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I see Mass Effect 3 like the Return of the Jedi to the franchise. Both Return of the Jedi and Mass Effect 3 have their problems, but they are still welcomed conclusions to the their respected trilogies because they give some of the best moments out of said trilogies.
@@Jesup1204 Ehhhh..... Return of the Jedi had one of the best endings ever put to screen..... Mass Effect 3 did not. It was a Game of Thrones level bad ending.
But Mass Effect 3 still had some phenomenal moments before the ending (Thane’s death) (curing the genophage) (the conclusion of the Quarian/Geth war). All these moments make Mass Effect 3 a million times better than GoT season 8 for me and validates the comparison to Return of the Jedi.
@@Jesup1204 Well, I can't dispute the Tuchanka arc. That might be the best mission in the entire trilogy bar the Suicide Mission. And the Citadel DLC is great too. With the conclusion to the Geth/Quarian conflict, it could have been really good if the motivations of the Geth weren't completely changed, Legions death actually made sense, and some of the Quarians weren't framed as near evil. Thanes death is kind of unnecessary and uncalled for, being arbitrarily written out of the story. He was killed in such a stupid way by Kai Leng, who is an absolutely useless and pathetic character in the game. There are numerous issues with 3's narrative, with the beginning not properly leading on from the end of 2, the consequences of handing the Collector Base to Cerberus just amounting to a point system - a point system of war assets you never see play out in the final mission, and that final mission is very mediocre. Add to this the sidelining of pretty much all the characters from ME2, a smaller crew on a bigger Normandy that makes the hub world feel empty, the Crucible making no sense, pretty much all of the side quests being fetch quests, Javik having no proper impact on the story, limited romance, the handling of the Rachni queen, Cerberus being rewritten into just another generic space fascist organisation, and some characters arcs being rather weak, AND an ending which is thematically dissonant with what the trilogy has been building towards (with the exposition being placed at such an awkward point)...... that's Mass Effect 3.
@@onemoreminute0543 Hard disagree on Thane’s death. Say what you want about Kai Leng (thank god he was fleshed out just enough in the books) but Thane was a killer his whole life and he was dying already, something set up I’m ME2. He also was living with regret for the many lives he’d taken (also set up in ME2 during his loyalty mission when he tells Kolyat he was the only good thing he added to the world. It’s fitting Thane would die saving a life rather than taking one.
I figured that phrase might raise a few eyebrows... But anyway, I'm referring to his role in ME2's early game. IMO, his character does a good job at the outset in offering a human face to Cerberus (in contrast to the shady TIM and icy Miranda) and catching players up on what happened in between games. After that- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@CuteGallifreyian I was going to try a Jacob romance when I first played ME2 since he's eye-candy when I first met him. That was until I reunited with my boy Garrus which vanquishes any intentions of romancing Jacob (and basically anyone else).
Modder here. While I can confirm that there were no plans at any point to implement the idea/features you proposed in the video, what I can tell you is that most people don't know the true story behind ME3 and its original plan. Bioware never revealed this to the public in any capacity, and the only way for you to know this is to delve deep into the game's files and original script. The reason most ME2 characters were delegated to one-time appearances was because they were supposed to show up in the final mission. The idea was to give players a chance to complete a character's side mission, and if they did, that character would appear during Priority: Earth in London. This even extends to Kirrahe. The only exception are Kasumi and Samara, as I've found zero evidence to suggest that they were supposed to appear. Miranda was supposed to play a larger part in the game, but supposedly Yvonne Strahovski had scheduling issues. Similarly, you were supposed to be able to assign your War Assets to planetary and orbital operations. A second Reaper fleet would arrive to Earth during the battle, throwing a wrench in your plans. At that point, you'd assign your Assets and keep the Reaper reinforcements at bay. It's possible that Kasumi/Samara were supposed to be available through this system, and that is why they would not fight on the ground with you. However, ME3 ran into major production issues, and the game could not be completed on time. What you saw on release day was an incomplete and unfinished game, and although this was remedies to some degree with the Extended Cut, the actual final mission remained unfinished. That is why so many ME2 characters feel lacking in ME3. It's not because of design, or the Suicide Mission, or whatever other PR reply Bioware would give you.
Thank you for your insights! I thought I recognized the handle! While I've used some audio files for my skits and reviewed some graphical assets for a longer-term project, I haven't dove into the additional cutscene and mission files that you describe. To be honest, I would just be mildly disappointed if my premise was wrong (partly why I hedged a bit as to how much this may have been considered). I do have to ask- besides getting the opportunity to work with, say, Kirrahe's voice actor, did you have to opportunity to shoot some questions to any of the devs as well?
@@BartlebysCorpse Unfortunately, Bioware's devs are not that very eager to talk about ME3 or its original plan. All information I got was from the game files, the leaked script, comments left by developers inside the files, and some Q&A testers whose NDA contract expired. But I'd absolutely love to have a coffee with Mac or Casey.
@@BartlebysCorpse It depends on who worked on that particular level. Some devs are super chatty and leave 2012-era memes in the programming comments, some leave only remarks for the Q&A team. If you wanna dip your toe, try using the Dialogue Editor. The majority of important scenes (less so scenes in side quests) have stage directions in them and you can often find original ideas from the writing team and the vision for the scene, especially in levels with cut content. You need almost zero skills to read through those and the Dialogue Editor is fun overall as you can discover voice lines or dialogue branches that you never knew existed.
Yep, you can tell that ME3 was such a rush job when it released. The whole experience felt incomplete compared to its predecessors; hell, the face import feature didn't even work for ME1 imported Shepards until it was patched in. I found a few sound clips on TH-cam of Grunt, Zaeed, Jacob, and Jack fighting on Earth; it's such a damn shame ME3 didn't reach its full potential :(
When I started playing ME2, I missed my old squadmates so much, I didn't think I'd ever warm up to the new people. But then I ended up loving them, too. I would have welcomed any of them back on the Normandy in ME3, even boring Jacob, and the empty life support room would have been the perfect place to put them. Oh well... Who knows what ME4 will bring!
Yeah, ME2 really pulled something off where it makes you gives you a sense of unease about a number of the new characters... only for that to give way to getting engaged in pulling together this oddball crew into the deadliest team in the galaxy.
My hopes for ME4: Shepard as the PC or a squadmate. A Vorcha/Elcor/Batarian squadmate. Krios Junior as a replacement for Thane (On the straight and narrow though). The hard-headed Urdnots. And the return of both the Geth and EDI following the canon destroy ending. *Destroy is canon because that was the goal from ME1 to ME3.
When I was 13, I picked up a Game Informer magazine in my school library. Inside was an article about a game in development called Mass Effect. It promised to be a trilogy where your decisions in one game were automatically carried over to the next. It promised "50 different endings" where the player shaped the story. I was so excited. When I was 15, Mass Effect came out, and I fell in love with the franchise. I pre-ordered 2 and bought every DLC. I loved it. I pre-ordered 3, and, the day of launch, I installed it and the From Ashes DLC. A month after release, the Consumerist rated EA the "Worst Company in America," and awarded them a golden poop trophy. I think I can speak for those of us who were there in the beginning when I say, "Fuck EA." They wanted to make this game in a year. They didn't care how buggy it was or how many promises to fans were broken. They pushed Bioware developers into a death march that left the people who founded the company, what few were left, jaded, disillusioned and, in some cases, broken hearted. Mass Effect had always been an ambitious dream. It was a passion project that, while flawed, was released to well deserved acclaim. The same was true for Dragon Age Origins. When both did well, EA stepped in with unrealistic demands and development timelines, draconian management styles, and a lack of care for the quality of the product so long as it made money. I've learned my lesson. I'll wait on a game to be released when it's ready (within reason). I'm a big believer in video games as an art form, and I want the people who work so hard on these projects to get the opportunity to pour their passion into a project, to build something wonderful, and get recognition for their hard work. For me, Mass Effect is more than a game. Tali, Garrus, Liara, Joker, Edi, Anderson, Karin (Chokwas), Kaidan, Ashley, and the rest of the crew saw me through some of the darkest years of my life. There was a sad time when the Normandy crew were my most reliable friends. EA's decision to rush the project left us with glitches, crashes, and bugs. Getting stuck on ladders, Marksman power, broken saves, and more. And if that wasn't enough, we got Maurauder Shields and the technicolor Star Child ending. The executives on EA's board during this time period spat in the faces of our friends, of Shepard and the Normandy crew. They looked at us gamers as nothing more than piggy banks, and immature kids too stupid to recognize when they'd been swindled. I don't think I will ever forgive those executives. At the very least, I'll never trust EA again. And don't get me started on Andromeda. And now, with a new Mass Effect title in the works, all I feel is sadness and resentment at a company that dishonored so many fans just to make a quick buck.
It's a real testament to the skills of the people who were at Bioware at the time that ME3 turned out as good as it did with how terribly they were treated by EA. But I really lack confidence in ME4.
No... Miranda's reason for not joining makes the LEAST amount of sense. Especially when you have romanced her. She can do all that she said on board the Normandy... and even BETTER because of the unlimited Alliance resources, N7 and Spectre status Shepard has. Not to mention absolutely no one is MORE against Cerberus at this point than Shepard. It's just an idiotic contrivance.
Technically, she's wanted by the Alliance - you know, for being a high-ranking officer in Cerberus. Even speaking to Shepard puts her at risk of discovery. On top of that, she's going through a lot of emotional turmoil that she needs to work through on her own. And being stuck on the Normandy would hamper her search for her sister. You'll notice, despite Shepard's Alliance and Shadowbroker intel, Miranda gets there first.
@@garyballard179 Yes, but Shepard's SPECTRE status can override that, and he can have her on board regardless of her criminal record in the eyes of the alliance. I mean this is even demonstrated by the fact that Shepard himself was on trial for war crimes, either from destroying the Bahak system (depending on if you have the Arrival dlc), or just for personally being an agent of Cerberus. The Alliance reinstated him in a time of crisis, which implies that the Alliance may be willing to recruit Miranda, since she is a trusted ally of Shepard, whom they approved to be reinstated.
@@ty738 No, she's a gold mine of info on Cerberus, not an asset to risk on the front lines. She'd be held at a secure facility and "interviewed" for every scrap of intel she has on Cerberus. Spectre status gives Shepard nearly free reign in Citadel space, but in the Alliance they're still just a commander.
@@garyballard179 Spectres still have authority in Alliance territory, especially Shepard considering he was the first human Spectre, Commander of the Normandy, and an N7. Either way, they wouldn't cuff her if Shepard had anything to say about it. You're also forgetting that Jack was a wanted criminal with a long rap sheet, including working with Shepard who was working with Cerberus, and she was still recruited by the Alliance.
@@ty738 Jack was a rehabilitation project, a victim of Cerberus. Miranda was second in command of a terrorist organization - and Shepard was relieved of duty and placed under arrest by the Alliance after surrendering following the suicide mission. It was _only_ Shepard's experience against the Reapers that landed them in house arrest instead of the brig.
I genuinely thought that they were going to separate the galaxy into different sections that you could fight for in a series of battles for each. Each region could have different allies based on your choices in the previous games. It is such a simple concept/direction to go with. I have no idea to this day why they didn't make the game this way.
Lack of time to implement something so ambitious combined with the size that would have made the game. IIRC Sony had a mandate against PS3 games that required multiple disks.
That's pretty much what we ended up with for the multiplayer mode -- the galaxy's divvied up into six sectors, and you have to boost your EMS in each sector, as it degrades over time.
The entire game clearly suffered from a hyper rushed dev cycle (because E.A. never learns you need to give people time to actually make games) what i wouldn't give for a redux 3, with all the time it actually needed.
Thank you very much! Besides the occasional clips and essays, there is a larger project that I'm building towards (not even gonna try estimating a release date on it, simply because it's turned out to be much bigger and more involved than I anticipated, and I'm *not* doing this full-time).
Great vid. There's also the life support area being fully decked out like it was meant to be occupied again. Kasumi and Thane were supposed to be a choice between the Salarian Councillor or Bailey. Thane was with the councillor Kasumi with Bailey. You'll hear Kalisah still talking about it on a news broadcast during the mission there's also a closed door in the same room down some stairs, presumably that was where you would choose. Good catch. 👍
Thanks! I actually did not catch that broadcast, but yeah- they actually considered some additional choices between who lives and who dies, some of which I don't mind getting dropped (such as the proposed arc with the VS teaming up with Kai Leng).
What I expected was the decisions I made in all 3 games to direct the ending I got. Save the council, destroy the collector base, cure the genophage and unite quarions/Geth or not, these should have determined the eventual outcome. Maybe not 50 endings but I was so looking forward to replaying the games to experience all possible endings.
Man...Mass Effect 3 never fails to bring me nearly to tears over what could have been. I'm sure gaming history is absolutely replete with similar tragedies.
KOTOR II is another game that's a tragedy. Forced to be rushed out because the delvs were told to get it ready for Christmas. It had modders restoring content to make a much more satisfying ending as well.
It's kind of like X-Men the Last Stand. It's got some amazing individual scenes/moments, but it's all very weakly connected in a way that is overall heavily flawed.
12:46 Its funny that you mentioned it by the modder Kkjiro actually made the Miranda mod where you recruit her after Horizon and used dialogue for her on Chronos Station. Its also just been ported to the Legendary Edition
I'm getting a lot of notifications on this video, but this caught my attention. While I forgot to mention it, I am aware of the Expanded Galaxy mod where you actually can have a number of ME2 squadmates join you, although it was my understanding that this came with no extra dialogue. Are you referring to that?
@@BartlebysCorpse there is a mod like that which is similar but no I’m referring to the Miranda Mod itself. After Horizon you bring her up to the Normandy. She forms her own team to take out some Cerberus holds out that you can command. You get a cabin romance scene with her and you can take her to Chrono Station to get her insight on the Illusive Man tapes and have dialogue with her when you confront him. I highly recommend it if you are a fan of Miranda
@@TobiTheNomad oh shit now i have to start another ME playthrought and romance her. My first time playing ME 3 when it launched Miranda was my romance option and I hated how underdeveloped her role was in the game. After that all subsequent male Shep playthroughs my "canon" romance was Liara., with a few alternate universe playthroughs where I romance Tali. Well.. I know what I'm doing this weekend :D
Miranda not being a squadmate after Horizon is absolute non sense. The fact that she just wonders off on her own on the final mission on earth makes no sense to me lol especially if you romanced her.
If internet does not exist we all be losing more than half of our squad. Back then only Game Magazines teaches hidden or hard mechanics of well known games
I'm happy to report that on my first go at the Suicide Mission, I didn't lose anyone. That is... I didn't lose anyone until I took a non-loyal Zaeed with me to the final boss, which also cost me Tali. At that point, I rage quit, looked up what I did wrong, and started the mission over.
Be thorough and you will not lose anyone. If you know weak\strong sides of your crew - you will not lose anyone again. That's what I loved in ME2 - if you learn about your team - the game will reward you.
Very nice review! Cheers! Imagine also if you could have had "displayed" multiplayer assets like 1 (or more) of your MP characters on the field in Priority Earth -- literally no dialogue needed but it would have been a nice little easter egg.
One thing I wish they did is increase the squad size to 4 including Shepard. I just wanna see what power combos and dialogue could occur in those scenarios. Plus just makes sense tactically in ME3.
Or have some missions have multiple teams working on different objectives, and you occasionally get radio chatter from them as you progress. Citadel sort of tried this, but... only briefly and in a very limited fashion. Which is weird since the Suicide Mission managed that perfectly in the previous game! Imagine Suicide Mission was just the warm up and we got to experience a dozen of them throughout the campaign. Or even just one for the final mission. One would have been enough.
Aramax Arena was something I think most games needed. However, after the Legendary Edition proved to not come with the multiplayer, they could have easily used the multiplayer content for a newer version of Aramax. The classes as all possible squadmates or even characters to play as, all the levels in the multiplayer used for singleplayer, all the characters being controllable squadmates. It should have been an easy decision if they were gonna charge a whole $60 for a game franchise that was as much 9 years earlier, probably cheaper to get all three on their own if you still had a PS3/360, let alone PC. Hell, make the N7 classes selectable for Shepard.
I really wish they had brought back at least the majority of the squadmates from ME2. They could have just extended the story and brought back loyalty missions to give time to everyone.
I wish they didn't abandon mass effect's original story of space faring species usage of elemental zero. Star systems would age rabidly and go super nova. Hence the reason Reapers would invade to prevent the galaxy from exploding. They hinted at it in Tali's mission in ME2
It took me way too long to notice the Jenkins Easter egg. EA also made bioware add multilayer which i assume took atleast alittle bit of time from base game development. The Bioware story team atleast tried to make it work with the story, The multilayer teams are supposed to be the strike teams Hackett talks about after a Shepard side mission like the Tuchunka ground cannon, the Cerberus fighter base ect. which is nice. The EMG and other mods on pc greatly improve team members. If they are available and on certain missions you can have non Normandy based squad mates on missions.
I dunno whether it was planned or scrapped. But not being able to recruit the ME2 squad members was my biggest gripe about ME3. I get that it would be a big roster so how about something like the game only letting you recruit 3 or 4 of them? This could create unique moments depending on the team composition and maybe add some replay value.
Yeah like, I'm fine with the likes of Mordin and Wrex not joining due to the completion of their arcs and them leading the war effort, but really characters such as Grunt and your ME2 love interest should have definitely been part of your crew. The Normandy in ME3 feels big but empty when you have such a smaller crew, whereas in ME2 you'd always have someone interesting to talk to around every corner.
@@onemoreminute0543 ME2 had so many interesting characters and locations. It's my favorite game in the series and in my top 10 of favorite games of all time. I disagree with a lot of design choices in ME3. Any weapon for any class really weakened the combat classes. Having the reaper invasion start right at the beginning of the game made me feel extremely rushed. I don't think I've ever heard the word "hurry" yelled at me more in any other game. And while my biggest gripe was the ME2 crew not being recruitable I didn't love the ending either. But I think the main reason it was so limited was their reliance on CGI. I like how the first game had very little CGI. We could have had like way more endings.
@@jamminjago Never thought I'd say this, but ME2 has become my favourite game of all time. It literally has everything from all my other games I love mixed into one beautiful package.... and I only played it for the first time earlier this year. I'm kind of surprised how there's a specific portion of the ME fandom that has recently been trashing ME2 as nothing more than a 'side quest' and instead think ME1 and 3 were superior experiences. If you ask me, most of the problems with ME2's plot aren't it's own fault, but instead the fault of 3, which failed to properly pay off most of the set up of 2 (cough cough the Collector Base) This extends to the beginning of ME3, which, while it does perfectly set the tone for the game, does a poor job of narratively linking on from ME2's ending. ME2's opening was a fantastic continuation from 1 because of how it naturally dealt with the consequences of the first games ending. Shepard's actions have made him a hero, making him valuable to Cerberus and a threat to the Reapers. The Normandy is out still searching for Geth holdouts, which you can naturally assume it would be doing even after Sarens defeat. You see your current love interest too, further solidifying the continuation from ME1. And then Shepards shocking death and the timejump sets the tone and allows for the ME1 crew to end up in new situations. But ME3 doesn't have such an organic transition. You end ME2 with the aftermath of the Suicide Mission and the Reaper fleet appearing, implying that their full scale invasion has begun. But then 3 opens with Shepard suddenly on Earth and effectively under house arrest with some new character named James Vega. It raises more questions than answers - why and how are you on Earth? What happened to your ME2 crewmates? Where has your ME2 love interest disappeared to? What's your current relationship to Cerberus? Who's this James Vega guy? Why isn't Anderson a councillor anymore (if you chose him)? Has the Reaper invasion already happened? What's happened to the new Normandy? How much time has passed between seeing the Reaper fleet and this... committee (?) being called? So the opening to 3 doesn't organically deal with the consequences of the end to 2, like 2 did for 1. That and.... a whole bunch of other issues throughout the course of 3's story.
@@onemoreminute0543 Well said, I agree with all of this. Whats your favorite class in ME2? Mine is a toss up between vanguard and sentinel. Vanguard is so damn fun from the get go. Sentinel is a slower burn before it gets going, but you have two of the best powers in the game warp and overload. Playing an aggressive sentinel with the eviserator shotgun and the assault armor is extremely fun, you run in there, your armor explodes doing much damage but you still have shields, then by the time yours shields are down you can re up your tech armor all the while shotguning. Oh BTW doing the hover craft mini missions is a great way to get to the weapon upgrade event fast.
@@jamminjago Being honest, I haven't really checked out many of the other classes. I mainly just stuck with Infiltrator for the entire trilogy as I liked the benefits that came with it, but I do want to try out Vanguard as it looks pretty great. Btw, seeing as I've actually been able to engage in a conversation about the trilogy with someone else (as a newcomer to the ME fandom), who are your favourite squadmates/how would you rank them?
The Legendary edition is the BEST purchase I've made in entertainment. It has spoiled me to the point that when I got Andromeda I was bored to oblivion. Way too much scattered goods, way too much blind efforts, way too many 'talkies', and way too much information. I can only hope that BioWare and EA and the rest of the development crew need to consider WHY ME was so involving.
I like the smaller squad mates in mass effect 3.2 had way too many that didn't add much.legion was a waste,samara as well.i also dont think anders would make sense flying with Shepard as the reapers destroy earth
This just adds to the fact that the final mission (priority earth) was so disappointing. Imagine if in Avengers Endgame we never actually see all of the other snapped Avengers come through the portals and have their moments to shine, and instead Tony just gets a call saying 'yo, we're back!' And thats just the start of the problems with ME3....
Jack romance could have been so much better if she joined your crew with more development I wish they didn’t rush Mass effect 3 we could have got so much more . Thanks for the video
@@lonestar2495 Aye. It's my personal favourite due to her psychology being so interesting, and I think that as it stands it actually is the best romance in the trilogy - it's just that it could have been even better if more time was given to it in 3 (alongside the other ME2 romances)
@@lonestar2495 Understandable - the ME1 characters tended to fare better romance wise in 3 due to having more time. Plus, the interactions with Tali are interesting due to the mystery of the mask. Personally, I could never quite get into the Garrus and Tali romances because I felt they happened too late in ME2 after a more professional relationship had already been established with them in ME1. But I definitely understand the appeal towards them personality wise.
Every time people still complain about the ending of this game I think: What if it turned out like Dragon Age 2? DA2 Isn't exactly bad, in fact I enjoy it a lot. But most of the levels were copy-and-paste and dialogue was mostly one-liners. Sure ME3 ending was not to expectations but at least they gave us a great game with an ENDING that finished the game and story arc but also left a window for direct sequels. Imagine if they left Shepard hanging out to dry with no end and then saying 'That's the end of that arc. Wait a few years and someone will post what happened afterwards online in some blog beginning with WE WERE SUPPOSED TO.'
ME3 was 100% not finished when it released. Nor was it after all its DLC was released. Its very clear there are gaps where story or gameplay should have been, but it was hastily changed. The entire game has a disjointed feel to it, and while what we got was great in most part there are some really jarring moments where you think something is coming but never does. There's a lot of foreshadowing and hints that lead nowhere. There's cut corners all over the place. The game needed another six to twelve months development. But it was so overschedule and budget that it was forced out sooner then it should have been. And you know what? The game is still decent. In parts, brilliant. It just could and should have been better - a truly watershed moment in gaming rather then an adequate mild disappointment. Not even talking about the ending. The ending is another thing entirely - either a brilliant mind bending twist that wasn't allowed time to flourish or a complete mess depending who you ask (... and some who think its just plain brilliant, somehow, but okay). I'm hoping the next Mass Effect game gets time to breath and develop. I don't care if I have to wait another ten years. Just make it as good as it deserves to be.
You have 127 subscribers? lol a video that has quality such as yours usually only comes out of channels with +100K subs. Nice job. I know the songs are listed in the description, but I've only been able to find Flashlight by Kjartan Abe. Where are these on their website?
Been getting a lot more notifications this week and almost missed this, but thank you! I've been making videos on the side (mostly crossover stuff, as you can tell) for a little while, and I figured that I had enough experience with the tools and everything to get started on some longer form stuff. All songs can be found on freesound.org, which contains a lot of Creative Commons and Zero License music, sound effects, etc. If you want to use something from that site, just be sure to check the type of license first. If it's Non-commercial, then you should get in touch with the creator before using it on TH-cam. In the case of the tracks I used, they're all Attribution License or Zero License, which are pretty unrestrictive as long as you give credit to their owners. I'll note that the search functionality on freesound isn't the most user friendly, so it might be easier to plug the listed artist name and song name into Google, maybe with "freesound" included for good measure. If you still have trouble with it, feel free to leave a reply (though I'll admit it may take me some time to circle back).
Mass effect 5 is about liara and Shepard love child along with Shepard adopted son grunt finding a way to get to andromeda to destroy the kett who are brainwashed by a derilect sentinel🎉
Thank you very much! For my viewers- you may have noticed that Kjartan Abel is behind some of the music featured in this video! You can find Kjartan's homepage at the following: kjartan-abel.com
Great music selection. Total mass effect vibes but also cool sounds. Would you mind telling me what song starts playing at 0:40? Also, great video. I'm loving your content
Thanks! That particular selection is "Homecoming" by DaveJf. You can find more details in the description, but all music comes from freesound.org, which has a large number of tracks that musicians and sound engineers are kind enough to put out under certain licenses.
Sure, it would be nice to have your old squad mates' team up with you.... It's clear as crystal why this wasn't implemented ------ Bioware needed to make these missions interesting for people who were missing these characters (or had them die off).... Essentially Bioware made life difficult on themselves with all the potential outcomes they created in ME1/ME2. It's the same reason why the ending had 3 blanket endings that would work for everyone Irregardless of what choices they made in the game.
You called Jacob a "highly relatable character?" He is one of the most HATED characters in the Mass Effect fandom! Your concept of all the characters being on the squad would NOT have been as good as you think in your head. Yes SOME of these characters had less satisfying arc conclusions but they were also lesser characters in the fandom. Not many people really cared about a "more satisfying conclusion" for Zaeed or Kasumi. They were DLC so a major number of players never even met these characters in ME2 and they weren't that great of characters for those of us that did. The Devs gave big stories to the fan favorites. That's why Tali has Priority Rannoch and Rex has Priority Tuchanka and Mordin plays a major role in it. These two amazing stories devote much game time to these beloved characters and are extremely well written. Saving the two squad slots for the two biggest fan favorites in Mass Effect Garrus and Liara.
If I may, I'd like to start a squabble. Downloaders/Readers of the "leaked script" may have noticed that when a pronoun is applied to Shepard, it is *male.* ... Ready? *Go.* Let's see how long this takes to burn down the Internet. Mind you, nothing about that denies anyone the ability to be ("play as") a femShep, but when I play ME (Mass Effect,) I play as *ME* (with the wrong name.) I change the face to look like me. I make the decisions that *I* would have made. I suspect that if the developers had gotten a green light for it, they would have made it so you can hear whatever name you've put in spoken by the characters (something we could almost certainly do today, but the potential for people to abuse it was probably considered too high, and the pronunciation of unusual or exotic names was too much of a challenge to address successfully at the time.)
Referring to Shep in the male during the drafting stages was probably out of convenience. I've heard that the devs originally thought of making Shepard strictly a female character, but decided against it because they figured having a male option would be better for sales. I rarely ever try make a custom protagonist look like me. Probably the closest was my Fallout 4 character. That said, I to drift more towards "what would I do," when presented with an in-game choice. It's not an absolute (my reaction to saving the council would be to 'concentrate on Sovereign,' but I kept them around in my footage playthrough for story/war asset purposes), but there is that self-insert aspect to roleplaying.
ME3 recently broke for me. a movement glitch i have never seen before where if you were holding forward the game would hold you in place. no idea how to fix it.
Major Coates got his own trailer, but you don't meet him until after Cronos, and he gets maybe a dozen lines of dialogue. Really? This aligns with your hypothesis. Having James handle tech is always a dumb idea. I assume that's your point. I didn't hear this as a complaint, but as a nudge-nudge-wink-wink to mod developers. Maybe GPT4 could make short work of it; here's hoping!
I'm not sure that I understand the first part. Are you suggesting that Coates should have gotten more of a role? As for the James reference... I figured that as long as I was covering those decisions, that I feature the obvious choice.
@@BartlebysCorpse First part: Yes. The fact that the dedicated a whole trailer to him (as they did with Mordin, Jack, and Miranda for ME2) makes me think they had intended more for Major Coates, either as someone else you got as a *Normandy* regular, or that had a bigger role once you get back to Earth, but ended up rewritten down to a walk-on role because it added complexity they weren't prepared to deal with. The last half hour of the game simply bellows *"RUSH JOB!!!"* as people more artful than I have already explained at length (Doyce Testerman's evisceration of it, where he compares it to the Lord of the Rings - and how it not only fails to be what was promised, but fails at storytelling generally - remains a favourite.) But on Rannoch, James was the obvious anti-choice. Fortunately, *unlike your decisions for task assignments in ME2's final battle*, your choices have No Practical Effect. Truly, there should have been a hundred ways to fail the overall story (i.e., the reaper threat,) both due to decisions in the moment, and as fallout from decisions you made years before. (Or for a dozen critical decisions that later affect your War Assets.) And they could have been actually challenging decisions, like in Bring Down the Sky, which has repercussions in ME3. Admittedly, it's *hard* to write that sort of thing, but that's what "story continuity across multiple games" is (or should be, IMO) about. It's why having games teach lessons about actually considering the potential effects of your decisions is a real-life benefit, and just one more instance where the developers failed the players (or were put in that forced-move failure situation by top management.) (WARNING! Shameless plug follows!) It's what drives me to serialise an ongoing fanfic that expands the characters and game universe, but retains as much original canon while slowly veering off to an AU. Fanfiction dot net, Mass Effect: All in the Details. If you wish there were *way* more conversation options when talking with your squadmates between assignments, or if you want to hear the kind of squad banter that lets these characters really shine, this might be a fic for you.
Bartleby's Corpse fact #1: I once said "Nobody can make me like Jacob." Then Bartleby's Corpse said "Hold my drink. Oh, and watch the emergency induction port." Then they made the ending to this video. PUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I finished Mass Effect 1 eighteen times, Mass Effect 2 twenty three times and Mass Effect 3 six times, the thing is, for me Mass Effect 3 starts too slow, and the pace for me in the first two to three hours is slow to, the game only become nice after you leave the Citadel the first time, but Earth, Mars, and to many things to do when you get to Citadel makes the game for me and a annoyance, I hate the first three hours of Mass Effect 3, is to linear and boring.
Funny how you said you played the legendary edition of Mass Effect 3 but you also said multiplayer I'm sorry but in Mass Effect legendaries multiplayer was removed it was never put in that's the difference between the regular three and the legendary three if you're playing on the console your War assets stop at 7800 Max which means we don't get the happy ending and also on top of it Mass Effect 1 unless you're going for a sexual relationship with one of your cremates Mass Effect 1 has absolutely no worries it's least on the consoles Mass Effect 2 and 3 are the only ones that actually count towards a war assets ain't that a shit pity and really honestly on the consoles no matter what you pick the endings are almost the same all three colors are basically shitty Commander Shepard dies on all three of them so when they're saying Mass Effect 4 Commander Shepard's coming back well they've still got to change the ending on the consoles because he's still dead and nothing personal but when it comes to the ship everybody on the console hates the stupid Blue Door
To be clear, I originally played the series on PS3 sometime back around 2015. I was initially going to use that to record footage, but wasn't thrilled with the capture quality I was getting (along with the occasional framerate drops in ME3 cutscenes- a byproduct of the game coming out towards the end of that console generation).
Jacob is thee worst not relatable character with no redeeming qualities past the opening of the game. All the advice he gives gets people killed he cheats on you if you romance him also he refuses to opennup at all romance or not. Aswell he blames you for h8m cheating on you lol.
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I see Mass Effect 3 like the Return of the Jedi to the franchise. Both Return of the Jedi and Mass Effect 3 have their problems, but they are still welcomed conclusions to the their respected trilogies because they give some of the best moments out of said trilogies.
@@Jesup1204 Ehhhh..... Return of the Jedi had one of the best endings ever put to screen..... Mass Effect 3 did not. It was a Game of Thrones level bad ending.
But Mass Effect 3 still had some phenomenal moments before the ending (Thane’s death) (curing the genophage) (the conclusion of the Quarian/Geth war). All these moments make Mass Effect 3 a million times better than GoT season 8 for me and validates the comparison to Return of the Jedi.
@@Jesup1204 Well, I can't dispute the Tuchanka arc. That might be the best mission in the entire trilogy bar the Suicide Mission. And the Citadel DLC is great too.
With the conclusion to the Geth/Quarian conflict, it could have been really good if the motivations of the Geth weren't completely changed, Legions death actually made sense, and some of the Quarians weren't framed as near evil.
Thanes death is kind of unnecessary and uncalled for, being arbitrarily written out of the story. He was killed in such a stupid way by Kai Leng, who is an absolutely useless and pathetic character in the game.
There are numerous issues with 3's narrative, with the beginning not properly leading on from the end of 2, the consequences of handing the Collector Base to Cerberus just amounting to a point system - a point system of war assets you never see play out in the final mission, and that final mission is very mediocre.
Add to this the sidelining of pretty much all the characters from ME2, a smaller crew on a bigger Normandy that makes the hub world feel empty, the Crucible making no sense, pretty much all of the side quests being fetch quests, Javik having no proper impact on the story, limited romance, the handling of the Rachni queen, Cerberus being rewritten into just another generic space fascist organisation, and some characters arcs being rather weak, AND an ending which is thematically dissonant with what the trilogy has been building towards (with the exposition being placed at such an awkward point)...... that's Mass Effect 3.
@@onemoreminute0543 Hard disagree on Thane’s death. Say what you want about Kai Leng (thank god he was fleshed out just enough in the books) but Thane was a killer his whole life and he was dying already, something set up I’m ME2. He also was living with regret for the many lives he’d taken (also set up in ME2 during his loyalty mission when he tells Kolyat he was the only good thing he added to the world. It’s fitting Thane would die saving a life rather than taking one.
"Highly relatable" are not the words I'd use to describe Jacob.
I figured that phrase might raise a few eyebrows... But anyway, I'm referring to his role in ME2's early game. IMO, his character does a good job at the outset in offering a human face to Cerberus (in contrast to the shady TIM and icy Miranda) and catching players up on what happened in between games. After that-
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Wait jacobs human!?!? I thought he was an alien!!!
More like worst character in mass effect specially if you romance him he ten times worse he the only squad mate i don't like
i agree, i keep thinking I am going to romance Jacob and then decide nope. There are other squadmates who are much better for the romance game.
@@CuteGallifreyian I was going to try a Jacob romance when I first played ME2 since he's eye-candy when I first met him. That was until I reunited with my boy Garrus which vanquishes any intentions of romancing Jacob (and basically anyone else).
Modder here.
While I can confirm that there were no plans at any point to implement the idea/features you proposed in the video, what I can tell you is that most people don't know the true story behind ME3 and its original plan. Bioware never revealed this to the public in any capacity, and the only way for you to know this is to delve deep into the game's files and original script.
The reason most ME2 characters were delegated to one-time appearances was because they were supposed to show up in the final mission. The idea was to give players a chance to complete a character's side mission, and if they did, that character would appear during Priority: Earth in London. This even extends to Kirrahe. The only exception are Kasumi and Samara, as I've found zero evidence to suggest that they were supposed to appear. Miranda was supposed to play a larger part in the game, but supposedly Yvonne Strahovski had scheduling issues.
Similarly, you were supposed to be able to assign your War Assets to planetary and orbital operations. A second Reaper fleet would arrive to Earth during the battle, throwing a wrench in your plans. At that point, you'd assign your Assets and keep the Reaper reinforcements at bay. It's possible that Kasumi/Samara were supposed to be available through this system, and that is why they would not fight on the ground with you.
However, ME3 ran into major production issues, and the game could not be completed on time. What you saw on release day was an incomplete and unfinished game, and although this was remedies to some degree with the Extended Cut, the actual final mission remained unfinished.
That is why so many ME2 characters feel lacking in ME3. It's not because of design, or the Suicide Mission, or whatever other PR reply Bioware would give you.
Thank you for your insights! I thought I recognized the handle!
While I've used some audio files for my skits and reviewed some graphical assets for a longer-term project, I haven't dove into the additional cutscene and mission files that you describe.
To be honest, I would just be mildly disappointed if my premise was wrong (partly why I hedged a bit as to how much this may have been considered). I do have to ask- besides getting the opportunity to work with, say, Kirrahe's voice actor, did you have to opportunity to shoot some questions to any of the devs as well?
@@BartlebysCorpse Unfortunately, Bioware's devs are not that very eager to talk about ME3 or its original plan. All information I got was from the game files, the leaked script, comments left by developers inside the files, and some Q&A testers whose NDA contract expired. But I'd absolutely love to have a coffee with Mac or Casey.
@@Orikon25 I had no idea that any of these files still had comments. If I have the time, maybe I should learn some of these modding tools...
@@BartlebysCorpse It depends on who worked on that particular level. Some devs are super chatty and leave 2012-era memes in the programming comments, some leave only remarks for the Q&A team.
If you wanna dip your toe, try using the Dialogue Editor. The majority of important scenes (less so scenes in side quests) have stage directions in them and you can often find original ideas from the writing team and the vision for the scene, especially in levels with cut content. You need almost zero skills to read through those and the Dialogue Editor is fun overall as you can discover voice lines or dialogue branches that you never knew existed.
Yep, you can tell that ME3 was such a rush job when it released. The whole experience felt incomplete compared to its predecessors; hell, the face import feature didn't even work for ME1 imported Shepards until it was patched in.
I found a few sound clips on TH-cam of Grunt, Zaeed, Jacob, and Jack fighting on Earth; it's such a damn shame ME3 didn't reach its full potential :(
When I started playing ME2, I missed my old squadmates so much, I didn't think I'd ever warm up to the new people. But then I ended up loving them, too. I would have welcomed any of them back on the Normandy in ME3, even boring Jacob, and the empty life support room would have been the perfect place to put them. Oh well... Who knows what ME4 will bring!
Yeah, ME2 really pulled something off where it makes you gives you a sense of unease about a number of the new characters... only for that to give way to getting engaged in pulling together this oddball crew into the deadliest team in the galaxy.
My hopes for ME4: Shepard as the PC or a squadmate. A Vorcha/Elcor/Batarian squadmate. Krios Junior as a replacement for Thane (On the straight and narrow though). The hard-headed Urdnots. And the return of both the Geth and EDI following the canon destroy ending. *Destroy is canon because that was the goal from ME1 to ME3.
Same. Started 2 craving to get my old squad back, but by the end actually loved my new crew more than the old one.
When I was 13, I picked up a Game Informer magazine in my school library. Inside was an article about a game in development called Mass Effect. It promised to be a trilogy where your decisions in one game were automatically carried over to the next. It promised "50 different endings" where the player shaped the story. I was so excited. When I was 15, Mass Effect came out, and I fell in love with the franchise. I pre-ordered 2 and bought every DLC. I loved it. I pre-ordered 3, and, the day of launch, I installed it and the From Ashes DLC. A month after release, the Consumerist rated EA the "Worst Company in America," and awarded them a golden poop trophy.
I think I can speak for those of us who were there in the beginning when I say, "Fuck EA." They wanted to make this game in a year. They didn't care how buggy it was or how many promises to fans were broken. They pushed Bioware developers into a death march that left the people who founded the company, what few were left, jaded, disillusioned and, in some cases, broken hearted. Mass Effect had always been an ambitious dream. It was a passion project that, while flawed, was released to well deserved acclaim. The same was true for Dragon Age Origins. When both did well, EA stepped in with unrealistic demands and development timelines, draconian management styles, and a lack of care for the quality of the product so long as it made money.
I've learned my lesson. I'll wait on a game to be released when it's ready (within reason). I'm a big believer in video games as an art form, and I want the people who work so hard on these projects to get the opportunity to pour their passion into a project, to build something wonderful, and get recognition for their hard work.
For me, Mass Effect is more than a game. Tali, Garrus, Liara, Joker, Edi, Anderson, Karin (Chokwas), Kaidan, Ashley, and the rest of the crew saw me through some of the darkest years of my life. There was a sad time when the Normandy crew were my most reliable friends.
EA's decision to rush the project left us with glitches, crashes, and bugs. Getting stuck on ladders, Marksman power, broken saves, and more. And if that wasn't enough, we got Maurauder Shields and the technicolor Star Child ending. The executives on EA's board during this time period spat in the faces of our friends, of Shepard and the Normandy crew. They looked at us gamers as nothing more than piggy banks, and immature kids too stupid to recognize when they'd been swindled. I don't think I will ever forgive those executives. At the very least, I'll never trust EA again. And don't get me started on Andromeda.
And now, with a new Mass Effect title in the works, all I feel is sadness and resentment at a company that dishonored so many fans just to make a quick buck.
I still feel the "worst company in america" award is undeserved. They're not nestlé or comcast levels of bad.
It's a real testament to the skills of the people who were at Bioware at the time that ME3 turned out as good as it did with how terribly they were treated by EA.
But I really lack confidence in ME4.
No... Miranda's reason for not joining makes the LEAST amount of sense. Especially when you have romanced her.
She can do all that she said on board the Normandy... and even BETTER because of the unlimited Alliance resources, N7 and Spectre status Shepard has. Not to mention absolutely no one is MORE against Cerberus at this point than Shepard.
It's just an idiotic contrivance.
Technically, she's wanted by the Alliance - you know, for being a high-ranking officer in Cerberus.
Even speaking to Shepard puts her at risk of discovery.
On top of that, she's going through a lot of emotional turmoil that she needs to work through on her own. And being stuck on the Normandy would hamper her search for her sister. You'll notice, despite Shepard's Alliance and Shadowbroker intel, Miranda gets there first.
@@garyballard179 Yes, but Shepard's SPECTRE status can override that, and he can have her on board regardless of her criminal record in the eyes of the alliance. I mean this is even demonstrated by the fact that Shepard himself was on trial for war crimes, either from destroying the Bahak system (depending on if you have the Arrival dlc), or just for personally being an agent of Cerberus. The Alliance reinstated him in a time of crisis, which implies that the Alliance may be willing to recruit Miranda, since she is a trusted ally of Shepard, whom they approved to be reinstated.
@@ty738
No, she's a gold mine of info on Cerberus, not an asset to risk on the front lines. She'd be held at a secure facility and "interviewed" for every scrap of intel she has on Cerberus.
Spectre status gives Shepard nearly free reign in Citadel space, but in the Alliance they're still just a commander.
@@garyballard179 Spectres still have authority in Alliance territory, especially Shepard considering he was the first human Spectre, Commander of the Normandy, and an N7. Either way, they wouldn't cuff her if Shepard had anything to say about it. You're also forgetting that Jack was a wanted criminal with a long rap sheet, including working with Shepard who was working with Cerberus, and she was still recruited by the Alliance.
@@ty738
Jack was a rehabilitation project, a victim of Cerberus.
Miranda was second in command of a terrorist organization - and Shepard was relieved of duty and placed under arrest by the Alliance after surrendering following the suicide mission. It was _only_ Shepard's experience against the Reapers that landed them in house arrest instead of the brig.
I love the things Wrex says in the base Citadel DLC if you take him with you. It always makes me laugh
I genuinely thought that they were going to separate the galaxy into different sections that you could fight for in a series of battles for each. Each region could have different allies based on your choices in the previous games. It is such a simple concept/direction to go with. I have no idea to this day why they didn't make the game this way.
I suspect they just ran of out time and decided to cut it down to what we got. A shame, really.
Lack of time to implement something so ambitious combined with the size that would have made the game. IIRC Sony had a mandate against PS3 games that required multiple disks.
That's pretty much what we ended up with for the multiplayer mode -- the galaxy's divvied up into six sectors, and you have to boost your EMS in each sector, as it degrades over time.
The entire game clearly suffered from a hyper rushed dev cycle (because E.A. never learns you need to give people time to actually make games)
what i wouldn't give for a redux 3, with all the time it actually needed.
The development cycle played a major role in the games state, but there was also the issue of the original writers from 1 and 2 leaving.
Immaculate presentation. Certainly would look forward to more of your takes like this in the future.
Thank you very much!
Besides the occasional clips and essays, there is a larger project that I'm building towards (not even gonna try estimating a release date on it, simply because it's turned out to be much bigger and more involved than I anticipated, and I'm *not* doing this full-time).
Curious about that then, but yes, take as much time as it needs.
Great vid. There's also the life support area being fully decked out like it was meant to be occupied again. Kasumi and Thane were supposed to be a choice between the Salarian Councillor or Bailey. Thane was with the councillor Kasumi with Bailey. You'll hear Kalisah still talking about it on a news broadcast during the mission there's also a closed door in the same room down some stairs, presumably that was where you would choose.
Good catch. 👍
Thanks! I actually did not catch that broadcast, but yeah- they actually considered some additional choices between who lives and who dies, some of which I don't mind getting dropped (such as the proposed arc with the VS teaming up with Kai Leng).
@@BartlebysCorpse The kai leng thing never made sense to me either.
What I expected was the decisions I made in all 3 games to direct the ending I got. Save the council, destroy the collector base, cure the genophage and unite quarions/Geth or not, these should have determined the eventual outcome. Maybe not 50 endings but I was so looking forward to replaying the games to experience all possible endings.
Man...Mass Effect 3 never fails to bring me nearly to tears over what could have been.
I'm sure gaming history is absolutely replete with similar tragedies.
KOTOR II is another game that's a tragedy. Forced to be rushed out because the delvs were told to get it ready for Christmas. It had modders restoring content to make a much more satisfying ending as well.
It's kind of like X-Men the Last Stand. It's got some amazing individual scenes/moments, but it's all very weakly connected in a way that is overall heavily flawed.
12:46 Its funny that you mentioned it by the modder Kkjiro actually made the Miranda mod where you recruit her after Horizon and used dialogue for her on Chronos Station. Its also just been ported to the Legendary Edition
I'm getting a lot of notifications on this video, but this caught my attention. While I forgot to mention it, I am aware of the Expanded Galaxy mod where you actually can have a number of ME2 squadmates join you, although it was my understanding that this came with no extra dialogue. Are you referring to that?
@@BartlebysCorpse there is a mod like that which is similar but no I’m referring to the Miranda Mod itself. After Horizon you bring her up to the Normandy. She forms her own team to take out some Cerberus holds out that you can command. You get a cabin romance scene with her and you can take her to Chrono Station to get her insight on the Illusive Man tapes and have dialogue with her when you confront him. I highly recommend it if you are a fan of Miranda
@@TobiTheNomad oh shit now i have to start another ME playthrought and romance her. My first time playing ME 3 when it launched Miranda was my romance option and I hated how underdeveloped her role was in the game. After that all subsequent male Shep playthroughs my "canon" romance was Liara., with a few alternate universe playthroughs where I romance Tali. Well.. I know what I'm doing this weekend :D
Miranda not being a squadmate after Horizon is absolute non sense. The fact that she just wonders off on her own on the final mission on earth makes no sense to me lol especially if you romanced her.
If internet does not exist we all be losing more than half of our squad. Back then only Game Magazines teaches hidden or hard mechanics of well known games
I'm happy to report that on my first go at the Suicide Mission, I didn't lose anyone.
That is... I didn't lose anyone until I took a non-loyal Zaeed with me to the final boss, which also cost me Tali. At that point, I rage quit, looked up what I did wrong, and started the mission over.
Be thorough and you will not lose anyone. If you know weak\strong sides of your crew - you will not lose anyone again.
That's what I loved in ME2 - if you learn about your team - the game will reward you.
Miranda should've been mandatory at Cronos Station🤷♂️😡👍
Very nice review! Cheers! Imagine also if you could have had "displayed" multiplayer assets like 1 (or more) of your MP characters on the field in Priority Earth -- literally no dialogue needed but it would have been a nice little easter egg.
One thing I wish they did is increase the squad size to 4 including Shepard. I just wanna see what power combos and dialogue could occur in those scenarios. Plus just makes sense tactically in ME3.
Or have some missions have multiple teams working on different objectives, and you occasionally get radio chatter from them as you progress. Citadel sort of tried this, but... only briefly and in a very limited fashion. Which is weird since the Suicide Mission managed that perfectly in the previous game!
Imagine Suicide Mission was just the warm up and we got to experience a dozen of them throughout the campaign. Or even just one for the final mission. One would have been enough.
Aramax Arena was something I think most games needed. However, after the Legendary Edition proved to not come with the multiplayer, they could have easily used the multiplayer content for a newer version of Aramax. The classes as all possible squadmates or even characters to play as, all the levels in the multiplayer used for singleplayer, all the characters being controllable squadmates. It should have been an easy decision if they were gonna charge a whole $60 for a game franchise that was as much 9 years earlier, probably cheaper to get all three on their own if you still had a PS3/360, let alone PC. Hell, make the N7 classes selectable for Shepard.
Damn, can't believe it came out 10 years ago.
I really wish they had brought back at least the majority of the squadmates from ME2. They could have just extended the story and brought back loyalty missions to give time to everyone.
7:25 Tali staring at Shepard, "really Commander? Him..."
Shepard, slamming a fist onto the railing of the CIC:
"I knew it - I'm surrounded by assholes. Keep firing, assholes!"
Citadel DLC is Awesome. That is all that needs to be said.
I wish they didn't abandon mass effect's original story of space faring species usage of elemental zero. Star systems would age rabidly and go super nova. Hence the reason Reapers would invade to prevent the galaxy from exploding. They hinted at it in Tali's mission in ME2
I'm not sure I agree with all of your conclusions/suppositions, but this was an excellently made video. You earned a sub from me. Well done.
I forgot about that Vega scene when rescuing Koris😆
It took me way too long to notice the Jenkins Easter egg. EA also made bioware add multilayer which i assume took atleast alittle bit of time from base game development. The Bioware story team atleast tried to make it work with the story, The multilayer teams are supposed to be the strike teams Hackett talks about after a Shepard side mission like the Tuchunka ground cannon, the Cerberus fighter base ect. which is nice. The EMG and other mods on pc greatly improve team members. If they are available and on certain missions you can have non Normandy based squad mates on missions.
I dunno whether it was planned or scrapped. But not being able to recruit the ME2 squad members was my biggest gripe about ME3. I get that it would be a big roster so how about something like the game only letting you recruit 3 or 4 of them? This could create unique moments depending on the team composition and maybe add some replay value.
Yeah like, I'm fine with the likes of Mordin and Wrex not joining due to the completion of their arcs and them leading the war effort, but really characters such as Grunt and your ME2 love interest should have definitely been part of your crew.
The Normandy in ME3 feels big but empty when you have such a smaller crew, whereas in ME2 you'd always have someone interesting to talk to around every corner.
@@onemoreminute0543 ME2 had so many interesting characters and locations. It's my favorite game in the series and in my top 10 of favorite games of all time. I disagree with a lot of design choices in ME3. Any weapon for any class really weakened the combat classes. Having the reaper invasion start right at the beginning of the game made me feel extremely rushed. I don't think I've ever heard the word "hurry" yelled at me more in any other game. And while my biggest gripe was the ME2 crew not being recruitable I didn't love the ending either. But I think the main reason it was so limited was their reliance on CGI. I like how the first game had very little CGI. We could have had like way more endings.
@@jamminjago Never thought I'd say this, but ME2 has become my favourite game of all time. It literally has everything from all my other games I love mixed into one beautiful package.... and I only played it for the first time earlier this year.
I'm kind of surprised how there's a specific portion of the ME fandom that has recently been trashing ME2 as nothing more than a 'side quest' and instead think ME1 and 3 were superior experiences.
If you ask me, most of the problems with ME2's plot aren't it's own fault, but instead the fault of 3, which failed to properly pay off most of the set up of 2 (cough cough the Collector Base)
This extends to the beginning of ME3, which, while it does perfectly set the tone for the game, does a poor job of narratively linking on from ME2's ending.
ME2's opening was a fantastic continuation from 1 because of how it naturally dealt with the consequences of the first games ending. Shepard's actions have made him a hero, making him valuable to Cerberus and a threat to the Reapers. The Normandy is out still searching for Geth holdouts, which you can naturally assume it would be doing even after Sarens defeat. You see your current love interest too, further solidifying the continuation from ME1. And then Shepards shocking death and the timejump sets the tone and allows for the ME1 crew to end up in new situations.
But ME3 doesn't have such an organic transition.
You end ME2 with the aftermath of the Suicide Mission and the Reaper fleet appearing, implying that their full scale invasion has begun. But then 3 opens with Shepard suddenly on Earth and effectively under house arrest with some new character named James Vega.
It raises more questions than answers - why and how are you on Earth? What happened to your ME2 crewmates? Where has your ME2 love interest disappeared to? What's your current relationship to Cerberus? Who's this James Vega guy? Why isn't Anderson a councillor anymore (if you chose him)? Has the Reaper invasion already happened? What's happened to the new Normandy? How much time has passed between seeing the Reaper fleet and this... committee (?) being called?
So the opening to 3 doesn't organically deal with the consequences of the end to 2, like 2 did for 1. That and.... a whole bunch of other issues throughout the course of 3's story.
@@onemoreminute0543 Well said, I agree with all of this. Whats your favorite class in ME2? Mine is a toss up between vanguard and sentinel. Vanguard is so damn fun from the get go. Sentinel is a slower burn before it gets going, but you have two of the best powers in the game warp and overload. Playing an aggressive sentinel with the eviserator shotgun and the assault armor is extremely fun, you run in there, your armor explodes doing much damage but you still have shields, then by the time yours shields are down you can re up your tech armor all the while shotguning. Oh BTW doing the hover craft mini missions is a great way to get to the weapon upgrade event fast.
@@jamminjago Being honest, I haven't really checked out many of the other classes. I mainly just stuck with Infiltrator for the entire trilogy as I liked the benefits that came with it, but I do want to try out Vanguard as it looks pretty great.
Btw, seeing as I've actually been able to engage in a conversation about the trilogy with someone else (as a newcomer to the ME fandom), who are your favourite squadmates/how would you rank them?
The Legendary edition is the BEST purchase I've made in entertainment. It has spoiled me to the point that when I got Andromeda I was bored to oblivion. Way too much scattered goods, way too much blind efforts, way too many 'talkies', and way too much information.
I can only hope that BioWare and EA and the rest of the development crew need to consider WHY ME was so involving.
Lawson's butt makes me appreciative.
I can only wonder how better Mass Effect 3 could've been if EA gave them more time.
Clone dlc easily the best one of all time , especially the party
13:26 Guess Jacob was there to help Brynn deliver the baby. About the only time he was useful.
Ah, yes. Anthony Mackie Shepard
In before you reach 500 subs!
I like the smaller squad mates in mass effect 3.2 had way too many that didn't add much.legion was a waste,samara as well.i also dont think anders would make sense flying with Shepard as the reapers destroy earth
This just adds to the fact that the final mission (priority earth) was so disappointing.
Imagine if in Avengers Endgame we never actually see all of the other snapped Avengers come through the portals and have their moments to shine, and instead Tony just gets a call saying 'yo, we're back!'
And thats just the start of the problems with ME3....
Jack romance could have been so much better if she joined your crew with more development I wish they didn’t rush Mass effect 3 we could have got so much more . Thanks for the video
It's still pretty amazing as it is, but I agree more time should have been given by allowing her to rejoin the Normandy.
@@onemoreminute0543 more time could have made it the best in my opinion
@@lonestar2495 Aye. It's my personal favourite due to her psychology being so interesting, and I think that as it stands it actually is the best romance in the trilogy - it's just that it could have been even better if more time was given to it in 3 (alongside the other ME2 romances)
@@onemoreminute0543 3 is the only issue I have which I why I have Tali above her
@@lonestar2495 Understandable - the ME1 characters tended to fare better romance wise in 3 due to having more time. Plus, the interactions with Tali are interesting due to the mystery of the mask.
Personally, I could never quite get into the Garrus and Tali romances because I felt they happened too late in ME2 after a more professional relationship had already been established with them in ME1. But I definitely understand the appeal towards them personality wise.
Every time people still complain about the ending of this game I think: What if it turned out like Dragon Age 2?
DA2 Isn't exactly bad, in fact I enjoy it a lot. But most of the levels were copy-and-paste and dialogue was mostly one-liners.
Sure ME3 ending was not to expectations but at least they gave us a great game with an ENDING that finished the game and story arc but also left a window for direct sequels. Imagine if they left Shepard hanging out to dry with no end and then saying 'That's the end of that arc. Wait a few years and someone will post what happened afterwards online in some blog beginning with WE WERE SUPPOSED TO.'
ME3 was 100% not finished when it released. Nor was it after all its DLC was released. Its very clear there are gaps where story or gameplay should have been, but it was hastily changed. The entire game has a disjointed feel to it, and while what we got was great in most part there are some really jarring moments where you think something is coming but never does. There's a lot of foreshadowing and hints that lead nowhere. There's cut corners all over the place.
The game needed another six to twelve months development. But it was so overschedule and budget that it was forced out sooner then it should have been.
And you know what? The game is still decent. In parts, brilliant. It just could and should have been better - a truly watershed moment in gaming rather then an adequate mild disappointment.
Not even talking about the ending. The ending is another thing entirely - either a brilliant mind bending twist that wasn't allowed time to flourish or a complete mess depending who you ask (... and some who think its just plain brilliant, somehow, but okay).
I'm hoping the next Mass Effect game gets time to breath and develop. I don't care if I have to wait another ten years. Just make it as good as it deserves to be.
It would've been nice to have random squadmates on missions. Kirrahe and potentially Wrex included. Just to make it different.
You have 127 subscribers? lol a video that has quality such as yours usually only comes out of channels with +100K subs. Nice job.
I know the songs are listed in the description, but I've only been able to find Flashlight by Kjartan Abe. Where are these on their website?
Been getting a lot more notifications this week and almost missed this, but thank you! I've been making videos on the side (mostly crossover stuff, as you can tell) for a little while, and I figured that I had enough experience with the tools and everything to get started on some longer form stuff.
All songs can be found on freesound.org, which contains a lot of Creative Commons and Zero License music, sound effects, etc. If you want to use something from that site, just be sure to check the type of license first. If it's Non-commercial, then you should get in touch with the creator before using it on TH-cam. In the case of the tracks I used, they're all Attribution License or Zero License, which are pretty unrestrictive as long as you give credit to their owners.
I'll note that the search functionality on freesound isn't the most user friendly, so it might be easier to plug the listed artist name and song name into Google, maybe with "freesound" included for good measure. If you still have trouble with it, feel free to leave a reply (though I'll admit it may take me some time to circle back).
I hope to god zaeed is in the next game, but I doubt he will because his voice actor does not too long after me3 launched
Mass effect 5 is about liara and Shepard love child along with Shepard adopted son grunt finding a way to get to andromeda to destroy the kett who are brainwashed by a derilect sentinel🎉
Great video 😊
Thank you very much!
For my viewers- you may have noticed that Kjartan Abel is behind some of the music featured in this video! You can find Kjartan's homepage at the following:
kjartan-abel.com
Great music selection. Total mass effect vibes but also cool sounds. Would you mind telling me what song starts playing at 0:40?
Also, great video. I'm loving your content
Thanks! That particular selection is "Homecoming" by DaveJf.
You can find more details in the description, but all music comes from freesound.org, which has a large number of tracks that musicians and sound engineers are kind enough to put out under certain licenses.
Sure, it would be nice to have your old squad mates' team up with you.... It's clear as crystal why this wasn't implemented ------ Bioware needed to make these missions interesting for people who were missing these characters (or had them die off).... Essentially Bioware made life difficult on themselves with all the potential outcomes they created in ME1/ME2. It's the same reason why the ending had 3 blanket endings that would work for everyone Irregardless of what choices they made in the game.
You called Jacob a "highly relatable character?" He is one of the most HATED characters in the Mass Effect fandom! Your concept of all the characters being on the squad would NOT have been as good as you think in your head. Yes SOME of these characters had less satisfying arc conclusions but they were also lesser characters in the fandom. Not many people really cared about a "more satisfying conclusion" for Zaeed or Kasumi. They were DLC so a major number of players never even met these characters in ME2 and they weren't that great of characters for those of us that did. The Devs gave big stories to the fan favorites. That's why Tali has Priority Rannoch and Rex has Priority Tuchanka and Mordin plays a major role in it. These two amazing stories devote much game time to these beloved characters and are extremely well written. Saving the two squad slots for the two biggest fan favorites in Mass Effect Garrus and Liara.
If I may, I'd like to start a squabble.
Downloaders/Readers of the "leaked script" may have noticed that when a pronoun is applied to Shepard, it is *male.*
...
Ready? *Go.*
Let's see how long this takes to burn down the Internet.
Mind you, nothing about that denies anyone the ability to be ("play as") a femShep, but when I play ME (Mass Effect,) I play as *ME* (with the wrong name.) I change the face to look like me. I make the decisions that *I* would have made. I suspect that if the developers had gotten a green light for it, they would have made it so you can hear whatever name you've put in spoken by the characters (something we could almost certainly do today, but the potential for people to abuse it was probably considered too high, and the pronunciation of unusual or exotic names was too much of a challenge to address successfully at the time.)
Referring to Shep in the male during the drafting stages was probably out of convenience. I've heard that the devs originally thought of making Shepard strictly a female character, but decided against it because they figured having a male option would be better for sales.
I rarely ever try make a custom protagonist look like me. Probably the closest was my Fallout 4 character. That said, I to drift more towards "what would I do," when presented with an in-game choice. It's not an absolute (my reaction to saving the council would be to 'concentrate on Sovereign,' but I kept them around in my footage playthrough for story/war asset purposes), but there is that self-insert aspect to roleplaying.
Why doesn't anyone think of th fashion? We can't even change their outfits of they aren't in the squad.
This trilogy would've been THE trilogy of the 2010's if they didn't rushed the 3rd and last one. What a waste sigh...
ME3 recently broke for me. a movement glitch i have never seen before where if you were holding forward the game would hold you in place. no idea how to fix it.
betray joker and bonk the robot yourself?
Major Coates got his own trailer, but you don't meet him until after Cronos, and he gets maybe a dozen lines of dialogue. Really? This aligns with your hypothesis.
Having James handle tech is always a dumb idea. I assume that's your point.
I didn't hear this as a complaint, but as a nudge-nudge-wink-wink to mod developers.
Maybe GPT4 could make short work of it; here's hoping!
I'm not sure that I understand the first part. Are you suggesting that Coates should have gotten more of a role?
As for the James reference... I figured that as long as I was covering those decisions, that I feature the obvious choice.
@@BartlebysCorpse First part: Yes. The fact that the dedicated a whole trailer to him (as they did with Mordin, Jack, and Miranda for ME2) makes me think they had intended more for Major Coates, either as someone else you got as a *Normandy* regular, or that had a bigger role once you get back to Earth, but ended up rewritten down to a walk-on role because it added complexity they weren't prepared to deal with. The last half hour of the game simply bellows *"RUSH JOB!!!"* as people more artful than I have already explained at length (Doyce Testerman's evisceration of it, where he compares it to the Lord of the Rings - and how it not only fails to be what was promised, but fails at storytelling generally - remains a favourite.)
But on Rannoch, James was the obvious anti-choice. Fortunately, *unlike your decisions for task assignments in ME2's final battle*, your choices have No Practical Effect.
Truly, there should have been a hundred ways to fail the overall story (i.e., the reaper threat,) both due to decisions in the moment, and as fallout from decisions you made years before. (Or for a dozen critical decisions that later affect your War Assets.) And they could have been actually challenging decisions, like in Bring Down the Sky, which has repercussions in ME3. Admittedly, it's *hard* to write that sort of thing, but that's what "story continuity across multiple games" is (or should be, IMO) about. It's why having games teach lessons about actually considering the potential effects of your decisions is a real-life benefit, and just one more instance where the developers failed the players (or were put in that forced-move failure situation by top management.)
(WARNING! Shameless plug follows!)
It's what drives me to serialise an ongoing fanfic that expands the characters and game universe, but retains as much original canon while slowly veering off to an AU. Fanfiction dot net, Mass Effect: All in the Details. If you wish there were *way* more conversation options when talking with your squadmates between assignments, or if you want to hear the kind of squad banter that lets these characters really shine, this might be a fic for you.
My only issue with Mass Effect 3 is Omega! where is Omega?
Bartleby's Corpse fact #1: I once said "Nobody can make me like Jacob." Then Bartleby's Corpse said "Hold my drink. Oh, and watch the emergency induction port." Then they made the ending to this video.
PUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I finished Mass Effect 1 eighteen times, Mass Effect 2 twenty three times and Mass Effect 3 six times, the thing is, for me Mass Effect 3 starts too slow, and the pace for me in the first two to three hours is slow to, the game only become nice after you leave the Citadel the first time, but Earth, Mars, and to many things to do when you get to Citadel makes the game for me and a annoyance, I hate the first three hours of Mass Effect 3, is to linear and boring.
can’t believe they didn’t bring back miranda and her cheeks as a full time companion
Funny how you said you played the legendary edition of Mass Effect 3 but you also said multiplayer I'm sorry but in Mass Effect legendaries multiplayer was removed it was never put in that's the difference between the regular three and the legendary three if you're playing on the console your War assets stop at 7800 Max which means we don't get the happy ending and also on top of it Mass Effect 1 unless you're going for a sexual relationship with one of your cremates Mass Effect 1 has absolutely no worries it's least on the consoles Mass Effect 2 and 3 are the only ones that actually count towards a war assets ain't that a shit pity and really honestly on the consoles no matter what you pick the endings are almost the same all three colors are basically shitty Commander Shepard dies on all three of them so when they're saying Mass Effect 4 Commander Shepard's coming back well they've still got to change the ending on the consoles because he's still dead and nothing personal but when it comes to the ship everybody on the console hates the stupid Blue Door
To be clear, I originally played the series on PS3 sometime back around 2015. I was initially going to use that to record footage, but wasn't thrilled with the capture quality I was getting (along with the occasional framerate drops in ME3 cutscenes- a byproduct of the game coming out towards the end of that console generation).
Jacob is thee worst not relatable character with no redeeming qualities past the opening of the game. All the advice he gives gets people killed he cheats on you if you romance him also he refuses to opennup at all romance or not. Aswell he blames you for h8m cheating on you lol.
Great video man! Subscribed, this video is quality.