Yeah, yeah, I know. It's yet a-fucking-nother ME thread. But I figured I'd mix it up real quick. This is actually the first of 2 ME related threads, and hopefully they'll take some people away from all these ending shenanigans.
You wanna know the one part of ME2 in particular that really stood out for me? The Normandy crash site DLC (free, I think) where you go down to the snow-laden surface of a planet whose name I forget and collect the dog tags of those unfortunate souls who weren't able to escape the Normandy before the Collectors rolled up and decided to reenact the "Challenger" disaster (look it up if you want, but I warn you: it's pretty tragic). There were no enemies, no piles of boxes except those hiding a tag, no musical changes to let you know that there was someone who desperately needed to get a closer look at the barrel of your gun. Just you, a mountain of wreckage, miles upon miles of snow and ice, and some painful memories of a life that once was.
As you roamed the minute area and collected the tags, the gameplay would shift to a brief cutscene displaying what that section of the SR1 looking like in the old days. A shot of Pressly saluting you, another of the old CiC with the Mako resting on a rock a few feet in front of it, another shot of whoever stayed behind on Virmire. Search around some more and you could find your old N7 helmet from the intro cutscene. Do a tiny bit more digging and you'll find an old datapad detailing a few of Pressly's thoughts about the alien crew members you picked up in the first game. He did quite a bit of warming up to the likes of Tali, Wrex, and Liara (I didn't use Garrus in the first game).
And then came the end of it all. You found all the tags (or most of them; a few are tricky to find). Now all that was left was to pay the SR1 one last piece of respect: a gold memorial depicting the old Normandy in flight. There were a few places you could do this - I always preferred to put it in front of the CiC. And that was it; tags in hand, you go back to the Kodiak so you can head back the SR2 and tell Adm. Hackett that you found all the tags.
There's only one thing I didn't like about that part of ME2 and that was the fact after placing the memorial, Shep doesn't salute. Now, I'm not sure if the Alliance is based on US or Canadian military, but the lack of a salute from Shep just feels lacking. Other than that, I thought the section was nicely done.
Here's the ultimate kicker: I remember reading something about how the "Normandy Crash Site" was pointless because you don't fight/kill anyone. Now, as a member of the US Armed Forces, I actually find that mentality insulting. Yes, you read that correctly. Now, I'm not gonna knock the fact that I may feel that way only because I'm in the military, but I still think to outright say that part of ME2 is out and out bad "because there are no shooty bits" is tacky in I don't know how many ways.
So I end with this: BioWare (a division of EA), we've had a... rocky relationship the last couple of years, but I still applaud you for creating this. Good show, ladies and gentlemen. Good show.
You wanna know the one part of ME2 in particular that really stood out for me? The Normandy crash site DLC (free, I think) where you go down to the snow-laden surface of a planet whose name I forget and collect the dog tags of those unfortunate souls who weren't able to escape the Normandy before the Collectors rolled up and decided to reenact the "Challenger" disaster (look it up if you want, but I warn you: it's pretty tragic). There were no enemies, no piles of boxes except those hiding a tag, no musical changes to let you know that there was someone who desperately needed to get a closer look at the barrel of your gun. Just you, a mountain of wreckage, miles upon miles of snow and ice, and some painful memories of a life that once was.
As you roamed the minute area and collected the tags, the gameplay would shift to a brief cutscene displaying what that section of the SR1 looking like in the old days. A shot of Pressly saluting you, another of the old CiC with the Mako resting on a rock a few feet in front of it, another shot of whoever stayed behind on Virmire. Search around some more and you could find your old N7 helmet from the intro cutscene. Do a tiny bit more digging and you'll find an old datapad detailing a few of Pressly's thoughts about the alien crew members you picked up in the first game. He did quite a bit of warming up to the likes of Tali, Wrex, and Liara (I didn't use Garrus in the first game).
And then came the end of it all. You found all the tags (or most of them; a few are tricky to find). Now all that was left was to pay the SR1 one last piece of respect: a gold memorial depicting the old Normandy in flight. There were a few places you could do this - I always preferred to put it in front of the CiC. And that was it; tags in hand, you go back to the Kodiak so you can head back the SR2 and tell Adm. Hackett that you found all the tags.
There's only one thing I didn't like about that part of ME2 and that was the fact after placing the memorial, Shep doesn't salute. Now, I'm not sure if the Alliance is based on US or Canadian military, but the lack of a salute from Shep just feels lacking. Other than that, I thought the section was nicely done.
Here's the ultimate kicker: I remember reading something about how the "Normandy Crash Site" was pointless because you don't fight/kill anyone. Now, as a member of the US Armed Forces, I actually find that mentality insulting. Yes, you read that correctly. Now, I'm not gonna knock the fact that I may feel that way only because I'm in the military, but I still think to outright say that part of ME2 is out and out bad "because there are no shooty bits" is tacky in I don't know how many ways.
So I end with this: BioWare (a division of EA), we've had a... rocky relationship the last couple of years, but I still applaud you for creating this. Good show, ladies and gentlemen. Good show.
