#wren files

[acequeenking]

Wren Files #25: Tali’Zorah Vas Kick-Ass

Tali has matured into quite the leader by the time you meet her in Mass Effect 2.

In Mass Effect 1 Tali is a brave girl, intrepid, but...she's not a leader. She's content to take direction, to explain her exotic culture to you. She asks permission to share data; she doesn't cause waves.

By Mass Effect 2, Tali can make up her damn mind. You see it right away, on your first mission at Freedom's Progress. Cerberus isn't popular with the quarians (can't imagine why), and they pull guns on Shepard and their team. Tali is the who takes charge and defuses the situation, telling Pazza he has two choices: put up or shut up.

Her command grows still during the time we don't see her, Shepard being too busy running around getting the Illusive Man's coffee and extra crew members; by the time we meet her again on Haelstom, she's even more of a leader. She's revered by her fellow quarians, held as the leader of a high-risk mission. Unlike Pazza, Kal'Reegar listens to her, respects her. Your crew, too, follows orders from her. Without question.

A lot of the stories in Mass Effect's character arcs are about finding their ways in the larger universe. In Mass Effect 3, Tali expresses doubt about being an admiral, but replaying ME2, it's clear that she had the makings of one all along.

[acequeenking]

Wren Files #24: The Futility of Cerberus

Okay So.

Now that we've gotten into Mass Effect 2 and how cute Wren is, now that she made the transfer, I can feel okay with being a bit negative and saying that I really resent how much Cerberus takes over the plot in Mass Effect 2.

I never particularly liked Cerberus in ME1. They weren't the most interesting enemy encounters in the sidequests (that honor still goes to the crazy biotic cult IMO); they were a boring sci-fi cliche. Nearly every space strategy game has a militaristic, humanity-or-die faction, and Cerberus doesn't really bend the trope in any meaningful way, despite the Illusive Man's insistence that Cerberus isn't as evil as we believe it is.

But that's not why I resent it. At least not entirely.

I resent the sudden hijacking of the Reaper plot; I resent the fact that most of the game has you playing a go-fer for a galactic sleaze. I resent the fact that Shepard is railroaded into doing this; there's not a fuck-you option, even if it would be pointless. Worst of all, I resent the idea that ME2 posits: That Cerberus is a good organization.

Because even if you don’t find their goals abhorrent, which is a bit of a stretch... by ME3, even Bioware isn’t giving them the benefit of the doubt. Even in the opening mission on Mars, you're headbutting Cerberus goons like it's going out of style. The desire to convince the player that this is going somewhere, that Cerberus has an important part to play, only to find out...it doesn't.  For Cerberus is a goon-factory, and into a goon factory, it returns.

[acequeenking]

Wren Files #10: Loveless Yet Overloved

(Welcome to the Wren files! I’m taking one last trip through the original Mass Effect trilogy before Andromeda comes out, and writing my thoughts down as I do. Come for the pre-Andromeda excitement, stay for the pointless speculation!)

So...somewhere, somehow, I think I messed up.

I finished Feros recently – more on that later – only to find, to my surprise, that I've been caught up in a love triangle with Kaiden and Liara. Neither of whom I was romancing.

Both had worried words for me when I stepped into their stations; Liara babbled about how she was afraid Lt. Alenko was special to me, while Kaiden wondered if I wanted a bookish girl like Liara. This was both surprising and unwanted; one of the things I'd most been looking forward to with the Same Sex Romance mod (besides romancing Ash, obviously) was that it made it so you actually had to select the flirty options to...trigger the romance. I'd never selected them, always sticking to the middle options when things got a bit too nice.

Worse, Ashley's romance never triggered for me. How Wren hungered for that; every conversation with her a baited breath, noticing all the things they had in common – Military families! Duties! Punching! - only to never get a flirty option. I'm not sure what I did wrong, what dialogue I skipped but – she isn't into Wren, sadly.

Which is frustrating. I'm not sure where I goofed up, or if the mod simply doesn't work if you put it into a game that's already been started, or if it works with Steam versions but not Origin, or if I just plain fucked it up by not doing something/doing too much something. Either way, it's a bit of a downer.

[acequeenking]

Wren Files #2: Compassion vs. Practicality

(Welcome to the Wren files! I’m taking one last trip through the original Mass Effect trilogy before Andromeda comes out, and writing my thoughts down as I do. Come for the pre-Andromeda excitement, stay for the pointless speculation!) 

One thing I really like about the early choices on Eden Prime is how they help to characterize Shepard. For example, after Jenkin dies, Shepard is given three choices:

A) "He deserves a burial." B) "We can't help him now." C) "Forget about him."

I think this is a rather good use of the paragon/renegade system as designed. Whatever you choose here doesn't really matter - Shepard and Kaiden move on, regardless. But the first option specifically takes time out to talk about arranging services for Jenkins, even if you can't do it now; this earns paragon points. Brushing it off gets you nothing; being cavalier and suggesting you focus on the mission gets you straight up renegade. No matter what decision you make, it says something about Shepard's view toward others.

Which path Shepard chooses depends, of course, on your role-playing. Or at least, it should depend on whether you want to be a paragon, the type who does things to help others, even if it costs them their time or their own goals; this is in contrast to renegade Shepards, who take the direct approach - even at the risk of short term suffering. It’s compassion versus practicality, and there should be are positive and negatives to both. 

Or at least, that's how it should work. Sometimes Bioware forgets their own morality system and lapses back to the Knights of the Old Republic style "Do you want to be a good guy or a TOTAL bastard who ruins entire planets?" black vs. white morality. One of my big criticisms of the game is that you are rewarded far more for taking the Paragon path; particularly in ME3, where renegade actions often result in lower point totals in a game where war assets are, for better or worse, a major part of the game.

But here, in simpler times, it works. 

[acequeenking]

servantofclio replied to your post “barbex replied to your post “The Wren Files #1: The Problem with...”

This would have been so interesting -- though Nihlus is only one in a long line of Bioware mentor-figures who die early on, heh.

I think character mentors is a particularly bloody field to get into in Bioware games. One hopes Trask, Duncan, Nihlus, Anderson, and Jenkins were well compensated for the risks in their profession. ;)