The Brilliance of Mass Effect 2

[Music] six five four three two one zero all engine running liftoff we have a liftoff 32 minutes past the hour lift up on apollo 11. [Music] mass effect was off to the stars after selling over a million launch copies in november 2007 a company record for a new release bioware capitalized on their new ip with a wave of books toys and comics it was their own little star wars while a small team within bioware's edmonton studio created the bring down the sky and pinnacle station dlcs for mass effect teams within edmonton's bioware labs began work on various spin-offs including 2009's mass effect galaxy for ios and mass effect corsair for the nintendo ds which was ultimately cancelled though mass effect was still a relatively young franchise among gamers who were no less aware of the first game's imperfections than bioware themselves mass effect had a passionate player base pretty much from day one in almost every way the success of mass effect was a dream scenario for bioware presidents rey muzika and greg zeschuk the burgeoning bioware ip they always wanted with a dedicated fan base in tow but for casey hudson and his team at edmonton this was a blessing and a curse mass effect would no doubt flourish like no bioware project before it yet the pressure was on to exceed fans expectations for a sequel after all hudson had pitched mass effect as a trilogy now it was time to make do on that pitch but hudson's team barely scraped by on the first mass effect without cutting corners or compromising significant chunks of the vision how are they going to outdo themselves let alone push shepard's quest to stop the reapers in a compelling direction should they even outdo themselves this was an opportunity for bioware to reign in their ambitions and come back down to earth so to speak and in some aspects of the sequel they absolutely would but in a staggering amount of other ways hudson and his team did the exact opposite with almost terrifying resolve i were charted further and faster into the unknown than they ever had before a goal that required no short amount of reinvention and redefinition not all ideas ambitions or even developers that were present at the start made it through to the end but the ones that did where behold into something truly remarkable baptized by fire a new bioware and a new mass effect were forged for better and for worse it's not working [Music] blinding white disorienting shutters cries and static sharp corners and corridors and only the icy voice of an elusive woman to guide us to safety welcome to mass effect 2 it's pure chaos almost nothing about the human-built hallways of the lazarus research station invoke the alien galaxy we've grown accustomed to every person everything is unfamiliar welcome back to your life the ordeal begs two questions how did we get here and who can we trust jacob taylor and miranda lawson answer the former we've been brought back from the dead by cerberus acclaimed pro-human terrorist network and target of the system's alliance since mass effect 1. the latter goes unanswered not sure i trust you this is the only shuttle of the station you want to stay and rot with the mechs be my guest right from our rude awakening mass effect 2 establishes an atmosphere of uncertainty the position we're begrudgingly forced into and dubious characters were asked to follow are in dire contrast with the uplifting and determinate ideals of the first game's conclusion and if there's anyone who embodies that it's the elusive man the elusive man i thought we'd be meeting face to face unnecessary precaution not unusual for people who know what you and i know the timeless look the drinking cigar the indelible earthly quality of martin sheen the elusive man initially seems as human as human can be but the unnatural glow of his eyes and dying star and the backdrop of his interstellar palace subtly suggests an inhuman control over the flow of space and time akin to playing god the elusive man is ultimately a disturbing answer to mankind's insignificance in the universe a person to whom the constraints of reality are no object but despite his unlimited resources and shadowy motives the elusive man claims to bear an altruistic concern human colonies are disappearing and no one knows why only that it might have something to do with the reapers the elusive man believes shepherd is the only person who can do something about it not because of what they've accomplished but because of their capacity to make the right decision for the player to make the right decision though shepard once promised to do whatever it takes to stop the reapers this leg of the journey hasn't exactly been taken out of choice in fact the more we uncover about cerberus the more we'll not only feel the absence of our choices but the consequences of choices already made for us why would your own commander work for cerberus i don't know but if this is shepherd i don't know shepard would have a reason we might as well have woken up from shepherds to your coma in an entirely different galaxy both on account of this greyer take on the mass effect world and the inversion of bioware's player choice driven fantasy but as we'll see over the course of mass effect 2 this side of the milky way was here long before we were in the terminus systems beyond the domain of humanity for bioware's fantasy mass effect 2 will plunge us headfirst into our greatest challenge yet the galaxy can only be saved by the joined forces of all life in the universe but what sort of barriers stop that from happening what forces divide all life in the universe and in the process of reinvention we'll ask of bioware what the galaxy will ask of shepard was something lost along the way the dark middle chapter of the mass effect trilogy will bring us face to face with the answers and so so much more as we embark on a death-defying quest to stop the collectors and save humanity this is the brilliance of mass effect 2. [Music] [Music] there is perhaps no greater analogy for the leap between mass effect 1 and 2 than the normandy sr2 it's the same ride you know and love but bigger faster and definitely more expensive you might be worried about some of the new additions but you'll come to appreciate them in time and most importantly joker is still the pilot we're staying though right i mean the seat is real leather there was never anything wrong with the last normandy just as there was never anything wrong with the foundation mass effect 1 laid for the trilogy but with reinvention comes reinvigoration and for much of the team at bioware that was sorely needed after mass effect 1. in order to create the proper tools and systems for an entire trilogy each bioware department whether it was art gameplay cinematics or level design worked in silos completely separate from each department's work when the time came they would match their mostly complete silos together and work out the bugs from there while this seemed like a sensible approach for a team that was building practically everything from the ground up it was actually one of bioware's biggest executive missteps on the first game rarely did the silos fit together well and even when they did it didn't exactly result in quality gameplay and because the departments didn't combine their work until late in the process much of mass effect's content was only playable and testable at the last minute leaving bioware a little time to fix glitches determination could only take mass effect so far if bioware were to make a truly great sequel hudson and his team would need to change their approach to game design and naturally there was little harmony on how to do that half the team wanted to redefine the mass effect experience and use the sequel to push the series forward in a new direction the other half wanted a true sequel and to adhere to the mechanics and narrative they already established both camps had great ideas but they needed to work as one so when mass effect 2's development finally began that's exactly what they did [Music] instead of working apart all departments would work together from the beginning in a highly collaborative iterative process one that hudson was intimately familiar with from his background in engineering levels were designed to be playable and testable right from the start and fun was the priority the contribution of one department would inspire the work of another and content that was too buggy or too taxing on system resources could be addressed or expunged early on rather than later in development as a result nearly every aspect of mass effect 2 blossomed despite spending almost half as much time in development as the first game mass effect 2 is double the length and twice the thrill feedback from fans was a crucial element in the outset of mass effect 2's design and that's more than evident when playing one and two back to back character movement and gun play is far tighter and less floaty levels intuitively guide the player to their objective and encourage exploration and though turning a corner to see a room full of tactically arranged crates gets old after a while combat encounters are designed with far more consideration for the player and are so much fun especially with the game's revamped attack and bionic powers and abilities that allow shepherd to destroy their foes in satisfying new ways while the iterative development style of two allowed the team more time to refine core gameplay the collaboration between narrative and technical departments allowed cutscenes and story interactions to be vastly more dynamic than they ever were in one a game that was already pushing the envelope for cinematic conventions and rpgs parish lay armando troisi and their team of cinematic animators and designers conscious dedication to compositional techniques not only enhances the player's immersion but reveals unstated emotional insight or themes tight low angle shots create a more intimate space between a somber thane and shepard the meditative balance of samara is instilled in symmetrical framing and overlapping shepard with edie suggests the difference between organic and synthetic life isn't so clear cut when we made mass effect one and and we saw how people reacted to it we saw that they wanted romances with garris who is a character with an exoskeleton partly because they're not human and partly because the technology and the art worked out so well our our aliens are almost more human than our humans vo directors chris sporters and joining jimmy mcswain elevate video game vocal performances to the utmost prestige into not only enlisting the likes of canadian and sci-fi fame tricia helfer carrion moss and michael hogan or hollywood and tv stars yvonne strahovsky showra and martin sheen but also evoking more compelling performances from returning cast seth green liz sroka allie hillis and of course mark muir and jennifer haley rather than continue with the open quest worlds or uncharted wastelands of mass effect 1 lead designer preston watamaniac and lead level artist michael trottier cultivated a tighter more linear approach to mission design in two one that would lend to mass effect 2's much larger scope through these new levels players could scrape the war-torn wastes of the krogan homeworld to chunka grace the exotic ecological habitats of the korean migrant fleet tread the cosmic metal tubes and fibers of a derelict reaper and traverse a far more exhaustive number of interesting locales than bioware had ever conceived before due's expanded scope likewise allowed the writers to project genuine depth into each setting and explore key sci-fi themes like transhumanism social inequality environmentalism and the morality and ethics of technology in fascinating ways that's what i remember too what the hell is this how can we remember the same thing at the same time hudson's team wasn't afraid to trim the fact of mass effect gone is the first game's cluttered loot system the player has more to buy but less disposable resources and instead of allotting the player to be a jack of all skills and master of a few class-centric abilities mass effect 2 places far more stock in the diversity of its classes soldier withstanding the weapon selection of each class is decidedly limited in two and there's considerably less ability overlap between them though this means shepard is much less of a one-man one-woman army the player is encouraged to be something much more interesting and important a commander what shepard may lack in one area of gameplay one of your squad mates may compensate for if i can't hit an enemy behind cover as an engineer then jacob a biotic can help me out with that relying on your companion strengths but also knowing their weaknesses is essential to getting through mass effect 2 especially in higher difficulties and not just because of 2's class centric gameplay but because that gameplay serves a much grander narrative because everything that's great about mass effect 2 has everything to do with its companions [Music] uh [Music] you can't have a great bioware game without great companions full stop that while the player is usually at the center of every bioware fantasy the companions that orbit around them are the ciphers through which the player gets most of their emotional engagement from as david gator puts it in mass effect 1 through tally garris rex and liara shepard had a personal connection to the alien element of the milky way galaxy while kaden and ashley informed shepard's perspective of humanity's struggles in that galaxy in turn you could sway their attitude toward the galaxy or if you so chose sacrifice them for the greater good and damned if they disagreed i'm feeling a hell of a lot better than he is companions were integral to how the player experienced the mass effect universe in the first game but in mass effect 2 they are the experience to stop the collectors the elusive man has tasked you with assembling a diverse crew for a suicide mission on the other side of the omega-4 relay a literal dirty dozen the galaxy's most gifted minds and fighters regardless of species age or background to pull off such a companion heavy narrative bioware assembled its largest writing team to date 10 writers all of whom were tasked with fleshing out a specific companion and their role in the story in similar fashion jack wall's wall of sound audio team divided their work on the game's score amongst each companion giving them all a distinct musical identity within wahl's more cinematic approach for two and as we already mentioned just about every encounter is based around commanding your companions you will spend the entirety of mass effect 2 assembling and managing this crew without them your mission will fail a clever reversal of bioware's player-centric design shepherd is still at the center but only because they're the glue that holds it all together the real heroes of this story will be your companions except these aren't the same bold and loyal allies of shepherd's first adventure as we'll soon discover these companions are anything but heroic [Music] though you're free to explore the terminus systems early on into it's by no mistake that most players first stop is the adjacent omega a darker steamy cracked reflection of the citadel your first interaction is not with an admiral or delegate but a scavenger and then it's with zaid one of your first recruits as he's beating a deadbeat to a pulp in a darkened corner the air on omega is thick and polluted both with smog and with indecipherable noise the streets are overrun with snickering vorcha and destitute traitors and an unhinged batarian shouts to passing crowds that the end is nigh this is not the same galaxy shepherd gave his life for this could only be the afterlife [Music] if there was a focal point to all the galaxy's wickedness it's gotta be afterlife several drinks beyond the tab and buried beneath its raging synth wave is something much more sinister you've heard it too or will soon hear it in omega's plague red and quarantine zone where jack while score revels not in the flashy synth melodies of the first game but muddier ominous drones you'll see it in the vortice slums the looted apartments of fleeing settlers and the street corners soaked with the blood of dead mercenaries and you'll meet it face to face with racist batarians monopolizing vendors blood pack and blue sun mercs and a whole lot of hired guns injustice is rampant on omega and no one seems to give a damn least of all arya taloq the self-proclaimed keeper of omega's chaos but indifferent to the struggles of anyone but arya don't [ __ ] with arya our mission is not to fix it but to wade through it and whatever we may or may not contribute to it the injustice will be here long after we're gone because that sentiment isn't exclusive to omega omega's so-called vigilante archangel is actually gareth bakarian and thank the goddess because that's about the biggest relief of shepherd's mission so far he was the definitive bromance of mass effect 1 and that only continues in two as brandon keener's performance bursts with more energy and edge than ever before one less to worry about not that one i'm on it but something's off about garrus and it's not just the renegade style scar on his face once the implications of archangel set in and you've had time to catch up with him on the normandy you'll realize garrus underwent his own type of reinvention he's angry hell bent on a judge-dred brand of justice that isn't easy to get behind he still got a sense of humor and garrus always had a darker flare in one but not to this extent the cloth from which this new garrus was cut is not dissimilar from our next recruit either equipment suggests military origin not alliance standard spectres not human terrafirm firma too unstable only one option cerberus sent you unexpected professor morton solas fundamentally believes in saving lives and is perhaps the only thing standing between his patients and the unfettered chaos of omega's plague yet the ugly far felt consequences of adapting the genophage consequences he'll never have to face an omega are well overshadowed by warm memories with expert colleagues to both these characters the ends largely justify the means regardless of the blood spilled or some of the moral ethical and legal boundaries crossed along the way and yet compared to the rest of the terminus systems their actions are only the tip of the iceberg on corliss dr o'cure conceals himself within a junkyard of forgotten spacecraft hardly what anyone would call home yet through okir's breeding program tank brad krogan are born and purged here over and over like lab rats until the perfect krogan warrior emerges even in death okie refers to them not as a person but as a weapon his very own grunt brunt was among the last it has no meaning it'll do grunt isn't the only member of your crew defined by his objectification aranda attributes nearly all of her remarkable traits to how her father created her in her eyes her value derives from being a perfect tool not a person and that everything she has was not earned but granted by a force beyond her control the same can be said of jack frequently referred to as subject zero the biotic weapon abandoned by her parents and victim to cerber's experiments as a child on pragea armed with nothing but inhuman abilities and trauma jack eventually finds herself as an adult in the blue sun's administered purgatory a name that's no less symbolic than afterlife no matter how deserved her or other's imprisonment here is purgatory's wardens are arguably as morally bankrupt as the inmates they practically trade as slaves even on ilium indenture tech hides a borderline slave trade behind a brand-friendly guise exploiting the most helpless alien races of the milky way on it chief scientist archer fuses the mind of his own autistic brother with the overlord vi leading to the creation of a monstrous machine and on the edge of the milky way in the alpha draconis system jacob's father abuses his power and converts the survivors of the msv hugo guerns bank into a stupefied harem he's not worth the fuel to haul him out or the air he's breathing he's damn lucky i don't think he's even worth pulling the trigger omega isn't the crown of the galaxy's cruelty it's only where it was the most blatant all throughout the milky way the powers that be have been allowed to control manipulate and dehumanize the lives of others with little remorse or consequence and in the case of jack miranda and david even humanity technologically and culturally behind other alien races in the galaxy have crossed unjust barriers to achieve their own unnatural definition of human excellence shepard is no stranger to this dehumanization in mass effect 1 exogeny rendered zeus hope a control group for the thorian and the ndc facilitated the genocide at peak 15 out of morbid curiosity but the inhumanity of mass effect 2 isn't catalyzed by ancient powers so much as it is by technology abhorrent wealth and unsupervised power and because the injustice is so systematically rooted in the very shape of these intergalactic civilizations trying to fix it as we handily could in mass effect 1 is a nigh impossibility those with the guts to do something about it like garrus or morden have only perpetuated it and those who try to avoid it altogether like the alliance are still vulnerable to its effects crippled not by sovereign's attack but by the council's short-sighted guidance much of the galaxy has lost faith in the citadel's bureaucratic leadership that while the alliance chases geth holdouts the far more pressing threat of the collectors persists with little to no alliance intervention or even a serious acknowledgement of the reapers reapers with c-sec now dominated by human personnel the rebuilding of the citadel has only been met with polarization while captain bailey feigns indifference to sea sex heightened security casual xenophobia or the torture methods of his men corrupt politicians like jaram talid find success on an anti-human platform echoing the disdain for humans that runs rampant on places like omega where they were blamed for engineering the plague truthfully no one is exempt from the effects of the milky way cycle of inhumanity not even among the members of your crew who were most victimized by their circumstances at the beck and call of a man not unlike her controlling father miranda advocates putting a control chip in shepherd's head grunt recycles the hate-filled sentiments fed to him by o'keer and jack has all but become one with the adultery of the milky way garrus wants revenge on saidonis for betraying his kill squad on omega zaid wants revenge on vedu for stabbing him in the back and jack wants to set fire to cerberus for damn near everything they did to her what happens when you find what you're looking for i go hunting anyone who's screwed with me pays their associates pay their friends pay the galaxy's gonna be a lot emptier when i'm done your companion's actions are more than understandable defensible even but the consequences of those actions will do little to buck the divide and even less to preserve their soul no one is exempt not even shepherd [Music] our free reign in this adventure is an illusion and not the magical kind of mass effect 1. under the thumb of cerberus shepard's role in this story is fundamentally static regardless of their feelings toward the elusive man all we can do is enable the most cynical of his beliefs that loyalty can be bought manipulated or coerced by extreme measures a renegade shepard might have reinforced these ideas in the past but this time shepard can't make a different choice they truly don't have one a notion that goes in hand with mass effect 2's more linear design and tighter wiggle room for dialogue choices maybe shepard can cut their own path through it and use the position forced upon them as an opportunity to achieve some good but optimism hardly has a place in the cycle of inhumanity and the choices that were made for us will have their own messy consequences even for the people who once stood by our side against unthinkable evil you show up after two years and tell me you're working with cerberus sounds like you left reason behind a long time ago you've changed but i still know where my loyalties lie i'm an alliance soldier always will be i've got to report back to the citadel they can decide if they believe your story or not we both know how that's gonna turn out the alliance will try to blame cerberus just like you did with good reason cerberus can't be trusted so long commander good luck [Music] the elusive man will only insist that shepard's attachments cloud their focus on the mission and we can only fall in line with his oversight where we're better off not cooperating with dissidents let alone other alien races but staying in our lane and cultivating our own selfish preservation where the galaxies innate diversity and myriad of unique perspectives are not a source of greatness but a catalyst for never-ending division and hate and where we once believed that there was more that united all life in the galaxy than divided it the truth now runs antithetical it's hopelessly divided and no less fraught with the same means of dehumanization and control that the reapers inflict on others how are we supposed to accomplish something bigger than any one person if all anyone can rely upon is themselves something needs to change for shepherd as well as the player while mass effect 2 has so far proven to be a worthy successor to the first game in many areas something about the experience is deeply unsatisfying much like arturian counterpart garris the more time you spend with it the more you'll see the darker flip side the initial harbinger of mass effect salvation reinvention [Music] [Music] it's easy to forget how jarring a first time playthrough of mass effect 2 can be after playing the first game instead of exploring a vast galactic frontier uncovering cosmic threats and making life or death decisions mass effect 2 exposes a galaxy that has practically done it all and seen it all as if there's little to no mystery left in the milky way bioware tiptoes away from h.p lovecraft's cosmicism and towards the punk genre as mass effect 2 dwells in the corruption of powerful authorities rebellious outlaws and the galaxy's known threats and most jarring perhaps in vain is shepard's lack of agency and not because of the futility of their choices but rather because some of their choices have been ignored all together whether it's the attitude of the citadel council the vermier survivor or returning allies and only a handful of instances does either the galaxy or bioware themselves truly acknowledge many of your choices from mass effect 1. almost as if to tell the player your choices had no meaningful impact coupled with a complete detour from the geth reaper conflict the de-emphasizing of spectre status liar's off-screen character arc and a deluge of retcons incurred by jumping the story forward two years the ideological shift behind mass effect 2 storytelling starts to feel not like the compromise that bolstered the rest of the game but a conflict and maybe there's a reason for that while lead writer drew carpentian had taken on the lion's share of writing the mass effect universe up to the sequel he would only work on mass effect 2 for about a year as carpenter and his family would soon move from edmonton to austin texas where he would begin work on star wars the old republic for bioware's new mmo studio in his stead mass effect 2's new lead writer became mack walters who was one of the four writers to work on the first game with carbashin walters wouldn't alter the direction that hudson carpatien and wada maniac agreed upon at the start of two's development but that's not to say carpishen and walter saw eye to eye on that direction according to karbashian he had never intended cerberus to be anything other than the throwaway pro-human radicals they were in one nor did they have a leader like the elusive man conversely walters would go on to further flesh out both cerberus and the elusive man in the comics and would be a major proponent for their role in mass effect 3. there's not much evidence to suggest walters was behind any other creative shifts in the series but if there is any sort of disagreement between carbushen and walters to be gleaned it's that they well represented the clashing ideologies of the mass effect team when starting the sequel sticking to the foundation versus redefining the series reinvention was the compromise but continuity was the cost obstructing our role as the player and the storyteller between mass effect 2 sleek mission design dynamic gameplay and cinematic upgrades we've had little reason to question reinvention up to now but looking into both the structure and content of mass effect 2's narrative reveals a fatal flaw reinvention always has a cost and it's not always worth it [Music] helium may glean from its neapolitan surface but deep underneath it's nothing more than a haven for the galaxy's corrupt elite the same sort of ugliness we encountered on omega but reinvented as soulless stockbrokers unregulated smuggling and corrupt law enforcement the price of admission for such a gilded utopia goes beyond currency even for the people trying to fight it i'll make it simple either you pay me or i flay you alive with my mind nick saris hold my calls this isn't the same impressionable scientist we once rescued on therum liar tosoni reinvented herself using her gifts she became illium's premier informant navigating corruption in order to strike at its heart the shadow broker yet this transformation cost her her innocence and maybe even her dreams was it worth it some might say yes someone like samara find peace in the embrace of the goddess an asari just a car with a strict code of justice she may have had to give up whatever life connections or possessions she once held to follow that code but in her eyes the sense of fulfillment it's given her negates that cost however others like thane krios would say no [Music] and a dirty dozen of memorable companions feign is a particular standout as a lifelong weapon of crime lords elites and the wicked he lives by the reinvention that's defined him since he could hold a gun but now that he's approaching the precipice of capital syndrome a terminal consequence of living among the hanar feign wants to atone the universe is a dark place i'm trying to make it brighter before i die he's the first of your companions to acknowledge a past of wrongdoing and want to give back to the galaxy more than that he wants to be your friend a better father to his son and to be more than a weapon but his particular path has already deprived him of those things a tragic realization conveyed through thane's traumatic all but terrifying flash memories the console beeps i put him down click the message father he pleads he tugs my sleeve i need to read this i say don't look at him similarly though samara's stoic exterior may suggest she's content with the path she's chosen the more you chip through that exterior the more she comes to define herself by what she lacks rather than what she has even her last living daughter the arta yakshi morinth is less a daughter and more of a wound from her past life and if you push for a romance you'll see samara at her most honest and most regretful in another time another life for thane and samara reinvention cost a lot of who they are just as it did liara her innocence shepherd their agency and allies and tally zora her independence tally was once the freest member of our crew a self-sufficient nomad and our sole connection to the korean people but having now returned from her pilgrimage in mass effect 2 she's defined instead by her duty to those people her life as it is for all the koreans is reinvention their exo suits migrant fleet and reliance on a collectivist culture are all necessary compromises to survive and function in a galaxy that isn't inherently cut out for them though seemingly less necessary for people like thane liara or samara reinvention what's their best case response to that galaxy committing to a pursuit that would bring genuine fulfillment or enable them to combat injustice reinvention may have a cost worthwhile or not but sometimes it's the only thing someone can do to live with themselves especially in a galaxy where there's never been fewer people to count on just ask garrus i've always hated injustice the thought that sedonas could get away with this why should he go on living while 10 good men lie in unmarked graves i'm sorry shepard words aren't going to solve this problem still in spite of whatever was gained from all that was lost there has to be a better solution than reinvention a compromise that doesn't necessitate sacrificing one's connections identity or soul a choice beyond the ones immediately presented to us as it turns out there is more to bioware's reinvention of mass effect storytelling than a conflict a lot more and the key to unlocking it lies in shepherd humanity's most determined defender they may not be able to change the trajectory of the story but they can do something drastic shepherd can interrupt it we don't have enough people on our side for you to take one for the team [Music] from reinvention comes a revolution the interrupt mechanic might be one of the most powerful bioware magic tricks ever conceived and where shepard holds the most agency the limited time window of interrupts forced the player to respond with instinct and emotion rather than meditated principle the same methodology behind byra's decision to abbreviate the dialogue wheel choices in the first game interrupts often lead to a more organic spectrum of consequences and restore the feeling of being the storyteller they're seamlessly woven into the cinematic structure of cutscenes almost as if they're always meant to happen and most importantly they allow shepherd to do something about the injustice that surrounds them never in ways that hold any kind of candle to a reaper invasion let alone a single reaper but in ways that might affect a long overlooked realm of the galaxy the small intimate spaces where choice does matter it could be saving the life of an innocent kid an omega helping a dying dock worker on ilium or even putting a racist cop in his place all of these acts are ways of giving back to the galaxy stitching the wounds of distrust revenge and betrayal and in the right place in time one of these acts might make all the difference [Music] interruptions have been with us since the start of mass effect 2 but they didn't matter until now until we could truly see the impact of breaking course because therein lies not only the key to pulling off a suicide mission but restoring what reinvention and the galaxy at large deprived of so many people not just an interruption but intervention after following up your second wave of dossiers for cerberus there's little stopping you from going forward with the suicide mission you'll be prompted to investigate the collector ship after eight recruits be tasked with extracting reaper if and then wait only a few missions before it's go time heck you can begin the suicide mission even without a full squad if you pursue the reaper iff as soon as the chance is given if there's anything the elusive man has impeded on shepard time and time again it's that loyalty can be bought and that time is of the essence this is what shepard was brought back to do and the sooner it's accomplished the more human lives that could be saved it's an entirely valid concern and not untrue in theory even if the game never actually punishes the player for taking their time until after acquiring the reaper iff but as the eldest of your crew will attest some things are more important than haste in fact your time is more valuable than you might think and bioware has tried to remind you of that about as often as kelly chambers has reminded you to talk to the crew commander i think you'll want to talk to garrus you might have gleaned it crossing the crew deck or in the meeting after horizon when jacob leaves the room you heard it from cal rieger and the koreans on haystrom and you'll eventually hear it from every one of your companions what this is what all of this is is a cry for help the elusive man may discourage attachments and readily regard each of your crew members as tools for an all-encompassing mission but that doesn't erase the fact that all these people have needs that go beyond payment or status especially of those forged by reinvention it could be emotional reassurance for chakwas after a long many years of service in the alliance navy it could be nurturing a tighter bond with gabby and daniels as they take on their most daunting posting yet it could even be as simple as getting gardner the supplies he needs to make decent meals doing these small favors for your crew may feel inconsequential but in a galaxy that has overlooked the small it's one of the most gallant things shepard can do early on in mass effect 2. the exact type of intervention that's sorely needed in a divided galaxy action driven by empathy as for your companions many of whom have long embraced the antipathy they've been dealt shepherd may see no point in sticking their neck out any further than they need to the ones you don't love talking to may be all but literal check marks on a checklist of companions unimportant and always not related to gameplay but one by one as each of your companions reluctantly open up and ask you to break course in a sobering assortment of ways you may feel a different compulsion it's not about you it's about them about going the extra mile that many have refused not just for completionist's sake either but because it's the right decision and a rewarding decision from kasumi's thief paradise on beckenstein to the dense and twisted jungles of pragya masking its broken down cerberus facility like jack's tattoos mask the scars of her broken past the loyalty missions of mass effect 2 will plunge you further into the milky way than any human has ever gone before into its darkest corners and most personal kingdoms but also its hectic histories and most revealing truths of course nothing will encounter could ever rival the cosmic revelations of ilos nor shepard's catastrophic visions of the past but what we will discover is no less revelatory for our journey in mass effect 2. diversity dehumanization and control have catalyzed much of the galaxy's divide so far yet one force rivals all others standing silently in jack's innermost cell full of regrets into chunka's deepest den and ragefully an omega's most wicked club the past an invisible hand twisting the present exerting its controlling grip more severely than almost any other person could aresh a former researcher for cerberus who aims to restart jack's facility is not compelled by blatantly evil intentions so much as the immense trauma of his past what he was once tasked to carry out and needing all the unsanctioned suffering to mean something similarly mainland's unethical experiments on tachanka are driven by the inescapable guilt of what he and morton's team did to prolong the genophage for garris and zaid nothing better defines their outward cynicism than the sting of past betrayals and conversely kasumi's life of thievery than the fleeting memories of her partner keji memories she'll risk life and limb to relive by procuring the gray box even to whole cultures like the quarians on the flotilla the past holds considerable weight over the present as the migrant fleet's leaders weigh the future of the quarian people against their long-running tension with the geth eventually stoking the disillusionment of tally's father and careless ambitions to outright control the geth or the krogans ontachanka where the genophage has not only left the krogans crippled and desperate for a cure no matter the cost but fostered a conflict of krogan identity between the urnot and wherelock clans effectively weakening the combined strength of their people and that's not even to mention the well-ingrained beef they already have with the turians for inflicting the genophage centuries ago there's no joke it's just great it's a turian and he's being torn apart for what they did but where the past perhaps yields the most despair for any one person comes from the wound of familial divide for jacob for samara and for thane while thane works from the shadows to prevent his son from following in his footsteps and thus repeating his mistakes jacob is forced to reconcile with the monster his father has become and as samara attempts to end her daughter's reign of chaos who's long refused to exile herself to an asari monastery mourinho tragically exclaims one choice my only crime was being born with the gifts you gave me for these characters the past is an inheritance a transference of values traditions or even genes that only handcuff one's choices in the present despite all the ways the galaxy's most oppressive systems have eroded the agency trust and dignities of countless people the most intimate struggles of our companions demonstrate that those systems draw their very power directly from the past from the unhealed conflict between diverse races different ideologies or father and son from the horror of the past in itself and from the precedent that the past establishes for future generations who are forced to choose between safely following tradition or charting a fatal new path after a while the past cements itself in culture industry and family usually in the worst ways possible and left unmediated that past will only fuel endless divide leading to a truly barbaric galaxy one ripe to be destroyed by the reapers the only way to affect the outcome and achieve what all these loyalty missions might allow us to do is by learning from the past not by trading one's soul or identity for reinvention but by choosing growth and forgiveness sometimes it feels impossible to do that alone but that's why you're here standing by your companion side just as they stood by yours in mass effect 1. you have to let it go your past doesn't have to control you [ __ ] get out of here go because of shepard's intervention jack can prove the past no longer has a hold on her and rise above the cinders that scarred her zaid can abandon a self-destructive game and find a cause rooted in something other than greed [Music] garrus can accept the difficult messy guilt that curses his former friend and preserve his own rageful soul just go tell him to go give it time yeah [Music] maybe that'll be enough kasumi can cherish her memories and honor keji's legacy i can't do that this is all that's left goodbye kasumi i love you jacob can prove he's grown beyond his father and beyond the impulse to control others i'm sorry jacob i did the best i could i'm 10 years past believing that samara can put an end to one of the last chapters of her former life or marinth can start a new chapter in hers [Music] grunt can attain something far more powerful than anything occur ever gave him the kinship of clan erdnaught [Music] sorrow and save his son from a path of no return yet i've taken many bad things out of the world you're the only good thing i ever added to it morton can confront the tragic consequences of his actions dead in the eye and maybe began upon the path to atonement no not a murderer thank you shepard tally can keep her corian family and her found family of the normandy without tarnishing the legacy of her beloved flawed father we're going home talizar abbas normandy come on thank you captain and miranda defined and isolated by her inhuman perfection for far too long can finally realize she's not alone the best outcome in every loyalty mission is not one where shepard pushes their companion to give up a part of themselves or take something from someone but choose their own growth and well-being your companions will never be perfect and be ever as flawed as they were before crossing your path but now they'll have something as rare as element zero in this galaxy hope for change hope to move on from the past and in some cases hope to start something new [Music] that more than any companion romance of bioware passed the romances of mass effect 2 can be a redemptive act like a beautiful testament to moving forward and learning to love and trust in ways not all of your companions are accustomed to giving that trust will come naturally to some to others it'll be like pulling teeth touch me and i will smear them with you [ __ ] and leading them through these crises of faith may take compromise but unlike the compromise of connection they've been dealt before this compromise will instead be founded on acceptance no matter how disparate the background beliefs or identity of your different companions it's in those very differences that they each have greatness that allows thane and grunt to be a hell of a combo in combat or allow morden and jacob to make totally different equally insightful observations during missions if commander shepard can embrace everything their companions bring to the table and lead others to do the same then maybe just maybe a suicide mission is possible however in that mass effect 2 has been nothing if not a story about overcoming impossible hurdles since the start bioware has one last challenge for the player and themselves in the end game [Music] towards the end of writing mass effect 2 a process that coincided with the final stretch of the game's production bioware encountered some complications just as drew carbushan left to work at bioware austin several more writers would soon be taking lee from mass effect 2's writing team while one writer joined bioware's new studio in montreal and two others left the team to pursue opportunities outside of bioware patrick weeks broke his shoulder ice skating forcing him to take a two-week break and rendering him unable to type with more than one hand for six weeks after surgery by now the writing team was half its original size and that created a massive problem while most of the story was already locked in place and handed off to other departments there was still a great deal of revision work and transitory dialogue that needed writing in response dragon age writer lou christensen as well as patrick wife's karen and her fellow editor cookie everman stepped up to the plate to save the writing team even in late development bioware was being confronted by a suicide mission of their own making one that was totally unplanned and unexpected but demanded swift action all the same the only way to get through it was to have all hands on deck and the only way for shapper to get through theirs was to do the very same thing while you may have squared away the last of your companion loyalty missions or the ones you felt were a priority anyway before acquiring the reaper iff the 11th hour surprise of legion will demand swift action when it's least expected you've had no reason to trust the geth up to now let alone one that found you aboard the derelict reaper to the sound of sovereign's theme from mass effect 1. there's virtually no reason to reopen the debate on synthetic life not after concluding that they lack all the willpower and ingenuity that gave organic life an invaluable edge over sovereign who accrued the geth's loyalty through blind unthinking worship yet the choice is given and that n7 armor is certainly a tease besides the last time we opened up a pod what came out was pretty awesome i'm glad you saw reason but the choice has to be made now or not at all so if we truly take all hands on deck to heart we'll confront our gravest misconception yet [Music] organics and synthetics are not that different my name is legion for we are many the geth are driven solely by logic but the conclusions their calculations lead them to aren't always the same the geth operate as a single-minded collective but according to legion the purpose of that collective is to share and benefit from the data of individual units kind of like the koreans and their pilgrimage the geth are seemingly incapable of exercising willpower yet legion curiously wears a piece of shepherd's armor and when asked why legion answers no data available the more you talk to legion the more the line between organics and synthetics begins to blur where the most clear differences between the two become mortality or individuality even in legion's loyalty mission the sentence of the geth becomes a deciding factor in whether or not to replace the heretical guest's databanks effectively a form of unconsented brainwashing of course this entire debate is as with many aspects of mass effect 2 a diversion from the intentions of the first game but it could have easily been missed too never unsealed and never indulged so why save it for the end because the gath were once our enemy the answer is best understood by finally confronting our newest foes the collectors in a galaxy that has seen it all and done it all the grotesque insectoid collectors are perhaps one of the last mysteries living in it while they couldn't see more at odds with the aesthetics of the geth they do share a lot more in common with the equally mysterious keepers on the citadel who once answered to the reapers until they evolved their insect design likely stems from an idea that casey hudson influenced by lovecraft design had early on for the reapers the irony that the supposed most powerful beings in the universe look more like insects than anything remotely human not only that but they're synthetic symbolizing the innate human fear of both not being the highest form of intelligence in the universe and artificial intelligence surpassing humans that was the appeal of the geth they're incapable of organic error except they did fail they failed to open the citadel relay and aren't the villains anymore now it's the collectors whom we tragically discover are former protheans serving as a cautionary tale of what might happen to humans the geth not only proved that machines no matter how advanced can still make error but may also lack something that has long been essential to reaper victory the ability to be controlled not without intimate knowledge of their tech anyway as becomes the dilemma of heretic station the only way sovereign could accrue their loyalty is with a trade the exact sort of thinking of someone like the elusive man the collectors may be organic and be prone to error but at least they can be controlled and against a galaxy already too preoccupied with its own division that's all harbinger needs to win all until time runs out oh [ __ ] it's happening again back where this all began with the normandy on fire all the fruits of reinvention diminished but we need to focus because deep down in engineering there is one edge one advantage that harbinger has vastly overlooked and is conquest of humanity it's exactly what alien life 2 has refused for centuries even joker who's probably never needed help more than when we play as him here has long been reluctant to accept it but in a leap of faith a single moment the truth rises to the surface the power of trust if the differences between organic and synthetic life no longer seem important not after trusting legion and not after joker learns to trust edie it's because they aren't synthetics are just another people among the diverse alien life of the milky way living life according to their own societal standards and facing targeted discrimination all the same a far less advanced machine might be a tool but with sentience what legion and edie might well possess they're practically one among our crew as indecipherable but uniquely beautiful as any star in the sky for that reason the abduction of our ancillary crew presents an extraordinary call to action whatever barriers once stop your crew from coming together have to no longer because it's no longer just a mission to save humanity it's a second chance for each and every soul we've recruited through mass effect 2 not through reinvention but redemption [Music] the suicide mission the highlight of the mass effect series and one of the greatest final missions to an rpg of all time in the same way all of mass effect 2 has been about your companions all of mass effect 2 has also been built around this mission every credit you've earned every iridium platinum palladium and eso deposit you scavenged in missions and mined on outer worlds every upgrade you bought in morton's lab with those credits and deposits all the unique upgrades offered by your companions the upgrades to your companions the mere hundreds of conditionals affected by the level of rapport with your companions affecting moments throughout and the outcome of the suicide mission and even the direction of jack wall score long reveling in darker ambiguous melodies throughout the entirety of mass effect 2 all to finally culminate in this layered buildup of dread and tension for what's about to come it will follow you all the way through the omega-4 relay and it won't let up nothing is guaranteed and no one is safe [Music] then bioware lets you catch your breath and strategize a different lair emerges from the dread it's hopeful it might even be heroic but there's only one way to know what it will become what matters is this not one more for you've endured every kind of treachery in the milky way over the course of this journey now at its hellish center a point of no return shepard and their crew will do the unthinkable they'll brace the inferno through that together no matter the ways or degree to which our agency has waned over the course of the game the suicide mission brutally assures you that this is mass effect your choices do have consequences understanding what makes each member of your crew stand out and choosing their strengths could make a life-saving impact nice work tally i knew you wouldn't let me down but ignoring those differences and misunderstanding their strengths will have devastating consequences jacob those among your crew who received your trust and help when they needed it most will reciprocate it here while those you disregarded those whose plight you trivialized will not be reforged in the flames but burned alive i figured it might end something like this the shock of loss is only heightened by your momentum fully actualized in the level design and non-stop combat at the same time there will be moments of respite where bioware quietly facilitates the suspense that culminates at every checkpoint a push and pull victory and death a virtual roller coaster that would kill its riders if it were real [Music] shepherd's team will dangerously descend into the collector's inferno furiously moving from platform to platform charting a path that none have walked before all to lead into the innermost circle of hell where the betrayal of nature itself manifests as a waking horror a human reaper the reaper's homage to terminator aside the human proto-reaper embodies a double-edged revelation it's the reaper's answer to humans a monster made from the dna of violence deceit and cruelty a blend of organic and inorganic material transcending the petty disputes between organic and synthetic life forms to shepherd its only purpose is to be destroyed but do the elusive man all its abnormality maddeningly reads as power a tool to advance humanity like the rest of the collector base despite however much human suffering was and still is required to power it if the most godlike human in the galaxy wants to control the unnatural hell at its center then what does that say about the elusive man that he has far more in common with the reapers than humanity and may be just as wrong as them too because though the human reaper is a monstrosity unto itself it demonstrates how little harbinger understood sovereign's defeat it never had anything to do with human dna raw power or even shepherd themselves rather it had and continues to have everything to do with the people around us especially those who aren't even human humanity's ability to inspire the only force powerful enough to not only lead us into the collector's inferno but to lead us out of it no one ever said surviving a suicide mission would be easy if we don't make it if we really don't have a say in our fate then we can at least be proud of the faith we placed in others we stood in the face of galaxy-wide antipathy and proved that people can change they can be trusted loved or even redeemed they can work together and accomplish something bigger than any one person and they can inspire others to do the same no matter what obstacles lie in their path so if we do make it out alive it won't be because of us it'll be by that very same leap of faith [Music] [Music] yeah i get the gist of it hold on [Music] [Music] you have failed we will find another way releasing control [Music] no sane person goes on a suicide mission an idea that applies to the courageous crew of the normandy sr2 as much as it applies to bioware themselves truth be told mass effect 2 is renowned for having one of the smoothest development cycles in bioware's hectic history of making games but that shouldn't undermine the risk they took to go exactly where they did with 2 and fully commit to a story that could have easily come across as a radical departure from the first in ways both subtle and not so subtle i've had enough of your disingenuous assertions instead mass effect 2 became an instant classic and remains one of the most beloved games of all time to this day while bioware broached serious cinematic rpg storytelling in the first game it's in mass effect 2 where their ambitions fully bore fruit not just because of their heightened expertise with the tech behind the camera but everything they put in front of it as well there may never be another game that tops the companion lineup of mass effect 2. a ridiculously eclectic menagerie of complicated empathetic characters that you can inspire to rise above the wicked galaxy that defines them a galaxy that ultimately has more depth and intrigue because of bioware's departure from its foundation because of how mass effect 2 deconstructs choice versus obedience blurs the barrier we once thought separated us and erects new ones where unity seemed assured effectively facilitating a journey about hope second chances and redemption culminating and one of the most satisfying [ __ ] used to ever grace a video game against a man who embodies all the vanity of humanity and none of its greatness not like commander shepard and none of it could have been accomplished without bioware's endeavor to break course to consider opposing perspectives to learn the right lessons from their own past and to reinvent it may have not been a perfect compromise but look at what they accomplished because of it one could only imagine what they might accomplish next thankfully mass effect players wouldn't have to imagine for much longer with mass effect 2 under their belt casey hudson and his team at edmonton prepared to set their sights for the stars one last time determination took them very far and inspiration took them farther but to reach their fated destination to bring shepherd's fight with the reapers to its most epic and meaningful conclusion something more would be needed sacrifice [Music] [Music] hello everyone welcome to the end of the video uh congratulations on getting here i don't know about you but uh it feels really darn good to be saying that this video was an extremely difficult undertaking uh talking about this game challenged me in ways i was not really prepared for in both the writing editing and pretty much everything from the start to the finish yeah it was all just really difficult but we did it i'm really proud of the results hopefully you enjoyed the video hopefully some of it resonated with you and hopefully i did uh what is honestly one of the best games ever made uh as much justice as possible um all that being said as i mentioned at the end of the video or the end of the part you just watched uh we do have one more game to talk about mass effect 3. uh i don't know if that'll be the next video it probably won't i'll probably be doing another video in in between this video in the mass effect 3 video uh it'll be a shorter one i think um all this is sort of in motion because because i'm still sort of figuring out some parts of it but uh expect a video on mass effect 3 nonetheless i would give you a time to expect it by but with every sort of recent video where i've been like hey the next video will come out at this time uh i've completely and utterly failed to do that so i'm not gonna i'm not gonna get anyone's hopes up unfortunately just uh keep your eyes peeled on the community tab here on the channel and on my social media uh to be aware of when the next video is uh that being said you can follow me on social media at parksharman on twitter uh you can follow me on instagram as parksharman as well uh you can also follow me on twitch on twitch.tv forward slash sator the the links for all these of course is in the description as well as on the the the side of the screen actually should be right below me um and you should follow me on twitch especially considering uh but i believe today the day i'm uploading the video uh the newest expansion for star wars the old republic just launched uh which of course is another bioware title which of course we talked about during this video um i'm a huge older public fan i've been playing it since launch um and i'll probably be streaming the expansion all week at least as much as uh you know there is content for me to stream so if you are interested in that please follow i'll probably be going live sometime later tonight if not uh throughout the week for sure so yeah give me a follow there and then of course just look forward to what's coming up next on the channel mass effect 3 and a whole lot of other fun stuff thank you all for watching one last time and i'll be seeing you all later i should go [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign

Channel: ArTorr

Views: 162,896

Keywords: Mass Effect, Commander Shepard, Mass Effect Cutscene, Mass Effect Analysis, Mass Effect Video Essay, Gaming Video Essay, Garrus Vakarian, Miranda Lawson, Captain Anderson, Admiral Hackett, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Mass Effect 4, Mass Effect 5, Mass Effect Trailer, Mass Effect Guide, Liara, Tali, Thane, Mass Effect Reaction, Star Wars The Old Republic, KOTOR Remake, BioWare 2022, Legion, EDI, The Illusive Man, Cerberus, The Suicide MIssion

Id: qwX-7xZZMrA

Length: 74min 28sec (4468 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 15 2022