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Where do you stand on the Human Reaper? (Full ME2 Spoilers)

G

Garrett Hawke

Member
I just finished ME2 as part of my trilogy replay before I play Andromeda (lol), and I still think that the Human Reaper is the dumbest thing in the entire trilogy.

It's even worse than ME3's ending; ME3's ending is at least canonically consistent even though it was poorly designed from a game and narrative design standpoint. Precedent was set for it - during Legion's loyalty mission in ME2, you are shown how synthetic life forms can be reprogrammed/overwritten (hi crucible), and it causes a significant outburst of energy from the point of origin (rip mass relays). Additionally, you are asked to decide between reprogramming the "heretics" (cough control) or killing them (cough destroy). ME3's choice, while bad from pretty much every perspective, is canonically consistent.

Then you get this stupid human Reaper - after two entire games where every Reaper encountered reminds Shepard that humans are literally nothing to the reapers. The first game firmly establishes that reapers are beyond any alliance race in terms of physiology and technology, and the geth even refer to them as "old machines", implying that they have been around long enough that certain geth view them as gods. Additionally, all of the reapers look the same, whereas the human Reaper looked like a shitty terminator, which seems inconsistent with the idea that a Reaper resembles the race it is made from.

It's just... stupid.

What do you think? Discuss!
YDc42EN.gif
 
E

Eumi

Member
It's just an excuse for a big dumb final boss so I don't mind it too much. It's bad, but it also didn't bleed into the story as far as I remember.

To me it's the same as Saren becoming a stupid robot. It's just 'insert boss here'.
 
L

luulubuu

Junior Member
Oh my god, I was totally happy until you remind me that garbo

Way to destroy a very climatic ending for a game
 
I

I H8 Memes

Member
Didnt make much sense. I actually cracked up when he said "a HUMAN reaper!".

Sometimes storytellers make a story more complicated than it needs to be.
 
M

Machina

Banned
It's stupid because it is established in the lore that each Reaper resembles the species that was harvested to produce it, except that there are like, 3 variations of Reaper total including the Human one, otherwise they all look exactly the same
 
A

A-V-B

Member
A really goofy abnormality in an otherwise great game. If I had to guess, they hadn't figured out what the final boss would be before Drew Karpyshyn left mid-production, so when his guidance disappeared we got Big Terminator Baby.
 
M

MTC100

Banned
I played ME 2 ages ago and I seriously can't remember a Human Reaper... I think it didn't upset me all that much or I would remember it. When I think of Mass Effect nowadays I always have gifs on my mind xD
 
E

EmCeeGramr

Member
Why am I fighting the third boss from Contra III

Why does it have a giant weak point labeled Weak Point

Why does it die in like three Widow shots
 
J

Jarmel

Banned
I thought it was fine from a conceptual standpoint. I understand why people don't like it as it sorta demystifies the Reapers.

The actual design is a bigger problem. They had some super cool conceptual art that they didn't end up using.

xbkCoio.png
 
Z

Zekes!

Member
That was that boss battle, yeah? I dunno, I enjoyed Mass Effect 1 and 2 (I played the trilogy straight through and got burned out on ME3) but I always thought the overall story was weak
 
M

MCD250

Member
I don't necessarily...mind the idea that Reapers are literally made of/from the bodies of lesser species (and I find there is something unerringly disturbing and macabre about the notion that the people who make up a Reaper are somehow individually alive and sentient even as they are turned into eternal gestalt machines), but it is kind of goofily implemented in the game. The poor visual design of the thing doesn't help.
 
R

rootbeerafloat

Member
Sure it's dumb, but Shepard
dying and being pieced back together
is the dumbest thing in the trilogy, so by the time I got there it was a a big whatever.
 
A

Admodieus

Member
It was made worse by the fact that they then said that every reaper looks like the species whose essence its built from, but then they are encased in the scuttlefish shell like armor.

Then it was made even worse by the Leviathan DLC, where we realize that the scuttlefish shell is modeled after the Leviathans
 
G

Garrett Hawke

Member
EmCeeGramr said:
Why am I fighting the third boss from Contra III

Why does it have a giant weak point labeled Weak Point

Why does it die in like three Widow shots
Click to expand...
It's just a baby
Jarmel said:
I thought it was fine from a conceptual standpoint. I understand why people don't like it as it sorta demystifies the Reapers.

The actual design is a bigger problem. They had some super cool conceptual art that they didn't end up using.

xbkCoio.png
Click to expand...
tbh I think the entire concept of it is stupid but yeah, the design certainly doesn't help. A better design might've made it less dumb.
Eumi said:
It's just an excuse for a big dumb final boss so I don't mind it too much. It's bad, but it also didn't bleed into the story as far as I remember.

To me it's the same as Saren becoming a stupid robot. It's just 'insert boss here'.
Click to expand...
to be fair again there is precedent for that, with the husks you see throughout the first game. Saren essentially becomes a husk over the course of the first game.
 
D

Doctor_Thomas

Member
Intimidating design, but maybe a touch too Terminatory and a touch too Contra-ey.

The actual fight was awful too. I remember never enjoying it the two times I played Mass Effect 2.
 
T

TheBowen

Sat alone in a boggy marsh
I loved everything about ME2, but this was a bit of a 'what?' Moment.

Why did the reapers even make one, we know how big there army was from 3
 
C

chrominance

Member
Garrett Hawke said:
The game came out 7 (literally 7) years ago.
Click to expand...

I mean, fine, but it's really weird to say "hey here's a spoiler warning" but then also put a spoiler right beside it. "Human reaper" doesn't necessarily mean much out of context but...

Back on topic: eh. I mean, sure, it looked kind of goofy, but it did the job okay enough for me.
 
M

MisterShine

Member
Fantastic idea, terrible execution.

Should've just been a flayed version of a regular reaper, and not been a crappy boss battle but a good one. Harbinger should've been the real big boss with the half complete reaper in the back.

Also Sovereign drops some minor hints at this in the first game:

"We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness"
"We impose order on the chaos of organic life"
 
M

Mass Effect

Member
You know what annoyed me more about that Reaper? Even if you destroyed the base (and subsequently what's left of the Reaper), the Illusive Man is still like "lol got the tech anyway. Suck it!"

Just further cementing how ME2 was basically worthless plot-wise.
 
S

ShadowSoldier89

Member
in a story that thought it was a great idea to open with murdering off its main character to then have a convoluted revival that made 0 sense in and of itself and managed to make even less sense with the group doing the reviving being an enemy of the character they revived...

Add in the galaxy going into total dumbass mode and ignoring EVERYTHING from ME1 and resetting the fucking galaxy's preparations for the reapers back to square one and you just have a really bad story overall.

Somehow ME3 was worse...

ME2 had excellent character stories though, and those more than carried the weight of the enjoyment in that game.
 
D

Death Penalty

Member
I'm one of the few that actually liked the human Reaper. It was a really grisly and macabre notion. If they'd done a bit more to emphasize the horror of it all I think it would have been received a bit better. It's almost like the concept of the husks but on a truly grand scale, and in the greater context of the Reaper narrative trying to preserve the genetic legacy of the creatures they are exterminating makes sense.
 
M

Meowster

Member
It is definitely a disappointing final boss to the otherwise incredible (the greatest moment in the trilogy and possibly gaming) suicide run. Luckily everything else made up for the Terminator fight.
 
J

JonnyDBrit

Member
I... kinda liked the idea as part of the wider, thematic notion that the reapers 'harvested' the galaxy as part of their own development.

Having a reaper literally made out of humans, and literally shaped like a human, was dumb though. It's along the lines of human batteries in the matrix in terms of 'the imagery trumped over making sense', except in this case the physical imagery wasn't even that great.

I think the most annoying/frustrating aspect of it all is that it's specifically a human reaper. It reeks of human-centricism in a franchise that otherwise managed to make that an active matter of debate, rather than 'well the evil aliens just think humans are better than the rest'.
 
dr_rus

dr_rus

Member
It's not worse than ME3 ending, not even close to being as bad but it is very stupid and felt completely out of place in ME2.
 
L

liquidfox00

Neo Member
I hated it. I felt so invested in the narrative at that point and it was complete immersion breaking for me.

I loved every second of ME1 and 2 up until that exact point. For a game that was taking itself super seriously and keeping me completely on board, it was hilariously bad.

I honestly laughed out load in what was supposed to be a very creepy, incredibly important point of the narrative.

I got over it because I love the world they created but I'll never forget that moment for all the wrong reasons.
 
J

Jarmel

Banned
JonnyDBrit said:
I think the most annoying/frustrating aspect of it all is that it's specifically a human reaper. It reeks of human-centricism in a franchise that otherwise managed to make that an active matter of debate, rather than 'well the evil aliens just think humans are better than the rest'.
Click to expand...

That was always a Walters thing and you can see how the franchise shifted over time to accommodate that. That said, it does make sense after ME1 considering it was a human that foiled Sovereign's plot so it's easy to imagine the Reapers taking a vested interest in humans, not to mention the whole genetic diversity thing.
 
M

MazeHaze

Banned
Orca said:
So at some point it goes from 'spoiler' to 'if you gave a shit you'd know by now'

Seven years is definitely over that line.

The Titanic sinks, by the way.
Click to expand...
This isn't necessarily true. There are just so many games to play. I played the first Mass Effect somewhat recently, was planning on jumping into ME2 as my next game. I guess fuck me right?
 
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