Things You Did Not Know About ME1 On Your First Playthrough

[mr insomniac]

I didn't find Morrigan to be obnoxiously violent either; in fact there's only one time I remember her suggesting a specific call to action that'd involve violence (specifically suggesting that killing Loghain and then gathering the army would be the best way to proceed). Most other times she seems to value individualism more than anything else.

Doesn't she ask you at one point to like murder your family for some marginal magical bonus if you're an elf? I remember reading about that somewhere.

 

I've not gotten that particular dialogue. Given that the Dalish Elf origin is parentless, is this the City Elf (has a single parent) or more likely an elf mage?

Perhaps it's the choice between the templars and the mages? I've played the game through as an elf mage, and you can basically choose your past when someone asks about it. It's not all that important and doesn't impact the game from what I experienced.

 

It's actually possible to drop information in without it seeming like an infodump. In the real world, conversations are made on the basis of shared information, mutual assumptions, and one can often discover these simply by listening. Infodumps completely lack this, and it makes it really blunt and lazy way to explain the setting.

When Tali or Liara or Wrex or Garrus tells Shepard something about themselves, (s)he is discovering things about them simply by listening. As the player you can choose to comment on or ask about something they say, in order to further the conversation and learn more. Or you can decide you've heard enough, say, "I have to go," and leave it at that. Sometimes one of them will ask Shepard questions, where you, as the player, can reveal things about Shepard, usually based on the background and personality you choose during character creation. So let's see, shared information, listening... hmm.

[Cycloneman]

When Tali or Liara or Wrex or Garrus tells Shepard something about themselves, (s)he is discovering things about them simply by listening. As the player you can choose to comment on or ask about something they say, in order to further the conversation and learn more. Or you can decide you've heard enough, say, "I have to go," and leave it at that. Sometimes one of them will ask Shepard questions, where you, as the player, can reveal things about Shepard, usually based on the background and personality you choose during character creation. So let's see, shared information, listening... hmm.

Blah blah "Hello Shepard," blah blah "Did you know we got genocided? It's true." ****, even this conversation being initiated by Shepard with, "hey, how about that Genophage?" would be better.

 

Let's check up on Tali's convo about Quarians. Nope, still not good writing!

I dunno, again to me its about execution, and I had no problem with Wrex. You didn't like him, fine. But you're making criteria for "coolness" that's only validity is your personal opinion.

Wrex is a boring, two-dimensional character. I guess that the (incidental) writing for him manages to be passable, but that does not impart any depth to his character. You could write out a couple words, "ruthless fighter" or something, and anybody could generally find what his dialogue would be in a given conversation. "Let's kill this guy." "Let's kill that guy." "Let's kill this third guy." Since this is his whole character, it's simple to predict what he does, and his presence thus becomes pointless. Also it's an annoying personality unless you, the player, wants to kill everything.

 

Garrus, having more depth, cannot be so easily predicted. I didn't realize, for example, that he would respond negatively to my proposal to kill the four stupified indoctrinated Salarians, but it makes sense with respect to his character (the four stupified indoctrinated Salarians are not "bad people," they are victims).

Because individuals of each race clearly must have the same opinions of a galactic encyclopedia.

 

Reading about something and gaining perspective from individuals who experienced that something is completely different.

Garrus's and Liara's conversations work because they aren't constantly defaulting back to "let me tell you about turians/asari." Liara actually does bring up her species and tries to better explain asari culture through the natural course of conversation (she's talking about sex; asari have a lot of stereotypes floating around about promiscuity), so it works. It never works anywhere else, so I'm forced to assume that only happened on accident, or they playtested it and found people expected Liara to be "easy," or something along those lines.

[Amentep]

Yeah, sorry I just don't agree with your distinctions. To me there is no difference between Wrex, Tali, Garrus or Liara in terms of their dialogues, quality of writing or interesting elements within their character. In fact Wrex wasn't all "kill that guy" in the conversations I had with him; yes he's a ruthless fighter just as Garrus is loose cannon cop. But what makes both of them interesting is that that is not all there is to them, at least in my eyes.

[mr insomniac]

Blah blah "Hello Shepard," blah blah "Did you know we got genocided? It's true." ****, even this conversation being initiated by Shepard with, "hey, how about that Genophage?" would be better.

Did you watch the clip you linked to? I dunno, I guess I just interpreted it differently. When Wrex says, "there's no story," you can leave things right there and -- this is the beauty part -- if you choose, you never have to talk to Wrex again. But in that clip, Shepard did initiate things by pushing for a story and then comparing what the turians did to the Krogan to the first contact war. Wrex told her it wasn't the same at all, and why. What's the problem with that? Yes, the way the game is designed you have to follow through on the converstion up to a point, but it's the same with all characters, and you can opt out without digging too deep into the whole genophage thing if you want to.

Let's check up on Tali's convo about Quarians. Nope, still not good writing!

I thought finding out about the quarians was interesting. The idea of a race of people with no planet to call their own, scavenging what they could to keep this massive flotilla of ships together, it intrigued me. Finding out about the pilgrimage that every quarian goes through and the way their government is set up, and how fragile their existence really is, well I thought it was really cool. Tali's accent helped with that

 

And who else are you going to find out about the quarians from? IIRC, She's the only one you meet in the entire game. And again, Shepard is the one driving the conversation forward. As the player you don't have to go that far into what makes all these different aliens tick. To me, if you don't do that, then you're missing out.

Garrus, having more depth, cannot be so easily predicted. I didn't realize, for example, that he would respond negatively to my proposal to kill the four stupified indoctrinated Salarians, but it makes sense with respect to his character (the four stupified indoctrinated Salarians are not "bad people," they are victims).

Funny thing about that is, you could take any two squadmates along on Virmire, and one of them will react negatively to killing the indoctrinated salarians. Mass Effect is full of situations like that. I dunno how it's decided which squadmate has which reaction, but there are times when it seemed wildly out of character. I'm guessing you could replay that and even take Garrus and a different someone than you did the first time, and that squadmate would be the one to react negatively.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I thought finding out about the quarians was interesting. The idea of a race of people with no planet to call their own, scavenging what they could to keep this massive flotilla of ships together, it intrigued me. Finding out about the pilgrimage that every quarian goes through and the way their government is set up, and how fragile their existence really is, well I thought it was really cool. Tali's accent helped with that

 

If only Tali wasn't the superspecial daughter of an ultra-important member of the government.. it seemed so... unnecessary.

 

P.S. : Am I the only one reminded of Battlestar Galactica when I hear the story of the Quarians?

[Gorth]

P.S. : Am I the only one reminded of Battlestar Galactica when I hear the story of the Quarians?

No

[Oner]

I always wondered why the krogan looked so damn familiar.

[Cycloneman]

So how is Renegade Shep/Garrus/Tali chemistry? I have heard it is pretty good.

Funny thing about that is, you could take any two squadmates along on Virmire, and one of them will react negatively to killing the indoctrinated salarians. Mass Effect is full of situations like that. I dunno how it's decided which squadmate has which reaction, but there are times when it seemed wildly out of character. I'm guessing you could replay that and even take Garrus and a different someone than you did the first time, and that squadmate would be the one to react negatively.

Seeing as how my other party member was Liara and she didn't approve either, I don't think that's true.

 

To the other points: yes, you can opt out... but that's all there is to these characters. In her on-ship conversations Tali is The Quarian Chick. That's it. Wrex is That Frog Guy Who Kills People.

[mr insomniac]

To the other points: yes, you can opt out... but that's all there is to these characters. In her on-ship conversations Tali is The Quarian Chick. That's it. Wrex is That Frog Guy Who Kills People.

And Garrus is The Conflicted Ex-Cop, and Liara is The Bookworm, and Ashley is The Racist Marine, and Kaidan is... well, in my games Kaidan is always The Short Straw On Virmire. Any of them can be characterized (caricaturized?) in such a way. Big deal. I would say that for you it's not about the quality of the writing, but about personal preference. You didn't feel that all the things Tali and Wrex tell you about themselves and their people give them depth beyond "The Quarian Chick" and "The Frog Guy"... and that's perfectly okay. I disagree with you, but I'm not going to try and convince you your opinions are wrong.

[HoonDing]

Tali is basically a walking Codex entry. I bet nobody even talks to her anymore after finishing the game once (of course, that is probably true for all companions).

[Orogun01]

Tali is basically a walking Codex entry. I bet nobody even talks to her anymore after finishing the game once (of course, that is probably true for all companions).

Garrus does

[Oner]

I still don't get why Tali's annoyed.

[Amentep]

Tali is basically a walking Codex entry. I bet nobody even talks to her anymore after finishing the game once (of course, that is probably true for all companions).

 

I always talk to all of them. I'm weird that way.