Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME1 Ep 4 – Finding Liara

Episode four of my Mass Effect Legendary Edition playthrough had a fairly straightforward objective: find Liara T’Soni and bring her aboard the Normandy. Getting to her, however, involved some questionable Mako driving, plenty of geth, and a Prothean archaeological site that was about to collapse.

I’m still working towards earning as many Xbox achievements as possible without needing more playthroughs than necessary. That means carefully choosing squadmates, collecting equipment, exploring everything and making time for conversations along the way.

🌌 About the Game

Mass Effect Legendary Edition brings together the single-player campaigns of Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, along with more than 40 DLC packs, remastered and optimised for 4K Ultra HD.

In the original Mass Effect, we follow Commander Shepard across a galaxy filled with alien civilisations, difficult decisions and a growing threat involving Saren, the geth and the mysterious Reapers. There’s plenty of planetary exploration, character development and story to discover beyond the main missions.

🛰️ Where We Are in the Journey

After spending plenty of time dealing with business on the Citadel, we’re finally heading out to investigate one of our main leads. I normally tackle these missions in a different order, but this time I wanted to recruit Liara earlier and see how that affects the story.

Chat had already helped choose the squad, with Wrex winning the companion poll. He and Garrus would be accompanying Shepard until Liara joined us.

Before leaving, I also visited Tali because Royalty had missed some earlier conversations with her. We weren’t heading off without that little catch-up!

🔥 What Happens in This Episode: Finding Liara on Therum

Before setting off, I made another visit to Tali aboard the Normandy because Royalty had missed some of our earlier conversations with her. We learned a little more about the quarian migrant fleet and her experiences growing up aboard it. With that taken care of, it was finally time to leave the Citadel behind and find Liara T’Soni.

Finding the correct star system took a little more backtracking than intended, partly because I hadn’t checked exactly where we needed to go beforehand. It did give me another opportunity to appreciate the Legendary Edition’s improvements, though. The mass relay textures look considerably better, and the Normandy’s lifts are wonderfully quick compared with their Xbox 360 counterparts. Anyone who remembers those original loading times will understand my appreciation! Accidentally stepping into a lift used to mean sitting through the entire journey, whether you actually wanted to go anywhere or not.

Once we reached Therum, it was time to get the Mako moving. I discovered its boost button, experimented with the revised driving controls and used the thrusters to dodge incoming missiles while fighting through geth tanks and rocket defences. The boost certainly came in handy, although the Mako still isn’t particularly suitable for sneaking past enemies. I actually enjoyed the awkward handling of the original Mako, so I’m not entirely convinced everything needed changing. There was something entertaining about trying to control it across difficult terrain, even when it wasn’t doing quite what you wanted.

The planetary environments also gave me a chance to appreciate some of the graphical improvements. The terrain and vehicle textures look noticeably better, and I spent a little time comparing them with what I remembered from the original game. Of course, admiring the scenery had to fit around destroying geth and avoiding incoming rockets.

Naturally, there was also equipment to collect. I searched buildings, opened containers, gathered upgrades and accumulated even more things that would eventually need sorting back aboard the Normandy. I’m trying to be fairly thorough with exploration, particularly because of the achievements, but there’s only so much equipment you can collect before the inventory needs some attention.

I also had a few moments of trying to remember which buttons controlled particular abilities, including how to get out of the Mako. At one point, the radar suggested a room was safe, so I confidently walked inside. Everything promptly exploded. So much for that assessment! Apparently, checking the radar isn’t always enough to establish whether somewhere is safe.

As we continued towards the ruins, I remembered that a more difficult geth encounter was coming up. I wondered whether the Mako’s boost might allow us to bypass part of the route, but an invisible barrier put an end to that idea. There was also a strange moment where the vehicle briefly clipped through the ground. Fortunately, that didn’t stop us from continuing, although we eventually had to leave the Mako behind and proceed on foot.

I found myself enjoying the sniper rifle more than expected during the following encounters. Waiting for powers to recharge was rather less enjoyable, especially when there were several enemies to deal with. I also kept looking for opportunities to work towards the melee-related achievements wherever possible.

Before the larger geth battle, I made sure to save. I remembered an earlier playthrough when the enemy tank conveniently became stuck, which made the fight considerably easier. No such luck this time! We had to deal with the larger enemy and its supporting geth properly, with Garrus helping to finish off one of the snipers. Between managing the squad, watching recharge times and trying to keep everyone alive, there was plenty to concentrate on.

Eventually, we located Liara deep inside the Prothean ruins. She had activated a security field to protect herself from the geth, but unfortunately managed to trap herself inside it. It was certainly effective at keeping unwanted visitors away, although she hadn’t really considered how she was going to get back out.

We had a conversation about her mother, Matriarch Benezia, and her connection to Saren. Given everything we’d discovered so far, Shepard understandably wanted to establish whether Liara was involved in any of it. Liara explained that she hadn’t spoken to her mother in years and knew nothing about whatever Benezia and Saren were planning.

Freeing her involved exploring further into the ruins and activating a mining laser through a control sequence that reminded me of Simon Says. Once we’d managed that, we could finally release her from the security field. Unfortunately, rescuing Liara wasn’t the end of our problems.

The ruins were becoming increasingly unstable, and a krogan working with the geth was waiting to prevent our escape. We had another fight on our hands before we could get out of there. With the archaeological site collapsing around us and volcanic activity making the situation even worse, we needed Joker to bring the Normandy in for an urgent evacuation.

Thankfully, we managed to escape, although Joker’s subsequent jokes about having to land a spaceship near an erupting volcano didn’t particularly impress Liara. I rather liked Shepard defending Joker’s sense of humour. After managing to get everyone out of there safely, I think he was entitled to make a few jokes about the experience.

With Liara finally aboard the Normandy, we could start learning more about her research into the Protheans. She explained her theory that their disappearance wasn’t an isolated event. Instead, entire civilisations appeared to have risen and vanished throughout galactic history, suggesting some kind of repeating cycle of extinction.

That certainly fits with what we’ve been discovering about the Reapers. We discussed Shepard’s experience with the beacon on Eden Prime and the disturbing images it had revealed. Liara was particularly interested in this because she had spent so much of her life studying the Protheans and trying to understand what happened to them.

There was also the interesting revelation that Liara considers herself very young despite being 106 years old. Asari lifespans are rather different from those of humans, so that’s apparently still quite young by their standards.

One thing that surprised me was that the mind-meld sequence I remembered from previous playthroughs didn’t happen during this conversation. I usually recruit Liara later, so I suspect bringing her aboard earlier has changed the order in which some of the familiar story moments take place. It’ll be interesting to see how that develops as we continue.

We also contacted the Council to report our progress. They acknowledged that we’d rescued Liara, but still found time to question whether destroying an important Prothean archaeological site had really been necessary. Considering we’d just fought through geth, rescued someone trapped underground and escaped a collapsing ruin, I wasn’t particularly impressed by the complaint.

After that, it was time for my usual round of conversations with the Normandy crew. I’m keen to explore everyone’s dialogue, both for the additional story and because I don’t want to miss anything important while working through the achievements.

Joker had a few comments about deserving a medal for his piloting, although he became somewhat less enthusiastic when the possibility of speeches, ceremonies and having to shave came up. Kaidan also shared more of his background, including his early biotic training at Jump Zero and some of the difficult experiences associated with it.

I spent quite a bit more time talking with Liara as well. We learned about her relationship with Benezia, the expectations that came with being a matriarch’s daughter and her decision to pursue archaeology rather than follow the path others might have expected of her.

There was also an amusing moment when Shepard suggested that Liara’s scientific interest in him sounded rather like she wanted to conduct laboratory experiments. She became quite flustered by that suggestion, which made the conversation entertaining.

We went on to discuss asari culture, relationships and reproduction, including Liara’s experiences as a pureblood. I also mentioned a theory I remembered from later Mass Effect dialogue about how different species perceive the appearance of asari. It’s one of those interesting little details that makes the universe worth discussing beyond the immediate storyline.

At one point, I even tried moving the camera around to get a better look at the markings on Liara’s clothing. I couldn’t quite make out what they said, so that’s something I might need to investigate more closely when looking back at the footage.

The rest of the squad had plenty to talk about too. Garrus discussed his father’s distrust of Spectres and the difficulties of balancing rules against getting results. Shepard encouraged him not to follow Saren’s example, particularly when it comes to deciding that the ends justify whatever methods you choose.

Ashley expressed her concerns about allowing alien squadmates access to the Normandy, which led into a discussion about trust and cooperation. Wrex also revealed that he’d previously been involved with mercenaries connected to Saren, but had left after an encounter that made him extremely uncomfortable.

Tali, meanwhile, explained that she was still adjusting to life aboard the Normandy. Despite having wanted to explore beyond the migrant fleet, she found the ship surprisingly quiet compared with the crowded environment she’d grown up in. It’s another example of why I enjoy making time for these conversations rather than simply moving straight to the next mission.

Chat provided plenty of entertainment throughout the episode as well. At one point, I suggested that future quiz nights might include Mass Effect questions, although I’m not entirely sure how enthusiastic everyone would be about that particular category!

We also wandered into another Stardew Valley conversation, including expanding a chicken coop, Chrissy’s apparently impressive fishing abilities and the business of harvesting parsnips. Some of the conversation surrounding the parsnips became rather more suggestive than the subject probably warranted.

There were also stories about cooperative Stardew Valley sessions continuing far later into the night than originally intended. I can certainly understand how that happens with a game where there’s always another little job you want to finish.

We talked about other games too, including Mass Effect: Andromeda. I had a moment where I couldn’t remember the name of its planetary exploration vehicle. We eventually got there: the Nomad! There were also a few references to the bonus eggs viewers could collect by keeping the streams open, alongside the usual conversations and jokes that happen while we’re playing.

By the time we were ready to finish, we’d achieved the main objective of the episode. Liara was safely aboard the Normandy, we’d made progress towards our squad-related achievements and we’d had the opportunity to learn considerably more about the characters and the wider Mass Effect story.

I saved the game and talked a little about what I want to tackle next. There’s still a considerable amount of planetary exploration and side mission content waiting for us, so I’m planning to make proper use of my maps and guidebooks to help track everything down. Even with those, I suspect we could be looking at another ten hours or so of exploration.

We also discussed the possibility of an additional stream if my work schedule allows it. After a final conversation about upcoming streams, we finished by sending everyone over to Anita’s channel.

Overall, it was a productive session. We managed to recruit Liara earlier than I normally would, dealt with plenty of geth, explored some interesting character dialogue and made another useful step towards completing everything I’m aiming for in this playthrough.

▶️ Watch the Episode

You can watch ME1 Episode 4 here and follow the complete journey through my Mass Effect Legendary Edition playlist.

If you enjoy the episode, leave a like, share your thoughts in the comments and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more gameplay.

🔴 Join the Adventure Live

The Normandy has a new crew member, but there’s always room for more people to join us on the journey!

Come along to Twitch or YouTube for the live gameplay, questionable driving decisions, conversations with chat and occasional Stardew Valley detours.

Your suggestions might even influence which squadmates join us next.

💬 Community & Links

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🪐 Liara Recruited, Plenty More Planets to Explore

We finished with Liara safely aboard the Normandy, more of the story revealed and plenty of squad conversations completed. Most importantly, we’ve made progress towards the achievements without rushing past the characters and their stories.

Next, I’m planning to concentrate on planetary exploration and side missions. I’ll be bringing out the maps and guidebooks to make the searching more efficient, although there could still be around ten hours of exploration ahead.

Thanks to everyone who joined the stream and to those who followed us over to Anita’s channel afterwards. See you for the next episode!

— Dr Ravenholm