Mass Effect: Legendary Edition |OT| The Lazarus Project (Open Spoilers)

[obeast]

I was about to quit Mass Effect 3 because it felt so off on this play through and I never beat it initially because of bad user press. However after doing From Ashes, Omega and now just started Priority Surkesh I've done a 180 and this may be some of the best gaming of my life. Javik and Wrex dialogue about Salarians has me cracking up. That with the incredibly good combat, I'm so excited for this game and can't wait to enjoy it until the bad ending. I love these games for the characters and space opera and the writing is getting much better the more I get into ME3. Does the quality keep up after this or should I not get myself too pumped up?

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You're about to hit what is widely considered to be one of the best quest arcs in the series (Priority: Tuchanka), and the big one that follows is also in my opinion excellent. And then there's the other DLC (Leviathan and especially Citadel), which are pretty great.

As someone who hasn't really been that into ME3 as compared to ME1/2 -- I've probably "only" played it 3-4 times since it came out -- I've been very impressed so far with my LE replay. The increase in companion banter is just delightful, and retroactively makes ME2 (still a better game, imo) seem drab and static. The combat is far more mobile and satisfying.

I still have some very serious objections to the game's writing on a more macro level, and have made some complaints on that topic in this thread, but if you can just kind of turn your mind off and accept its premises it's a pretty great ride.

 

[Officer.Sanchez]

I forgot how boring ME1 is as a non-biotic class, and going soldier is even worse lol (I never used that class before).

I think I'm gonna restart as an engineer since that was my very first class when I played ME2 on ps3.

 

[SofNascimento]

I'm replaying Grunt recruitment missions and it is a great example of why ME2 is so great.

This is a combat heavy mission. You're throw right into the middle of a combat zone and you go from there. There is no small 'conversation zone' before battle like in Garrus' and Jack's recruitment missions, or in the middle of it like in Mordin's. Yet there are a few conversations, and here's the thing, every one feels they justify their existence.

Each one feels, not necessarily special, but worthwhile, noteworthy. Like they all contribute to the game being greater than it was before them rather than just being there because that's what you'd expect. The merc that you can convince to shut up or casually kill if he doesn't listen to you, the cloned Krogan with his notably calm demeanour and his curious vocabulary, the Asari that you might have spared in ME1, and Okeer, with one of my favorite sentences from the game:

"...in rides Shepard securing victory through nuclear fire. I like that part. It has weight!"

They are all good.

Maybe it's just because I love ME2 so much. But it's like every dialogue make me smirk, even if just a little.

 

[cb1115]

I'm replaying Grunt recruitment missions and it is a great example of why ME2 is so great.

This is a combat heavy mission. You're throw right into the middle of a combat zone and you go from there. There is no small 'conversation zone' before battle like in Garrus' and Jack's recruitment missions, or in the middle of it like in Mordin's. Yet there are a few conversations, and here's the thing, every one feels they justify their existence.

Each one feels, not necessarily special, but worthwhile, noteworthy. Like they all contribute to the game being greater than it was before them rather than just being there because that's what you'd expect. The merc that you can convince to shut up or casually kill if he doesn't listen to you, the cloned Krogan with his notably calm demeanour and his curious vocabulary, the Asari that you might have spared in ME1, and Okeer, with one of my favorite sentences from the game:

"...in rides Shepard securing victory through nuclear fire. I like that part. It has weight!"

They are all good.

Maybe it's just because I love ME2 so much. But it's like every dialogue make me smirk, even if just a little.

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great post. I was afraid that it wouldn't hold up but nope, ME2 is still one of the best games ever made. even the missions that I didn't remember as well are fantastic. Just finished Samara's recruitment mission, which has the feeling of a cop procedural. And it's great!

also, don't know how "correct" ME2's HDR implementation is but i dig the high contrast, saturated look it presents. suits the game well.

 

[Phellps]

Tali fan cam



Tali fan cam

 

[G_O]

I think 3 is pretty epic. Never fully got the criticism when it was released but even better this time round with all the DLC

I have the platinum in 1 and 2 and just need last trophy for part 3 which requires me to start a new play through. Just wrapped up 3 a few mins ago and loved it all……but I ballsed up a few things; I let Miranda die near the end as I forgot to visit her in the citadel. I for some reason did not have opportunity to use paragon choice for final illusive man encounter. But even worse was at the very end. So apparently shooting at the catalyst child thing is not a good idea, over 100 hours down the drain pretty much. looks like I can only restart all the way back to Cerberus base. Shit

 

[Darkwing-Buck]

breaking up with Miranda is brutal in me3 😭

she legit cries on the spot, i feel like such a dick 😂

 

[Omanisat]

She's also going to die.

 

[Darkwing-Buck]

She's also going to die.

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💀

 

[bonch00ski]

So here I am getting a message to meet Joker at a sushi restaurant......

Next thing I know I'm playing probably the best mission chain in an RPG ever. When Shepard is going over his "do I talk like that" exchange in a sealed pod I knew it was something special.

 

[Chance Hale]

Why does the captain's cabin in ME3 run at like 20 FPS on PS5, super gross in the cutscenes where you invite people to your room. Get the particle explosions because of the backwards compat limitations at 4K 60 but there's not much going on there

 

[Indy in the Fridge]

The credits song at the end of ME1 is a fucking banger.

 

[Eamon]

So here I am getting a message to meet Joker at a sushi restaurant......

Next thing I know I'm playing probably the best mission chain in an RPG ever. When Shepard is going over his "do I talk like that" exchange in a sealed pod I knew it was something special.

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The Citadel DLC is incredibly special - I wish I could replay the Trilogy for the first time like so many of you in here do. But if I could only do one arc, I think I'd replay my time with that expansion. So many great moments of nostalgia, fan service, catharsis, joy, sadness, and so much more.

Absolutely excellent DLC, and one of the highlights of the entire trilogy - and maybe even Bioware's history.

 

[SofNascimento]

The Citadel DLC is incredibly special - I wish I could replay the Trilogy for the first time like so many of you in here do. But if I could only do one arc, I think I'd replay my time with that expansion. So many great moments of nostalgia, fan service, catharsis, joy, sadness, and so much more.

Absolutely excellent DLC, and one of the highlights of the entire trilogy - and maybe even Bioware's history.

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I would argue that if it's a highlight of the trilogy, it's automatically a highlight of Bioware's history.

 

[badnewsbeers]

The credits song at the end of ME1 is a fucking banger.

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yup, I've had this on my iPhone or iPod since it first came out. Legendary track, totally fits the vibe of the game and the ending.

 

[Barnak]

The Citadel DLC is incredibly special - I wish I could replay the Trilogy for the first time like so many of you in here do. But if I could only do one arc, I think I'd replay my time with that expansion. So many great moments of nostalgia, fan service, catharsis, joy, sadness, and so much more.

Absolutely excellent DLC, and one of the highlights of the entire trilogy - and maybe even Bioware's history.

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I can't wait to replay this DLC, but here I am...one month after launch and still in ME2, with all 3 major DLCs left to do, the IFF mission and the following main missions, and a bunch of minor sidequests all around the galaxy. ;_; At this rate, I'll play the Citadel DLC somewhere in the 2nd half of July lol.

 

[Serpens007]

Finished ME2, only Arrival left !

That Suicide Mission still gets me pumped even after many replays. I always fear I might make a mistake and lose a member of the team

 

[bonch00ski]

I haven't played ME3 since launch (sans dlc at the time). And save for the ending replaying this again is creeping up into one of my favorite games of all time.

I don't remember the emotional roller coaster of everything going to shit, building up an alliance and the choices I had to make. Knowing that how I played the first 2 games has an effect on this game is just mind blowing. Bioware really fucking nailed aspect.

Knowing that Mordin died curing the genophage because I decided to not destroy the data in ME2 rips me apart. Watching Legion die to save the Beth, Thane dying...fuck this game just hits me.

And to know I can play all 3 again and have such a different story just blows my mind.

 

[ErrorJustin]

If I romanced liara in ME1 and want her to end up as my canon romance through the trilogy, am I allowed to romance someone else in the ME2 main campaign, or would that close the liara romance path?

I'm in the back third of ME3 and all my flirting with Thane and some others is starting to get more serious...

Not sure if I need to decline them all, or if I can still have an ME2 romance without messing things up in LotSB or ME3.

 

[Chance Hale]

Absolute worst part of Mass Effect 3 are all the inane fetch quests you pick up by stalking people in the the citadel and then have to go scan planets in random galaxies or find parts in missions. And then once you find these parts HOURS later it doesn't update your journal, indicate it via the ui in anyway, and expects you to remember where on the citadel the "Asari scientist" or whoever was on the citadel. Shockingly bad all around.

Can buy items you miss during missions at the spectre terminal but you don't even know you missed it half the time because it's completely unrelated to the mission it was in.

 

[Phellps]

The way the Council choice was so severely ignored in ME3 still hurts.

Also, this is the first time I'm playing ME3 as FemShep. What the fuck is this running animation?

 

[Eamon]

I can't wait to replay this DLC, but here I am...one month after launch and still in ME2, with all 3 major DLCs left to do, the IFF mission and the following main missions, and a bunch of minor sidequests all around the galaxy. ;_; At this rate, I'll play the Citadel DLC somewhere in the 2nd half of July lol.

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There are worse problems to have than having more of Mass Effect 2 to play :)

One of the best games of all time, IMO

 

[Chance Hale]

The way the Council choice was so severely ignored in ME3 still hurts.

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I know it's been 9+ years since the game came out but yeah I killed the council when I originally played the series and…didn't notice much outside of them being alive in a few scenes I guess? Been too long to remember but yeah some dialogue like "that's the second time you saved my life" and that's it lol. Point is they're always useless I guess but isn't really an excuse.

Also the ardot-whatever(Asari birth defect) retcon right after playing 2 and listening to most Samara dialogue is something else. In ME2 she's the mother of the only examples and in ME3 oh it's actually rather common for something so severe.

Series is a fucking mess without any sort of consistency or actual repercussions for most things and why I think you just kind of have to turn your brain off for most of ME3 and just enjoy the emotional moments. Dragon Age is far worse at this(but similar in terms of shoving past actions into messages) but yeah stop trying to pull off more than you chew and most devs have I think.

Witcher 3 was horrible(even worse) too if you'd actually played the less popular first two games. Only other example that came to mind.

 

[Kami]

Any way to remove ME3's vignette on PC?

 

[Punxsutawney]

Also the ardot-whatever(Asari birth defect) retcon right after playing 2 and listening to most Samara dialogue is something else. In ME2 she's the mother of the only examples and in ME3 oh it's actually rather common for something so severe.

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I noticed this too, wondered if I had imagined her saying she was the mother of the only three known.

You definitely have to turn your brain off to enjoy ME3. There are alot of inconsistencies that are really glaring going straight from ME2 to ME3. I do not buy Mordin's about-face on the genophage, and I don't buy the Illusive Man and Cerberus being straight up evil again after ME2 softening them. All the talk of war - it often seems quite ambiguous as to whether the war is against the Reapers, or Cerberus.

I haven't gotten to the end yet so it's possible it gets cleared up a bit (I can't 100% remember but I'm assuming TIM is indoctrinated), but it all just feels very messy after the first two.

 

[Phellps]

I know it's been 9+ years since the game came out but yeah I killed the council when I originally played the series and…didn't notice much outside of them being alive in a few scenes I guess? Been too long to remember but yeah some dialogue like "that's the second time you saved my life" and that's it lol. Point is they're always useless I guess but isn't really an excuse.

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The dialogue is the same for the most part, yeah. You just get new faces, which is disappointing. It's even worse if you kill the council and choose to have an all-human council afterwards. The game just says "fuck you" and introduces a new council with the same races as before. I assume this was initially because there is no flag for the all-human council choice in the save file, so like some other choices, it couldn't be properly carried forward. But BioWare could have easily worked their way around that, they just didn't want to.

Also the ardot-whatever(Asari birth defect) retcon right after playing 2 and listening to most Samara dialogue is something else. In ME2 she's the mother of the only examples and in ME3 oh it's actually rather common for something so severe.

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This was a thing I noticed even back then, yeah. The wiki says Samara's daughters were the only ones with a "lethal version" of the genetic condition, while less severe cases are more common, which is probably why they're at the monastery.

I just don't remember Samara talking about this last bit at all lol

 

[Deleted member 91227]

great post. I was afraid that it wouldn't hold up but nope, ME2 is still one of the best games ever made. even the missions that I didn't remember as well are fantastic. Just finished Samara's recruitment mission, which has the feeling of a cop procedural. And it's great!

also, don't know how "correct" ME2's HDR implementation is but i dig the high contrast, saturated look it presents. suits the game well.

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Agreed. It had been a long while since I had played ME2 so I was worried some of my fondness for it would be nostalgia as I end up let down by a lot of old favorites when I revisit. But nope, ME2 is if any thing even better than I remembered. So much great dialogue, great characters, the N7 missions are more plentiful and better than I remember etc.

I just got to Illium and need to recruit Thane and Samara myself and have a few loyalty missions in the log to get to. Planning to do everything except for Tali's loyalty mission before doing the Reaper IFF one and then doing that and Legion's as I've never done a run taking Legion on Tali's mission.

 

[Deleted member 91227]

If I romanced liara in ME1 and want her to end up as my canon romance through the trilogy, am I allowed to romance someone else in the ME2 main campaign, or would that close the liara romance path?

I'm in the back third of ME3 and all my flirting with Thane and some others is starting to get more serious...

Not sure if I need to decline them all, or if I can still have an ME2 romance without messing things up in LotSB or ME3.

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You can. I haven't gotten to the romance stuff in this ME2 run, but in my first run (and another later one) back on the 360 my Shepherd slept around in ME2. Date with Kelly, casual sex with Jack, romanced Miranda and Tali etc. Just have to break up with one romance partner before starting another and not have one active when doing the Shadow Broker DLC and trying to get back with Liara.

 

[ClearMetal]

"Hear that, precious? We're going to be friends. You, me, and every embarrassing little secret."

Oh, if only you knew, Jack. Every embarrassing little secret indeed.

(Yes, I ship Jack and Miranda. Bite me.)

 

[Hazz3r]

The way the Council choice was so severely ignored in ME3 still hurts.

Also, this is the first time I'm playing ME3 as FemShep. What the fuck is this running animation?

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But… Galactic Readiness something something.

 

[warcrow]

Dear Team Mass Effect,

What is the most fun/OP class to play through the entire trilogy that is not Vanguard?

Cheers,
-Mark

 

[ClearMetal]

It has been mentioned here a couple of times. But it's funny how my recollection of Garrus being this super talkative guy in ME2 mostly stems from having him in my party in every major mission. Outside of it he really doesn't have much to say, haha.

My favorite party in ME2 will always be Garrus & Grunt. Which means I need to get Reave asap because barriers are something of an issue atm.

I'm also not ashamed to admit I died four times in the penultimate fight in Jack's recruitment mission. On Normal. Sometimes it feels like I'm fighting as much against the game as against the enemies.

"Can't get a lock!"
"Can't get a lock!"
"Can't get a lock!"
"Can't get a lock!"

...when there are no obstructions between you and the YMIR in front of you, who has just finished tearing through your barriers and is about to finish the job. Fuuuun times.

 

[ClearMetal]

Man the Collector Particle Beam destroyed that Praetorian.

According to the mission debriefing TIM is gonna send funds to Horizon to help rebuild... ouch.

For all the shit Jacob gets, I've always appreciated his loyalty mission. The setup alone is pretty great.

Arrival's introduction gave me a laugh:

"I need you to go in solo, Shepard."
"My team is pretty banging, though."
"Yes, but we couldn't get their VAs to record new lines. You need to go alone or it will be too obvious."

Edit

Man Illium looks so good. Definitely my favorite hub in the game, maybe the trilogy.

Meeting a romanced Liara is so... awkward. The random "Let's get the Shadow Broker!" dialogue choice at the end gave me a chuckle. Very subtle.

And is it just me or does Shiala (should have been a party member) look a lot better than she did in the original? I remember her face looking oddly... bloated somehow. Now she's just a regular asari, except green.

 

[cb1115]

is it really a canon ME2 playthrough if you don't accidentally romance Jack due to paragon upper right reflex memory

Tali 4 lyfe

 

[astro]

Dear Team Mass Effect,

What is the most fun/OP class to play through the entire trilogy that is not Vanguard?

Cheers,
-Mark

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Infiltrator.

Infiltrator with Shotguns in ME3 is ridiculous.

 

[WhiskerFrisker]

The Leviathan mission in Mass Effect 3 nearly gave me an aneurysm. Completely crap mission with the enemy spawn holy shit

 

[Scrobbles]

STEEEEVVVEEE!!!

I'm alright, Commander.

You sure.

 

[Deleted member 11637]

With all the Metroid Dread hype I'm even more disappointed I forgot to make a Samus Shepard build :( Next time...

 

[cb1115]

about to start Legion's loyalty mission. basically the only thing i have left before the end. such an amazing character, just wish he joined earlier.

you know, it's really something how well the art design of this series holds up. i feel like so many games from that era (especially running on UE3) kinda look like junk now.

 

[HououinKyouma]

Wait, wtf, I swear I broke things off with Liara in LotSB, but I just got to Mars and it's like....that never happened lol? They're holding hands and whatnot. Uh oh. Can I still break things off with her in ME3?

Edit - Ah, looks like I was able to break up when we returned to the Normandy.

 

[Barnak]

Wait, wtf, I swear I broke things off with Liara in LotSB, but I just got to Mars and it's like....that never happened lol? They're holding hands and whatnot. Uh oh. Can I still break things off with her in ME3?

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Well, maybe if you try to romance Tali or Ashley(if she's alive in your game).

 

[HououinKyouma]

Well, maybe if you try to romance Tali or Ashley(if she's alive in your game).

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I romanced Tali in ME2 so I'm hoping there's an option to pick.

 

[cb1115]

damn ME3 still plays really well. the UI though...they couldn't have updated that at all? Lol

 

[Rodney McKay]

The Leviathan mission in Mass Effect 3 nearly gave me an aneurysm. Completely crap mission with the enemy spawn holy shit

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Yeah, I know people like that DLC for lore it gives for the origins of the Reapers, but I thought it was kinda mediocre overall.

 

[Deleted member 17184]

Wait, wtf, I swear I broke things off with Liara in LotSB, but I just got to Mars and it's like....that never happened lol? They're holding hands and whatnot. Uh oh. Can I still break things off with her in ME3?

Edit - Ah, looks like I was able to break up when we returned to the Normandy.

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You thought you broke up with her, then you hold her hand, and finally you break up with her in the place where she can't get away from you.

Wow, you're mean.

 

[WhiskerFrisker]

No one answered last time I asked but what's the best sniper in ME3? Is it still the Black Widow?

 

[Chance Hale]

Been using the geth plasma smg with incendiary for most of mass effect 3 on insane and felt it was slaughtering everything only to Google and apparently it's one of the worst in the game lol

Guess ME3 insane is just pretty easy in general as vanguard because of charge spam and combat tweaks

 

[Chance Hale]

Hammerhead vs mako convo in the armory in ME3 is pretty fucking funny. Despite it's many flaws game definitely has its moments

Edit: didn't mean to dp

 

[Darkwing-Buck]

Citadel DLC is so good. I forgot how hype it was when all your squad mates line up together shooting.

I totally forgot the OG avengers rifle is in this. It fucking rips especially with a max magazine mod

 

[Demon_Ice]

Yaaaassssss

Went back to my pre-finale save and made sure to 100% scan every possible system and completed all the Citadel fetch quests. With the Reaper Heart from the Cerberus base, I just squeaked by at 7808 War Assets :)

Perfect destroy ending here I come!

Been using the geth plasma smg with incendiary for most of mass effect 3 on insane and felt it was slaughtering everything only to Google and apparently it's one of the worst in the game lol

Guess ME3 insane is just pretty easy in general as vanguard because of charge spam and combat tweaks

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Wait what?? How is that the worst one? That thing shreds everything