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Just finished a playthrough of ME1 and am starting ME2... so that I can replay a fully fleshed out ME3. Guess who will be using Gibbed to give themselves minerals to avoid the tedious mining?
Anyway, replaying the first Mass Effect reminded me of so many things I liked about it that were subsequently lost. This is about one of those things.
Contains MAJOR ME3 spoilers, including ending ones.
The Reapers: Where did it all go wrong?
Virmire is the critical point in the first game: you face a crisis of loyalty with Wrex, let a Salarian squad face a suicide mission, finally catch up with Saren, detonate a goddamn nuke and perhaps most critically, you must choose which of your squadmates to sacrifice. Amongst all this, you also find out what a true threat the Reapers by speaking to Sovereign in Saren's private lab.
A reminder of how it goes:
When I first played, I found this exchange incredibly frightening. As an enemy, the Reapers are ancient and unknowable. While Shepard has an incredible force of will that can sway many, Sovereign thinks nothing of her/him. These machines are so powerful that they are able to just wipe out all advanced organic life every 50,000 years; a stretch of time that is difficult for organics to even fathom. They live in dark space, which is also completely unknown. They leave the Citadel and Mass Effect relays so that societies will develop along lines that are convenient for the Reapers. On top of that, Sovereign calls organic life an accident. What ARE these things?
Even before this encounter, such an excellent job was done of building up the horror. Before landing on Eden Prime, the footage sent to the Normandy reveals dark claws/tentacles descending from the sky. The beacon's confused imagery shows that even the Protheans, regarded by those you meet in the Mass Effect universe as clever and advanced, can be brought down so painfully by these creatures. You also know that they have peculiar mind-control powers that can be utilised subtly in the case of Saren or extremely in the case of husks.
However, towards the end of the game we know the Reapers are not as flawless as Sovereign likes to proclaim. The Prothean VI reveals that Prothean scientists managed to block Sovereign's signal to the Keepers, and by the end of the game we know that a Reaper can be destroyed with enough firepower. Still, there is an ancient race of sentient machines that plan to wipe out all advanced organic life on its way from dark space. That's pretty scary.
In Mass Effect 2, the Collectors continue to make the Reaper threat frightening. Even before you find out they are reworked Protheans, the fact that Harbinger can control the Collector General from such a great distance shows that it is formidable. The Human Reaper embryo made from colonist goo looks silly, but the idea is interesting. According to Word of God, Reapers have different cores depending on the species they are made from, yet retain similar outer shells. So, could wiping out all advanced organic life just be their way of reproducing? It seemed like that wasn't the whole story, although being able to build new Reapers certainly seemed like a way to propagate themselves.
Then we get to Mass Effect 3. I liked the introduction with Reapers attacking Earth. Their Reaper-horns send a chill down your spine and their Reaper-lasers so clearly sheer through anything in their way. They still seem like such an impossible enemy to face. As you know from the Protheans, the process of harvesting and destroying can take decades or centuries, so the fact that Earth holds out for so long is acceptable to me. Especially when you consider that the Reapers have developed a particular interest in humans, and thus would be interested in preserving as many as possible.
What really cheapens the Reaper experience though is the Galaxy map. You send off signals and suddenly there are cute miniature Reapers chasing you around. Aw, look at their widdle claws. It makes their threat seem very mundane.
Anyway, on Rannoch, you have another Reaper conversation:
"It is not a thing you can comprehend." Okay, going over the themes of order/chaos and salvation again. This Reaper is less intimidating than Sovereign, but it is always frightening to hear a Reaper speak about their reasons or lack thereof. But then Shepard whips out: "Organics and synthetics don't have to destroy each other." Oh dear, what a horrible premonition of the ending.
Yes, the Reapers harvest and destroy only organics. Yes, organics vs. synthetics have been a major theme of the games. The first game in particular had synthetics only in enemy roles. But did we ever suspect the Reapers were harvesting organics BECAUSE they were synthetics? Probably not, because we were lead to believe their purposes were vast, ancient and unknowable; far beyond organics and primitive synthetics like the Geth. So why would you jump to that conclusion, Shepard? And do you hear that, Catalyst-Child?
The Catalyst is basically the ruiner of all things. In this particular case, it is his awful and disappointing explanation that destroys everything awesome about the Reapers. They are no longer some ancient unknowable force, but insect-shaped puppets that serve some being located in the middle of the Citadel. Many angry fans have explained how dumb the 'use synthetics to kill organics to stop synthetics from killing organics' argument is. Especially since you don't get to question the Catalyst at all. It's too bad the Catalyst can't just look out the window and see the Quarians and Geth blasting Reapers together. The experience is further cheapened by the fact that the Catalyst is like 'hm, maybe the cycle IS kind of stupid: I'll just let you do what you want with the Reapers using my three magical options'. I might write another post about the ending choices, although a million people already have. Suffice to say, I find them unimpressive.
In conclusion, this potentially awesome enemy was rendered no longer scary AND completely stupid. partialist pointed out a similar but actually well-done race called the Inhibitors in Alastair Reynolds novels. Writers, what were you thinking?
Anyway, replaying the first Mass Effect reminded me of so many things I liked about it that were subsequently lost. This is about one of those things.
Contains MAJOR ME3 spoilers, including ending ones.
The Reapers: Where did it all go wrong?
Virmire is the critical point in the first game: you face a crisis of loyalty with Wrex, let a Salarian squad face a suicide mission, finally catch up with Saren, detonate a goddamn nuke and perhaps most critically, you must choose which of your squadmates to sacrifice. Amongst all this, you also find out what a true threat the Reapers by speaking to Sovereign in Saren's private lab.
A reminder of how it goes:
Click to viewWhen I first played, I found this exchange incredibly frightening. As an enemy, the Reapers are ancient and unknowable. While Shepard has an incredible force of will that can sway many, Sovereign thinks nothing of her/him. These machines are so powerful that they are able to just wipe out all advanced organic life every 50,000 years; a stretch of time that is difficult for organics to even fathom. They live in dark space, which is also completely unknown. They leave the Citadel and Mass Effect relays so that societies will develop along lines that are convenient for the Reapers. On top of that, Sovereign calls organic life an accident. What ARE these things?
Even before this encounter, such an excellent job was done of building up the horror. Before landing on Eden Prime, the footage sent to the Normandy reveals dark claws/tentacles descending from the sky. The beacon's confused imagery shows that even the Protheans, regarded by those you meet in the Mass Effect universe as clever and advanced, can be brought down so painfully by these creatures. You also know that they have peculiar mind-control powers that can be utilised subtly in the case of Saren or extremely in the case of husks.
However, towards the end of the game we know the Reapers are not as flawless as Sovereign likes to proclaim. The Prothean VI reveals that Prothean scientists managed to block Sovereign's signal to the Keepers, and by the end of the game we know that a Reaper can be destroyed with enough firepower. Still, there is an ancient race of sentient machines that plan to wipe out all advanced organic life on its way from dark space. That's pretty scary.
In Mass Effect 2, the Collectors continue to make the Reaper threat frightening. Even before you find out they are reworked Protheans, the fact that Harbinger can control the Collector General from such a great distance shows that it is formidable. The Human Reaper embryo made from colonist goo looks silly, but the idea is interesting. According to Word of God, Reapers have different cores depending on the species they are made from, yet retain similar outer shells. So, could wiping out all advanced organic life just be their way of reproducing? It seemed like that wasn't the whole story, although being able to build new Reapers certainly seemed like a way to propagate themselves.
Then we get to Mass Effect 3. I liked the introduction with Reapers attacking Earth. Their Reaper-horns send a chill down your spine and their Reaper-lasers so clearly sheer through anything in their way. They still seem like such an impossible enemy to face. As you know from the Protheans, the process of harvesting and destroying can take decades or centuries, so the fact that Earth holds out for so long is acceptable to me. Especially when you consider that the Reapers have developed a particular interest in humans, and thus would be interested in preserving as many as possible.
What really cheapens the Reaper experience though is the Galaxy map. You send off signals and suddenly there are cute miniature Reapers chasing you around. Aw, look at their widdle claws. It makes their threat seem very mundane.
Anyway, on Rannoch, you have another Reaper conversation:
"It is not a thing you can comprehend." Okay, going over the themes of order/chaos and salvation again. This Reaper is less intimidating than Sovereign, but it is always frightening to hear a Reaper speak about their reasons or lack thereof. But then Shepard whips out: "Organics and synthetics don't have to destroy each other." Oh dear, what a horrible premonition of the ending.
Yes, the Reapers harvest and destroy only organics. Yes, organics vs. synthetics have been a major theme of the games. The first game in particular had synthetics only in enemy roles. But did we ever suspect the Reapers were harvesting organics BECAUSE they were synthetics? Probably not, because we were lead to believe their purposes were vast, ancient and unknowable; far beyond organics and primitive synthetics like the Geth. So why would you jump to that conclusion, Shepard? And do you hear that, Catalyst-Child?
The Catalyst is basically the ruiner of all things. In this particular case, it is his awful and disappointing explanation that destroys everything awesome about the Reapers. They are no longer some ancient unknowable force, but insect-shaped puppets that serve some being located in the middle of the Citadel. Many angry fans have explained how dumb the 'use synthetics to kill organics to stop synthetics from killing organics' argument is. Especially since you don't get to question the Catalyst at all. It's too bad the Catalyst can't just look out the window and see the Quarians and Geth blasting Reapers together. The experience is further cheapened by the fact that the Catalyst is like 'hm, maybe the cycle IS kind of stupid: I'll just let you do what you want with the Reapers using my three magical options'. I might write another post about the ending choices, although a million people already have. Suffice to say, I find them unimpressive.
In conclusion, this potentially awesome enemy was rendered no longer scary AND completely stupid. partialist pointed out a similar but actually well-done race called the Inhibitors in Alastair Reynolds novels. Writers, what were you thinking?