Mass Effect 2 is Filler

You have absolutely no idea how much the Mass Effect trilogy means to me, I mean, wow, this is a franchise that I am obsessed with, they are probably some of my most replayed games of all time, I love everything about it. I love the characters, I love the story, I love the gameplay, I love the designs, I love the cultures, I love the politics, I love about 99% of everything Mass Effect, and yes I like everyone have strong opinions on the Mass Effect 3 ending, don't worry, I'll talk about that another day. But one thing that has always bugged me is Mass Effect 2, which by all means is probably my favourite game in the series, it has the best tone, the best missions and the best characters, it's the best game in the series, no doubt about that...But the story has always come across as...filler to me. I mean, really think about it? What happens in the game?

(Spoilers Ahead)

Commander Shepard dies, just to be brought back to life a minute later even though 2 years have passed, he is now working with Cerberus as they're the only company that believe the reaper threat is real. He also learns about the Collectors, a mysterious species that are kidnapping humans and are believed to be connected to the Reapers, so Commander Shepard gets together a new crew to stop the Collectors and this is exactly what he does.

Okay so pretty simple plot to follow, but what does this have to do with the Reapers? Or the impending invasion? Or anything? Let's be completely honest, if this game never happened then Mass Effect 1 could just go straight into Mass Effect 3 and not much would be different apart from missing a bunch of characters, but seeing as your crew in Mass Effect 3 is 90% your crew from Mass Effect 1 it's not that big of a difference. But wait, there are also a bunch of missions that are based around your crew members from Mass Effect 2! Even though those are missions that could easily replace the original character. Like Mordin could be replaced with Kirrahea, Grunt can be replaced with Wrex, Jack can be replaced with Kahlee Sanders. Honestly the entire crew is expendable in the 2nd game so it really shouldn't affect the 3rd game at all.

So obviously the main focus in the series is the impending doom from the Reapers, so let's take a look at that chain of progression. ME1: The Reapers are coming ME2: Reapers are still coming ME3: Reapers are here. In fact pretty much everything in ME2 is very self contained. The Collectors are introduced and then killed off by the end, Shepard joins Cerberus and then quits by the end. The only thing that carries over into ME3 is The Illusive Man, and even then, the Cerberus plotline in ME3 was only a subplot, nothing remotely important ever came about up until the very end, and even that could have been tweaked to not include them.

Now, with that being said; Mass Effect 2 is still the greatest instalment in the franchise and is one of the greatest videogames in history, and even after everything I've said about the characters, I still love them to bits, they are all incredible yes, even Jacob. The story while very self-contained, is still a damn good story and has the best missions in the entire series. I'm just sayin', it's part of something bigger than itself, so it should probably be better included.

Regardless, this is still my favourite videogame on the Citadel (God that meme is being overused)

-Danny