Recruiting Garrus

We find Garrus in the medical center, dealing with some thugs. He takes a crack shot at one of them, taking him down while narrowly avoiding the doctor the thug was holding hostage. I complimented him on the shot. I figure he must be experienced enough to know whether to take a shot like that. No sense second-guessing him. Still, I think that’s what earned me some Renegade points. Lame; I have to reprimand him for doing what he thinks best with his skills?

In general, I am sticking with paragon choices. They just seem like the ones that usually fit with me the best.

Emily Wong

This is Emily Wong, the good investigative reporter. She really just wants news regarding the Citadel.

I feel a little odd about taking side-quests from various people, at least at this point. I mean, I’m not even a Spectre yet. Why would the commander of a ship offer to take on these random side-quests? I guess Shepard could be doing them out of the goodness of his heart, but presumably he has other obligations that prevent him from remaining around the Citadel or gallivanting around the galaxy on random quests for people. Then again, perhaps I know nothing about the restrictions on a person at his level of command.

I still find it a little bit odd, even when he finally becomes a Spectre. It seems like he would be constantly busy doing quests for the Council.

Harkin

As is traditional, every “cop” story must have at least one visit to a strip club of some type. Now, this bar is not a strip club, to my understanding, but they do have at least one dancing girl. Close enough to satisfy my rabid obsession for categorization.

This is Harkin.

Forget him for a moment.

On the way into the bar, I was attacked by an assassin. No explanation for why; it just happens. I guess they might have been sent by Saren, but the game does not address it unless I missed a passing line of dialogue.

Anyway, Harkin here gives me a lead for finding Garrus.

Saren’s Mock Trial

Showing off the Council again, now that we can see them in full color. I wonder how long they have served on the Council. What are the prereqs for being elected? How do they decide whether to add another race to the Council?

Saren gets summoned. The conversation can be summed up as…
Plaintiffs: Saren, you have done terrible things!
Saren: Prove it.
Plaintiffs: We can’t…
Saren: Okay, see you all later. *disconnects*

It’s funny in a sad sort of way.

But does Shepard give up? No sir! Not going to let a little thing like a closed case stop him from further investigating.

Seriously, I do not quite get how their judicial system works. So, is the case actually closed? This seemed extremely casual for a tribunal.

Initial Citadel Exploration

I feel a bit bad about doing computer decryption in this game. After all, Shepard is a military commander; this sort of unauthorized investigation seems wrong. However, as a player, I am too intrigued by the rewards of investigation to ignore these things.

For example, by decrypting this first computer, I got a lead on a side quest. I do not know whether this quest would even be open if I had not gone hacking.

The game’s first example of Virtual Intelligence (VI) is Avina. The Avinas are handy VIs found on the Citadel which can fill in the player about nifty things. I enjoy closing my eyes and just listening to the speech; relaxing, especially with the background music.

VI is an interesting concept because it is distinct from AI. As I understand it, AI is true artificial intelligence. VI means that they seem intelligent, but they are not actually intelligent; no free will. This is perhaps a common theme in science fiction, dating back at least to Isaac Asimov. Fair enough – it’s a concern today. What happens when we make machines so intelligent that they cannot be distinguished from human intelligence? The general answer for science fiction appears to be that people of the future will develop AI and learn their mistake when something horrible happens. I guess that happened here, but the Geth are an interesting exception, a VI that became an AI.

Before getting to speak with the Council, I meet Garrus for the first time. That device on his face is a nice touch. Well-meaning guy, but he could not get a good lead on Saren.

The Citadel Tower is pretty. Interesting to see trees growing inside a space station.

I actually did some more exploration of the Citadel at this point, but the pictures did not save properly. I met the jellyfish people, which look slightly phallic. And the squat economist race that wears the full body suits. There are at least two races in this game which walk around completely armored the entire time.

I have not bought anything in the citadel yet. Everything looks too pricy.

Preparing to meet the Council

The ship pulls into the Citadel, which is quite pretty. I could hang that image on a wall.

Ambassador Udina, Captain Anderson, and Shepard meet with the council briefly to give them the heads-up about Saren. A formal meeting concerning the findings will be held soon. However, it’s obvious that the meeting will go poorly. No wonder. We have little evidence and I would not expect a Spectre to be easy to trace. With their ability to break laws whenever they want, they could give some grizzly orders to cover their trails.

I do find that a bit silly, by the way. The Spectres can break any law? Why do they need to be invested with that much power? That seems like it would anger a lot of races, particularly the non-council races. I know the council races are “in charge”, but I would expect the non-council races to band together against the council about this point. I would imagine the council would relent on the matter of total immunity from laws.

Chasing Saren

Saren finds out about Shepard activating the Prothean artifact and becomes angry. What I don’t get… why didn’t he just destroy the Prothean artifact? Throw a grenade at it? The object was clearly destructible. If he did not want anybody to get access to it, he could have done that. Maybe it has shields or something, but the game never addresses it.

Shepard awakens after the events at Eden Prime. He is in good shape, but now it is time to have a word with Captain Anderson.

Captain Anderson and Shepard talk for a little bit. The plan is to go after Saren. In particular, they are going to go visit the Citadel and making their case to the Council that Saren is a villain. Unfortunately, they have very little to go on. Shepard never actually encountered Saren on Eden. He just heard about him from a single dock worker. Not going to be an easy case to make against a Spectre. Come to think of it, I do not recall who exactly told Shepard that it was specifically Saren who was planetside.

Current Impressions

I’m done with my first mission in the game. So,w hat do I think so far? It’s a good game. My favorite part is the music. It sucks me into the world and I might need to buy the soundtrack. The cinematics are really good too. There’s a scene where Saren is informed that Shepard communiated with the device and the way he reacts, his rage, seems all-too-much like an actual actor on a stage, in a good way. I feel like I’m watching a movie. The camera control is tight and the graphics are gorgeous.

The combat’s good, but not my favorite part of the game. I need more practice with battles before I can really get a feel for whether I like these mechanics. I had some trouble getting my squadmates to follow me at the end of the first mission; not sure why. I am sure there is a lot of depth to the game’s battles; I am just not seeing it yet. I heard that Throw becomes more powerful because it throws people further and that means, because they use real physics, that it does more damage.

So, sci-fi is not my thing, but so far I am really enjoying this game. Let’s see if my interest still holds after my next mission.

End of Eden

This ship takes off. It resembles a crackling squid. Cool.

So, Saren is working with the Geth. I guess the Geth are from beyond the galaxy. Or, rather, they used to live in the galaxy, as servants, then moved on beyond the galaxy. Reminds me of the new Battlestar Galactica series, where the premise is that the Cylons were waiting beyond the solar system. I’m assuming, though, that the Geth are not going to somehow destroy all the galactic civilizations at the beginning of the game.

After fighting some more Geth and disarming a few bombs, I make it to the Prothean artifact. I am not sure why they set up the bombs. Why would they want to destroy this artifact? Perhaps so nobody else could get its information. But the bombs were not set up around it; they were set up at a train station. So, did they just not want anybody to get near it? But a ship could get there. I am confused.

The Prothean artifact starts getting wiggy. Did I mention that green is my favorite color?

Shepard takes charge, knocking aside Williams, and approaching the device. It gives him a series of bizarre visions. I tried to snap a few good photos, but the images do not make much sense to me.

After Shepard’s vision is finished, the device blows up. I am not sure why. I know, I have already said that this post, but Eden Prime is presenting many mysteries. Why did the device explode? What are those images? A bit later, Shepard says that they were visions of the Geth attacking. So, is it some kind of prophecy device? What is the point? How could the device know that? Is there a point to it? There is presumably, but I do not know. This is just so early in the game, I need more context; another clue, to really get anywhere beyond speculation.

Eden Dies

Welcome to Eden Prime. The place looks beautiful, epic, and yet I can only imagine that it must have been even more gorgeous before horrible things began happening to it.

Nihlus is going ahead. I can’t help but notice when things like this happen: how does he manage to avoid the horrible things that are set on our path? Does he take a route we cannot access? Why can’t we take that route? Why didn’t he help the soldiers being attacked by the Geth?

The first alien creature we meet on Eden Prime is the gas bag. Grotesque floating sacs that undoubtedly explode into something nasty on context. Why are these hideous things on Eden Prime? “Come to Eden. Gorgeous sunsets, emerald forests, greasy sacs of flesh.”

Our first casualty. Soldier whatshisname… I feel a little about about not remembering it, because we had a conversation earlier in the game; creepy eye guy.

My first sighting of the Geth. They look familiar. I recall seeing something like this in a Superman comic book once. There was a villain called the Cyborg. Basically, he could build a body for himself out of machines and fuse himself with bodies. Anyway, I recall one of his assimilated bodies resembling the geth; it looked creepy, which makes them seem all the more disturbing to me.

But the creepiest thing about them is the husks. I don’t entirely understand the process, but here’s what it seems to be. The geth carry around these ridiculously huge machines with them, which they plant on the ground. When they kill somebody, they put their body on top of the machine. A gigantic spike shoots up, piercing the body, infecting it with something. A moment later, the body drops and the person is now a raging zombie. They scare the hell out of me, to be honest.

I met Williams, the only survivor of the local military unit. After helping her kill (destroy?) some Geth, she joined up with me.

I’m still not sure what I want to do about characters’ level-up schemes. Not sure I’m doing a great job of it yet. Thinking of setting it to auto.

After destroying some husks, we found a couple scientists holed up. One of them is a bit unstable and talks in religious overtones, underlining the horror of this place.

And now it’s time to say goodbye to Nihlus. I gotta say, I’m a bit surprised at how he goes down.

This ugly mug belongs to Saren. Saren wasn’t supposed to be here. Saren talks with a creepy undertone of menace. And then Saren kills Nihlus, who was not on guard despite both of those factors. Somehow I expected more from a Spectre, even if they are long-time friends or allies.