What Stays, What Goes Away and What Comes Back

Um, MEA has this a lot more than the Shepard Trilogy. ME1-3 is infamous for treating sex as the end goal of a romance (I mean the only romance that doesn’t require sex is Kelly). In MEA there are romances where all the scenes are about the romance and not sex, like Suvi, and ones where there is an option for a sex scene or a non-sex scene tat does something romantic instead, like Cora and Scott cuddling while they stargaze and make up new constellations.

There were lots of little details that I really enjoyed about MEA. The fact that the jump jets could be biotic if you had a biotic profile was aces. And the cutscene where Drack was in the shuttle for (iirc, Liam's loyalty mission) and the safety bars were bumping against his crest because it wasn't designed for a krogan was great. Stuff like that really added to the immersion and the feel of the world, and I'd absolutely love to see that continued.

The MCU-style humor of The Citadel DLC and MEA can go, though. A lot of the time I just didn't enjoy it. I like humor, but quirky, quippy liners over and over and over again weren't really my favorite.

I didn't HATE the profile system, but I think it would be nice to return to the roots with a more definite class system and maybe the option to mix and match if you wanted to. MEA's "classes" weren't as balanced as they could have been, and if you wanted to do something like a pure soldier build, it was pretty underdeveloped in comparison to the biotic and engineer skills and attacks. I kinda wish they'd have done something in MEA where you could have the class system vs the open field profiles system, with achievements for committing to a class vs the profiles. The profiles really were a great idea in terms of experimenting with a wider range of powers. I LOVED the ability to play around with abilities without being constrained to a class, but I also love the narrative flavor that a class system brings. One of the things I've always felt about the profiles system was that it had complexity, but not depth. So one thing I'd like to see for MEME is a greater depth to the profiles or classes or whatever hybrid they decide to go with, or if they do something entirely different. It would be cool for classes/profiles to have more in game implications, too. I think the only example I can really think of is the engineer interrupt that you can get in the Omega DLC.

I recently replayed (most of) ME3 as part of a trilogy run with Legendary–and it struck me how wrong and fan servicey Citadel feels when played just as part of a game succession.

It didn't feel that way when I originally played it, because it was earned over years of playing with those characters, forum in-jokes on the original BSN, etc. But it feels way off without that context, which someone playing the games now just wouldn't have.

Citadel DLC is just a shorter name for The Mass Effect Holiday Special. It just can't be taken seriously. Some frigging Shepard clone - and not even a particularly competent one - is the reason "to bring the entire team back" because it's such a big, big threat. Who cares what those little robo-Cthulhus are doing out there while the crew is having a laugh and a party.

I thought neither worked that well but the combination of both was the real headscratcher for me. There's a reason why no one tried to make an action comedy about the battle of Stalingrad... yet.


But people liked it so we got more of the same in MEA.

I settled with Marauder Shields ending. Story-wise the trilogy flew apart and in the end I didn't play it for the ending but for the crisp MP combat.

Stays:
I personally liked the sex scenes with Peebee. It was lovely to have sex not just as the end point of the romance. Casual sex in zero gee fabulous. More sex please.
I wasn't averse to the more mobile combat

What comes back
ME2 loyalty missions and potential consequences for unloyalty
ME2 mission approach. Move to more small mission specific zones over massive open world sections wth a dumb unarmed rover
Paragon/Renegade & their interupts with ME1/ME2 neutral option
ME2 ending, allocating squaddies not with you to certain tasks, which they can fail or pass dependent on their skillset.

I could see a Crucible dlc having a lot of potential. I could also see Bioware force feeding us more Liara content as she was the one involved in retreving the blueprints and our only semi-direct updates on the project is through one of her consoles.

Now, if at the end of the dlc, Shepard could kick her off the Normandy and stay with Hackett and get Miranda back in her office...

Stay: MEA combat, MEA open worlds and exploration, MEA Nomad and Nomad banter, the hero not being military
Leave: Linear corridor locations, The 'Ancients' being more powerful/knowledgable than current races (seriously a trope that can DIE)
Come back: The Milky Way, equipment customisation without a huge crafting section.

I mean in ME: A you can go on literal dates with your LI. You couldn't even do that in ME: T until ME: 3 and even then you have to have DLC.