The biggest problem with Mass Effect's dialogue

I thought the dialogue was fine.

In the same situation, I'd be cracking jokes every three minutes.

Remember:

Emotion, yet Peace.
Ignorance, yet Knowledge.
Passion, yet Serenity.
Chaos, yet Harmony.
Death, yet the Universe.

I find it interesting that my own experience could easily be compared to the trailer, rather than what the man in the video pretends to be the final product.

Search for a purpose in your heart. You may find it yet.

"It just feels like everyone’s fucking around and don’t really understand the stakes of what’s happening"

That's a very precise statement. And this goes beyond the writing, it's in the entire game. The design of the Tempest that looks more like a pleasure cruiser than a scientific vessel, let alone one with military undertones. That plus the almost completely lack of a professional crew makes it look like it's you and your buddies on a road trip.

I think it's fine in the Nomad. There it even adds something at times. Where it's not fine, since you can't avoid it, are not interruptable cutscenes.

As for someone constantly joking, I think I would kick them off my team at the earliest convenience. That would also be my reaction in real life. Jokes are fine when they fit the situation, but the jesters always got on my nerves. It's also, having worked the emergency services to finance my studies, that there's a kind of humor more fitting of the situation. Everyone having worked in that kind of environment will know what I mean. But in all probability they couldn't use it for it's blackness.

The jokes in the trilogy are mostly made by a few characters. To mind come Vega, Joker, Garrus, EDI, but they know when to shut it and when to behave professional. The trilogy is certainly having its joke moments, but never over the top and as constantly as in MEA. Dialogue and even autodialogue fit the tone of the game most of the time.
Plus you actually have the freedom of playing a very serious Shepard, unlike Ryder.

Yup. It puts all of his endless posts shitting on thr game in a new light doesn't it, given he did the 10hr trial at launch and nothing else.

It's a really weird obsession he has, would make a good case study for a psychologist.

That dudes face makes me angry as fuck and I have no idea why. I cannot watch him more than 10 secs

My issue with Ryder (which is the same of Shepard in ME3 to some extent) is that BW partly took away from me the possibility to play with the protagonist I want. ME1 and ME2 Shepard had less emotions true but that is because you had larger control on your protagonist reactions and responses something that sadly got diminished in ME3 with tons of autodialogue and ME:A where you basically got a specific Ryder you couldn't really shape the way you want. You could just change the tone of your same reply between being joke or professional. I really felt I was not making a difference on him. Ryder is BW protagonist not mine.

I couldn't 'connect' with femquis but could with femryder.
I connected more with the characters in the MET than i did with femshep.

Is it possible that the jokes are just not the right kind of jokes? I mean, if I found myself in either of those two situations I don't know how I wouldn't try to find something funny in them. And also make jokes about how silly this is. I mean, we just left and we're being threatened by a baby-faced villain with a halo? If, as players, we find the Archon hard to take seriously, then Ryder should have a hard time with it too.


Same, with is probably part of my (additional) problem replaying DAI. I don't care about my Inquisitor. Part of that may have something to do with me having the banter bug, but I can't think of a character I've played outside of TES games with less of a personality.

So, the thread question and the poll options aren't the same at all. The poll is what I prefer in games, the title asks what the biggest problem with MEA's dialogue is. I'm not sure if you meant to post this poll with different title or meant a different OP under this title and you just got confused...

But anyway I like, in many things, some humor and some dark mixed in. Firefly, Star Trek, Agents of Shield (actually most of the new Marvel movies fit this), etc. They can be shockingly dark and hilariously funny. That's my problem with the DC movies for the most part. There's basically no humor (besides Suicide Squad. Wonder Woman is a lot better on this front, which is why it's a much better movie), it's all just dark and gritty.

No to answer the thread's title (which for some bizarre reason is not answered at all by the thread's poll) is that the main problem with dialogue in MEA is that it somewhat lacks depth. One example would be in the first several minutes of the game where you are prompted to use your scanner for the first time. "Ryder can see what the problem is! Ryder, use your scanner!" Something like that. I know it's basically part of the tutorial, but it just feels like that could have been done better. To be fair, Anderson's dialogue in the tutorial section of ME3 is basically as cringey.

The character interactions, talking to crew and many other NPC's, and relationship-building dialogue is great. The problem comes from expositional dialogue. Dialogue that is meant to teach us something about the world just feels kind of like the writers said just had the characters reading out of an encyclopedia or something. It just felt flat.

Talking to Kallo about designing the Tempest, PeeBee about her past, Liam about his time in Crisis Response, these were all examples of great dialogue. But it was obvious that some of the dialogue was rushed and just put in the game without finesse.