I found him to be kind of an ass, but not outright hateable like Miranda. Not that it matters, because I had Garrus and Liara, and, with them, why would I choose anybody else?Originally Posted by Kevin
I found him to be kind of an ass, but not outright hateable like Miranda. Not that it matters, because I had Garrus and Liara, and, with them, why would I choose anybody else?
Agreed, James is much better than Jacob. Useful in combat as well. But then again:
I never understood why Jacob was considered particularly boring. He was written as a normal soldier to, you know, balance out all the wacky aliens.
Maybe it would be better if he sang a song?
He didn't really have much of a personality, outside 'I'm a Soldier, my dad is a dick'. He wasn't funny, he didn't have any insight. When you talk to Jacob it was basically him relating his backstory (I joined Cerberus from here, and used to do this blahblahblah), compare that to someone like Garrus, your interactions with him are frequently concise and witty. But hey, after all this is over, the Drinks are on Jacob!
At least James is kind of a dick, a character who is a dick is better than a character who isn't anything.
It's like Ashley in ME1, she stood out because she was kind of a bit of a racist, whereas Kaiden was kind of dull - always on about his upbringing, rather than applying any force of personality to the present. Kaiden has developed for those who kept him alive (not many I'd imagine) he's now one of the most hilariously needy game characters there is, constantly seeking validation from Shepard and always getting upset if you're mean to him.
It's funny how all the sidequests are literally things you do on the side now, without even proper dialogue. "Oh hi, I found this priceless artifact you're looking for on some planet, here you go!". "Come on, let those refugees in. I'm Commander Shepard!".
Streamlining!
To Bioware's credit, at least Shepard doesn't telepathically know to whom these things belong to this time around. How s/he manages to find a book on a planet regardless of how powerful the Normand's scanners are is beyond me however, unless said book has the universe's most powerful GPS tracker in its spine.
As an Adept, this made Liara a bit redundant in my playthrough. That in mind, my reasoning was that I needed tech and mucles to complement my "mage." I switched off between Garrus, EDI, and Tali for the "tech" component of my fireteam, and James filled the "muscles" part quite admirably.
Technically speaking, because my Shep was a BOOMHeadshot Infiltrator gal, Garrus was totally superfluous. But it's fucking Garrus.
LOL. Exactly the same for me.
Thanks to the improved combo system, you really want to stick around with companions who can utilize it. Playing as sentinel, I walk around with Liara and Javik almost exclusively and being able to warpslode all their powers turned out to be very effective.
Also, I would argue that at least ME2 was the easiest with an all sniper squad.
"I was one of those. I meddled with dark powers. I summoned demons. I ate the entire little cheese, including the rind."
~Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fear
To be fair, there are sidequests like whenever Hackett sez "they've taken over this; go take it back," and there are fetch quests like when Shepard overhears something on the Citadel, and then there are arguments where it's basically "I'm Shepard and one of you is wrong."
Interestingly enough, the last one can actually harm you. For instance, letting more refugees in crowds the docks and makes it harder for military vessels to get through, lowering your military effectiveness.
By the way, does this whole reputation thing have any purpose? It seems like there are a lot less occasions where you can go "See, I have this many renegade points and that's why you will do as I say".
"I was one of those. I meddled with dark powers. I summoned demons. I ate the entire little cheese, including the rind."
~Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fear
As in, are there points where you see that glowing text to get everything you want?
Yes. And they're in the most important spots, too.
My little brother just purchased Mass Effect 3 for the Xbox 360 and threw the game aside after ten minutes. He never actually got as far as playing mind you, he spent all that time inputting codes. First the retailer-specific DLC code, then the free two day Live Gold code, then the online pass code.
Did you regale him with stories how, "back in MY day, we had these things called cheat codes, and you needed a separate cartridge to use 'em! And we liked it!"
Mechanically, I'd say this is the best of the trilogy, having just completed the second mission. I may change my face code because something about it is irking me (probably the fact it's one I've never used before, but supposedly this character has existed through ME1-3) but my biggest issue is with the plot. Two things that bother me. The first, which I won't use spoilers for because you already know about it; Game: "Oh, there's something up." Me: "It's the Reapers." Game: "We should do something. Let's ask Shepard." Me: "He's incarcerated and you're only asking him now...?" Game: "Oh, FUCK, the Reapers are here!" Me: "What happened to the passing of time?"
I don't mind details not being entirely filled in at the beginning, although the logical answer I'd have taken was, Shepard was being held due to operational ties with Cerberus, which is completely justifiable. It's the pace at which the Reapers attack Earth and the seeming complete unawareness everyone had. "Well, some shit is going down elsewhere...oh, wait, no, they're right on top of us." I dunno. People were running around, there was a hushed panic, but I can't help but think there must have been a telescope looking out and seeing an armada of giant ships heading towards Sol. Sufficed to say, it irked me.
Then we have the second mission. Spoilers concealed. I have no issue at all with having something come along during the course of the game to help in the fight, but good lord. "It's a weapon." Could you get any more generic than that?? Yes, I can understand the Protheans trying to develop something and running out of time. Hell, I can even understand that Vigil might not have known about it because the communities will likely not have been able to have contacted each other at that point, but I draw the line at the "Humans are special because yes" element. Between the deus ex weapon and that, I felt a little bit betrayed and have this sense of dread that anything I've done in the past game won't ultimately affect the overall outcome, but just little things along the way.
Still, I'm only an hour and a half in. I'm still excited to play. Just need me some lunch first.
Because Tali is more fun than Liara?
Well, I admit, if I could have THREE teammates, Tali would be a shoe-in. But we're talking the difference between breathy naif and perky fangirl (and her emergency induction straw).
Shepard was being held because she killed 300,000 Batarians in Arrival, and the Batarian hegemony were an inch from declaring war.
Three teammates? I'd taken Garrus, Wrex and Grunt. If there's four, throw in Mordin.
Yes, I know that can't happen, it doesn't mean it wouldn't be amazitastic.
Minor minor-character spoilers: I have Engineers Donnelly and...Gabby back. YAY! I always liked them.
So I'm about 8 hours in, but I've been taking my time exploring every nook and cranny. I think I've hit a couple of bugs with quests on the Citadel, but I hope they'll clear themselves up. The vistas in the game are pretty damn good and there's been some generally good interaction all round. At any rate, I'm glad I no longer have to take Vega on missions with me. Good lord, what a big fat tub of stupid.
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