Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME1 Ep 13 – Virmire

One thousand nights of streaming! I wanted to celebrate that milestone with something special, so naturally we returned to one of my all-time favourites, Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

This was supposed to involve finishing some outstanding side missions, tackling Virmire and possibly squeezing in the Citadel lockdown missions. What we actually got was technical chaos, community giveaways, an unexpected Marbles Grand Prix, some major revelations about the Reapers and one of the hardest decisions in the original Mass Effect.

🚀 About the Game

Mass Effect Legendary Edition brings together BioWare’s acclaimed science-fiction trilogy, including Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, with over 40 pieces of downloadable content, remastered and optimised for 4K Ultra HD.

We play as Commander Shepard, travelling across the galaxy aboard the Normandy, assembling a crew of memorable characters and investigating a threat that could destroy advanced civilisation. The choices we make influence our relationships, our crew and sometimes who survives.

🌌 Where We Are in the Journey

We’re on Episode 13 of my second attempt at a 100% playthrough of the original Mass Effect. I previously tackled the game on Xbox 360, so returning to it has been a brilliant mixture of nostalgia, rediscovery and occasionally remembering how everything works.

We’ve already made considerable progress, and Virmire represents a major turning point. Saren’s activities are becoming increasingly dangerous, our crew has some difficult decisions ahead, and we’re getting closer to understanding what Sovereign actually is.

🎮 What Happens in This Episode

We started the evening celebrating our thousandth stream, with gifted subscriptions, bits and plenty of familiar faces joining us for the occasion. JD, Frodo, Royalty, and others helped get things going, although I still had a few things to sort out before we could properly begin. There were graphics to find, pop-ups to dismiss and Royalty’s bouncing animation to get working again. At one point, I nearly took out the microphone while adjusting everything! I’d spent more time deciding which game to play than actually preparing anything special, but everyone seemed happy enough with Mass Effect.

Once aboard the Normandy, we had a wander around, checked equipment and reacquainted ourselves with the controls. A conversation with Presley provided an opportunity to check the audio, while looking for equipment turned into another tour of the ship and its wonderfully slow elevators. Kaidan was still a wet blanket, Ashley was getting comments about her attitude towards aliens, and Tali remained a favourite in the conversations with Royalty. Everything was pretty much as I remembered it!

Before tackling the main story, I wanted to finish a couple of outstanding assignments. We returned to the Citadel looking for a surprise-inspection encounter, but despite searching around, the inspector wasn’t appearing. Rather than spend the entire evening looking for someone who apparently didn’t want to be found, we moved on to Chohe for the high-Paragon assignment, UNC: Besieged Base.

Getting around Chohe involved the usual fun with the Mako. I’d forgotten some of the controls, the driving wasn’t particularly graceful, and we had a Thresher Maw encounter that left the vehicle in a rather unhealthy condition. We also spent some time surveying the planet, collecting minerals and sorting through equipment. I was reasonably happy with our weapons for the remaining missions, so a considerable amount of unused gear ended up being converted into omni-gel.

The actual assignment required a little more care. Hostile biotics had taken over a facility containing innocent civilians, and we needed to eliminate the attackers without killing the people they were holding. Rather than charging straight in and shooting everything, I managed to draw the biotics away from the civilians and deal with them separately. It worked, and we completed the mission without civilian casualties. Admiral Hackett contacted us afterwards to praise Shepard’s restraint, which was a satisfying result. The rescued civilians, however, continued shouting in panic even though the fighting had finished. Apparently, nobody had told them they were safe!

With that assignment completed, it was finally time for Virmire. We landed with Wrex and Tali and started working our way through the Geth defences in the Mako, dealing with drones, defensive towers and plenty of enemies along the way. There were occasional disagreements with the vehicle controls and the map, but we made steady progress towards the Salarian reconnaissance team.

Meanwhile, chat was keeping itself entertained with Hunger Games, Stargate missions and bank heists. JD put together an impressive winning streak in one Hunger Games round, while Royalty seemed to have rather less luck surviving the various disasters. We also had conversations about board games, chickens, dinosaur costumes and the possibility of a hot-tub stream involving a T-Rex outfit. As usual, “hashtag blame Chrissy” was available whenever we needed somebody to take responsibility!

Because it was our thousandth stream, we also had three giveaways running throughout the evening, with everyone using their accumulated hens to enter. During the opening assault on Virmire, I stopped the Mako and brought out the Wheel of Despair for our first draw. Chrissy came out as the winner of the PC Game Pass prize, and we opened the next giveaway before continuing.

We then received a fantastic raid from easy_guy72, bringing another group of viewers into the celebrations. There were more welcomes, gifted subscriptions and my usual talent for getting people’s usernames wrong. Royalty also redeemed a game of Marbles, which meant taking a break from Mass Effect for a three-race Grand Prix.

Of course, Marbles needed an update before we could play, so we spent a little time looking at clips and chatting while everything sorted itself out. Once the races finally started, JD won the first, Jack took the second, and Easy Guy managed to win the third after a late change in positions. Somehow, Jack ended up winning the overall championship despite not competing in the final race. Naturally, there were accusations that the whole thing was rigged! It was a good diversion, although it did put our original plans a little further behind schedule.

Eventually, we returned to Mass Effect and reached the Salarian camp, where Captain Kirrahe explained what was happening on Virmire. Saren had established a research facility and was apparently using a possible cure for the genophage to breed an army of Krogan. Understandably, Wrex wasn’t particularly happy about the idea of destroying something that might save his people.

That led to a serious confrontation between Shepard and Wrex. We had to convince him that Saren wasn’t trying to save the Krogan but create an army he could control. Thankfully, our Paragon choices paid off, and we managed to talk Wrex down without anybody getting killed. I was pleased about that because I definitely wanted to keep Wrex around.

With that situation resolved, Captain Kirrahe explained his plan to destroy the facility. The Salarians would create a diversion while Shepard’s team infiltrated the base, and a ship’s drive system would be turned into a nuclear device to destroy everything. Kaidan went with Kirrahe’s team, while Ashley would help with the explosives. We also got Kirrahe’s famous “hold the line” speech, which I wanted to let play properly rather than talking over it.

Once inside the facility, we worked through the various objectives that could help Kirrahe’s team survive. That involved disrupting Geth communications, destroying support equipment and disabling alarms so the Salarians wouldn’t have additional enemies sent after them. There was plenty of fighting, but I wanted to make sure we completed those additional objectives rather than simply rushing towards the main target.

Exploring the detention areas and laboratories revealed some unpleasant things about Saren’s research. We found prisoners who had been subjected to experiments, including captured soldiers whose minds had been badly affected. We also released prisoners who were facing a pretty horrible fate. Speaking with the scientist Rana Thanoptis gave us more information about indoctrination and how Sovereign was influencing people’s minds. It was becoming clear that Saren’s activities were part of something much bigger than simply creating a Krogan army.

We then discovered another Prothean beacon and eventually came face to face with Sovereign. This was one of the most important conversations in the game, revealing that Sovereign wasn’t simply a powerful spaceship belonging to Saren. It was actually a Reaper.

Sovereign explained that the Reapers had been responsible for repeatedly destroying advanced organic civilisations throughout galactic history. The Protheans weren’t the first civilisation to face them, and humanity certainly wouldn’t be the last if their plans succeeded. That completely changed our understanding of the threat. We weren’t simply trying to stop Saren anymore; we were trying to prevent another cycle of extinction.

After that revelation, we still had the small matter of getting out of the facility alive and making sure the nuclear device went off.

Unfortunately, things became complicated when both Ashley and Kaidan ended up under attack at separate locations. With the bomb armed, Shepard had to decide which squadmate to rescue, knowing that the other would be left behind.

Given my ongoing opinions about Kaidan being a wet blanket, you can probably guess which way that decision went!

We chose to rescue Ashley, leaving Kaidan behind to ensure the bomb detonated. It was still a significant moment, regardless of how much I’d been making fun of him throughout the playthrough. Mass Effect has a way of reminding you that some decisions have permanent consequences.

Before we could escape, Saren appeared for another confrontation. He continued insisting that working with the Reapers was humanity’s best chance of survival, while Shepard challenged his reasoning. Eventually, the conversation turned into a fight, and we managed to drive him off.

The Normandy arrived to collect Shepard and Ashley, and we escaped as the nuclear device destroyed Saren’s facility. Virmire was complete, Wrex was still alive, but Kaidan hadn’t made it back.

Once aboard the Normandy, we spent some time talking with the crew about what had happened. Ashley was struggling with survivor’s guilt, Joker acknowledged how difficult Shepard’s decision had been, and Wrex reaffirmed his respect for us. Garrus also reflected on what he’d learned about justice and protecting innocent people.

We spoke with Liara about the new Prothean beacon vision, which helped identify Ilos and the Conduit as our next important leads. Unfortunately, the Citadel Council remained thoroughly unconvinced by Shepard’s warnings about the Reapers. Even after everything we’d discovered on Virmire, they still weren’t particularly interested in accepting what was happening.

Away from the Normandy, we still had the remaining anniversary giveaways to finish. Easy Guy won a deck of playing cards, and Bog Boy claimed the £10 Amazon voucher, completing our three winners alongside Chrissy. Congratulations to all of them, and thank you to everyone who entered and joined in throughout the stream.

By this point, we’d been going for quite a while, and I was definitely feeling it. I’d originally hoped we might manage the Citadel lockdown missions as well, but between the side assignment, Virmire, our giveaways, the raid and the Marbles Grand Prix, that was a little optimistic!

We finished with some final levelling, equipment housekeeping and a save aboard the Normandy, leaving Ilos and the next stage of the story for another evening. Before signing off, I thanked everyone for the subscriptions, bits, follows, raids and support that had made our thousandth stream such a memorable one.

We then headed over to Captain_Crooked, who was playing Halo Wars, to pass the support along.

A thousand streams celebrated, Virmire completed, Wrex saved, Kaidan lost, and the Reapers finally revealing what we’re dealing with. We made some important progress, even if we didn’t quite get through everything I’d planned. Thanks again to everyone who was part of it!

📺 Watch the Episode

If you missed the thousandth-stream celebrations or want to revisit the decisions on Virmire, you can watch the full episode here.

You can also explore the Mass Effect Legendary Edition playlist or visit my YouTube channel for more adventures.

If you enjoy the episode, please leave a like, share your thoughts in the comments and consider subscribing!

🔴 Join the Adventure Live

The Normandy may have escaped Virmire, but we’re far from finished. Ilos awaits, the Reapers are becoming a very real problem, and chat will undoubtedly find more ways to distract me along the way.

Come and join us live on Twitch or YouTube. Whether you’re helping with the decisions, joining the community games or just enjoying the chaos, you’re always welcome aboard.

🌐 Community & Links

There’s plenty happening beyond the Normandy. Here’s where you can keep up with the community, catch future streams and explore everything else I’m working on.

Live — Join the crew for more gameplay and unpredictable evenings:
Twitch | YouTube

Community — Keep the conversations going between streams:
Discord

Socials — Follow the latest updates and adventures:
TikTok | Bluesky | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | X

Music — Explore my music beyond the livestream:
Spotify | Apple Music

Support — Help keep the channel and community growing:
Fourthwall | Teespring | Streamlabs

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

☢️ Virmire Survived, Kaidan Not So Much

What a way to celebrate a thousand streams! We completed our Paragon assignment, kept Wrex alive, uncovered the truth about Sovereign and survived Virmire, although we couldn’t bring everybody home.

We didn’t reach the Citadel lockdown missions, but there’s still plenty ahead, including Ilos and the Conduit.

Thank you to everyone who watched, subscribed, raided, entered the giveaways or simply joined in with the madness. A thousand nights wouldn’t have happened without you, and I’m looking forward to many more.

— Dr Ravenholm