Spoiler Warning: The Last Elevator

By Shamus Posted Thursday Apr 22, 2010

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 38 comments

It’s over!

Cheating was done in this episode. Foul play. Shenanigans. We gave ourselves some high-end gear between last episode and this one. This final stage of the game is 90% combat, and we didn’t want to spend two hours getting pancaked or sucking our thumb behind cover. (Particularly since we’re a little under-leveled.) This episode would have been about three times as long with about half the commentary. We’ve been careful to play it straight up until now, but I think the cheat codes were the right way to go here. (It was either that or heavy editing and re-takes.) Besides, now you get to see a lot of the fun weapons we’ve been missing.

So that’s it for Mass Effect. I’ll have another post later today announcing the next series.

 


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38 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning: The Last Elevator

  1. Irridium says:

    Am I the only one getting “Wrong viewing privileges?”
    With it saying the video is private?

    Fixed. Thanks :D

    1. Dr_Zanzabar says:

      It also says “Not Available :(” Which is just damned adorable.

    2. Shamus says:

      Whoops. My bad. Fixed.

  2. Dr_Zanzabar says:

    Also, it’s been a really great ride with you guys, I’ve enjoyed the show and I’m looking forward to the next installment!

  3. guy says:

    Just a note: They evacuated the council only after the citadel systems failed to respond.

    Admittedly, they really should have transferred the council to another ship while the Destiny remained with the fleet.

  4. Guus says:

    Surprised that you’re not even taking a break, though it does provide everyone with more awesomeness to view.

  5. Rayen says:

    Fun times. Look foward to the next play-through. is it really only gonna be a week before you guys start something new?

  6. pffh says:

    Eugh on my first playthrough the game bugged in the last saren fight and all my weapons got stuck overheated so it was just me running around the pillars hoping my team could kill him.

    1. Volatar says:

      Thats EXACTLY what happened to me!

  7. Daemian Lucifer says:

    My last run up the citadel was also brief.But then I was infiltrator,so I had sniper rifle with explosive bullets.They dont even get to see you before they die in a single hit,no matter how strong they are.

    And udina is so wrong with his last speech because in two there are riots against all human council.Humans are represented more like fascists.Though that probably is true in real life as well.

    Also,I didnt thing you guys had enough intimidate to make saren blow his brains out.Its not really that hard of intimidation then.

    By the way,the neutral option in with council is also a “let them die” option.There are many options troughout the game where you get one paragon and two renegade options,but I dont remember if there is a place with two paragon options.

    1. acronix says:

      The scientist in Feros is the most difficult persuation/intimidation of the game. Second is Wrex angry moment and then Saren, if I recall correctly

  8. Jeff says:

    As far as Mass Effect 2 is concerned, you’re either a great guy and the galaxy loves you for saving the Council, or you’re a jackass who let them die. The neutral option of focusing on the enemy still has the galaxy consider you an ass.

    The end game is ridiculously easy with Biotics (as is much of the game, obviously). Anything that knocks people off their feet is an instant kill in space, and the end boss is vulnerable to the upgraded Stasis, which lets you freeze him and rip him to pieces.

    1. Sheer_Falacy says:

      That’s why they nerfed biotics into the ground in 2. No more crowd control on enemies with armor/barrier/shields (which is every enemy on higher difficulties).

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Thats why you always should have warp+burn in your party,either with you,or with your companions.Also,half the battles can be won by hacking.Infiltrators rule 2.

  9. Irridium says:

    Well that was good.
    Can’t wait for the next one.

  10. swimon says:

    Well they can’t use normal ftl in the serpent nebula right? Other than that though I agree with you, putting the council on the ascension is pretty stupid.

    1. Miral says:

      Yeah, that’s what I remember. In fact, given that they can’t use FTL and the Geth were in control of the mass relay, they were utterly braindead in evacuating the council to the Destiny Ascension (aka “big floating target”).

      What they should have done was to evacuate the council to one of the Wards (or split them up to three separate Wards). The place is so big that chances are very slim that they’d be found before help arrived, even if it took much longer than it did.

      Maybe it’s just another example of “the council are idiots who deserve to die”… :)

  11. Galad says:

    I started playing Mass Effect at a local games club precisely because of the first Spoiler Warning episodes, I started at normal difficulty, and iirc, at the end of the game I had some 2-3 million credits lying around with nothing to spend them on, both me and my squadmates equipped in the best armors and weapon I could find. Then I had another playthrough on hardcore, where the same thing happened, except that I had close to 10 million credits at the end. That’s a lot of difference between doing all the side quests and ignoring most of them. Turns out saving the galaxy is very profitable, if you check all its corners for blue chicks and other damsels in distress. ;)

    Thanks for taking the time and effort to create this series, it sure is quite entertaining listening to you three discussing things the average gamer often wouldn’t even notice, like the wave textures, or the various plot holes we’ve learnt to automatically ignore..That’s been the most entertaining part about this series!

  12. Winter says:

    In Planescape: Torment (1999) you can talk the main antagonist (who is the final boss fight) to death–you don’t have to fight it at all. Or you can commit suicide (which is technically a victory ending). Or you can fight it. Or you can do like five other things to it.

    A lot of the non-random fights in that game are beatable through philosophy/intimidation/whatever.

    I <3 Planescape.

    Anyway, I wonder what you have in store for the next one!

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Thats what I was thinking as well.And youre even a bigger badass because you convince the villain that he doesnt exist,not just make him kill himself.

      But the best endings Ive seen are in shadows of the underdark,where you can open a tavern and have lord of a circle of hell be a maid in it!

      1. Galad says:

        what, you sure you’re not making this up or used mods or something? Which option do I have to pick to see that, if it’s true?

        1. acronix says:

          I recall seeing that option in the Aurora Toolset, but I think it had a “Return False every time” script attached to it.

          Anyway, to get it you needed to know the True Name of that guy. Dunno if there was another condition.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Well some options are alignment restricted,I dont know which though.But I think you just need his true name for this.I was(lawful)evil,so that probably helps.And no,I wasnt using any mods there.

    2. guy says:

      You can do the same with the Master in fallout, which is easier than killing him or figuring out the nuke codes yourself. What’s really neat about that is that the way you do it is pointing out that he screwed up and his plan to save the human race is doomed, not by convincing him it was a bad idea or anything.

  13. Eltanin says:

    You know, there are a lot of threadbare tropes that this game (and even moreso it’s sequel) make use of. Like the BBEG coming back to life so that you have to fight him again, only this time – he’s CYBERNETIC! But I really enjoy the fact that Bioware actively works against the tropes sometimes. Being able to talk Saren down at the end is one example, but even better (for me) is the fact that you have your lackies ‘go make sure that he’s dead’. And they do! Wrex goes and shoots him in the head – AGAIN. I found that to be really satisfying. It was the spoonful of sugar that made Saren’s inevitable resurrection go down ok.

    You guys are lots of fun and I’ve really enjoyed this series. Thanks for your time, humor, and energy! I look forward to the next one with great anticipation.

    1. Moon Monster says:

      Hah, I agree. They did a good job of making the twist a little more twisty. When I talked Saren down, I figured ‘Hmm, ok, he’s coming back in some other form’. Then my squad actually did what everyone says to do when watching the movies (‘shoot him just in case!’) I thought wow, maybe it really is over … then nope. So… well-played.

      1. Aldowyn says:

        Look up Genre Savvy on TVTropes :D

  14. KremlinLaptop says:

    This was a really great series and I think you ended it well. Also I think the cheats were fair enough, frankly the bazooka shotgun is awesome beyond any belief.

    What else? Oh right. It’s four in the morning and this is bugging me. Sniper shotgun? I do not understand. If it’s a shotgun with the accuracy of a sniper rifle it’s no longer a shotgun and if it’s the sniper rifle with the sort of buckshot properties of a shotgun…

    Boggles the mind!

    1. Anaphyis says:

      Those types of weapons in real life are usually sniper rifles with very little spread, allowing buckshots over an increased distance.

  15. Blanko2 says:

    i shall miss randy and his decking out of journalists.
    and going after blue alien bottoms.
    i’m also surprised that at no point did he yell out
    RAAAAANDYYYYY JOOOOOOHNSOOOOOOOON
    because doesn’t it just sound like the name of a WWE fighter? that needs to be conan’s battlecry in ME2.

    and shamus. no more elevators for you!! did you try the paragon option on saren in any of your playthroughs? (i did not, i did renegade, too)
    and that was a great run. lots of fun comments and insightful ones, too.

    viel: that last montage was some stylish editing there. great job, and with the rest of the series too, of course. and again, great commentary.
    all three of you did a great job making this fun to watch.

    and macleod: that is a spiffy song and i want it.
    its catchy.

    1. Randy Johnson says:

      I was bereted with ‘Oooooh Yeeeaaahs’ all through middle school thanks to Macho Man Randy Savage

      1. Blanko2 says:

        i apologize for giving you flashbacks of that, then
        DX

      2. Coffee says:

        Snap into a Slim Jim! OOOOOH YEAAAAAAH!

  16. RTBones says:

    Nice send off. Nice to hear some more of the music too. Even with the cheats, you lot have just proved an old USMC axiom:

    There is no problem so large that it cannot be solved with a suitable application of high explosives and superior firepower.

    One question, though — in the ending montage, why no elevators? :)

    1. TSED says:

      I saw a couple.

      Or the tram, which is basically an elevator, anyways.

      1. Aldowyn says:

        there were like 5 in the noveria part, which was elevator central if you recall.

  17. Aldowyn says:

    wait wth why did you need new weapons? It made sense when I read that way back when I hadn’t watched the last several hours worth, but you haven’t died in like… ever. You one-shotted husks last episode, and geth not much more.

  18. orangeban says:

    Notice that Udina is effectively Hitler in that last speech. He wants to unite everyone with fear into a government ruled by a single “superior” race. The difference is noone ever just went up and punched Hitler in the face.

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