Always felt it was a miss opportunity that every species in the galaxy apparently have the romance gesture than human do, even when they don't make sense, make the world feel much smaller than it should do.
Mastering legends: TBM Plays Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (spoilers abound)
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I mostly agree with that. They address it a bit in the second game with the Garrus/FemShep romance scene ending with them basically doing that headbutting thing rather than kissing.
Anyways, onto the side mission. As mentioned, a bunch of ex-Cerberus scientists are trying to flee, but Cerberus has a bit of a no resignations allowed deal, so we arrive to find Cerberus squads being sent in to gun down the scientists, who have a protector in the form of...Jacob Taylor. Yep, our walking soldier of no personality that was loved by basically no one is back, and lest you think he has any more personality in this game...well, that's only true if you romanced him in the second game, but I'll get into what THAT does in a bit.
Anyways, Jacob Taylor gets shot, but it's only a flesh wound, and after Shepard and co finish off the ground troops, they go inside and meet...Dr. Archer. Yes, the absolute douche of a scientist from the Overlord DLC. Turns out he's suddenly realized "Are we the baddies?" and decided to flee Cerberus after telling Illusive Man where he could stick it. To say he's a little late is understating things a tad. He did ask about David, and Shepard assured him he was safe. Apparently, if you either don't save David or don't tell Dr. Archer that David is fine, he walks off and shoots himself. Again, might hit a little harder if he wasn't, you know, experimenting horrifically on David and defending doing so, as well as requesting permission to continue, the last time we met.
We also meet another scientist, Brynn Cole, and after some talking to her and Jacob, it's established that they are seeing one another. This doesn't change if you romanced Jacob Taylor in the second game. Yep. Out of all the possible romance options across the first two games, Jacob Taylor is the only one that actually cheats on Shepard. Great look, right? Especially given that his excuse is basically "Well, you were under house arrest." Dude, she was DEAD for two years, and you didn't see Kaiden, Ashley, or Liara moving onto someone else, but no, six months of knowing exactly where Shepard was and why you couldn't connect with her was just too much to bear. I'm trying not to also read into that and the fact that he's the only human minority romance option as well...
Anyways, they have the shuttles to get the scientists to safety, but Cerberus shuttles will just shoot them down, and the AA guns are offline. So, it's time for Shepard to get out there to fix them because Jacob got himself shot. After some mowing down of Cerberus troops (love me a mounted gun), they succeed, and everyone is safe. Including Jacob. At this point, you can get back to the Citadel and meet Jacob at Huerta Memorial, where he reveals that not only are he and Brynn together...but she's pregnant. WOW. You really didn't wait long to start fucking someone who wasn't Shepard, dude. What an asshole.
Anyways, with that done, time to finally meet up with the Admiralty Board on a quarian liveship. This oughta be good.
Anyways, onto the side mission. As mentioned, a bunch of ex-Cerberus scientists are trying to flee, but Cerberus has a bit of a no resignations allowed deal, so we arrive to find Cerberus squads being sent in to gun down the scientists, who have a protector in the form of...Jacob Taylor. Yep, our walking soldier of no personality that was loved by basically no one is back, and lest you think he has any more personality in this game...well, that's only true if you romanced him in the second game, but I'll get into what THAT does in a bit.
Anyways, Jacob Taylor gets shot, but it's only a flesh wound, and after Shepard and co finish off the ground troops, they go inside and meet...Dr. Archer. Yes, the absolute douche of a scientist from the Overlord DLC. Turns out he's suddenly realized "Are we the baddies?" and decided to flee Cerberus after telling Illusive Man where he could stick it. To say he's a little late is understating things a tad. He did ask about David, and Shepard assured him he was safe. Apparently, if you either don't save David or don't tell Dr. Archer that David is fine, he walks off and shoots himself. Again, might hit a little harder if he wasn't, you know, experimenting horrifically on David and defending doing so, as well as requesting permission to continue, the last time we met.
We also meet another scientist, Brynn Cole, and after some talking to her and Jacob, it's established that they are seeing one another. This doesn't change if you romanced Jacob Taylor in the second game. Yep. Out of all the possible romance options across the first two games, Jacob Taylor is the only one that actually cheats on Shepard. Great look, right? Especially given that his excuse is basically "Well, you were under house arrest." Dude, she was DEAD for two years, and you didn't see Kaiden, Ashley, or Liara moving onto someone else, but no, six months of knowing exactly where Shepard was and why you couldn't connect with her was just too much to bear. I'm trying not to also read into that and the fact that he's the only human minority romance option as well...
Anyways, they have the shuttles to get the scientists to safety, but Cerberus shuttles will just shoot them down, and the AA guns are offline. So, it's time for Shepard to get out there to fix them because Jacob got himself shot. After some mowing down of Cerberus troops (love me a mounted gun), they succeed, and everyone is safe. Including Jacob. At this point, you can get back to the Citadel and meet Jacob at Huerta Memorial, where he reveals that not only are he and Brynn together...but she's pregnant. WOW. You really didn't wait long to start fucking someone who wasn't Shepard, dude. What an asshole.
Anyways, with that done, time to finally meet up with the Admiralty Board on a quarian liveship. This oughta be good.
iirc, bioware shared the stats of how many people romance various character, and Jacob was like sub 1% of the playerbase, so they probably thought "eh nobody gives a crab about him, so we can make him see someone else". But its still very odd. Like it would actually have made sense if some of the character moved on while Shep was dead between 1/2, and would have brought an interesting twist to it all. But they instead have someone move on here, where it made no sense. He doesn't even bother telling you... Its even more outrageous considering Jacob backstory with his dad, who quite literally use women as disposable lover.
That, and it's ONLY Jacob that this happens with. As we both pointed out, even the love interest from 1 if you had one didn't move on after Shepard died, and that was over a two year time span. Granted, Jacob's romance is explicitly more of a fling than anything, but still, he couldn't have just stuck it out for six months when he knew exactly where Shepard was and why she couldn't talk to her? Or at least send her a Dear John letter. Yes, I know, Cerberus communication, blah blah blah. I'm sure he could have found a way to get someone to deliver a message to her on his behalf.
So, after dealing with the Jacob quest, Shepard went off to meet the admiralty board. Turns out that they decided it was about time that they try to take back Rannoch. Yep, perfect timing for that. While the quarians did have the upper hand at first, the geth soon turned to a new source to get a power upgrade, and started turning the tide. So now, the quarians are preparing to board a geth dreadnought in order to disrupt a signal the geth are broadcasting. A Reaper signal. Son of a fucking *****. Guess doing Legion's shit didn't actually solve as much as we'd hoped.
Luckily, after the death of Rael'Zorah, there was an opening for a new admiral, and with things as crazy as they are, they decided on a geth expert: Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya. Hell yeah, Tali is back. And because I managed to avoid getting her exiled, she actually has some strong pull, although not enough to prevent the war that the quarians decided to wage. With this meeting done, time to storm the dreadnought and try to undo the damage that the quarians have done.
For the record, and consistent with their portrayals in the second game, it's pretty well implied that the actual invasion was Han'Gerrel's idea first and foremost, with Admiral Xen going along with it for the purpose of research and access to geth technology, Admiral Shala'Raan going along with it to keep the peace among admirals, and Admiral Koris being against the invasion but being outnumbered. Tali didn't really want to go with the invasion, either, due to having worked with Legion, but she's young and under a lot of pressure, so she just kind of decided to go with it while using her influence to try to at least temper Gerrel's "We'll do the whole fucking village" attitude.
Luckily, after the death of Rael'Zorah, there was an opening for a new admiral, and with things as crazy as they are, they decided on a geth expert: Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya. Hell yeah, Tali is back. And because I managed to avoid getting her exiled, she actually has some strong pull, although not enough to prevent the war that the quarians decided to wage. With this meeting done, time to storm the dreadnought and try to undo the damage that the quarians have done.
For the record, and consistent with their portrayals in the second game, it's pretty well implied that the actual invasion was Han'Gerrel's idea first and foremost, with Admiral Xen going along with it for the purpose of research and access to geth technology, Admiral Shala'Raan going along with it to keep the peace among admirals, and Admiral Koris being against the invasion but being outnumbered. Tali didn't really want to go with the invasion, either, due to having worked with Legion, but she's young and under a lot of pressure, so she just kind of decided to go with it while using her influence to try to at least temper Gerrel's "We'll do the whole fucking village" attitude.
While I think most of ME3 is pretty disappointing, I quite liked the Quarian side of things. Few quibble (why would geth ship need interior corridor? Why use Legion has an antenna that dies?), but overall its a cool side story, that maybe feel like it should have happened in a more peaceful setting (like whopedo, you just re conquer your homeworld from robot, here come ten thousands time stronger robot to take it back).
Whoops, been neglecting this a bit, haven't I?
Anyways, did the geth dreadnought. Basic gist of it is, a geth dreadnought that has been sending out a signal to make other geth more powerful, and Shepard is going in with Tali and one other (Garrus) to shut down the signal. Bringing Garrus along does lead to a very funny exchange where Garrus offers to share some dextro-friendly chocolate that Dr. Michel bought him. Completely missing the implications of Dr. Michel buying him chocolate. In Tali's words, "Watch yourself, Shepard."
There's also a funny moment near the beginning of the mission where Tali is complaining about once again having to go through vents. "You did fine on the Collector base." "I GOT SET ON FIRE!"
Anyways, this is a pretty basic mission overall. Get to the center core of the ship, shut down the signal emitter, get out. There are complications along the way, like the geth catching on and shutting down everything in a lockdown that is overridden by Tali creating an emergency situation to reverse enough of the lockdown to go through the battery of the ship, leading to a rather fun segment where you have to fight geth while taking cover to prevent the shockwaves of the BFG of the ship taking down your shields.
After that, and a near fatal elevator sequence that becomes somewhat funny if you are a Male Shepard romancing Tali where she claims she was only worried about her reputation if Shepard died because of her technical skills not being up to scratch, we reach the drive core, and find out the source of the code being sent out...Legion is back. He is willing to help you out, however, as he was against the consensus that led to the geth turning to the "Old Machines" for an upgrade in desperation when the quarians started attacking them. Problem is that cutting him out of the machinery manually will cause issues, so we have to do it carefully by shutting it down properly, requiring a bunch of running around. Still, success is had, and the dreadnought is no longer sending out the signal. That's the good news. Bad news is that the dreadnought was only relaying the signal, it wasn't the source of the signal itself. The worse news is that with the ship shut down, Han'Gerrell decides this is the perfect time to strike and blow up the dreadnought. With Shepard and a FUCKING ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET still on board. I'm sorry, I know we've addressed Han'Gerrell is rather bloodthirsty, but this is downright dumb. Anyways, cue Shepard and co, now including Legion, barely making it off the ship. To her credit, Admiral Raan did try to pull back and not follow through on the attack, but Han'Gerrell basically said "I'm doing this, and if you pull out, you'll divide our fleet and then who knows how many deaths are on your hands?", so she was forced to go along with it, although not without damning Han'Gerrell.
Back on the ship, Shepard did what pretty much everyone wanted to do and punched Han'Gerrell and told him to get the fuck off her ship. He didn't do that, but whatever, the punch was enough satisfaction. Anyways, after a rather tense meeting between the Admiralty Board minus Koris and Legion, Legion reveals that the signal source is on Rannoch, but there is also a server that will disrupt the geth and break their connection to each other to make getting to the signal viable. Meanwhile, Koris has crash-landed on Rannoch. So, three missions. Given that the server and signal aren't going anywhere, time to rescue Koris.
ETA: Oh, and Shepard basically said "We'll see" when Xen expressed interest in taking a...closer look at Legion once everything is taken care of. Yeah, felt a bit iffy, but Legion can always say no, and if he does, Shepard will back him.
Anyways, did the geth dreadnought. Basic gist of it is, a geth dreadnought that has been sending out a signal to make other geth more powerful, and Shepard is going in with Tali and one other (Garrus) to shut down the signal. Bringing Garrus along does lead to a very funny exchange where Garrus offers to share some dextro-friendly chocolate that Dr. Michel bought him. Completely missing the implications of Dr. Michel buying him chocolate. In Tali's words, "Watch yourself, Shepard."
There's also a funny moment near the beginning of the mission where Tali is complaining about once again having to go through vents. "You did fine on the Collector base." "I GOT SET ON FIRE!"
Anyways, this is a pretty basic mission overall. Get to the center core of the ship, shut down the signal emitter, get out. There are complications along the way, like the geth catching on and shutting down everything in a lockdown that is overridden by Tali creating an emergency situation to reverse enough of the lockdown to go through the battery of the ship, leading to a rather fun segment where you have to fight geth while taking cover to prevent the shockwaves of the BFG of the ship taking down your shields.
After that, and a near fatal elevator sequence that becomes somewhat funny if you are a Male Shepard romancing Tali where she claims she was only worried about her reputation if Shepard died because of her technical skills not being up to scratch, we reach the drive core, and find out the source of the code being sent out...Legion is back. He is willing to help you out, however, as he was against the consensus that led to the geth turning to the "Old Machines" for an upgrade in desperation when the quarians started attacking them. Problem is that cutting him out of the machinery manually will cause issues, so we have to do it carefully by shutting it down properly, requiring a bunch of running around. Still, success is had, and the dreadnought is no longer sending out the signal. That's the good news. Bad news is that the dreadnought was only relaying the signal, it wasn't the source of the signal itself. The worse news is that with the ship shut down, Han'Gerrell decides this is the perfect time to strike and blow up the dreadnought. With Shepard and a FUCKING ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET still on board. I'm sorry, I know we've addressed Han'Gerrell is rather bloodthirsty, but this is downright dumb. Anyways, cue Shepard and co, now including Legion, barely making it off the ship. To her credit, Admiral Raan did try to pull back and not follow through on the attack, but Han'Gerrell basically said "I'm doing this, and if you pull out, you'll divide our fleet and then who knows how many deaths are on your hands?", so she was forced to go along with it, although not without damning Han'Gerrell.
Back on the ship, Shepard did what pretty much everyone wanted to do and punched Han'Gerrell and told him to get the fuck off her ship. He didn't do that, but whatever, the punch was enough satisfaction. Anyways, after a rather tense meeting between the Admiralty Board minus Koris and Legion, Legion reveals that the signal source is on Rannoch, but there is also a server that will disrupt the geth and break their connection to each other to make getting to the signal viable. Meanwhile, Koris has crash-landed on Rannoch. So, three missions. Given that the server and signal aren't going anywhere, time to rescue Koris.
ETA: Oh, and Shepard basically said "We'll see" when Xen expressed interest in taking a...closer look at Legion once everything is taken care of. Yeah, felt a bit iffy, but Legion can always say no, and if he does, Shepard will back him.
I really like Legion, but the main part that I like about him is that he's the most alien party member you have. Sure you have a couple of other alien, but really they're just human with slightly difference appearance, otherwise they think and act like human.
Legion feel a lot different with his "just one part of the collective" so its a bit disappointing that they humanize him so much here. iirc there's a "do I have a soul" shit that happen and that just feel so out of character.
Legion feel a lot different with his "just one part of the collective" so its a bit disappointing that they humanize him so much here. iirc there's a "do I have a soul" shit that happen and that just feel so out of character.
I can definitely see that argument, although Legion still shows enough uniqueness to not feel like he is completely in that sort of stereotypical "robot" role.
Anyways, for my next mission, decided to go after Admiral Koris for the reasons explained at the end of my last post. The tricky thing is, any ships would get shot down immediately by the geth's AA guns, so before just booking it to where Koris reported his last location, we need to take the guns out. The geth further complicate things by having a jamming tower preventing communications.
One moment that should have been sad, but honestly felt a bit too forced for me to feel as much as the writers seemed to want me to do, is coming across a dying quarian who was not a soldier, just forced into the war and is now dying on Rannoch for something he didn't agree to in any way. That would have been pretty emotional, but the writers went just a step too far by having his last words being to tell his son "Jonah" that his father made it to their homeworld. Why did this push things a little too far? Because this isn't the first time we've heard that name be spoken by a dying quarian. You see, back in Tali's loyalty mission, you can come across a monitor that plays a clip of when the geth broke their control and took down the ship. The female scientist making the recording's last words? "Tell Jonah Mommy loves him very much!" That little detail of making poor off-screen Jonah an orphan within 6 months because of the geth just turned what should have been a pretty solid if cliche emotional moment into farce for me.
Anyways, after taking out the jamming tower and then AA guns, we eventually make contact with Admiral Koris via distress call. However, Koris doesn't want to be rescued. He's an admiral, he knew the risks, but the civilians are another matter. Eventually, Shepard makes the cold but calculated case that while she'd like to save everyone, Koris is a higher priority because as an admiral in charge of the Civilian Fleet, he's more needed back on the ship to keep the rest of the Civilian Fleet safe, and have a voice of sanity in the Admiralty remaining. Reluctantly, Koris allowed himself to be rescued by sending his coordinates, and Shepard did so.
After that, time to go after the Geth server.
Anyways, for my next mission, decided to go after Admiral Koris for the reasons explained at the end of my last post. The tricky thing is, any ships would get shot down immediately by the geth's AA guns, so before just booking it to where Koris reported his last location, we need to take the guns out. The geth further complicate things by having a jamming tower preventing communications.
One moment that should have been sad, but honestly felt a bit too forced for me to feel as much as the writers seemed to want me to do, is coming across a dying quarian who was not a soldier, just forced into the war and is now dying on Rannoch for something he didn't agree to in any way. That would have been pretty emotional, but the writers went just a step too far by having his last words being to tell his son "Jonah" that his father made it to their homeworld. Why did this push things a little too far? Because this isn't the first time we've heard that name be spoken by a dying quarian. You see, back in Tali's loyalty mission, you can come across a monitor that plays a clip of when the geth broke their control and took down the ship. The female scientist making the recording's last words? "Tell Jonah Mommy loves him very much!" That little detail of making poor off-screen Jonah an orphan within 6 months because of the geth just turned what should have been a pretty solid if cliche emotional moment into farce for me.
Anyways, after taking out the jamming tower and then AA guns, we eventually make contact with Admiral Koris via distress call. However, Koris doesn't want to be rescued. He's an admiral, he knew the risks, but the civilians are another matter. Eventually, Shepard makes the cold but calculated case that while she'd like to save everyone, Koris is a higher priority because as an admiral in charge of the Civilian Fleet, he's more needed back on the ship to keep the rest of the Civilian Fleet safe, and have a voice of sanity in the Admiralty remaining. Reluctantly, Koris allowed himself to be rescued by sending his coordinates, and Shepard did so.
After that, time to go after the Geth server.
Took down the Geth Server. Basically, Shepard has to interact directly with the server, with a physical connection a la The Matrix, because of reasons. It's actually a pretty interesting mission, giving some views into the geth consciousness and learning more about the Morning War, when the quarians were driven off-world by the geth uprising. Except that's not how the geth see it. According to their memories, it started with them asking some questions that showed them gaining a consciousness, then the quarians beginning to shut them down or reprogram them to stop them from doing so. Not all the quarians were in favor of this, but those that weren't were...dealt with. This started with arrests, and then military action, before the geth who stood by their creators felt obliged to protect those who were trying to help them by fighting back, breaking off pursuit after the quarians fled off-world.
I'm...not fully in favor of this. Assuming the geth version of events is 100% accurate, and there's no reason to doubt it is given the source and the fact that geth are machines that don't lie (as one of the funniest moments in Mass Effect 2 puts it "Geth do not intentionally infiltrate"), it takes what was a mostly gray situation where the quarians were certainly not in the right for freaking out, but the geth also staged a coup/uprising and became boogeymen of the galaxy for a reason into "Well, the geth were only defending themselves" with none of the nuance in the first game. It's not that the seeds weren't there or that this is a blatant retcon in the same way of some stuff in the game, but it still felt like overly simplifying what should have remained a more complex scenario, something else this game is very good at doing.
There is one funny moment in this mission, mind you, if you are a Male Shepard getting it on with Tali. Shepard asks why the quarians in the geth memory banks are suited up, because back then they didn't wear the suits because they didn't need them on their homeworld. Legion points out that the memory banks are basically being filtered through Shepard's own mind, and presenting it in a way s/he can understand it, finishing by asking how many quarians s/he has seen unmasked. If you're playing a female Shepard, or a male who didn't romance Tali (which let's be honest, probably isn't that many Male Shepards), their response? "Good point." If a male Shepard romancing Tali, the response is instead "Well...one."
Anyways, did that, and some side stuff, and now it's off to actually shut down the signal that is making the geth use Reaper code, and...oh boy. This isn't quite on the level of the Citadel coup, but I'll have thoughts.
I'm...not fully in favor of this. Assuming the geth version of events is 100% accurate, and there's no reason to doubt it is given the source and the fact that geth are machines that don't lie (as one of the funniest moments in Mass Effect 2 puts it "Geth do not intentionally infiltrate"), it takes what was a mostly gray situation where the quarians were certainly not in the right for freaking out, but the geth also staged a coup/uprising and became boogeymen of the galaxy for a reason into "Well, the geth were only defending themselves" with none of the nuance in the first game. It's not that the seeds weren't there or that this is a blatant retcon in the same way of some stuff in the game, but it still felt like overly simplifying what should have remained a more complex scenario, something else this game is very good at doing.
There is one funny moment in this mission, mind you, if you are a Male Shepard getting it on with Tali. Shepard asks why the quarians in the geth memory banks are suited up, because back then they didn't wear the suits because they didn't need them on their homeworld. Legion points out that the memory banks are basically being filtered through Shepard's own mind, and presenting it in a way s/he can understand it, finishing by asking how many quarians s/he has seen unmasked. If you're playing a female Shepard, or a male who didn't romance Tali (which let's be honest, probably isn't that many Male Shepards), their response? "Good point." If a male Shepard romancing Tali, the response is instead "Well...one."
Anyways, did that, and some side stuff, and now it's off to actually shut down the signal that is making the geth use Reaper code, and...oh boy. This isn't quite on the level of the Citadel coup, but I'll have thoughts.
OK, time to do this. I haven't been playing Mass Effect 3, so I was putting this off, but meh, might as well give my thoughts on the mission before they go completely poof in my mind.
As mentioned, Shepard goes in with Tali (required) and Garrus (because ride or die, and it just feels right having those three on this mission) to head to the source of the Reaper Code signal and blow it up with an orbital strike. It's the only way to be sure, after all. Of course, they can't just go straight there, that would be easy. They have to drop a bit aways, then go in on foot, while keeping in communication with Legion to get updates on everything.
However, when Shepard and her party get to the energy signature that indicates where the signal is coming from and orders the strike, it turns out that the source of the code isn't merely a computer or something. It's a full blown Reaper. Welp, time to get the fuck out of there...at least for a while. After a bit of running, Shepard decides that it is time to stop running and stand their ground. This ends here! Um, yeah, fighting a Reaper on foot. That will go well. I mean, yes, we have the quarian fleet and the Normandy, but it took throwing literally everything the asari, turians, and the Alliance had to take down Sovereign in Mass Effect, and even then there were some serious casualties. Surely, they can't just have the quarian fleet and Normandy alone take down a Reaper.
So, after Shepard uses the targeting beacon to sync up the quarian fleet and Normandy to fire in unison, there's a boss fight where Shepard has to slooooowly target the Reaper as it charges up and fires its lazers. Needless to say, letting the beam of death that can easily destroy a starship touch Shepard is no bueno. It should be tense, but between how slowly the targeting beacon actually closes in and how clunky dodging to avoid the laser beam feels, it's more annoying. Three volleys later, the Reaper is mortally wounded. I guess the quarian fleet is better than every Council fleet combined. Noted. After a rather standard "You have no idea what you are dealing with, mortal" speech, Reaper goes bleh. So, in the course of one game, we have seen a relatively small fleet take down a Reaper in a few volleys, and another Reaper get taken down by literally the mother of thresher maws. Man, Sovereign must have just been that badass to deal with everything he did in Mass Effect 1 by Reaper standards, because these guys are going down a fair bit easier.
After that, Legion decides to try to upload the code to the other geth now that the Reaper corruption is dealt with, giving full self-sufficiency/independency to the geth. This is not necessarily a problem, as long as the quarians don't attack. OH COME ON HAN'GERREL ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Yep, Mr. Let's Do The Whole Village decides that now is the perfect time to attack. So now, Shepard has a choice: allow Legion to finish the upload, and have the geth destroy the quarians in retaliation, or stop Legion and let the quarians blow the geth away.
Or, if you've made the right choices throughout the trilogy, you manage to have a third option. You see, there is a hidden set of flags that add up to, IIRC, 6 points total. You get some points for not getting Tali exiled, some points for brokering a peace between Tali and Legion during their disagreement in Mass Effect 2, some points if you destroyed the geth in Legion's loyalty mission rather than rewriting them, and some points if you saved Zaal'Koris. Get enough points, and you can allow Legion to upload the code, while convincing the quarians to break off the attack. The tone changes, however, between Paragon and Renegade. Renegade Shepard is basically "I have saved your asses more than enough times. If you fuck this up, I'm NOT saving you this time." That convinces the quarians to hold back until Legion uploads the code. Sadly, to disseminate the code, Legion also has to add his own runtimes to the process. In essence, Legion sacrifices himself. It's a pretty sad moment, and unlike Mordin, there is legitimately no way around it. Either Legion dies this way, or if you stop him from uploading the code, Tali is forced to kill him to save Shepard. This way does have pretty sad last words from Legion as well, when Tali tells Legion the answer to the question "Does this unit have a soul?" was "Yes." "I know, but thank you, Creator-Zorah. Keelah'selai."
After that, the newly independent geth decide to work with the quarians to help them resettle into Rannoch, with Tali eventually deciding to join Shepard until after the Reapers are dealt with. After that, Shepard gets a message from the asari councilor, who wants to share some very private information with Shepard that may help with the war. So, off to the Citadel to meet with the councilor.
As mentioned, Shepard goes in with Tali (required) and Garrus (because ride or die, and it just feels right having those three on this mission) to head to the source of the Reaper Code signal and blow it up with an orbital strike. It's the only way to be sure, after all. Of course, they can't just go straight there, that would be easy. They have to drop a bit aways, then go in on foot, while keeping in communication with Legion to get updates on everything.
However, when Shepard and her party get to the energy signature that indicates where the signal is coming from and orders the strike, it turns out that the source of the code isn't merely a computer or something. It's a full blown Reaper. Welp, time to get the fuck out of there...at least for a while. After a bit of running, Shepard decides that it is time to stop running and stand their ground. This ends here! Um, yeah, fighting a Reaper on foot. That will go well. I mean, yes, we have the quarian fleet and the Normandy, but it took throwing literally everything the asari, turians, and the Alliance had to take down Sovereign in Mass Effect, and even then there were some serious casualties. Surely, they can't just have the quarian fleet and Normandy alone take down a Reaper.
So, after Shepard uses the targeting beacon to sync up the quarian fleet and Normandy to fire in unison, there's a boss fight where Shepard has to slooooowly target the Reaper as it charges up and fires its lazers. Needless to say, letting the beam of death that can easily destroy a starship touch Shepard is no bueno. It should be tense, but between how slowly the targeting beacon actually closes in and how clunky dodging to avoid the laser beam feels, it's more annoying. Three volleys later, the Reaper is mortally wounded. I guess the quarian fleet is better than every Council fleet combined. Noted. After a rather standard "You have no idea what you are dealing with, mortal" speech, Reaper goes bleh. So, in the course of one game, we have seen a relatively small fleet take down a Reaper in a few volleys, and another Reaper get taken down by literally the mother of thresher maws. Man, Sovereign must have just been that badass to deal with everything he did in Mass Effect 1 by Reaper standards, because these guys are going down a fair bit easier.
After that, Legion decides to try to upload the code to the other geth now that the Reaper corruption is dealt with, giving full self-sufficiency/independency to the geth. This is not necessarily a problem, as long as the quarians don't attack. OH COME ON HAN'GERREL ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Yep, Mr. Let's Do The Whole Village decides that now is the perfect time to attack. So now, Shepard has a choice: allow Legion to finish the upload, and have the geth destroy the quarians in retaliation, or stop Legion and let the quarians blow the geth away.
Or, if you've made the right choices throughout the trilogy, you manage to have a third option. You see, there is a hidden set of flags that add up to, IIRC, 6 points total. You get some points for not getting Tali exiled, some points for brokering a peace between Tali and Legion during their disagreement in Mass Effect 2, some points if you destroyed the geth in Legion's loyalty mission rather than rewriting them, and some points if you saved Zaal'Koris. Get enough points, and you can allow Legion to upload the code, while convincing the quarians to break off the attack. The tone changes, however, between Paragon and Renegade. Renegade Shepard is basically "I have saved your asses more than enough times. If you fuck this up, I'm NOT saving you this time." That convinces the quarians to hold back until Legion uploads the code. Sadly, to disseminate the code, Legion also has to add his own runtimes to the process. In essence, Legion sacrifices himself. It's a pretty sad moment, and unlike Mordin, there is legitimately no way around it. Either Legion dies this way, or if you stop him from uploading the code, Tali is forced to kill him to save Shepard. This way does have pretty sad last words from Legion as well, when Tali tells Legion the answer to the question "Does this unit have a soul?" was "Yes." "I know, but thank you, Creator-Zorah. Keelah'selai."
After that, the newly independent geth decide to work with the quarians to help them resettle into Rannoch, with Tali eventually deciding to join Shepard until after the Reapers are dealt with. After that, Shepard gets a message from the asari councilor, who wants to share some very private information with Shepard that may help with the war. So, off to the Citadel to meet with the councilor.
Yeah the boss is very video game-y, the game would just be better without it, it doesn't even really use the basic gameplay system, its like a bad mini game.
I talked about it before, but I really think its disappointing that Legion/Geth just become another essentially human species at the end. It would have been much more interesting if right after "dying" another Geth, entirely identical to legion, shown up and was just "Hey, we made a copy of legion 1 nano second before he was sacrificed, her it is since you seemed to enjoy his presence so much".
I just watched most of pluribus (great beginning, doesn't know what to do in the second half) which really goes all in on the concept of hive mind, I think it did pretty well so I think producer underestimate how much people need every character to act and believe exactly like human.
I talked about it before, but I really think its disappointing that Legion/Geth just become another essentially human species at the end. It would have been much more interesting if right after "dying" another Geth, entirely identical to legion, shown up and was just "Hey, we made a copy of legion 1 nano second before he was sacrificed, her it is since you seemed to enjoy his presence so much".
I just watched most of pluribus (great beginning, doesn't know what to do in the second half) which really goes all in on the concept of hive mind, I think it did pretty well so I think producer underestimate how much people need every character to act and believe exactly like human.
I don't think I'd like that, personally. Reminds me too much of when they did the same thing with Cait Sith in the original FF7, and I feel like it would completely invalidate the emotion of his self-sacrifice.
The point of Cait Sith invalidating his own self-sacrifice was to make you think they were going to cop out again with Aerith, so that it would hit harder when they didn't.
I get that as well, and it did work in that context. Just randomly invalidating Legion's sacrifice wouldn't have done anything for me other than...invalidating his sacrifice, though, because we got non cop out deaths before Legion, and we get more after him.