30 Days of Mass Effect: Days 22 & 23
MOAR ALL AT ONCE.
Hardest part of the game.
Well, I generally shift the difficulty rating down low enough I can play casually (though GO ME, I'm finally actually upping the difficulty level and you know, it's not so bad), so difficult in terms of getting killed all the time?
I find the stuff in the Mako when you have to shoot at stuff in general kind of frustrating because I'm just not good at aiming that thing. I find the targeting reticule often blends into the background and I really miss the ability to panic pause the game with the power-wheel. But dudes, I find it easier to get OUT of the car and take on Geth Armatures or even a Colossus on FOOT when you can't even get hit once without dying, than I do to kill them in the Mako sometimes because I'm that bad at it. Plus doing it that way gives extra XP.
But also, shout out to Kai Leng's final bossfight in ME3. Because I don't so much have actual difficulty beating him as I just think it's a poorly designed fight that's predicated on boring powers. He just...freezes up and becomes immune to everything to recharge a set number of times, which like, fine, okay I guess, except it doesn't feel like I can really tell if I'm hurting him or wearing him down in between because he's so flippy and hard to grab. So you just swap the annoyance of swatting and swatting at something ineffectively with the frustration of not being able to affect something at all. It's alternately annoying and boring and you're fighting a character who's already annoying and boring. It's just a bad combination all around.
I still think the role of Kai Leng should either have been given to Shepard's clone, brought to "life" after Cerberus fell down the well of indoctrination from top to bottom, to sow propaganda and dissent, or it should have been an indoctrinated Jacob, who, depending on loyalty and romance situation, you have to kill him, or you can talk him into regaining control of himself long enough to rescue him and put him in stasis til the Reapers are beaten. Cus GAH imagine if Jacob killed Miranda. We would have cared about what happened so much more than Kai Leng. We would have cared about Jacob more because Jacob is basically the One Stable Person on the Normandy in ME2, but now he actually needs us. And The Illusive Man would have been brutalising one of our friends, exploiting him against us in a terrible and cruel way. And it certainly would have been a more dramatically substantive role for Jacob than the one he got, you know, the...side-mission one-off, "Hey Shepard, look! I still exist! Laters!"
23. Saddest Moment of the Game.
Wait, I get one?! Can I pick, like, the entirety of Mass Effect 3?
No, but really, I think one of the reasons that I love the third game so much is the way it manages to achieve such a consistent, underlying tone of quiet sorrow. I never was a huge fan of the "GIVE THEM HELL!" military bravado stuff, but in this game it all felt like a desperate piece of self-deception. Hackett keeps talking about needing to "increase the tempo" of the war and "chalk up some wins" or it won't go well for us, and I'm like, Space Dad, it's okay, you can just admit we're fucked. Honestly, we'll both feel better for it.
In terms of specific moments, I think Shepard closing her eyes as the boy's shuttle gets downed, paired with her simple, quiet description of that event to Garrus, later, is really affecting. Likewise after Thessia when she is avoiding that call to the Asari Councillor. And, of course, the final scene with Anderson. I think Jennifer Hale's delivery was just perfect in this scene. It's one of those scenes that I find iconic for Femshep, I think, because of the way Anderson subs in "son" for "child", which I wish were a unisex line because "child" is so much more tender and devastating. And then, Hale's almost murmured, exhausted, "Thank you, sir." You know she's devastated by his death, but also, there is nothing left to do or say.
If I had to pick only one, though, it would be Thane's death. I've spoken about it before in this meme. But. "Goodbye, Thane. You won't be alone long."
Hardest part of the game.
Well, I generally shift the difficulty rating down low enough I can play casually (though GO ME, I'm finally actually upping the difficulty level and you know, it's not so bad), so difficult in terms of getting killed all the time?
I find the stuff in the Mako when you have to shoot at stuff in general kind of frustrating because I'm just not good at aiming that thing. I find the targeting reticule often blends into the background and I really miss the ability to panic pause the game with the power-wheel. But dudes, I find it easier to get OUT of the car and take on Geth Armatures or even a Colossus on FOOT when you can't even get hit once without dying, than I do to kill them in the Mako sometimes because I'm that bad at it. Plus doing it that way gives extra XP.
But also, shout out to Kai Leng's final bossfight in ME3. Because I don't so much have actual difficulty beating him as I just think it's a poorly designed fight that's predicated on boring powers. He just...freezes up and becomes immune to everything to recharge a set number of times, which like, fine, okay I guess, except it doesn't feel like I can really tell if I'm hurting him or wearing him down in between because he's so flippy and hard to grab. So you just swap the annoyance of swatting and swatting at something ineffectively with the frustration of not being able to affect something at all. It's alternately annoying and boring and you're fighting a character who's already annoying and boring. It's just a bad combination all around.
I still think the role of Kai Leng should either have been given to Shepard's clone, brought to "life" after Cerberus fell down the well of indoctrination from top to bottom, to sow propaganda and dissent, or it should have been an indoctrinated Jacob, who, depending on loyalty and romance situation, you have to kill him, or you can talk him into regaining control of himself long enough to rescue him and put him in stasis til the Reapers are beaten. Cus GAH imagine if Jacob killed Miranda. We would have cared about what happened so much more than Kai Leng. We would have cared about Jacob more because Jacob is basically the One Stable Person on the Normandy in ME2, but now he actually needs us. And The Illusive Man would have been brutalising one of our friends, exploiting him against us in a terrible and cruel way. And it certainly would have been a more dramatically substantive role for Jacob than the one he got, you know, the...side-mission one-off, "Hey Shepard, look! I still exist! Laters!"
23. Saddest Moment of the Game.
Wait, I get one?! Can I pick, like, the entirety of Mass Effect 3?
No, but really, I think one of the reasons that I love the third game so much is the way it manages to achieve such a consistent, underlying tone of quiet sorrow. I never was a huge fan of the "GIVE THEM HELL!" military bravado stuff, but in this game it all felt like a desperate piece of self-deception. Hackett keeps talking about needing to "increase the tempo" of the war and "chalk up some wins" or it won't go well for us, and I'm like, Space Dad, it's okay, you can just admit we're fucked. Honestly, we'll both feel better for it.
In terms of specific moments, I think Shepard closing her eyes as the boy's shuttle gets downed, paired with her simple, quiet description of that event to Garrus, later, is really affecting. Likewise after Thessia when she is avoiding that call to the Asari Councillor. And, of course, the final scene with Anderson. I think Jennifer Hale's delivery was just perfect in this scene. It's one of those scenes that I find iconic for Femshep, I think, because of the way Anderson subs in "son" for "child", which I wish were a unisex line because "child" is so much more tender and devastating. And then, Hale's almost murmured, exhausted, "Thank you, sir." You know she's devastated by his death, but also, there is nothing left to do or say.
If I had to pick only one, though, it would be Thane's death. I've spoken about it before in this meme. But. "Goodbye, Thane. You won't be alone long."