Mass Effect; The Final Fight

Your squad for Shore Leave.

Well I finally got around to downloading the “Citadel Shore Leave” DLC.  So three games and every DLC later I’m finally at the end of the Mass Effect trilogy.  It’s been quite the ride.

I really like Mass Effect.  First I’ve always enjoyed science fiction but there were three things that I really liked about the Mass Effect series.  Mass Effect had a great story line, fun/interesting characters and more than any other game I’ve played I felt like I was actually the star of this interactive movie.  Other than the original horrific ending of Mass Effect 3 Bioware/EA did a great job overall with this game.  I do think the ending was horrific. 

But TV doesn’t seem to be able to do endings any better if you look at how “Dexter” and other popular TV shows have ended.  So perhaps Bioware/EA should get some slack for the ending.  But seriously were people there actually looking at the ending and saying, “wow, great ending guys, outstanding job?”

So as far as the “Citadel Shore Leave” DLC goes it was fun.  It was a chance for you to go on one last mission with the characters who have been with you for the last couple years with some notable exceptions. 

Spoiler Alert

Some covering fire from your squad.

The Normandy gets sent to the Citadel for some repairs and since the ship is in space dock you get the chance for some much hard-earned leave.  Lucky for you Admiral Anderson decides to give you his apartment on the Citadel so now you have your own home.  You get an email from Joker inviting you out to sushi for dinner.  You meet Joker and discover that each thinks the other sent the invitation.  About that time an Alliance lieutenant joins the party and tells you people are out to kill Shepard.  Immediately after she delivers the warning a hit team attacks and you’re off on your adventure around the Citadel.

Turns out Cerberus made a clone of Shepard who has decided he want’s Shepard’s life and is trying to steal his identity, SPECTRE codes and of course the Normandy.

So the whole gang comes out and helps Shepard stop his evil clone giving you a chance to take some old friends out on a couple missions once again.

Most notably my two favorite characters, Miranda Lawson and Kasumi Goto, weren’t included in this DLC.  Miranda and Kasumi also received the most lame cameos in Mass Effect 3 of all the Mass Effect 2 characters.  So other than that disappointment it was fun to catch up with old battle buddies.

Liara with a pun for Shepard.

In ME Ashley and Garrus were usually my squad members.  In ME2 it was usually Miranda and Kasumi once I did Kasumi’s DLC.  In ME3 it was usually Liara and Garrus.  I took the opportunity to take Wrex (who Ashley killed in my original ME play through) as well as Garrus and Ashley on a couple missions.  I never liked Vega in ME3 so the only mission he ever went on was the Mars mission you had to take him on.

If you haven’t played “Citadel Shore Leave” and have some spare cash laying around go ahead a buy it and give it a try.  It costs about the same as going to the movies so it won’t bankrupt you.

After you finish the mission you get to have a party in your new Citadel digs.  Hang out, joke and dance etc.  They put in a number of jokes and puns that you’ll get if you’ve been along since the beginning.  I always found some humorous lines in Mass Effect but you can tell they really tried more than usual. 

After saving the universe you deserve to party with your friends.

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost

So I was scrolling through movies on Hulu Plus the other night and came across Mass Effect:Paragon Lost.  Since I hadn’t seen it yet I decided to watch it.

I can’t say I’d recommend this animated movie to a Mass Effect fan.  I wouldn’t use it s an introduction to Mass Effect for a noob either because they most likely won’t be coming back to ME.

First off I thought the quality of the cartoon graphics was on the low end.  It just didn’t look high speed.  The facial structures had that Anime look to them if you know what I mean. (Generally I'm not a fan of Anime.)

This animated movie is supposed to be a prequel to Mass Effect 3.  However it seems like it is just a rehash of part of Mass Effect 2.  At its core the producers just picked a segment out of Mass Effect 2 and made a cartoon. 

The story line was confusing even for somebody like me who has played the games, read the books and comics because it didn’t seem to match the timeline in the games.  In Mass Effect 2 Commander Shepard discovered that the Collectors were harvesting Alliance colonies and ultimately undertakes the "suicide mission" to stop them. The Mass Effect 2 story centers around a Collector attack on an Alliance colony to capture humans, using insect drones to paralyze them, and then process them into DNA to use in creating a human Reaper.  Sound familiar? 

And I thought Commander Shepard had already been there and done that...

If you think about the “Remember the Normandy” pin Vega wears and other plugs in the script about Commander Shepard being dead you could take a leap of faith that Paragon Lost is happening after the opening of Mass Effect 2 when the Normandy is destroyed and before Mass Effect 3.  But if that is the case why does Cyberus have to send the reconstituted Commander Shepard to find out why Alliance colonies are disappearing when Vega and the Alliance have already discovered the answer?

Glad I saw this on Hulu Plus and didn’t pay to see it, my Hulu Plus subscription withstanding.

If a Mass Effect movie ever comes out I hope they do it justice.  Maybe a HBO series; something like they did with "Game of Thrones" instead of a movie?

How awesome would be if a great studio produces the movie?  It could be a epic summer movie block buster spawning several sequels, think Batman or the Transformers.  Hopefully like the new Star Trek movies or Star Wars in quality. The other side of this equation is to think of all the bad sci-fi flicks you've seen in your life; weak animation, script writing, actors and producers etc. 

I guess only time will tell.