Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME1 Ep 3 – Citadel – Pt 2

We’re back on the Citadel for episode three of our Mass Effect Legendary Edition playthrough, and there’s still plenty to get through before we can properly head out into the galaxy.

This time, we’re working through more side quests, meeting some interesting characters and finally getting command of the Normandy. There’s also a fair amount of wandering around, some questionable behaviour from Kaidan, an unexpected AI problem and, naturally, a few distractions courtesy of Twitch chat.

🌌 About the Game

Mass Effect Legendary Edition brings together BioWare’s original Mass Effect trilogy, including the single-player content from Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, along with over 40 DLC packs, bonus weapons and armour, all remastered and optimised for 4K Ultra HD.

We play as Commander Shepard, exploring a galaxy filled with different alien civilisations, political tensions and some rather serious threats. Our choices shape conversations, relationships and how events unfold, making it a brilliant series to revisit, especially when you’re aiming for a complete playthrough.

🚀 Where We Are in the Journey

We’re still relatively early in the first Mass Effect, following the attack on Eden Prime and Shepard’s appointment as humanity’s first Spectre. Saren is our main target, but before heading after him, there’s unfinished business on the Citadel.

I’m aiming for a 100% playthrough, so that means exploring properly, completing available assignments and making sure we don’t overlook anything important. Having played the original back in 2007, there’s plenty I remember, although the Legendary Edition still manages to catch me out occasionally.

🎮 What Happens in This Episode

We started with an immediate reminder that technical problems don’t always wait until you’re ready. Switching to the Xbox input produced a rather unpleasant blast of audio through my headset. Once that was sorted and we’d loaded the correct save, Kaidan somehow managed to get himself stuck somewhere inaccessible. Chat compared abandoning him to leaving a Minecraft dog behind, which didn’t exactly improve his reputation as our resident “wet blanket.” It wasn’t the best start for him, although everyone else seemed perfectly happy to carry on without him.

Before getting back to the Citadel assignments, we had nineteen talent points to spend. I put quite a few into Charm, as I’m trying to get the Paragon outcomes wherever possible, while Decryption also received some attention. I’m still sticking with my trusty pistol build, something I’ve enjoyed since playing the original Mass Effect back in 2007. There was some equipment management and squad levelling to sort out as well, including a look at the rather expensive Spectre gear. Unfortunately, we’re nowhere near as wealthy as my old maxed-out character.

Our first assignments included dealing with a preaching hanar who was having a disagreement with a C-Sec officer over Citadel regulations. Rather than causing trouble, we managed to persuade the hanar that following the rules would be a better way to honour the Enkindlers. The Charm investment was already paying off, and it was another opportunity to collect some Paragon points. I also spent some time appreciating the improvements to the Citadel and its inhabitants in the Legendary Edition. Having played the original so many years ago, the extra detail is still nice to see.

We also encountered a woman offering coordinates for two rival criminal organisations involved in red sand and slavery. Her proposal sounded suspiciously like an opportunity to remove the competition and take over their operations herself. I wasn’t particularly interested in helping that happen, so we went with the Paragon response. I remembered getting Renegade points from making the wrong decision during a previous playthrough, so I was pleased we managed to avoid that this time.

Another assignment involved Sameesh Bhatia, whose wife Nirali had died defending Eden Prime. The Alliance was refusing to release her remains because they wanted to study the injuries caused by geth weapons. After speaking with the official responsible, we managed to persuade him that returning her body to her husband was the right thing to do. It was one of the more emotional moments of the evening, particularly when Ashley shared her memories of Nirali and her service on Eden Prime.

The biggest story development came when Captain Anderson officially handed command of the Normandy over to Shepard. We also learned more about Anderson’s troubled history with Saren, including the disastrous mission involving a refinery explosion and hundreds of civilian deaths that effectively ended Anderson’s own chance of becoming a Spectre.

With Saren still pursuing the Conduit and the mystery surrounding the Reapers developing, we now had several possible destinations to investigate. Feros, Noveria and the search for Liara T’Soni in the Artemis Tau cluster were all waiting for us.

Shepard gave the Normandy crew a suitably encouraging speech about stopping Saren and proving that humanity deserved its place alongside the other species. We finally had command of our own ship and the freedom to explore the galaxy.

Naturally, rather than immediately flying off, I decided we still had too much unfinished business on the Citadel.

That meant another round of travelling between the markets, clinics, offices and various other locations. Wrex and Tali joined the active squad, which was useful both for their abilities and for the conversations they have with each other. Some of their exchanges about the krogan, quarians and geth made the long elevator journeys a little more interesting.

We helped Dr Michel deal with someone who was blackmailing her over medical supplies she’d previously distributed to people in need. After following the situation to the markets, we managed to persuade the middleman to leave her alone without starting a fight. We also delivered information recovered from Fist’s office to reporter Emily Wong, negotiating a little over a potential future exclusive interview.

There was plenty happening around Chora’s Den as well. We helped General Septimus work through his problems involving the asari consort Sha’ira, then took evidence to an elcor diplomat to clear up the accusations against her. Returning to Sha’ira earned us an unusual conversation about Shepard’s future, along with a mysterious trinket that may prove useful later.

Of course, Chora’s Den also provided some entertainment for chat, particularly whenever we wandered near the dancers. Chrissy’s enthusiasm led to repeated jokes about his blood pressure, while Royalty managed to miss some of the action and then had to hear about it afterwards. There were also ongoing jokes about the shed, bonus eggs and channel point rewards. We even ended up making another visit, so there was certainly no shortage of opportunities for chat to get distracted.

Back to the actual assignments, we investigated Rita’s concerns about her sister Jenna, who was working at Chora’s Den. It turned out Jenna was involved in an undercover C-Sec investigation, which eventually brought us to Detective Chellick. We agreed to help with an operation involving illegal weapons modifications, collected the goods and returned to Chellick to complete the assignment properly. Another satisfying result without making an unnecessary mess of things.

We also spent a fair amount of time dealing with Chorban and Jaleed, two researchers involved in scanning the Citadel’s mysterious keepers. Things became rather more complicated when Chorban and his associates decided to attack us, leading to one of the evening’s few proper firefights. After sorting out their disagreement over the research data, we eventually managed to convince Jaleed to make amends.

More importantly, we could finally get on with scanning the keepers.

That turned into quite a lengthy search around the Citadel, checking corridors, offices, balconies and all sorts of little corners for any we’d missed. Every time I thought we were nearly finished, there seemed to be another keeper hiding somewhere. We did eventually track down the final ones, which was particularly satisfying considering we’re trying to complete everything available during this playthrough.

Flux provided another distraction when we encountered Schells, a gambler who’d been thrown out for attempting to cheat at quasar. He wanted Shepard to use a device to gather information that would help him manipulate the machines. Rather than assist with his scheme, we handed the device over to the club’s owner instead. It seemed like the more sensible option, and another opportunity to keep things on the right side of the law.

One of the more unexpected assignments involved following a series of suspicious credit transfers through the Citadel’s financial systems. What initially looked like a straightforward investigation turned into a confrontation with an illegal artificial intelligence hidden inside a terminal.

The AI threatened to blow up the surrounding area, leaving us with a disarming puzzle to deal with. The sequence-based mechanics weren’t quite what I remembered from the original game, so that took a little more attention than expected. We managed to resolve the situation, but it was a rather more dangerous discovery than simply tracking down some missing credits.

The stream equipment also decided to contribute another problem when my USB headset started making crackling noises. Fortunately, unplugging it and reconnecting it seemed to sort things out, allowing us to get back to the game without too much disruption.

As we worked through the remaining assignments, we picked up several leads for future adventures. Admiral Kahoku asked us to investigate a missing reconnaissance team, while another man was worried about his brother’s trading vessel. We also learned more about the mysterious Armistan Banes through our conversations with Anderson, giving us further connections to investigate once we finally leave the Citadel.

There were a few achievement notifications along the way, which was always nice to see. Between the successful Paragon conversations, completed assignments and keeper scans, we were making some excellent progress towards the overall completion goal.

Once I was happy with the Citadel journal, we returned to the Normandy for a proper conversation with the crew.

Joker told us more about his medical condition and how it affects his life, while still being extremely confident in his abilities as a pilot. Presley was less enthusiastic about having alien crewmates aboard the Normandy, which gave Shepard an opportunity to challenge some of his opinions.

Garrus explained his frustrations with C-Sec and why he preferred the freedom of working with Shepard. Wrex talked about the genophage and the difficulties facing the krogan, giving us a better understanding of his people’s situation.

Down in engineering, Adams explained some of the technology behind the Normandy’s impressive stealth systems, while Tali provided a fascinating amount of information about quarian society. We learned about life aboard the migrant fleet, the importance of the pilgrimage and the history of the geth, including how their creation eventually led to the quarians losing their homeworld.

These conversations are one of the things I enjoy about Mass Effect. There’s so much background information available if you’re prepared to spend time talking to everyone, and it helps make the different characters and species considerably more interesting.

By the end of the session, we’d completed virtually all the Citadel assignments currently available to us, picked up several new missions for later and spent some worthwhile time getting to know our crew. There wasn’t a huge amount of combat, but we accomplished plenty.

After saving the game, we had a little discussion about viewer rewards and took a brief look at the Xbox store before finishing for the evening.

The Normandy is now ready for us to start exploring properly. I’ve also got a spreadsheet from an earlier playthrough to help keep track of the optional planets and assignments, so the plan is to tackle as much of that content as possible before progressing too far with the main story.

All things considered, it was a very productive evening on the Citadel, even with the occasional technical problem, a few unexpected complications and chat finding plenty of ways to distract me along the way.

📺 Watch the Episode

You can catch the full Citadel session here:

Watch Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME1 Ep 3 – Citadel – Pt 2

You can also visit my YouTube channel or follow the complete Mass Effect Legendary Edition playlist.

If you’re enjoying the series, consider leaving a like, sharing your thoughts in the comments and subscribing for future episodes.

🔴 Join the Adventure Live

The Normandy might finally be under our command, but there’s still an entire galaxy to explore, and plenty of opportunities for chat to distract me along the way.

Come and join us live on Twitch or YouTube. Whether you’re here for the story, the side quests or the occasional questionable decision, you’re always welcome.

🌐 Community & Links

There’s more to explore beyond the Normandy. Here are the places where you can follow the streams, keep in touch with the community and find my other projects.

Live — Catch the next stream and join the conversation:
Twitch | YouTube

Community — Keep the conversations going between streams:
Discord

Socials — Follow updates, clips and everything happening outside the stream:
TikTok | Bluesky | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | X

Music — Find my music when you’re away from the Citadel:
Spotify | Apple Music

Support — Help support the channel and future content:
Fourthwall | Teespring | Streamlabs

More — Explore my other work and projects:
Business Centre | Download the Brochure | About Me | Blog

🛸 The Normandy Is Ready… Almost

By the end of the stream, we’d completed virtually everything currently available on the Citadel, picked up some achievements and had a proper opportunity to get to know our crew.

Next time, we’ll start looking beyond the Citadel, working through optional planets and assignments before getting too far ahead with the main story. I’ve even got my old spreadsheet to help keep track of everything.

Thanks to everyone who joined us, contributed to chat and made another evening of wandering around the Citadel so enjoyable. See you in the next one!

— Dr Ravenholm