Likes and dislikes about Priority Earth

I really liked the final battle. It was a perfectly epic challenge. Maybe it's because I beat it the first try, but was barely scrapping by the entire time. Had a lot of fun there.

The one part I hated about the Extended Cut was the evac scene. I swear it introduced more plotholes than it solved. Why didn't the Normandy just drop us off at the beam? Why would our squadmates need an evac when the entire annihilation of the galaxy was on the line? Why was it so easy for the Normandy to get down there in the first place?!

I hated the whole Crucible solution anyway. They shouldn't have written it where they needed a cure-all solution, because that wipes away most of your choices and effort made throughout the trilogy.

About the only thing I liked about Priority Earth was when I played it on Insanity. Only then did the game seem to give a hint of what it was trying to accomplish in the gameplay, just overwhelming odds. It needed more, so much more though. More emotion, more tragedy, more victory, more immersive moments, more ... I could go on. Oh, I did like Liara's goodbye scene though it could have been longer.

Speaking of that, I wonder what the meaning is of the platforms. All the endings and/or Reaper entities have platforms in one way or another (I guess ME1 only partly, since it's Saren on his little scooter board).

They wouldn't have to necessarily plan on someone being passed out. There might be a button on the panel that says "UP" but Shepard couldn't see it since s/he was crawling around on the floor and could barely reach the panel, let alone use it. Anderson may have seen it, but he was under TIMs control and couldn't say or do anything about it.

Still have no idea how TIM got there in the first place. When you turn around, there is only the walkway that Shepard used connecting to the platform, and TIM wasn't behind Shepard. Did he crawl up from underneath, or jump down from above?

TIM was only able to control Anderson's body, not his mind. So Anderson was able say whatever just as Shepard was able to whatever.

When talking with holoTIM on Cronos, was he already on the Citadel at that time? Did TIM call the reaper hotline, 1-900-reapers to let them know about the crucible. TIM does say he was surprised Shepard made it that far. The catalyst says it controlled TIM. Why have TIM at that location? Is this another thing that the catalyst foresaw with Shepard making up the beam to have TIM convince Shepard that controlling the reapers is the way to go? Maybe I should put that in the things that don't make sense thread?

I am a little surprised that there wasn't any Cerberus troopers with TIM

Anyways. Here's a scenario that could've had TIM on the Citadel. I have read a lot posts with folks mentioning why did the Citadel need to move to Earth. It was moved there for the reapers to protect it. If it was left where it was, it would make getting on the Citadel that much harder for Shepard to get on since there would be no beam to use. The reapers, with the numbers they have, could surround it, the arms are closed. What would Shepard do?

Here's what he/she does. Go to Ilos. I would bring all my squadmates. Yes. That includes ME2 squadmates. I would see if the edibot can figure a way to find enough power to use the conduit. Shepard uses two shuttles, both filled with all squadmates, to use the conduit. The moment they arrive on the Citadel, they see the uglies fighting Cerberus while C-Sec is fighting both. This is where the Citadel defenses war assets are seen. Immediately Shepard finds Bailey. Apparently several Cerberus soldiers were seen with a guy in a fancy suit make there way to the Citadel tower. Shepard and squad head that way while the rest of the squadmates help C-sec.

Shepard and squad catch up with TIM who tells his minions to hold then off while he moves forward. After the wanna-be soldiers are dealt with, Shepard encounters TIM. The scene plays out the same as seen in ME3. Shepard radios Hackett to have the crucible brought to the Citadel. After the Crucible attaches with the Citadel, Shepard tells the two squadmates to head back to see if there's any help the others might need. At that pont, the platform lifts Shepard up to the promised land.

I would add that while Shepard is on Cronos, Hackett mentions that their was an SOS sent from the Citadel about the reapers surrounding it before losing communications.

You know why the above would never work? I'll tell you. Because they wanted Anderson and Shepard to have that touchy-feely scene. It would be hard to explain having Anderson on the Citadel if it was never taken to Earth.

I also had a lot of fun fighting through the final battle.  The first time I played it, I found the fighting intense, but not so intense as to be really frustrating.  On the other hand, playing through ME2 insanity the first time was really frustrating and I almost gave up on getting through some of the missions after dying numerous times.  My first playthrough on ME1 Insanity just felt like a long, long slog (still does sometimes with those bullet-sponge enemies)... not particularly challenging, just time consuming.

Oh god, Horizon on Insanity with the Soldier class...I still have nightmares.

For me, I always has problems on the derelict reaper having to deal with the scion's shockwave weapon.

Soldier is very tough no matter the difficulty. I never played on insanity as an engineer in ME2, but have several times in ME3. I like the class.

I now tend to just spam the door on that last section when playing on Insanity... husks with armor are the bane of my existence. 

Hint for making the Collector Ship platform battle easier... spec Stasis as a bonus power and you can hit one of the scions before the platform docks.  When stasis ends, that scion will just fall and die since there won't be a platform under it.  You can also sometimes use it again in the same way to get rid of one of the assassins on the third platform.  Stasis will also one-shot armored husks.