genuinely deep conversations. In other words, dialogue wheels are a cover for mostly linear conversation and continue to get worse.
Examples: Fallout 1 x Fallout 4
Yeah that is actually true. I was thinking more so that if someone actually tried to flesh out a dialogue wheel, then they could add lots of different choices, but then that sort of design would fit a tree dialogue much better than wheel because wheel is too small.
If i think back to classic point and click adventures, you had your whole sentence that would come out of your mouth in front of you, you wouldn't be hit off guard by "wait what, that's not what i meant!". In a dialogue wheel, the options are condensed into what the developer feels the general sentiment would be like, preferably single word or two short words at most. But often they lay out the tree options first or try to make them recognisable and recurring, and fit the dialogue to it later, rather than considering what the person could actually feasibly say in this situation and then design the dialogue tree around that, leading to a disconnect. Plus you know for certain that half of those wheel options lead not only to exact same ultimate outcome, but also to the exact same words being spoken, so it's very obvious artificial padding. It has a smell of sorts.
Same reason I like XCOM series. You create or follow an amazing story of struggle and success.
For me on my first playthrough, the game became real with the Vermire mission. When I was forced to make the chose, who gets to live and who gets to die. Before this mission I was treating the game more like "just another shooter with stats". I did the Vermire mission right after leaving the Citadel. ME1 is my favorite ME game and probably my favorite game overall.
EVERY TIME YOU PLAY YOUR BACKGROUND MUSIC I START RAPPING DOOMSDAY
I was about too
Just a quick note about the first mission, and how lacking it would be as a test if there were no incidents. Nihlus mentions that this is only the first in many missions where he would be evaluating Shepard. Presumably this just happened to be the first mission after the evaluation started. The mission wasn't necessarily chosen as a test by itself. Saren's betrayal, and Shepard's uncovering of evidence, is what fast-tracked his Spectre status.
I always wondered why Ashley's armour was pink, I mean just why
Pink is the most effective camo color.
It's desert camo. Look it up!
So we know she's a woman. What planet are u from dude? Lol. (Bad joke given the times we in)
@@lyjahthomas9556 You couldn't tell already from the nice tits and ass?
@Munky Bidness Necro-feelin' dat ass?
"I don't want to ruin the game for that ONE person that hasn't played it yet.."
*40 minutes earlier*
"Basically I want to know, if Wrex is going to die on Virmire because of my roleplay playthrough."
"Saren's outrage makes no sense, because we don't yet know he's controlled by Sovereign".
Hey I’m from Buena Park too :0 used to live in castlehood apartments not far from knotts. Good chance you drank with some of my friends or my brother in law at one of those bars haha
46:30
The Rachni choice was one of the high points of ME1 for sure. It was unfortunately a big disappointment in ME3 though, seeing as the mission is almost exactly identical regardless of option. The Queen even recognizes and acknowledges to you the effects of Sovereign's indoctrination in all the Rachni who fought in the Rachni wars (hundreds of years ago). I just find it unbelievable that with Sovereign destroyed in the end of ME1 the Rachni queen and her children still somehow were indoctrinated with no living Reaper in the galaxy, and extremely few reaper artifacts laying around in the galaxy. I think the original intention got dropped either for lack of time or was rewritten by an inferior writer. Drew Karpyshyn was lead writer for ME1, ME2 and three novels set in the "universe" of Mass Effect. The novels were pretty good too. So. For my personal head canon I don't count ME3 as being what happened after 1 and 2.
Maybe because like so many other flubs in later games it was written by Chris L'Etoile who left in the middle of ME2's production alongside Drew K and Brian Kindregan. The writers that succeeded him didn't understand or care about his contributions or they couldn't live up to it. BioWare started hiring people from their community and fanfic writers after they became an EA studio.
Lmao this was a wild one, also I really like the whole you in front of the green screen and stuff. Looks really cool and makes me feel comfy.
"Does being a really good asshole somehow make you capable of thinking up good one liners"
Actually in my experience, yes. Practice makes perfect.
The og mic quality with the adult swim bump in the back
Yes this is the content I *LIVE FOR*
Mass effect 1 definitely still holds up, however the Normandy feels quite empty/dead compared to Mass Effect 3. There are many mods for Mass Effect 2 and 3, but fewer for 1. Graphical improvements are definitely necessary.
The Me2 and ME3 Normandy is also a whole other ship that is WAY bigger. But yeah there was still a glaringly small amount of crew.
Sovereign demands that Strat-Edgy videos be watched and appreciated.
THANK YOU for being self aware about that bate and switch joke at the beginning. Someone had to say it!
Vid prefaced with "this video is totally ad-free" statement but contains five ads.. Liked and subbed anyway.
This was amazing! Are you planning on doing ME 2 and ME 3?
Yup :)
I can tell you why the Paragon/Nemesis system is implemented the way that it is.
ME1 was developed for Xbox 360 and had to support achievements. And some jackass on the dev team probably thought it would be cool to make sure players had a paramour and or didn't miss out on nifty busy work/lore missions on the citadel. Which I would guess is why you have to earn the points rather than attaining after dialogue points. It was to give an artificial padding for completionist/new game+ mode on the console where you could go back through as many times as you wanted after initially beating the game, re-roll and explore the dialogue in another way. Also helping with future-proofing ME2 by allowing the player to replay a totally maxed out character in the manner they wanted and then port THAT character into ME2. Ya know, when the character port worked and didn't brick 100+hours of play time. :/
I've tried to get into Mass Effect multiple times, but just couldn't finish a playthrough for the following reasons:
1) My brother was also playing it at the time and with one console in the house, we had to take turns using it. I got tired of not watching him play to prevent spoilers and sort of had a vicarious experience through him.
2) I found the gameplay annoying (tried to be a sniper). When it comes to real-time combat with pause-based strategy, I prefer an isometric game like Baldur's Gate. Hell, in order for me to finish Dragon Age on XBox 360, I chose the lowest difficulty after reaching a certain point with werewolves, IIRC, that were wrecking my shit.
To me, the game that did what I wanted Mass Effect to do (but didn't) was Alpha Protocol, the best worst game I've ever played.
I watched this video 3 years ago and it’s what got me to play the series. Thank you.
story, music, world, gameplay, characters. one of my all time favorite series from a sci-fi stand point.
Mako hit and runs, or squatting on the enemy, was cool. Roving the planets that beautiful skies was fun too.
i've gone through all the games roleplaying the avatar of fairness
no matter renegade or paragon, only thing that matters is what's fair
What made your decisions"fair"?
The combat in Mass Effect 1 honestly wasn’t that bad. If you flesh it out and don’t immediately dismiss it as being clunky, you can have a lot of fun. Especially on Adept.
Enjoyed the essay! Reminded me of fond memories spent with a buddy of mine doing some 3am speculating on the nature of the Reapers before the second game came out and basically shit-painted them into a corner. Good times!
That said, I'm not sure I *get* this new style of intro. The man-in-shadow bit was more distracting than anything else.
IMO best thing that lured me the most was renegade concept - most games typically set us up with choosing between good and evil, selfless or selfish meanwhile ME tried, to varied success, sell us a bit more on idealistic moral person vs practical and ruthless person.
We're not evil in 90% of renegade choices (as I said, varied success), we're still fighting for good of the galaxy and humanity, it's just we try to pick simplest methods with high chance of success, even if it has a higher price of lives or property, just because we're willing to cross the rules if endgoal is not a matter of benefit by survival.
I chose to play as an infiltrator on my latest playthrough and I agree, I hate the sniper rifles in this game. But it makes me think a lot more about how I approach different scenarios, how I build my squadmates and where I position on the battlefield. The pause menu for combat also helps with this. But I love how much depth the first game had with options for customizing your experience, something the sequels didn't continue. All of the different weapon mods made me stop before engaging in combat to equip weapon mods that gave my squad and I damage bonuses to that specific enemy type. And the ability to drive the Mako around what is a very large, albeit mostly empty, unique planet landscape in search of loot and hidden outlaw camps and bases made the experience of traveling across the galaxy and exploring all the more meaningful. Finding hidden avenues to approach the scattered bases on these planets to try and take out the defense turrets quickly before charging in head first in your Mako to mow down the helpless bandits GTA-style was an unforgettable experience, mostly because the game never told me to do that. That's the unique charm of the first Mass Effect that the other games didn't capture IMO. With that being said, Mass Effect 2 is still my favorite.
yeah I pretty much agree with everything here; I'm pretty sure I made at least 8 full playthroughs. Along with the fully realized world, the music in this game gave me a constant feeling of being in space, a clean, futuristic feeling. ME2 could never do that for all of its improvements. The feeling I get from hearing the main theme is a huge part of what kept me playing without fatigue despite the notoriously long loading times (console version has even longer loading times).
I remember my initial reaction to the introduction of Shepard. I was like 'Oh my GOD! A main character in an RPG who ISN'T SILENT!'
We loved your personal take on this prolific game, a game with the types of peaks and valleys that would make the Mariana Trench blush. Keep up the wonderful work!
I finished Mass Effect Legendary a few months ago. I saw a former roommate beat the first game. I beat the second & third myself. Over a decade later I did my first ME1 to ME3 import same character throughout run. NOTHING has been able to top the experience. The story, the characters, dialog, ALL OF IT. It truely is the only game that made me feel like a true second life & more. Nothing has topped it. Even with a few bugs, odd interactions, & the commonly disliked endings (i personally don't mind them actually, but understand the dislike.) It is not a perfect game to me, but it is a spectacle to perfect game. EVERYONE, should play this.
I know it's an old vid and I usually comment without reciprocation on newer ones, but I wanted to say something here too, two things to be precise.
First: I love you, Strat, you're the coolest boomer on the internet aside me that I know of.
Second: Eden Prime wasn't suppoused to be a grand test for Shepard, Nilus says explicitly (if you pick one of the investigate options, I think) that this simple mission is suppoused to be just one of a series of missions during which he'd evaluate Shepard for his role of a spectre, so it's not that bad plot at this point, I remember playing it for a very first time, and I remember that line and that I expected to do a few missions with Nilus (Nihlus?) as a sort of intro/training, Eden Prime took me by surprise tbh.
P.S.
I'd lick your bald head, if you'd lick mine.
Love the videos - glad to see your subs on the rise man!
The mission on Eden Prime was supposed to be the first one with Nihilus to evaluate Shepard, so starting slow, get to know Shepard as a person before going on a mission, but well. That's not what happened But there was a reason it was meant to be a simple fetch quest
The person who described that all they felt was recoil when they shot someone, was actually a British SAS operator who took part in a hostage rescue at an embassy.
Also, Nerve Shock instantly drops any organic into a paralyzed heap, and deactivates immunity/fortification.
Are you from the mid Atlantic originally?
No offense, but yr dialect sounds grimey (just like mine). Wouldn't be surprised if you were from Philly, DC, or my own Baltimore (especially with those juicy fronted O's).
I'm about 10 mins into the video and so far, so good!
Yeah, I'm from Delaware originally.
@@StratEdgyProductions nice! 🍻
I am very happy to find out the the way Edge-Straty uses the Mako is the same way I use the mako. Dog speed, dingus
If there is one good example of how executive meddling/downsizing can turn a gold franchise into a trash fire, Mass Effect is it.
I'm compelled to point this out: if you put ranks into your Specter skills early, and play a balance of both Paragon and Renegade throughout the game, then until the VERY END of the campaign, you will pass every paragon and renegade check.
That’s a really good looking Shepard I might use that
About Paragon/Renegade thing. There's a trick some people miss, only your big choices matter - you could play the game 90% of the time exactly the way you want to play. Pick renegade every time you can, but when it matters - choose paragon, and you will be paragon. Basically - choose what alignment your character has, and how he prefers to handle things. Using renegade check doesn't equal to being a renegade, vice versa. You choose your goal, alignment is a means to that goal. As long as you have 60/40 reputation, and you complete side quests - game will not lock you out of any alignment checks. Even when you have 50/50 - only the toughest checks will be locked out, and they don't really matter, you will have enough for important stuff.
PS: Didn't mean to make your eyes bleed, my English is still bad, sorry
even though me trilogy has its fundamental flaws (me3 obv, but me2 mostly for me) it still holds a very special place in my heart. why? one word - immersion.
ps: won't watch the whole video of this type.
Ramming enemies with the Mako is fun indeed :) I did it all thetime.
As for the combat, against the thorian creepers and husks, there is a viable option, Give shotguns to your guys (even if they can't use it well), andput sledgehammer mods on them. Basically them mods that give it more knockback chance. Guaranteed stunlock for the melee enemies. And Immunity can be dealt with. Warp lowers damage protection by a lot (Overload does it by a little too), Neural Shock knocks them out before they can use it, a free kill. And Damping increase their cooldown times. As you said, tactical combat.
Here ya go, no need to mod.
Infinite Paragon/Renegade Points Exploit Edit
1. On Noveria. You are given a side mission leading you to speak to Lorik Qui'in, a turian, at the bar. A mission progression choice enables you to encourage him to testify in a court case. You can choose from either a Paragon or Renegade dialogue option if you have at least 5 points in charm and/or intimidate. Choosing either of these options will give you a reward of 24 Paragon or 25 Renegade points respectively. The conversation will end but you can talk to him again. Ask about a different topic (i.e. Matriarch Benezia), then choose "Another question". The option to convince him to testify will reappear. Repeat this for infinite Paragon and/or Renegade points. This bug appears to exist across all 3 platforms (Xbox360, PS3, PC).
12:55 Yeah, being on fire and mostly annihilated will do that to a place.
16:04 Don't get me wrong I love this game, but when you can use the following two strategies to win every time on the hardest difficulty, it might be a little shallow:
Immunity, Immunity, Immunity, Immunity, etc.
or if you want to mix it up Barrier, Lift, Barrier, Lift etc.
I dunno, for me, I saw enough to convince me that it was destroyed; Sovereign was really enough to do that on his own, but the burning terrain and the Geth everywhere especially combined with the lack of living people which were then replaced by the Husks cinched my ability to extrapolate the destruction.
I only hit the like button because of how expertly you snuck in the reminder.
I've never had any problem having enough Paragon or Renegade points to do what I wanted. Then again I played those games so much I had timetables for how long it would take to finish a planet.
I liked the first one - loved parts of it. I quit and returned the 2nd one the first time I ran into a room of chest high walls
MF DOOM on the background
Dialogues can only be well used from the beginning the second time we play with the same character. Points spent the first time remain the second time we play.
As a soldier the best was the thralls with a shotgun. I also did it last but I had a ball running around just blasting then away
I almost gave up Mass Effect after the first after all the ripping and running on the citadel on the first visit. I gave 2 a chance and fell in love with the series.
Edward Snowden? I'm on to you! EDIT: I've always loved that "Recoil" joke, it's been told in the service (and about the service) since at least the Vietnam war, but nobody can actually come up with a source for the quote. I think it's more indicative of a sense of professionalism and cool detachment that snipers are thought of possessing out of necessity. It could be any sniper, or any professional soldier. I think that gives it more weight than if we had a name to put to it, say Carlos Hathcock for example. I think that mindset is cross-cultural, and is imbued in those specialized roles by nature of training and experience.
EDIT EDIT: I know you're in - or were recently in - the military so I figure I'd ask since you brought it up in the video and I've always been curious - how far does the "never leave a man behind" ethos really go? If going to retrieve a comrade's body would almost certainly result in more casualties wouldn't it be the more responsible thing to stay put until the situation calmed down? Perhaps keep tabs on 'em unless otherwise ordered? What if it's a situation (though this perhaps isn't the modern experience due to asymmetrical warfare being the norm in this day and age) where there's a massive offensive and a patrol or other smaller detachment is caught in the middle and has to bug out or be over run? Or there's a sniper using a dead (or god-forbid) wounded comrade as "bait"?
I have never played Mass Effect, but I play console so is it still worth trying?
That is an interesting name for a let's play
im surprised you didnt mention that the guys that made the ALOT, MEUITM, and MERLIN mods were offered jobs at bioware and played a big part in remastering the trilogy. a modders dream. just a fun fact
My favorite part about mass effect is the story. Now I understand that at times it can be downright terrible but it’s the good parts that keep me going. It’s the exploration of this universe that had me so excited to pick up the controller again and again to see where Shepard would end up and to see other characters grow and change. I take in my fair share of garbage media that mostly wastes my time but I can say without a doubt I loved mass effect 1-3.
My first run through each in the series was as a soldier. But the other classes have so much other additions for combat.
Fun fact about Darwin and homozygous relations.
He married his first cousin and had 10 kids. I can’t remember if he made his discoveries after having already done so, but the irony is amusing.
And yes, the paragon/renegade options in Mass Effect are problematic to say the least. That’s why I always exploit them to max in both 1 and 2.
I think 3 actually solved that issue really well.
The green screen makes him look like the hollow headed dude from Men in Black 3 and it’s freaking me out 😳
this video is beautiful but i don't understand how you can find installing the texture pack that makes this game look 5 years younger as a pain in the ass lmao, you literally just have to download it and install is with an automatic installer
It's a pain in the ass because I have to do stuff. I don't even like waking up in the morning.
Mass Effect 1 REQUIRES the MEUITM massive texture mod to make it playable these days. It eliminates much of the jaggies, replacing almost all textures with high-res versions.
"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus systems."
The "robot planet" isn't in the Terminus systems it's located inside a nebula known as the persius vale. The Terminus systems are like, independent space. A whole sector of the galaxy that deigns to govern itself instead of following council rule. Generally they're quite lawless, and they're the main play area for the second game.
The reason the council don't react more strongly to the geth attack on Eden prime is that Eden Prime is in the Terminus systems, not council space, and the council has routinely chastised humanity for setting up colonies in such lawless space.
Bass effect was the defining game of its generation, it blew CoD right out the water.
Just started listening to you and I heard dat MF Doom beat in the background...I was starting to think that RPG nerdom and good hip hop didn't mix....Zaric didn't apprieciate my C.R.E.A.M comment!
Yeah and that Mos Def Respiration beat for sure! I appreciate a fellow rap connoisseur in RPG youtube videos!
why is the bass mixed in so loud? Compared to your other videos even at high volume it's difficult to actually make out what you're saying because the bass is really overpowering and kinda blows out the definition
Mass effect is just KOTOR without the Star wars branding.
Light side, dark side
Paragon, renegade
Skill bars and game pausing.
Space magic.
Six designed classes that focus on magic, skills and direct gun/weapon combat abilities (Kotor 1 had 6 classes.)
I know I'm being fairly reductionist, but there's a shit ton of comparisons (Even Strat-edgy pointed out the title crawls are reminiscent of Star Wars and even uses the term space magic.)
Im glad that someone else rams with the mako its just ez $
15:33 "The villain never thinks they're the villain of their own story."
I'm rewatching (more listening) to your older stuff right now while I content myself with the Diablo II mod for Grim Dawn, and this line happened. I immediately thought of Borderlands II and Handsome Jack who is considered among the absolutely best written (and voiced) villains of just about any video game ever. And then I wondered, "I don't recall a Strat video about BL2 or Handsome Jack... oh, sure enough, I don't see one."
Good sir, I and my hard earned Patreon -hand out- donation humbly request, nay, strongly suggest, NEIGH *pbpbpbpbl* righteously DEMAND a video on that precise topic. Perhaps even in contrast to Borderlands 3 and the Calypso Twins who--I have heard--are less interesting and well written than a 90's Saturday morning cartoon villain. Sounds like a topic right up your analytical and casually adult humor alley.
Always enjoy the videos!
If you play a Earthborn/Ruthless Shepard his apparent sociopathy in the renegade options is pretty easy to understand in context of his character.
Letting the council die means letting more of Earth's fleet survive. Either way you're choosing one group over another but that doesn't mean I would say it's not renegade of course. It's just not an inherently absurd or out of left-field decision.
And editing the Paragon/Renegade levels is a result of simply not understanding the system.
Love the MF DOOM track in the background
This might be a few years late, but around the 32:00 minute mark when Strat is talking about how the Consort mission(s) is/are pointless and has no real bearing on the game or world, besides that sweet sweet lore. It is both true and not true.
She gives you an amulet (or some trinket, the particulars aren't important) and she explicitly says that she doesn't know what its purpose or point. But she knows you'll need/find use for it. And this is where the aforementioned both 'mattering and not mattering' comes into play that I talked about earlier.
The only time the little trinket in question will come into play is that you will, and if you are playing this game correctly, are exploring all systems and all worlds. Not only for the lore, but you get all that juicy cash, XP, items, missions, and little bits of IRL science info so i strongly recommend that anyone playing this do play game in this pseudo completionist style of play. Because if you don't you will miss out on the purpose of the trinket.
The trinket is used on one of the 'side worlds' (of which there are many and the exact name of the planet is fuzzy. But hey if it gives people another reason to do a play through of ME1 like I did last week. Then thats all I can hope to do) where on the map it will be another point of 'debris' or a point of interest. You know, one of those titles that downplays what the find will be. But I think in this case it is to the betterment of the 'hit' when you find what you seek after taking the Mako over a god damn infuriating mountain range. You will find another Prothean beacon, while granted it doesn't look the 'New Age Flagpole' that the other beacons look like in game. I think its better they use the chance to show off the cool little silver ball and accompanying structure. And when you go up the use the beacon in question in you get this, and I mean this with 100% sincerity and in a good way, short story about how one of Shepards ancestors (and I mean like caveman ancestor here) responded to the protheans observation of his tribe and him. And it really interesting when you think about the impact, if any the proteans had on our own growth. At least in universe that is. As well as it also helps give more weight to javiks comments on humans history of living in caves and stuff in ME3.
Though to properly give shit where shit is earned. While this 3rd beacon viewing is saved as one of the 'milestones' that carries from game to game. I have found no where in any of the main 3 games where this comes up or influences anything. And a passing glance at the ME wiki confirms my theory. Though hey maybe its just something we all missed so I rather doubt it. So that was a REALLY fucking massive whiff. But its whatever I guess, I would say it reminded of Fallout 4 and Kellog being in Nicks brain that is alluded to once and never done anything with. But I think this whiff predates this massive fuck up by a few years. So yay? I think?
Anyway thanks to coming to my TEDX talk sponsored by GameFuel! Sub and like and all that dumb shit lol.
Love all your videos Strat, and I hope I can make killer stuff like yours one day on my own channel! Keep on kicking ass my dude!
P.S. Pardon spelling, grammar, and the all over the place feel to all that.
you mentioned pause menu - the game was so easy on max difficulty I never bothered using it, now i kinda regret this - will play with 1 hand next time