Il Divo wrote...
I certainly agree that the plot was contrived. However, its degree is also an important factor. The problem is not that Shepard puts together a team of specialists, but that so much emphasis is placed on it ad absurdum. Talk to Jacob after taking off in Normandy #2. Ask him what he thinks of the mission and he expresses anxiety because the "team isn't at 100%". Not because we have no idea what the Collectors are doing, or any other number of logical reasons God forbid.
I always figured that'd be a conversation to have with Kelly. All that changes in that conversation is if everyone's loyalty is 100%. What the heck does the Cerberus operative that has problems with a few of the crew suddenly know about their relationship with Shepard, and how they're suddenly focused? Is he observing them somehow? You'd think Kelly would be much more in their face about their issues, considerin she actually talks to them.
Gathering the "best and brightest" wasn't the problem, but they should've put more emphasis on other attributes. Samara as a biotic expert was fine, but more should have been done to emphasize that they are not just a team of 'badasses'. Tali perhaps could have had provided insight into Collector technology, etc with Mordin. Nevertheless, a good ground team is useful, especially since Freedom's Progress demonstrates that the Collectors do possess infantry units.
I see nothing wrong with getting a good ground team, an engineer, a biotic, etc. But this has to be in the narrative, not "you'll get who you need." For what? Doing what? If TIM said "I believe you'll need an engineer", then OKAY! Thank you for taking the time to explain your master recruitment plan, chief. Same with the heavy weapon choice: we don't know what will be the most useful type to take on a mission. If we got some intel on what we'll be encountering, we might have a good assessment of what weapon types to take.
Forgive my ambiguity. It's not that I didn't enjoy speaking with Tali (though she is nothing on Wrex), but exposition is only as good as the form in which it is delivered. We both know that Mass Effect 2 suffers from plot-holes, some worse than others.
I lump Tali and Liara in the same mold: they both provide insight into our opposing force. Wrex is just Wrex.
Let's say a tiny fairy appeared at the very end and explained everything that the Collectors had been planning to do with this human reaper embryo (let's say that it was intended as a new vanguard). Now we have obtained exposition, at the expense of form which is my exact issue with characters such as Tali. She's my "tiny fairy" so to speak; she is interesting but her presence is so forced that I wonder why she's even there which ruins her exposition to a degree.
I'll take clarity over identifying a thematic or plot device anyday, especially for something as bizarre as that. There are arguably many, and better ways to present exposition: but it
must be there. It's like having a murder mystery with no
people.
Mass Effect 1: Stop Saren. Could involve gathering information, reaching the conduit, killing, etc. Just stop him in one form or another.
Mass Effect 2: Stop the Collectors. Could involve gathering information about them, locate them, kill them. Just stop them, one form or another.
We ultimately are told certain abstract facts about the Collectors. Their motivation involves the fact that they're indoctrinated/repurposed Protheans. What they are doing is gathering humans into a genetic paste to create another Reaper. It's the more concrete/physical facts which are more circumspect. How many are there? How many ships? One? Two? Five hundred? These we really don't know before crossing Omega IV.
Yes we can draw similarities to both goals, that is, "stop the bad guys." But Saren was a person, interacting with people on planets and the sort. He even had a henchman we got to stop. There were social and personal worlds to explore, plots to uncover, things to learn about their machinations, eventually to uncover the Conduit plot.
The Collectors are a mysterious, alien species, that don't talk, don't "leave a trace", don't interact with people, and fly around in a big cylinder. They take humans. That's it? All our information networks and that's all we learn? Then we get the 2nd most ridiculous mission, the disabled Collector Cruiser, and all we learn is where their usual stop is Revealing that they're Protheans is fluff to our ends (they could've been 100ks years old and it would've made absolutely no difference), as this discovery could've been made well before that (Horizon), and provides no tactical advantage (this is even worse than discovering Saren is upgraded as a cybernetic near the end.)
Let's just say I hear the "Collectors are Protheans, you idiot!" So many times, as if it means something.
Where content may not have been clear, I certainly thought context made it so. Yes, I can see how the Collector General was an ambiguous element until the end, given we'd never seen him before. However on Horizon we do see him become possessed so clearly he is not speaking for himself. We also witness Harbinger at the end "releasing control" (no jokes, for the love of God) and see a hologram of a Reape hence we know it was possession. But if we can't trust this hologram, can we not say that Sovereign's hologram may have been a clever AI as well? To provide a similar example, how do we even know that Sovereign possessed Saren? Content doesn't make it clear.
Within that context, the narrative tells us that Sovereign is not a VI by our squad, although they could be wrong. We've never encountered anything like that before. The narrative has acknolwedged that this weird red glowing squid thing is "not as it appears."
In regards to Harbinger,
no one has encountered it
at all. It's a voice talking
smack. We have nothing to point to, no dialog. Yet for some inexplicable reason "Harbinger is coming."
Shepard: "No really, you have to believe me. It was this booming vocie, an egotistical...Reaper! Talking about...genetics, and..."
Council: "..."
When we hear "You have failed". Content was perhaps not clear, but once more context made it so. We understand the Reapers have been using the Collectors to gather humans for a new Reaper. Shepard successfully detonating a bomb prevented this result, hence this Reaper being "Harbinger" blames his henchmen. Again, we can certainly come to other conclusions regarding these events, but this by far is the most logical based on what facts we have available about the Collectors an Reapers.
That doesn't make sense. If the Collectors are mindless drones, how can a indoctrinated, mindless, completely controlled drone fail? And don't give me that whole Sunday morning cartoon James Bond style villain getting angry at his hired, brainless muscle, who only follows his masters orders, and can only look down and whimper. That is childlessly dumb. It's simply unclear writing. What, does Harbinger normally talk to his mindless drones? Does the million year old AI start blowing up small satellites when his dolls break, when it doesn't get his way? It's absolutely out of character of what we know of Reapers, if in fact Harbinger is one.
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