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[Jarmel]

Since people keep bringing up level design, I decided to look into some interviews and see if there were any comments from Bioware about how the level design changed over the course of the trilogy. I found three really good sources that talk about this to an extent. There is a very good postmortem done by the level designers for ME2 discussing their development of ME1 as well as the changes they did as a company.

This was the level design development structure for ME1

In the PowerPoint presentation, this type of development structure led to some of the production issues such as Q&A testing and also cut content as well such as Caleston. There seemingly was a lot of issues trying to make everything gel at the end due to bad cross department communication and this resulted in a lot of missed content. Each change by one of the departments caused a 'ripple' effect that made everything wonky. They changed this design philosophy for ME2, in that they shifted from a Silo Mentality(which is what they used in ME1) to a five phase development system consisting of; Phase 0 is Narrative Overview, Phase 1 is Narrative Playable, Phase 2 is White Box, Phase 3 is Orange Box, Phase 4 being hardening, and Phase 5 is Finaling. There seemingly was more interdepartmental communication and also the level teams were branched off into groups of three called dogpiles.

On Mass Effect 2 we divide all Level Designers into groups of around 3: 2 Level Designers and 1 Senior. Each of these groups is called a Scrum or dogpile and each dogpile has a puntastic name: Fighting Fish Dogs, War Beasts and us, the Hellhounds…Yeah I think we got the best name too. These dogpiles have one or two designated QA, usually one artist per Level Designer, and a writer and cinematic designer who float between dogpiles for best distribution.

This seemingly resulted in less content getting cut and it allowed more flexibility in the development practice. I think you can tell the difference when playing ME1 and ME2 in that ME2 had more traditional levels compared to ME1, which was just more freeflow. Some people, as mentioned in this thread, liked this more freeflow/less compartimentalization of levels however it seemingly resulted in some serious content loss. Caleston was supposed to be the planet where the player was to meet Liara and it was more like an industrial version of Noveria.

Caleston, a story-related "outland" planet with refineries and industrial cartels that was intended to be a part of the game's core story arc, was deleted from the game outright. We will never get that planet back, people. Shed a tear.

This was an interesting question raised during the PowerPoint presentation. I would love to see a ME1 with a more controlled level design if it resulted in more content. It's apparent that Bioware couldn't handle the sort of non-compartmentalization that was found in ME1, for whatever reason. The dream would have been a sort of Mass Effect Skyrim but Bioware isn't/wasn't organized to handle something like that. It should be interesting to see what comes out of Inquisition mainly because the levels seen in Inquisition so far are pretty open so maybe Frostbite is easier to work with in that regards.

Now for ME3, It seems pretty much like the ME2 model, so no surprises there. There was one thing I found interesting was,

Finally, for each area of a given level, the design team defines themes and emotions that they can refer back to in order to guide and influence the game's design.

For [Geno02], Feltham and the game’s other designers—including John Dobrow and Boyd McKenzie—used the classic three-act structure to simultaneously tell an emotion-driven story and create an engaging level. Their structure consisted of:

1. Inciting Incident. Joker tells Shepard that they can’t just walk into the shroud, and that they have to somehow get rid of the reaper.
2. First reversal. The highway crash which feels like a bit of a setback.

3. Low point. Wreav has his moment with the Thresher Maw, leaving a much smaller party than you hoped to go into the fight with.

4. Second reversal. Here, Shepard decides to use Kalros, the Thresher Maw, to attack the reaper.

5. Climax. This is the big moment with the genophage. Lots of different climaxes here.

6. Epilogue. This is the funeral, and a big moment where Eve dies or lives, with lots of characters talking about moving forward.

Kinda interesting in that they were trying to interweave the storytelling into the level itself. At the above source, there's also some good stuff about the Tuchanka level itself.

-Going way back, the game’s main writer always wanted Mordin to “ascend to his fate”, so the end of this mission was an appropriate fit for this intent.
-Right at the end of the game, as you prepare to take on the Reaper, play testers were finding the build up “too bleak”. According to Feltham, the designers decided to add the cut scene of the Turian ships flying overhead as a way of giving the player a little emotional boost.
-Also right before the Reaper fight, they placed the player at a lower elevation than the Reaper to make it feel even bigger.

I never really paid attention to some of this stuff so it's kinda interesting hearing about the smaller touches.

For those interested in the Mass Effect 2 level design process, here's the PowerPoint presentation.

 

[Winterfang]

Mass Effect 3 gameplay is so good that it overrides any negatives I have about the game. Also I wish the OP expanded on the characters more as they where Mass Effect. Also#2 you should try ME3 multiplayer.

 

[Coffee Dog]

You must realize how controversial the above statement is. What exactly do you mean by best 'game' of the three?

He's obviously stating that as far as gameplay is concerned, mass effect 3 kicks ass. Gun customization returned, skill trees were more in depth, the enemy types are the only interesting ones throughout all three games (unless you really enjoy fighting palette swapped mercs in ME2), and most of all, the combat was actually fluid and shep didn't feel like he was moving through molasses and fighting the cover system, far more refined than ME2's janky mess.

 

[Winterfang]

You must realize how controversial the above statement is. What exactly do you mean by best 'game' of the three?

What's controversial about it? Mass Effect 3 is the best game of the franchise. The most replayable and the most fun to play.

 

[Jarmel]

Mass Effect 3 gameplay is so good that it overrides any negatives I have about the game. Also I wish the OP expanded on the characters more as they where Mass Effect. Also#2 you should try ME3 multiplayer.

I actually meant to talk more about the characters but the OP was getting kinda long

Spoiler

and I forgot

.

I suppose I should start with Shepard. Shepard as a character is virtually non-existent mainly because the player can switch the type of responses, from Paragon to Renegade, with virtually little detriment other than the loss of Paragon/Renegade points. This has both some downs and ups, mainly that Shepard can be wildly inconsistent but it also gives a greater degree of personalization to the player in that they feel they shaped Shepard and can give any sort of mental justification they want for his behaviour. So you might have an extremely xenophobic Shepard who over the course of the games, tends to love aliens. There really isn't a dedicated character arc to Shepard and that's both a strength and weakness.

There's also a large degree of self-insertion in that Shepard gets all the ladies and saves the galaxy. That's a problem with the ending in ME3 actually, in that the writers wrestle control away from the player and force Shepard as a person to make certain choices that the audience would not have done.

Then there's Liara, the virgin scholar who in ME1 pretty much exists for the sole purpose of you deflowering her. Despite the prior harsh sentence, I liked her in ME1 because she had this 'nerdy' aspect to her, something Tali would carry in ME2. She definitely hardens up in ME2, too much so. Bioware does a poor job explaining her change in personality in the base game of ME2 and that's partially why Lair of the Shadow Broker was so critical. Like in ME1, she's somewhat soft spoken and geeky but in ME2, she's citing lines from her mother. They dial it down a few notches in ME3 and I think that's where her character shines. She's the Shadow Broker so she has power separate from Shepard and is dominant but not overly so. Liara also exemplifies an issue throughout the trilogy from a writing standpoint, parental issues.

Kaiden is so boring that every playthrough I have, he's in a crater at Virmire. He's supposed to be the safe male romance option for females I guess. Ashley is much better mainly because she has some serious character development over the course of the trilogy, coming from her issues with aliens. She gets too much flak for being xenophobic but she does properly explain her reasons and shows she is working on them. That said, both characters suffer from their status of being killable in Virmire in that they have a reduced role in ME2, in that you get one lousy scene on Horizon and an email afterwards. ME3 does fix this but it also makes them the opposition to Shepard in some weird contrived way that really doesn't gel and is seemingly a regression of both characters.

An accusation about Garrus is that he's bland in ME1 and I can kinda see that. He's definitely missing his swagger and strong personality seen in ME2 and ME3. He's supposed to be your protege throughout the trilogy and due to that, in ME1, he kinda just follows you. Of course in ME2, he becomes Batman with more calibrations. His dialogue in ME2 and ME3 is so great, mainly because he jokes around but also because the player gets the sense of how capable and reliable he is. He probably has the best recruitment mission in ME2 because it showed off how badass he was, being able to hold off three gangs by himself. He worked as a constant in that Shepard knew they could rely on Garrus to get shit done.

I really don't have strong feelings towards Wrex one way or another. He again serves as the 'bro' character and he's awesome in his own right. He doesn't put up with your shit if you try to screw him and he serves as the battle hardened veteran in ME1. He's another character that took a hit in ME2 due to his killable status at Virmire. I think making him the leader of the Krogans was the right call though because it does give more personal elements to the genophage decisions. He always had this dangerous element that many of the characters such as Grunt were lacking.

Oh boy at Tali. I'm sure there are poems, love songs, and waifu cakes out there about her. I really didn't have that strong of an impression about her in ME1. In ME2, she pretty much fills up Liara's role, now that Liara for some bullshit reason doesn't want to work with you. She has these cute little mannerisms and people got real excited trying to figure out what was under that mask. Once aspect about Tali I liked was when Legion got onboard in ME2 and there was the 'argument' in the hold in regards to him. I thought that was very appropriate in regards to her peoples' background.

Legion was the best new character in ME2. He really helped to give a different perspective to the Geth and add to some complexity to the Geth with the multiple factions aspect. He also seemed inhuman in his responses and in many ways, was like a machine but also had emotions as well. Also who can forget him doing the robot? Nobody, that's who. It's a tragedy what they did to him in ME3, he needed a ton more screentime.

I don't like Grunt. He just reminds me of someone yelling, "XTREME" at the top of their lungs. He's supposed to be this hardcore, more badass version of the Krogans but I feel it was a case of someone trying too hard.

As for Miranda, also known as dat ass, I somewhat liked her in ME2. She had this businesswoman aspect to her and was assertive. Problem is that she gets hit by the 'daddy issues' stick and doesn't ever recover as a character. She then gets a five second cameo, in her same damn outfit from ME2, to wrap up her storyline in ME3.

Jack is interesting to say the least. Some of her design also reminded me of "XTREME" but it's handled a bit differently. She's a very sexual person as seen by her character design, in that she's almost nude. Not to mention that she'll sleep with you in a heartbeat in ME2 if you want to. It's supposed to make you feel uncomfortable as she uses that as a weapon to a degree. Too many people write her off as the slut of the group when she is more complex than that. Jack has a lot of mental issues and is psychotic, probablly due to her abandonment coming from her childhood and trusting the wrong people later in life. She has a really tragic background but delivers it in the most obnoxious way possible. I do think she's one of the few new characters from ME2 that had a good character development conclusion in ME3. Her character design in ME3 is also leagues better than the ME2 version.

Mordin was the true model of a scientist Salarian. His VA really knocked it out the park as Mordin's speech mannerisms made him stand out. I also thought Mordin was again a good way to get some info and perspective on the Salarians as a whole. Too bad about ME3, though.

Samara was needed as she helped to balance out the player's impressions of the Asari, as the only real contact they had was with Liara. It helped to make the Asari seem less a species only concerned with fucking and seem more cultured/developed. Of course I'm sure that didn't stop people from attempting to sleep with Samara and there's always Morinth...

EDI in ME2 was fine as a floating space vagina. Or at least it was better than her being in that cyborg body in ME3. Oh man her character took a hit in ME3 as her romance with Joker is creepy on so many levels. I did like her in ME2 though because it did give a voice to the Normandy.

Thane is another character that I don't have much a stance on. The philosopher assassin has been done before but I found his species background to be somewhat interesting. He did get a proper sendoff in ME3 though, so there is that.

Jacob is bland as fuck and so was Vega. Jacob is another victim of 'daddy issues' Bioware. I also feel bad for people who romanced Jacob in ME2 as they really got the shortend in ME3. Oh man. Vega's shtick with the nicknames wasn't really cute or funny despite the writers desperately trying it to be. They both are just there and nothing more.

I liked Javik a lot actually. He had this asshole personality that made him fun to interact and converse with. His responses in some of the conversations are amazing due to how condescending he is. I also think he's pivotal in setting up some of the themes in ME3 before you talk with Space Casper. The conversations with him were also great at understanding the Protheans and debunking them as some sort of mystical race.

I didn't bother discussing Kasumi or Zaeed because their roles are so limited in the games that there isn't much to talk about in regards to them other than Kasumi being a space ninja and Zaeed being a Mandalorian.

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Man, I really do not like how inconsistent Liara was as a character. Had they kept the way she was written in ME1, shy and nerdy but gave her a little more confidence, then I would've been happy. But then they also had her as always being Shepard's best friend and pushing to be what felt like the "Default" romance, so that was annoying.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

In ME2, she pretty much fills up Liara's role, now that Liara for some bullshit reason doesn't want to work with you

DUDE, THE SEX WAS BAD.

she just doesn't want to hurt shep's feelings.

 

[fushi]

Let's not forget that they switched VAs for Mordin in ME3 and pretty much noone noticed.

This thread was a great read. I am also in the camp that loved ME for the promises it made and disliked the sequels for switching tracks and not delivering. Janky gameplay matters not if the world is a joy to explore.

 

[geomon]

Let's not forget that they switched VAs for Mordin in ME3 and pretty much noone noticed.

I noticed. Had a bad case of the 'Wrong Sounding Muppets' so to speak.

 

[CharmingCharlie]

Mass Effect 1 :-

Mass Effect 2 :-

Mass Effect 3 :-

Three pictures that adequately display the rotting of a franchise right up to the point when Casey and Mac took a huge shit all over it.

 

[Winterfang]

DUDE, THE SEX WAS BAD.

she just doesn't want to hurt shep's feelings.

LOL that makes a lot of sense, now that she had sex and was like "Meh", then Shepard dying, she focused on other issues and harden up. Not having played ME1 and not wanting too, I never saw Liara as an innocent pure lady, but rather as a cold blooded killer. This made me not trust her at all until at least my third replay of the series. (I though I was going to be back stabbed).

Vega is miles better than Jacob, a total bro in the best sense of the word. Great character to have you on your team also (He took like 3 brutes by himself on the last part of the game, ON INSANITY!!) and his flirting with Femshep was downright cute.

 

[- J - D -]

Ironic that DLC for all three games tend to show big potential in mission structure an ideas. Bring Down The Sky was Mass Effect's open terrain side missions done right, with one of the more legitimately morally frustrating dilemmas at the end. Lair of the Shadow Broker showed how engaging a linear, cinematic, and mondern structure Mass Effect mission can be when you're got a lot of location hopping and a rapidly unraveling narrative. Overlord managed to inject some Bring Down The Sky-style hub exploration with mildly non-linear missions structure across an assortment of locations and a decent story. Leviathan brought back some of the downtime->combat->downtime->combat structure that was totally absent in Mass Effect 3. Omega, despite people hating on it, is honestly one of the better traditional shooter structured quest arcs in the game. Unlike almost all of Mass Effect 3 and its DLC, Omega breaks away from the empty corridor->arena shootout formula by littering halls with minor encounters and drip feeding little encounters across the game, while also having you moving forward much faster, developing a great sense of traversal and distance.

It's like when they don't have to pander to a greater game narrative, or manage the development of major quests and side quests alongside their locked budget and semi-flexible dev time, and instead can just focus on one individual arc free of consequence or integration into anything else, they produce their best work.

One can hope they realized all of this by the beginning of ME4's pre-production. Then again, I don't know when post-game development for ME3 ended and ME4's began.

This was an interesting question raised during the PowerPoint presentation. I would love to see a ME1 with a more controlled level design if it resulted in more content. It's apparent that Bioware couldn't handle the sort of non-compartmentalization that was found in ME1, for whatever reason. The dream would have been a sort of Mass Effect Skyrim but Bioware isn't/wasn't organized to handle something like that. It should be interesting to see what comes out of Inquisition mainly because the levels seen in Inquisition so far are pretty open so maybe Frostbite is easier to work with in that regards.

Now for ME3, It seems pretty much like the ME2 model, so no surprises there. There was one thing I found interesting was,

Kinda interesting in that they were trying to interweave the storytelling into the level itself. At the above source, there's also some good stuff about the Tuchanka level itself.

I never really paid attention to some of this stuff so it's kinda interesting hearing about the smaller touches.

For those interested in the Mass Effect 2 level design process, here's the PowerPoint presentation.

It is interesting to see the difference in approach to storytelling Bioware took between ME1-ME2-ME3 and how it all ties in with level design and mission structure. It's something that I'm sure a lot people can parse the difference by "feel" alone, if not notice immediately outside the very obvious linear vs. open structure.

I believe that in some ways, Bioware managed to cram in a lot of ambiant/interactive storytelling into the condensed traversal experience of ME3's missions. It was a necessity, given the urgency of the narrative forcing their hand in terms of relaying lore/mythology to the player to give whatever world or locale they were on more detail. I'll need to replay the first game again to make sure, but I don't remember there being quite as many points of interaction in any given ME1 mission compared to the amount they crammed into environmental bits in ME3's missions (data pads, details on various surfaces, environmental triggers that would start a snippet of conversation between Shep and crew, etc etc.). Just using Priority Tuchanka as an example, the amount of detail the put into the underground section was fairly clever, and foreshadowed the use of Kalross later on. The lack of holstering in ME3 tends to blur the line between what areas are meant for combat, and what areas are meant for relaying background info via the environment. It's what happens when the narrative drive is so forceful, cutting out the downtime sections where the world would be fleshed out by other means.

ME1 by contrast relied more on information provided by the detailed galaxy map planet description and the codex, then dropped you onto the planet and let the world sink in. Then you get to hub sections where dialogue would fill in the world-building gaps. The remainder of the traversal and areas with combat had little in player-found/activated story details.

Mass Effect
Mako traversal -> Hub exploration/dialogue/world-building -> shooting traversal -> exploration/ambiant storytelling -> [Circumstantial] Mako traversal -> Hub exploration/dialogue/world-building -> repeat

Mass Effect 3
Cutscene/Dialogue -> Shooting/Ambiant Storytelling/world-building -> Cutscene/Dialogue -> repeat

I'm not sure which is better from a storytelling perspective, but each suited the needs of the kinds of narrative structure they needed to fit.

 

[The Incarnation]

Wasted potential, that's all that I can think of when it comes to this series.

The first game should have been the foundation of something great. Even for milking the entire universe with other games, Star Wars style.

Ended up sacrificing scope, vision and ambition for instant popularity and accessibility.

 

[LastNac]

I can always see the passion people put into these long write ups. A lot of love went into this...

Great job, OP.

 

[EatChildren]

Garrus: Total bro, and unless you're rolling lesbo the most logical romance choice for femshep considering their histories. I don't really get the "boring" complaints. Garrus is dry, but that's part of his character. One of the most proactive characters outside of Shepard with clearly defined ambitions and moral guidelines.

Tali: Fanbase makes her creepy. Decent character otherwise, and among the best voice work in the series. Strongest character arc across a three game narrative, the character showing proper maturity and development when confronted with new information.

Liara: Ali Hillis is hot and knows it. Liara has some of the sweetest moments in the series, but can also come across as flat and overly forced as the default alien relationship. ME3 found a really good balance for her character, and allows her to have some of the best moments in the game. I am glad they grew her somewhat. She wasn't going to be the goofy virginal nerd she was in ME1 forever, and it would have been creepy as fuck if she was.

Wrex: Integral component to the genophage arc and one of the strongest characters in the game for it. Takes the already interesting lore and history of Krogan/Salarian/Turian and makes it more interesting again by imprinting his strong personality on the flow of events. Another total bro, and a philosopher Krogan.

Ashley/Kaiden: Humans suck and sucked even more in ME3.

Mordin: Another one of the strongest arcs in the series. Mordin's matter-of-fact this-is-logical writing comes across believably and honest, BW managing to balance his belief in the genophage in ME2 with his belief in a cure in ME3 without it seemingly like he'd done a 180. Like Wrex, very insightful and provides some of the best lore commentary in the series.

Legion: Wasted potential: the character. Legion is probably one of if not the most important recruitable characters in the series in regards to the series lore and expectations built from the first game, but BW totally fucked it by making his acquisition optional, at the very fucking end of ME2, and then screwed him over further in ME3. Should have been recruited early in ME2 and used to drive the narrative forward. Some of the most important commentary in the series and integral to growing both the Geth and Tali's story arcs.

Miranda: Iono. Dat ass I guess. I really like Strahovski but ME2/ME3 just showed she doesn't have her finger on the pulse of voice work over live acting, resulting in Miranda always sounding kinda like she's reading from a script or telling a story. Committing her character to super bitch status and always somewhat antagonistic to Shepard was a good idea. At least it gives her some personality. I found she was consistent through ME3 too, and feel most of the arguments that she wasn't stem from big time Miranda fans just disappointed she wasn't given more exposure.

Jacob: Who?

Jack: Fubbed potential. Hot as fuck, cliche touch bitch, good introduction and loyalty mission in ME2. Her character arc is also pretty decent, in ME3 at least. BioWare fucks her up by resorting to "plz halp me big handsome shepard im so broken ;_;" as part of her romance arc. So boring, so lame, turning her into another broken girl who must go crying to the protagonist to fix all her problems.

Samara: Written well enough but I fucking hate her. Illogical fanatical religious nutbag. This is the equivalent of having an extremist of any faith on your ship. Should have been blown out the airlock.

Thane: More like boring. Okay I liked his character; well voiced, interesting to talk to, decent back story. But the philosopher assassin thing is a tired cliche and drell seemed to hardly exist beyond an excuse for Thane to be in the game.

Grunt: Liked him more on replays. I feel his character is deliberately left very simplistic, kind of like an anti-Wrex, where instead of having a deeply opinionated Krogan you've got a meathead bro Krogan who's entire life purpose is to yell at things and kill them for you.

EDI: Creepy romance arc aside, one of the best characters in the series. Great, legitimately funny dialogue and some of the smarter philosophical writing in the series. Plus, you know. Tricia Helfer.

Kasumi: Part #1 of the "cut from ME2's main cast but shouldn't have been". Cliche cutesy Asian assassin but I still really liked her. Among the better voice work in the series, fun to be around, and her DLC mission was great.

Zaeed: Big goddamn hero (and Part #2 of "cut from ME2's main cast but shouldn't have been").

James: Liked him a lot more than I expected. He's pretty flat but doesn't regress too much to the meathead total bro UGH UGH that I'd predicted him to be. Nice enough character. The whole "I'm Spanish so I'll constantly talk Spanish stuff because Spain" was super lame.

Javik: Up there with Legion as wasted potential. Regression to DLC was a criminal move for one of the most lore important characters in the series, especially for Mass Effect 3. Like Wrex, Javik is one of those characters with a distinct, well defined and strong willed personality that just oozes charisma and honesty. Funny, bold, confronting, and offers insight into situations where even if you don't agree with his perspective you can see where he's coming from. Loved that BW totally fucked with expectations from fans/characters for Protheans to be this mystical perfect race of super peace loving aliens and made them something a lot more plausible and believable. Smart writing, for once.

 

[Nibel]

Ashley/Kaiden: Humans suck and sucked even more in ME3.

Jacob: Who?

Thane: More like boring. Okay I liked his character; well voiced, interesting to talk to, decent back story. But the philosopher assassin thing is a tired cliche and drell seemed to hardly exist beyond an excuse for Thane to be in the game.

Thane was always the coolest of the bunch and I happily await a possible spin-off with MGR:Rising combat gameplay and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory stealth gameplay

 

[mancan92]

This thread makes me sad. What ever you feel about Mass Effect individual games. It will and should go down as one of the most ambitious games to ever truly offer what was said. We had character saves and choices across 3 games, relationships, intergalactic war and exploration, some of the greatest characters ever in a video game and some of the most memorable moments in the whole generation.

People like to take the mick out of Bioware but what they achieved in the Mass Effect series is something no other studio has come close to achieveing and that is a truly believable and deep universe.

This must surely be a series that pushed gaming to the next level, it was a soup drama, star trek like universe advanture, interactive novel and porno all in one. This grand idea of what they achieved with Mass Effect is what games like destiny should be pushing but most studios are too scared to take something like this on. There is truly no game that right now is even attempting what they did and I cant wait till their next product to push the genre forward. I hope next gen brings more pioneers with ideas of grandeur even if they dont come out perfectly.

 

[mancan92]

Wasted potential, that's all that I can think of when it comes to this series.

The first game should have been the foundation of something great. Even for milking the entire universe with other games, Star Wars style.

Ended up sacrificing scope, vision and ambition for instant popularity and accessibility.

I dont even...............

How can you even say this when they achieved stuff no other studio has come near to replicating?

 

[Jonathan28]

Mass Effect 3 gameplay is so good that it overrides any negatives I have about the game. Also I wish the OP expanded on the characters more as they where Mass Effect. Also#2 you should try ME3 multiplayer.

Completely agreed, the gameplay is awesome and it got even better in the Omega DLC. Every time I remember that the same team which made my favourite ME3 DLC(Omega) are the same ones making the next Mass Effect game I do a little dance around the house.

 

[Winterfang]

Garrus:Amazing voice, always had some wisdom behind him even when I was a douche to him, I felt like he would follow me to hell and back. He also had some funny dialog with James, though his "romance" with Tali came out as a surprise.

Tali: I just plain hate her. She acts like a prick, has crippling daddy issues, no balls whatsoever and depends on Shepard to save her ass (wildly incompetent also, so many Quarians dead because of her) and wouldn't hesitate to eliminate an entire race. I also felt like she didn't mature at all between ME2-3.

Liara: I don't like Liara either, Cold murderer that refused to even give me information (I was dead for two years, I was out of the loop) without asking something in return, she was sweeter in ME3 but I still didn't like her. One of the best Team Members on ME3.

Wrex: No idea who this guy is, I only know him as Wreav dead brother.

Wreav: Wreav was a wise leader of the Krogan that thinks like the acients do, well respect among their race, he is tough but that's how Krogans are. In ME3 he was a tyrant in the making, he has all the factors of a ruthless diraction, somewhat of a monster, obviously meant for the player to hate him but he is very charming and surprisingly funny. He is blurs the line between ally and villain.

Kaiden: Talking Mullet that got brotherzone by my femshep in ME3, rides my ass too hard, I never understood why he was so abrasive towards me, but he calm down at the end. Pretty boring otherwise but he has nice powers.

Ashley: Very beautiful in ME3, she hits every right spot from her face to her body, like tailor made for what I would find attractive, better team player than Kaiden and has a very soft voice. I didn't felt like she added much to the story.

Mordin: When I think of amazing characters, I think of Mordin. Very charming and complex, he is a brilliant scientist, a doctor but also a ruthless killer, a man of reason but still has time to more spiritual matters like Religion and Art, very clever and funny. Awesome scenes and a great Team member gameplay wise.

Legion: Awesome character, everything he says is worth listening too. A walking city, thousands of people speaking at once, the fact that he needs to have a consensus for everything he says is mindblowing but it's still relatable since it feels like that with us sometimes when dealing with important matters. He is clearly infatuated with Shepard but in an innocent way, which in turn makes me feel like he is my son.

Miranda: I love Miri, great story and missions, good team player, very hot, nice voice, pretty much a total package. Always rock her black outfit in ME2, since it was so tight it verge on distracting. Feels so stupid that she dies if you broke up with her in ME3.

Jacob: I don't like this guy, Femshep comes out too strong on him and it was pisses me off when he says "already?" so I never got to know him very much.

Jack: Awful character in ME2, prettiest face in all ME games. Very Hot in ME3 and a great character there, I like how she turn out.

Samara: Love Samara, amazing team member. Hot as well, very mature and her story is involves hunting an space elf vampire which is great. Wish I could romance her.

Thane: Awesome character, very attractive for a fish face lizard, terrible game character but always liked talking to him. His race is very interesting. Never had a romance with him so there's a side of him that I don't know.

Grunt: I love Grunt, he is like my Krogan baby. He starts as this soft spoken intelligent man, then turns into a brute, funny enough this is good since he is a Krogran which means he is maturing.

EDI: Hated EDI in ME2, always though she was going to back stabbed me, love her in ME3, she has great questions about what it means to be alive and lifes goals, very attractive for a robot, great voice and truly funny.

Kasumi: No idea who she is.

Zaeed: Don't know him either.

James: Jame is my bro, he is a soldier like shepard, someone that understand me. James enters the party a bit late but it's someone who's loyalty I would never question, very funny guy, I love his interactions with the well establish members. James shines when he is interacting with other characters and that includes shepard, I like that I'm able to punch him in the face and he still flits with my Femshep. Oddly shy also which caught me by surprised, I though he was Gay because he didn't like her but he is just a bro. Best team member in the game.

Javik: Only know him for some vids, seems like an l asshole. Also the story chances wildly by having him around. His design is amazing.

 

[The Incarnation]

I dont even...............

How can you even say this when they achieved stuff no other studio has come near to replicating?

Some people will think so. But what I saw was a franchise quite skillfully after a promising start turn itself an average third person shooter.

Alpha Protocol did the whole choice system better. And frankly the games didn't do anything new that, The Knights of the Old Republic achieved back in 2003.

 

[mancan92]

Some people will think so. But what I saw was a franchise quite skillfully after a promising start turn itself an average third person shooter.

Alpha Protocol did the whole choice system better. And frankly the games didn't do anything new that, The Knights of the Old Republic achieved back in 2003.

The scope of Mass Effect is far greater than either of those games whilst also carrying a customised story across 3 games. Yeah no game has ever been that ambitious tbh.

 

[televator]

ME1 left me walking on sunshine. ME2 dialed back some things that I liked, but it improved other annoying things from the first and I was still in love. In fact I was getting really antsy for the release of ME3 and I needed more Mass Effect in my life. I had plans to buy the third game, play it, and replay the entire series. I wanted to buy the comics, character/ship figurines, T shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, cereal, pendant key chains, I DON'T CARE GIVE ME STUFF TAKE MY MONEY. I was a Mass Effect zealot.

So I'm not making it up when I say that the third one ruined everything for me. After playing it I can't even look at the first 2 games the same way.

 

[Caboose]

Wrex: No idea who this guy is, I only know him as Wreav dead brother.

Wreav: Wreav was a wise leader of the Krogan that thinks like the acients do, well respect among their race, he is tough but that's how Krogans are. In ME3 he was a tyrant in the making, he has all the factors of a ruthless diraction, somewhat of a monster, obviously meant for the player to hate him but he is very charming and surprisingly funny. He is blurs the line between ally and villain.

 

[Toxi]

The more I think about it, the more I think that Mass Effect 1 really benefitted from Wrex. He's the only party member in that game who is actually fun to listen to. Tali was a Quarian encyclopedia, Garrus was too brooding, Kaiden was boring, Ashley was "GRRRR" and Liara was your standard Bioware waifu (Later to be replaced by Tali).

But really, they insisted in interviews that it was not a lesbian relationship.

Who do they think they're fooling? "No, no, those scenes of caressing Liara's buttocks weren't gay/straight. She only looks like a woman! So that means Shepard is not gay/straight!"

Out of all the things to be upset about with Bioware's romance, "Shepard can't be gay!" is probably the only one I don't agree with. Shepard isn't a character. S/he's a fantasy template that can be straight, gay, or bisexual. S/he's always been that with everything from sex to killing insect queens. If you want an actual character, ask Bioware to change their style or play another game. I took the second option.

Are you implying that having breasts, a vagina and menstrual system makes her female?

I don't think we should bring the gender orientation of actual people into the discussion about a fictional blue-skinned space babe designed only as a sex fantasy.

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

The scope of Mass Effect is far greater than either of those games whilst also carrying a customised story across 3 games. Yeah no game has ever been that ambitious tbh.

what did they customize? small throw away choices that don't matter in the grand scheme of things. if they wanted you to do something, you had to do it even if in the last two games you did something that probably would have made you not do it if the story had actually been written competently.

 

[TacticalFox88]

Garrus is such a goddamn BRO.

I could look at Garrus and instantly say. "Yo, that's my motherfucking Ni**a!"