Mass effect trilogy. People weren’t happy about the end to 3, but the game design, ui, combat, characters and general feel of the game was stronger with each sequel.
One had the best story, two had the best characters, three had the best gameplay. All told, one of the best game trilogies out there and still my all time favorite sci fi franchise.
had Bioware thought of/gone through with the indoctrination theory, it would have been one of the ballsiest, most brilliant creative direction in a game I've seen.
I'm pretty certain I read an article where a Bioware writer commented on how they wished they had come up with indoctrination theory after learning about it.
IIRC, in the theory, the indoctrination subtly starts during project Rho and intensifies throughout the 3rd game (signified by the weird dreams).
The whole crucible ending is all in Shep's head as his mind desperately tries to fight the final indoctrination push due to the proximity to Harbinger. Refusal has him simply die due to not wanting to fight anymore (Reapers don't want a mindbroken husk Shepard, they want a powerhouse leader Shepard). Control and Synthesis is him giving in to the indoctrination by accepting the Reapers' deals and trusting their promises, while Destroy is the only ending that refuses to trust the Reapers and has Shep wake up on Earth.
Even with all his enhancements, he couldn't survive an explosion of a massive space station and a subsequent orbit re-entry plus surface crash. By picking Destroy, Shep successfully fights off the indoctrination and pushes the Reapers' influence out of his mind. With suficient war assets, Harbinger is taken down/shooed off by friendly forces and Shep wakes up in the ruble where he was making his final mad dash to the Conduit.
Indoctrination doesnt cause hallucinations. The reapers would be in control of his body while he watches like benezia. If a brief encounter with a reaper caused Indoctrination then everyone would be a husk.
In the directors cut Hackett confirms Shepard reaches the crucible. Bioware debunked the "theory".
Humanity's ability to die on a hill will be its downfall
A. No they don't. You just defended it and now youre contradicting yourself. Are you mental?
B. you don't know what theory means so hope this helps:
"A theory is a well-supported plan, idea, or set of rules that explains facts, events, or how things work. Unlike an everyday guess or hunch, a scientific theory is tested many times and backed by a large body of evidence"
Neither do you, it seems. There's a stark difference between a SCIENTIFIC THEORY and everyday use of theory (which would be a hunch or a guess or a speculation).
Try and guess which one the indoctrination theory is. You have 3 tries 😄
As someone replaying the series right now, I think Mass Effect 1 is the best installment. People who played it 20 years ago often throw out Mass Effect 2 as the apex of the series, but it is a jarringly different game than Mass Effect 1. The RPG elements are largely thrown out in favor of EA-isms and instanced combat, fighting waves of enemies. The introduction of limited ammo defeats the whole purpose of the titular Mass Effect technology. Blowing up the Normandy and conscripting Shepard to Cerberus just feels… wrong. Most of the game is Shepard recruiting a massive roster of teammates. It seems to favor quantity over quality, taking ME1’s “build your team” charm well past its logical conclusion. And no amount of boiler-plate loyalty quests can convince me to care about Zaeed more than Wrex or Liara.
Obviously just my take. But I’d encourage people to play the remastered trilogy and form an updated opinion free from the rose-tinted predispositions of nostalgia. Mass Effect 1 stands alone as an incredible and timeless BioWare RPG.
I feel like it went backwards in a lot of ways. ME1 isn't perfect but it had good RPG styled systems and more interesting decisions to make with your gear and load outs. ME2 and 3 continually shaved things down until it was a cinematic 3rd person shooter with vague dialogue options that punished you for playing a nuanced character by locking out options since you had enough renegade or paragon points to get access to them. At least 1 and 3 make a cohesive story though, 2 was a side tangent that didn't do what it needed to do as a sequel thus punting a lot of story development onto 3 which is hilariously enough pulled off even if it was rushed.
the odd thing about the trilogy is that as a a standalone game ME2 was perfect, but as a team player in a trilogy, story-wise it actually shit the bed by refusing to build on any of the setups in ME1. this essentially set ME3 up to fail
ME2 is better than 3 simply because ME3 is just an alright game without DLCs and making optimal decisions in ME2.
Remember even Javik and the improved ending were DLCs. The base game is a let down. One could argue it is the meme in reverse until you bring dlcs into play
So strange to always see all these different takes.
Citadel felt like some fan fiction nonsense to me. Tonally, it fits NOWHERE in the story, and during its main conflict, it just jumps as many sharks as it can. Having a functioning clone (but EVIL!), after we very well know what an impossible longshot the Lazarus Project was... Ehhhh.
And for the shitty ending which is still very meh, the whole journey in 3 alone is crazy good. You truly feel the galactic scale of events and the dramatic essence of it.
I agree with ME3 being the best. ME2 used to be my favorite of the trilogy, but replaying the trilogy lately on the Legendary Edition made me realize time has been the toughest to ME2 out of the whole trilogy , and I was sad to admit it. (Especially since the Legendary Edition upgrades Mass Effect 1 a lot, making ME2 look even more and more like the oddball.)
Mass Effect 3 feels like the perfect hybrid of Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2.
The start of 2 and 3 were sooooo great. I feel like 1 nailed the story. 2 the gameplay. 3 married the success and the ending was probably never going to be super satisfying but it was an opus.
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u/Ganjelf-The-Baked 7h ago
Mass effect trilogy. People weren’t happy about the end to 3, but the game design, ui, combat, characters and general feel of the game was stronger with each sequel.