P3: pelagia14's Platinum Pilgrimage

[pelagia14]

11 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

haha - these are dope!

 

They somehow make Mass Effect feel like it's filtered through the Outer Worlds lens - and I dig the novel use of a photo-mode!

 

This makes me really curious what you could end up doing if you ever play Plague Tale: Requiem.... that's got some amazing environments, but a bit of simplistic photo mode...

...but thats something I suspect some post-game creativity could fix 😜

 

Ah, thanks so much! I was definitely inspired when I was looking through my ME1 screenshots, and I'm tempted to make one for each visitable planet in ME1 at some point. I'll just have to figure out one or two phrases that I can rotate with "Welcome to [adjective + location]" and "Come visit [adjective + location]". 😂

 

A Plague Tale: Innocence is in my backlog, and I do plan on getting A Plague Tale: Requiem at some point when it goes on sale. I'm definitely intrigued to see what kind of creativity will strike me whenever I get around to playing it!

 

Side note - I read through your ME1 review yesterday and I love that you are part of the 20-30% of us that play as fem!Shepard~! 🥳

[Briste]

On 8/28/2023 at 10:51 AM, pelagia14 said:

If we go back to 2005, while some of the original lyrics can still fit into the melody when sung, the newer translation gives a much more authentic opera tone. 

SNES: "What shall I do? / I'm lost without you." 

PR: "Were you only here / To quiet my fear..."

Well, I think it's safe to say you are way more technically aware of music than I am lol The funny thing about what I quoted was that line there was one of my bigger gripes with the change 😅 I thought it flowed well with the music and saw no need to change it...but again that's coming from 100% my 13 year old self who fell in love with the Locke and Celes love story and the 42 year old self that has that music as my alarm clock.

 

I didn't realize until I looked up the 'new' lyrics that it had been changed that long ago, but since I had never played any of the ports, I had no idea and was pretty stunned. It really wasn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. There was only one part that I could never get the song to match the words in the SNES version, but I let that go.

 

Great job on the ME plat as well. I played that series for the first time a couple of years ago and it was one of my favorite series ever. I played as male Shep. I usually play the male role since it's easier for me to role play, but I do plan on playing as fem Shep when I do the new versions. I bought them on release and then realized I wanted to put some time in between my playthroughs. Tali is my girl.

 

I actually enjoyed Andromeda quite a bit, but I know that one was not very popular with the masses. I don't think that one will get the remaster treatment, but I do hope we get more of that story some day.

[pelagia14]

9 hours ago, Briste said:

Well, I think it's safe to say you are way more technically aware of music than I am lol The funny thing about what I quoted was that line there was one of my bigger gripes with the change 😅 I thought it flowed well with the music and saw no need to change it...but again that's coming from 100% my 13 year old self who fell in love with the Locke and Celes love story and the 42 year old self that has that music as my alarm clock.

 

I mean, I don't actually know what makes opera music feel like opera music... but the new version's lyrics sound more like how someone would talk a few hundred years ago versus today (at least based on literature, lol), so it has a more historical vibe to it. I guess that's what I was trying to put my finger on earlier but couldn't find the words for. 

 

And again, I absolutely understand being attached to the original version. Were they to change the Latin lyrics in One-Winged Angel to different Latin lyrics (not even English ones), I would be super annoyed even if there was a good reason behind it.

 

9 hours ago, Briste said:

Great job on the ME plat as well. I played that series for the first time a couple of years ago and it was one of my favorite series ever. I played as male Shep. I usually play the male role since it's easier for me to role play, but I do plan on playing as fem Shep when I do the new versions. I bought them on release and then realized I wanted to put some time in between my playthroughs. Tali is my girl.

 

I actually enjoyed Andromeda quite a bit, but I know that one was not very popular with the masses. I don't think that one will get the remaster treatment, but I do hope we get more of that story some day.

 

Tali has such an amazing character arc throughout the trilogy, she's definitely one of my favorite squadmates of the entire series! I'm actually about to do her recruitment mission in ME2 and I'm very excited to get her back on the team again~

 

Yeah, Andromeda definitely had a rough launch which really soured a lot of people. Even after getting past the bugs and glitches, a lot of people seemed to be very let down by the story. I'm still going to play it at some point for a chance to get more worldbuilding and lore for my favorite space opera. Plus I'm curious to learn about the Angara race.

[pelagia14]

 

Platinum #99 | Yoku's Island Express

 

Developer: Villa Gorilla, 2018

Country: Sweden

Time Played: 12h

Platinum Earned: 8 September 2023

Rating: 6/10

 

PREMISE:

You play as Yoku, a dung beetle who is the new postmaster of Mokumana Island. With the aid of the trusty pinball that Yoku always rolls around, you'll explore the island as you look to save the island from whatever attacked its island deity. This is all while delivering a backlog of mail to the island's post boxes and completing sidequests to unlock more areas get new abilities help the island's inhabitants. The game is a unique hybrid of pinball mechanics and Metroidvania-based platform exploration.

 

Note: For anyone interested in checking out Yoku's Island Express, the PS Store does contain a Demo!

 

GAME THOUGHTS:

The only reason I picked up this game was in order to fill the Pinball category in the "Platinum Every Genre" PSNP Event, and it was a frequently-used non-shovelware choice for many other participants. Plus I bought it during the current 75-80% sale, so I figured even if it was mediocre I was paying less than $5 for it. 

 

JOINING GENRES

Right off the bat, I have to say that I had no idea that fusing the Pinball and Metroidvania genres together could work so well! When I booted this game up the other day, my plan was to play it for an hour or so that night before bed as a nice break from Mass Effect 2 and Hades, and then I could continue to play a few hours of Yoku's Island Express here and there over the next few weeks when I wanted to switch things up. Suddenly it's past midnight, and my brain has spent over three hours telling me to explore just one more little section of the map (and then a final one, then the last one, well just one more... #neurodivergent). Yoku's Island Express was great at giving me constant little hits of dopamine, whether it was reaching a new area of the map, finding a hidden Wickerling collectible, or unlocking a new traversal ability that would let me finally access things I had previously discovered. 

 

The game's controls are very simple: You can move Yoku left or right. moves blue pinball paddles and 'jump' platforms, and moves yellow pinball paddles/platforms. Platforms that are striped both blue and yellow can be operated with either or . A few upgrades also use those buttons, and there is  to swim down once you get that ability.  opens your map, and  opens your inventory backpack or lets you swap to a zoomed-out map view. Those are all the controls that you need. 

 

PLAYING PINBALL

Let's talk about the pinball portion of the gameplay You don't have any lives to keep track of - which is super nice, and if Yoku ever falls below the pin paddles in a section, there is a 'jump' platform that can boost Yoku back into play. Some pinball segments have "Scarabs" that slowly open up when you get all of the lights in a section of the screen to light up. Most of the Scarabs are pretty easy to unfurl/open. I'd hazard that for people with super-fast reflexes the challenge is almost trivial. For someone like me who has pretty decent hand-eye coordination, a couple of the Scarabs did require a bit more patience opening but they never felt impossible.

 

 

Examples of "pinball" areas

 

This is of course helped out by the fact that the game does not try to employ 100% realistic physics. The momentum of your pinball is rarely a problem, even when it sometimes should be, but it's also not to the point where it feels immersion-breaking. One fun twist to traditional pinball mechanics is that, while Yoku is normally pulled along by the pinball due to a rope that is... somehow attached to it, when the pinball has little to no momentum you can actually have Yoku push it a little bit. Granted that only works on less-steep angles, but it is still sometimes helpful!

 

I really wished that they integrated a few little surprises/secret places with the Pinball mechanics, though. I remember 3D Pinball Space Cadet on Windows XP, where there were wormholes you could enter after you lit up all the lights of specific targets. While Yoku's Island Express has some hidden areas for you to find, none of them are accessed via a Pinball mechanic, which I find really disappointing. Most pinball segments in Yoku's Island Express only have one or two areas with target lights to illuminate, and you just get extra fruit (currency) when you illuminate a full set. While I enjoyed the more laid-back gameplay, it would have been nice to have a bit more complexity in more of the pinball segments.

 

METROIDVANIA MECHANICS

Between pinball segments, Yoku is able to platform to different areas thanks to the pinball 'jump' platforms (boosters? I don't know what to call them) that I mentioned previously. You can also unlock a few 'quick-travel' routes that go to various sections of the island. Those routes (and your ability to hop off at specific stops scattered along them) were super nice for returning to areas or quest-givers once you unlocked new abilities. The game has a couple of areas that are more hidden, but I was still able to find all of them without needing the assistance of a guide. Despite my love of exploration in games, I normally need a guide to find at least a couple of hidden areas with collectibles. 

 

 

Examples of "traversal" areas. Side note - regional environmental design was very well done!

 

GODDAMN SLUGS

At one point fairly early on, you earn the ability to 'vacuum' up slugs as if you were Kirby and then instantaneously somehow wrap them around Yoku's pinball (don't ask me how). The pinball can then be rolled or shot at gucky rocks that block some pinball passages or traversal rail segments, since the slugs explode when they come into contact with the gucky stuff. I played through the whole story and just had some seemingly impossible-to-reach collectibles when I pulled up a Collectibles Guide and finally discovered that you can actually also use the exploding slugs to gain access to those areas I was having trouble with! Once you collect an exploding slug, after about 10 seconds it will detonate even if you don't launch it at guck. When you are in a traversal spot instead of inside a pinball segment, that explosion will launch Yoku a couple of feet up in the air - like a convoluted jumping mechanic. 😂 I honestly don't know why/how I missed this game mechanic. 

 

I was absolutely fine with the exploding slug mechanic inside the pinball segments, but quickly came to despise them when it came to using them in the traversal areas to access out-of-reach areas for collectibles. You blast off in the direction opposite of the slug, but you can't spin the ball in place so trying to get the right angle AND the right positioning was frustrating. And of course for every failure, you have to go reacquire a slug (plus get back to where you need to be before it detonates). One treasure chest in the snowy region (see screenshot below) especially frustrated me. I had a video paused at the moment right before detonation and was trying to replicate their pinball placement and slug angle. After trying that a good 20 times, I decided that it would be less frustrating to just keep racing through to grab a slug, get to approximately the spot needed + approximate slug angle, and eventually get lucky. That probably took another 15 attempts before I was successful, but it was also the worst instance I experienced.

 

There's a reason I opened this chest last... 😒

 

TIP: For anyone reading this who still needs to get the collectibles that require exploding slugs, I found it especially helpful to roll into the nearest pink "save" flower beforehand. Especially for areas where a failed slug attempt can launch you dozens or hundreds of feet below, like ones on the snowy mountain, you can quickly pause and reload to the last checkpoint (pink flower) to save yourself the return trip back to where you were. 

 

Another traversal mechanic that you unlock later on is the "Sootling Leash", which lets your pinball get "eaten" by the plant and sends you spinning around it until you have it release your pinball. Climbing up the big tree of carnivorous plants to get to the mountaintop took me SO MANY attempts. I had difficulty properly timing when to release Yoku from them since my eyes would often be tracking Yoku (trailing behind the pinball) versus the pinball itself. And in most areas, if I failed it wasn't a huge deal because I dropped maybe 5-15 feet and could get back to it almost instantly. But having to successfully chain 8-10 of the plants was terrible (even with the 'shortcut' on the mountainside part way through).

 

I missed probably 40 times on this tree. 🥲

 

NARRATIVE

As hinted in the premise of this write-up, Yoku's Island Adventure has a story that you follow through. It's pretty standard - you need to get the leaders together to help with the big island problem, but none of them are able or willing to leave their regions until you Complete Their Favors™️. While the game's story is pretty boilerplate for a platform/adventure game, it does its job of providing you with reasons to explore the island and complete quest objectives.  Each region has a pinball boss fight, which are all well-executed and each has a unique mechanic. I enjoyed the Screetch one the best.

 

Yoku delivering some late mail around the island!

 

NOISEMAKER

Sadly, I couldn't fully enjoy the great soundtrack due to how loud the noisemaker is, even when I lowered "sound effects" to something like 20% but left "music" at its default 100% setting. The noisemaker seems like a gag, but it's how Yoku is able to unearth the Wickerling collectibles when you come across them. The noise can also magically break open objects on the ground in traversal areas that usually contain fruit. This sound effect is much louder than the rest of the game's audio, so even after adjusting the game's sound settings I had my TV volume a bit lower than normal to prevent the party horn/party blower/noisemaker sound from being too loud. Towards the end of the game when I had explored everything, I was able to increase my TV's audio to enjoy the soundtrack since I almost never needed the noisemaker anymore, but it's a shame that the game's sound mixing led me to this issue. On the positive side, the game's soundtrack and other audio effects are really well done. 

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS

I ranked this game as a 6/10, looking at what previous games I had ranked as 8's, 7's, and 6's. Honestly, anything that I rank as a 5 or higher is a game that I would recommend to at least some gamers. Yoku's Island Express is worth experiencing for its unique fusion of pinball and platforming Metroidvania gameplay. The pinball mechanics are accessible to those of us who don't often play this type of game (though hardcore pinball players will probably be left a bit disappointed). The soundtrack is fun, the regional areas stand apart from each other in their designs, and it's a fun game to play when you want to take a break from more intense games or longer platinum journeys. 

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• I loved that you could purchase 'maps' that would show the locations of any missable collectibles on the game's map.
• It was great that we could toggle to a zoomed-out mode of the map, but I also wished that we could have had a zoomed-in mode as well. Sometimes I was trying to figure out my route to return to a specific spot, and it could be hard to differentiate a few similar-looking areas at the standard view level of the map.
• The ability to customize your pinball is adorable! I only wished I had realized that I could do so much earlier in my playthrough, but that's on me.
• The healing ritual's magical instruments essentially being kazoos made me laugh.
• I fell into the thorns below pinball paddles exactly 169 times. 

 

FAVORITE...

Trophy Image:

 Fancy Beetle

Trophy Moment:

 Coup de grace

Screenshots:

[pelagia14]

 

Platinum #100 | Hades

 

Developer: Supergiant Games, 2021

Country: USA

Time Played: 120h to platinum

Platinum Earned: 8 September 2023

Rating: 10/10

 

PREMISE:

You play as Zagreus, attempting to escape the Underworld ruled by your father, Hades - the god of the dead. While failure may be inevitable in this rogue-like hack'n'slasher, no failed run is pointless or a waste. Each death sends you right back to your starting point in the House of Hades, where you have the opportunity to grow your relationships with many characters, grow stronger, and even work at unlocking customization and decor options for the House.

 

Each escape attempt allows up to four Olympian gods to bestow powerful Boons onto you. Coupled with different weapon archetypes and randomized per-run weapon upgrades, no two attempts feel the same as you discover how different Boons and upgrades synergize with each other.

 

GAME THOUGHTS:

THIS GAME, Y'ALL. I can't believe I've finally beaten it! 

🎵 No Escape

 

A WORD OF WARNING

For anyone who has yet to play Hades, I recommend going into this game as blind as possible, though I'm sure many people would disagree about a blind experience being very impactful. I'll note in my review here when things start to get a bit more spoilery, but even looking through the game's wiki can unintentionally provide big spoilers. You might wonder at the point of going in blind when this game is based on ancient Greek mythology that you might already be somewhat or deeply familiar with, but then you would probably also be aware that ancient mythologies can often have multiple interpretations. Discovering how the mythology is interpreted here is part of the fun, but there are also entire story mechanics hidden behind important narrative moments. Thus, this is the kind of game where it might be better to post your question in a forum instead of searching for the answer online. I'm also always happy to answer questions via PM, even if you are reading this long after it has been posted. 

 

AN EARLY HISTORY

I still remember the jaw-dropping moment during the 2018 Game Awards when Supermassive Giants unveiled their newest project with an awesome trailer - and oh yeah, by the way, announcing at the end of it that the game would release into Early Access that very same evening! As someone who had already played and loved Transistor, I was beyond hyped for this new game. Early Access was initially only available at the Epic Games Store 😒, but in December 2019 Hades became available on Steam. Hades had its 1.0 release in September 2020 alongside a Nintendo Switch release but at this point, I was still holding out hope that it would come to PlayStation - after all, Supermassive Giants' three previous titles (Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre) had all done so. Finally, in August of 2021, it came out on PlayStation! 🥳

 

In the beginning, only 4 weapons and most of the gods were available and you could only play through the first two combat regions. The developers provided major updates every 1-2 months which would rebalance the gameplay, sometimes add new game features, and provide new lines of recorded dialogue. The week or two after each major update would have your standard bug fixes and small tweaks. The developers tracked popular player requests in their discord and also took note of less popular but recurring requests; many good suggestions from both categories were incorporated into the final product. (For example, the very important ability to pet Cerberus was a community suggestion!) This is a great example of a company that really thought about what it should have completed prior to Early Access and what it wanted to gain out of the Early Access process to improve the game.

 

The bestest boy

 

DECISION PARALYSIS

I think in my first run I managed to make it to the 6th Room before I died. Around Room 4, you are usually offered more than one reward option to choose from for your next destination. I remember my husband happened to walk past the living room at that time when I was facing decision paralysis about which item/artifact to pick as my reward in the next room. Since he had already played much of the game a year prior on PC, I asked him "How am I supposed to choose which reward I'll get next?! You didn't warn me that I'd have to make these kinds of decisions!!" He laughed and said that he just picked random rewards until he figured out which ones he liked better, and he thought it was silly that I was putting so much thought into which reward to pick.

 

He should know better - I'm a completionist! I love games with character-centered narratives! Plus I love getting platinum trophies, so I wanted to know which rewards tend to be more useful in the long term, and which are better for specific situations or when there isn't a better reward available. I had barely any idea what most of the icons represented, let alone understanding the ways in which they impacted my playthrough. The short version is that reward symbols surrounded by a golden laurel provide temporary but usually noticeable, run-specific buffs; those surrounded by a blue laurel are items that you keep even after the run is over, and provide very minor benefits for the current run. There is a very handy spoiler-free infographic, though I'm not clear who created it.

 

Image from gameskinny.com

 

HADES' ADDICTIVE ROGUE-LIKE CORE

As mentioned in the premise section, every time you die you still make progress. The most immediately noticeable aspect is that certain resources carry over from run to run, and can be spent in the House of Hades for various things. Darkness is probably the most important one in the very early hours of the game, as several of the persistent abilities you can unlock with it (such as multiple lives before you die!) help you to progress further in your runs.

 

Furthermore, as you get to know the residents of House Hades better, you'll begin to talk about specific topics with them that take multiple visits in order to fully experience. There were a handful of runs where I almost hoped I would die quickly, because I wanted to get to the next bit of dialogue with a certain character. Of course, the denizens of House Hades have their own lives and thus sometimes are not able to be found at the House - which really helps them to feel more realistic, and also helps prevent you from becoming too complacent. I also really need to compliment the developers for the amount of dialogue they wrote - 99% of which is recorded - because in my 148 runs, it was uncommon for me to have more than 1 or 2 people without a new line of dialogue.

 

The combat system itself is also incredibly addictive. You never know which gods you'll get, which boons they'll offer, and how that will impact your fighting style as you progress in a run. Supermassive Games really nailed the 30 second game loop of fun, with each clear of a room providing a small rush of dopamine. In a month I'll *finally* get official testing for ADHD, but the ways in which my brain was hijacked by this incredible game loop feels indicative. I normally aim to stop gaming by 11:30pm, though in reality that ends up being closer to midnight oftentimes. With Hades I would be mid-run and see that it was 12:05am. What follows was not uncommon:

• Okay, I'll just finish up this one room and stop here for the night (since the game saves after each room clear).
• [The room clears] Ooooh! Artemis is one of my reward options and I've been hoping to stumble into her this run. Despite knowing that choice will still be there when I next pick up the game, I'll just clear one more room to grab a boon from her. 
• [I kill all the things in the next room] Well, it's only 12:08, I have time for another room or two, right?
• [Two rooms later] Mmmm it's getting really late, but I don't want to stop! I'll make the next room my last one.
• [Room clears] Oh hey I'm really on a roll right now, Imma just do this boss room while I'm in the grove.

And so on, until suddenly it's 1am and my husband telling me that it is really time for bed now. Oops!

 

House Hades decor

 

NOTE: NARRATIVE & GAMEPLAY SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD.

 

MY JOURNEY

The below bullet points are the exact notes I wrote down during my first 45 minutes with the game:

• Damn, right from the start the soundtrack doesn't fuck around. Fantastic music.
• THE ATTENTION TO DETAIL
• THE ART
• THE ADDICTIVE NATURE ALREADY
• HOWWW??????

Seriously, listen to this banger if you only listen to one song from this post:

🎵 Out of Tartarus

 

Run 21 is when I finally defeated Megaera. I felt triumphant. For many runs, she had felt undefeatable, unconquerable - until I slowly learned her movement patterns and gained a more-than-rudimentary skill with the combat system. I now truly understand why people enjoy Souls-like games so much, even if those games require a bit more patience (and skill) than I probably have to offer. 

 

Conquering Tartarus in Run 21 proved to be pivotal towards my mastery of the combat system, as I quickly progressed through Asphodel and didn't even bother noting down in which run I slayed Lernie. Run 31 was my first run-in with Theseus, so I was progressing pretty well! Nevertheless, I was starting to realize that it would take me a bit longer than what seemed like average in order to earn this game's platinum. From what I had gathered online, it wasn't uncommon for people to finish the game within 100-120 runs, usually with a note about how the last dozen were just to grind out Keepsakes or suicide runs to try to get Patrocles to appear in order to complete his questline. Thus, after reading up a bit on what "God Mode" entailed for Hades (and how it builds up over time, versus instantly being at full strength), Run 32 is when I decided to turn it on.

 

The 20% damage reduction was immediately apparent in Run 33, where not only did I clear Elysium for the first time, but I also made it through the River Styx and managed to survive until Phase 2 of the Hades fight!!! (Granted, I died moments later, but still! 😂). Ironically it was with my second-least-favorite weapon, the Twin Fists of Malphon. This run was also where I received my first Duo Boon, which happened to be the Zeus & Poseidon one!

 

 

Run 37 was my next encounter with Hades, and once again with a weapon I didn't particularly love - Aegis, the Shield of Chaos. I understand how to use the weapon, but in a game that usually rewards aggressive and risky gameplay, I did not super enjoy the "stand around while blocking to perform a shield bash attack" part of the move set. It's ironic because I really enjoyed using Coronacht the Heart-Seeking Bow, which always requires standing still when attacking, but somehow still felt more engaging to me. I don't know why I'm such a bow-main in videogames, but goddamn do I love bows. I had boons from Demeter, Zeus, and Ares. 

 

Run 50 was another mini-celebration for me, as it was my first time reaching the Temple of Styx without having lost a life! I had the Stygian Blade with Poseidon, Ares, and Dionysus. Deus ex Machina (what a great name) was at +58%, and for giggles, I had picked up the weapon upgrades Hoarding Slash and Cursed Slash.  Hoarding Slash gave me bonus attack damage equal to 5% of my current coin (878 coin aka 43.9 points of damage when I reached Hades) and Cursed Slash provided me with 2 health restoration per attack that lands, but with -60% overall health (-88 health in this run). Getting Cursed Slash on a run where I had a large health bar ended up being vital to my FINALLY DEFEATING HADES! 

 

I was so excited to finally discover who Zagreus' mother was. Having some familiarity with Greek mythology I had already had my suspicions, but I didn't know why his mother had not stayed in House Hades with her son. This first encounter had several revelations, and their conversation being cut short made me super eager to trounce Hades all over again so I could continue speaking with Zagreus' mother. 

 

 

Run 77 was the triumphant run where I returned (Zagreus' Mother) back to House Hades! I loved the slow cutscene journey back to Tartarus, allowing you as the player to spend a minute revelling in your achievement while also racing with thoughts as to how this will affect the game's story. Plus we got an incredible song to listen to:

🎵 In The Blood (Ft. Ashley Barret) 

 

EXTREME MEASURES

After that point, I started focusing on increasing my Pact of Punishment runs. I rotated between all of the weapons (except the Adamant Rail) based on which weapon would give increased rewards in a run. After I reached a Level 7 Heat on three different weapons, I decided in Run 142 to see what the Hades boss fight was like with Extreme Measures active. My husband had never bothered doing more than Rank 3 for Theseus & Asterius, so he decided to spectate. The first phase was pretty expected - Hades has a couple of new moves that he's thrown into the mix, but you know it isn't just gonna end with that. I was delighted to see that regional minibosses could also be summoned by Hades in lieu of regular enemy mobs and wondered if that would be the extent of things...

 

Then in Phase 2 Hades SUMMONED CERBERUS which was epic. I saw that there was always at least one green vase on the field regardless of my attempts to eliminate them all, and finally noticed that the Skulls had a slowing aura. Brimstone attacks by Hades now included a two-pulse wave, and I was shocked to see that Hades had the nerve to regen his health! At this point I started to have the sneaking suspicion that there would be a new Phase 3 to the fight, to which my husband was highly skeptical. Something along the lines of how they've already made a lot more changes in this fight compared to the other Extreme Measures encounters. 

 

I spent a moment feeling satisfaction at my hunch being correct at the beginning of Phase 3, but that quickly faded as I was trying to stay alive. I had burned through all my extra lives, Lucky Tooth included, and had less than a third of my final health bar left. Then Hades went and blanketed the entire combat area in darkness! He killed me very shortly afterwards, and then I had fun talking with the husband about how they really upped the ante for Hades on Extreme Measures. Followed by a comment about how I wouldn't be trying that again, to which we both laughed. I think it's a fantastically designed fight - though I'm also grateful that the platinum did not require me to win it! 😂

 

 

FINAL RUN

Finally, Run 146 was my 16 Heat run! I decided to jump up from Heat 8 to Heat 16 and see how it would go, and when I defeated Hades I felt like I was on cloud nine! (I did still have Deus ex Machina turned on, having reached its maximum benefit long ago. 😅)

• Pact of Punishment: 
  • Extreme Measures (3) | Damage Control (2) | Convenience Fee (2) | Jury Summons (2) | Middle Management (2) | Heightened Security (1) | Tight Deadline (1)
• Weapon: Varatha the Eternal Spear
  • Aspect of Hades
  • Upgrades: Breaching Skewer
• Items:
  • 1.5% Pierced Butterfly Keepsake
  • Companion Mort
• Boons:
  • Artemis  [ Hunter Dash, Lv. 2 | Artemis' Aid ]
    • Duo Boon - Mirage Shot (Artemis/Poseidon)
  • Poseidon [ Flood Shot | Tempest Flourish, Lv. 2 | Typhoon's Fury | Razor Shoals ]
  • Athena [ Bronze Skin | Brilliant Riposte | Holy Shield ]
  • Hermes [ Swift Flourish | Quick Recovery ]
  • Ares [ Curse of Agony, Lv. 2 | Dire Misfortune ]

Look mom, I did it!

 

GO(O)D BOONS

I really appreciated that each God has a unique ability/playstyle.

 

In the Greek pantheon Artemis is probably my favorite deity (have I mentioned I am a sucker for bows?), and as a result I usually tried to get her when she was available. It certainly doesn't hurt that her bonuses to Critical Hit pair well with pretty much everyone else! When I looked at the top 21 boons that I used and weighted them by their number of times used in a run, the statistics back up my favoritism for Artemis.

(It was supposed to be the top 20, but I only realized my mistake after I made the infographic. Editing the subtitle was faster than redoing the rest of it, lol)

 

Here is my personal ranking of the Hades Gods and their Boons:

1. Artemis
   • A biased #1 that should really be in like third place or something. But bonus Critical Hit damage is never a bad thing! 
   • My favorite Artemis Boon is Support Fire (get seeking arrows for free any time you successfully attack - hell yes!). It is tied with True Shot, Support Fire, and Pressure Points as my most-used Artemis Boon at 16 runs each. 😂
2. Zeus
   • I tend to gravitate to Lightning-aligned powers in games with elemental combat, and Hades is no exception.
   • My most used boon overall is Lightning Strike (24 runs), with Zeus' Aid being a verrrrrry close second.
3. Poseidon
   • His Knockback ability is fantastic for creating some breathing room when things get a bit chaotic. 
   • Most Used Boon: Flood Shot (20 runs)
4. Hermes
   • More zoom zoom is always nice! 
   • Most Used Boon: Swift Strike (22 runs)
5. Athena
   • Divine Dash is epic. I used it on 20 runs, and often nabbed Athena just to pick this one up.
6. Dionysus
   • Normally I am drawn to combat styles that emphasize debuffs and damage-over-time, but that didn't mesh well with my zoom-zoom combat style in Hades. Nevertheless, I was always fine with picking up Dionysus when I came across him. 
   • Most Used Boon: Trippy Shot (17 runs)
7. Ares
   • I'm sure Doom is super powerful, but I was so busy dashing around combat areas to attack and dodge that I was never really able to see its effects in action.
   • I was also a little annoyed with Blade Dash (it never felt super useful!), even though it somehow ended up being my most popular pick with Ares at 22 runs.
8. Demeter
   • I actually like Chill in general, but I truly disliked Crystal Beam. After I maximized my friendship with Demeter I avoided her when possible to avoid that Boon. (Yes I know there's always two other options unless that one Pact condition is in effect, but I didn't say my reasoning was rational, haha).
   • Most Used Boon: Frost Flourish (11 runs)
9. Aphrodite
   • Really did not care for her Weak and Charmed abilities at all. It's cool that they are available for people who like them, though. 
   • Most Used Boon: Heartbreak Strike (15 runs)
10. Chaos
    • I was fine with Chaos, but often his portals would appear within 2-3 rooms of a boss fight, and I hated the boons that started out with a debuff that damages you whenever you (attack/cast). None of the boon buffs were a huge game-changer in my opinion, either. I don't have data on which one I might have used the most.

 

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Once you've beaten the main story, I love how the game provides a narrative explanation for additional runs that you make - you're just continuing to test the Underworld's security! 😉
• Some of the random ways that Zagreus can die in the Surface World are hilarious. My favorite is the one where he dies from allergies, though alas I was not quick enough to screenshot it.
• Theseus' outfit for Extreme Measures is hilariously off-putting. 
• Sadly, while I was able to max out almost all of the friendships, I was left with Hypnos being short two hearts. I got both Thanatos and Dusa's dialogues with him, but couldn't seem to pop the last one that would unlock those two hearts for me!
• While Dusa was nowhere near one of my favorite characters, as someone on the ace spectrum it was neat to see asexuality get representation.

The Greatest (death) of All Time

 

FAVORITE...

Trophy Image:

 Three-Headed Boy

Trophy Moment:

 Skelly's Last Lamentations

Favorite OST Song:

Tie between 🎵 Out of Tartarus and 🎵 In The Blood 

Endgame Spoiler Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

.

Edited December 24, 2023 by pelagia14

[realm722]

Phenomenal job with this! Hades is such a funny game in my memory. It was from a studio that I LOVED, it received rave reviews before I played it, I played it, absolutely loved it, and yet in hindsight... I almost feel like a filthy casual ranking it as my #1 all-time. Like: "oh OF COURSE you like Hades THAT much" but like... it's THAT GOOD MAN!!!! I don't know why I feel sheepish in praising it. it is a game that ticks off every single one of my boxes and reading your fantastic experience with it (while listening to the songs linked in the background :D) reminded me of that. The undeniable ADDICTIVENESS is unreal. But it's not a shady, manipulative fashion that has you feeling gross afterward. It's the good kinda narcotic. The "damn I gotta stop but I'll be back for more later". I can't get over how gorgeous it looks even now. I LOVE your stats and images included. I compared a fair amount of them to my own. You and I have 2 of the same Top 3 (Artemis & Poseidon). I thought it was kinda interesting we both used the Adament Rail the least. How freaking generous of them to literally look at every run you've ever had of the game neatly documented whenever you want to reflect? Seriously... the only other game I know that does that is Slay the Spire. 

 

That's my favorite review of yours to date. Keep up the great work and can't wait for more Mass Effect reviews!

[pelagia14]

18 hours ago, realm722 said:

Phenomenal job with this! Hades is such a funny game in my memory. It was from a studio that I LOVED, it received rave reviews before I played it, I played it, absolutely loved it, and yet in hindsight... I almost feel like a filthy casual ranking it as my #1 all-time. Like: "oh OF COURSE you like Hades THAT much" but like... it's THAT GOOD MAN!!!! I don't know why I feel sheepish in praising it. it is a game that ticks off every single one of my boxes and reading your fantastic experience with it (while listening to the songs linked in the background :D) reminded me of that. The undeniable ADDICTIVENESS is unreal. But it's not a shady, manipulative fashion that has you feeling gross afterward. It's the good kinda narcotic. The "damn I gotta stop but I'll be back for more later". I can't get over how gorgeous it looks even now.

 

Now that I have the game's platinum, I went and read your review! Perhaps you feel like a "filthy casual" ranking it as your GOAT because you already knew you would love the game before you started playing it? There are a lot of people who will say that their favorite game franchise or studio is perfect and infallible, refusing to acknowledge when a few weak points exist. But if a game objectively is the greatest (😉😂), then we aren't being filthy casuals by saying it's the greatest. 

 

In regards to your review, I loved how you elaborated that the game allows the narrative to influence the roguelike gameplay loop. Looking back at my runs, it's wild that I finished the main story on Run 77 and so 47% of my runs were endgame. The gameplay loop is just so satisfying, that even when you've achieved Zagreus' goal, you can't put the game down yet! I completely agree with you on how phenomenally Hades' character growth was done.

 

Your ranking of all the characters was incredible!

• Regarding Hades' many capes - he has to burn them at the beginning of each fight because he's got some of that Olympian Drama™️ in him! 😂)
• I'll admit to being surprised that Chaos ranked so highly for you, but I suppose it's because I would only visit Chaos in the first half of a level, and if he didn't spawn right at Tartarus Room 1, he seemed to really like to spawn 2-3 rooms away from a level's boss for me!
• I found it interesting that Zeus ranked much lower on your list - though your commentary didn't mention what it was about his Boons that you weren't drawn to. 
• I forgot to mention Charon in my review! I loved his secret fight, but I only was able to attempt it 4 times. After I first discovered it sometime after defeating Hades I would frequently check to see if I could steal his money, but it seems to have an incredibly low spawn rate.
• I hadn't realized that Aphrodite's Aid was so powerful - I'll have to give it a proper chance in the future! 
• Yoooo the idea of Sisyphus randomly showing up in other realms would have been awesome! Especially since by that point, the player is long past finding his upgrades vital within Tartarus. 

Weapons! Gosh, sometimes I wish PSNP had a "Save Post Draft" feature for threads where one is the OP because I ended up getting unexpectedly very tired towards the end of my review. It's why my rankings of the gods are so short - I didn't feel like copying everything back into Google Docs and having to reformat it once again, though my tired brain forgot about weapons. The Spear was my favorite weapon, very different from your experience! I enjoyed how I could attack from a slight distance - though admittedly, I almost never used the charged-up attack. The aspect that allowed for "launch the spear and then fly to it" was probably my favorite. Once I figured out how to use Shield effectively it ranked super high - especially when I had Athena's Divine Dash to reflect attacks - and it probably tied with Bow for my second place. 

 

Posting your Security Log and Permanent Runs was awesome! An 18-minute clear feels insane to me, kudos on that! My fastest was 22:42 with the Sword followed by 27:34 with the Fists, oddly enough. Also wow, I've literally never heard of the game Going Under until you mentioned it in your comparison with Hades and Dead Cells. That game is now on my wishlist to get in the future!  

 

18 hours ago, realm722 said:

That's my favorite review of yours to date. Keep up the great work and can't wait for more Mass Effect reviews!

 

Thank you so much! 🥰

[pelagia14]

Platinum #35 | Mass Effect 2

 

Developer: BioWare, 2011*
Country: Canada
*XBOX 360 = 2010, PS3 = 2011

Platinum Earned: 13 February 2021
Time Played: N/A, but easily over 60 hours. 
Time to Plat: 4Y 2W
Rating: 10/10

 

PREMISE
Entire human colonies are going missing - no one knows why, and it doesn't seem to be a top priority for the Alliance or the Citadel Council. Circumstances result in Commander Shepard being forced to collaborate with the questionable pro-humanity organization Cerberus. Shepard quickly learns that a mysterious alien race known as the Collectors is behind the large-scale human disappearances, but their motives are unknown. The Commander needs to assemble a top-notch team to discover how this all relates to the Reapers and stop the Collectors before it is too late. 
 

GAME THOUGHTS

 

ABOUT THIS REVIEW
This review of Mass Effect 2 ("ME2") does not hide any spoilers behind tags. I assume that people reading this either have already played the Mass Effect trilogy at this point or do not mind reading moderate spoilers about a decade-old game. MASSIVE ME1 spoilers are also discussed without being spoiler-tagged. Legendary Edition (LE) will follow soon in its own much shorter post. 

Also, this is one of my favorite games of all time, y'all. It is probably going to incredibly rambly and sentimental, so buckle up and let's get rolling. 
 

 

HOW TO RESET IN AN RPG SEQUEL
A lot of sequels, especially RPGs, struggle to explain why your character is no longer max-level with the ultimate gear that took hours of grinding or defeating tough bosses in the previous game - or they don’t even bother trying to explain the necessary mechanical resetting of your character within their lore. Mass Effect 2 is a rare instance of showing how you can do this really well. It’s the best marriage of “resetting a playable character for a sequel” videogame mechanic with story/lore that I’ve ever seen in a videogame up to this point.

After you’ve imported a ME1 Shepard profile (or create a new profile), the game opens with the Normandy SR-1 under attack by an unknown ship with advanced weaponry. You gain control of Shepard, running past explosions and the blare of klaxons on your way to reach Joker for evacuation. As soon as you open the doors to the ship's Command Level, all noise immediately cuts out. Massive sections of the Normandy’s hull have been torn off. There is only the echoing sound of your breath inside your helmet to keep things from being completely silent. 
 

I had to sneak this in from LE's photo mode...

 

Shepard gets Joker into an Evacuation Pod, but right after an attack from the alien ship tosses Shepard away from the pod. The inertia launches Shepard away from the ship's corpse and into the void of space. The Commander's spacesuit is damaged, oxygen escaping the suit as they suffocate/freeze to death. 

 

 

 

Shepard spends their last moments reflecting on the events of ME1; this is where save files that did not import an ME1 profile can select what happened in that game. This is done via the Mass Effect: Genesis “Interactive Backstory” Comic that plays on screen. The comic summarizes the main plot points of ME1, and has you use the dialogue wheel to “fill in” your choices in regards to: Shepard’s ME1 love interest, the fate of the Rachni Queen, Wrex’s fate on Virmire, who was sacrificed between Ashley and Kaidan on Virmire, what happened to the Council at the end of the game, and who Shepard supported as the human representative for the Council. Due to a bug in how ME1 decision choices were exported, you still have to select the last choice even if you import an ME1 profile (though this was fixed in the LE).

 

 

 

Thankfully for the galaxy, Cerberus decided to invest two years of work and resources to bring Shepard back to life. This brings us to the character creation screen, where you can change Shepard's appearance as well as pick their combat class. You get a montage of science-y things happening, including Shepard briefly coming to consciousness at one point. The next time we gain control of Shepard is during an attack on the research facility, which forced Shepard to be woken up earlier than Project Lazarus planned. So not only do we have a solid explanation for why we don’t have Shepard’s awesome gear from ME1 (🛡️ go 💥), but we also have an indirect justification for why all their ME1 skill ranks didn’t carry over (🩼).

 

After all, Shepard hadn't finished the healing process that Project Lazarus intended, so it doesn’t seem quite so weird that my Shepard lost her ability to use the Damping or Immunity talents that I had built up in ME1. The game then segues into a mini tutorial on combat and controls. (Apparently, Project Lazarus has been doing extensive physical therapy on Shepard - or they figured out how to prevent muscles from atrophying. 😂) It's as though Shepard is regaining their bearings and remembering relearning how to control their newly-enhanced body simultaneously as we players are learning a new control scheme.
 

 

 

Obviously, not every RPG sequel can kill off and then resurrect their main character in order to explain in-universe why your character is weaker and less well-equipped than at the end of the previous game. This doesn't even work well for many storylines, has a significant impact on the character's development and friendships when done properly, and it would quickly become a dull trope. At the same time, most RPGs either have you playing as a "blank slate" character (Skyrim, Fallout, Dragon Age) or a highly-defined character (The Witcher series, Final Fantasy series, Horizon Forbidden West). Nor do those games have the selling point of 'your decisions have consequences in future games'! Some games will provide a small nod to the story/lore to explain why a character has been reset in the sequel - God of War: Ragnarok comes to mind in particular, where the explanation for all your epic armor being gone is that Fimbulwinter destroyed or wore down those armors' magics. (I always appreciate when a sequel makes even a small attempt to address the videogame-logic of resetting the protagonist's skills and/or equipment.)

The Mass Effect trilogy is a very uncommon instance of a game that has the playable protagonist's identity as something partially defined by the player and partially defined by the developers. Shepard is not a personality-less avatar - they have an established past with the Alliance military, are somewhat famous based on deeds in their past service record, and already know some of the game's other characters at the start of the trilogy. At the same time, the player gets to determine if Shepard is a virtuous war hero or a ruthless survivor, and which key event in their service brought them fame. The developers provide the various story paths to pick from and they determine how each conversation ends, but the player gets to become more friendly or aloof with various characters and pick the tone of Shepard's dialogue.

Thus, when Mass Effect 2 resets Shepard to 'Level 1', it needed to do so in a way that still allows the player to have input into Shepard's identity. This opening section of the game sets up why either a Paragon or Renegade Shepard would be working with a terrorist organization, why we don't have access to the abilities and gear from the end of ME1, and even provides an in-game explanation if you decide to change Shepard's appearance or their combat class! Without spoiling ME3, its opening provides an explanation for why your gear is gone and an imported Shepard starts out with some talent points to invest, but it does not provide an in-universe justification for changing their appearance or class. So yeah, Mass Effect 2's opening is just... perfect. 💖
 

HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED
Speaking of a new control scheme, ME2’s new control scheme was a much-needed change from the clunky system implemented in ME1. The combat system itself also gets a complete overhaul that carries into ME3, the most visually obvious being that your weapons now use ammunition. Apparently, a lot of people found ME1's weapon overheating system to be annoying. I always thought the 'heat cooldown' system made ME1 stand out compared to most other RPG Shooters, and it was nice in Insanity playthroughs to have my survival-horror game mindset of searching every nook and cranny for desperately needed ammo. I'm guessing the lack of ammunition also made it more difficult for the developers to create weapon variety (though ME1:LE made some nice improvements in that area). The game really hunkers down on cover-based shooter mechanics with ME2, unsurprising given the huge popularity of Gears of War just a few years prior. There are also changes to how powers work in combat, which I'll talk about a little later.

And guess what? The developers took the time to add in-game lore to justify the regression to ammo-based weaponry! 
“Mathematically reviewing their combat logs, the geth found that in an age of kinetic barriers, most firefights were won by the side who could put the most rounds down-range the fastest. But combatants were forced to deliberately shoot slower to manage waste heat, or pause as their weapons vented. To eliminate this inefficiency, the geth adopted detachable heat sinks known as thermal clips.” 
 

 

 

IMPORTING SHEPARD
As mentioned in my ME1 write-up, one of the best features of the Mass Effect trilogy is that you can ‘import’ your Shepard’s profile and narrative decisions throughout the trilogy, so even seemingly-small decisions are able to reverberate as time goes on. I only had one Shepard profile from ME1 to import into ME2, but ME2 does a wonderful job of displaying a screen with Shepard’s Service History before you confirm which save you are importing. If you’ve already done an ME2 playthrough where you imported your Vanguard Shepard who saved Kaidan and couldn't avoid Wrex's death, on your next game file it is easy to make sure you pick your different ME1 save where both Wrex and Ashley are alive - versus having to play several hours into ME2 before realizing you pick a wrong save!

 

INVASION OF THE BODY-CATCHERS
The overarching mission of ME2 is to stop the Collectors' kidnapping of human colonies. To reach the Collectors the Normandy crew will need to use the Omega 4 Relay. Out of many spaceships that have attempted to use the Omega 4 Relay in the past thousand years, the Collector ship is the only one that has ever returned. No one outside of them knows what lies on the other side of that relay - a black hole, a fleet of hyper-advanced Collector ships, or something else? Thus, anyone attempting to travel with the Omega 4 Relay is essentially going on a suicide mission into an unknown danger. 

Not only is the final mission dangerous, but all of the story missions involving the Collectors have a wonderfully creepy undertone. The environments of early missions are full of scattered insectoid pods that the Collectors use to kidnap their victims. These pods are even sometimes lined up against walls like a row of caskets. There is the Collector Ship that you board, with a very insectoid architecture that makes you feel like you are inside of something both organic and synthetic at the same time. Oh, and did I forget to mention that there are piles of humanoid organic matter scattered around everywhere? One mission even takes place aboard a derelict Reaper, full of dark narrow hallways where you can be quickly overwhelmed by the hoards of Husks that attempt to swarm your squad.
 

 

 

HARBINGER

While the atmosphere and design of everything related to the Collectors is spot-on, Harbinger comes off as a bit... campy? ridiculous? Certainly annoying, though. Harbinger is a Reaper that possesses the Collector General, as well as often possessing Collector troops in combat encounters against you. Once Harbinger makes his dramatic entrance in an encounter, 'he' will repeat the same corny lines of dialogue (in his deep, monotonous tone) over and over and over again. Veteran ME gamers are likely to have flashbacks when they hear "Assuming direct control".
 

 

Some other classic Harbinger lines are:
"You cannot resist." 
"We are your destiny."
"I am the harbinger of your perfection."
"Direct intervention is necessary."
"Face your annihilation."
"This is true power."

Harbinger is nowhere as interesting as ME1's Sovereign, since he essentially spends the whole game saying variations of the above - it is pointless to try and fight against the Reapers, the Reapers are superior to all other life forms, blah blah blah. ME2's Illusive Man does not really serve an antagonist role, and so we are left with Harbinger as the game's lackluster villain. If you want a laugh, there is a ridiculously catchy video featuring Harbinger 'singing' with his ME2 dialogue that has been on the interwebs for a while.
 

THE DREAM TEAM
It's now time to discuss one of the best parts of ME2 - its beloved cast of characters. 
 

• Garrus Vakarian: A former Turian C-Sec Investigation Officer who joined you back in ME1 to stop Saren. While Turian culture values discipline and order, Garrus often finds the red tape of bureaucracy to get in the way of justice. 
  • I am unabashedly #TeamNoShepardWithoutVakarian - the ship so popular, BioWare decided to make it a romance option based on fan feedback. 
• Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Neema: A Quarian mechanical prodigy whose pilgrimage in ME1 led her to help Shepard stop Saren. Tali is the daughter of one of the Quarian Admiralty and feels a duty to help her people in their war against the Geth. 
  • Tali gives her combat drone buddy a nickname - Chatika vas Paus! So adorable, and apparently a Baldur's Gate II reference. 
• Miranda Lawson: A high-ranking Cerberus operative who was genetically engineered by her father to be 'perfect' and put in charge of the Lazarus Project to resurrect Shepard. Despite being highly talented, Miranda feels that she has not truly earned any of her accomplishments. 
  • Despite the obvious femme fatale influence on her design, I love Miranda's no-nonsense attitude. She was also often my team biotic.
• Mordin Solus: A Salarian scientist and former STG (special forces) operative who helped to modify the Genophage and still grapples with the ethics of that act. While Mordin is a doctor, he isn't afraid of combat as he sees killing dangerous individuals as just another way to help people.
  • It should also be noted that Mordin is an accomplished singer. 😉
• Jack: Likely one of the most powerful human biotics, she was experimented upon and tortured by Cerberus as a child. After she escaped, Jack ran with various gangs and became a notorious criminal. Her traumatic past has made her extremely violent and antisocial, though Jack also seeks closure for the Cerberus chapter.
  • Some of Jack's tattoos are gang tattoos that detail things like her years spent imprisoned, number of guards killed, and fellow gang members killed. As a side note, how the fuck is it at all comfortable to wear a couple of belts as a “bra”?! #ImpracticalFemaleDesigns lmao.
• Grunt: Another genetically engineered squadmate, though this time Krogan. Shepard released Grunt from the tank he was bred in. While Grunt received a form of education in the tank, he is still trying to figure out his purpose as he has not 'earned' his strength.
  • I love how a loyal Grunt refers to Shepard as his Battlemaster! He was probably my least-used squadmate, unfortunately. It’s also adorable how since he is a baby Krogan, his forehead plates haven’t fully formed yet.

• Samara: An Asari justicar who lives by the black-and-white Code of the Justicars. Samara became a Justicar 400 years ago, and is still seeking to fulfill the quest that caused her to join the monastic order.
  • I found Samara to be a really interesting character but wished that BioWare had fleshed her out a bit more. I suppose had they not made Morinth a potential squad mate who needed her own lines of dialogue for if she replaced Samara, that might have been able to happen.
• Thane Krios: A deeply spiritual Drell assassin who follows the old religion of his people. 
  • "Religious assassin" is not a unique concept, but I liked how it was done with Thane and the Drell.
• Jacob Taylor: A former Alliance Marine who joined Cerberus sometime after Eden Prime was attacked by the Geth. 
  • I found Jacob to be pretty boring, which seems to be a very popular opinion among ME fans.
• Legion: The mobile platform that is inhabited by the "gestalt consciousness" of 1,183 Geth programs.
  • Legion has an epic idle animation that features beatboxing! I also love how Legion says "Creator Tali'Zorah" and "Creator Admiral" but then "Shepard-Commander".
• Kasumi Goto: A master thief who excels at stealth and has a habit of stealing rare art. Kasumi is one of two DLC squadmates
  • In Japanese, Kasumi [霞] means haze or mist - fitting for a thief whose face is only known by a few in the galaxy. 
• Zaeed Massani: A mercenary and bounty hunter hired by Cerberus for the suicide mission. The second DLC squadmate available.
  • Unfortunately, both DLC characters suffer a dearth of dialogue outside of their loyalty missions.

Finally, to the ME1 squadmates that have ME2 cameos, and the other important members of the Normandy Crew:

 

• Liara T'Soni: An Asari archaeologist whose Prothean expertise and theory of cyclical extinction helped Shepard to stop Saren’s plans in ME1. Initially coming across as shy and insecure, in the past two years Liara has gained a lot of self-confidence in her new line of work as an information broker. 
  • I miss the adorably awkward Liara from ME1. I get that shit has happened to her in the past two years, but feel like BioWare went a little heavy-handed in how they wrote her in ME2. ME3 Liara was a much better balance of character growth while staying true to character origins and personality, in my opinion.
• Urdnot Wrex: A Krogan Battlemaster and mercenary who joined Shepard’s crew in ME1. Now Wrex is focused on bringing about a new future for his people.
  • Gosh, Wrex is just such a fantastic bro. Always loved having him and Garrus together on my squad in ME1, since Wrex’s bluntness and Garrus’ dry humor are like an aged wine.
• Ashley Williams: A Gunnery Chief stationed on Eden Prime when it was attacked by Geth and afterward assigned to Shepard's command. While a bit xenophobic, if Ashley survived Virmire she is staunchly anti-Cerberus due to their extremist methods.  
  • As an individual (and just a fictional character, not even a real person lol), Ashley has the right to be suspicious of Shepard’s involvement with Cerberus. However, as someone who literally served under Shepard, it’s super frustrating that my Ashley acts like I played as Renegade!Shepard when I was a Paragon!Shepard. Her refusal to try and look at things from a different perspective is always incredibly frustrating to me, and ~spoiler~ by ME3 it just feels so repetitive.
• Kaidan Alenko: A Sentinel Alliance Marine with L2 biotic implants who served as the Normandy’s Staff Lieutenant in ME1. 
  • One day I will do a trilogy playthrough where I save Kaidan at Virmire. …One day. Honestly, when you start looking at the ME comics and everything, there is actually a decent amount of potential for Kaidan as a character. Perhaps in ME2/ME3 I’ll find that the writers discovered how to put some of that information to use in order to make Kaidan even vaguely interesting. 
• Jeff "Joker" Moreau: The Normandy’s wisecracking pilot. At first he seems a bit arrogant, but it quickly becomes evident that Joker has the piloting skills to back up his bravado.
  • I really enjoyed Joker’s ME2 subplot regarding EDI and the Normandy. We also just get a lot more interaction with Joker, making him really feel like part of the crew despite not being a squadmate.
• Dr. Karin Chakwas: The Normandy’s Chief Medical Officer, Chakwas loves the unique challenges of serving on a starship and has a formidable knowledge of xenomedicine. 
  • The other non-squadmate on this list! I love how she is pragmatic but also has a warm side with wry humor. 

 

LOYALTY

Why is the cast of ME2 (mostly) so well-beloved? The answer is ME2's Loyalty Missions. Each squadmate has something unresolved in their life that they ask Shepard for assistance with. A good portion of your squad isn't even human, and right now the Collectors seem to be exclusively focused on humanity. Since each squadmate's Loyalty Mission covers something deeply important and personal to them, completing the missions gives you more insight into their past and allows you to bond with them.

 

Narratively, it doesn't seem silly to be doing these missions because you have recruited all of these people for a suicide mission, after all. Plus, gaining each squadmate's loyalty provides several mechanical benefits to the game, as they literally become more loyal to Shepard. Their final ability/power becomes unlocked, and since you are able to equip one squadmate's loyalty power at a time, this has a huge impact on combat. The likelihood of you and your squad surviving the suicide mission is also explicitly tied to their loyalty status. Finally, the fact that we get insight in a personal conflict for each of our squadmates really helps to flesh them out three-dimensionally as NPCs. 
 

SQUAD FORMATIONS + COMBAT ABILITIES

ME1 introduced us to three 'categories' of abilities - combat, tech, and biotic. It was a fairly simplistic implementation - organics are weak to biotics and synthetics are weak to tech, plus only one type of shield. ME2 did a fantastic job of adding more nuance to the combat system.

 

There are now three types of shields: Armor, Shield ("tech" powered), and Barrier ("biotic" powered). While many organic enemies have Armor, you'll find Engineer combatants with an extra Shield layer. Mercenary Vanguards and the Collectors love their Barriers.  Synthetic enemies unsurprisingly usually have the tech-powered Shields for protection, but massive Atlas enemies also have Armor because they literally have more armor. Of course, this is impacted by which difficulty level you play on. 

 

Several of your squadmates also have Ammo abilities (Disruptor Ammo, Warp Ammo, Cryo Ammo, etc.) They're decent abilities on their own, but they really shine at Level 4 if you choose the upgrade that applies that ammo ability to the entire squad. And speaking of weapons, "Heavy Weapons" and heavy ammo make their one-and-only appearance in the trilogy here.

 

The last significant change for ME2 combat that I can think of is combo combinations - where specific powers have a synergy that results in extra damage when used correctly. You have someone use Pull, Singularity, or the lift part of Slam, and immediately follow that with a second squadmate using Warp on the same target which generates a warp detonation for extra damage. I found the system to be kind of confusing in ME2, but it laid the groundwork for ME3's excellent power combo system.

 

The result of these combat system changes meant that when I was choosing squadmates for a mission, I was no longer thinking in simplistic "am I fighting organics or synthetics" for balancing out my squad. Sometimes there were still easy decisions - Tali and/or Legion when facing lots of Geth, Kasumi for the Collector Ship - but oftentimes my third squadmate would be heavily influenced by whether we were fighting Omegan mercenaries, Husks, or Batarians. However, even on Insanity Mode, outside of a few specific missions I didn't find things difficult enough that I couldn't pick my squad for narrative/dialogue reasons when I wanted to. 

 

Here is a graphic I made as a quick reminder of which squadmates have abilities best suited to different types of enemy defenses. (Hopefully I'll remember to post it in the forums at some point soon!)

 

 

THE NORMANDY SR2
Speaking of characters…. Cerberus has given us a new and improved Normandy! I can’t remember exactly how it felt in my first playthrough of the trilogy back in 2017, but now I have such nostalgia for the starship that the ‘reveal’ moment is always heartwarming.

 

 

Now the starship is much more realistically sized, being almost twice as large as the TARDIS-like Normandy SR1. The developers put thought into creating a more logical design and also adding realism with the inclusion of things like a kitchen area, crew quarters, and even bathrooms. The additional attention given to the Normandy was a worthy investment because you will want to speak with all of your squadmates and even some important crew members between important story missions. Additionally, several areas of the ship are closed off until you recruit the relevant squadmate who will make that area their abode.

 

 

We can visit the captain’s quarters on the ship. Here you can change your armor and casual clothing, admire starship models that you can collect, and even watch fish swim around in the non-utilitarian fish tank! Just don’t forget to visit the fish tank to feed the fishies after every main mission or two, otherwise they will die like mine did. 😅 There are a couple of silly details to find on the ship as well, such as the Garbage Compactor in Zaeed’s area that you can interact with to compress and then YEET some trash out into space. Crew members hang in the crew quarters when they are not on duty. All of these little details help to make the Normandy feel like a living starship - and no, I’m not referring to EDI, the Cerberus-installed AI aboard the ship. 
 

 

 

SPACE TRAVEL …AND PLANETARY RESOURCES
ME2 now has you handling some of the space travel yourself. When you use a Mass Relay you are automatically brought to the solar system where it is located, and if you navigate outside of its green-ringed boundary you can then travel within the galactic cluster to its other solar systems. The game has excellent wayfinding to help you with navigation. Any story missions or sidequests available within a solar system are listed underneath its name, so it’s easy to figure out where to go for a specific mission or sidequest. Each solar system and galactic cluster also has a percentage that shows how many points of interest you have ‘visited’ (ie, selected it to see the planetary data, not necessarily landed on it). 
 

 

 

This newfound ability to partially play the role of pilot comes with the tedious chore of scanning for planetary resources. There are four resources that you need to gather in order to purchase upgrades for the Normandy and your crew: Eezo, Iridium, Platinum, and Paladium. You’ll occasionally find chests during missions that might contain a couple hundred or a thousand of a specific resource, but if you want to get all of the upgrades (and trust me, you do) then you’ll need about 150-200K of each resource before the end of the game. 

 

You can start purchasing upgrades after you’ve recruited Mordin, but it’s probably worth waiting to do a good amount of your resource hoarding until after you’ve recruited Samara and Thane. Speaking to each of them once they are aboard the starship will unlock upgrades to the Normandy’s fuel capacity and probe storage, meaning you can do most or all of a galactic cluster without needing to return to a Fuel Depot to restock. Or you could be like me, where you spend a good 90 minutes or so after completing the Prologue just watching TV and collecting resource after resource after resource, ‘til you’ve hit the amounts you need so that you (almost) never have to bother with the process ever again. I mean, technically you get a bonus in ME3 for how much resource collection you’ve done, but it quickly caps out and the bonus is essentially negligible.

 

The process wouldn’t be quite so painful if it wasn’t such a drawn-out affair. When you want to extract resources from a planet, you have to select the planet and then select that you want to open your scanner. Now you get to hold R2 while you rove your cursor over the planet’s surface to search for spots that have high readings for specific resources. You then launch a probe to collect said resource caches, and then continue the process along the planet until the scanner results read as “Depleted” or you get bored. I only ever bothered with sending probes out when one or more resources spiked high on the scanner results, and even then Rich planets could take 7-10 probes before they are fully mined… and each of these spiked cache locations typically brings no more than 1,000 per resource.
 

  

 

It would be one thing if you just had to press a button to “Scan Planet” and then specific locations light up, perhaps with different colors to represent the different resources, and then you moved your cursor along the planet’s surface to deploy a probe. I mean, getting rid of the manual probe deployments in general would be most desirable, but considering that ¾ of my time gathering resources is moving my cursor in a grid search pattern to find the high-yielding locations, any improvement would be welcomed. 

 

If I were trying to be less biased in my personal game rankings, I would not be able to give ME2 a 10/10 rating considering how tedious and monotonous and agonizing this mechanic is. However, I love this game too goddamn much to give it a 9/10 rating, even though that is probably a more honest score given what I like and don’t like about this game. 
 

INSANITY MODE

ME2 is widely considered to be the most difficult of the trilogy to complete on Insanity Mode, particularly due to the main missions with Harbinger and his crew. As someone who normally struggles with trophies related to very hard difficulty, here are my tips for anyone reading this who has yet to beat ME2 on Insanity Mode.

 

• Press  to check if there are enemies on the edge of your radar or to move your camera to find targets
• Save after every combat encounter! 
• Use the hot buttons! I assigned = Incinerate,  for my Infiltrator's Invisibility Cloak (since that ability served as my panic button 😂), and  for my rotating Bonus Squad Power.
• Turn off your squad’s auto-ability usage and use them manually instead.
• Flashbang Grenades for Harbinger!
• Explore every nook of combat areas to find valuable weapon/armor/biotic upgrades.

 

 

 DLC

I honestly almost forgot to include Zaeed and Kasumi's DLCs here. It's not that the characters are useless, just that since they contain squadmates they don't seem like "add-on" content to me. Also important to note is that both the PS3 version and LE include all of the game's DLC for free.

 

Zaeed: The Price of Greed

Zaeed and his mission are decent, but I've never felt a large narrative draw or combat need to use him outside of his recruitment and loyalty missions. The idea of his loyalty mission is great and the voice actor does a fantastic job, there's just something missing for me with his character. I have paired him up with Garrus once or twice for "good cop / bad cop" vibes narratively, and that's probably it. 

 

Kasumi: Stolen Memories

Kasumi was much more interesting to me. I can't put my finger on it, but she does feel somewhat incomplete as a character in the game. Both DLC characters don't get as much dialogue as the others, so that could be part of why I struggle to find them as interesting as most of the other squadmates. Anyways, we get a fun heist mission with Kasumi that is unique compared to everything else in ME2. Kasumi's Flashbang Grenade is also dead useful against Harbinger, since it temporarily stuns a character even if they have a layer of Armor/Shield/Barrier over their health bar.

 

Project Overlord

The first section of this DLC involves exploring the surface of a planet using a hovercraft the M44 Hammerhead. The second half has you tasked with shutting down a rogue VI, but you discover that there is a lot more to the situation. I also appreciated the uniqueness of the final fight at the end.

 

This mission is kind of messed up, in the way that anything dealing with human experimentation would be. Beyond the moral dilemma that you are given at the end of the mission, there is the ethical issue of how Gavin Archer took advantage of his autistic brother. Personally, even when I play a Renegade Shepard I wouldn't be able to allow Project Overlord to continue.

 

 

(These photos are under spoiler cos they are a bit disturbing...)

Spoiler

 

 

Normandy Crash Site

Do you want more feels about the SR1's destruction? Then this is the mission for you! It's incredibly short - you get to explore a small area that holds the wreckage of the SR1. Shepard has a few moments of reflection as she explores the area, and you get to collect 20 dog tags of deceased crew members. While it's a bit depressing, you at least get to place a memorial statue in a place of your choosing at the crash site.

 

 

Firewalker

I find this DLC to be super boring. For one mission you get to control the hovercraft M44 Hammerhead on a rocky planet, where you scan a few locations to pick up 'data'. Then you get to hover around on an icy planet, where you have to scan locations for data... but now you're on a timer!

 

 

Then you go to a planet where a dig site is being shielded behind a Geth barrier, so you need to hover around and find its generators to blow up. Minor hovercraft-on-Geth violence is involved. Finally there is the mission on the lava planet, where you get to do yet more hover-scanning. Wooooo.

 

 

The final mission involves scanning for data on a planet full of abandoned buildings. Each site is protected by Geth that need to be destroyed before you can safely scan the locations. The mission is incredibly aggravating on Insanity difficulty because the M44 Hammerhead can essentially be one-shotted by Geth Walkers and even typical Geth Fighters can blow it up in 2-3 hits, so you need to be super slow and cautious. What's worse is that if you make a mistake at site 4 or 5... you have to restart the mission all the way from the beginning. Which I had to do - four times! (I'd start getting impatient around Site 4, though one time I goofed on a hover jump and fell into lava.)

 

 

Arrival

This is the one DLC mission that is pretty important narratively for ME3, and also the one DLC mission that is best to play after finishing the story of ME2. The beginning of ME3 assumes that you did this mission (even if you didn't) because it explains why Shepard was grounded on Earth in its opening. 

 

The premise of the mission is that the Reapers are on the precipice of invasion. You travel to a Batarian system solo to meet up with the deep-cover operative as a personal favor to Admiral Hackett, since the Alliance can't officially endorse any action, and you quickly discover that the Reapers are less than two days from reaching the Batarian system. Even worse, this system has what's called the "Alpha Relay", which is connected to sixteen major Mass Relays including the one for the Citadel.

 

At the end of the mission, you're tasked with destroying the Relay (at the cost of most of Batarian colonists in the system) in order to buy the rest of the galaxy time before the Reaper invasion. The ticking clock on the mission translates to about 90 minutes to complete it, which adds to the tension behind the story. It's a decent if not spectacular endcap to ME2 to set the stage for ME3. 

 

 

 

 

SUICIDE MISSION

 

IFF Installation

Before we can talk about the Suicide Mission, we need to talk about the Reaper IFF ("Identity Friend/Foe") transponder obtained from the Derelict Reaper. One thing the game doesn't tell you is that there is a hidden mission countdown timer triggered when you launch the Derelict Reaper mission. The timer is based on the number of recruitment/loyalty missions that are still available, but most people will have two missions or less. You are always able to do Legion's loyalty mission so long as you activate it prior to accessing the Galaxy Map, though. 

 

When the hidden countdown reaches zero, EDI tells Shepard that the IFF installation is complete and a final round of tests needs to be done to make sure it is ready to use. Shepard and the entire squad use the Normandy's shuttle to go on a mission, leaving just Joker and the rest of the Normandy's crew on the ship during the testing. The only problem is, the Reapers seem to have planned ahead for if someone ever took one of their IFF transponders - not only does it broadcast the Normandy's location to the Collectors, it also has an incredibly powerful virus that incapacitates the Normandy. 

 

EDI tells Joker that the only way they can possibly survive this is if she is "unshackled" and given complete control over the ship. Of course, at the beginning of ME2 Joker was adamantly against giving an AI even partial access to the ship, so the fact that he agrees to this plan shows how desperate things are - and how over time he has slowly began to put some trust in EDI. You gain control of Joker and have to navigate him through the ship to where you "unshackle" EDI. While you are moving through the ship you watch as Collectors slaughter resisting crewmates and capture others in their coffin-like pods.

 

 

By the time EDI has gained full control over the Normandy and Shepard's shuttle returns to the ship, you find out that Joker was the only crew member not to be abducted by the Collectors. At this point, you are given two options: head straight into the Omega 4 Relay or prepare further. The game will strongly hint to you through character dialogue if you are lacking anything vital to improving the odds of survival. If you choose to complete additional missions or assignments (outside of hub world ones) then the Normandy's crew pays the price. Complete 1-3 missions and that has given the Collectors the time to kill half of your crew, including Kelly Chambers. Complete 4 or more missions and everyone except for Dr. Chakwas is dead by the time you go through the relay. 

 

We haven't even gone through the Omega 4 Relay and already our decisions are having a significant impact on the crew. I greatly appreciate how the developers handled the IFF Installation: if you were not completely prepared for the Omega 4 Relay when you completed the Derelict Reaper mission, there are real consequences. Sure, throughout the entirety of ME2 the Collectors have been abducting and presumably killing humans, but now they have taken people that you "know". Thus, having time factor into the results of the Suicide Mission helps to make things feel more tense with your crew's survival on the line.

 

Using the Omega-4 Relay

🎵 Mass Effect 2 - Suicide Mission

Goddamn, but the theme for this mission always gives me chills.

 

This entire mission is epic, a true culmination of your ME2 playthrough that tests your bond with your squad. Squadmates whose loyalty you have earned will put their all into this mission and are much more likely to survive than non-loyal squadmates. Even still, whether you invested in the Normandy ship and the decisions you make during the mission can be lethal to even the most loyal squadmates. This flowchart (creator unknown) shows the many ways in which members of your squad can die.

 

As soon as you go through the Omega 4 Relay you are greeted by what is essentially an asteroid belt of the broken parts of many, many ships that previously used the Relay and met their untimely end. While Joker is doing his best to evade all the debris, enemy vessels that monitor the Relay area are firing on the ship. If you failed to upgrade the Normandy's armor, the ship's hull is pierced by a laser beam that kills Jack, regardless of her loyalty. Shepard and a squad end up fighting against an Oculus enemy that breaches the cargo hold area. Halfway through that fight, Joker flies the Normandy into a debris field to get rid of a second Oculus; if you failed to upgrade the Normandy's kinetic barriers, this overloads its drive core and causes another squadmate to die (top of the list is Kasumi, if you recruited her). After you defeat the Oculus in the cargo hold area, you come face to face with the Collector Cruiser that killed Shepard and destroyed the SR1 two years ago. If you upgraded the Normandy's weapons then it destroys the cruiser decisively - if not, it takes more time to destroy the Collector Cruiser with the Normandy's conventional weapons, which leads to a squadmate's death (top of the list is Thane, if you recruited him). 

 

 

By the time you crash land on the Collector Base, an ill-prepared Normandy ship means that you may have already permanently lost three members of your crew. If you have all 12 squadmates recruited, that is an entire quarter of them that are dead before you even step foot off the ship. If you as a player weren't sure how serious BioWare was about the Suicide Mission, you are definitely paying attention now. 

 

Collector Base: Infiltration

EDI does a quick scan of the base, and it's decided to split everyone into two squads in order to take advantage of the two different routes to their objective. However, both routes are blocked by doors that need to be hacked open from a different location. Thus, your first critical decision is to pick someone to travel through a thermal vent to hack open the doors, pick a leader for the second squad, and then pick your squad for the first section of this mission. The hacker should be a tech specialist - Tali, Kasumi, or Legion. If you pick one of those three and that person is loyal, they can complete their objective without dying. A non-loyal tech specialist or any other squadmate is guaranteed to die after they get the doors open. That's not all, though - who you pick as the second squad's leader also determines if a loyal tech specialist survives. Only a loyal Garrus, Jacob, or Miranda is able to command Squad 2 well enough to ensure the survival of a loyal tech specialist.

 

My choices: I always send Tali through the vent. My logic is that Shepard would be concerned about Legion getting a Reaper virus, and Shepard would trust Tali a little more than Kasumi just because Shepard has known Tali much longer. Plus, Kasumi is better in a firefight against Collectors (both from a meta and non-meta perspective). For Squad 2 leader I usually pick Miranda, because Shepard knows she is a skilled leader and will ensure the objective gets done. The decision is right after Jacob and Miranda argue, so it's also a way for my Shepard to indicate to Miranda that Shepard trusts her leadership abilities. I don't usually have Garrus on my squad in the Collector Base, so I also headcanon that he is able to help a bit with morale since that is Miranda's main weakness as a leader. Finally, I usually have Kasumi in my squad for Flashbang Grenade support against Harbinger and the third squadmate is dependent on my mood at the time.

 

 

The fight against the Collectors in this section is tense as you are in a race against the clock. The thermal vent that your tech specialist is traveling through has door-like obstructions that can only be disabled by Shepard hitting green buttons. If each obstruction is not disabled quickly enough, a lethal amount of heat builds up in the vent and kills whoever is in it - even the synthetic Legion. Thus, you need to try to kill the Collectors as quickly as possible so that you can disable the obstructions, and you might even need to activate some buttons while taking fire. At the end of this combat gauntlet, your tech specialist is able to hack open the doors and if alive rejoins everyone. 

 

🎵 Mass Effect 2 (Legendary Edition) - Suicide Mission [Remastered]

One does not simply listen to the Suicide Mission a single time...

 

Collector Base: The Long Walk

Here you discover the pods of the Normandy Crew. You save Dr. Chakwas (and hopefully the rest of your crew!) and learn that the Collectors have been turning humans into a horrible slurry of DNA used elsewhere in the ship. Shepard assumes that the pipes used to transport this slurry will lead the squads to their objective, but EDI advises that the path is so overwhelmed with Seeker Swarms that Mordin's countermeasure would not provide enough protection. It's proposed that a Biotic squadmate generate a biotic field to lead a small squad through the route, and everyone else in Squad 2 will serve as a distraction on a second path. While any squadmate with biotic abilities can be selected for the Long Walk, only a biotic specialist - loyal Jack/Samara (or Morinth) - will ensure no squadmate casualties. You also select between Miranda, Garrus, and Jacob as Squad 2 leader. Interestingly, if Miranda is chosen she is guaranteed to survive this section regardless of her loyalty, whereas Garrus and Jacob need to be loyal to survive as the squad leader. This is the only time a non-loyal squadmate role assignment is not lethal.

 

Lastly, Chakwas and the Normandy crew need to make it back safely to the ship. You need to pick an escort to guide them back to the ship - they don't know the way back to the ship, and aren't able to defend themselves against any Collector that could cross paths with them. Technically you don't have to give the crew an escort - especially if you are already low on surviving squadmates, since the escort is essentially taken out of the rest of the fight for the Collector base - but it would be pretty heartless to leave the Normandy crew to die after having just rescued them. And the crew will die if they don't have an escort. Since the escort is taken out of the fight, it's usually best to pick someone with the lowest "defense score" (Jack, Kasumi, Tali, or Mordin) since Squad 2 will need a high defense score to survive the final section. The final choice to make here is which squadmates you want with you for the Long Walk. With selecting a squad comes the ability to change your weapon loadout, and especially on Insanity mode I highly recommend equipping the M-920 Cain as your heavy - though other options with AoE are incredibly useful as well.

 

My choices: I usually end up picking Jack as my Biotic. Sure Samara has been around for hundreds of years, but Jack has the stubbornness, grit, and tenacity to refuse to give up so long as she still breathes. Shepard knows that Jack is one of the strongest - if not the strongest - human Biotic alive, whereas I don't know how strong Samara's biotics are for an Asari. I usually swap the Squad 2 leader to Garrus at this point. I don't even really have a good explanation outside of my favoritism for him. 😂 I always pick Mordin as the Normandy crew's escort - not only is he one of the four ideal choices to do so, he is literally a doctor so he can check on the health of the crew and treat any injuries once they are on the ship. From a roleplaying perspective, this also ensures that (a loyal) Mordin is uninjured and ready on the ship to treat any squadmates who would receive a non-lethal injury in the upcoming fights. Finally, for my squad selections I prioritize picking a squadmate with good AoE biotics (usually Samara, or Jack if Samara is making the biotic bubble) for the combat, and Kasumi once again for Harbinger. Shepard would probably want a second strong biotic on the team anyway just in case.

 

 

The Long Walk itself has a wonderfully eerie tone. Your chosen Biotic walks slowly as they maintain concentration over the protective biotic bubble, and you can see thousands of Seeker Swarms outside of the bubble. The path is very long and contains almost no cover, with stretches of time where you are all just quietly walking forwards. From time to time, you will reach stopping points where you have to deal with Husks and Abominations that run towards the bubble. Thankfully you don't have to worry about any of them targeting your chosen Biotic bubble-maker, but you don't have a large area to fight so it's critical to eliminate the enemies quickly. The downside is that you can't really direct your squadmates to take cover during the Long Walk, even if said cover would be within the bubble. This can make the second stop with Harbinger and his crew especially tough. The third and final stop is the meanest, however, as while you deal with more Husks and Abominations there is also a goddamn Scion to contend with. I 1,000% subscribe to the "immediately nuke the Scion with the Cain and then kill everything else" method.

 

Collector Base: The Final Fight & Hold The Line

At long last, Shepard & Co. reached the end of the gauntlet. Squad 2 is taking heavy fire and locked behind a door, which one of your squadmates quickly works to hack open. Squad Leader 2 gets shot as they all quickly rush through the open door. Miranda or a loyal Garrus/Jacob are able to survive the shot. A non-loyal Garrus/Jacob or other squadmate is only able to survive the shot if you only have a total of 3 squadmates alive thanks to Deus ex developer, since your squad will need at least one person to cover them in the upcoming final section of this mission. 

 

At this point, Joker updates you that an escorted Normandy crew has reached the ship, but also that Collectors are gathering outside another set of doors that lead to your current position. This is the last time you get to pick your squad, and only loyal squadmates will live to see another day. Whoever is not in your squad (and was not chosen as crew escort) forms a rear guard to protect your squad from the Collectors hacking through the door.

 

The rear guard is where each squadmate's "defensive score" comes into play. Garrus, Grunt, and Zaeed can have the highest defensive score (4 if loyal, 3 if not loyal). As previously mentioned, Jack, Kasumi, Tali, and Mordin can have the weakest defensive score (1 if loyal, 0 if not loyal). Everyone else has a moderate defensive score (2 if loyal, 1 if not loyal). If you have at least 5 teammates who are holding the line, you need an average defensive score of 2.0 or greater in order for all of them to survive. If their average defensive score is 0.5 or less, then three of them (starting with non-loyal squadmates first) will perish. While a 2.0 or higher average is always required for everyone holding the line to survive, the penalties for having a defensive score average below 2.0 are scaled down by the developers if you have fewer teammates to hold the line. Thus, even if just two or three squadmates are left to hold the line, it is not a guaranteed death.

 

My choices: Once again I take Kasumi with me both to help with Harbinger and to make it easier to get a defensive score of 2.0+ for the rear guard. Since I always send Mordin as the crew escort back to the ship, this leaves just Jack and Tali as loyal crewmates who have a score below 1.0, meaning that I can pretty much pick whoever I want as my third squadmate without resulting in sacrificing the rear guard's defense. In my most recent Insanity run, I ended up picking Samara to help with the Collectors.

 

 

It's the final stretch. On your way to reaching the central chamber of the Collector Base, you have to deal with several waves of Collectors that come in on hovering hexagon platforms. Ammo is fairly scarce so ideally you should use powers to remove Collector Barriers before firing on them. Harbinger makes his repeat appearances as is his modus operandi, and the final wave of enemies even includes two Scions. Now it's time for the big boss of the Collector Base - a larva Reaper being built from all the human DNA being supplied by the Collectors. This thing absolutely towers over your team, resembling a giant human skeleton made of metal and electrical wires. 

 

After you defeat what the game refers to as the "Human-Reaper", it's time to get the hell out of Dodge. The Collector Base is starting to fall apart in the wake of the Human-Reaper defeat, and this is where one or both of your squadmates can die if they are not loyal. Once you reach the Normandy's shuttle, the only way Shepard can survive is if at least two companions manage to survive the suicide mission. They are able to catch Shepard and pull the Commander up onto the ship. Otherwise, Shepard falls to their death and the galaxy is doomed. 

 

 

In Summary:

In my opinion, ME2's Suicide Mission is one of the best endings to a videogame that I will probably ever play. For something that has been looming in the background ever since you completed the Horizon mission and learned about the Collectors, it is certainly worth the build up. You as a player are rewarded for spending the time to complete Loyalty Missions for your crew, but even perfect preparation doesn't mean there won't be casualties if you don't make the right decisions during the mission itself. 

 

Speaking from a meta perspective, for a moment, I also feel like this mission is what truly proves that Shepard and their team have the ability to defeat the Reapers. Sure, by the beginning of ME2 Shepard has become famous in the galactic community not only for being the first human Spectre, but also for saving the Citadel from the Geth (Reapers). However, ME1 was mostly about raising the alarm about the upcoming threat and not being taken seriously. While you do defeat Saren at the end, it feels like if not any, at least some other talented soldiers could have been placed in Shepard's shoes for ME1 and also stopped Saren. Victory in ME2 is not just about Shepard facing threats head-on, but also their conviction in a team comprised of many alien species and their unwavering determination to do anything - even work with a terrorist organization - in order to stop the Reapers at large.

 

OTHER NOTES

• Hacking has changed in ME2. Instead of a "Simon Says" with , there is a "find the 3 matching code snippets" minigame and a "connect the four paths on a motherboard-thing" minigame. It's not ground-breaking, but it's not terrible either.
• I was disappointed to not have as many outdoor environments to explore. ME2 is a more more "indoors" game compared to its predecessor.

 

STORY NOTES WRITTEN DURING LE INSANITY GAMEPLAY

Spoiler

• Horizon
  • I love how eerie the Horizon attack is, happening on a bright and sunny day. 
  • OMG Harbinger loooooooves to hear his own voice still, even in LE...
• Haelstrom
  • I loved the idea of the atmosphere being weakened, so direct sun exposure damages you. Makes the mission really unique!
  • Wow, how did I forget about Geth Hunters?! Sneaky, sneaky, going invis like I can, lol.
• Collector Ship
  • Holy shit, y'all. In the last fight against the Collectors, I had ZERO thermal clip drops and used up almost all my ammo. (I only ever equip a sniper and a pistol so that I get faster ability recharge times.)
  • Went into the final 20-husk gauntlet with 3 rounds of M922 Avalanche Ammo, my Incinerate, and Jack + Thane's biotics. 
• Lair of the Shadow Broker
  • I love how the planets in this solar system are all named after Elder Futhark runes!
    • Its system name Sowilo is the rune ᛊ which symbolizes the Sun.
    • Hagalaz is the rune ᚺ which represents Hail.
    • Isa is ᛁ or "ice", very apropos for an icy planet.
    • Ansuz is the rune ᚨ, typically representing the Æsir Norse gods (those from Asgard), but can also represent wisdom or communication.
    • Kenaz is ᚲ , symbolizing fire.
    • Thurisaz is ᚦ, the idea of power or force.
    • Uruz is ᚢ, the wild bull that represents strength.
• Derelict Reaper
  • Dead Space: The Mission
• IFF Installation
  • I love how Joker gets a moment to save the day! Also his distrust with EDI going all the way back to the beginning of this game, and how he is the one to choose to let her have access to the ship instead of Shepard.
  • I appreciate that the Normandy has ‘movie theater’ red lights for emergency situations.
  • EDI after getting defense systems:
    Joker (complaining about having to go into another duct)
    EDI: I enjoy seeing humans on their knees. [long pause] That is a joke.
• Omega 4 Relay
  • Completely forgot about the Oculus fight. For some reason I only remember the ME3 Citadel DLC fight that happens in the Normandy.
  • My choices:
    • Base Infiltration:
      • Tech Specialist - Tali
      • Diversion Team Leader - Miranda
      • Squad: Thane (still needed more Warp kills for Warp Specialist) & Kasumi (Flashbang Grenades yooooo)
    • The Long Walk
      • Biotic Expert - Jack
      • 2nd Diversion Team Leader - Garrus
      • Normandy Crew Escort - Mordin (he literally knows medicine)
      • Squad: Samara (AoE biotics) & Kasumi
    • Holding the Line
      • Squad: Samara & Kasumi

 

FAVORITE...

Trophy Images:
  Suicide Mission
  Big Game Hunter
Trophy Moments:
  Insanity 
  No One Left Behind

Silliest Moment (from the Arrival DLC):

 

Screenshots:

.

Edited December 24, 2023 by pelagia14
Wrote the Suicide Mission section

[pelagia14]

 

Platinum #101 | Mass Effect 2 (Legendary Edition)

 

Developer: BioWare, 2021
Country: Canada
Platinum Earned: 9 September 2023
Time Played: 51h
Time to Plat: 1W 3D 15H
Rating: 10/10

 

LEGENDARY EDITION THOUGHTS

 

So! After writing just over 9,600 words about ME2 (3,600 being written and updated yesterday for the Suicide Mission section), you'd think there is nothing left to say about the game. However, it's time to go over what changes and enhancements the Legendary Edition (LE) has brought! Note that my first post about ME1's LE details some overall improvements to the trilogy.

 

CHANGES SPECIFIC TO ME2:

• GENERAL
  • Several bugs related to exporting minor decision outcomes from ME2 into ME3 have been fixed.
  • Several cutscenes have their camera angles adjusted, which we'll discuss further in a bit. 
  • DLC Weapons and Armor are now naturally integrated into the game - you now purchase or research them instead of magically getting everything at the beginning. The exception is the Arc Projector, which is still available to Shepard right away. 
  • Your Paragon and Renegade scores are (only now? 😂) accurately represented in the game. 
  • Arrival DLC trophies have been removed; instead, there is now one trophy for completing the Project Overlord DLC and one for the Shadow Broker DLC.
• COMBAT
  • There is more camera freedom when Shepard is sprinting. The Commander still sprints like a rhino, but now a rhino that turns slightly easier.
  • Shepard's baseline health/shield recharge time is now 4.5 seconds, down from 6 seconds originally. 
  • The drop rate for thermal clips is increased - particularly when you are using a sniper rifle, thank Athame.
  • Thermal clips also restore more ammo in general, across all weapons.
• MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, the texture for Pluto has been updated based on the gorgeous photos we received from NASA's New Horizons space probe in 2015. 

 => 

Thank you, BioWare. 💖

 

GRAPHICS

 

When I covered the overall graphics enhancements to the LE in my previous LE post, I briefly mentioned that the updated Shepard facial models were... rough, but BioWare had fixed them. Upon importing my ME1 Shepard, instead of immediately selecting "Accept Imported Face" I was curious to see if they had made redhead fem!Shep the default appearance for ME2 now. Let me tell you, I panicked for a moment at the monstrosity of a facial model that is shown to you on the summary screen. For anyone wanting to change their ME1 Shep's appearance, if you select "Custom Appearance" you once again are presented with the updated facial model. I have no idea whether the "Default Appearance" will still give you an... "original" Legendary Edition nightmare Shepard, or whether that facial model was updated everywhere but on the "Default Appearance" summary screen, but I didn't want to find out. 😂

  

For "Default Appearance", Shepard looks like she belongs in BioShock Infinite (released in 2013). Just terrible.

 

I also have to say, after how gorgeous the updated facial models were for many characters in ME1, I found Miranda and Jacob's facial animations in their initial cutscenes to be rough. I didn't really notice this with other characters, and as ME2 progresses the facial animations for Miranda and Jacob get better. However, I feel like Jacob's jaw doesn't properly sync up for non-cutscene dialogue, even towards the end of the game. It's just very odd, and I'm not sure why the issue exists. Also, apparently people really hated the hair on new!Miranda's face because there are PC mods for using her original ME2 hair in LE. 😂 

 

Initially, Miranda and Jacob look more like wax models than humans.

 

OLD CUTSCENES, NEW ANGLES

 

A couple of ME2's cutscenes were kinda... not great, when it came to how they handled fem!Shep and Miranda. The isssue for Shepard is that both the male and female models use the same animations, which was normally fine. However, some cutscenes seemed to forget to account for the fact that one of fem!Shep's casual outfit options is a dress, when the camera used low angles. I'm convinced that BioWare didn't check every cutscene with fem!Shep back when they were developing ME2, because it resulted in some super awkward manspreading moments that they would have caught, like this:

 

Image from BioWare

 

Miranda received even worse treatment. I totally get that she was designed as a "sexy femme fatale" archetype - and I can even enjoy that archetype when it's done well! - but the way in which the camera sometimes exclusively focused in on her butt was just ridiculous. Below is a serious moment from Miranda's loyalty mission, where she is finally opening up to Shepard about her most closely guarded secret and actually admitting that she needs help... then the camera goes straight to booty-town. Which I gather is a fine place, but not really the right moment to make a trip to. When I played ME2 on the PS3, it would always really take me out of the moment because there is Miranda in a moment of vulnerability, but then the camera is straight-up objectifying her. You can see a side-by-side of the Miranda loyalty mission cutscene here, if you want to see the difference between OG and LE.

 

Image from BioWare

 

Honestly, the most frustrating aspect when news first broke about these intended changes for LE was from dudebros whining that the Legendary Edition was "censoring" ME2. Literally all BioWare did was change the angle of the camera to resolve the awkward fem!Shep skirt angles and unnecessary Miranda butt shots. Apparently BioWare also did this to some brief close-up moments for Jacob, Thane, and Zaeed - though I don't know which cutscenes those would have been. So dudebros claiming that BioWare was 'changing' Miranda into a prude or whatever didn't even make sense, since it's not like BioWare was changing her appearance or outfit. It was a bunch of complaining about camera angles. 

 

And honestly? If BioWare had included ridiculous "fan service" cutscene angles for some of the male characters, and made Miranda's butt shot appear in a less emotional scene, I would be fine with the game trying to sexualize some of its characters with the camera - it is a game where you can romance some of the characters, after all. The important thing is that if you are going to have the Male Gaze™️ you need to equally accommodate the Female Gaze™️, and you also really need to understand which moments are more appropriate and less appropriate for The Gaze™️ in general.

 

PHOTO MODE, BAY-BEE

 

There's nothing new about photo mode here. I just wanted an excuse to spam some of the photos I took that weren't cutscenes. 😂

 

My favorite ME2 photo

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by pelagia14
typo

[pelagia14]

Platinum #102 | Chants of Sennaar

 

Developer: Rundisc, 2023

Country: France

Time Played: 10h

Platinum Earned: 13 September 2023

Rating: 8/10

 

PREMISE

Based on the biblical myth of the Tower of Babel, you play as a nameless Traveler who awakens inside the Tower. Each tier of the Tower is home to a separate tribe of people each with their own unique language, though the tribes seem to have lost the ability to communicate with each other long ago. The Traveler seems to like solving puzzles, as you will decipher the various languages to figure out why the tribes can no longer talk with each other.

 

 

GAME THOUGHTS

Chants of Sennaar might sound like an incredibly exciting puzzle-based language mystery game (or at least, I would love a game like that! 😂) but it is more of a point-and-click indie game oriented around simple glyph puzzles with a simple but sufficient secret to uncover before the end. I actually had a lot of fun with the game, but I'm also a huge linguistics nerd - a more honest rating for most people would probably be something like a 6 or 7 out of 10. I also (shamefully) have not yet played the narrative-based language mystery game Heaven's Vault, so I'm unable to compare Chants of Sennaar to it.

 

Also, for anyone who will skim through or skip the rest of this post in order to play the game as blindly as possible (though I really don't spoil much beyond the game's first two minutes!), I urge you to at least check out the important suggestion below which is bolded in green., and an important platinum trophy note towards the end. 

 

GRAPHICS, SOUND, & LIGHTS

 

The cel-shaded aesthetics of Chants of Sennaar are absolutely gorgeous. The game uses a vivid color palette, and each level has one or two emphasized colors that help give them a unique identity. Beyond that, each level has its own distinct architectural style while still feeling like part of a cohesive total.

 

The soundtrack actually reminded me of Journey. It has a symphonic orchestra that is diversified with instruments that I assume originate from the Middle East. Some tracks include vocals as another instrument, which helps give them a tone of revelation. While personally the soundtrack does not reach the perfection of Austin Wintory's work in Journey or Bear McCreary's work in God of War: Ragnarök, Chants of Sennaar's music is still beautiful.

 

This is a silly detail, but I still often forget that PS5 controllers can have the lights around the touchpad change colors in a game. The lights on your controller change to fit in with each level's emphasized colors, which I thought was a really nice touch. In order, the light colors are: Yellow -> Pink -> White -> Orange -> Blue. 

 

DECIPHERING LANGUAGES

 

There are 5 total languages in Chants of Sennaar, and each language has around 30-40 glyphs. Each glyph represents a word, and each language has a unique conceit or grammar to keep things from feeling too stale. 

 

Your first encounter with language comes essentially one minute into the game, where you see a lever and a sign next to a closed gate/door/entrance. Pulling on the lever allows you to move ahead, so it stands to reason that the unique symbol for each instruction on the sign represents "open/close" or "push/pull". In the next area, you see that you need to find a way to lower the water level in order to proceed. There are six water valves on a wall, and a note stuck nearby on the wall seems to indicate the solution that we need!

 

 

 

JOURNAL

 

The game's Journal system is both its strongest and weakest feature. You don't need to have a pen and paper with you in order to jot down what you think each symbol means. Instead, you can go to the language menu screen and select a symbol in order to type in your guess as to what the word means. 

 

 

 

How the journal handles glyph hypotheses is what makes it great. Once you've entered a guess, you can just highlight/select a glyph phrase to see a rough translation based on your theories thus far. Glyph translations that you've hypothesized are shown in italics, and confirmed translations are non-italicized. Any glyphs within a phrase that you've not documented a hypothesis for are represented as "...", and you can always go back in and change your guess at a later point.

 

The downside to the Journal system is that it provides confirmed translations. Each time you've discovered several new glyphs, the Traveller sketches images that represent the translation answers. Once you have correctly slotted in the 3-4 glyphs for that page, the game reveals the 'canon' translations for those glyphs. Now when you hover over that glyph within a phrase "in the wild", your italicized hypothesis is replaced with a bolded translated word. 

 

Cats added by me. 🐈‍⬛

 

Finally, if you have the 'canon' translation for all of the glyphs within a sentence/phrase, it will be translated into a more natural flow. To make up a fake example, if I had the confirmed translations for [me], [like], [eat], & [food], then the game could translate the phrase [me | like | eat | food] as "I like to eat food" or "I like eating food". 

 

IDEAS FOR A BETTER JOURNAL

 

The main downside to the Journal's "canon translation" system is that using it makes most puzzles incredibly easy to solve, and the game encourages you to make "confirmed translations" frequently. It simply holds your hand way too much. For those who will play this game, besides the first time the "canon translation" mechanic is shown to you, I highly recommend that you not fill in the illustration pages until you reach the end of a level, unless you get truly stuck on what a specific glyph means.

 

I initially thought that each time the Traveller drew a new sketch, you were required to fill in the answers immediately. It was around the time I finished the second language when I realized that I could just close out from the sketch page and instead wait to fill in all the symbols at the end of each level. 

 

I wish that the game had a setting you could toggle that would prevent the Traveller from creating sketches until you either (a) indicated that you want the page illustration for a specific glyph or (b) finished a level. Because even if you choose not to get the solutions until the end of each level, there were a few instances where the illustration immediately revealed to me that I had the wrong hypothesis.

 

Since none of the levels are too linear, another solution would have been to take a page out of Return of the Obra Dinn's book by simply requiring more answers from the player before providing the solutions. My understanding of Obra Dinn (a game in my backlog) is that you need to correctly solve three crimes or crime pages before its notebook confirms if you are correct or not. Had Chants of Sennaar implemented a system or option where each two-page spread contained 8-10 illustrations for translation, that would have strengthened the decoding aspect of the game while still providing some sort of handrail.

 

CONTEXTUAL LEARNING

 

Since there is no "English/player's native language" text in the game, the first language/level is a bit easier to figure out than the others. You are often introduced to just 1-3 symbols at a time and quickly see them contextualized. In subsequent levels, sometimes you will encounter a glyph with little context, and it isn't until much later that you will find an area or situation that begins to fill in that context for you.

 

 

Additionally, every time you advance to a new level you are essentially starting all over with a new language. I remember in the third level, the first person I spoke to introduced me to something like 8 new glyphs! When I returned back a little later, I still could only understand half of what they said. Additionally, you'll sometimes stumble upon old murals/carvings that have a phrase written in the current level's language as well as a previous language you know. This helps you to quickly learn a couple of words in the new language - though since there are differences in the (simple - don't worry!) grammar between languages, the glyphs are not always in the same order despite having the same translation! 

 

 

OTHER FACETS OF GAMEPLAY

 

Each level has two black tablet-console things. Every console has the same three types of screens, though two of them will only make sense once you reach the "endgame". Once you've discovered a second console, you'll realize that the left-most screen allows you to fast travel to any other console you've discovered. This is really nice for when you reach the end of a level and might be curious to see how something translates after finding all the relevant glyphs but don't want to spend a few minutes backtracking through the entire level.

 

 

The game has a few small "stealth" sections where you need to move through an area without being spotted by the guards. I was glad that those sections were pretty short. The end of the third level also has a navigation puzzle related to cardinal directions which was a cool idea, but figuring out exactly how the mechanic worked was very frustrating for me. (Didn't help that I super overcomplicated how I thought it was supposed to work //facepalm)

 

You can pet a couple of cats in this game! I love the "automatic 10/10" meme for when a videogame lets you pet animals. Perhaps I should start adding a second Cat Rating of "😺/10" to games that let you pet cats? 😂

 

What a good little kitty!

 

TALKING LANGUAGE

Ugh, I had a whole spoiler-marked section written here about linguistics and Chants of Sennaar. Then I somehow goofed and my browser deleted it all. 🥲 This is what I get for writing outside of Google Docs for once, sigh. I also have some spoilery charts I made organizing the glyphs of each language, so at this point I'll just rewrite everything into a separate post at some point in the future.

 

 TROPHY NOTE! 
Chants of Sennaar has one missable trophy that can require you to replay the entire game a second time. The game has a "fake" ending and a "true" ending, and completionists can easily miss the trophy for the "fake" ending if they are not aware of it. Without spoiling much, after you reach the end of the fifth level you are given an "endgame task" to complete before going to the very peak of the Tower. This happens pretty much immediately after you learn the final glyph on the fifth level.

 

To get the trophy for the "fake" ending, you simply need to trigger the game's end at the tower peak before you have completed the endgame task. After a short endgame scene, credits will roll and the fake trophy will pop, at which point you can then finish the final task to unlock the game's true ending.

 

SPOILER NOTES FROM MY PLAYTHROUGH:

Spoiler

Spoiler

• DEVOTEE LEVEL
  • I loved how the card minigame about the social hierarchy actually game into play later as a clue!
  • Glyphs that I was initially completely off-base with my guesses 😂:
    • "Storage/Vase/Art" was actually "Plant"
    • "Pottery/Artist" was actually "Gardener"
    • A mural at the end of the church led me to believe that one symbol meant "Life" or perhaps "Answer", but it was actually "Preacher"! Totally misunderstood what the mural was depicting at first, which was fun.
  • Sneaking past guards at the very end of the section gave me Assassin's Creed vibes.
• WARRIOR LEVEL
  • I can't get over how there is a statue inside the temple that looks like Rhulk from Destiny 2.
  • Loved that a few of the glyphs were based on constellations!
  • When I learned that a symbol (which I initially assumed translated to "Devotee" or just "Non-Warrior") actually translated to "Impure", I wrote down, "Ooooooh shit, are [the Warriors] fanatics?!" This made me wonder if maybe everyone above the Warriors knew the 'truth' (whatever it was), and the Devotees were kept ignorant so that they would keep worshipping. 
• BARD LEVEL
  • Ah, the "chosen ones" are actually bards. 
  • Flappy Birds minigame clone made me laugh.
  • I noticed here that the Devotee symbol for "up/greater" has been present in the Warrior and Bard architecture! Could be a coincidence between the architectural geometry and the glyph, but I like to think it is intended.
  • GAHHHH the cave puzzle!
    • Since every time you correctly move forward, you enter the next area from a random direction, I thought that you had to factor in the direction you were facing as "North". If the compass's red arrow was one direction off from where I was facing, my brilliant mind figured that meant I had to rotate the traveller clockwise or counterclockwise to come up with "North". 
    • Nope! Literally just whichever direction the red needle is pointing in is your "North" for that room, and you make all your movements based soley on the red needle and the poem. The direction from which you enter the room has NOTHING to do with which direction you need to go to. 
• ENDGAME
  • The final chase felt like a weird mix of M.C. Escher and something akin to Salvador Dali's style, lol
  • 
  • 

 

FAVORITE...

Trophy Image:

In this together

Trophy Moment:

Peace Walker

Screenshots:

     

SPOILER SCREENSHOTS:

Spoiler

 

.

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by pelagia14
typo

[Shikotei-kun]

On 8/4/2023 at 1:47 AM, pelagia14 said:

GAMEPLAY RECORDING PAUSED

One annoying aspect of this game is that some of the cutscenes are considered "blocked scenes". They are pulled straight from the movie that was released at the same time as the videogame, and seven years later we still have these awful pop-ups warning "Gameplay recording paused because you entered a blocked scene" at the beginning and "Gameplay recording resumed" at the end of each and every one of these tie-in cutscenes. And this was regardless of whether or not you were actually trying to record anything with the PS Share feature!! It is completely immersion-breaking, makes the notification noise, and I could not find any option within the game or the console to them off. 

If you press the share button, then select "save gameplay" it saves the last 15 minutes. So in a way, the PS4 is constantly recording stuff. Just throwing away everything that's not saved. So you get the notifications because of this. When a game crashes, you also have that last minute-or-so of footage to send to Sony/the devs for debugging purposes.

 

I, too, disliked getting constant notifications, across multiple games. So I fiddled around with the PS menu to remedy this.

Here's how you can disable them (PS4) from the XMB:

- Settings

- Notifications

- Pop-up Notifications

- Scroll down until you see 'Blocked Scenes for Video Recording"

I also disabled "When Taking Screenshots", because I sometimes take multiple in a row for guide writing purposes.

Happy gaming!

 

---

To be more on-topic: I thought I was long-winded and/or verbose with some of my posts in my own checklist, but yours are almost professional in layout, size and content. I should really take some time to read up on your write-ups on the FF franchise..

[pelagia14]

@Shikotei-kun Thank you for the comment! I wasn't aware that it was a setting that could be turned off. I'm on a PS5 now, but based on the terminology in your post I quickly found out that on the newer console, the solution is System > HDMI, then turn off "Enable HDCP". Apparently, that might prevent me from using streaming apps like Netflix while it is turned off, but I don't use any streaming apps through my PS5 anyways.

 

If you do read my FF Pixel Remaster posts, I hope you enjoy them! I did try to put a little extra bit of love into them. 

 

[pelagia14]

Platinum #103 | The Quarry

 

Developer: Supermassive Games, 2022
Country: England
Time Played: 46h 😒
Platinum Earned: 29 September 2023
Rating: 6/10

 

“What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.”

 

PREMISE

You play as a group of teenage camp counselors at Hackett’s Quarry. Summer camp has ended and all of the children sent back home. The teens are unexpectedly stuck at the camp for one more evening and decide to have one last hurrah together, unaware of the supernatural threats and unfriendly locals that stalk through the woods… Your choices will determine if the teens survive the night or suffer gruesome deaths, in this game inspired by classic teen slasher and monster movies.

 

 

GAME THOUGHTS

A quick summary of my feelings about this game: the campy story was mostly fun, but getting the platinum was a slog. As someone who loves a campy B-flick or terrible horror flick, I wanted to rate this game as an 8/10 - however, the length/pacing of Chapter 7 and the terrible “Chapter Select” system each deducted a point, bringing us to the 6/10 rating.

 

SUPERMASSIVE’S GAMEPLAY FORMULA

If you’ve played Supermassive Games' breakout game Until Dawn, then you have a pretty solid idea of what gameplay is like in the studio’s spiritual successor to that game:

• The game starts with a prologue that has you put some events into motion, followed by the present “day” events split up into 10 chapters, and wrapping up with a short Epilogue scene.
• As you assume control of the various protagonists you can explore the environments to search for clues and evidence that will help you piece together what is going on. 
• The narrative relies heavily on cinematics, during which:
  • You’ll often be asked to pick your character’s reactions to events and dialogue, which often impacts their character development, relationships with other characters, and/or the plot of the branching narrative.
  • Character survival depends on your decisions, your ability to succeed at QTEs (quick-time events), and the rare times you’re asked to aim and shoot a weapon.

In the spirit of Halloween I’ve recently been playing through some of Supermassive’s The Dark Pictures Anthology, and I have to say that I much prefer the gameplay mechanics of The Quarry/Until Dawn over those employed thus far in Anthology.

 

 

HORROR METER

 

Since I enjoy horror games but don’t like to play terrifying ones solo, I like to briefly mention things (with as few spoilers as possible) that could be a strong turn-off for someone considering a specific game. Some horror games really like to draw out their death scenes, which I’m not usually a fan of, but thankfully The Quarry does not. Even its more gruesome visuals are typically on screen for no more than 2 seconds, so things that you might be kind of on the fence about quickly move on before they can become too uncomfortable. 

 

Most of the potential deaths in The Quarry are pretty standard or tame for a videogame with horror elements - lots of shootings and maulings. There is one potential death that is a decapitation, and one NPC can get their face blown off by a gun. Finally, it’s not a death but a few of the endings required for the platinum necessitate that you make the decision to amputate the arm of one character after they get a certain injury - and I appreciate that you are NOT asked to button mash or anything to do so.

 

 

OUR CAMP COUNSELORS

• Abigail is the shy goth girl, with a not-so-secret crush on fellow counselor Nick.
• Nick is the shy jock, with a not-so-secret crush on fellow counselor Abigail.
• Emma is the popular girl at school who has a big social media following. She’s also kind of a bitch.
• Jacob is the more traditional egotistic jock. While he wants his friends to be happy, he is a little self-centered and unable to let the relationship with Emma remain a summer fling.
• Kaitlyn is the eccentric girl who likes to have fun with friends, but also has knowledge of car mechanics and how to shoot a shotgun.
• Dylan is the edgy jokester who thinks he needs to hide his nerdy nature in order to fit in.
• Ryan is the sarcastic goth kid who listens to hipster bands and weird podcasts.

I could not stand Emma - while it’s valid for her to just want her relationship with Jacob to be a summer fling, I really disliked how she treated him and talked about and to him. I also initially really disliked Dylan, but after his Chapter 4 conversation with Ryan revealed how he has been trying to play a persona to fit in, I liked the non-persona version a lot better. Kaitlyn honestly reminded me a lot of my best friend from college, and Ryan reminded me of my general friend group from high school.

 

 

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

 

Cutscenes feature mocap performances from an ensemble cast of actors and use a variety of camera techniques to make you feel like you are actually playing a horror movie, not a horror game. There are plenty of easter eggs and homages to classic horror movies contained within this game.

 

The general quality of acting is excellent, and several actors have past horror, thriller, or similar cinematic works on their resume. 

• David Arquette - Appeared in the first five Scream movies, and also directed some horror/slasher movies.
• Ted Raimi - The Candyman; The Grudge; many Sam Raimi works such as The Evil Dead franchise, Army of Darkness, and Drag Me to Hell. Most importantly, he played the unforgettable Joxar the Mighty.
• Lin Shaye - A scream queen of Hollywood, with many horror roles including the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street and most recently in the Insidious franchise. 
• Grace Zabriskie - Twin Peaks, Child’s Play 2 (the Chucky franchise), The Grudge

Even most of the younger actors playing the teens had some genre experience, though they are mostly TV episodes or more recent movies that I’m not familiar with. 

 

I was really impressed with the detailed facial animations in cutscenes. Even small nuances in the actors' performances are captured in the animations, creating really expressive animations which was a small solace for how many times I had to rewatch many of the scenes. There was something about how they animated Emma’s mouth when she talked that felt a bit unnatural, but I can’t quite pinpoint exactly what the problem was. 

 

HOLD YOUR BREATHE

 

The big “unique” mechanic in The Quarry is its Don’t Breathe mechanic. During certain tense moments, your character might attempt to hide from a nearby threat and you need to succeed at the Don’t Breathe “mini-game” 🙄 in order to be successful. A red meter appears on the left and right edges of your screen, representing how long your character can hold their breath (which is done by holding the  button). One or more edges of the screen will have a sort of “red lens flare” while danger is close, and all you need to do is release the button when the “lens flare”/danger disappears. While you are holding your breath, the haptic feedback on the Dualsense controller mimics a heartbeat, which lends a touch of immersion. 

 

 

While the idea is interesting, the execution is pretty lacking overall. There is one instance I can think of where if you don’t release your breath shortly after things become safe, you can actually miss the window of safety because danger returns. Every other instance is basically “hold while meter is at 100% to ~25%”, and then letting go anytime afterward gives you the same result. It would have been much more interesting if, say, a threat was pacing back and forth several times, and so there were a few safe moments to release your breath (and your character does something, usually sneak away) but also a few unsafe moments to keep you on your toes.

 

GAME MODES

 

The game is fully playable as a solo player, but The Quarry also offers a couch co-op (local multiplayer) and online multiplayer mode. I didn’t try either of the multiplayer modes, though apparently, the online version lets everyone vote on key decisions - which is an interesting change. There is also a movie mode, where you literally pick personality traits for the protagonists to determine which choices they will make, and then you can put your controller down and watch it play out as a movie. It’s neat that they included this feature, but even neater that the trophy for Movie Mode only requires you to launch it instead of watching an entire playthrough in that mode.

 

Finally, once you’ve completed the story once, you can unlock a feature called “Death Rewind”. It allows you to prevent up to 3 deaths within a single playthrough, and is probably limited to solo play. If you failed a QTE, choosing to use one of your rewinds takes you right to the start of the QTE. If you made a choice several chapters back that results in a death now, using a rewind will take you back several chapters to when you made that decision. 

 

RANDOM THINGS I ENJOYED

 

 

• The tongue-in-cheek nature of the “Safety Tip” tutorials was fantastic. The VHS tape effects and retro art style (almost reminiscent of old Hanna-Barbera cartoons) were great, and I love that they specifically chose a voice actor who could imitate Rod Sterling of The Twilight Zone.
• The map, while never needed in terms of navigation, was a nice touch to help us get a sense of how everything is connected (considering we are frequently jumping between POVs in different locations).
• Each chapter ends with a mini “music video” (only like 10 or 20 seconds in length). It was super cheesy, but totally worked for a cheesy teen B-flick vibe! 
• I loved how the game integrated Tarot cards with Eliza for the “between Chapters” segments.
• The menu has a screen displaying the “Paths” that you’ve made decisions on. I loved how they had a VHS box cover for each path, done in homage to various classic movies - and even sometimes with movie rental stickers on them! 

 

 

CHAPTER 7

 

Spoiler

Damn but Chapter 7 is unnecessarily long. It takes place in a flashback, and outside of making a few dialogue choices and two short sections where you can control a character, it is mostly long cutscenes. This chapter brings a lot of revelations explaining the supernatural creatures, the local hunters, and even what the prologue had sent into motion. Ted Raimi’s performance here is fantastic, but honestly, 70% of the chapter could have been removed without sacrificing much of the narrative. The game’s pacing comes to a halt, and while you’ve most likely figured out what the supernatural creatures are by this point, just being told how they came about through long expositional scenes is not very mentally engaging. I am all about getting little character details and worldbuilding, and I actually really appreciated getting more insight into what happened to Laura in the past few months as by the end of the game she is positioned as the "main character", but even if you were to experience the story purely in Movie Mode the story's overall pacing is negatively impacted by the length of Chapter 7.

 

FRUSTRATING CHAPTER “SELECT” BULLSHIT…

 

I really hated the “Chapter Select” system that Supermassive implemented in this game, as it made getting the Platinum trophy much more frustrating. The first thing to note is that when you are playing the game, whenever you make a decision the game immediately autosaves it. If you accidentally fail a QTE and immediately pause the animation to return to the main menu, too bad - the game will pick up right at the animation resulting from that QTE decision. This applies to all choices, not just QTEs. You also are not able to create multiple save files within a single playthrough. 

 

I honestly wouldn’t mind all of that, if not for the fact that you can only unlock Chapter Select at the end of each playthrough, and once you use your Chapter Select it will overwrite that playthrough’s save file. That means that if you complete a playthrough and then use Chapter Select to go back to Chapter 4, you now have all of your existing choices preceding Chapter 4, but in order to use Chapter Select again you will need to reach the epilogue once again.

 

… AND THE RESULTING FRUSTRATING PATH TO PLATINUM

[Section contains vague/general trophy description spoilers]

 

This is so aggravating. No Chapter Select until the end of the first playthrough is entirely reasonable. Requiring the player to separately unlock Chapter Select in multiplayer mode and single-player mode is also completely fine. In order to get the Platinum trophy though, you need to do a minimum of 3 playthroughs without messing up, with a few specifically-timed partial playthroughs as well. Oh, and collectibles don’t work like in The Dark Pictures Anthology where you can get 100% through different playthroughs, all Tarot Card collectibles need to be picked up in a single run and all Clue collectibles need to be picked up in a separate run. 

 

To get the platinum in only 3 full playthroughs requires attention to detail and a really solid game plan. One playthrough needs to have everyone survive, one playthrough needs to have everyone die, one playthrough needs to have all the “bad guys” killed, and one playthrough needs to have everyone [spoilered]. You need to do one complete playthrough to collect all Tarot Cards, and then if correctly planned, a second playthrough from Chapter 2 to the end to collect all Clues. Oh, and certain playthrough endings (all alive, all dead, etc) don’t allow for you to get certain Tarot Cards or Clues. 

 

There are two or three trophies for unlocking scenes that require specific choices across several chapters in order to be unlocked, and which can impact whether characters live or die. Then there are two trophies for having a specific character be the “sole survivor”, which can be completed from Chapter 9 of an “everyone dies” run. There is another trophy for having two characters reunite, which can be done starting from Chapter 9 of an “all baddies dead” run. A playthrough where you don’t miss any combat encounters is pretty easy, especially on a run that isn’t “everyone survives” by using accessibility options. 

 

 

MY PLATINUM PILGRIMAGE

 

My platinum involved either 5 or 6 complete playthroughs (I didn’t keep track for my sanity), plus the 3 “reload at Chapter 9” ones. I followed the PSNP Roadmap, and had a Google Doc to keep track of all the requirements. However, my game plan was not effective enough as everything was grouped up by trophy instead of chapter. I should have spent some time creating a personal “master roadmap” that instead organized everything into “Here is everything you need for Playthrough #1. Everything you need for Playthrough #2. Etc.”. This is because sometimes I would forget to check one of the several sections I was constantly scrolling between on my laptop, and I would only realize it after I had triggered a new scene or chapter. Twice I had to scrap a playthrough around Chapter 4 for a tiny error, which finally got me to read up on how Cloud Saves work, disabling the auto-saving feature, and manually uploading my save every hour or so. 

 

I’m fine with all of the trophies conceptually - you really get to see a lot of the different branching paths that the developers created and it’s neat to see how small decisions can ripple later on. I even expected to have to play a "branching narratives" game like this several times for the platinum, that's not the issue.  But dammit, after I’ve beaten the game once, if I make a small mistake in Chapter 6, give me the option to use chapter select to have my playthrough restart at the beginning of Chapter 6! One can make the argument that the developers want you to “live with the consequences of your decisions”, but it is really dissonant in a game that features tons of accessibility options, including an auto-aim option for the rare “aim and shoot” segments. Or heck, let us skip cutscenes that we’ve already seen before, just give us something.

 

FIRST PLAYTHROUGH NOTES:

Spoiler

• PROLOGUE
  • I hate the changing camera angles when you are walking in the forest. UP on the controller means moving forwards, then suddenly the screen changes and Laura is moving to the right while I am still holding UP. And then what about the situations where I would then on that second screen I need to move in an upward direction?! It is very cinematic, but always irks me a little. 
  • Why the fuck is the cop so insistent on them going to the Hackinger Motel? Are the game’s so-called “violent locals” a group of serial killers that run the local motel or something?
  • I was really impressed at how much you really get a sense of Laura and Max as a couple in this short prologue. The writing had personality, and both actors, though especially Laura’s (Siobhan Williams), were expressive and nuanced.
• CHAPTER 1
  • My least favorite of the teens are probably Emma and Dylan thus far. 
• CHAPTER 3
  • Ah yes, it’s not an homage to a teen slasher flick if we don’t get a girl (and guy) in swimsuits, lol. 
  • In my blind playthrough, Jacob got blooded by Bobby. 
• CHAPTER 4
  • …Is Emma describing the surroundings to her viewers, but having the cellphone camera recording her face?!
  • Whoops Emma died. 😂
• CHAPTER 5
  • Kaitlyn got blooded by Bobby.
  • Really wasn’t a fan of Dylan before this chapter. 
• CHAPTER 7
  • Goddamn this chapter feels like a mini-movie. Also really throws the overall pacing off. 
  • Loved that we got more of Ted Raimi as Sheriff Travis Hackett though, his performance was fantastic. 
• CHAPTER 8
  • Grandma Constance is a toxic bitch and I can’t wait until we get to kill her.
  • Oh, that was fast! Kinda sad that we didn’t get to see more of Constance, but she definitely deserved death.
• CHAPTER 9 
  • Oooof, Romani slur and negative stereotyping is not cool. Like *I* understand that Supermassive is probably trying to have Travis give off “small town ignorant cop” vibes, but a lot of people won’t realize that he used a slur which just perpetuates its normalization.
• CHAPTER 10
  • Ryan was blooded.
• END CREDITS
  • Having an earlier-reference ‘podcast’ play during the credits was super engaging!
  • 1st Playthrough Results: All Hacketts except for Travis were killed, Silas is dead, and all teens besides Emma are alive.

 

FAVORITE...

Trophy Image:

 Above the Law

Trophy Moment:

 Bizarre Yet Bonafide

Screenshots:

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by pelagia14
typo

[pelagia14]

Platinum #36 | Mass Effect 3

 

Developer: BioWare, 2012
Country: Canada
Platinum Earned: 9 April 2021
Time Played: N/A, but easily over 60 hours. 
Time to Plat: 3Y 11M 3W
Rating: 9/10

 

PREMISE

The Reapers have finally arrived. The galaxy is in all-out war, with Earth being one of the planets hardest hit by the invasion. The galactic community needs to work together to have any hope of being the cycle to finally defeat them, but politics and old resentments are hard to let go of. It’s up to Commander Shepard to not only find a way to stop the Reapers, but unite enough of the galactic community together to get even a sliver of chance at victory.

 

 

GAME THOUGHTS

This review contains HUGE SPOILERS (non-tagged/unhidden) for the ENTIRE TRILOGY.

 

THE END IS HERE

 

The game opens with the Reaper invasion of the Sol system, with Reapers launching attacks on Earth within two minutes of your playthrough. Commander Shepard and the Normandy have been grounded on Earth for the past six months, waiting for a military trial regarding their actions at the end of ME2. Players who completed the Arrival DLC are facing trial for their decision to destroy the Alpha Relay at the cost of over 300,000 Batarian colonists, but which provided the entire galaxy additional months or years to rally in preparation for the Reapers. For those who did not play Arrival, Shepard is under trial for working with the pro-humanity terrorist organization, Cerberus. 

 

If ME2 starts dramatically and then slowly builds up pressure to the glorious crescendo of its Suicide Mission finale, then ME3 is a frantic, non-stop sprint made of tension and decisions that hurdle you to its (contentious) conclusion. BioWare doesn’t waste our time with an unnecessary prologue showing the dicey political situation Shepard was likely in for the past several months, or some dramatic courtroom scenes in a trial-perhaps-turned-inquisition against Shepard; they made it clear at the end of ME2 that the clock for the Reapers has run out and so they don’t waste any time here. 

 

 

 

REMINDERS OF WAR

 

You get a mini refresher (or crash course) on combat gameplay as Shepard and Anderson run through the destruction of the Reaper’s opening salvo to reach a pickup point for the Normandy. This tutorial also serves to show us the initial chaos and confusion of an Alliance (and other galactic governments) that refused to seriously believe that the Reaper threat was more than a boogeyman. For narrative RPG videogames set during a global or galactic war, it can be easy for us players to unwittingly think of the dire stakes in the abstract, since various limitations such as hardware and gameplay design often isolate you in narrowly-scoped missions against a finite number of enemies, away from the true unrelenting nature of war. ME3 itself is constrained by these limitations. However, starting the player out in the initial moments of all-out warfare - witnessing the massive troop deployments of the enemy, air units spinning out in the sky to a lethal end, and even a medical evacuation unit rescuing a wounded soldier you assisted being blown up - helps make clear (and memorable) the realities of war as we play the game. As the Normandy flies away, we get a final shot of the planet being swarmed by even more Reaper ships, underlining that what we saw was a mere warm-up.

 

ME3 also finds smaller ways to remind you of the constant threat in the background. Body bags can be found in early combat areas. When you arrive at the Citadel, already the loading dock areas are being flooded with refugees from all over the galaxy. Huerta Memorial Hospital has more patients than rooms, so some patients lay on stretchers in the hallway as doctors argue over whether they should start trying to ration medical supplies based on the likelihood of patient recovery. A wall full of missing persons fliers grows steadily larger over the course of the game. The Normandy even has a Memorial Wall that observant players will notice gets updated whenever a current or former crewmate dies. 

 

 

 

If you're curious as to what the full memorial wall can look like, a heartless deleted user on Reddit once took the time to play through ME2 and ME3 with as many deaths as possible. My Paragon memorial wall is next to it for comparison.

 

 

WAR ASSETS

 

Videogames often provide side quests that are a bit dissonant with the large stakes at hand - am I really finding some old lady’s missing cat when a demon is about to be summoned, or taking the time to go on hoverboard races when a villain is building a doomsday device? ME3’s War Asset system is a tangible way for you to view the progress your Shepard has made in recruitment for a final stand against the Reapers. Fleets, researchers, fighters, even cultural artifacts that can be used to gain more alien aid - pretty much everything you do in ME3 can be tied to the big-picture goal. This is also a fantastic solution to tie in side quests and other gameplay mechanics like planetary scanning in a way that can be somewhat justified as contributing to the war effort. Some obviously succeed at this better than others, but this helps the game to focus on the stakes.

 

 

POWER-FUL COMBAT

 

ME3 improves upon the combat system introduced in ME2. Probably the most significant improvement is in ability combinations, called Power Combos. It is a drastic expansion of the Warp Detonation system of ME2, but no longer limited primarily to biotic powers. Power Combos always require that a priming ability be used, followed by a detonating ability - which results in a powerful area-of-effect explosion centered on the targeted opponents. They can be divided into Biotic Combos, Tech/Electricity Combos, Fire Combos, and Cryo Combos. Cryo Ammo thus feels much more useful now, and it’s great that these ability-triggered explosions are no longer limited to characters with biotic powers. 

 

You don’t have to memorize specific “formulas” such as “Ability Y can only be detonated by Ability Z”. Taking Biotic Power Combos, for instance, there are 15 potential powers that can be priming sources (some depending on how you upgrade them) and 21 powers that can detonate (once again depending on upgrades). The implementation of the Power Combo system is a great incentive for taking manual control over your squadmates’ ability usage in order to target and time them to get this bonus damage. Also, what I’ve said so far is just scraping at the surface. The Mass Effect Wiki page on Power Combos goes into detail on how you can combine primer abilities from multiple categories (Biotic, Tech, Fire, Cryo) followed by one or more detonators for maximum efficiency, or get even fancier and chain together Power Combo detonations. During my PS3 playthroughs I never even realized how complex this system was, and it makes me somewhat understand why some people may have enjoyed playing ME3’s competitive multiplayer mode.

 

Beyond the Power Combo system, there are a few other differences to ME3 combat. You can now dash-leap over short gaps, and some combat areas have a second level that you can climb up to with a ladder. Standard Melee attacks are now joined by charged-up Heavy Melee attacks that see you plunge a transformed omnitool blade into your opponent in a devastating animation. Shepard has obviously been keeping up on the acrobatics while in Alliance custody - or simply has better armor now - as they can now dodge to either side or roll forward/backward to evade an attack.

 

 

Shepard can equip weapons of any category regardless of their military specialization. The drawback is that the more weapons you have equipped and the heavier they are, the slower all of your combat/tech/biotic abilities charge. Ammo drop economy sometimes made it difficult to have a light weapon loadout on Insanity Mode, but it is no longer an issue in the Legendary Edition (LE). Alas, you no longer have infinite grenades - though additional grenades can sometimes be found alongside or in lieu of ammo cartridges. 

 

Speaking of enemies, their AI is noticeably improved from ME2. At least on Insanity Mode, enemies will attempt flanking formations or flush you out with frequent (😒) usage of grenades. For those who tend to be more comfortable firing from a distance (like me), this means you will find yourself abandoning cover momentarily or darting to new pieces of cover. As an Infiltrator, the Invisibility Cloak is the only reason that I’m able to survive Insanity mode. 😂

 

NEW ENEMIES

 

We now face off against a medley of new enemies, primarily “Reaper/Husk category” enemies from all the advanced life forms the Reapers have captured and mutated. You first encounter Cannibals, mutated Batarians that can literally cannibalize other Husk corpses to gain armor. Marauders have Turian origins and power up other Husk soldiers with armor., and they also do a silly drop role dodge when first fired upon. Brutes are the Reaper’s terrifying experiments on Krogan, having lots of health, lots of armor, and lots of reach with their fast-moving swipe attacks as they relentlessly prowl closer to you. Ravagers, based on the dangerous Rachni, are equipped with long-range cannons that quickly blast through your armor and health, and even have an analog to the tiny Rachni Workers with their Swarmer units. A few missions will have you come across Harvester units, which are just… mutated Harvesters, though they are lethal enough to serve as mini-bosses. 

 

Banshees are the foes I love and hate the most - twisted forms of Asari that quickly teleport across the battlefield, are protected by very durable bars of Barrier and Armor, cast slinging destructive biotics that drain huge chunks of your shields and health upon hit, capable of ripping apart your shields with their melee, and can execute an instant death move if you let them get too close to you. Their eponymous screaming wail sounds absolutely terrifying, full of rage or agony - or a bit of both. Finally, Banshees are also just visually disturbing - bearing a malevolent, almost gleeful grin and having gross, distended bellies reminiscent of bloated corpses. 

 

 

 

The Omega DLC introduces one final Reaper-tech modified enemy type: the Adjutant. They are like a mixture of Banshee and Brutes, capable of slinging Singularity fields at you or running up to you with a melee attack that throws you to the ground. Cerberus has also been busy “improving” humans, resulting in sniper-wielding Nemesis units and the lethal, ninja-like Phantom units.

 

I really love that BioWare created so many new enemies for ME3. While there are still plenty of humanoid and Geth combatants to fight in the game, the introduction of these new units - each with unique abilities and tactics, keeps combat from feeling repetitive. The new Reaper enemies are especially fantastic from a lore perspective - this is yet another way in which BioWare is showing (and not just telling) us some of what the Reapers are doing with advanced species once resistance in an area is eliminated. 

 

DECISIONS & DILEMMAS

 

ME3 asks you to make some tough decisions throughout its run. The biggest two are your decisions regarding the Genophage and the Geth-Quarian War, conflicts that you watched play out throughout the trilogy. Whichever choice you make, you can make a fair argument in support of it. 

 

With the Genophage, a Paragon Shepard would argue that it is a slow extermination punishing a species that the galactic community helped “uplift” in order to solve their own problems without fully considering the ramifications. While the Krogran Rebellions following the Rachni War were terrible, the punishment far outweighs the crime. Furthermore, It is not fair to label an entire sentient species as violent when they are not provided realistic opportunities to live in peace. The Genophage has caused the Krogan to become so fatalistic in present times that if it isn’t stopped, frustrations and resentments will continue to bleed violence. 

 

On the other hand, a Renegade Shepard would argue that curing the Genophage would just allow history to repeat itself by starting new Krogan Rebellions. The Krogans currently live under fractured leadership, and if a Renegade Shepard has saved Bakara (Eve) and Maelon’s data to prevent her death, there is no guarantee that all Krogan Warlords would listen to her as a leader. The Genophage has also led to the Krogans harboring a deep-seated resentment of the Salarians and Turians in particular, which could lead to massive retaliation by the Krogans against them.

 

The Geth-Quarian War isn’t just about the history between those two factions, but about broadly about whether or not synthetics are sentient life forms that deserve rights. The important memories saved in the Geth server seen during Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadron show that the Geth really just want self-determination, as any other sentient life form would desire. ME3 also gives us a lot of interactions with EDI that ask us if an AI can be a person, outside of any biases that we may have towards the Geth. One of my favorite lines from EDI relates Joker: “I would risk nonfunctionality for him. And my core programming should reflect that.” The ways in which ME3 examines the concept of synthetic life would honestly make for a really interesting fandom research paper. 

 

  

 

THE DILEMMA I DIDN’T EXPECT

 

ME3 also has plenty of smaller decisions for you to make - especially in the Citadel. Do you support letting everyone purchase weapons to defend themselves, or should a militia be formed? Is enforcement of smaller crimes important in even the direst of times important to upholding law and the ideals of governed civilization, or in times of crisis is it more important to focus on the big picture? Do you tell Dock workers to allow refugees into the Citadel which puts greater strain on their resources, or do you tell the refugees that it sucks but there aren’t enough resources to help them?

 

On my most recent LE playthrough, before I started my playthrough I looked at all the decisions that affect your War Assets. I made my notes as to which decisions I would make, including the decision to pick Dr. Michel over Dr. Chakwas as the doctor aboard the Normandy. Honestly, I don’t think I previously ever realized that this decision could be made, though it makes sense since Chakwas has the potential to die at the end of ME2. I figured that picking Dr. Michel was the best outcome logically, as turning down Chakwas would have her working on crucial research for the war effort - the bigger picture, after all - and with Dr. Michel aboard the Normandy I would get a valuable additional medigel upgrade for my demanding Insanity playthrough. But goddammit, BioWare has made me care about these fictional characters.

 

When I was speaking with Chakwas at Huerta Memorial and told her that she should stay at the Citadel to help with the vital research for the war, I was honestly taken aback by her response. She says, “I’m a field doctor, Commander - not a research scientist. Eden Prime. The Battle of the Citadel. Defeating the Collectors. We’ve been through too much together to let it end now. Let me serve on the Normandy. Please, Commander.” And with how impassioned the voice acting is, how could I say no? I honestly loved this moment, when I decided to forgo the medigel upgrade result I had already chosen, as it really underlines how much these characters can end up meaning to us players by this point in the trilogy. 

 

EPIC MOMENTS

 

One more thing I really want to highlight with ME3 is that there are some truly epic moments during its missions. 

 

In Priority: Tuchanka, you run right up to a Reaper that is firing lasers at you. As you are navigating through what feels like a horde of Brutes to activate the Maw Hammers, the Reaper’s legs are literally crashing around in the arena. Being this close to a Reaper really lets you experience first-hand how massive they are - as the Codex mentions some Reaper ships are several kilometers long. Then you get “the planet fighting back” when Kalros arrives and demolishes the Reaper. It was an incredible conclusion to the game’s Act I. 

 

 

 

Narratively, right afterwards we have my Paragon decisions throughout ME2 and ME3 that lead to Mordin curing the Genophage. His character arc is complete, as Mordin has realized his previous work on the Genophage modification was a mistake and this is his opportunity to make things right. In his final moments, Mordin looks like he has found peace, and he dies singing his favorite song. Then, BioWare decided that I needed more feels. Wrex exits his vehicle and slowly walks into the Genophage-cured air with awe and wonder, hope for the future of his species - all while we get a small piece of the ME1 Opening Theme to really underscore the emotional whiplash of the moment. Emotionally, this is probably my favorite moment of ME3. 

 

 

 

Back to exciting and cool mission moments, we have another one featuring a Reaper during Priority: Rannoch. The stakes are already super high, with this mission having the potential to definitively end the Geth-Quarian War (whichever choice you make). At the last moment, a Reaper decides to show up and jeopardize everything. We end up hopping into a Geth ship piloted by Legion and get to shoot at the Reaper with the ship’s turret. When the initial orbital strike doesn’t work, Shepard is determined to complete this mission successfully even if it means getting up close with the Reaper. You end up on a wide plateau with your targeting laser as your only real weapon. To destroy the Reaper, you have to aim at its weak spot while you watch it charge up and blast out an attack, and then dodge before it can hit you. It takes a couple of precise orbital strikes before the Reaper is destroyed, so the encounter feels like a high-stakes version of cat and mouse with Shepard as the mouse. 

 

 

 

Finally, I thought that Priority: Earth was a fantastic mission up to The Last Mile. It’s the final mission, and at least we get to return to Earth. We get a real sense of what fighting has been light for the ground forces, as we are assaulted by Reaper forces at almost every point during the mission. The ratio of advanced Reaper units to Husks is also much higher than in previous missions. Not only are there plenty of Cannibals and Marauders, but you frequently run into packs of Brutes. And yes, that’s packs of them - I can’t think of a single encounter with them that had a sole Brute. The section where we need to fire the Thanix cannon is the one that I dread the most, as I know that it eventually turns into a stressful fight against several Banshees and what feels like a squadron of Brutes approaching from multiple directions. The Reaper in the distance firing its laser beam almost feels like an afterthought, honestly. 

 

 

FRIENDS OLD AND NEW

 

There were also many missions where Shepard ran into or helped out squadmates. While there is no loyalty mechanic like in ME2, it’s nice that we are able to help out current and former squadmates - even when it’s not directly tied to the war effort, though it usually is. You team up with Grunt to wipe out a Rachni nest, and help Jack with evacuating Grissom Academy. There’s the creepy-as-fuck Ardat-Yakshi Monastery mission that helps Samara. You even have an opportunity in the Citadel to get Liara to meet her father, which I didn’t know was possible for the longest time. 

 

In addition, after almost every major mission it's worth roaming through the Normandy and speaking to all of your squadmates. Sometimes they won't be in their usual location, and even when they are their short dialogues are usually worth it, in my opinion. There's the scene where Tali gets drunk after Priority: Horizon, struggling with a sort of bitter jealousy that 'perfect' Miranda was able to fix her father's mistakes and obviously drawing comparisons to her own mess with her father Rael'Zorah. After Priority: Thessia, Tali and Garrus discuss how worried they are about Liara, and Tali even frets about how she probably isn't the best person to console Liara right now considering (in my playthrough) the Quarians have just regained Rannoch. At one point between Priority: Tuchanka and Priority: Citadel II, you can find Garrus up in the cockpit trading military jokes with Joker. All of these little moments just really bring everything together.

 

  

 

ENDING A TRILOGY

 

ME3’s ending was infamously controversial - to the point that it even has its own Wikipedia entry. The biggest complaint was that your choices over the course of the trilogy felt meaningless, as summarized below:

Creator unknown.

I never played the original ending, only getting around to Mass Effect after the Extended Cut expansion was released. The Extended Cut doesn’t actually change very much - you are still given the three options at the Crucible, but it adds additional scenes to the ending sequences and a new epilogue: composed of a short narration played over a montage of still images and short animations, based on decisions you made and your Total Military Strength. It feels more respectful of the time that we as players have invested in the series. While I understand many players’ frustrations over the trinary solutions provided by the Crucible, I do appreciate that at least each decision has a downside. CONTROL results in the Reapers not reaping any consequences for their cyclical destruction of civilization for eons. DESTROY does not solve the issue between organics and AI that the Reapers were created to solve, just pushes a solution to that question further down the road while also destroying the sentient (and potentially now-peaceful) Geth. Finally, SYNTHESIS changes every sentient being’s DNA without their permission (and also just doesn’t make sense - do you add 1s and 0s to organic DNA or something??). 

 

One complaint I always found a bit odd was that there was no final boss fight. While I find the iconic Marauder Shields meme to be funny, I’m actually glad that there wasn’t a “final boss” in the game. What would it have been? Had BioWare gone with the Illusive Man morphed into a Reaper-controlled abomination, then that would just be the same as ME1’s Saren boss fight. They can’t really have you face off against a Reaper either, since at the end of the game the Crucible is able to deal with all Reapers near-simultaneously (plus we already wrecked one in Priority: Rannoch). Any other realistic solution I can think of would either ruin the pacing of the final mission, or feel liked a forced “gotta end with a boss fight” that just serves the meta expectation of gamers. 

 

 

 

LET’S TALK ABOUT JAMES VEGA

 

ME1 gave us Kaidan, ME2 gave us Jacob, and now ME3 gives us James Vega. //sigh. It wouldn’t be a Mass Effect game if there wasn’t a male human squadmate who was my least favorite character among the roster, lol. I actually like Vega the best out of the three, but the way BioWare wrote him with fem!Shep really irritates me. 

 

I really wasn’t a fan of how casually flirty Vega is with fem!Shep. Not only does it just feel awkward, but like… I’ve roleplayed my Shepard over the course of two games, and now suddenly we have a character that is new to us who acts super familiar with Shepard. It would be different if we got to see Vega earn the familiarity with Shepard throughout the course of ME3, but we don’t. Thus, Vega ends up reminding me of dude!bros who feel entitled in acting overly familiar with female acquaintances or even female strangers. And that’s before even bringing up the Loco/Lola nickname, with only one of those two nicknames having some sexual connotations in the real world and an actual in-universe one for Vega. I’m so glad that we can tell Vega to stop addressing us by nickname.

 

I suspect that a large part of this problem is Vega (and all other NPCs) having mostly unchanged dialogue regardless of which gender your Shepard is, with the exception of changes in pronouns. While I’ve not played a campaign as male Shepard, I assume for male Shepards the vibe we as players would get is more “casual friendship between two dudes where one of them tends to tease/rib the other a lot”. Maybe it also gives off friendly, competitive vibes or something?

 

For those of you reading this (especially guys), if you played as a male Shepard I’d be really interested to hear how you would characterize Vega’s dynamic with him. I feel like this is the one instance where BioWare treating male and female Shepard the same somewhat backfires. However, I don’t have a solid enough reading/understanding of Vega with male Shepard to be confident in that opinion. I also welcome anyone’s thoughts on Vega with female Shepard, of course. 

 

MULTIPLAYER… AKA PS3-ERA THINGS I DON’T MISS

 

There was a multiplayer mode in this game, just like most of the other big AAA titles of the time - Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Crystal Dynamic’s 2013 Tomb Raider, and others. I played exactly enough multiplayer to earn the relevant trophies and then never touched it again, so there’s not really much for me to add here. I don’t like multiplayer modes in my single-player narrative-based RPG games - if I want a narrative game with a multiplayer element, I’ll just find one that integrates multiplayer from the ground up. 

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• One small detail I love is that the developers did not just copy+paste the planetary system maps from ME2. For systems that we visited in the previous game, in ME3 you can see that the planets have continued to rotate in the intervening six months. 
• I despise how slowly Shepard slow-mo dream walks during the interlude scenes with The Child. You can indicate that it is an altered mental state (dream, hallucination, etc) with other techniques such as white lighting on the screen’s edges, non-natural colored lighting for the scene, among other ideas. Also, the developers could have you move at a normal walking pace and then just trigger the cutscene a few seconds before you reach The Child, showing us slow-mo Shepard at that point. 
• KEI-9 is such a good (robotic) pupper!
• Thank you ME3 for having an automatic fish feeder that we can purchase for Shepard’s aquarium. 
• I love how they put phone booths in the Priority: Earth mission so that there's no confusion that you are in London. 😂
• Shout-out to the DLC trophy images for actually being really aesthetic in general for the PS3 era!

  

 

DLC

 

FROM ASHES
This DLC sees you returning to Eden Prime, where you discover one Prothean has survived the past 50,000 years in a stasis pod. The DLC’s story is just one mission, but Javik becomes an available squadmate. Over the course of ME3 you discover through his dialogue lines that Prothean civilization (or at least what Javik knew of it) are very different from its modern-day archaeological understanding.

 

 

The avatar of Vengeance

 

OMEGA
Omega sees you helping Aria T’Loak reclaim the space station from Cerberus control. It is made up of five missions, but it feels more like one or two missions that are equivalent in length to five. The DLC also contains the Omega-specific Adjuncant enemy. DLC completion gives Shepard access to Aria’s Lash and Flare biotic abilities, the latter being my default bonus power for most missions of ME3 because of how fantastic it is. 

 

 

 

THE LEVIATHAN
I thought the detective work at the beginning of the DLC was fun and didn’t overstay its welcome. There are a decent number and variety of missions as well, making this the second-best DLC for ME3 in my opinion. The overall story additions from meeting the Leviathans are great. It’s really interesting to consider that the Rachni were potentially bred/influenced by the Leviathans as an intended weapon against the Reapers, which would explain why the Rachni were so difficult to defeat even with advanced weaponry. Completing the DLC also provides Shepard with the Dominate bonus power, essentially AI Hacking for organics. 

 

    

 

THE CITADEL
The Citadel is hands-down my favorite fanservice DLC of the Mass Effect trilogy. We get an over-the-top mission storyline with Shepard’s Evil Clone. One of its final missions is literally “all hands on deck” with your entire squad assisting in the firefight. There are plenty of tongue-in-cheek lines of dialogue. I once again got to have Wrex as a squadmate, which was utterly delightful. We get little adventures with current and former crewmates - such as one involving you bailing out Grunt for drunk joyriding in a burning C-Sec vehicle. 😂 And then the party at the end, with all its shenanigans… While the timing of this DLC is obviously before Priority: Earth, I always leave it for last in a playthrough so that I end on a high note. 💖

 

 

 

 

QUOTES & PLAYTHROUGH COMMENTS

Spoiler

• Priority: Mars
  • Ugh, I forgot how annoyed I get at Ashley for her dogged suspicion that Shepard is BFFs with Cerberus. 
• Priority: Tuchanka
  • Kalros, Mother of all Thresher Maws - I love the protective animalistic instinct that causes her to battle a Reaper! What an epic moment.
  • Wrex: “I AM URDNOT WREX, AND THIS IS MY PLANET!”
  • This convo:
    • Mordin: “Thresher Maw getting closer!”
    • Wrex: “Tell me something I don’t know!”
    • Mordin: “Metal in truck an excellent iron supplement for Maw’s diet!”
  • Thresher Maw 1 - Reaper 0 
  • Mordin’s dreams :’D
    • Mordin: “My project. My work. My cure. My responsibility. [closes eyes for a moment] Would have liked to run tests on the seashells.” 
    • Shepard: “I’m sorry.”
    • Mordin: “I’m not. Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.” 
    • AND THEN THE ME1 TITLE MUSIC PLAYS WHILE WREX WALKS THROUGH THE NEWLY-CURED ATMOSPHERE IN AWE… 😭
• Normandy, between Tuchanka and Citadel II
  • Convo between Garrus and Joker:
    • Garrus: “What’s the first order an Alliance officer gives at the start of battle?”
    • Joker: “Uh…. I give up.”
    • Garrus: “ (chuckles) Correct.”
    • (a few more jokes)
    • Joker: “How do you know when a Turian is out of ammo?”
    • Garrus: “He switches to the stick up his ass as a backup weapon. Why does the Alliance hire pilots with Brittle Bone disease?”
    • Joker: “You’re shitting me? The Turian military has one on me?”
    • Garrus: “Oh, absolutely. I heard it myself from a private back on Palaven.”
    • Joker: “All right, why does the Alliance hire pilots with brittle bone disease?”
    • Garrus: “So their marines can beat someone in hand-to-hand drills.”
    • Joker: “Damn, you need to tell James about that one. Hey, what’s the hardest part about treating a turian who took a rocket to one side of his face?”
    • Garrus: “Figuring out which side took the rocket.” 😂
• Priority: Citadel II
  • Aw, I like that we get a mission with Bailey!
  • RIP Thane. But omfg his shade at Kai Leng - “That assassin should be embarrassed. A terminally ill Drell kept him from reaching his target.”
  • Biggest plot twist of ME3: Conrad Verner can actually help out with the Crucible!
• Mission - Kallini: Ardat-Yakshi Monastery
  • Goddamn goddamn goddamn it’s time for the creepy mission
  • The environmental spook-factor is excellent though. We’re exploring dark areas (almost claustrophobic at times) with flashlights, and we can hear wailing in the distance…
• Priority: Rannoch
  • At the start of the mission:
    • Shepard: “Legion, Good Luck.” / Legion: “Acknowledged.”
  • Then when we go to target the Reaper alone:
    • Legion: “Shepard, Good Luck.” / Shepard: “Acknowledged.”
    • I think this is the only time Legion doesn’t address them as Shepard-Commander…
  • We get to kill a fucking Reaper with a rail gun, lol.
  • The ending 😭
    • Legion, shortly before sacrificing itself: “Does this unit have a soul?”
    • Tali, very emotional: “Legion, the answer to your question was yes.” 
    • Legion: “I know, Tali. But thank you. Keelah se’lai.”
• Normandy, after Priority: Horizon
  • Tali is drunk on the Observation Deck.
    • Shepard: “How are you getting drunk?”
    • Tali: “Veeeery carefully. Turian brandy, triple filtered, then introduced into the suit through an emergency induction port.”
    • Shepard: “That’s a straw, Tali.”
    • Tali: “Emergency. Induction. Port.” 😂
• Priority: Earth
  • Javik: “But you are now the avatar of this cycle. The exemplar of victory. Not just for humanity, or turians, or Protheans - but for all life. Every soul that has ever existed is watching this moment.”
• The Citadel DLC
  • At Ryushi’s:
    • Merc Captain: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight’s performance is brought to you by random acts of violence.”
  • Anderson’s Apartment:
    • Garrus: “Wait… ‘job’? You mean the rest of you are getting paid for this?”
  • All Hands Mission:
    • Glyph’s inability as a VI to understand the Shepard Clone situation was funny.
    • Liara: “Glyph, lower their morale!”
    • Glyph: ”Your life expectancy is now fifteen seconds and dropping. Fourteen, thirteen, twelve…”
  • Shepard: “Grunt, you apologize to the nice man for setting his car on fire.”
  • Good lord the fan service.
  • When Clone Shepard abandons the crew, trapped in Archive capsules:
    • Clone Shepard: “I should go.”
    • Garrus: “So that went rather well.”
    • Shepard: “She said, ‘I should go’. Do I sound like that?”
    • Garrus: (exhales) “Yeah, kinda.”
    • Wrex: “So this vault we’re sealed inside of… We’re not going to worry about that?”
    • Shepard: “How come nobody told me this before? I’m open to feedback here.”
    • Garrus: “I’m not really one to talk. I’ve been told that I say ‘calibrating’ more than a turian should.”
    • Wrex: “Well I thought all humans said it. Like some weird earth custom or something.”
    • Shepard: “I don’t sound like that… do I?”
    • (another comment from squadmates)
    • Shepard: “Maybe it’s: I should GO. I SHOULD go. *I* should go…”
    • Garrus: “Shepard, please! Why aren’t you more worried about this?”
    • Shepard: “Hm? Oh. Glyph, you still out there?”
    • Glyph: “Yes, Commander.”
    • Shepard: “Unlock this damned thing, and go find the others. No one steals my ship. Not even me.”
  • Reclaiming the Normandy:
    • (In an elevator, on your way to reclaim the Normandy):
    • Garrus: “So… anyone want to talk about their people’s history?”
    • Wrex: “Nope.”
    • Garrus: “So I’m the only one who misses when we used to chat in the elevators back on the Citadel?”
    • Wrex: “Yep.”
    • Shepard: (silent the whole time 😂)
    • Garrus: “So disappointed.”

 

FAVORITE...

Trophy Images:

 Long Service Medal

 Tour of Duty 

 Talon 

 Technical Issues

 

Trophy Moments:

Insanity

 No Stone Unturned

 Perfect Host

 

Screenshots:

Edited October 24, 2023 by pelagia14
typo

[pelagia14]

Platinum #104 | Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition

 

Developer: BioWare, 2021
Country: Canada

Platinum Earned: 1 October 2023

Time Played: 48h
Time to Plat: 1W 1D

Rating: 9/10

 

100% Game #16 | Mass Effect Trilogy: Legendary Edition

 

100% List Completed: 29 September 2023

Time Played: 135h

Time to 100%: 1M 1W

Rating: 10/10

 

LEGENDARY EDITION THOUGHTS

Once again it’s time to see what changes the Legendary Edition (LE) has brought to this latest Mass Effect installment! Note that my post about ME1’s LE details overall improvements to the trilogy. 

 

However, it seems that there is one detail of the Legendary Edition that I was completely oblivious to until I was about 3/4th of the way through ME3 LE: the PS5 controller’s touchpad button. Fun fact, pressing it will trigger your game to autosave! And here I was manually saving easily over 200 times per game with Insanity difficulty. 😂
 

CHANGES SPECIFIC TO ME3:

• Multiplayer mode and its related trophies have been removed. 
• Just like in ME2, DLC weapons and armor are now naturally integrated into the game as purchasable items.
• If you romanced Tali, BioWare swapped out the literally photoshopped stock photo that they previously used in the game for something better and more original.
• Ashley’s Marksman ability has been fixed.
• The War Assets system has been simplified, removing the “Galaxy at War” system. 
  • Galaxy at War system: War Assets were your “Total Military Strength” that was then multiplied by your “Readiness Rating Percentage” (started at below 100% and increased by playing multiplayer, the Mass Effect: Infiltrator mobile game, etc) which resulted in an “Effective Military Strength” that the game used to determine what happens at the end.
  • Now, the War Assets that you earn in ME3: LE are simply set at 100% effectiveness and your “Total Military Strength” is all that the game considers.
  • Small tweaks have been made to certain War Assets. 
• The different ending choices in ME3: LE now become available based on what your Total Military Strength (TMS) is.
  • TMS is around 4400 or less = You get one ending option, which is based on what you decided to do with the Collector Base in ME2. Either choice results in almost all of Earth’s population being killed by collateral damage.
  • If your TMS is around 4500 or higher, you get to pick between Control and Destroy. 
  • Once you reach a TMS of 7800 or higher, Synthesis gets unlocked as the third option.
  • Your TMS level also determines whether most of Earth’s population is killed by collateral damage and if the Normandy crew survives.

 

LEGENDARY EDITION'S 100% TROPHY LIST

 

For a trilogy that is all about your choices in ME1/ME2 impacting ME2/ME3, I actually really liked that we were given a separate trophy list that focuses on the overall picture. The Long Service Medal ("Finish Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 with the same character") is the perfect example of this. 

 

Each game's individual Insanity Difficulty trophies are now part of this 100% list instead of their respective platinum trophy lists. As someone who struggle-bussed hard on the PS3 with blood, sweat, and tears to get those Insanity completions, I'm really glad that those trophies did not entirely disappear for the LE. Yeah, there are the perennial debates nowadays about platinum trophies being too easy to earn, but outside of shovelware I honestly don't mind. If you really want to showcase how 'elite' you are, there are still plenty of games that have very difficult platinums, even if they are not as numerous as in the past. 

 

However, I do think that the LE trophy list missed the opportunity for some really interesting trophies. ME1 was the only PS3 list to have a trophy for playing as mostly-Paragon and mostly-Renegade, and it would have been interesting to have something similar to the Long Service Medal that reflected morality decisions over the course of the trilogy. Or perhaps trophies for things like "Curing the Genephage while keeping Eve alive", since not only does that require decisions in ME3's Priority: Tuchanka to cure the Genophage, but you must also have kept Dr. Maelon's data from ME2. Then again, would it end up requiring something like 3-4 trilogy-wide playthroughs to get all these trophies? Since it is just a 100% list I wouldn't mind slowly tackling it over the course of a year or two, but I can also understand how it could result in a quite unwieldy list (especially without the 'reward' of a platinum), so I view it as a missed opportunity but not a significant one.

 

INFOGRAPHICS!

BioWare has released two infographics related to the LE (to my knowledge), and I want to talk about them! They are quite tall images, so sadly I will only be linking to them.

 

INFOGRAPHIC A

The first infographic was posted on the official Mass Effect Twitter account (that I refuse to call by its new dumb name) on July 27, 2021. The infographic starts off by showing that in the Legendary Edition, to that point 32% of players had created at least one Shepard profile that was female. This is much better than the mere 18% of OG ME players who were able to experience Jennifer Hale’s absolutely stunning vocal performance as the Commander. By the way, that's not an endorsement of Jennifer Hale herself - I wasn't thrilled with some of her actions in the "Boycott Bayonetta 3" controversy (a franchise I've never played) - and I don't actually know a lot about her beyond that. However, having heard plenty of male Shepard dialogue over the years, I think fem!Shep's vocals are on another level. 

 

The most popular specialization for the Commander was unsurprisingly Soldier (40%), followed by Vanguard (21%) and then Infiltrator (15%). Back in 2013, those stats were: Soldier (44%), Infiltrator (19%), and Vanguard (14%) - so it is interesting to see that Vanguard has become more popular over time. I suspect that Vanguard gradually became less intimidating for many players once they saw videos or read Reddit posts on how to play the hybrid combat-biotic class. Engineer remains at a remarkably consistent 5% though, haha. 

 

Kaidan still gets the short end of the stick in Virmire, with 40% of players choosing to rescue him over Ashley. And wow, Mordin is the least likely to survive the Suicide Mission! I mean, we’re talking less likely to survive than Jack, who can die if you don’t upgrade the Normandy’s shields regardless of her loyalty! I honestly found that really interesting, since the ME fandom generally views Mordin very positively. 

 

Now let's look at the two big interspecies conflicts Shepard can solve in ME3. In 2021, 4% of players Sabotaged the Genophage (down from 8% in 2013). However, there is a huge change in the result of the Priority: Rannoch mission! Back in 2013 it was relatively split along the three choices: 27% chose to save the Quarians, 37% saved the Geth, and 36% achieved peace. Compare that to 2021 where just 9% picked the Quarian side, 11% picked the Geth side, and a whopping 80% found the path to peace! I feel like this could be a really interesting research paper exploring the huge change over time. 😂
 

INFOGRAPHIC B

The second infographic was released on N7 Day (November 7th) on BioWare's website in 2021. I immediately noticed an interesting detail in the percentage of players per difficulty level.

• Of ME1 players, 23% picked Casual, 54% Normal, and 11% Veteran.
• ME2 players were fairly similar, with 25% picking Casual, 50% Normal, and 12% Veteran.
• The numbers are very different for ME3 - 23% Narrative, 35% Casual, and 28% Normal.

I’d be really curious to learn whether the difference is a result of ME3 relabeling the easiest difficulty as "Narrative" and moving the other labels up a rank in difficulty, or if the total number of players who had played ME3:LE by N7 Day was significantly less than those who had played ME1 & ME2 by that time.

 

For the ME3 ending, 17% chose Control, 30% chose Synthesis, 45% chose Destroy, and 8% chose Refuse. I’m honestly a bit surprised that Control is as high as it is since ME3 highlighted the Illusive Man’s hubris in thinking he could control the Reapers. I suppose some players figured that the Crucible as a non-organic would have the ability to truly control the Reapers, and figured the Reapers could help with galactic reconstruction or something?

 

Finally, 15% of people who played ME1:LE are monsters. You heard me right - 15% of ME1:LE players did not recruit Garrus! I’d honestly be curious to hear why some players chose not to recruit him since it's not difficult to do so. And does this mean that some players chose not to recruit the delightfully blunt Wrex?!  
 

PHOTO MODE

That’s right, friends - it’s time for another spam gallery of carefully curated non-cutscene photos!

 

After ME2's heavy emphasis on indoor mission locations, ME3 once again brings us to plenty of outdoor locations! Thus, here are some new postcards, and a sort of "travel ad" thing I messed around with for Tuchanka:

 

  

  

 

And here are some highlights of my time messing around with photo mode:

 

  

           

 

Phew! I finally have everything posted for the ME trilogy - I did not anticipate just how much time I would spend writing all of these. Despite that, I still feel like there are important things I've forgotten to include. 😂 Well worth the time spent, though. 💖

Edited October 30, 2023 by pelagia14
fixed URLs

[pelagia14]

Platinum #105 | Serial Cleaner

 

Developer: iFun4All, 2017
Country: Poland

Time Played: 15h

Platinum Earned: 1 October 2023

Rating: 7/10

 

PREMISE

"Step into the polished shoes of The Cleaner, a professional crime scene cleaner for the mob. There's no business like the cleaning business, and right now business is booming…"

 

As The Cleaner, you visit various crime scenes and must dispose of all the bodies, vacuum up all the blood, and nab all incriminating pieces of evidence - all while avoiding notice from the cops who diligently roam the sites looking for someone to arrest.

 

GAME THOUGHTS

I picked up this game a long time ago due to its creative and wacky premise, and ended up really enjoying it! 

 

GAMEPLAY

 

The controls are super simple -  gives you "Cleaner Vision" which highlights the location of all the level's mission objectives, cops, and important things in the environment like hiding spots.  lets you vacuum up blood,  picks up and drops corpses, and  lets you interact with the environment (including to hide). Bodies usually need to be brought to the trunk of your car for later disposal, but some contracts ("levels") also have more creative disposal spots like a woodchipper or aquarium of flesh-eating fish.

 

 

 

When you fall within an officer's visible cone-of-sight they will begin to chase you. These cops are in better shape than The Cleaner is, so while you might be lucky enough to lose line of sight long enough that they can't follow, you definitely cannot outrun them. Most contract levels have certain objects that you can hide in - potted plants, dumpsters, closets, etc. A cop can be right behind you, but if you make it to the hiding place you are untouchable. The cops seem to have the object permanence of a child, spending a few moments looking around your hiding spot in confusion before wandering back to their patrol paths. Another strategic element that can come into play when running from the cops are the large blood splatters you are tasked with cleaning. When The Cleaner runs through blood he actually slides across it and gets a short speed boost, sometimes providing the critical additional second you need to reach a hiding spot before getting caught. Thus, while blood splatters are one of the objectives that you need to clean up, sometimes it can be strategic to leave one or more blood splatters to clean up once objectives in more dangerous areas are completed.

 

I have become one with a potted plant...

 

You are unlikely to clear most contracts on your initial run (after the first few 'tutorial' levels). However, replaying each contract until you beat it is still engaging because while the environment and cop patrol routes stay the same, in most missions the objectives (bodies, blood splatter, and evidence) have several possible spawn points. Levels gradually become more complex - growing in size, amount of "cleaning" to be done, and introducing features such as shortcuts and moveable environmental obstacles. Later contracts also add in a few additional "enemy types" of officer, such as the 'Sergeant' who remains stationary but has a whistle to summon the 'beat cops', and the wide-roaming 'Detectives' who can put all units on higher alert after they've spotted you once. 

 

The one negative about the gameplay is that it can be easy to bump into objects when trying to flee from the cops. I'm not sure if the problem is The Cleaner's model having a larger hitbox than the visible pixels would indicate, or if the problem is with certain objects in the environment having a larger hitbox than you would expect. Either way, I quickly learned that when I'm having The Cleaner flee, I shouldn't try to make tight turns and I needed to stay away from the edges of 'narrower' movement corridors to avoid colliding into objects. Putting that into practice was more difficult for me though, and it definitely took several hours to stop getting 'tripped up' when fleeing. Even 'narrower' movement corridors are at least the width of two people, though, so that absolutely could be more of a "me" issue than a general gamer issue.

 

AESTHETICS

 

The game uses a very stylized and flashy cartoon aesthetic that perfectly fits the 1970s. Your character  The bold, less-detailed aesthetic and typically muted color palettes allow you to really focus on your objectives for each level, instead of getting distracted by lots of beautiful visual clutter. You can unlock different outfits for The Cleaner to equip - I recognized the outfit that was an homage to Bruce Lee's infamous yellow tracksuit from Game of Death, and I'm guessing that the other outfits are references to other movies from that era. 

 

I'm not a huge fan of 70s-era music beyond classic rock, but the soundtrack was excellently done. A lot of the songs have a funky-jazz vibe, like the main menu theme called "Music to Hide Corpses to", and the first levels' 🎵 No Sweat. The soundtrack isn't entirely made up of disco and jazz, though. 🎵 God of Thunder is the soundtrack's nod to that decade's classic rock, and it's a bopping song that still fits in with the rest of the soundtrack. 

 

 

 

CONTRACTS

 

When you select one of the game's 20 contracts (levels), you start out with The Cleaner at his mother's house where he lives. You can 'listen' to the radio and TV, where you see the alarm over all these crime scenes grow over time, and even look at a room in the back of the house where The Cleaner has kept 'souvenirs' from each contract. Because that's not a weird thing with the potential to backfire horribly, lol. Once you pick up the ringing landline, you see The Cleaner get his assignment, and then the game will automatically take you to the crime scene. Over time, you'll notice that these scenes at home slowly build up a plot that eventually leads to consequences. It's not a surprising twist or anything, but I'd still prefer to let people experience it for themselves since the game definitely focuses on gameplay over plot.

 

Additionally, there are also Bonus Contracts that you can unlock! Half of the story contracts contain a film reel item that you can pick up (the other half of the contracts have 'magazines' that provide you with extra costumes). Each film reel unlocks a bonus contract - all of them related to movies 😉 - and there are 10 bonus contracts in total. My favorite is definitely the one inspired by Alien! One of the corpses to clean up is actually an android (evidenced by its 'white blood'), another corpse definitely died from the classic "alien bursting out of the chest" scene in the movie, and one of your pieces of evidence to collect is a face-hugger //shudders. Oh, and the way to dispose of bodies is to feed them to a caged Alien in the cargo area of the spaceship. 😂

 

 

Loved the contract name: In Space, No One Can Year You Clean

 

CHALLENGE MODE

 

The game has a challenge mode with a scoring system and an online leaderboard. You pick whether you want to play a contract in "day" mode or "night" mode, and then you pick which challenge you want to tackle for that run. This is a great option for people who want a little more challenge, as some of the challenges do things like remove the vision cones from enemies, take away your "Cleaner Sense" that highlights stuff for you, remove your ability to use hiding places, etc. You can also play the contracts in time trial mode and work to beat your previous scores, or choose the 'Endless Cleaning' challenge which sees how many bodies you can clean up in a level before you get caught. Thankfully, for those of us not as interested in challenge mode, while you do have to play each challenge option, you only have to do each one once (versus on each level). Additionally, the tutorial level has all but 3 challenges available, so it is not at all difficult to earn the Challenge Mode trophy.

 

 

Daytime versus Nighttime

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you're looking for a quirky game for when you don't want to focus hard on what you're doing, Serial Cleaner is definitely worth checking out. For those focusing on earning the Platinum, I highly recommend playing the game over the course of several days. It's definitely possible to earn the platinum in a single day, but if you play the game for several hours in a single gaming session you'll likely start finding it to be repetitive. 

 

FAVORITE...

Trophy Image:

 Expert Collector

Trophy Moment:

 Wheeee!

Screenshots:

 

Spoiler Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

.

[Don_Chipotle]

On 10/20/2023 at 3:13 PM, pelagia14 said:

Platinum #103 | The Quarry

 

Developer: Supermassive Games, 2022
Country: England
Time Played: 46h 😒
Platinum Earned: 29 September 2023
Rating: 6/10

 

“What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.”

 

PREMISE

You play as a group of teenage camp counselors at Hackett’s Quarry. Summer camp has ended and all of the children sent back home. The teens are unexpectedly stuck at the camp for one more evening and decide to have one last hurrah together, unaware of the supernatural threats and unfriendly locals that stalk through the woods… Your choices will determine if the teens survive the night or suffer gruesome deaths, in this game inspired by classic teen slasher and monster movies.

 

 

GAME THOUGHTS

A quick summary of my feelings about this game: the campy story was mostly fun, but getting the platinum was a slog. As someone who loves a campy B-flick or terrible horror flick, I wanted to rate this game as an 8/10 - however, the length/pacing of Chapter 7 and the terrible “Chapter Select” system each deducted a point, bringing us to the 6/10 rating.

 

SUPERMASSIVE’S GAMEPLAY FORMULA

If you’ve played Supermassive Games' breakout game Until Dawn, then you have a pretty solid idea of what gameplay is like in the studio’s spiritual successor to that game:

• The game starts with a prologue that has you put some events into motion, followed by the present “day” events split up into 10 chapters, and wrapping up with a short Epilogue scene.
• As you assume control of the various protagonists you can explore the environments to search for clues and evidence that will help you piece together what is going on. 
• The narrative relies heavily on cinematics, during which:
  • You’ll often be asked to pick your character’s reactions to events and dialogue, which often impacts their character development, relationships with other characters, and/or the plot of the branching narrative.
  • Character survival depends on your decisions, your ability to succeed at QTEs (quick-time events), and the rare times you’re asked to aim and shoot a weapon.

In the spirit of Halloween I’ve recently been playing through some of Supermassive’s The Dark Pictures Anthology, and I have to say that I much prefer the gameplay mechanics of The Quarry/Until Dawn over those employed thus far in Anthology.

 

 

HORROR METER

 

Since I enjoy horror games but don’t like to play terrifying ones solo, I like to briefly mention things (with as few spoilers as possible) that could be a strong turn-off for someone considering a specific game. Some horror games really like to draw out their death scenes, which I’m not usually a fan of, but thankfully The Quarry does not. Even its more gruesome visuals are typically on screen for no more than 2 seconds, so things that you might be kind of on the fence about quickly move on before they can become too uncomfortable. 

 

Most of the potential deaths in The Quarry are pretty standard or tame for a videogame with horror elements - lots of shootings and maulings. There is one potential death that is a decapitation, and one NPC can get their face blown off by a gun. Finally, it’s not a death but a few of the endings required for the platinum necessitate that you make the decision to amputate the arm of one character after they get a certain injury - and I appreciate that you are NOT asked to button mash or anything to do so.

 

 

OUR CAMP COUNSELORS

• Abigail is the shy goth girl, with a not-so-secret crush on fellow counselor Nick.
• Nick is the shy jock, with a not-so-secret crush on fellow counselor Abigail.
• Emma is the popular girl at school who has a big social media following. She’s also kind of a bitch.
• Jacob is the more traditional egotistic jock. While he wants his friends to be happy, he is a little self-centered and unable to let the relationship with Emma remain a summer fling.
• Kaitlyn is the eccentric girl who likes to have fun with friends, but also has knowledge of car mechanics and how to shoot a shotgun.
• Dylan is the edgy jokester who thinks he needs to hide his nerdy nature in order to fit in.
• Ryan is the sarcastic goth kid who listens to hipster bands and weird podcasts.

I could not stand Emma - while it’s valid for her to just want her relationship with Jacob to be a summer fling, I really disliked how she treated him and talked about and to him. I also initially really disliked Dylan, but after his Chapter 4 conversation with Ryan revealed how he has been trying to play a persona to fit in, I liked the non-persona version a lot better. Kaitlyn honestly reminded me a lot of my best friend from college, and Ryan reminded me of my general friend group from high school.

 

 

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

 

Cutscenes feature mocap performances from an ensemble cast of actors and use a variety of camera techniques to make you feel like you are actually playing a horror movie, not a horror game. There are plenty of easter eggs and homages to classic horror movies contained within this game.

 

The general quality of acting is excellent, and several actors have past horror, thriller, or similar cinematic works on their resume. 

• David Arquette - Appeared in the first five Scream movies, and also directed some horror/slasher movies.
• Ted Raimi - The Candyman; The Grudge; many Sam Raimi works such as The Evil Dead franchise, Army of Darkness, and Drag Me to Hell. Most importantly, he played the unforgettable Joxar the Mighty.
• Lin Shaye - A scream queen of Hollywood, with many horror roles including the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street and most recently in the Insidious franchise. 
• Grace Zabriskie - Twin Peaks, Child’s Play 2 (the Chucky franchise), The Grudge

Even most of the younger actors playing the teens had some genre experience, though they are mostly TV episodes or more recent movies that I’m not familiar with. 

 

I was really impressed with the detailed facial animations in cutscenes. Even small nuances in the actors' performances are captured in the animations, creating really expressive animations which was a small solace for how many times I had to rewatch many of the scenes. There was something about how they animated Emma’s mouth when she talked that felt a bit unnatural, but I can’t quite pinpoint exactly what the problem was. 

 

HOLD YOUR BREATHE

 

The big “unique” mechanic in The Quarry is its Don’t Breathe mechanic. During certain tense moments, your character might attempt to hide from a nearby threat and you need to succeed at the Don’t Breathe “mini-game” 🙄 in order to be successful. A red meter appears on the left and right edges of your screen, representing how long your character can hold their breath (which is done by holding the  button). One or more edges of the screen will have a sort of “red lens flare” while danger is close, and all you need to do is release the button when the “lens flare”/danger disappears. While you are holding your breath, the haptic feedback on the Dualsense controller mimics a heartbeat, which lends a touch of immersion. 

 

 

While the idea is interesting, the execution is pretty lacking overall. There is one instance I can think of where if you don’t release your breath shortly after things become safe, you can actually miss the window of safety because danger returns. Every other instance is basically “hold while meter is at 100% to ~25%”, and then letting go anytime afterward gives you the same result. It would have been much more interesting if, say, a threat was pacing back and forth several times, and so there were a few safe moments to release your breath (and your character does something, usually sneak away) but also a few unsafe moments to keep you on your toes.

 

GAME MODES

 

The game is fully playable as a solo player, but The Quarry also offers a couch co-op (local multiplayer) and online multiplayer mode. I didn’t try either of the multiplayer modes, though apparently, the online version lets everyone vote on key decisions - which is an interesting change. There is also a movie mode, where you literally pick personality traits for the protagonists to determine which choices they will make, and then you can put your controller down and watch it play out as a movie. It’s neat that they included this feature, but even neater that the trophy for Movie Mode only requires you to launch it instead of watching an entire playthrough in that mode.

 

Finally, once you’ve completed the story once, you can unlock a feature called “Death Rewind”. It allows you to prevent up to 3 deaths within a single playthrough, and is probably limited to solo play. If you failed a QTE, choosing to use one of your rewinds takes you right to the start of the QTE. If you made a choice several chapters back that results in a death now, using a rewind will take you back several chapters to when you made that decision. 

 

RANDOM THINGS I ENJOYED

 

 

• The tongue-in-cheek nature of the “Safety Tip” tutorials was fantastic. The VHS tape effects and retro art style (almost reminiscent of old Hanna-Barbera cartoons) were great, and I love that they specifically chose a voice actor who could imitate Rod Sterling of The Twilight Zone.
• The map, while never needed in terms of navigation, was a nice touch to help us get a sense of how everything is connected (considering we are frequently jumping between POVs in different locations).
• Each chapter ends with a mini “music video” (only like 10 or 20 seconds in length). It was super cheesy, but totally worked for a cheesy teen B-flick vibe! 
• I loved how the game integrated Tarot cards with Eliza for the “between Chapters” segments.
• The menu has a screen displaying the “Paths” that you’ve made decisions on. I loved how they had a VHS box cover for each path, done in homage to various classic movies - and even sometimes with movie rental stickers on them! 

 

 

CHAPTER 7

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Damn but Chapter 7 is unnecessarily long. It takes place in a flashback, and outside of making a few dialogue choices and two short sections where you can control a character, it is mostly long cutscenes. This chapter brings a lot of revelations explaining the supernatural creatures, the local hunters, and even what the prologue had sent into motion. Ted Raimi’s performance here is fantastic, but honestly, 70% of the chapter could have been removed without sacrificing much of the narrative. The game’s pacing comes to a halt, and while you’ve most likely figured out what the supernatural creatures are by this point, just being told how they came about through long expositional scenes is not very mentally engaging. I am all about getting little character details and worldbuilding, and I actually really appreciated getting more insight into what happened to Laura in the past few months as by the end of the game she is positioned as the "main character", but even if you were to experience the story purely in Movie Mode the story's overall pacing is negatively impacted by the length of Chapter 7.

 

FRUSTRATING CHAPTER “SELECT” BULLSHIT…

 

I really hated the “Chapter Select” system that Supermassive implemented in this game, as it made getting the Platinum trophy much more frustrating. The first thing to note is that when you are playing the game, whenever you make a decision the game immediately autosaves it. If you accidentally fail a QTE and immediately pause the animation to return to the main menu, too bad - the game will pick up right at the animation resulting from that QTE decision. This applies to all choices, not just QTEs. You also are not able to create multiple save files within a single playthrough. 

 

I honestly wouldn’t mind all of that, if not for the fact that you can only unlock Chapter Select at the end of each playthrough, and once you use your Chapter Select it will overwrite that playthrough’s save file. That means that if you complete a playthrough and then use Chapter Select to go back to Chapter 4, you now have all of your existing choices preceding Chapter 4, but in order to use Chapter Select again you will need to reach the epilogue once again.

 

… AND THE RESULTING FRUSTRATING PATH TO PLATINUM

[Section contains vague/general trophy description spoilers]

 

This is so aggravating. No Chapter Select until the end of the first playthrough is entirely reasonable. Requiring the player to separately unlock Chapter Select in multiplayer mode and single-player mode is also completely fine. In order to get the Platinum trophy though, you need to do a minimum of 3 playthroughs without messing up, with a few specifically-timed partial playthroughs as well. Oh, and collectibles don’t work like in The Dark Pictures Anthology where you can get 100% through different playthroughs, all Tarot Card collectibles need to be picked up in a single run and all Clue collectibles need to be picked up in a separate run. 

 

To get the platinum in only 3 full playthroughs requires attention to detail and a really solid game plan. One playthrough needs to have everyone survive, one playthrough needs to have everyone die, one playthrough needs to have all the “bad guys” killed, and one playthrough needs to have everyone [spoilered]. You need to do one complete playthrough to collect all Tarot Cards, and then if correctly planned, a second playthrough from Chapter 2 to the end to collect all Clues. Oh, and certain playthrough endings (all alive, all dead, etc) don’t allow for you to get certain Tarot Cards or Clues. 

 

There are two or three trophies for unlocking scenes that require specific choices across several chapters in order to be unlocked, and which can impact whether characters live or die. Then there are two trophies for having a specific character be the “sole survivor”, which can be completed from Chapter 9 of an “everyone dies” run. There is another trophy for having two characters reunite, which can be done starting from Chapter 9 of an “all baddies dead” run. A playthrough where you don’t miss any combat encounters is pretty easy, especially on a run that isn’t “everyone survives” by using accessibility options. 

 

 

MY PLATINUM PILGRIMAGE

 

My platinum involved either 5 or 6 complete playthroughs (I didn’t keep track for my sanity), plus the 3 “reload at Chapter 9” ones. I followed the PSNP Roadmap, and had a Google Doc to keep track of all the requirements. However, my game plan was not effective enough as everything was grouped up by trophy instead of chapter. I should have spent some time creating a personal “master roadmap” that instead organized everything into “Here is everything you need for Playthrough #1. Everything you need for Playthrough #2. Etc.”. This is because sometimes I would forget to check one of the several sections I was constantly scrolling between on my laptop, and I would only realize it after I had triggered a new scene or chapter. Twice I had to scrap a playthrough around Chapter 4 for a tiny error, which finally got me to read up on how Cloud Saves work, disabling the auto-saving feature, and manually uploading my save every hour or so. 

 

I’m fine with all of the trophies conceptually - you really get to see a lot of the different branching paths that the developers created and it’s neat to see how small decisions can ripple later on. I even expected to have to play a "branching narratives" game like this several times for the platinum, that's not the issue.  But dammit, after I’ve beaten the game once, if I make a small mistake in Chapter 6, give me the option to use chapter select to have my playthrough restart at the beginning of Chapter 6! One can make the argument that the developers want you to “live with the consequences of your decisions”, but it is really dissonant in a game that features tons of accessibility options, including an auto-aim option for the rare “aim and shoot” segments. Or heck, let us skip cutscenes that we’ve already seen before, just give us something.

 

FIRST PLAYTHROUGH NOTES:

  Reveal hidden contents

• PROLOGUE
  • I hate the changing camera angles when you are walking in the forest. UP on the controller means moving forwards, then suddenly the screen changes and Laura is moving to the right while I am still holding UP. And then what about the situations where I would then on that second screen I need to move in an upward direction?! It is very cinematic, but always irks me a little. 
  • Why the fuck is the cop so insistent on them going to the Hackinger Motel? Are the game’s so-called “violent locals” a group of serial killers that run the local motel or something?
  • I was really impressed at how much you really get a sense of Laura and Max as a couple in this short prologue. The writing had personality, and both actors, though especially Laura’s (Siobhan Williams), were expressive and nuanced.
• CHAPTER 1
  • My least favorite of the teens are probably Emma and Dylan thus far. 
• CHAPTER 3
  • Ah yes, it’s not an homage to a teen slasher flick if we don’t get a girl (and guy) in swimsuits, lol. 
  • In my blind playthrough, Jacob got blooded by Bobby. 
• CHAPTER 4
  • …Is Emma describing the surroundings to her viewers, but having the cellphone camera recording her face?!
  • Whoops Emma died. 😂
• CHAPTER 5
  • Kaitlyn got blooded by Bobby.
  • Really wasn’t a fan of Dylan before this chapter. 
• CHAPTER 7
  • Goddamn this chapter feels like a mini-movie. Also really throws the overall pacing off. 
  • Loved that we got more of Ted Raimi as Sheriff Travis Hackett though, his performance was fantastic. 
• CHAPTER 8
  • Grandma Constance is a toxic bitch and I can’t wait until we get to kill her.
  • Oh, that was fast! Kinda sad that we didn’t get to see more of Constance, but she definitely deserved death.
• CHAPTER 9 
  • Oooof, Romani slur and negative stereotyping is not cool. Like *I* understand that Supermassive is probably trying to have Travis give off “small town ignorant cop” vibes, but a lot of people won’t realize that he used a slur which just perpetuates its normalization.
• CHAPTER 10
  • Ryan was blooded.
• END CREDITS
  • Having an earlier-reference ‘podcast’ play during the credits was super engaging!
  • 1st Playthrough Results: All Hacketts except for Travis were killed, Silas is dead, and all teens besides Emma are alive.

 

FAVORITE...

Trophy Image:

 Above the Law

Trophy Moment:

 Bizarre Yet Bonafide

Screenshots:

 

 

 I dont understand why they dont make chapter select skip or go forward, or even have a "collectible mode" like many game do have, i dont understand why they think its fun to watch the whole chapter over and over and over again to get 100%, i understand that maybe you cant skip something new from the story or something you unlock, but why make those games longer?

 

 

[Platinum_Vice]

On 10/24/2023 at 10:43 PM, pelagia14 said:

Finally, 15% of people who played ME1:LE are monsters. You heard me right - 15% of ME1:LE players did not recruit Garrus

 

Absolutely unacceptable!!

 

Hey thanks for the long and empassioned tribute to this trilogy. It was a great read over multiple sessions. This is also the first review that I've read of the LE so it was great to get that perspective. It is sitting on my shelf in its wrapping waiting for me to dig into the series for a third time. 

 

... And this time I'll play as FemShep - the support for Hale's performance is overwhelming.

 

Also, I should drop a link to one of the best video game trailers of all time considering the relevance

 

 

[pelagia14]

On 10/26/2023 at 1:09 PM, Don_Chipotle said:

I dont understand why they dont make chapter select skip or go forward, or even have a "collectible mode" like many game do have, i dont understand why they think its fun to watch the whole chapter over and over and over again to get 100%, i understand that maybe you cant skip something new from the story or something you unlock, but why make those games longer?

 

Well, I understand that the game is about branching pathways and replaying the story several times so that you can see the different ways in which things end up happening. I also understand that they put quite a lot of time into getting the mocap performances and then animating everything, so I'm not bothered by a narrative-centric game not wanting to providing a "skip cutscene" feature.

 

However, the Chapter Select implementation is so awful that it ended up making me only half pay attention to certain chapters in my last playthrough or two, which I assume is the opposite of what the developers would want. And yes, not being able to easily reset a chapter sort of "ups the stakes" of your choices and QTE performances, but not only are there other ways to still create that feeling with a proper Chapter Select system, it is also not very accessibility-friendly. I love campy teen horror movies, and want Supermassive to release more games like Until Dawn and The Quarry - but definitely with a Chapter Select much closer to Until Dawn's system. 

 

59 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said:

 

Absolutely unacceptable!!

 

Hey thanks for the long and empassioned tribute to this trilogy. It was a great read over multiple sessions. This is also the first review that I've read of the LE so it was great to get that perspective. It is sitting on my shelf in its wrapping waiting for me to dig into the series for a third time. 

 

... And this time I'll play as FemShep - the support for Hale's performance is overwhelming.

 

Also, I should drop a link to one of the best video game trailers of all time considering the relevance

 

I'm so happy you enjoyed my Mass Effect tributes! They really did a great job with the Legendary Edition QOL updates, so I'm excited for when you play it!

 

Once you've completed a fem!Shep playthrough, I'd love to hear your thoughts comparing the male and female Shepards!

[pelagia14]

 

ASSASSIN’S CREED SERIES - RETROSPECTIVE: PART 1

 

OVERVIEW

 

For how many main entry games are in the franchise, it’s somewhat wild to realize that Assassin’s Creed as a franchise has only been around for 16 years. The eponymous first game was initially developed as an open-world sequel to Ubisoft’s 2003 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time game before evolving into its own standalone IP that is now a behemoth in the industry. As of current writing, there are 13 main game installments on consoles, 16 spin-off games spanning from consoles to mobile gaming, and 4 games currently in development (one of them being a live service title…). 

 

The main premise of the franchise is that conflicts from real history are actually a millennia-long battle between two secret societies. We have the Knights Templar who value order and want to control humanity, and the Order of Assassins (The Hidden Ones, The Brotherhood) who prize freedom and want to prevent the Templars from achieving their goal. The Templars (The Order of the Ancients in early history, and known today as the mega-corporation Abstergo) seek to gain possession of magic technology called Pieces of Eden from an ancient species known as the Isu, precursors to humanity. Luckily for Abstergo, modern-day science has discovered genetic memory, the theory that our DNA contains imprints of the memories of our ancestors. The Animus machine was created to allow exploration of the memories of an individual’s ancestors hidden within their genetics.

 

FRANCHISE TIMELINE

 

Right now I view the main games of the Assassin’s Creed franchise as three large arcs, similar to how the Marvel Cinematic Universe has its Phase structure. The below outline is not canonical by any means, just my perception of Assassin’s Creed in general. 

 

Part 1 is Desmond’s Story, centered around Desmond as he lives the memories of his ancestors Altaïr, Ezio (aka Peak Assassin’s Creed✨), and finally Connor. 
Part 2 is the Abstergo Infiltration, where the games lose their tight meta-narrative. You play as faceless Abstergo employees and/or hackers exploring more of Desmond’s genetic memories, geographically set around Western Europe and sailing the Americas. 
Part 3 introduces Layla Hassan, a new modern-day Assassin protagonist, and brings huge, contentious Action-RPG changes to the gameplay. 
 

Main Games & Spin-Offs playable on console:

WHY I LOVE THE EARLY FRANCHISE

 

The idea of a high-stakes, good-versus-evil conflict that uses real history as a background excited the nerd in me. Many of the earlier installments of the Assassin's Creed franchise, particularly the Ezio trilogy, were excellent at focusing on character-driven stories. Then there was the meta-story taking place in present day that spanned across the various games, centered on the young Desmond Miles who was suddenly thrust right into the middle of the conflict. Finally there was the gameplay, which merged parkour exploration of open-world environments with stealth-centered mission decisions. Sure, the parkour mechanics of older titles have not aged the most gracefully, but it was still a somewhat novel concept at the time. Instant-death assassinations with dramatic animations made you feel like a badass, especially when you could infiltrate a fort being guarded by dozens of guards while avoiding open combat. 

 

HISTORICAL ROOTS

 

THE TEMPLARS
Most Westerners have heard of the Knights Templar from the Crusades in the Middle East. The historical Roman Catholic military order was officially known as the “Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon”, and other nicknames included the “Order of Solomon’s Temple” and “Order of Christ”. The Templars started out as less than a dozen knights who relied on donations to survive, though they quickly gained wealthy benefactors and became one of the most popular charities for businesses and noble families to donate to. The Templar Order also rapidly grew to contain many non-fighting members, who worked in supportive roles and helped manage a fast-growing financial network across the Christian world. The Templars were headquartered in Jerusalem during the 12th century shortly after their founding, and were formally disbanded shortly after the start of the 14th century at which time support had greatly dwindled and politics had turned against the organization. 

 

[Aside: I think it’s really neat that the franchise’s Order of the Ancients evolved into a mega-corporation in the present day, considering the strong financial influence of the Templars - some argue that the Templars were the first multinational corporation in world history!]

 

THE HASSASSINS
The franchise’s Order of Assassins was also inspired by a real group of the same name. The historical Order of Assassins (I will use Hassassin for clarity) were a group of Nizari Isma’ilis (a sub-sect of Islam) in the 12th and 13th century that spanned Persia and the Levant, with their headquarters located at Alamut Castle. They used subterfuge and assassinations against religious and political enemies in order to protect their rule. The Hassassins followed a code of conduct and were viewed by Westerners as fanatics willing to die in order to kill their targets. 

 

As Westerners tended to be ignorant of Islam and its internal discord during the Crusades, Western biases have greatly impacted the historical narrative. The English word ‘assassin’ itself is probably a result of this bias. It’s likely that the Hassassins called themselves Asāsiyyūn, which translates as “the principle people” in Arabic, and then it ended up being mispronounced by Westerners as hashshāshīn, or “hashish smokers” - hashish being similar to cannabis. Embellished Western accounts from people like Marco Polo depicted the Nizari Hassassins essentially as hashish potheads trying to find paradise (though there is not much evidence to support this), and came up with legends like the ‘leap of faith’ to rationalize Hassassin radicalism. 

 

HONORARY GAME RETROSPECTIVE: ASSASSIN’S CREED (AC1)

 

Developer: Ubisoft Montréal, 2007

Country: Canada

Rating: 6/10

 

Alas, PlayStation never got a trophy list for AC1, but as it launched the franchise I still wanted to give the game its due.

 

Note that this Retrospective contains spoilers.

 

STORYLINE

 

The game starts out with Desmond Miles being kidnapped by Abstergo in 2012. Labeled by Abstergo as Subject 17, they planned to use the Animus to view the memories of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, the last known person in possession of the Apple of Eden artifact. Most of the game takes place in the Masyaf region during the Third Crusade in 1191 with the player as Altaïr, whose failure during a mission in Jerusalem meant he was stripped of his positions and rank within the Assassin Order. Altaïr is given the names of 9 warmongers by the Assassin leader Al Mualim, and tasked with assassinating the targets in order to help bring an end to the Crusade and restore his place within the Assassin’s Brotherhood. 

 

Over the course of the game, we get some “flashforwards” to present-day Desmond being held in captivity. The fanatical Dr. Warren Vidic (with a wonderfully menacing vocal performance) is in charge of Desmond’s Animus sessions, and his assistant Lucy Stillman seems like the type of person who is struggling with the ethics of her job - after all, Desmond is being held as a captive. After several sessions, Desmond learns that long-term use of the Animus can result in a phenomenon called the Bleeding Effect, where abilities from his ancestor’s memories bleed over into his present-day self. He gains assassin fighting skills and unlocks his genetic Eagle Vision ability, which allows him to read hidden messages in his cell written by its previous occupant, Subject 16. 

 

Back to Masyaf, the warmonger Robert De Sable is set up as the main villain, and we eventually discover that he is the Grand Master of the Templar Order. When Altaïr assassinates De Sable he learns that the nine names he was given were all people who had discovered the location of the Apple of Eden, but there should actually be a tenth name on the list… Al Mualim! Right after the revelation of this betrayal, we jump to present-day 2012 where Desmond learns that the Assassins were trying to rescue him but were killed. Abstergo employee Lucy tells Desmond to “try and have a little faith”, purposefully folding her ring finger back - as if she were part of the brotherhood, le gasp! We jump back to Altaïr who kills Al Mualim, and learn that the Apple of Eden is able to display a map of all other Piece of Eden locations, information that Abstergo now has. 

 

GAMEPLAY

 

Altaïr doesn’t have any allies who can provide him with help, so you end up having to find the targets on your own. As Altaïr you eavesdrop on conversations, steal informative notes, and even employ the perennially classic alleyway interrogation to gather intel. Since Altaïr has been stripped of his rank, when he is ready to assassinate each target he must first get his plan approved by the local Assassin’s Bureau. Upon approval, the Bureau gives Altaïr a feather to be dipped in his target’s blood as a way of proving mission completion. 

 

Altaïr can blend into crowds of similarly-dressed men or when sitting innocuously on a bench. The parkour mechanics are very limited, and you can only Leap of Faith into piles of hay. The developers did not have swim mechanics in the game, so accidentally falling into the water meant that Altaïr would instantly drown to death.

 

Most fans will acknowledge that AC1 is not a good entry point for newcomers to the franchise due to its simple game mechanics. The primary reason to play the game nowadays is if you want to be a true series completionist. Those who just want to experience the story would probably be best served by watching it online and jumping into the games with Assassin’s Creed II, when the series really finds its identity and footing.

 

LORE

 

A lot of pivotal Assassin lore beyond just “Templars versus Assassins” is introduced in this first game!

• Assassin’s Creed: “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”
• 3 Tenets of the Assassin’s Brotherhood:
  • Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent.
  • Hide in plain sight.
  • Never compromise the Brotherhood.
• The Leap of Faith
• Pieces of Eden as magic advanced technology.
• Eagle Vision
• The feathers that signal approval for assassination being linked to Egyptian mythology.
  • Egyptians believed that after one dies, at the Duat bridge to the afterlife their heart would be weighed on a scale against the feather of Ma’at. The goddess Ma’at was seen as a personification of truth and justice. If the dead person’s heart was lighter or equal to the weight of Ma’at’s feather then they would be able to enter the Field of Reeds (Heaven) and reach true afterlife. However if their heart was heavier than the feather, the goddess Ammit would devour them and condemn them to the Duat for eternity. 
• I also love this dialogue exchange that elaborates on the Creed:

 

Quote

Al Mualim: Before you go, I have a question for you.

Altaïr: Of course.

Al Mualim: What is the truth?

Altaïr: We place faith in ourselves. We see the world the way it really is, and hope that one day all mankind might see the same.

Al Mualim: What is the world then?

Altaïr: An illusion. One which we can either submit to, as most do, or transcend.

Al Mualim: What is it to transcend?

Altaïr: To recognize nothing is true and everything is permitted. That laws arise not from divinity, but reason. I understand now that our Creed does not command us to be free. It commands us to be wise.

.

Edited November 1, 2023 by pelagia14
fixed typo

[Copanele]

16 hours ago, pelagia14 said:

HONORARY GAME RETROSPECTIVE: ASSASSIN’S CREED (AC1)

So, so glad that you covered this game despite Ubisoft refusing to acknowledge its existence  This truly is the one that started it all and, despite it not being as great as its successors, really had a true "touch" to it.

 

Agree with the franchise timeline  can't wait to see you covering the next ones in the series. Quite a lot of work ahead of you  

[pelagia14]

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

So, so glad that you covered this game despite Ubisoft refusing to acknowledge its existence  This truly is the one that started it all and, despite it not being as great as its successors, really had a true "touch" to it.

 

Thanks so much! 🥰

 

The game was just so confident in its premise and lore, and both Desmond's and Altaïr's storylines quickly gain intrigue and tension even while we are being introduced to the world. I was surprised at just how much of the lore was established here - I forgot that feathers for assassination targets in representation of Ma'at were introduced in this game, mistakenly thinking it was brought in later on.

 

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

Agree with the franchise timeline  can't wait to see you covering the next ones in the series. Quite a lot of work ahead of you  

 

I felt kind of awkward labelling Part III as just "Layla Hassan", but at the same time something along the lines of "Layla Hassan's Story" felt like a disservice. I truly grew to like Desmond as a character as we experienced his trials and tribulations. Trying to compare his present-day story with Layla's thus far is like comparing apples and oranges - what Layla has gone through from Origins to Valhalla feels like what Desmond went through in a single game! 

 

It's definitely going to be a while before my next Retrospective covering the Ezio trilogy as I haven't even started writing it 😂, but I absolutely wanted to get Altaïr's game posted before I wrote a review about Mirage.

Edited November 1, 2023 by pelagia14

[Copanele]

25 minutes ago, pelagia14 said:

 

I felt kind of awkward labelling Part III as just "Layla Hassan", but at the same time something along the lines of "Layla Hassan's Story" felt like a disservice. I truly grew to like Desmond as a character as we experienced his trials and tribulations. Trying to compare his present-day story with Layla's thus far is like comparing apples and oranges - what Layla has gone through from Origins to Valhalla feels like what Desmond went through in a single game! 

 

It's definitely going to be a while before my next Retrospective covering the Ezio trilogy as I haven't even started writing it 😂, but I absolutely wanted to get Altaïr's game posted before I wrote a review about Mirage.

I weirdly call those "the RPG saga" because I just disliked Layla so much I barely associate AC with her, compared to Desmond Miles who is still referenced to this day.

And to think he was considered bland back in the day...boy how the turntables  

 

Oh boy, I do look forward to playing Mirage myself. Definitely a Christmas project. Despite the numerous complaints, I heard the words "compact buildings" and "smaller map" and that's all I needed to hear  looking forward to the review as well  

[pelagia14]

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

I weirdly call those "the RPG saga" because I just disliked Layla so much I barely associate AC with her, compared to Desmond Miles who is still referenced to this day.

And to think he was considered bland back in the day...boy how the turntables  

 

Oh boy, I do look forward to playing Mirage myself. Definitely a Christmas project. Despite the numerous complaints, I heard the words "compact buildings" and "smaller map" and that's all I needed to hear  looking forward to the review as well  

 

Ooooooh, I really love "the RPG Saga" - that's a much better title!

 

I enjoyed Mirage, though it was not as strong an entry as I was hoping for it to be. Overall the gameplay was pretty fun; it was the story that was on the weaker side, as it didn't feel as compelling to me as other entries. It's definitely worth playing as a fan of the series - just so long as one goes in knowing it's probably not going to be a 10/10 game for them.

[pelagia14]

Platinum #106 | Assassin's Creed: Mirage

 

Developer: Ubisoft Bordeaux, 2023
Country: France
Time Played: 26h
Platinum Earned: 10 October 2023
Rating: 7/10

 

PREMISE

In the millennia-wide conflict between ‘Templars’ and Assassins, you play as Basim ibn Is’haq - a former street thief who is stalked by a terrifying djinn in his nightmares. Now a newly-minted Assassin under the mentorship of Assassin Roshan, Basim and his trusty eagle companion Enkidu are tasked with helping the Assassin Brotherhood investigate the presence of the Order of the Ancients inside the city of Baghdad. 

 

 

GAME THOUGHTS

 

BACK TO THE SERIES’ ROOTS

 

Ubisoft evolved the Assassin’s Creed formula with the release of Origins, followed by Odyssey and Valhalla, where the games had a much stronger focus on Action RPG mechanics over the predominately stealth-based gameplay of previous titles. While Origins and its successors brought some useful innovations to the series, overall the AC community has not enjoyed the changes and there have been many calls in recent years to return to the series’ roots. Well, this is where Mirage steps in. Initially planned as a DLC to Valhalla, it eventually expanded into a stand-alone title. Marketing hyped up that not only was the game a geographic return to the series’ origins, mechanically it was also returning to an emphasis on stealth mechanics over Action RPG. 

 

So what’s the verdict, now that the game is out? Mechanically, the game does a lot to return to the pre-"RPG Saga" formula (thanks for the term, @Copanele!), retaining only some features from the Action RPG installments. A lot of the bloat of Odyssey and Valhalla is excised since Mirage primarily focuses on a single city as its setting, and it was neat having several ways to infiltrate an area for the big assassination missions. However, the game’s narrative struggles a bit. I can’t fully put my finger on what a lot of the reason for that is, but I think some of it has to do with the game originally being planned as a DLC, and it didn’t have enough time ‘baking in the oven’ to fully discard those origins.

 

 

Just don't expect Hitman levels of creativity and variety for approaching your targets...

 

MECHANICS: COMBAT & EQUIPMENT

 

Open combat is greatly de-emphasized in this game. There are no heavy attacks, shield bashes, or equipping of javelins/lances/bows (RIP bow assassinations 🥲). Basim has a dagger and a sword that can be used in a fight when he gets detected by guards and uses the simple “parry or attack” system of older games. Successful parries will stun weaker enemies and let you finish them in a single hit, but most enemy mobs have a more tanky unit that can only really be damaged from behind. These tanky boys are annoying to kill unless you assassinate them or use a tool, so while a skilled player can blatantly approach enemies and defeat them all in open combat, for the most part, you’re going to want to assassinate enemies from the sky or from foliage. De-emphasizing the brute-force combat prowess of recent AC entries was sorely needed, and this game does a good job of heavily encouraging you to rely only on assassination and tools.

 

Most of your health does not regain over time. There are health potions you can buy, though you’ll want to save most of your money to unlock new tools and upgrade them, so a lot of healing comes from finding bush berries to snack on. The starting area of Baghdad has a decent amount of them, but they are a little more scarce in other sections of the city (though not by a huge amount). You can also equip specific weapons or outfits that have passive abilities related to health. Equipment is extremely pared down from the Action RPG games, however - you have just a few swords, a few daggers, and a few outfits that you can unlock, equip, and upgrade. There’s no “helmet, arm guard, chest piece, leg piece” system, and no “blue-purple-gold” color rarity tiers either - hallelujah. 

 

 

At some point in the game, you unlock an ability called “Chain Assassinations”. Essentially how they work is you press R1 to freeze time, you pick up to 5 targets (depending on how many full Focus bars you have), and then Basim sort of ‘warps’ to each target to dispatch them all before any of them can respond. In my opinion, it’s a really unnecessary gimmick, since even though you need to kill or parry targets to recharge your focus bars, it completely eliminates the challenge of combat. 

 

One annoying thing about the weapons and outfits is the “Gear Schematics”, which is how you upgrade them to give them better active and passive abilities. The game has 30 schematics which can be found in “Gear Chests” (that have a special icon to distinguish them from ‘random crafting material’ chests). Some Gear Chests are relatively easy to reach, and others require you to figure out how to open a locked door from the outside or do other simple puzzles. The downside is that each Gear Chest’s schematic is tied to a specific weapon. Maybe you want to upgrade the Zanj Sword Uprising weapon that you have, but you open a Gear Chest only to find that its schematic is for the Zanj Uprising outfit. At least each district in the game has schematics tied to a specific set - so Zanj schematics can be found in the Harbiyah district and schematics for Abbasid Knight gear items are located in the Abbasiyah district. However, I would have much preferred that the schematics were a weapon/outfit-agnostic currency you could use to upgrade your gear. 

 

MECHANICS: HIDING FROM NOTORIETY

 

I’ve already mentioned that Basim has an eagle companion, and Enkidu works just like Senu, Ikaros, and Sýnin where it can be used to tag enemies when you are outside of Eagle Vision mode. One new twist that I really liked from Mirage was the introduction of Marksman units. They are mostly found in certain story missions in the latter parts of the game, but they prevent you from using Enkidu until you’ve assassinated those units. The Marksman units are not located near the perimeter of a guarded area either, and so it provides a nice balance between “always having access to your OP eagle buddy” and taking away the 'RPG Saga' mechanic entirely.

 

It was incredibly nostalgic to see the curtained ‘rooftop gardens’ scattered across Baghdad. You can hide or eavesdrop from a bench, or pay a group of merchants to walk through an area and then blend in with them. Some areas also have mercenary groups you can hire or a musician you can pay to distract guards. If you kill enough guards out in the open your wanted level will rise, and once you reach the third tier, combat can quickly draw the attention of special ninja-like guard units that are much more difficult to defeat. 

 

It’s rather simple to lower your wanted level - each region of Baghdad has one or two Munadi (“town criers”) you can pay which reduces it, but primarily you’ll be tearing up wanted posts to lower your notoriety. Initially, I had a hard time finding Wanted Posters when I needed them - since they don’t show up with an icon when you look at your map or use Eagle Vision - but eventually, I noticed that their icon does appear on the compass navigation bar at the top of your screen after Eagle Vision is used. You don’t want to wander around the city with high notoriety for very long, as citizens will recognize you from wanted posters and shout for guards to come. I played the game in the initial weekend after its release, and guards only seemed to respond to those citizen cries some of the time. It’s also a bit weird that you can just tear apart a wanted poster right in front of civilians who are literally looking at the poster, and besides their surprise at you having suddenly walked up to them they don’t react to the presumably-illegal act at all. 

 

MECHANICS: SKILLS & TOOLS

 

Mirage doesn’t have the ridiculously massive skill tree of Valhalla. The three categories can broadly be described as “assassination and blade”, “tools and pickpocketing”, and “Enkidu/detection”. I didn’t really both with upgrading Enkidu after an initial investment until my other two skill trees were almost completely full. When I did start upgrading Enkidu more, most of the upgrades seemed like small passive improvements, so I definitely recommend focusing on the first two skill trees in the early game. 

 

 

After you finish the storyline of the first Assassin Bureau you unlock the ability to equip additional tools beyond just the torch and throwing knives. The additional options are the blow dart, smoke bomb, “trap”, and noisemaker. The blow dart will be familiar to those who’ve played Black Flag, and the traps are essentially small proximity grenades. Each tool can be upgraded, but you can only choose one ability per tier. For example, Smoke bombs at Tier 2 can either restore some of Basim’s health when he is in the smoke, have a choking effect that damages enemies, or detonate silently. You aren’t locked into the upgrades that you pick, but annoyingly the only way to change them is to (fast) travel to an Assassin’s Bureau. 

 

 

STOPPING THE ORDER OF THE ANCIENTS

 

Alright, it’s time to start talking in broad strokes about the narrative. When the franchise moved to more of an Action-RPG vibe, one change I really liked was the implementation of an Investigation menu tab that allowed you to see how the minion and underling baddies you assassinated were linked to the leaders of the Order of the Ancients. AC: Mirage continues with the Investigation tab, but now also includes the Assassins on the menu. 

 

 

Baghdad has four Assassin Bureaus that have each been looking into one of the Order’s leaders. Each bureau has its own icon on the chart so it is easy to see which bureau/section of the city is linked to each leader that you are hunting down. Clicking on a ? or ✓ icon will bring you to a page with details of that investigation. Incomplete ones (?) can be tracked on your map, and completed ones (✓) will show all the evidence that you found. Additionally, since some of your Assassin allies occasionally provide intel for a specific quest, they also have their own icons on the chart so that you recall the one or two important bits of information.

 

YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY

 

So, uh, did any of y’all watch the Green Arrow TV show from CW - or at least the first season or two, like I did back in the day? Every couple of episodes when Oliver Queen confronts one of the people ruining Star City, he growls “(name), yoU HaVE faiLEd thIS ciTY”. Sometimes, he even lists out their crimes. Well, whenever you start a mission to assassinate one of the five heads of the Order of the Ancients, Basim kind of does this except in soliloquy form. 

 

Basim is just… perched alone somewhere, addressing the leader and solemnly listing out an indictment of the leader’s crimes… to an audience of no one. It’s terrible, but I just couldn’t take those scenes seriously because it reminded me of the telenovela-esque acting from those Green Arrow scenes. 

 

We get such banger lines as:
“You think your cruelties well-hidden, Al-Ghul, for your chose those with little voice whose criews you knew would go unheard.”
“Corruption is rank, and everywhere… but you are at its heart.”
“I will find you, and I will exact justice for every soul you savaged for your ‘Great Work’.”

 

DESIGN: DISTRICT IDENTITIES

 

Speaking of cities, let’s talk about Baghdad, since we end up spending so much time there. There is the central district - The Round City - which unsurprisingly holds the Palace, most governmental buildings, and the concentration of the upper class. It is surrounded by the city’s three other districts: Harbiyah, Abbasiyah, and Karkh. Mirage portrays Harbiyah as a lower-class industrial district with less splendid architecture, with the one towering structure being the Damascus Gate Prison. Abbasiyah is shown as the cultural and intellectual district of the city, home to the great House of Wisdom. Karkh is the bustling commercial district that features the sprawling Bazaar markets.

 

 

Outside of each district having an important building (Palace, Prison, Knowledge Building, Markets), there isn’t a lot of effort in giving each district its own visual identity. Nice buildings, the color blue, or lots of flora meant I was probably in any district except for western Harbiyah. The Round City did have something unique - the pink flower petal “piles of hay” (which I loved!) - but that is the only unique feature that comes to mind for me for any of the districts besides “poor = west Harbiyah”. For a city that we spend so much time in, it was disappointing that so much of it felt very similar visually. I think that this, along with how the game handles the “present-day” narrative and the repetitive nature of the game’s missions, are the elements I was trying to pinpoint at the start of this review as to why the game hasn’t been able to fully shed the aura of DLC to me.

 

I did greatly appreciate that Baghdad was full of colorful flowers and plants, though! While it might seem incongruous to have so much plant life in an arid desert region, it was another way in which caliphs could demonstrate their power and wealth (ie: the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world). 

 

 

 

DESIGN: BAGHDADI BLUES

 

Before playing Mirage, I was really excited to see how they would incorporate Middle Eastern mosaic artwork into the game’s environments. I think mosaic art is awesome, and it’s long been associated with Islamic architecture. As you explore Baghdad, you’ll notice the bright blue domed tops scattered across the city landscape. Most colors have natural materials that can easily be turned into pigments, but blue as a pigment had to be invented and then manufactured by humans. I love that the designers chose to highlight the color blue in Baghdad since it has a long history in Islamic architecture - representing reflection, higher knowledge, and the unknowable depths of the universe. The scarcity and labor involved in blue minerals and blue pigments also make it a sign of wealth for the city.

 

 

While a lot of incredible Islamic architecture that is still around today would have been built long after Basim’s time, I was a bit disappointed at how simple the mosaic-work of Mirage is. There is one blue mosaic fountain that you will see in various areas of the city, one admittedly cool mosaic of the Assassin’s logo featured at the Bureau locations, and then a grand total of 3 mosaic patterns that I noticed throughout the city. For example, each district could have had a unique pattern to help lend a sense of unique identity to them. 

CONTRACTS

 

Unlike the big assassination missions that are the capstone of each of the Assassin’s Bureau plotlines, the various Assassination Contracts that you can pick up are very repetitive. There’s “assassinate the target”, “steal the thing”, “escort the person aka fight guards”, and sometimes “liberate the kidnappee”. Oddly enough, there is also precisely one contract that is a race. 

 

I don’t even need to look at the contract details to see that these contracts will ask me to kill, kill, liberate, and steal. 

 

Sure, each contract has a “Contractor Request” such as “don’t take any damage”, “don’t kill anyone”, or “stay undetected”, but those three examples are probably 95% of the Contractor Requests so it doesn’t bring that much variety to the contracts.

 

WHAT ABOUT THE PRESENT DAY?

Note: Mild/vague spoilers for AC: Valhalla and AC: Mirage.

 

Oh, so you played AC: Valhalla, saw its big ending reveal, and want to know what happens now? Well Ubisoft says ‘tough shit’. While the present-day portions in previous games could be annoying - especially when they would interrupt the story of our playable protagonist from the past - I figured that since this game was no longer a DLC, we’d at least get a short scene at the end to follow up on the Basim revelations we got in Valhalla. Yanno, since this game is literally all about Basim. 

 

Literally all we get about ‘present day’ is a cutscene at the end of the game’s prologue, with 90 seconds of voice-over dialogue from William Miles (Desmond’s father). He explains that he previously lied about this genetic memory of Basim that comprises AC: Mirage, saying that it had been lost and that he had “worried the wrong lesson would be learned”. Then at the end of AC: Mirage, Basim has made his vow of revenge that we know will take him to the events of AC: Valhalla. The end.

 

 

Without spoiling the big reveal in Valhalla, I’m really disappointed that we didn’t get any real continuation of it in this game. Does this mean that it is going to be gateholded behind the AC Infinity live service nonsense? Or will the upcoming AC: Jade and AC: Hex games continue the meta-narrative, and Ubisoft just didn’t want to come up with something they could insert into this game without disrupting what is planned for Jade and Hex? I’m leaning towards the latter option being more likely, which just furthers the “started as a DLC” vibes of this game.

 

By the way, my criticism of Mirage having “DLC vibes” isn’t any sort of indictment against the game’s approximately 15 hours of main story. I don’t need my AC games to be 40-60h for the main story alone, and frankly, I actually like it when they are closer to 20 hours for the main story since full completion is still going to take a lot more time. The game even goes out of its way for the big assassination missions to provide 2-3 ways that you can approach your target. Despite that bit of flexibility within those key missions, a lot of the game felt very cookie-cutter as if to pad in enough content to justify selling it as a stand-alone game instead of DLC. I'm really interested to hear what other gamers think about this issue. 

 

CULTURE

 

Mirage takes place during the Golden Age of Islam, and I think they did a good job of representing the scholarly community that would have gathered in the city during that era. Whenever you find “historical site” collectible markers in the game you unlock codex entries. The entries are broken down into five categories: Art & Science, Beliefs & Daily Life, Court Life, Economy, and Government. Each codex entry can be hidden so that you can see the background image, and you can also display the image’s credit information if you are curious about what time period it was from, or even which museum might currently have possession of it.

 

 

While the category on Art & Science was my favorite, there were interesting details to be found in the other categories as well! For example, the usage of camels for transportation meant that city infrastructures did not need to invest in large networks of paved roads. The roads themselves could also be narrower than in cities in other regions of the world that relied heavily on animal-pulled carts. This might not seem like a big deal at first, but narrow roads meant that tall buildings could cover more of the city in shade, resulting in an ambient city temperature a few degrees lower than in open areas nearby!

 

 

 

LANGUAGE

 

I also loved how the English voice actors for Mirage pronounced proper names such as Baghdad or Al-Ghul in Arabic, as well as short greetings and other phrases. Ubisoft Bordeaux ensured that the English (and I assume other non-Arabic language) voice actors had a dialect coach present who could help ensure authentic pronunciation. If you have subtitles enabled, you’ll see the romanized text of Arabic (text in Latin letters) and then the English translation is next to it in parentheses. For those who don’t like subtitles, it’s only a handful of phrases and words that are easily understood in context.

 

While I don’t speak any Arabic myself, as a teen I picked up a few phrases from coworkers - though now I only recall “Marhaba” and "Ma'a salama". Hearing certain words be pronounced in a beautiful, non-stilted manner was delightful. Sadly, I wasn’t aware until just a few days ago that Mirage actually has a dub of the game in Arabic - and it’s in Classical Arabic at that! Ubisoft Bordeaux even made sure to translate expressions between English and Arabic. 

 

For example, in a BBC article about how Mirage used the Arabic language, one example was given of the difference between what the Arabic and English Scripts. In English, one character impatiently complains that having to wait any longer will cause “camels to sprout wings on their humps”, but in the Arabic script it is instead expressed as “If I had waited any longer the Phoenix would have risen from its ashes.” As a language nerd, I really wish I had known about the Arabic language option - and I normally would think to check for a game obviously set in a different culture, but it escaped my mind this time. At some point in the future, I might do another playthrough in Arabic (with English subtitles!!) so I can enjoy the beautiful sounds

 

PHOTO MODE

 

While I love me a game with a good photo mode, the options were pretty lackluster here. I still took absolutely way too many photos, though. 😂 Below are all your settings for Photo Mode. Composition Mode just lets you have an overlay of lines to form a 3x3 grid or X grid, and is the mode where you can reposition your camera. 

 

 

One small complaint that I had, though, was in regards to grabbing screenshots during cutscenes. If you trigger the PS5's Share interface to pop up (I think the default control is to hold the SHARE button) the game's beautiful lighting vanishes, resulting in a dimmer screenshot. Below is one example, where the initial screenshot during a Synchronization cutscene was taken without pausing the game, and the second screenshot is from the Share interface. I personally like using the Share interface to grab nice cutscene screenshots without cluttering my PS5 with multiple images to clean up later on, so this was pretty disappointing for me.

 

 

Left: taken while the game is running. | Right: taken while the game is paused in the Share menu.

 

Nevertheless, here are my favorite snaps from Photo mode:

 

RANDOM

• Shohreh Aghdashloo (the voice of Roshan) brings us a fantastic vocal performance, to absolutely no one’s surprise.
• I was pleasantly surprised about Basim and Nehal being purely platonic friends… and then there was the ending when we learned more about Nehal. Was not expecting it, though it did explain some things that bothered me about Nehal, like how she was super-sneaky without any Assassin training.
• Jeez, if Basim didn’t keep bringing up that he lived in Baghdad during his youth, you’d almost never know it. Outside of recognizing Baghdadi mercenary swords during the game’s Prologue act, very little of his supposed prior knowledge ever comes up. In fact, I can only think of one “old friend” that Basim encounters during Mirage. 

CAT RATING 😺

Not only does this game let you pet cats, Basim picks them up for proper petting and attention! And it’s not just a random stray cat here and there, you can come across legitimate CLOWDERS of cats ripe for petting! Thus, this game definitely gets a Cat Rating of “😺/10”. 😂

 

 

 

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Edited November 26, 2023 by pelagia14
grammar fixes