I’m just worried that the writers stepped into something they’d catch avoidable heat about – the association of the word ‘embryo’ with the assumption that it was ‘not alive.’ People get very angry about this sort of thing.
The Mass Effect trilogy is actual a liberal conspiracy to encourage abortion?
If so it subverts its own point, since the Human-Reaper embryo is very much alive, at least until you shoot its eyes and blow it up.
I will be quite happy to be wrong on this point, but I expect somebody to get huffy. ‘Embryo’ is a politically loaded word. Then again, Phelps et al haven’t picketed the Bioware offices yet over their portrayals of homosexuality.
Exactly. Bioware is clearly endorsing abortion by having you take part in the very act itself!
Besides, Bioware are a bunch of Canadians. Like New Yorkers, Bostonians, or Californians, they’re not Real Americans. 
My wife walked up during the final blowing-up of the Collector’s base and said, “Hey, are these Shadows?” I assured her that as Canadians, Bioware has never even heard of Babylon 5. By the way, has anyone checked to see if the image of the Collector appeared in the Prothean beacon flashback in the original game?
Meep.
This is what I was referring to. Though perhaps “rewrite” was the wrong word choice as nothing in ME2 directly contradicts the first game.
Thinking back I don’t remember anything from the first game about the schism, though there may be an optional conversational or a codex entry or something, I’m fairly certain that it doesn’t come up in the main story. The whole thrust with the Geth was that they were machines who spontaneously developed a sort of “hive AI” and were following Sovereign willingly.
I knew from pre-release hype that there was a Geth party member, but I didn’t know what his story was. I guess I sort of assumed he’d been recovered and re-programmed or something. When I finally recruited him, (near the end of my first playthrough), and he started talking about heretics and Reaper viruses it caught me completely off guard. It might sound like hyperbole, but I was truly stunned by this. The idea that the Geth that were following Sovereign had been “brainwashed” and that there were actually reasonable Geth out there willing to fight the Reapers had never occured to me. (Though in hindsight perhaps it should have as we do know that Saren and Benezia were both being mind controlled as well. Logically, and Legion even points this out I think, doing so to an artificial being is going to be even easier than to an organic.)
Over the entire game this might be the one thing that has stood out to me the most and it’s why I’m still thinking it over. If the Geth could somehow be insulated against Reaper influence they could be a very formidable ally against them. And how cool could it be if the Geth went from being cannon fodder in the first game to being a game changer in the third?
Heh. You know, I just had a thought. We’ve spent two games learning that prolonged exposure to the Reapers or their allies is very, very dangerous. The Codex entry in Mass Effect 2 on Indoctrination also makes a point of saying that an indoctrinated military leader would be very bad. Are we sure that Shepherd is still anything other than a puppet?
Some great stuff in these posts. Again, big ups to Bioware for making a game where people say more than “IT RAWKZ” when it comes to discussing it.
Back to the Garrus thing… I figure he’s pretty much as close to a best friend that Shepard’s got, and he’s had an utterly miserable life after the crew of the original Normandy broke up. But he was always, ALWAYS loyal to his commander, probably moreso than even to his own people. (He even admits he’s not a very good turian.)
If on a mission in ME3, one of the ME2 characters (take your pick) turns out to be a traitor and takes out Garrus, Tali and Joker (c’mon admit it, you like him) would you hunt his ass down and kill him/her if it’s presented as an option? I think that’s what Garrus felt after building a team, getting to know them and following in Shepard’s footsteps, only to have them die by treachery. Someone takes any of the original ME1 crew out, and even the ME2 peeps I’m gonna make the traitor eat a bullet.
It was his team that died. Garrus wasn’t following me on my mission, I was following him on his and I returned the loyalty.
I agree with above posters about Legion. He’s my favorite of the new cast. There’s a lot of potential there. I want to do a new game where I recruit him as soon as possible. I really wonder what having him present will do when you go to the Flotilla to defend Tali. “I never sent working geth back to the fleet.” “Then, uh, what’s that standing behind you?”
I did have him on a trip to the Citadel to see Anderson. Anderson pretty much said most of the galaxy was losing interest in the geth since their early defeat and called Legion my trophy bot, which explains why most people didn’t seem to care. (I was hoping for a riot.) Though it was still pretty hilarious when I went through customs and the TSA agent got all in a huff about stopping geth infiltrators, and then proceeded to let my “personal synthetic assistant” through.
Legion: “Geth do not infiltrate.”
TSA agent: “You can bring your robot in, but next time leave it at home.”
Legion (almost apologetic): “Geth do not intentionally infiltrate…”
Legion is awesome. I’m dying to know what’s up with the N7 armor he wears. Maybe because Shepard-Commander defeated the Old Machines it earns him a special status as someone who proved the non-existance of god, thereby affirming the value of logic and rational thought. Or maybe, because he’s a god-slayer, they view Shepard himself as god, and the non-heretic geth are going to turn out in fact to be founders of the Church of Shepard, with Legion as his first prophet.
My thinking exactly. Plus it was his entire squad which was killed - akin to a traitor being responsible for the deaths of every teammate you picked up in ME2.
“Get that damn thing off my ship!”
Taking Legion to the fleet is stupid for another reason, as you can only do one more mission after acquiring the IFF before the Collectors attack, and that mission should be Legion’s loyalty mission. You’ll lose either a non-loyal Legion or your crew.
“…There was a hole.”
Given that Legion is the only true geth beyond the veil perhaps he’s seen first-hand the results of Shepard’s handiwork was and is seeking to emulate him. As the Old Machines pose a threat to the geth this makes sense; copy the guy (or gal) that killed one.
Why exactly the Geth’s head plates would be designed to twitch is not clear, but it does give Legion a lot of understated personality.
I always liked the Salarians, because the animation of their faces was excellently well done, and goodness, Mordin is a hoot. I bring him along just to see what he’ll say about things. I don’t want to start a knock-down, drag-off nerd battle, but I’d take Mordin over Spock any day.
Walking through the world, I was moved by how alive they made the world seem. It may be that I’m just inured to similar attention to detail from the first game after some years and 4 playthroughs, but I found it highly immersive.
One thing that helps is that the animation of faces is highly expressive. The difference between the mannerisms of the grizzled veteran Wrex and the brash young Grunt are telling. Grunt seems young, naive, yet highly aggressive. Likewise, Jack carries a lot of attitude in her posture.
I can’t believe I forgot about the Asari Bartender on Illum. She was a hoot. “They laughed the blue off my ass!”
The Krogan/Asari bartender on Illum was great.
I liked the fact that I got to shoot that annoying wannabe specter in the foot on Illum, too.
I went “Human First Renegade” on my first run through, and i didn’t regret it. I only wish there was a way to make the mission with the Quarian and the short fat encounter suit guy have a renegade option like “1) Keep the Cred-Chit, 2) falsify documents indication both are guilty of false crimes, 3) ??? 4) PROFIT!”
I didn’t kill the Rachni in the first game, and I was not disappointed. I figured “Hell, we killed 'em before, we can kill them again… and now the Citadel has humans, of course they can succeed. And this might benefit me later.” It sucks that it ended up being a Paragon option, but I thought it prudent to save her. And now, she’ll help me in the upcomming dark times – I won’t complain.
I let Garrus kill his guy, because that’s what I’d want to do him, I shot the guy that the Assassin’s kid was trying to kill (with a renegade interrupt… quite effective), I destroyed the work on the Krogan genophage, I slept with Jack and then entered into an apparently long term relationship with Miranda (I’ve got a thing for Yvonne Str–something).
I ended up intimidating the fleet into keeping Tali’Zorah vas Normandy, and intimidating Jack and Miranda out of a fight, and intimidating Legion and Tali out of a fight. Unfortunately, I couldn’t Renegade my way into the alternate Asari.
My Shepherd might be arrogant, but he was also cool and collected. As soon as there was a possibility to upgrade, he took it (because he likes guns, shields and armor… and he wants use 'em!). And when they came for my crew, I was pissed and I took the fight to them.
I had Legion enter the tube, because he was the obvious choice (should they choose to vent the tube, or release any number of things that might be fatal, Legion might survive to accomplish his mission – besides, he’s a damn robot). And that panned out well for me.
I consistently had Jacob leading my 2nd team (because I wanted a human in charge), and that payed off. Like always, I had Miranda at my side, and I took Grunt as well. Not a lot of need for Tech powers in the final battles, no Synthetics.
I had Mordin escort my – completely alive and entirely saved – crew back to the Normandy. Then I kept the base, because the research possibilities are endless and, Damnit, Humanity deserves to be at the forefront of this war, and the leader of the Galaxy. No one else is up to the task!
Playing through now as a renegade, I’m not loving a lot of these vicious choices you have to make to get those renegade points. I let the workers die during Zaeed’s loyalty quest. Man, you could hear them screaming for a long time. Way to rub it in, guys. Still, 17 renegade points.
Does anybody else get the glowy red eyes while playing a renegade?
My favorite thing about Grunt is his odd sense of humor. His one-fingered air quotes after the “not much point” knife pun had me rolling.
My first mostly renegade playthrough I would get just enough separation between my renegade points and my paragon points to get the red pupils then get another point or two in paragon and lose it. It was kinda amusing watching me turn full on terminator eyes to just the spots in the iris and back and forth.
My second playthrough I picked the missions that I knew I preferred the renegade choices for first. Had the full red eyes for about half my playthrough. Slowly healed up as I went back and did the missions where I choose the paragon options. It’s interesting I go back and forth in this game. It’s refreshing to have an alignment system where the ‘evil’ choices often feel as valid and interesting as the ‘good’ choices.
To add to the thread. One favorite moment a scared working pulls a gun on you. You tell him to stand down he says ‘don’t make me hurt you!’ Renegade interrupt you knock him to the ground and punch him in his chest. ‘Strange that didn’t hurt me a bit’. Heh.
Also anything with Mordin. I also really liked how even when you were telling the IM to screw off and doing things he wouldn’t have approved of he’s still generally supportive and giving you emails telling you ‘well I wouldn’t have done that but you are in charge’. Makes a refreshing change from the pissy council that always hated you no matter what you did. He only really loses it when you destroy the collector base.
Did anyone else notice that TIM’s eyes were blue, like Paragon blue?
Think that it might mean something?
How could you *not *with all the extreme closeups of them. I could practically hear the director going “Look at his eyes! See they’re blue and mechanical looking! Did you notice them yet? No? Oh yes? Well I’ll make sure in the next scene anyway. Never can be to certain!”
I’m sure it means something but I doubt it has much to do with paragon.
Well, there must be something to the fact that he’s called “The Illusive Man” where in context it’s clear the word is supposed to be “Elusive.” But if it’s a hint of some kind, how did it happen to originate in an Alliance report?
I’m pretty sure he’s supposed to be called Illusive, not Elusive.
Elusive: tending to elude: as a : tending to evade grasp or pursuit <elusive prey> b : hard to comprehend or define c : hard to isolate or identify
Illusive, on the other hand, is based on illusion. The illusive man runs and finances cerberus through illusion and deception, with perfectly legitimate companies fronting for them. Also, it’s cooler to be Illusive than Elusive.