Everything Wrong With Mass Effect 3 Redux by GCN

1. I just disagree that its ME1s fault or ME2s, sure they could have made it easier. But ME3 was the one that ended the story so its on them to do it right. And they flubbed it, and IMO big time. Even if you are going with your B to solve the problem which is IMO one of the worst options, it should be integrated into the characters main story and how the ending pans out it a logical way. But if you have a magic wand, how does forming alliances help, what did all of Shepard's actions do outside the very rare ones that sent resources to the project. Who gives a crap if the Asari like you, you made a magic wand and just have to flip a switch. All of ME3 story which is getting help for earth is entirely irrelevant to the ending on any logical level, they hamfisted a galactic readiness score into how well it worked,and then had the citadel show up at earth so the magic wand could dock with it for reasons.

They had a wide range of options to fix it, they didn't.

Changes little? If the Citadel went to either homeworld, would it be an asari/turian who comes up with the plan to get to the beam? It won't be Anderson. He's stuck on Earth. Will the turians/asari have the yellow pages QEC guy replaced by a turian/asari for Shepard to have a holo-bye with whoever? Instead of humans being killed on the beam run, would it be turians/asari instead? I don't mind. Anytime humans aren't being killed is always a good thing, right? Instead of the scene between TIM, Shepard and Anderson, would it be a turain/asari, TIM and Shepard? How about the touchy-feely scene. Will it be a turian/asari saying you did good Shepard? 

It was crap. The worst part is everyone apparently suffered from temporary blindness by not noticing the reaper flying away leaving the beam unguarded

The reapers were made stupid in ME3. Why didn't the destroyer destroy the SR2 instead of the two shuttles? Why didn't they take the Citadel at the beginning? Why didn't the destroyers on Rannoch and Tuchanka fire their red beam of doom horizontally instead of vertically at Shepard? Why didn't they fire and destroy the crucible before it docked with the Citadel? Why didn't they shutoff the beam leading up to the Citadel?

And yet they are put in harm's way regardless of how powerful they are. As far as losses, read the codex for Thessia Unfortunately, the Reapers' greater numbers allowed them to accept certain losses, so they soon ignored the attacks against them and began orbital bombardment of Thessia. This in turn forced the asari to defend their homeworld with a more traditional stance, facing the Reaper forces directly. As soon as the Reapers landed on Thessia, the harvesting began.

Why are are you assuming I'm talking about the beam run? Since you believe that, post a link showing two shuttles that the reapers destroyed during the beam run. What I was referring to was at the beginning of the game.

stupidity, come on.

So why didn't they with high ems? If they were able to damage the crucible with low ems, then what material was used to build the crucible since every time a ship is fired at by a reaper. it's destroyed.

And yet you say they don't want to take too many losses.

According to thing, it says you maybe in conflict with the reapers, but they are not interested in war.

They have the numbers to do it. Just send x number to the Citadel.

What stealth tech? If you mean what the SR2 has, then how were the oculus able to attack the ship in ME2?

The only ones were the two shuttles and the SR2. What other targets were there in the area that would have prevented the destroyer from firing at the SR2?

Does it have to one-shot? Just fire at the SR2 disabling the ship. Prevent it from leaving.


If it was tasked to kill civilians and transport ships. then they aren't preserving life in reaper form. It's hard to do that when there's nothing left to preserve.

No what? I never said the crucible was damaged with high ems.

The ideas are not bad, but what matters is how the director executes those ideas. Look at V for Vendetta and The Matrix, for example.

That's why the remaster was a very big mistake on Bioware's part.

We will see I guess. The way I see it though is most of the old fans while still not liking the endings and general plot of ME3 aren't nearly as angry about it anymore.  People new to the games IMO will have a different experience. They play it all at once, they aren't playing one game waiting two years with hype and discussion, another 2 years doing the same and then being disappointed. Basically the fans who bitched the loudest are the ones who built it up more than the rest so they were the ones most disapointed.  More casual fans or people who in this case will just play through all 3 games at once probably wont be happy with the ending but wont be angry about it either and they will be perfectly happy with the me3 plot as they didn't have years to dive deep into it. And even back in the day for a lot of people the EC fixed it for them, as all they wanted was a better send off they didn't care about how stupid it was.

You mention these a lot...big fan?

I guess time will tell if the majority of newcomers will actually come away with the same negative feelings of Ye Olde Fanbase. Personally I prefer not to bet on any guarantees that the eternal scorn of the olds will be reflective of the greenhorns. With luck, maybe many of them will be uncolored by the various brands of.....discourse that fan forums tend to foster so they actually go in with fresh eyes. Who am I kidding? It’s 2020. Optimism itself died from COVID.

They tried. First thing. ME1. Plan A. Plan A failed . Than they tried with Alpha Relay. Failed. They were forced to travel through the dark space for months, maybe years, and than from the batarian space and the and the outermost regions of the galaxy to the heart of civilization.
Codex: The Reapers' energy sources are not infinite..

Also, despite the denialism, the species somehow expect an attack. Until the take the citadel is taken and the relays netword turned off, they can send all their (perfectly intact) fleet in rescue.

Also, the citadel is the home of the catalyst. A reckless and inconsiderate attack to the citadel could represent a certain danger.

So, There is nothing strange or illogical about waiting a few months, planning the attack, perhaps resupplying, weakening humans and turians in the meantime, attacking them separately instead of making them converge in a field battle





This is perfectly explainable with in-game info, no need of illogical hand waving.

First, we have to assume that the catalyst does not directly and completely control the mechanical functions of the citadel, especially the arms and especially the galactic portal. At least, not during Mass Effect 1-late Mass Effect 3 events.
It is possible that in the past it was able to close/open the arms and the galactic portal by sending the signal to the Keepers, just like the Sovereing, but since the prothean scientists of Ilos had managed to make the reapers signal incomprehensible to the Keepers, it is safe to assume that connection between Catalyst and Keepers (and thus the Citadel) was broken.

Vigil said that: "the Citadel signal as been altered"


To avoid any kind of plot hole on the subject, it is sufficient to say that, "during the events of me1-late me3, the catalyst does not control the citadel". The end.

There are hundreds of possibile explanations.

1. The catalyst was simply dormant until late Me3. Very very linear, very very simple.

2. "the citadel is part of me" can simply mean that the citadel is the physical structure on which it is installed. He is a powerful IA but with very limited "operational" capabilities. Nothing transcendental. Simply, we assume that the catalyst can't perform complex, material actions. Not before, not now, never. He is just "an intelligence". He need pawns to perform any complex job. He can activate elevators and little more.
The sheparlyst in control ending close the Citadel arms, yes. Or maybe not? Who is really closing the arms? The sheparlyst control the reapers, and through them, the husks and every reapers pawn. And we saw tons of reapers flying around the citadel when its arms are closing. And we know that there are reapers pawn of the citadel. Nothing forbids that one of the pawns on the citadel (maybe in the Citadel control room) was ordered by the sheparlyst controlled reapers to close the arms.

3. My favourite.
The prothean scientist were brilliant people. And we know since ME1 that they have altered the compatibility between the signal of the reapers and the keepers. The keepers are no longer receptive to that type of signal. And the keepers are those who run the Citadel.
Now they respond only to the signals (altered by the protheans) of the citadel.

The citadel works as a transformer, a translator device.
It receive multiple imputs, signals, from different sources (from Sovereing, from the organics living there, from the catalyst, from Shepard using Vigil device etc). Signals are sent through the station, where they are "translated". They become citadel signals, emitted by the Citadel, and thus recognizable by the Keepers.

The Prothean scientist altered the Citadel's Signals (Vigil exact quote).

So, the signals emitted by the Citadel have been modified by the prothean scientist, as they see fit, in order to prevent the Keepers to execute certain orders from certain beings (sovering and it's ilk)

We can call it hacking, in brutal synthesis. The prothean scientist hacked the catalyst.
- The Prothean scientist altered the Citadel's Signals
- The Citadel is (part of) the Catalyst
- The Prothean scientist altered (part of) the Calatyst's Signals


It is entirly possible that the Catalyst regained the ability to control the Citadel /communicate with the Keepers during the final part ME3. Why? Possibile explanations?
Of course. After the citadel was conquered by the reapers, they may have had time and way to finally awake him (if we assume him to be dormant), or to "correct/undo" whatever the prothean scientists did and restore the compatibiliy between their signals and the Keepers

This is greatly undermined by the plot, and the logic doesn’t really follow here. If the reapers’ resources are so limited here that they could only afford certain strategies, why are they wasting time in a protracted battle against a very mobile enemy that is constantly escaping them through the relays. The fact that the relay network remains intact throughout most of the campaign is ultimately what severely weakens them. It allows the people of the Milky Way to organize, regroup, gather in secret and draw up plans against them, which is precisely what happened. The Citadel remaining under the control of the organics all this time undermines their position. It’s not until they’re made aware of the fact that the organics managed to find a way to exploit the relay network that they go back to Plan A, which just so happens to work. So that right there begs the question. Why didn’t they just do that before? It stands to reason that a “fresh” reaper fleet would have no problem simply rushing into the Viper nebula and seizing the Citadel. Let’s not kid ourselves. Any fleet guarding the station would be mowed through like a patch of grass. The only reason Sovereign even failed is because it left its consciousness exposed through a mini boss. 

But the Sovering didn't rush into the serpent nebula unitl it was sure that Saren had full control over the citadel systems.
If the Citadel closed it's arms, it may become can become impregnable.
or conquerable only with heavy losses, and after a long siege.

time during which turians, humans etc. can strengthen their defenses on their worlds, continue to send help etc.

The reapers have just arrived in the Milky Way.
Throwing head down against the citadel (with possibly the additional risk of damaging the catalyst) without first collecting enough information and a well planned strategy, is not a good idea.

Also, they have already been "burned" three times (sovering, arrival, the collectors).
They don't know exactly what this cycle is capable of. What they know. How well they have been prepared (because this is the first cycle that know that the reapers are coming: a factor to take into account)

I believe that a cautious attitude, first testing the strength of the enemy instead of attacking en masse like a horde of zombies relying only on brute force, is much more realistic for an AI.
even if only to minimize losses.