Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME1 Ep 11 – Feros
After a couple of weeks away from Mass Effect, we’re back aboard the Normandy for a bonus daytime stream! With other plans cancelled because of the weather, I decided to make some more progress towards completing the original Mass Effect at 100%.
This time, we’re heading to Feros, where what starts as helping a struggling human colony turns into something much more disturbing. There are geth attacks, a mysterious alien organism, some difficult decisions and, of course, the Mako finding new ways to make life complicated.
🌌 About the Game
Mass Effect Legendary Edition brings together the original Mass Effect trilogy, remastered and optimised for 4K Ultra HD. It includes the single-player campaigns from Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, alongside over 40 DLC packs featuring additional missions, weapons, armour and other content.
We follow Commander Shepard, exploring the galaxy aboard the Normandy while investigating a threat involving the rogue Spectre Saren. Along the way, we meet different alien species, build relationships with our crew and make decisions that can influence how the story develops.
🚀 Where We Are in the Journey
We’re now eleven episodes into our Mass Effect 1 playthrough, and I’m still working towards that 100% completion goal. That means exploring planets, completing side assignments, collecting everything possible and keeping track of achievements rather than rushing through the main story.
We started this session at the Citadel, with Feros next on the list. There are still major destinations ahead, including Noveria, but today’s priority is finding out what’s happening at Zhu’s Hope and hopefully leaving the colony in one piece.
👽 What Happens in This Episode
We start the session aboard the Normandy at the Citadel, checking the journal and galaxy map to work out where we’re heading next. After a couple of weeks away from Mass Effect, it takes a little time to get back into things, particularly with the controller not behaving quite as expected and my usual second-screen map unavailable. Eventually, everything is sorted, and we set course for Feros.
Arriving at Zhu’s Hope, we immediately find the colony under attack by the geth. After fighting our way through and securing the tower, we meet Fai Dan and discover that the surviving colonists have quite a few problems. Their food supplies are running low, the water system isn’t working, and they need replacement power cells to keep things running. There are also geth and other hostile creatures lurking in the tunnels beneath the settlement.
Rather than heading straight towards ExoGeni headquarters, I decide to deal with the colony’s side assignments first. We restore the water supply, take care of the alpha varren to provide food, recover the necessary power cells and destroy a geth transmitter. It’s a productive start, although the colonists seem strangely reluctant to explain certain things about their situation. There’s clearly something going on beyond the geth attacks.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest challenges on Feros turns out to be seeing where I’m going. Some of the corridors and stairways are incredibly dark, making navigation much more difficult than it should be. I spend quite a bit of time checking the map and trying to work out whether I’m heading in the right direction. At one point, I discover that the stream preview actually makes it easier to see than the screen I’m playing on! Considering all the equipment Shepard carries around, you’d think somebody might have provided a decent torch.
Meanwhile, chat keeps things entertaining. Airwolf joins us, and the conversation wanders through Minecraft builds, potion-effect advancements, driving lessons and hypothetical fire-department callouts. There’s also the ongoing discussion about keeping people out of trouble, which provides a few laughs between the firefights. We welcome some new followers too, and the regular reminders about making tea get me thinking about whether Mrs Doyle from Father Ted would be a suitable addition to the stream notifications.
Eventually, we head across the Skyway towards ExoGeni headquarters, taking out geth with the Mako along the way. Naturally, the Mako decides to cause problems of its own. While exploring one of the side areas, I manage to get the vehicle stuck in the terrain with no sensible way of getting it out. There’s a bit of frustration while I try to recover it, but thankfully I’d saved recently enough that reloading doesn’t cost us too much progress.
Along the way, we encounter Juliana Baynham, who’s worried about her missing daughter Lizbeth, and Ethan Jeong, an ExoGeni representative who seems considerably more interested in protecting company interests than helping the colonists. Once we reach the headquarters, we find Lizbeth alive and begin uncovering what’s really happening on Feros.
It turns out that an ancient organism called the Thorian has been living beneath Zhu’s Hope, controlling the colonists through its spores. Even worse, ExoGeni knew about it and had been using the settlement as a research experiment. Finding the information in the facility makes the colonists’ earlier behaviour much easier to understand, although it doesn’t make ExoGeni look particularly good.
We also discover that the geth have connected their ship to the facility, creating an energy barrier. After fighting through the headquarters and finding the necessary controls, we manage to disable the connection and remove the barrier. Unfortunately, Joker then reports that the colonists are attacking the Normandy, so we need to get back to Zhu’s Hope.
Before we can sort that out, there’s another confrontation with Jeong. I attempt to resolve the situation through dialogue, but things don’t go peacefully, and Shepard ends up shooting him. I’m still not entirely sure whether I missed a dialogue option or simply didn’t have enough Charm points to talk him down. It’s one of those decisions I’ll probably want to look into, especially given the aim of completing as much of the game as possible.
Back at Zhu’s Hope, we discover that the colonists are now openly under the Thorian’s control. This creates one of the most interesting challenges of the session because I really don’t want to kill any of them. We have sixteen colonists to rescue, and Shepard has access to specially prepared nerve-agent grenades that can incapacitate them without causing permanent harm.
The problem is that our grenade supply is limited, and the Thorian’s creatures are making the situation considerably more awkward. I have to be careful about positioning, drawing hostile creatures away from the colonists and trying to catch multiple people with each grenade. There are a few questionable throws, and at one point I reload after a colonist appears to have been killed.
Thankfully, with some careful planning and seven grenades to work with, we manage to save all sixteen colonists! That’s a particularly satisfying result, especially with the substantial Paragon reward that comes with it. Unfortunately, Fai Dan’s final moments reveal just how powerful the Thorian’s control really is.
With the colonists safe, it’s time to descend beneath the settlement and confront the Thorian itself. The creature is certainly an unusual sight, and the encounter involves fighting through waves of Thorian creepers while working our way around its enormous structure. It’s quite a lengthy fight, although I also take the opportunity to keep using biotic abilities whenever possible, since we’re still working through the associated achievements.
Eventually, we defeat the Thorian and free the asari Shiala, who explains why Saren was interested in the organism. The Thorian possessed knowledge connected to the ancient Protheans, including the Cipher, which Saren needed to understand the visions associated with their technology.
Shiala also provides more information about Sovereign’s ability to indoctrinate people, including how Matriarch Benezia came under its influence. She then shares the Cipher with Shepard, giving us another important piece of information in the wider story. It’s a significant development, and we’ve finally got a better idea of what Saren was trying to accomplish on Feros.
Returning to Zhu’s Hope, the surviving colonists are understandably grateful, and Shiala offers to remain behind to help them rebuild. That brings the main Feros storyline to a close, and I’m pleased with how things have turned out.
Unfortunately, there’s one rather annoying problem.
The Feros data-recovery assignment is still outstanding, and when I try to return to ExoGeni to finish it, the route appears to be inaccessible. I spend some time attempting to find another way through, but nothing seems to work. Looking into the issue suggests that the assignment may be glitched, which is particularly frustrating when the whole point of this playthrough is to complete everything. For now, I have to mark Feros as effectively complete on the spreadsheet, with one irritating exception.
Back aboard the Normandy, we report to the Council and catch up with the crew. As usual, the Council has a few questions about our decisions, including the destruction of the Thorian. Liara also attempts to help Shepard interpret the Cipher through an asari mind meld, although there are still missing pieces in the visions originally experienced on Eden Prime.
I spend some time speaking with the squad as well. Kaidan reflects on the consequences of cutting corners, Garrus continues developing his views about justice, and Ashley shares more about her family and personal history. There’s also further conversation with Liara about her growing feelings towards Shepard, along with check-ins with Wrex and Tali. I always like making time for these conversations because there’s quite a bit of character development that can easily be missed if you only concentrate on the main missions.
With Feros finished, we receive information about Virmire, opening up another major story destination. However, rather than immediately continuing the main plot, I decide to explore some of the newly available systems and see what additional assignments and collectibles we can find.
That takes us into the Maroon Sea cluster and several other locations. We investigate a derelict freighter filled with husks, uncovering records suggesting that an alien artifact had influenced the crew and led them towards the Perseus Veil before everything went wrong. We also receive an assignment involving biotics holding drugged researchers as human shields, adding another job to the list for later.
A good portion of the remaining stream is spent exploring uncharted planets in the Mako, which brings its usual difficulties. Some of the terrain is incredibly awkward, with steep mountains, deep valleys and routes that look perfectly reasonable on the map until you actually try driving across them.
One particularly frustrating stretch has me repeatedly attempting to reach an objective before eventually giving up on that approach and returning to the Normandy so I can try coming at it from another direction. There’s plenty of climbing, sliding and trying to work out which hills are actually possible to cross.
We do manage to collect more resources along the way, including mineral deposits, salvage, Prothean data discs and turian insignias. There are also more suspicious-looking space cows, which immediately remind me of an earlier encounter with one that could steal credits. I’m not particularly inclined to trust them after that experience!
Another interesting discovery is an ExoGeni research facility containing more Thorian creepers. Apparently, the company hadn’t finished experimenting with the organism after what happened on Feros. We meet Dr Ross, who explains that the researchers had been working with altered Thorian samples and had managed to turn the creatures into servants before they suddenly became uncontrollable.
Given everything we’ve just discovered about ExoGeni’s treatment of the colonists, I’m not particularly sympathetic to the researchers’ situation. When Shepard insists that they should be held accountable, Dr Ross attempts to offer a bribe before turning hostile. That ends in another fight and provides a rather appropriate follow-up to everything we’ve just experienced on Feros.
Eventually, we return to the Citadel to finish up. I update the completion spreadsheet, check the assignments and spend some time distributing talent points among the squad. We’re also making progress with achievements. Lift has been completed, and Barrier Master unlocks after some deliberate use of the ability. There are still other powers to work through, so I’ll need to keep remembering to use them during future sessions.
I also experiment with photo mode for a little while, although actually working out how to take the pictures proves less straightforward than expected. Between that and repeatedly entering the Normandy while changing squadmates for levelling, we hear the ship’s familiar announcements quite a few times.
After more than four hours of Mass Effect, I save the game and start winding things down. We have a look for another channel to visit and settle on some Farming Simulator viewing before finishing the stream.
The next live session is Control later that evening, while Mass Effect will continue with more planetary exploration and major destinations still waiting, including Noveria and Virmire.
Overall, it’s been a productive session. We’ve saved every colonist at Zhu’s Hope, defeated the Thorian, uncovered more of Saren’s plans, obtained the Prothean Cipher and made progress on several assignments and achievements. The outstanding Feros data-recovery quest is annoying, and the Mako certainly hasn’t made exploration easy, but there’s plenty of progress to add to the spreadsheet.
Now we just need to see how much closer we can get to that 100% completion target without anything else becoming inaccessible!
🎬 Watch the Episode
Want to see whether those sixteen colonists survive, how the Thorian encounter unfolds and just how badly the Mako behaves?
Watch Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME1 Ep 11 – Feros below.
You can also visit my YouTube channel or catch up through the Mass Effect Legendary Edition playlist.
If you’re enjoying the series, leave a like, share your thoughts in the comments and consider subscribing!
🔴 Join the Adventure Live
The Normandy isn’t finished exploring, and there’s always another assignment waiting somewhere in the galaxy.
Come and join us live on Twitch or YouTube. Whether we’re discussing the story, chasing achievements or trying to get the Mako over another impossible hill, it’s always better having everyone along for the journey.
🌐 Community & Links
The adventure continues beyond the Normandy. Here are the places where you can catch more streams, keep in touch and explore everything else I’m working on.
Live — Catch the next stream and join us as the story continues:
Community — Join the conversation between streams:
Socials — Keep up with the latest streams, videos and updates:
TikTok | Bluesky | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | X
Music — Listen to my music when we’re away from the galaxy:
Support — Help keep the channel and future content going:
Fourthwall | Teespring | Streamlabs
More — Explore my other projects and find out more about what I do:
Business Centre | Download the Brochure | About Me | Blog
🪐 Sixteen Saved, One Quest Still Outstanding
After more than four hours, we’ve rescued Zhu’s Hope, uncovered the Thorian’s secrets, gained the Prothean Cipher and explored several new locations. We’ve also picked up achievements and made more progress towards that elusive 100%.
That one outstanding Feros assignment is annoying, but there’s no shortage of things left to investigate. Noveria is still waiting, Virmire is now available, and there are plenty more planets to explore.
Thanks to everyone who joined me live, chatted and followed along. I’ll see you in the next one!
— Dr Ravenholm
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