Mass Alex: Mass Effect 3 - Part 05

Watching this is such an interesting experience. The gulf in quality between the content in ME3 at launch and its DLC content seems huge to me. Everyone seems to talk positively about either the multiplayer or the DLC, but the singleplayer content just in there at launch I found to be so disappointing that I couldn’t get more than half way through. Even Javik is *the* character as far as I’m concerned and he’s still DLC/preorder bonus.

Man, I never played the DLC that came later. Nyreen seems super rad.

Manic Kannik. Why did that make me laugh so much, haha

I wish they had remastered these for the current gen.

Omega probably isn't my favorite DLC out of the franchise but I'm really glad it allowed Vinny and Alex to really catch onto the combat elements of Mass Effect 3. It pops and punches in a super satisfying way and I honestly think it even competes with the likes of Gears of War - where it has slightly less heft but it really ups the speed, snap and momentum of the weapons and abilities.

Part of it is the sound design courtesy of helping studios like DICE, but a lot of it is also the snappy camera work with weapon recoil. I feel like that intense gameplay feedback is something they didn't regain until the combat design for Anthem, which for all its faults preserves some of the same momentum and inertia with a similar over-the-shoulder camera.

I love this series but I wish Alex would mix it up a bit more with the combat. He almost never uses any other squad abilities than what is hot keyed, and uses one weapon. It’s not like he‘a incentivized to change anything because he’s obliterating everything that comes against him, so I can’t blame for sticking with what works. But some weapon and power variety would be more interesting to watch, especially since the combat in 3 is probably the best in the series.

The commentary and banter is top notch as always though.

After the ending ruined the franchise for me I never went back to the DLC, shocked to see how solid it looks.

Alex, I would like to recommend two assault rifles to you when you find them. The Mattock assault rifle (super steady and single shot) and The Revenant (the best description I can give is it feels like they turned a chainsaw into a gun). These are my go to guns when I play ME3. Try em on, see how they fit.

Man it’s shocking how little I remember of this game. I remember ME and ME2 lime the back of my hand. Especially 2. But you would think I’ve never played ME3 before because this is all fresh for me.

Man it’s shocking how little I remember of this game. I remember ME and ME2 lime the back of my hand. Especially 2. But you would think I’ve never played ME3 before because this is all fresh for me.

Arrrrrggghhhhhhh, after 1, 2 and now 3 I just can't with how Alex plays. Sigh, love the entertainment...but his playstyle is soo sloppy?

-Use powers with a curve don't slam them right into the walks

-run more!

-Use the dodge roll!

-Use your ally powers!

-COMBINE POWERS ALREADY!

I know it won't make a difference but ugh!

Throw some grenades dude

Yeah - on lower difficulties its hard to do because they die so fast though. I only ever had success with that on the higher ones.

Agreed! The devs had a ton of fun with the guns in this one. ME3 doesn't get enough credit for its combat.

I remember playing ME3 day one on Insanity difficulty and even on that difficulty you basically had to have a heavy-hitting sniper rifle to punch through the canopy and then shoot the pilot without dealing *too* much damage to the sliver of health that the Atlas had left.

I can literally count on one hand the number of times I was able to pull that off in a single campaign

If you didn't catch it, this entire Omega mission is DLC that released in November 2012 (ME3 came out in March 2012). So this probably is all new to you.

"Why shoot an enemy in the face through the eye slot in their riot shield when their ankles are, like, RIGHT THERE?" - Sun Tzu

@zoofame: Well said! My exact feelings.

Building on your thoughts: if a re-release of the ME games had the 'feel' of, say, the Division 2's combat (just the cover and movement) I'd be VERY into the idea of another (3rd, 4th?) play though.

I started ME1 with "Albert Shepard" (me - sweet, kind, always helpful... horny) and "Boo Shepard" (my Significant Other - take-no-prisoners, no time for your BS, gettin' shit done) and they looked just like us both (thanks to a bit of effort on my part.) My GF liked her Shepherd so much it is her avatar for EVERTHING to this day. By ME3, using the auto-import.. um... we did not age well. Space (and new game engines)... does things to people : )

I may have missed it but has Alex upgraded any of his weapons from the terminal in the shuttle bay? Not mods; the level/power/whatever upgrades you buy.

@vinny @alex Just figured I'd mention that apparently disabling the Origin overlay will improve performance in quite a significant way when it comes to ME3. Seen it chunk a few times here and there, worth doing I think.

I think this is why you have to play me3 on vanguard at least once before the combat really starts to make sense. Its a fantastic game on a the higher difficulties that really require all of the things you called out, and its incredibly fun. On the lower difficulties you don't need to use any powers, grenades, etc, and it's fairly boring. I'll be pretty surprised if Alex dies at all this run, other than to a banshee.

*edit* so I don't sound elitist or whatever about difficulty, I'd only ever really encourage playing on a higher difficulty on this game in particular. It exposes something in the combat that you never, ever see otherwise. The battles have time to flesh themselves out, you get a chance to really find out what weapons and powers and combos you like because they're *all* very different, and you have to mix it up depending on the type of enemy, and its all consequently rewarding.

The combat seems quite easy, I wonder what difficulty he's playing on? Then again, I've had an urge to go back to the multiplayer after watching these and maybe thats clouding my judgement since it is *ruthless* lol

Reading some of these comments, I have to say that the (original) ending of ME3 caused a lot of underrating to go on about this game - and understandably so. This game has so many incredible moments that I hope this stream might get some fans of ME to give this game another chance. Especially with the Extended Cut dlc that makes the end much more palatable.

Nyreen is just awesome. And hey, Andromeda gave us a female Turian squad member, so it ain't all bad. *runs for cover*

Man, they really did put all the cool stuff in the DLC huh.

i'd watch Vinny play homeworld!

This DLC is the conclusion of the story from Mass Effect: Invasion comics from Dark Horses.

I would recommend reading the comics before playing this DLC,

Thanks for this series. I was thinking I was too hard on ME3 in the past, but this is making me think I wasn't hard enough on it.

@djpave: actually I just ran this, been playing along with the series, unfortunately just finished omega and when I got back got message that at Grissom Academy everyone died.

@lucidquasar: Ohhhhhhh no. Ohhh noooooo

The Omega DLC I've never played; the only way you can buy it on PC is with BioWare points and you can't buy exactly the right number to pay for the DLC (which is ridiculous). Seems pretty solid which is good. Looking forward to near the end when they do the Citadel DLC (arguably the best bit of DLC or any ME game).

It's having the opposite effect on me and just underlining what a shit show the entire thing is. The comically-brief and awkward shoehorning in of the ME2 squad. The awful pacing. The dreadful dialogue and robotic animation. The Illusive Man losing any nuance as a character and just becoming a Saturday morning cartoon villain. Hell, Cerberus in general really on that front - except of course all your shipmates from ME2 who are totally cool and weren't ever REALLY with Cerberus in the first place (a nice crutch for lazy writing). And we haven't even met Kai Leng yet, so the worst (and I do mean the WORST) is yet to come.

If anything, the ending furore distracted from just how many problems the rest of the game has.

@aretak: You just HATE Mass Effect! Heh, of course I kid.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying, and I can't say you're exactly wrong. I have a friend who finished Andromeda and said it was better than ME3. He took that to his gra- No, no. I get it. ME3 has many problems. The UI, specifically the quest log, it's really a mess (effect). There is no doubt that the changes in the creative team and the rush to get it on the shelves hurt this game. The story ideas that got dropped. The multiplayer map addition to the narrative, while fine, can certainly be pointed to as "lazy." That said, and I admit it takes some rationalization, I still feel the good outweighs the bad (or the one - sorry, I can't help myself.)

While Cerberus beats can be silly, The Illusive Man plays for me as I go with him being indoctrinated the whole game.He's not of the same mind as the last game. But since they don't really delve into this, it reads shallow. I mean, they do show that Cerberus, at least some, are really nothing more than husks, but again, it gets lost.

Watching someone else play the game really highlights the cracks, but while I'm playing it, there's enough quality (and goodwill) for me to get immersed and hand-wave a lot of it away. Like Return of the Jedi, I know it's not Empire, but there's enough for it to work. For every wasted Han and Leia moment on Endor, there's a Luke and Vader bit in the throne room.

At the end of the day, I just love being in the ME universe. I still think some will come back and find it's worth the journey, more than they remember. But I also know some won't. At the very least, we can all enjoy Mass Alex!

It should be part of the Mass Effect 3 DLC bundle on Origin or Steam but I think it was only made available a couple years ago. There's no way I was buying Bioware points at the time so I didn't get it either even if I just finished the base game last year. At that point I'd had enough Mass Effect.

gawd, playing these games with a controller was the worst.

Vinny mentioning how the whole tone of the team changes if you're male or female Shepard is something I hadn't considered, but he's absolutely right and I'm fascinated by things that the writers/developers didn't intend being communicated based on the player's gender.

Similarly, Dedue's warning in Fire Emblem: Three Houses to "not speak to him or people will start rumors" reads VERY differently if you're playing Byleth as female than it does as male.

Vinny seemed to really enjoy the Charlie's Angels stylings of this mission. I do think it's a stretch to mention to Alex that you could play this mission with an entirely different character if you chose a maleshelp instead, as if it would be this huge difference. Like these are not different characters but two sides of the same coin with a difference voice actor. Either you play as an agressive affirmative hard boiled professional badass, or as a negotiating affirmative consensus-seeking professional badass. The roleplaying aspects of Mass Effect don't go too far.

It's definitly hard to imagine a way to be able to go through this mission as somewhat of a doofus as Vinny said. Or a wisecracking funnyman. Or as a xenophobe. Or as a human-hater. You either choose the paragon options or the renegade option. You'll always be the asservative badass that takes control.