ME died at the end of ME1. there was not supposed to be a way to fight the reapers, and that was the beaut. Doomed hero n' all that.
People like to bring this up, but its simply not the case. And its explained throughout all three games, for those that connect the dots. The Reapers were never supposed to be an completely unbeatable, undefeatable Cthulhu like some thought they were supposed to be.
Few examples;
1) In most cycles, the Citadel was the seat of government and the heart of their civilizations. It housed not only all their leaders, but also all census and colonization records, plus all the best technology developed during that cycle. The Citadel is also the 'main' relay. When the Reapers invaded, they took the Citadel first, gaining all the stored information and cutting off that cycle's races from using the mass relays at all. Leaders are dead, all forces are cut off and separated. Divide and conquer.
2) Most cycled dominated by 1 species. As Javik says, they all conformed to one military doctrine, one style of fighting, one set of tactics. In the ME cycle, all the prominent races shared powered relatively equally and there wasn't a single military doctrine to exploit. Turians fight differently than Humans who fought differently than Salarians and Asari. The military doctrines of each are covered in ME's codex and through some gameplay
3) Most cycles had no warning at all. The Reapers showed up one day, cut off the head, and proceeded to wipe them out systematically. In ME, the last gasp of the Protheans stopped the Reapers from using the Citadel to cut off access to the mass relays. In ME3, the allied forces were all able to use the relay network with relative impunity just as they've always done. Furthermore, wreckage salvaged from Sovereign also gave the allied races the Thanix cannon, a far more powerful weapon design than their previous weapons.
4) Evolution of the cycles, each cycle progressed further than the last, leaving clues, plans, tech, etc. Life will always find a way to prevail.
hmm, maybe they could have done some further adventures with the reapers in the background; but a direct confrontation and final showdown just ridicules ME1.
First, lets look at it in a nerdy way: in ME1, *one* reaper was enough to cause them trouble; Sovereign says quite clearly that there's a bajillion reapers, i'm just not buying that a war could have been won, even with the long and tedious "lets gather allies" preamble.
But, that's not the point. ME1's story was borderline horror film - the flashback scenes of the proteans getting butchered, Sovereign's sadistic voice, the mind control turning friends into enemies.
It's a setting. You can't alter the setting and not fuck up the story. Think of what would have happened if the same stunt got pulled into any modern film.
What makes ME1 so good (besides it being a great Barbie Doll Dress-Up simulator) is that it's tragic. We feel for Shepard because he is strong in the face of impossible odds.
*IMPOSSIBLE* odds. Not "somewhat likely" odds.
Kinda like the zombie film that ends with the hero defiant, surrounded by zombies, we love him but if we think about it, we don't actually expect him to survive. That's what made ME1 so great.
(and fyi, i made my Shepard a chick. a hot chick. with red hair in a bob)
One Reaper gave them trouble because he caught them almost entirely off guard and showed up with a Geth fleet along side him. Nothing in Mass Effect was intended to be a horror game . . . unless you sleep with a night light because you're afraid of the dark. Mass Effect was a space opera and one of the few good sci-fi RPG experiences.
I already explained above why the odds were not impossible and never intended to be impossible.
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