Convince me to replay please

[Ryukden]

I really want to replay the series starting with one while making different choices. I only get a couple of hours in before I get this feeling that its all pointless. Suffering through the mako etc was okay when I thought it was leading up to something epic. If you are able to replay the series, whats your secret?

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

Other than not liking the mako what don't you like? What was your first shep? Did you go Paragon or Renegade? What class did you pick? Was it a male shep or a fem shep?

On my last playthrough, I went with engineer/operative and picked up sniper rifles as my bonus talent. 99% of the time I never used the mako to kill anything. Hop out, throw out a sabotage, and then just gun stuff down. That doesn't work that great on thresher maws, but everything else it was a lot of fun.

[[ANTS] Schuldrich]

My suggestion is if you can't play through ME1 because of the Mako but still want to continue on with specific decisions made, you could always look for a save that fits the decisions you wish to make and download that save file for use in ME2. That way you bypass ME1 and the mako but you still can pick your decisions.

Now if you can't bring yourself to play any of the three games without feeling they're all pointless, then my suggestion is to not play through the series again and don't let people talk you into it.

[VolnuttHeroP64]

Start a New Game & select your clear data.

[Ryukden]

Originally posted by C2H5SH:

Other than not liking the mako what don't you like? What was your first shep? Did you go Paragon or Renegade? What class did you pick? Was it a male shep or a fem shep?

On my last playthrough, I went with engineer/operative and picked up sniper rifles as my bonus talent. 99% of the time I never used the mako to kill anything. Hop out, throw out a sabotage, and then just gun stuff down. That doesn't work that great on thresher maws, but everything else it was a lot of fun.

First shep was a paragon soldier (boring I know). Only other thing I don't like about mass effect 1 was the cover system not working as well as I'd like, e.g. if you're behind cover and someone runs behind you, instead of just being able to fire on the guy you have to leave cover besides him being *right* in front of you.

Originally posted by ANTS Schuldrich:

My suggestion is if you can't play through ME1 because of the Mako but still want to continue on with specific decisions made, you could always look for a save that fits the decisions you wish to make and download that save file for use in ME2. That way you bypass ME1 and the mako but you still can pick your decisions.

Now if you can't bring yourself to play any of the three games without feeling they're all pointless, then my suggestion is to not play through the series again and don't let people talk you into it.

I absolutely agree with you, but the game has such a good concept it's hard to let go of. The series could have easily been a masterpiece if only they had allowed for more variety for the endings, it's absolutely weird how the final moments of the third game make it difficult to play the series at all for me. I'm trying to enjoy the journey more than the destination, but it seems like the journey is wrought with choices that are basically irrelavant.

[☢ Xanthic ☢]

I loved the Mako and ME1. I hated ME2 and ME3 myself. :( Why so much hate for ME1?

I mean, I know the game itself isn't the perfect game. The inventory system was terrible, for example.

[Ryukden]

Originally posted by ☢ Xanthic ☢:

I loved the Mako and ME1. I hated ME2 and ME3 myself. :( Why so much hate for ME1?

I mean, I know the game itself isn't the perfect game. The inventory system was terrible, for example.

I don't hate ME1, it's my favorite of the series as well. I would be going for a complete playthrough if I did play again and unfortunately with that comes a LOT of mako time. Controls are clunky and the terrain is designed to be as aggravating as humanly possible. My issue is pushing through those annoying little barriers knowing that as a whole, nothing matters.

[SwobyJ]

The Mako as a concept is fine (which is why I'm fine with it returning in the next game), but the blandness of UNC missions along with terrible driving physics and map design makes me somewhat resent playing ME1.

I say just push through it at least once for this playthrough. It helps to have fun music playing during the boring parts, keeping yourself busy with other things (I might be having TV shows playing in the background haha). ME1's main story and some of the sidequests are still quite fine, but if you want ALL sidequests done, it can be a slog of up to dozens more hours.


When it comes to 'irrelevancy', a good-ish aspect of the whole trilogy, and ME3 specifically, is that Bioware does orient your choices around the concept of 'what is *your* Shepard?', what motivates HIM/HER? What specific experiences make up their life? Where do they come from, and how did they get where they are? In that way, a roleplaying experience still works, even until the Crucible. Cause and Effect is still a thing, even if Choice and Consequence have never been as important as we hoped it would be (even though ME2-ME3 is 'okay' at it).

Is Shepard someone who will even intervene in a couples' argument about a baby? Will he give advice to them, emphasizing the mother's natural rights or the uncle's legitimate concerns? This is largely irrelevant to the choice and consequence of the trilogy, but it still defines YOUR Shepard and what they may view (at least in ME1) as more important.

Ultimately, all three games are JUST about Commander Shepard, with everything else as a relative backdrop. It may not seem that way at times (especially with so many characters, so much exploration, etc involved), but it still is more about Shepard and his characterization than anything else. But why? - isn't he a bland soldier? Yes ('elcor hamlet'), but that's why the trilogy infuses more and more character into him as the trilogy progresses. He has no choice but to be *more* than just a grunt - he becomes N7, a Spectre, a Savior, and works off of that after ME1. And you get to choose *how*. He is a character defined by his choices, not by the consequences.

Now this is all well and good, but sidenote - I'd love if the emphasis went away from the protagonist in the next game, and more onto actual choice and *consequence*. I'll be watching to see how Dragon Age: Inquisition handles some of those concepts, where choices are supposed to affect the composition of the game world itself, thanks to better tech and a shift in writing and design.

[FEZ. TF7]

Play a fem shep and have a lesbian scene with Liara

[Ryukden]

Originally posted by SwobyJ:

The Mako as a concept is fine (which is why I'm fine with it returning in the next game), but the blandness of UNC missions along with terrible driving physics and map design makes me somewhat resent playing ME1.

You make some very good points! Loading it up now.

Originally posted by Sith Olus:

Play a fem shep and have a lesbian scene with Liara

It's like you're in my head.

[FEZ. TF7]

LOL, nothing like abit of lesbianism

[Stormstriker]

On PC, for ME 3 you can use the MEHEM mod to give you a completely different ending.

[Ryukden]

Originally posted by Stormstriker:

On PC, for ME 3 you can use the MEHEM mod to give you a completely different ending.

I'm not interested in a happy ending, just one that makes all my choices throughout the series relevant to the afyermath. I don't need to see shephard and his love interest sailing into the sunset in the normandy :) I want my choices to amount to more than an ems score and actually shape the story. Kill the rachni? Make it a clone. Wrex dies in ME1? no problem, replace with a random krogan and give pretty much the same dialogue.

[skada]

Originally posted by Stormstriker:

On PC, for ME 3 you can use the MEHEM mod to give you a completely different ending.

Never really understood the point of this mod... the problem with the original ME3 ending wasn't that it was "sad", but because it left no closure, all the choices you made throughout the series didn't mean anything at the very end, and most of it was just a recolored cutscene. People who thought the hate of the ending was simply because Shepard dies miss the point completely. Extended cut was a huge improvement, but of course there was a limit to how much they could change.

This happy ending mod literally addresses none of those issues. Might as well make a happy ending as a youtube video rather than a mod, far more flexibility and possibilties that way...

[FEZ. TF7]

Originally posted by Genome:

Originally posted by Stormstriker:

On PC, for ME 3 you can use the MEHEM mod to give you a completely different ending.

Never really understood the point of this mod... the problem with the original ME3 ending wasn't that it was "sad", but because it left no closure, all the choices you made throughout the series didn't mean anything at the very end, and most of it was just a recolored cutscene. People who thought the hate of the ending was simply because Shepard dies miss the point completely. Extended cut was a huge improvement, but of course there was a limit to how much they could change.

This happy ending mod literally addresses none of those issues. Might as well make a happy ending as a youtube video rather than a mod, far more flexibility and possibilties that way...

Shepard doesn't necessarily die tho, Shepard was alive at the end of my playthrough's, you see it for yourself at the end of the credit's, the game is left on a clifhanger to wether Shepard lives or dies

[The Brown Hornet]

Female Shephard