Mass Effect Veterans Thread

[Modeps]

So, at the end of the game, everything happens sort of fast. Did the Reapers make it through the Citadel's Mass Relay and head off to destroy the universe, or is it just a pending threat at this point that will always remain until it is dealt with?

 

[CKDragon]

Thanks for starting this. It was my own idea and I was too lazy to follow up on it.

As for your question - I really don't think the Reapers made it through because 1) Someone would have seen them (although there was already plenty going on at the time) 2) That would have been breaking from their systematic plan of attack that was stated by Vigil. He/it said that when the Reapers attacked the Protheans, they took out the Citadel first. I believe the quote was "Our leaders were dead before we even knew we were under attack".

I believe something more will come of the unresolved team of Prothean scientists that went from Ilos to the Citadel in their last ditch effort. Vigil said he assumed they all died a slow death. But maybe they managed to survive somehow and one of the existing races are of direct Prothean descent?

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: CKDragon
Thanks for starting this. It was my own idea and I was too lazy to follow up on it.

No problem

Originally posted by: CKDragon
As for your question - I really don't think the Reapers made it through because 1) Someone would have seen them (although there was already plenty going on at the time) 2) That would have been breaking from their systematic plan of attack that was stated by Vigil. He/it said that when the Reapers attacked the Protheans, they took out the Citadel first. I believe the quote was "Our leaders were dead before we even knew we were under attack".

Makes sense, and that's what I figured, but I was not for certain... mostly because when people on Eden Prime saw Sovereign, people just presumed it was a crazy ship so I figured that would have been the same if the Reapers came through (are they also ships?)

Originally posted by: CKDragon
I believe something more will come of the unresolved team of Prothean scientists that went from Ilos to the Citadel in their last ditch effort. Vigil said he assumed they all died a slow death. But maybe they managed to survive somehow and one of the existing races are of direct Prothean descent?

After that conversation with Vigil, I just about was certain the Prothean's would be showing up and they didn't. Possibly for ME2 indeed.


Speaking of the Leaders being dead comment, I chose to sacrifice the Council and focus on Sovereign... did anyone choose to try and save them? If so, what happened?

 

[Xed]

If you save them they thank you bla bla bla and say maybe it's time for humanity to join the council. Then you get to pick the douche ambassador or the captain =)

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: Xed
If you save them they thank you bla bla bla and say maybe it's time for humanity to join the council. Then you get to pick the douche ambassador or the captain =)

Yea, in my 3 campaigns, I saved the council twice and let them die once. But even when I save the council, I can't bring myself to nominate Ambassador Udina so I don't know what he says if you pick him. It's funny, I rarely minded the renegade choices in the game, but I can't bring myself to pick that guy for the council.

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: CKDragon
As for your question - I really don't think the Reapers made it through because 1) Someone would have seen them (although there was already plenty going on at the time) 2) That would have been breaking from their systematic plan of attack that was stated by Vigil. He/it said that when the Reapers attacked the Protheans, they took out the Citadel first. I believe the quote was "Our leaders were dead before we even knew we were under attack".

Makes sense, and that's what I figured, but I was not for certain... mostly because when people on Eden Prime saw Sovereign, people just presumed it was a crazy ship so I figured that would have been the same if the Reapers came through (are they also ships?)

You're right, I'm sure they can write the story that they (or at least some) did get through and it will make sense in ME2. No matter what, we obviously haven't heard the last of them.

I'm also looking forward to learning more about (and visiting) the Terminus Systems. Throughout the whole game, characters were referencing places and things on "the outskirts of the Terminus Systems". My Shepard fears nothing, I'm crashing that party in ME2 or 3.

 

[R Nilla]

All this talk of Mass Effect is really making me want to go back and play more sooner rather than later. I need to finish my Renegade play through, and try out a female character. Too many damn games!

Aside from being able to select the Paragon or Renegade response (blue and red text), is there anything at the end that's different depending on how you played through the game? It seems like you could just save right before the end and use that point to try all the different responses/endings. I have a save from my first play through at the end, but I haven't tried this yet.

 

[EvilComputer92]

Who decided to save Wrex? I was actually thinking of just shooting him but ended up using the intimidate option. That was one of my favorite conversations in the game.

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
Who decided to save Wrex? I was actually thinking of just shooting him but ended up using the intimidate option. That was one of my favorite conversations in the game.

Actually, I've always saved Wrex. I suppose next time through I should at least give it a try to see the scene play out.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Yeah I saved Wrex as well. I plan on turning him to dust on my current playthrough. I also plan on cooking the mother Rachni.

I think the Reapers will still be a huge threat. Instead of fast traveling right in to the center of the Citadel and annihilating the leadership, they'll instead do a standard onslaught starting at the fringes. The Geth will certainly still play a role. So Shepard's goal is going to be finding out a way to more efficiently take down those Reapers without having to sacrifice half the Alliance fleet to do so.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
Yeah I saved Wrex as well. I plan on turning him to dust on my current playthrough. I also plan on cooking the mother Rachni.

I think the Reapers will still be a huge threat. Instead of fast traveling right in to the center of the Citadel and annihilating the leadership, they'll instead do a standard onslaught starting at the fringes. The Geth will certainly still play a role. So Shepard's goal is going to be finding out a way to more efficiently take down those Reapers without having to sacrifice half the Alliance fleet to do so.

I had several side missions where I took out 5 different Geth bases, all linked together. Was that just a quelling of their numbers? (I figured it was, seeing that when I was fighting, dropships came with reinforcements)

 

[R Nilla]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
Yeah I saved Wrex as well. I plan on turning him to dust on my current playthrough. I also plan on cooking the mother Rachni.

I think the Reapers will still be a huge threat. Instead of fast traveling right in to the center of the Citadel and annihilating the leadership, they'll instead do a standard onslaught starting at the fringes. The Geth will certainly still play a role. So Shepard's goal is going to be finding out a way to more efficiently take down those Reapers without having to sacrifice half the Alliance fleet to do so.

I had several side missions where I took out 5 different Geth bases, all linked together. Was that just a quelling of their numbers? (I figured it was, seeing that when I was fighting, dropships came with reinforcements)

I think so. IIRC, the Geth had setup shop in that corner of the galaxy, and you are essentially pushing them back and away from civilized space.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
Who decided to save Wrex? I was actually thinking of just shooting him but ended up using the intimidate option. That was one of my favorite conversations in the game.

Actually, I've always saved Wrex. I suppose next time through I should at least give it a try to see the scene play out.

It's a little brutal when you shoot Wrex. It's been a while, so my memory is foggy, but you basically just blow a hole in the guy with your gun, and then just tell everyone that there's no problem. Like putting down a dog, really.

 

[oznerol]

NNNNNEEEERRRRDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: ducci
NNNNNEEEERRRRDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Speaking of ducci not getting the full experience out of Mass Effect P), how many hours did your first playthrough take Modeps?

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: ducci
NNNNNEEEERRRRDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Speaking of ducci not getting the full experience out of Mass Effect P), how many hours did your first playthrough take Modeps?

It was only about 22... and that was doing just about everything possible that I found.

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: ducci
NNNNNEEEERRRRDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Speaking of ducci not getting the full experience out of Mass Effect P), how many hours did your first playthrough take Modeps?

It was only about 22... and that was doing just about everything possible that I found.

Oh well, I guess I'm slow.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: ducci
NNNNNEEEERRRRDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Speaking of ducci not getting the full experience out of Mass Effect P), how many hours did your first playthrough take Modeps?

It was only about 22... and that was doing just about everything possible that I found.

Oh well, I guess I'm slow.

I may have missed something though, I didn't goto a planet unless I was prompted to ahead of time, nor did I finish two of my side quests (the search for minerals and the search for one other thing). I ended up at level 46 or 47 I think.

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: CKDragon
Oh well, I guess I'm slow.

I may have missed something though, I didn't goto a planet unless I was prompted to ahead of time, nor did I finish two of my side quests (the search for minerals and the search for one other thing). I ended up at level 46 or 47 I think.

Certainly, this wouldn't make up the difference in hours, but I looked at your xbox profile and one thing you may want to keep an eye out for on your next playthrough is the "Scholar" achievement ("Find all primary Alien: Council Races, Extinct Races and Non-Council Races codex entries").

You get it early in the game just from talking to everyone on the Normandy & Citadel about all Council/Extinct races. I remember reading that some of the dialog you cannot re-visit after you land on Eden Prime, so that's probably what you missed. I believe I got it shortly after I became a Spectre while talking to Captain Anderson.

 

[oznerol]

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: ducci
NNNNNEEEERRRRDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Speaking of ducci not getting the full experience out of Mass Effect P), how many hours did your first playthrough take Modeps?

With all of you guys talking about the game so much, I jumped back in to play last Thursday night. I am level 59, have 790,000 XP with ~850,000 needed for level 60, and I have put 44 hours total into the game over 3 playthroughs.

I think I am on save 270 or something.

After all of that, I have never used Tali or Garrus.

 

[R Nilla]

Wow, my first playthrough took me around 45 hours. I did absolutely everything, talked to everyone, hacked every machine/object, explored every corner of every planet, base, city, etc. A couple times towards the end of the game I thoroughly went through the Galactic Map and made sure I had visited every planet I had available. I think there are some that you may not necessarily get quests for?

I keep saying it, but one of these days I'll get back to this game and finish my second and start a third playthrough.

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: ducci
With all of you guys talking about the game so much, I jumped back in to play last Thursday night. I am level 59, have 790,000 XP with ~850,000 needed for level 60, and I have put 44 hours total into the game over 3 playthroughs.

I think I am on save 270 or something.

After all of that, I have never used Tali or Garrus.

Yea, I believe I saw you and ChrisG going for level 60 recently. I think I'll save that for when the new DLC packs start coming out because I'll need motivation for when I only gain a level every 3-4 hours or so.

One thing that's nice about the achievements in this game is that they give you tangible rewards while playing. Ex. Getting the Soldier Ally achievement gives you "Damage Reduction improves by 10%" for all subsequent playthroughs.

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: R Nilla
Wow, my first playthrough took me around 45 hours. I did absolutely everything, talked to everyone, hacked every machine/object, explored every corner of every planet, base, city, etc. A couple times towards the end of the game I thoroughly went through the Galactic Map and made sure I had visited every planet I had available. I think there are some that you may not necessarily get quests for?

I keep saying it, but one of these days I'll get back to this game and finish my second and start a third playthrough.

Yea, my first one was 38 hours. I drove around a lot of the planets looking for the hidden points of interest. I'm pretty sure that's a big part of the difference in game lengths between me and many others.

 

[R Nilla]

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: R Nilla
Wow, my first playthrough took me around 45 hours. I did absolutely everything, talked to everyone, hacked every machine/object, explored every corner of every planet, base, city, etc. A couple times towards the end of the game I thoroughly went through the Galactic Map and made sure I had visited every planet I had available. I think there are some that you may not necessarily get quests for?

I keep saying it, but one of these days I'll get back to this game and finish my second and start a third playthrough.

Yea, my first one was 38 hours. I drove around a lot of the planets looking for the hidden points of interest. I'm pretty sure that's a big part of the difference in game lengths between me and many others.

Definitely. I visited all the points of interest and anything that came up along the way. It was extremely tedious/boring, but I still did it. I do like driving the Mako but I don't like how there are huge mountainous walls extending for the majority of the explorable area on each planet.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: R Nilla

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: R Nilla
Wow, my first playthrough took me around 45 hours. I did absolutely everything, talked to everyone, hacked every machine/object, explored every corner of every planet, base, city, etc. A couple times towards the end of the game I thoroughly went through the Galactic Map and made sure I had visited every planet I had available. I think there are some that you may not necessarily get quests for?

I keep saying it, but one of these days I'll get back to this game and finish my second and start a third playthrough.

Yea, my first one was 38 hours. I drove around a lot of the planets looking for the hidden points of interest. I'm pretty sure that's a big part of the difference in game lengths between me and many others.

Definitely. I visited all the points of interest and anything that came up along the way. It was extremely tedious/boring, but I still did it. I do like driving the Mako but I don't like how there are huge mountainous walls extending for the majority of the explorable area on each planet.

That was exactly why I didn't do that... I got really tired of doing the same thing on every planet. I didn't mind the Mako, but could they have thrown a little more variety with these planets?