Mass Effect 3

^a shot on its own doesn't matter as much as its context

The thing about 2 is that all your squadmates are great characters, but they never feel like a cohesive team until the very end.

At the very least, characters in 1 do actually talk to each other. They make comments on missions, and there's always those fun elevator conversations. Sure, the elevators themselves got annoying, but the conversations were great. Not to mention the post-mission debriefings.

With 2, nothing. Miranda and Jacob welcome some of them on board, there's two confrontations, and there's a very, very small number of occasions where, if you have the right pairing, one might respond to another's comment. But it's extremely rare.

And when the whole point is building a team, you need to make it feel like you're building a team. Imagine if, in Ocean's 11, the only person that any of the characters ever talked to was George Clooney. That would be fucking lame. It would suck. Because you're wanting to see how everyone interacts with each other.

The fact that 2 doesn't even have Tali react to you bringing a fucking geth on board is the biggest load of bullshit. After you recruit Legion, the next conversation with Tali should consist of her asking if you're insane. Jacob comments about how "Tali's gonna flip," but she doesn't. She says nothing at all.

So 2 largely fails at the main point of the game. They should've cut two characters. I would suggest Thane and Samara. Yeah, they're great characters, but do they actually bring to the game? Not really. They could've made Miranda or Jack romanceable by either gender, to keep the number of romance options equal. And cutting out those two characters might've allowed them to have more interactions between the characters left in.

Question: Now that I finally got Live I'm planning on playing through the entire series again with the DLC. Does Pinnacle Station add anything useful? I've got the Platinum Hits version of ME 1 that apparently comes with Bring Down the Sky but I'm debating whether to get Pinnacle Station because it isn't a story requirement.

edited 7th May '13 10:00:42 PM by theLibrarian

It adds... experience? Not really worth five dollars.

Pinnacle Station adds a combat arena. And a house where you can spend money for a chance at some really good equipment that isn't always too easy to find in the field.

So, not particularly. It can be kinda fun beating some of the scenarios. But really, it's probably not worth wasting money on.

The apartment is also the only place where you can refill your grenades outside of random drops. But all in all unless you just have nothing else to do with $5 then I can't say it's worth it.

Because, of course, we all use grenades so much. And actually, Bring Down the Sky has a place where you can refill them.

Alright then. So just Bring Down the Sky. Good, no money needed for 1 then.

Any "cut character" suggestion list from Mass Effect 2 that doesn't include Jacob is invalid.

Jacob's presence actually makes sense from a story perspective. He's someone who can help you out on Lazarus Station, and he serves the role of a sane man on the ship, as well as being a sympathetic Cerberus agent. He's boring, but he actually contributes something. Thane and Samara are much more interesting, but also largely superfluous.

Yes, Jacob is useful to get away from Lazarus station. But as soon as you get Garrus back on the team, you don't have to worry anymore about being surrounded by people you don't know.

While Thane and Samara are powerful fighters, which makes more sense in a Mission:Impossible setup. We could simply dump Jacob on the Citadel the first time we land there, and the game wouldn't be bad.

I know he was supposed to be a 'stabilizing element' in the team but I don't see it. I never got that feeling from the guy. It's hard to describe for me. He always seemed, just...there.

One day dream I had was that he was some future version of Static Shock. Stupid I know but he was definitely more interesting then. Well until my day dream stopped which was a few seconds later. Never mind.

edited 8th May '13 12:47:14 PM by HellmanSabian

He is redundant because Shepard is the stabilizing element of the team, and is much more awesome.

Also, Kaidan and Ashley already had the spot as the down-to-earth people. Unlike in the first game, the second game is all about a suicide mission, so having a normal, balanced guy doesn't really make sense. You need crazies or real friends for that, and Jacob is neither.

If the team had those interactions, maybe the whole "stabilising factor" would've shown more. Hard to be that stabilising if you never talk to any of the other crew members.

Exactly. Cutting the cast back a bit would've allowed Jacob to interact with the others, helping the team become more cohesive.

These games could benefit from a remake a few years from now. Hollywood-style remake, with character and plot changes, not videogame-style Updated Re-release remake. Though they'd have to admit they did stuff wrong first, and it'd be a bit hard to fix 3's plot.

We start by retconning the ending and switching Game Leng to Deception Leng then we work our way down from there.

...meme?