Poll: Was ME1 really as good as we remember or was Saren just an idiot antagonist?

[Elamdri]

So, I recently started a full ME1-ME2-ME3 run to build a new character and I just finished ME1 a few days ago. I was sitting there watching the ending and going...wait a minute.

Because here is the thing. You spend THE ENTIRE GAME hunting Saren. Saren is hunting the Conduit. Saren needs the Conduit to bring back the Reapers. So you're trying to find the Conduit the entire game. But then at the final hour you find out that the Conduit is just a backdoor onto the Citadel and it's the CITADEL that Saren really needs to bring back the Reapers, not the Conduit.

but wait a minute.

Saren was a SPECTRE, an above-the-law Supercop with nearly unlimited power and access on the Citadel. Not only that but he was the BEST of the SPECTREs.

So my question then is why didn't Saren just just have Sovereign and the Geth Fleet just suddenly stream through the Mass Relay while he waltzed up to the Citadel Tower in the Chaos and activated the Citadel Relay? We know that he had Krogan and Asari support, and they already have Citadel access. He could have had a ton of double agents on the Citadel ready to attack on his command. He also was able to sneak Geth onto Noveria and we know the Citadel had a huge security upgrade after the attack, so it's not unreasonable to think he could have snuck Geth onto the Citadel as well.

I mean, if he had done that rather than go attack Eden Prime, then no one would have known he was a villain, Shepard wouldn't have ever been tapped to assemble a crew and likely wouldn't have even been on the Citadel, and the human fleet wouldn't have been standing by to save the Citadel and destroy Sovereign. Hell, the only reason Saren NEEDED the Conduit at all in the first place was because he played his hand in the first 5 minutes of the game and declared himself a villain and got himself banned from the Citadel.

Hell, it seems like the whole story of Mass Effect 1, not to mention even giving Shepard the opportunity to stop him, was predicated entirely on the absolute incompetence of Saren. And yet, ME1 get's praised as the story with the best writing...when the whole story is only possible because the main antagonist is a buffoon.

I mean, am I missing something here? Cause I've thought about it for a while and it just doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Fuhrlock]

So my question then is why didn't Saren just just have Sovereign and the Geth Fleet just suddenly stream through the Mass Relay while he waltzed up to the Citadel Tower in the Chaos and activated the Citadel Relay? We know that he had Krogan and Asari support, and they already have Citadel access. He could have had a ton of double agents on the Citadel ready to attack on his command. He also was able to sneak Geth onto Noveria and we know the Citadel had a huge security upgrade after the attack, so it's not unreasonable to think he could have snuck Geth onto the Citadel as well.

Saren did sneak geth onto Noveria however it was relatively speaking only a handful, and considerably less than what he could move via the conduit. I'd guess Saren thought the amount he could smuggle wouldn't be enough, and as for double agents, well the more he obtained the greater his risk of being found out by C-sec or an information broker. If you consider that Saren believed he needed more infantry to hold off C-sec while he could take control of the citadel then it further gives a reason for him developing a genophage cure (and also create a potential rachni army). Maybe Saren could have somehow got enough forces/influence on the citadel to stage a direct takeover but I'd pressume that the conduit was the most relaible approach.

 

[Elamdri]

So my question then is why didn't Saren just just have Sovereign and the Geth Fleet just suddenly stream through the Mass Relay while he waltzed up to the Citadel Tower in the Chaos and activated the Citadel Relay? We know that he had Krogan and Asari support, and they already have Citadel access. He could have had a ton of double agents on the Citadel ready to attack on his command. He also was able to sneak Geth onto Noveria and we know the Citadel had a huge security upgrade after the attack, so it's not unreasonable to think he could have snuck Geth onto the Citadel as well.

Saren did sneak geth onto Noveria however it was relatively speaking only a handful, and considerably less than what he could move via the conduit. I'd guess Saren thought the amount he could smuggle wouldn't be enough, and as for double agents, well the more he obtained the greater his risk of being found out by C-sec or an information broker. If you consider that Saren believed he needed more infantry to hold off C-sec while he could take control of the citadel then it further gives a reason for him developing a genophage cure (and also create a potential rachni army). Maybe Saren could have somehow got enough forces/influence on the citadel to stage a direct takeover but I'd pressume that the conduit was the most relaible approach.

Who says he even needed other people with him? With Sovereign and the Geth attacking, do you think anyone would even be in the Citadel tower? All he had to do was hide, wait till it was empty and taken control. I mean, he's supposed to be their best agent, even if the Citadel tower did have someone guarding it in a Citadel wide emergency, would Saren really be afraid of a couple of C-Sec mooks?

 

[Mikejames]

At least he was a better villain than Kai Leng and Harbinger ever were.

 

[endtherapture]

Saren's stupidity was needed so that we could actually have a game.

He was a good antagonist though. Better than any other we had in ME. Harbinger? Didn't know who he was most of 2. Disappeared in 3. Kai Leng? A joke. TIM? Not a physical adversary.

Saren was Shepards nemesis and antithesis. He was awesome despite the fact some of his plans were a bit poo.

He needed the conduit to stop the Citadel arms from closing. Otherwise Council would've just closed them immediately. And he needed Eden Prime to find the conduit so yeah makes enough sense.

 

[RJ 17]

So, I recently started a full ME1-ME2-ME3 run to build a new character and I just finished ME1 a few days ago. I was sitting there watching the ending and going...wait a minute.

Because here is the thing. You spend THE ENTIRE GAME hunting Saren. Saren is hunting the Conduit. Saren needs the Conduit to bring back the Reapers. So you're trying to find the Conduit the entire game. But then at the final hour you find out that the Conduit is just a backdoor onto the Citadel and it's the CITADEL that Saren really needs to bring back the Reapers, not the Conduit.

but wait a minute.

Saren was a SPECTRE, an above-the-law Supercop with nearly unlimited power and access on the Citadel. Not only that but he was the BEST of the SPECTREs.

So my question then is why didn't Saren just just have Sovereign and the Geth Fleet just suddenly stream through the Mass Relay while he waltzed up to the Citadel Tower in the Chaos and activated the Citadel Relay? We know that he had Krogan and Asari support, and they already have Citadel access. He could have had a ton of double agents on the Citadel ready to attack on his command. He also was able to sneak Geth onto Noveria and we know the Citadel had a huge security upgrade after the attack, so it's not unreasonable to think he could have snuck Geth onto the Citadel as well.

I mean, if he had done that rather than go attack Eden Prime, then no one would have known he was a villain, Shepard wouldn't have ever been tapped to assemble a crew and likely wouldn't have even been on the Citadel, and the human fleet wouldn't have been standing by to save the Citadel and destroy Sovereign. Hell, the only reason Saren NEEDED the Conduit at all in the first place was because he played his hand in the first 5 minutes of the game and declared himself a villain and got himself banned from the Citadel.

Hell, it seems like the whole story of Mass Effect 1, not to mention even giving Shepard the opportunity to stop him, was predicated entirely on the absolute incompetence of Saren. And yet, ME1 get's praised as the story with the best writing...when the whole story is only possible because the main antagonist is a buffoon.

I mean, am I missing something here? Cause I've thought about it for a while and it just doesn't make any sense to me.

My friend, you forget a couple of simple facts. Vigil explains that Sovereign is slow and methodical in everything he does. Had he made his move too soon, the entire galaxy would be united against him and he'd be destroyed. As such he had to go for the sneak attack. Why bother trying to smuggle an army onto the Citadel when you can do the equivalent of an Arbiter Recall Drop from Star Craft? Just WARP you strike-force onto the Citadel.

Beyond that: Saren had his Specter status revoked at the beginning of the game when you prove that he attacked Eden Prime, as such coming back to the Citadel and just walking up like everything's fine wouldn't be an option. COULD Saren have made his move sooner? Probably, but there's variables that we just don't know about. Maybe the Geth hadn't amassed enough forces. We know he was wanting to build a massive Krogan army and perhaps he didn't have enough for a full-on assault. Benezia's influence might have slowed him down a bit too before she became fully indoctrinated. We also know he was planning on making an army of Rachni but that ended up falling through.

So yeah, I'd say that Saren's actions still make sense. If nothing else, it could be that he found out that the Conduit was somehow involved with the Reaper signal not working. He might have known that the Citadel was Sovereign's ultimate goal, but with the Conduit still being an unknown, it's likely the big bad Reaper wanted to make sure his bases were covered so he didn't assault the Citadel only to find that nothing would happen because this mysterious Conduit was somehow blocking him. Upon finding out the truth, that it's a backdoor to the Citadel, they coulda said "Fuck it, lets use this to attack. Give the order to the fleet to move out."

 

[Fuhrlock]

So my question then is why didn't Saren just just have Sovereign and the Geth Fleet just suddenly stream through the Mass Relay while he waltzed up to the Citadel Tower in the Chaos and activated the Citadel Relay? We know that he had Krogan and Asari support, and they already have Citadel access. He could have had a ton of double agents on the Citadel ready to attack on his command. He also was able to sneak Geth onto Noveria and we know the Citadel had a huge security upgrade after the attack, so it's not unreasonable to think he could have snuck Geth onto the Citadel as well.

Saren did sneak geth onto Noveria however it was relatively speaking only a handful, and considerably less than what he could move via the conduit. I'd guess Saren thought the amount he could smuggle wouldn't be enough, and as for double agents, well the more he obtained the greater his risk of being found out by C-sec or an information broker. If you consider that Saren believed he needed more infantry to hold off C-sec while he could take control of the citadel then it further gives a reason for him developing a genophage cure (and also create a potential rachni army). Maybe Saren could have somehow got enough forces/influence on the citadel to stage a direct takeover but I'd pressume that the conduit was the most relaible approach.

Who says he even needed other people with him? With Sovereign and the Geth attacking, do you think anyone would even be in the Citadel tower? All he had to do was hide, wait till it was empty and taken control. I mean, he's supposed to be their best agent, even if the Citadel tower did have someone guarding it in a Citadel wide emergency, would Saren really be afraid of a couple of C-Sec mooks?

Ok fair point. The only explaination I can speculate is that if Saren has to hide and wait to sneak his way to the citadel tower is that it relies on a delay between sovereigns arrival and saren locking the relays connected to the citadel (whereas with the conduit they can occur fairly simultaneously. With relays to the citadel open, the risk of fleets arriving and quickly trying and reinforce the citadel does exist. To what degree this would occur is debatable since in the game it was Saren who put the fleets on high alert but considering fleets like the alliance 5th are stationed at key relays it could potentially provide a risk to sovereign.

 

[skywolfblue]

But but but then Saren wouldn't have had the opportunity to give long comic-book style villain speeches to Shepard!

It would have been pretty easy with the help of Benezia and some of her croonies to have taken most of the citadel tower anyway, especially with the element of surprise. Given that the bulk of the citadel fleet was away until Shepard warned the council, the geth fleet would have mopped the floor with what little defenses the citadel had.

 

[Elamdri]

So, I recently started a full ME1-ME2-ME3 run to build a new character and I just finished ME1 a few days ago. I was sitting there watching the ending and going...wait a minute.

Because here is the thing. You spend THE ENTIRE GAME hunting Saren. Saren is hunting the Conduit. Saren needs the Conduit to bring back the Reapers. So you're trying to find the Conduit the entire game. But then at the final hour you find out that the Conduit is just a backdoor onto the Citadel and it's the CITADEL that Saren really needs to bring back the Reapers, not the Conduit.

but wait a minute.

Saren was a SPECTRE, an above-the-law Supercop with nearly unlimited power and access on the Citadel. Not only that but he was the BEST of the SPECTREs.

So my question then is why didn't Saren just just have Sovereign and the Geth Fleet just suddenly stream through the Mass Relay while he waltzed up to the Citadel Tower in the Chaos and activated the Citadel Relay? We know that he had Krogan and Asari support, and they already have Citadel access. He could have had a ton of double agents on the Citadel ready to attack on his command. He also was able to sneak Geth onto Noveria and we know the Citadel had a huge security upgrade after the attack, so it's not unreasonable to think he could have snuck Geth onto the Citadel as well.

I mean, if he had done that rather than go attack Eden Prime, then no one would have known he was a villain, Shepard wouldn't have ever been tapped to assemble a crew and likely wouldn't have even been on the Citadel, and the human fleet wouldn't have been standing by to save the Citadel and destroy Sovereign. Hell, the only reason Saren NEEDED the Conduit at all in the first place was because he played his hand in the first 5 minutes of the game and declared himself a villain and got himself banned from the Citadel.

Hell, it seems like the whole story of Mass Effect 1, not to mention even giving Shepard the opportunity to stop him, was predicated entirely on the absolute incompetence of Saren. And yet, ME1 get's praised as the story with the best writing...when the whole story is only possible because the main antagonist is a buffoon.

I mean, am I missing something here? Cause I've thought about it for a while and it just doesn't make any sense to me.

My friend, you forget a couple of simple facts. Vigil explains that Sovereign is slow and methodical in everything he does. Had he made his move too soon, the entire galaxy would be united against him and he'd be destroyed. As such he had to go for the sneak attack. Why bother trying to smuggle an army onto the Citadel when you can do the equivalent of an Arbiter Recall Drop from Star Craft? Just WARP you strike-force onto the Citadel.

Beyond that: Saren had his Specter status revoked at the beginning of the game when you prove that he attacked Eden Prime, as such coming back to the Citadel and just walking up like everything's fine wouldn't be an option. COULD Saren have made his move sooner? Probably, but there's variables that we just don't know about. Maybe the Geth hadn't amassed enough forces. We know he was wanting to build a massive Krogan army and perhaps he didn't have enough for a full-on assault. Benezia's influence might have slowed him down a bit too before she became fully indoctrinated. We also know he was planning on making an army of Rachni but that ended up falling through.

So yeah, I'd say that Saren's actions still make sense. If nothing else, it could be that he found out that the Conduit was somehow involved with the Reaper signal not working. He might have known that the Citadel was Sovereign's ultimate goal, but with the Conduit still being an unknown, it's likely the big bad Reaper wanted to make sure his bases were covered so he didn't assault the Citadel only to find that nothing would happen because this mysterious Conduit was somehow blocking him. Upon finding out the truth, that it's a backdoor to the Citadel, they coulda said "Fuck it, lets use this to attack. Give the order to the fleet to move out."

I think you missed my point: I think Sovereign waited to long. You said that Saren had his SPECTRE status revoked after Eden Prime, but my point was that he never should have attacked Eden Prime in the first place, thus never losing his SPECTRE status and never alerting the galaxy that he was up to no good.

 

[RJ 17]

So, I recently started a full ME1-ME2-ME3 run to build a new character and I just finished ME1 a few days ago. I was sitting there watching the ending and going...wait a minute.

Because here is the thing. You spend THE ENTIRE GAME hunting Saren. Saren is hunting the Conduit. Saren needs the Conduit to bring back the Reapers. So you're trying to find the Conduit the entire game. But then at the final hour you find out that the Conduit is just a backdoor onto the Citadel and it's the CITADEL that Saren really needs to bring back the Reapers, not the Conduit.

but wait a minute.

Saren was a SPECTRE, an above-the-law Supercop with nearly unlimited power and access on the Citadel. Not only that but he was the BEST of the SPECTREs.

So my question then is why didn't Saren just just have Sovereign and the Geth Fleet just suddenly stream through the Mass Relay while he waltzed up to the Citadel Tower in the Chaos and activated the Citadel Relay? We know that he had Krogan and Asari support, and they already have Citadel access. He could have had a ton of double agents on the Citadel ready to attack on his command. He also was able to sneak Geth onto Noveria and we know the Citadel had a huge security upgrade after the attack, so it's not unreasonable to think he could have snuck Geth onto the Citadel as well.

I mean, if he had done that rather than go attack Eden Prime, then no one would have known he was a villain, Shepard wouldn't have ever been tapped to assemble a crew and likely wouldn't have even been on the Citadel, and the human fleet wouldn't have been standing by to save the Citadel and destroy Sovereign. Hell, the only reason Saren NEEDED the Conduit at all in the first place was because he played his hand in the first 5 minutes of the game and declared himself a villain and got himself banned from the Citadel.

Hell, it seems like the whole story of Mass Effect 1, not to mention even giving Shepard the opportunity to stop him, was predicated entirely on the absolute incompetence of Saren. And yet, ME1 get's praised as the story with the best writing...when the whole story is only possible because the main antagonist is a buffoon.

I mean, am I missing something here? Cause I've thought about it for a while and it just doesn't make any sense to me.

My friend, you forget a couple of simple facts. Vigil explains that Sovereign is slow and methodical in everything he does. Had he made his move too soon, the entire galaxy would be united against him and he'd be destroyed. As such he had to go for the sneak attack. Why bother trying to smuggle an army onto the Citadel when you can do the equivalent of an Arbiter Recall Drop from Star Craft? Just WARP you strike-force onto the Citadel.

Beyond that: Saren had his Specter status revoked at the beginning of the game when you prove that he attacked Eden Prime, as such coming back to the Citadel and just walking up like everything's fine wouldn't be an option. COULD Saren have made his move sooner? Probably, but there's variables that we just don't know about. Maybe the Geth hadn't amassed enough forces. We know he was wanting to build a massive Krogan army and perhaps he didn't have enough for a full-on assault. Benezia's influence might have slowed him down a bit too before she became fully indoctrinated. We also know he was planning on making an army of Rachni but that ended up falling through.

So yeah, I'd say that Saren's actions still make sense. If nothing else, it could be that he found out that the Conduit was somehow involved with the Reaper signal not working. He might have known that the Citadel was Sovereign's ultimate goal, but with the Conduit still being an unknown, it's likely the big bad Reaper wanted to make sure his bases were covered so he didn't assault the Citadel only to find that nothing would happen because this mysterious Conduit was somehow blocking him. Upon finding out the truth, that it's a backdoor to the Citadel, they coulda said "Fuck it, lets use this to attack. Give the order to the fleet to move out."

I think you missed my point: I think Sovereign waited to long. You said that Saren had his SPECTRE status revoked after Eden Prime, but my point was that he never should have attacked Eden Prime in the first place, thus never losing his SPECTRE status and never alerting the galaxy that he was up to no good.

Which brings up this section:

If nothing else, it could be that he found out that the Conduit was somehow involved with the Reaper signal not working. He might have known that the Citadel was Sovereign's ultimate goal, but with the Conduit still being an unknown, it's likely the big bad Reaper wanted to make sure his bases were covered so he didn't assault the Citadel only to find that nothing would happen because this mysterious Conduit was somehow blocking him. Upon finding out the truth, that it's a backdoor to the Citadel, they coulda said "Fuck it, lets use this to attack. Give the order to the fleet to move out."

The Reaper invasion had been going off without a hitch for countless cycles...yet HOLY SHIT! All of a sudden the plan isn't working! WTF?! Cold, ruthless, and calculating as it is, Sovereign likely wanted to know WHY its plan wasn't working and the only clue it had was that this "Conduit" was somehow connected with it being unable to signal the Citadel and as such wanted to ensure it was destroyed or at least ensure it wouldn't be a liability when the time to attack came.

But besides that, Saren isn't the one that can turn the Citadel into a relay, Sovereign is. Saren had to be there to manually transfer control of the station to Sovereign. So it's not like Saren could just walk up with a smile and a nod and push a couple buttons when no one's looking and out pop da Reapers. As such having a MASSIVE army was necessary or else the Citadel fleet would have destroyed Sovereign when it approached by itself. And that army wasn't ready when the game began. Yes Saren had some Krogan, but not an army. He already had an army of Geth, but that might not have been fully prepared either. And as I mentioned, he was also wanting an army of Rachni for shock troops and they sure as hell weren't ready by the time the game started.

 

[Elamdri]

The Reaper invasion had been going off without a hitch for countless cycles...yet HOLY SHIT! All of a sudden the plan isn't working! WTF?! Cold, ruthless, and calculating as it is, Sovereign likely wanted to know WHY its plan wasn't working and the only clue it had was that this "Conduit" was somehow connected with it being unable to signal the Citadel and as such wanted to ensure it was destroyed or at least ensure it wouldn't be a liability when the time to attack came.

Well that may be, but Sovereign still obviously thought that he could activate the relay manually or there would have been no point to them trying in the first place. In which case, then why not activate the relay and kill everyone and then figure out what happened AFTERWARDS.

But besides that, Saren isn't the one that can turn the Citadel into a relay, Sovereign is. Saren had to be there to manually transfer control of the station to Sovereign. So it's not like Saren could just walk up with a smile and a nod and push a couple buttons when no one's looking and out pop da Reapers. As such having a MASSIVE army was necessary or else the Citadel fleet would have destroyed Sovereign when it approached by itself. And that army wasn't ready when the game began. Yes Saren had some Krogan, but not an army. He already had an army of Geth, but that might not have been fully prepared either. And as I mentioned, he was also wanting an army of Rachni for shock troops and they sure as hell weren't ready by the time the game started.

See, I think you're wrong there. I don't think Saren needed to wait for any of that. Hell, Sovereign and the Geth fleet decimated the Citadel Fleet and the Destiny Ascension. It was only because the Alliance Fleet was on standbye that they stood a chance.

I think that if Sovereign and the Geth suddenly streamed through the Relay, Saren could have easily waltzed up to the Citadel Controls unopposed and turned control over to Sovereign without any fuss.

Mind if you if that happened, there would be no game. That's not my point. My point is that I think the whole plot of ME1 is incredibly silly.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip

Oh I'm certain Sovereign knew he could activate it manually...that was the point of his Plan B of plugging into the Citadel and opening it himself. Vigil on Ilos even says that's what he's going to do now that the signal isn't working right. I can definitely see where you're judgement is coming from, unfortunately there's no evidence to prove either one of us right. I could simply say "The Geth fleet wasn't big enough for a frontal Citadel assault when the game begins." and you wouldn't be able to prove me wrong, just like you could say the exact opposite: "The Geth fleet was massive and ready to strike from the get-go, going to Eden Prime was a needless waste of time." and I wouldn't be able to prove YOU wrong.

But seeing as how the game and plot actually exist, I think there's more non-evidence to support my theory so

 

[Elamdri]

Snip

Oh I'm certain Sovereign knew he could activate it manually...that was the point of his Plan B of plugging into the Citadel and opening it himself. Vigil on Ilos even says that's what he's going to do now that the signal isn't working right. I can definitely see where you're judgement is coming from, unfortunately there's no evidence to prove either one of us right. I could simply say "The Geth fleet wasn't big enough for a frontal Citadel assault when the game begins." and you wouldn't be able to prove me wrong, just like you could say the exact opposite: "The Geth fleet was massive and ready to strike from the get-go, going to Eden Prime was a needless waste of time." and I wouldn't be able to prove YOU wrong.

But seeing as how the game and plot actually exist, I think there's more non-evidence to support my theory so

Fair nuff, it's just been bugging the crap out of me.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip

Oh I'm certain Sovereign knew he could activate it manually...that was the point of his Plan B of plugging into the Citadel and opening it himself. Vigil on Ilos even says that's what he's going to do now that the signal isn't working right. I can definitely see where you're judgement is coming from, unfortunately there's no evidence to prove either one of us right. I could simply say "The Geth fleet wasn't big enough for a frontal Citadel assault when the game begins." and you wouldn't be able to prove me wrong, just like you could say the exact opposite: "The Geth fleet was massive and ready to strike from the get-go, going to Eden Prime was a needless waste of time." and I wouldn't be able to prove YOU wrong.

But seeing as how the game and plot actually exist, I think there's more non-evidence to support my theory so

Fair nuff, it's just been bugging the crap out of me.

I can understand that, apparent plot holes have a tendency to do that.

A couple of other things to consider: we don't know how long Saren has been working for Sovereign. Could simply be he just never got the chance to go to the Citadel and do what you're suggesting.

The Geth fleet wasn't at full complicity. We now know that only about half the Geth went with Sovereign. Half the Geth fleet and a Reaper would likely not be enough to defeat the 3 fleets that guard the Citadel, as such they had to build more ships.

Going to Eden Prime could have quite simply been an cover-up mission from the start. Obviously they knew that another beacon had been found, yet it had the same message (just more garbled) than the one that Saren had already found on Virmire. As such it could have been that Sovereign wanted to ensure that no one else but his puppet Saren knew about the information in the beacons.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Saren had to attack Eden Prime. It is a human colony outside Council jurisdiction. SPECTRE status means nothing there. And he needed the knowledge from prothean beacons. Not just to find the conduit, but to be able to disable the signal. He doesn't know prothean language. And prothean beacons contain knowledge of prothean language. Therefore, they are dangerous tools in hands of your enemies. They had to be used and then destroyed. Saren doesn't know anything about the signal either, except what it does.
And it's not like humans would simply give him the beacon back on Eden Prime. Also, knowing what Saren is like even if those humans would give him the beacon peacefully, it is likely that he would never even consider that option knowing that he's the ultimate renegade character.

Also you have to take into account that Saren had other goals besides finding the Conduit. He was desperate to find a way to break free from Sovereign's indoctrination.

 

[Vault101]

the visuals: I catch allot of flak on this website for saying this but graphics matter to me and compared to the games i was used to mass effect had terrible graphics. and also fighting white geth in white environments when the geth would go so far as hiding on the white walls and white ceiling was a design choice made to annoy me

and i especially hated the mother fucking mako

so yeh im voting for not liking mass effect 1

I think Mass effect had a better story than ME2

but I do agree in that I dont think it had bad graphics...jsut un polished, and VERY cut and paste...

not only the micro managing (dear god) but all the different armours were palette swaps..how boring

that said...theres a certain comthing about it, like its cheesyness, how the game isnt afraid to be different to the grittyness of gears of war

 

[Snotnarok]

Every game has to start somewhere. And I don't think Saren was an idiot, just following orders and perhaps worse off mentally from the indoctrination. Could he have done it better? Sure but given that he was under the control of the Reapers who were probably not really monitoring how the situation was going from out of the freaking galaxy, they just wanted to stop word from getting out and that's where the attack on Eden Prime came in.

Also the game looks a bit nicer on PC, still copy-pasta stuff but eh it's pretty for what is is and when it came from.

Anyone else remember when it was called ...I think it was SFX..

 

[Freechoice]

Saren was better than Kai Leng, which is kinda damning for Kai Leng, cause Saren was a shit character. Stereotypical villain number 563043.

Personally, I think ME1 was the worst game in the series by a considerable margin. The story was meh, the inventory management was cumbersome, the environments ranged from mildly interesting to boring, the conversations were very underwhelming...

Meh. ME1 is a huge MEH for me.

The Mehss Mehffect series.