Such a good soundtrack. I used to listen to it quite frequently.
Shame about the game.
I replayed the entire series about 7-8 months ago. My opinion is pretty much unchanged from when the games came out originally.
1) Combat in 1 is a bit wonky, but still was very good for the time. Narrative and world building wise, it is still one of the best first games (if not THE best) ever made. The ending sequence was operatic, beautiful, wonderful.
2) The second is probably one of the best games ever made. The combat is revolutionary. The story and character development makes even further strides based on the first. The way they actually developed Liara is something that never happens, making a bland character better. Ash, Ash. Considering what this game did as far as the setup, it succeeded wildly in pushing the story forward while also making people go ‘Hey let me go back and play the first one (all 100+ hours) and try THIS.
3) What can be said about 3 that hasn’t been already said?
-The combat is evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. Top notch as the controls are tighter. Fluid and fun.
-Story. I am not going to beat on the endings other than to make a larger point: I think they just lost their nerve as far as making the decisions made throughout the series actually have major, logical consequences. Two, three things jumped out at me while playing the first time and were not changed by the replay.
-Rachni. This should have had a huge effect on the ending and war. It did not. THIS was the first sign that not everything was going to be perfect in this game for me. It was almost insulting to the story they had done thus far in how they handled it.
-Geth. A lot is made about the sameness of the endings. My biggest beef is that no matter what you do, you my have made huge investments into the Geth, and the only truly good endings requires you to have freed them- and then destroy them utterly. That is a damned choice which robs all of your work of any meaning.
-Kaiden. The meme ‘Either you die a hero or turn into the weird gay friend’ kind of says it all. Look, I could give a shit less. Like Inquisition, as long as it is not thrown in my face, I really do not care (although Inquisition really went out of its way.) However, make the character from the beginning that way. Fluid or whatever. This just felt tacked on at the last minute to check a box and placate some fans.
-Ash. So much promise, but how many people when starting 3 said ‘Damn, now I wish I had made a different BIG choice back in 1.’
-Liara. Still probably the most satisfying love interest in the entire damn series.
-This is going a bit long, but the end game was SO close to being the perfect capstone of the series. Great combat, wonderful music, great story beats (aside from the aforementioned examples.) It should have been one of the greatest examples of storytelling ever made. It almost made it.
I knew they’d screwed it up the moment I realized that they didn’t have the (promised, btw) repercussions for pursuing a love interest in the second game if you later wanted to pick up where you left off with your love interest from the first game.
It did make it.
Nailed it, in fact.
.
But then you started levitating, and had some weird fever dream.
.
.
.
To state the bloody obvious:
Building the *obviously* Reapertech mcguffin was never going to end well.
Two games of character development (plus unavoidable indoctrination) demonstrate that Shepard would face the longest odds for a gossamer thread of hope.
It is firmly established that Reapers introduce tech to the galaxy specifically to guide galactic civilization towards their desired harvest state. (Which includes the tech that resurrected Shepard, btw. I daresay his augmentations during that period were very similar to Saren’s.)
Prolonged exposure to Reapertech inevitably influences the person so exposed to view matters in the way the Reapers wish.
And so in backup plan #4, the Determinator himself destroys galactic civilization.
He can do no other.
Which makes Shepard and Anderson sitting on the Citadel, bleeding out, watching the world burn, the perfect ending of the story.
Such a good soundtrack. I used to listen to it quite frequently.
Shame about the game.
I replayed the entire series about 7-8 months ago. My opinion is pretty much unchanged from when the games came out originally.
1) Combat in 1 is a bit wonky, but still was very good for the time. Narrative and world building wise, it is still one of the best first games (if not THE best) ever made. The ending sequence was operatic, beautiful, wonderful.
2) The second is probably one of the best games ever made. The combat is revolutionary. The story and character development makes even further strides based on the first. The way they actually developed Liara is something that never happens, making a bland character better. Ash, Ash. Considering what this game did as far as the setup, it succeeded wildly in pushing the story forward while also making people go ‘Hey let me go back and play the first one (all 100+ hours) and try THIS.
3) What can be said about 3 that hasn’t been already said?
-The combat is evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. Top notch as the controls are tighter. Fluid and fun.
-Story. I am not going to beat on the endings other than to make a larger point: I think they just lost their nerve as far as making the decisions made throughout the series actually have major, logical consequences. Two, three things jumped out at me while playing the first time and were not changed by the replay.
-Rachni. This should have had a huge effect on the ending and war. It did not. THIS was the first sign that not everything was going to be perfect in this game for me. It was almost insulting to the story they had done thus far in how they handled it.
-Geth. A lot is made about the sameness of the endings. My biggest beef is that no matter what you do, you my have made huge investments into the Geth, and the only truly good endings requires you to have freed them- and then destroy them utterly. That is a damned choice which robs all of your work of any meaning.
-Kaiden. The meme ‘Either you die a hero or turn into the weird gay friend’ kind of says it all. Look, I could give a shit less. Like Inquisition, as long as it is not thrown in my face, I really do not care (although Inquisition really went out of its way.) However, make the character from the beginning that way. Fluid or whatever. This just felt tacked on at the last minute to check a box and placate some fans.
-Ash. So much promise, but how many people when starting 3 said ‘Damn, now I wish I had made a different BIG choice back in 1.’
-Liara. Still probably the most satisfying love interest in the entire damn series.
-This is going a bit long, but the end game was SO close to being the perfect capstone of the series. Great combat, wonderful music, great story beats (aside from the aforementioned examples.) It should have been one of the greatest examples of storytelling ever made. It almost made it.
I knew they’d screwed it up the moment I realized that they didn’t have the (promised, btw) repercussions for pursuing a love interest in the second game if you later wanted to pick up where you left off with your love interest from the first game.
It did make it.
Nailed it, in fact.
.
But then you started levitating, and had some weird fever dream.
.
.
.
To state the bloody obvious:
Building the *obviously* Reapertech mcguffin was never going to end well.
Two games of character development (plus unavoidable indoctrination) demonstrate that Shepard would face the longest odds for a gossamer thread of hope.
It is firmly established that Reapers introduce tech to the galaxy specifically to guide galactic civilization towards their desired harvest state. (Which includes the tech that resurrected Shepard, btw. I daresay his augmentations during that period were very similar to Saren’s.)
Prolonged exposure to Reapertech inevitably influences the person so exposed to view matters in the way the Reapers wish.
And so in backup plan #4, the Determinator himself destroys galactic civilization.
He can do no other.
Which makes Shepard and Anderson sitting on the Citadel, bleeding out, watching the world burn, the perfect ending of the story.