Mass Effect 1 has a style of race against time – against Saren.
Why does Shepard stop at any other planet than Therum, Noveria, Feros, Virmire and then back at citadel? Other-smaller missions that have nothing to do with upcoming destruction of galactic civilization can be done after Saren is stopped, or someone else can do it.
(how can player justify doing sidequests and going exploring random planets without breaking character – wasting time when it doesn’t make sense for the character – Why would Shepard go riding on a random empty planet, when Noveria is over there)
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He’s a spectre in the area with the best ship to do those jobs quickly and quietly.
As a spectre it can be helpful to have varied contacts in different branches of – let’s say – ethics. Since spectres are rogue operatives they sometimes need to get things done quickly or illegally or stealthily.
All of these aren’t always purchasable. So while earning some extra credits can help fund a spectre’s operation, helping out distress calls or aiding other stealth operatives is just a great networking opportunity.
Why do you stop at sidequests?
Why aren’t you laser focused on achieving your goals at all times, heedless of anything else that might interest you, heartless to the pleas of innocent people for help, not at all interested in pursuing anything else unless it advances your goal?
People just do not work like that.
Plus, you know, try and beat Saren with your level 1 abilities and gear. He’s the Citadel’s top agent. Shepard needs to train, build her team, get new equipment, generally build advantage to win.
And then, when she does win, the galaxy is immediately plunged into an even bigger threat.
Like… “the Galaxy is in danger” is a Big Deal(tm) to me or you, but to a Spectre, it’s Tuesday. This is What They Do. They are the elite agents of the galactic government, pulled in for the biggest threats. This is their routine. And, sure, Shepard is a new Spectre, but she is coming in from being N7 — it isn’t her first rodeo.
And, in the end, she’s right. Because if you don’t hit all those side quests, you have to watch the ending with the blue or red lighting not the ending with the green lighting. And that’s trogic. Reolly trogic.
Gaining contacts, looking for intel, quid pro quo sort of things.
Canonically speaking just like every game being a perfect run there’s also a canon solution to the amount of side quests done. The canon end state of Mass Effect 1 only has Shepard having accomplished the companion quests, The Bring down the sky mission, and a handful of minor quests like the pirate queen that can be spared or killed resulting in consequences in subsequent games.
The rationale behind this is that numerous side missions are either dictated by the Alliance or Citadel to any operatives in the area or happen to be in the same place or on the way to the greater objective. The entire sequence of events from Eden Prime to the Citadel Siege takes place over 13 days. Not a lot of time for things to happen but with quick surgical strikes and the fastest ship in the alliance Navy Shepard got it done. That’s partly why the crew spent the next 18 months patrolling the Terminus systems as a way to recuperate.
Maybe to train the crew? New prototype ship, newly formed crew, commando team of alien specialists all trained in very different ways, I’m not sure if Shepard has even commanded a ship before. Better go after some smugglers or pirates first on the way before engaging the Geth.
I.e. level up before the main quest.
I always imagined that there was some downtime between the main missions that Shepard would use to do other tasks.
Like, you the player can choose to land on Noveria whenever you want, but perhaps in ‘reality’ their docking bays are all occupied, so Shep decides to investigate a nearby cluster until one of their cargo ships leaves and frees up a space. That sort of thing.
Shephard is a brand new Spectre, the only human one. They have no intelligence contacts, very few allies, and ate going up against a Turian who’s a veteran Spectre, and who Shepard might believe, depending on if they are Paragon or Renegade, is being protected somewhat by the Citadel Council.
Shepard needs allies, they need contacts, they need every favour they possibly can to cash in, just because Shepard knows to investigate Therum, Noveria, and Feros, doesn’t mean Saren isn’t setting up things on other planets.
You also need to consider that a lot of side missions are basically the Alliance contacting Shephard and saying “hey, ships goings down, and you’re in the area. Can you help us?”. They also deal quite a lot with Geth, potentially thinning Saren’s forces.
Every planet that Shepard goes to is either because someone asked/ordered her to or because she found evidence that things were happening there that needed to be dealt with. Given how much she was under the microscope with the Council, and a certain annoying Human reporter, failing to deal with those situations could either have her removed as the first Human Spectre or be a PR nightmare for the Systems Alliance.
In ME1 there isn’t really a race at the start. In that sense council is right that he’s gone into hiding and you need to apprehend him. And you have to take into account other circumstances. Shepard is still Aliance military so he receives tasks from them, be that scanning for minerals or resolving some volatile situations. So if you’re passing an empty system with no threats what’s to justify not doing a routine survey? If an admiral tells you there’s a hostage situation why would you decline?
And lots of missions require exploration. Therum is not immediately revealed to be a required planet, you’re just told to go check in on several solar systems in a cluster and you have to figure out it’s Therum. Other missions such as fighting geth sends you across several systems to stop their preparations and same goes for hunting rachni shipments.
There’s plenty of justification why you don’t have to skip on those sidetasks but you can also do that entirely too. If you start ME3 or 2 without playing previous games you can end up with a “canon” state of things, but it ain’t pretty.
FTL ships have to stop and discharge their drive cores once in a while, which can take hours. The Normandy drops the ground team of and then goes and does that.
Look, if the dude looking for his infant son can spend thousands of hours on side quests, I think we can probably cut shephard a little slack on a few side quests and conquests here and there.