Tajtusek

EDIT - Reason 6 Added


Mass Effect Overthinker 2


/walloftext

First of all we wll be discussing the point view of 100% Paragon Shepard the Renegade one would probably be a d*ck about it.... and I know I will prorobaly get angry responses for saying this or even this thread may get deleted, but I have to say it - it was bugging me since the first playthrough.

Reason 1..

THE SUICIDE MISSION WASN'T EVEN NECESSARY

Let me explain...

Shepard gets the hard evidence that it was the Collectors attacking the Human colonies. He isn't fond of working with Cerberus so he forwards the evidence to the Alliance. Finally Alliance has those hard evidence what's exactly is going on with the Human colonies plus they know where the threat is coming from. So they "blockade" the Omega 4 Relay. Blockading a Relay could be hard so they send scout ships that monitor the relay mass core activity. When the relay starts to glow, an Alliance predator fleet (that was waiting outside the system so not cause alarm) jumps in and takes the Collector cruiser down. Remember the Collector ship could be damaged by a Guardian turret system, and could be destroyed by a Normandy without any upgrades - so it isn't some all powerful ship. Multiple Alliance ships could destroy it. Hell they could've even rigged transport ships with nukes on board that would do a kamikaze run into the Collector ship.

And yeah I know the counter arguments that can arise here.
a) Terminus Systems aren't in the Alliance jurisdiction - but defending their species is and just "blockading" a Relay that nobody uses anyway wouldn't be so terrible. They built turrets systems in the Systems and sent cruisers into Batarian territory (Cerberus Daily news) when they deemed it necessary so why not this?
b) Shepard wouldn't learn what Reapers are planning for the humans - True. But we are nor discussing the benefits he got from the suicide mission - we are discussing the matter if accepting the suicide mission was a first logical step for Paragon Shepard and it was not.
c) Alliance probably wouldn't do anything at all - That also may be the case, but don't you think that it would make a more believable reason for Paragon Shepard for working with Cerberus? He sends them hard proof on the Collector activiity. The Alliance does nothing. Shepard joins Cerberus because there is no other way. And without that it's like that - ok, I'll join you I don't have anything to do anyway. Especially frustrating is the fact that later you can send Cerberus secret data to Anderson but you can't send the Collector vid? That's BS!

Reason 2...

SHEPARD DISREGARDS VALUABLE INTELLIGENCE AND EVIDENCE.

The Normandy SR-2 comes close to the derelict Reaper. In that exact moment Shepard should shout:
*EDI, scan the frak out of that thing! And take pictures!"
After that he should call the Turian Councilor and send him the collected data and say:
*Look at my freaking Reaper! Look!*

The scan wouldn't pick up much but with info collected by the Cerberus team they at least would get 3 things.
- It's big
- It's really old
- It wasn't built by the Geth.

Would the Council do something? We don't know, but they couldn't say anymore it's a Geth creation. And would have something to think about.

Through the entire ME1 and ME2 everyone is treating Shepard like the kid that cried wolf - getting evidence should be at this point his first natural reflex.

Reason 3...

ARE THERE SPECTRES IN IT?

Sadly there is no spectres in the game... (Shepard doesn't count and the spectre from Shadow Broker DLC that intentionally takes place after the Suicide Mission does not either).

In ME1 the spectres were basically Jedi of Mass Effect universe. Working for the council they were getting things done that anyone else couldn't. You would think the Coucnil would send at least one Spectre to investigate what's going on to one of it's member's colonies. But it seemed the writing staff didn't have an idea what to do with the spectres anymore so they marginalized them as much as they could. Giving us a token spectre *Here, have a spectre, and f*ck off" in the Shadow Broker DLC. After ME1 when spectres were the main part of the storyline it's like kick in the balls. It's like watching a Star Wars movie with no Jedi in it. Yes it can be done, but the Jedi are one of the important aspects of that universe. So are spectres in ME universe. Especially after how much fuss they made in the first game about having a spectre.

Reason 4...

WREX AND WREAV WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

In ME2 there is absolutely no consequence in killing Wrex or keeping him alive in ME1.

If Wrex lives - You have him as a clan leader who is in the process of uniting the Krogan species through peacefull measures and is thankful to you because of you he got the chance to do this. So in ME3 you end up with somewhat united Krogans whose leader is in your debt.

If Wrex dies - His brother, Wreav, becomes the clan leader and is in the process of uniting the Krogans species through force and is thankful to you because of you he got the chance to do this. So in ME3 you end up with somewhat united Krogans whose leader is in your debt.

Get my drift? That just felt cheap. I hope they will fix it somehow in ME3 but as for now I just want to paraphrase one show...

*Welcome to Mass Effect 2 the game where everything is made up the choices don't matter*

Reason 5... (Disputable)

MASS RELAYS ARE FRAGILE

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm not really sure about this one so you can disregard it, but it still felt iffy while playing the game.

In the Arrival DLC you get to destroy a Mass Relay with an asteroid - basically using the same tactics as the Batarians used in Bring Down The Sky.

But in ME1 when searching for the Mu Relay you are informed that it was hit by a supernova blast and was lost. One would think that a supernova blast carries a lot more energy than an asteroid and since that Relay survived the supernova.... you see where I'm going with this.
And what we know from the ME games Relays are placed in the system as an artificial satelite of a star so you can't really justify it by saying that it was far away. Only big stars go supernova and then they are even bigger....

But I'm not really sure about this. I can't be totally wrong here, I just thought a relay would be more durable since one withstood an exploding star.


Reason 6...

WHAT WAS HARBRINGER'S PLAN EXACTLY.?

I get it, he was trying to build a new Reaper. But from what we can deduct from the ME Incursion comic and what was said in the game itself. The reaper was still an embrio and it would need millions of people more to be finished. And there aren't enough humans in the Terminus Systems. They would have to attack Alliance and Citadel Space colonies. And by doing so they would turn the attention of the galaxy to them. What could one Collector ship do against Turian and Human fleets hunting for it when they'd start abducting humans from Citadel Space? Also, ok somehow they manage to finish their reaper. Now they have to build a fleet at least as big as the one Soverign had to attack the Citadel and bring back the Reapers. How would they do that? It would take years. And I know Reapers are patient but the longer they wait the stronger Human and Turian fleets get. And even if they had the fleet what would they do? Pull the same stunt Soverign did? They can't use the conduit anymore. The keepers aren't responding to them. The Citadel Fleet is stronger than ever. Why not just skip the Collector plan and use the Alpha Relay (from the Arrival DLC) in the first place, when Human and Turian fleets are weakend? And this what ME2 plot should be about really. Not fighting the Collectors through a pointless suicide mission. But trying to stop the Reapers from returning through Alpha Relay.


That's all folks...

You can call this issues nitpicking if you want, but for me they were critical flaws in the premise of the plot and if a basic premise is flawed the entire logic of the story falls apart. And don't get me wrong I love ME2 I played it 4 times now, the gameplay was awesome but I think the plot is really weak and doesn't hold up to the plot of ME1. I wrote this because I care about ME games.

TL;DR :

1. Suicide mission wasn't necessary.
2. Wasted chance of taking evidence from the derelict Reaper.
3. Marginalization of the spectres.
4. Choices rarely have real consequences.
5. Arrival DLC relay seem too fragile.
6. Harbringer's plan is flawed.
7. I love the game - that is why I'm writing this in the first place.
8. Sorry for my english - it isn't my first language