To enumerate Mass Effect plot holes
- The usual injunctions against space opera
- There seems to be an upper limit to technology everyone lands on, because human tech can face Turian tech and not be wiped with the floor. Yet the player sees cases of "new and experimental" tech that is much better than what came before, so is there a limit or isn't there?
- Since the ME races have been around for tens of thousands of years, they ought to have invented the new and experimental thing already. It's a massive plothole that everyone has a roughly competitive level of tech (even the Protheans and races that haven't had first contact are roughly on a playing field with Citadel races).
- Plus there appears to be no difference between the Protheans of 49.000 years ago and those of 50.000 years ago.
- Since the ME races have been around for tens of thousands of years, they ought to have invented the new and experimental thing already. It's a massive plothole that everyone has a roughly competitive level of tech (even the Protheans and races that haven't had first contact are roughly on a playing field with Citadel races).
- Apparently everyone just settles on what the "dreadnought" size class is, even before first contact
- Language, but on this everything has been said already
- Manned ships; space as a sea; not enough room given to AI (or VI) and drones
- Think about it, you don't need to send a ship to your enemy homeworld to bombard it, you can just start lobbing missiles right from your own homeworld to theirs. Call them ISBM (interstellar ballistic missile). Warp is not needed because what's the hurry, the missiles can jump thru mass relays to cover most of the distance
- In ME and most space opera, the design of manned ships is 90% accommodation for the beings inside. More realistic is the Foundation trilogy with kilometers-long battleships that carry a crew of three (3) hanging out in a tiny livable part of it.
- So, in the ME universe you could for the cost of one manned ship build dozens of unmanned ships, each packing the same firepower, plus they'd be tiny and take a lot less fuel. But nobody comes up with this innovation.
- That you have to get within eyeball distance of the enemy to engage in space combat is just weird. Even in sea and air battle here on Earth, we don't need to do that.
- Why do we see ships oriented the "right way up" all the time?
- There seems to be an upper limit to technology everyone lands on, because human tech can face Turian tech and not be wiped with the floor. Yet the player sees cases of "new and experimental" tech that is much better than what came before, so is there a limit or isn't there?
- Why did humanity have five "battlefleets" before meeting the Turians? What were they for?
- The Migrant Fleet…
- A hundred years in space? In the whole galaxy with you tell me how many livable worlds, nobody can spare a patch of land somewhere? Even though the Council forbade aiding the Quarians, realistically, they would have found a deal with some shady organization… and can we talk about what a weird kind of punishment it is for the Council to hand out in the first place?
- Why are Geth platforms just humanoids with handguns? Where are the flying Gatling guns, or the little grenades with legs, or other sensible units? Why have AI in a story if they won't be their AI nature (Answer: everyone would lose)? They're metal men but still men.
- Reapers
- Why do they have to land on a planet and slowly raze building after building? It would take years to finish off a planet this way.
- What is "harvesting"? This is probably the central question mark in ME.
- Why don't biotics just crush enemies' lungs? Seems it would take less effort than lifting their whole bodies and throwing them about.
- Why does it work to take cover behind boxes in close-quarters combat? They're hollow boxes, not solid cubes of steel.
- Where's all the chemical and biological warfare?
- Where are the landmines?
- Why don't unshielded and unarmored Rachni turn into so much bloody mush the moment anyone points their super-deadly future-pistol at them? If Rachni cause the Citadel races trouble, it would logically be because they are too many, too small and come crawling out of the vents (and Krogan would not be the solution), but instead we see essentially "battle tank Rachni" shrugging off direct fire. What kind of useless guns are those they have in the future?
The other races have multiple worlds with dense populations, while humans are mostly on Earth, with a few scattered colonies. On a galactic scale, the other races are the United States, China, and Germany, while Humans are (say) Iceland. Awesome, skilled, and empowered by good home resources, sure. But there’s no scenario where, over a single generation, Iceland becomes so powerful that a single fringe group within Iceland can become a standalone superpower capable of conquering the capital city of one of the major nations.
Created (4 years ago)