Beffudled Sheep said:
Now Wrex by the events of ME1 is a defeated man. Like most Krogan he is just wandering around doing merc work for people to get some credits and blood. If I remember correctly his reason for initially joining Shepard was "The enemy of my enemy in my friend" when taking down Fist and his thugs. After that it boiled down to him really having nothing better to do and Shepard being able to provide him with quite a few good and hectic fights. After questing around a bit (right when the story starts to make sense) he starts following for the greater purpose of stopping Saren, the Geth and Reapers. And if you help him snatch up his family armor he also sticks around cuz you're a good person and he kinda likes you.
Garrus, well I like to think of Garrus in ME1 as more of a slightly psychopathic rebellious teenager that resents being stuck in the vice-like (from his perspective) grip of the Man's regulations. From the conversations in ME1 I gathered he joined Shepard less for "stopping Saren" and more for "Cruise around the gakaxy doing whatever the fuck we want, whenever the fuck we want, oh and I guess stopping Saren." His conversations painted him as someone more interested in fighting without restrictions and for freedom. Stopping Saren always seemed like a slight afterthought to him. Of course he too falls for Shepard's apparently juggernaut like charisma and stays because he both likes Shepard and (after the plot starts to make more sense) because Saren really is an "evil" D-bag bent on bringing Mechanical Eldritch abominations to conquer the galaxy.
Bioware definitely could have made the start a lot stronger but by the end I thought it was perfectly acceptable. Maybe even pretty good.
And honestly, I don't think Shepard was in any state to go debate with the council about anything. I mean after an intense battle, frantically disarming nukes, and then getting mind fucked by broken alien technology and not getting an y rest (she he/she was sleeping but I doubt it was very restful considering). I'm more willing to forgive the logical pitfalls Shepard made during the council meeting because of what had happened only hours before than I am the failings of Udina and Anderson. As a life long politician and ambassador Udina definitely should have had the foresight to see that the council meeting wouldn;t go well because of the "He said she said" that would occur and the fact that Shepard could have gone insane. And Anderson, well he should have kept his mouth shut during the whole thing, his outburst against Saren didn't help the his side very much at all.
Just out of curiosity, how would you have written the first act to make more sense? And what did you think of the rest of the game's plot?
You make a good point about Wrex. I think I'll withdraw my point about him entirely because he really doesn't need to care if Shepard is right or not and it's pretty Krogan to do something like that.
I agree with you on Garrus, but that's such an incredibly negative character trait it means that during that section of the game I really don't want him to be doing anything because he's doing it for all the wrong reasons. I think, whilst in game he has a nice character arc about calming down and doing things more sensibly, he's so extreme at the start of ME1 that it hurts his character a bit in things like 2. (I'm not sure the person who followed a temporarily unstable person on a whim is in a good position to take up the mantle of arbiter of life and death at the start of 2).
As to the rest of the plot, I'm pretty meh about the end, but that's not the story which was actually pretty good at that point and it was more it's presentation (doing that fake out on whether Shepard was killed offscreen was pretty boring becuase there wasn't a chance I'D believe they did that and the Saren bossfight wasn't...dignified. They also have another council scene and you know how much I love what they do with the council
). The middle of Mass Effect was amazing storywise. People are totally right to dig Saren as a villain and the reveal about the Reapers is truly fantastic. And the missions are well structured and the hub system really comes across. It all comes together perfectly to create an incredible experience.
And it's worth stressing that ME does other things related to story but not the main story excellently, visiting the Citadel the first time is an incredible experience and it's a huge disappointment that the level design wasn't able to keep up to the incredible standards of the first. And the backstory for each space is great, even if when you go back and play it now that you're familiar with the franchise, you realise Shepard is asking questions she should really know the answer to.
I'd definitely make Shepard see Saren on the first planet. Probably even have a conversation and definitely witness him causing destruction. So that way she's got a reason to do what she does, even if she doesn't have hard evidence.
And then here's the biggest change. The council would still argue and refuse to go after Saren, but they'd make Shepard a spectre and then after the meeting is over a person would sneak over to Shepard and explain that the council are suspicious of how Saren's acted but he's too powerful and too popular and is clever enough to hide his tracks. They need Shepard to do some digging behind the scenes and find some evidence so they can take him down. (the council being more helpful is something that needs to happen in all the ME's
And finally, Shepard wouldn't believe the Prothean Beacon, she'd be unsure if it's shellshock or something. Gradually as she sees more of Saren she comes to believe it and then that bit with the nukes where she meets Sovereign would be even more of a holy crud! moment. She's chasing Saren because she knows Saren is evil and trying to do harm, it's all the motivation she needs for that point in the game
