Help me play the Mass Effect series

Finished ME3 a third time the other night before going to NJ. At least now I am starting to hate something more than the ending(s)!

I think I am about halfway through ME2. I don't actually know. I have one crew member left to recruit and I'm 27 hours in (is my completionist showing yet?). This game is weirdly addictive.

I chose to romance Garrus, but then I recruited Thane and just- Thane. He's making this difficult. Doesn't help that Garrus is fifty shades of awkward and I cringe half the time when I talk to him. And then I'll have to make a male Shepard because there's Tali, and I always liked Tali, and Jack is pretty awesome (her companion quest was pretty emotional). Oh my god, I will have to play so many times.

The whole game is much better than I thought. I got used to the combat and stopped dying, and I decked out my cabin in cool stuff. Also full Paragon all the way. I never seem to get around to playing the 'evil' character, but I think I will try Renegade because it's not really evil. And some choices are just so tempting, I can't help picking them.

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Finished ME2 and started ME3. 3 looks more polished, but is thankfully very similar to ME2 in terms of controls and interfaces (unlike the first game). I am pleased that the game felt emotional from the get-go, and I like Shepard more. Also, my Shepard now has nice hair and actually looks cute. I'd like to think she took some time to pamper herself after the craziness of ME2 and...get a whole new face. Yuuuuup.

For those curious of what I did in ME2:

I am enjoying all the carryovers and the atmosphere, again. I love ambient dialogue so much.

Ah. Yes. What could possibly go wrong?


Kidding!

That particular choice was probably the hardest choice in the entire series for me. I'm still not sure which choice is "better."

This game is making me emotional. Shepard is so great in ME3. The little pauses, the voice acting...you can really get a sense of her feelings.

Such a great scene, if you challenge him.

I like the choices where there isn't a "best" choice. I liked the Ash/Kaidan choice. It's so very well balanced: do you go on, or do you fall back? What's going to be the deciding factor for you? Almost certainly, something about how you feel about the characters. It's why I thought the final mission of Mass Effect 2 could have been so much better, if there was no way to get the "best" ending, if all possible outcomes had some loss in them.

On the flip-side though any losses you take hit harder because they're your fault, not some arbitrary minimum death number. I'd have liked it to be tougher to save everyone, but I also want it to be possible. I thought the way the ME2 finale was handled was a superb ending to the character stories that game had been about. How well do you know your crew? How hard would they fight for you?

It's the best of the three endings.

You're right about the challenge. I've never gone that route, and if you go all the way it is a really hard scene to watch. But really powerful. I've only ever seen it on YouTube.

The ending of ME2 was so close to perfect. Except the end boss is GOOFY AS SHIT. Although I admit, after the ending for ME3, I went back and finished off an almost-done playthrough of ME2 and got all nostalgic about it. "D'awww, you're so goofy. I missed you, baby."

First time I got there, I was playing my first ever character, a Renegade, and I'd played it pretty Renegade all the way up to there.

It was glorious.

Oh I agree.

There are a couple where they missed the boat though. Mine was:

I don't agree that they missed the boat with that. If you have

Your reckless disregard for Thane Krios' well-being will be remembered, Ingmar.

Except...

Remember when Casey Hudson was all "Oh we had another ending, but it was so awesome we had to save it for the final game"? Damn that man was full of shit.

You did not know your crew and the game punished you. It's like

Or, they didn't execute making the mechanics line up with the characterization on that one character. I don't think it's a massive flaw with the game or anything. I vaguely remember Stormwaltz talking about character powersets not always being finalized when they were writing things.

I think they lined it up fine. At no point in the game did he demonstrate an aptitude for any of the things that task demanded of him. He fit in a small space at one point. Great. Not quite what the task is looking for.

The problem to me is more that:

I am so excited that you finished! I also may have been drinking, but still, reading this post made me really want to play ME2 again.

You totally should have decked that reporter, though.

There's actually a handy chart made up for all this!

I would so look at that chart if I didn't enjoy fucking things up on occasion. In fact, I think my next Shepard is going to be a dreadful leader who gets everyone killed.

Spoilered because not everyone has played through ME2 yet.

Somehow he ended up as one of my favourite characters. I'm not sure how, but through the course of our conversations, he really grew on me.

That chart is inaccurate in a couple parts:

Good call with Mass Effect. I should make note that a number of choices you make in ME1 and choices you make about your squad in ME2 do heavily impact the story of ME3. I caught a few glimpses of what happens on either side after playing through the trilogy a few times and it changes the dynamic dramatically.

ehm ecks is right about ME1 having a number of repetitive missions as you explore the galaxy, but they're much like "monk's rewards". There are specific references to these missions in descriptions if you're inclined to read, and even a few that play into the story in more ways than text.

It's a great series and I hope you enjoy it! (I went through as an engineer. Drones are fantastic.)

You also won't know who Cerberus are without doing them.

Yeah, I noticed that. I started up ME2 and I was like "Hey! I remember you!". It's a good feeling that I keep getting throughout the series, and I think that despite all the annoyances of exploring the planets, it was well worth it.

It's even better in ME3 if you lawnmower everything, including the DLCs, in ME2. Hell, ME3 has ME1 reprises.

I obsessively completed every side mission in ME1, but I had forgotten all about Cerberus by the time ME2 was released. Even if you didn't bother with any of the Cerberus side missions in, ME2 does a good enough job establishing who they are.