Of course, the best way to play this trilogy is to start from the beginning, to design your character from the ground up in the first game, and carry him/her through to the other two games. This way, you'll be able to gain various bonuses in the second and third games. Most interestingly, however, all decisions you make carry over as well, and the games will recognize who you let live and die throughout. Through this, you could play through the entire saga and have a totally different experience most of the time.
My experience in playing this trio of games has been so engrossing and fun that I thought I'd share it here. If you're going through the games and are stuck on something, maybe you can learn something from my experiences (especially regarding the ME2 suicide mission). Maybe my playthroughs will bring back some nostalgic memories for you. Maybe you just won't give a darn. In any case, here's how my story went while playing the Mass Effect trilogy.
Be aware that spoilers are ahead.
Mass Effect 1
First, as with any other decent RPG, I took the time to carefully design my character. I opted to make Commander Shepard a female, with short red hair and bright green eyes. I shaped her face and made her look like this:
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| Commander Elyssa Shepard, infiltrator, leader, soldier, savoir... |
Upon starting up the game, I progressed through Eden Prime just fine and dandy. Went back to the Citadel, told everybody what happened, picked up Garrus and Wrex, and shot up Chora's Den. Once I got back to the Normandy, I had the choice to run to Feros or Noveria. I decided to head to Noveria. Afterward, I realized I probably should have gone to Feros first instead; Noveria proved to be quite the challenge. For the majority of missions, I stuck with Garrus and Kaidan as my squadmates.
After running around the offices of Noveria for a while, I played through the Lorik Qui'in side missions to gain access to the Synthetic Insights offices. Lots of hard fighting ensued. I found very quickly that being an infiltrator kinda sucked in this game; the sniper rifle bounced around a lot, even when crouched, so it was always hard for me to shoot. Thankfully, I managed to fight my way through all the Noveria sectors, all the way to Matriarch Benezia. I really hated that boss fight; there were Asari commandos and geth everywhere, and there was no real good cover to use. The attacks were brutal. I must have died several times, before finally winning the fight.
When it came to figuring out what to do with the Rachni queen, I decided to let her live. Even though it was pretty tough fighting all the Rachni creatures up to that point, the queen seemed like such a nice creature. When the neutron purge happened, I just dashed across the room and headed straight for the tram; there really wasn't much of a need to fight my way through.
Before tackling Feros, I decided to comb through the galaxy and complete as many side missions as I could, before progressing further through the story. That in itself took some time, hopping from system to system, scanning each planet and completing each mission. It provides a lot of rewards though, boosting experience points, gaining more money, more items, and such. Among those side missions, I completed that one where you save Terra Nova from a rocket-propelled asteroid. I spared the life of the Batarian terrorist afterward (he would come back in ME3, but I would use my paragon score to make him go away). I also made Tali happy by completing her pilgrimage side-quest, I helped Garrus take out Dr. Saleon, and I attacked all the Cerberus bases.
At some point, I played the levels on Therum and got Liara on the team.
Once I felt ready and willing, I went to Feros and dealt with those missions. When it came time to take out the Thorian, I used the gas grenades to keep all the colonists alive, and I carefully sniped away at all the creepers that came out. It was a pretty tough fight with that Asari that kept coming back to life, but I was able to get through it.
Afterward, I continued to do the side missions until I was certain we were all good and ready to go to Virmire. When it came to the middle of the mission, and Wrex was throwing a fit about the Genophage, I was able to use my paragon score to calm him down and keep him on the mission (thus, he would become the krogan chief for the rest of the series). As I neared the end of the mission, I started to get the feeling that some big story twist was going to pop up. Turns out there was; I did predict that Sovereign was some kind of sentient being, but dang, I didn't expect to hear that all of galactic civilization was cyclically wiped out over and over again by these things. Holy crap. To escape Virmire and detonate the bomb, I let Kaidan die, and it was sad.
From there on, I played through Illos and got to the final battle at the Citadel. In between, Commander Shepard fell in love with Liara...awww...
When it came to the final battle, I got to thinking that it was more important to focus all firepower on Sovereign than to waste ships on saving the council. So, despite being a mostly-paragon player, I let the council die. In retrospect, this would seriously bite me in the second and third games. When I finally got to fight Saren, I used my high paragon score to convince him to kill himself; I was glad to have avoided another fight where I'd have to shoot him on his hoverboard. I still had the final fight with his Reaper self though; I spent the whole time circling the room, constantly shooting and using my powers against him. His health was eventually whittled down, and the game was won. Yay! When the question came up about who would lead the new council, I let them decide for themselves.
Mass Effect 2
Upon Shepard's rebirth, I pretty much kept everything as is, and continued on as a female Earthborn infiltrator. After playing through the obligatory prologue missions and running through Freedom's Progress, I pretty much spent my time exploring the galaxy, scouring each planet for resources and side-missions. My progress was sometimes interrupted by the Illusive Man giving me a priority mission, but I was keen to try and find every team member and gain his/her loyalty.
At this point, I can't remember exactly what order I recruited people in and what side mission I did at what point. I made it a routine to run around the Normandy and the Citadel to check up on everybody, picking up and completing side quests as I could.
Among the first team members I picked up, I got Garrus and Mordin out of Omega, got Kasumi right away at the Citadel, and I recruited Zaeed (from where, I don't remember). After the mission on Horizon, I focused more on finding more team members, so I picked up Zack, Tali, Grunt, Legion, Samara, and Thane, and completed all their side quests. I became aware that doing team members' side quests and gaining their loyalty caused some conflict among team members later on; Miranda and Jack would have a problem with each other, and Tali and Legion would be at odds too. I had to put off on their missions until I was certain I had a high enough paragon level to make everybody happy; I spent some time side-questing on other things, before tackling the loyalty quests for Tali, Legion, Jack, and Miranda. In the end, I was able to get 100% loyalty on everybody.
With Kasumi's side mission completed, I let her keep her stuff regarding her boyfriend. She seemed happier that way.
I tried to oblige Zaeed's quest of vengeance, but in the end, I opted to save the colonists rather than to hunt down the enemy. When Zaeed complained, paragon points allowed him to get over himself and remain loyal to me.
When it came to completing Mordin's side mission, I forced Maelon to leave, rather than to let him be killed.
I took Jack to the Cerberus facility and let her blow it all up.
Did Grunt's quest, and there was a lot of awesome creature slaying going on.
In helping Tali out, I used the paragon options to make the quarian admirals forget about the trial and focus on Tali's good side. So they never got the evidence on Tali's father, and everybody got a better opinion on her.
Going through Garrus' side mission, I started to do the right thing and talk to Sodinis. But when Garrus started yelling at me, I decided just to let him take the shot. So he got his vengeance, and we're all happy (though I'm glad Zaeed never griped at me for stopping his vengeance, but letting Garrus get his man).
With Jacob's side quests, I brought the Alliance in to put his father on trial and save the survivors.
Once I got Samara, I went through the quest to hunt down and let her kill Morinth. Righteousness prevailed.
Doing Thane's quest was a little tricky, because I accidentally lost track of the target and failed it at first. Upon replaying it, Thane managed to intercept his son properly, and it was all good.
Did Miranda's quest, she got to meet her sister, and they were happy.
Did Legion's side quest, and if I remember right, I had him delete the heretics.
Along the way, Shepard developed a relationship with Jacob. Was getting concerned that Kasumi was going to make a move on him, but it all worked out in the end.
I don't think I ever really stuck with one team the whole way through: I had a tendency to mix and match my team members. I probably used Garrus, Jacob, Tali, and Kasumi the most, but a lot of it depended on what types of powers I felt I wanted. I dragged Grunt along for missions where I felt he'd cause the most damage; I'd use Samara, Jack, or Miranda for biotics.
When it finally came time to attack the Collector's home world, I had initially set up Legion for the technical team, Zaeed as the fire team, Samara as the biotic woman, Grunt for the diversion, and Mordin as the escort. I would up losing Legion (because Zaeed is apparently an inept jerk as the fire team guy), and Grunt (because, apparently, this krogan can't take a single bullet). Feeling a little let down, I replayed the final mission and changed things around.
The winning team set-up for me turned out to be:
- Technical: Tali
- Fire Team: Garrus
- Biotics: Samara
- Diversion: Jacob
- Escort: Mordin
For the final boss fight, I took Legion and Jack with me; this left a big enough defense around the Normandy to ensure everybody's survival. In the end, everybody lived, and it was great.
Mass Effect 3
Once the stuff hit the fan, and I went through Earth and Mars, I pretty much did what I did before, running through the galaxy to find war assets and artifacts, and occasionally running through the Normandy and the Citadel to check up on people and pick up more quests. As Cerberus troops continuously caused trouble, I decided that I hated them.
Went through the missions on Palavan and Tuchanka to recruit the help of the turians and krogan. Upon doing so, I cured the Genophage, and there was much celebration among the krogan. Of course, the Salarian councilor was ticked off.
Had another run-in with the Rachni. Was able to get the queen off-world to help in the war effort. It must have been funny to freak everybody out at the Crucible with these Rachni running around.
Upon running across Ashley Williams again, I checked up on her in the hospital and continued to be nice to her...even though she's a total female dog at times. When the coup happened on the Citadel and I had to convince her that Udina was evil, she did come around and hold him up at gunpoint. When he pulled a gun on me, I shot him in the neck. It was self-defense, I swear!
Then, it was time to deal with the geth and quarians. After running through this entire mission, I figured that things would get touchy between the two races if I picked one over the other. Fortunately, with the right paragon options and with a ME2 imported character, I was able to get the two races to get along with each other. So the quarians got to return to their homeworld, and I got the geth to fight for me, how cool is that?
Along the way, Commander Shepard's love for Liara was rekindled. Awww... Things felt a little awkward meeting Jacob again, but Shepard just let it go.
For most of this game, I used Garrus and EDI on most missions. If I felt I needed more tech or biotic powers, I brought either Tali or Liara instead of Garrus or EDI. I occasionally switched things up by using James or Ashley on missions where I felt I needed more strength or firepower. In the final battles, I stuck with Garrus and EDI throughout.
After the final battle and everything, I got to the Citadel and shot the Illusive Man when the option came up. Moving on to meet the Catalyst, I was truly stumped by the options that came up: either control the Reapers (which felt like the wrong thing to do), destroy the Reapers (which didn't sound like it would have solved the bigger issues at hand), or Synthesize. I decided to go with the Synthesize option, killing Shepard in the processes, but stopping the war and uniting organics and synthetics across the galaxy. I was genuinely moved when I saw Joker and EDI together.
Summary
So that's the epic saga of Commander Elyssa Shepard, my ruthless Earthborn infiltrator.
Levels: Reached level 49 on ME1, level 30 in ME2, level 55 in ME3.
Disposition: Paragon the vast majority of the time.
Commonly-Used Team Members: Garrus, Kaidan, Kasumi, Samara, Jack, Liara, Tali, EDI.
Powers: Primarily mastered the powers of incineration, inferno grenades, disruptor ammo, hacking, and sabotage.
Weapons: In ME1, I was limited to use the sniper rifle, and pistol. In ME2, I made good use of the sniper rifle, assault rifle, and SMG. In ME3, became quite fond of the geth pulse rifle, the Mantis sniper rifle, and the Shuriken SMG.
Love Interests: Liara, Jacob, then Liara again.
Rachni Queen: Alive and well.
Wrex: Was convinced to stick with Shepard on Virmire. Went on to be the clan chief.
Sacrificed: Kaidan on Virmire. It couldn't be helped.
The Council: Died.
Suicide Mission: Everybody survived!
Resolution of the Genophage: Cured. Krogans rule, Salarians can shut up.
Resolution of the Quarian/Geth Conflict: The two races were united in peaceful coexistence.
War Assets: Reached over 4,000, having done so many side quests, and reaching 63% galactic readiness.
Ending: Synthesized. Commander Shepard dies, but the Reapers are lifted away, and galactic civilization is saved as organics and synthesized creatures everywhere are fused together somehow.
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Favorite side character: Tali. I think a lot of it is because of the mystique of quarians in general: they all look so mysterious and awesome with their suits and their cool glowing eyes through their purple face-plates. They all have really unique accents, making them seem even more otherworldly. They also have a unique history (not too different from Battlestar Galactica, actually, given that both these franchises focus on an organic race being driven out by a synthetic race they've built themselves). Quarians themselves are pretty interesting, as a race of interstellar nomads tragically forced off their own homeworld from their own wrongdoings. Tali is cool though, because you learn so much about her culture through her, and you really grow to like her as things go on and you help her and her people out. She's also funny when she's drunk. Close runner-ups are Kasumi, Garrus, and EDI (EDI in particular always had the best jokes). Least favorite has always been Ashley Williams; I hated the way she always doubted Shepard. Miranda is a little annoying as well.
Favorite planet: Don't really have one. I suppose if I had to pick one, it would be the Illium, with its tall, sleek Star Wars style cities. The only thing cooler than that would be the Citadel itself, which is also really cool.
Favorite mission: Don't really have one. Some of the ones that I remember most fondly include Kasumi's side mission, Virmire, the Shadow Broker mission, Project Overlord, and the Terra Nova mission.
Favorite weapon: Geth pulse rifle. Fires a pretty fast and long stream of shots.
Favorite ship: Although the Normandy is really cool, I was really impressed by the Shadow Broker's ship. It's a sizable ship, always floating high in the atmosphere among violent storms, its whole hull and chassis reacting to the lightning and winds. I think it's quite imaginative and really cool to look at.
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Now What?
Even though I've gone through all three games in succession, there's still so much to explore. Just for fun, I'd love to play this series through being totally renegade now. I'd love to build my character up to be some kind of badass biotic warrior. I'd probably make Shepard a male this time too.
On top of that, I'll need at least two more play-throughs for the platinum trophy in ME1 (for difficulties and using certain squad members), one more for ME2 (mostly for the insanity difficulty), and maybe one or two more for ME3 (insanity difficulty, combat stuff).
That's one of the greatest joys of this game series; there are so many different ways to play this and many different paths to take. There is always something new to explore.
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