oRevanchisto said:
Those are some rose-tinted glasses some of ya'll are looking through, hell Tali is probably the most boring character in ME1 next to Kaidan and I'm talking about through the whole game not just her initial introduction. It's only in ME2 that she really comes into her own. I'm gonna call bullshit if say you were truly hooked into characters like Tali and Garrus after your first encounter with them. The only "hook" they had was the fact that they were aliens and thus were interested in learning more about their culture. But, for the most part, their actual personalities could hardly be gleaned from their first meet.
Introduction to Tali; We learn about her through Garrus and C-Sec, and learn more from Fist. We learn that she's a Quarian, she has information on Saren, and is trying to sell it to the Shadow Broker. Obviously, she needs the money for some reason. It also show's she's somewhat reckless and inexperienced, making that sort of decision.
Skip to actually meeting her. She handles herself in a fight, and says she could do as much, but thanks you anyway. She is shown to be a master level hacker of Geth, and explains that she's on her pilgrimage to bring back something of worth to her people. We learn that she is young and relatively inexperienced, but has some confidence with underlying insecurities. We also learn that she is determined and hard working, with her insisting on coming along with Shepard to help complete her pilgrimage, and to help fight Saren - she has a sense of justice as well. After that, yeah, she is a bit boring, being just a Quarian Culture exposition bot, but that first introduction teaches you who her character actually is.
Introduction to Garrus; First look is before the trial, where we learn that he has a boner for justice and is obviously not one for the 'by the books' way of doing things. He's talking about stalling the council, and that while he has no hard evidence his gut tells him its there and he needs to keep looking. He also acts professional, however, showing some respect towards his position and Shepard.
The next time we see Garrus, he's at the Med clinic trying to handle a hostage situation. He does things very gung-ho, using the distraction of Shepard walking in to snipe the assailant. We learn that he is definitely an 'ends justify the means' vigilante type, plays loose with the rules, however is also firmly on the side of protecting people. He is overconfident, and a bit reckless and brash, however skilled and intelligent nevertheless. He hates Saren. He hates fist. He doesn't mind too much who he works with, so long as they'll let him pursue justice.
Further discussions after that build up more of his justice boner, and reveal just how far he's willing to go with his vigilantism. Its all built off what is established in the first half hour though.
So, yeah, you do get some pretty good intros in ME1. Now, knowing you prefer drama first and action and explosions and gunplay, from your other comments on the series, I can understand how you'd miss a lot of this; there isn't a ton of drama in these introductions. There's a bit of dramatic tension thanks to the dangerous circumstances, but its resolved quite quickly. With it being slower and mostly based around talking and firing a handful of shots, as opposed to a fluid run and gun mission for 30 minutes punctuated by talking with characters, I can see how for some it may not be as engaging. Doesn't, however, mean that they weren't given good intros that made people quickly fall in love with the characters. ME1 was very well written for the most part. It ain't just rose tinted glasses that make people still love it; honestly its the only one of the ME series I can still play through, because it stands on its own merits perfectly and is a great experience. 2 is just a lost child with some good drama and atmosphere, which gets tired and predictable pretty quickly, while 3... The less said the better. Its not just nostalgia, ME1 was a genuinely great game.
