I started ME3 again, which means I heard Dikiciyan & Velasco's "Creation." : o
Which means I heard Clint Mansell's "Leaving Earth." : (
Which means I'm now listening to Sam Hulick's "Mars." : )
And I'm soon going to be hearing Hulick's combat theme for Mars. \o/
So, I finished Priority: Palaven without Garrus alive. Liara does not go back to the Normandy, and there isn't really anyone replacing Garrus the way others will replace characters. There's some banter between Liara and Shepard about how Garrus would be angry and right in the middle of this war (even though I didn't recruit him with in ME1 and Liara never saw him in ME2). In the Normandy war room afterwards, Primarch Victus just says "I know your history" instead of the bit about Garrus' assessment of Shepard. Liara had another non-cinematic comment about missing Garrus (which is out-of-place for my playthrough).
Liara's extended presence on Palaven did include some lines which were new to me. There's some foreshadowing of her reaction to Thessia, but she's also a bit emotionless about the turian fighter crashing right in front of you. Still, singularity is a welcome power, and warp still works on brutes.
I completed Priority: Tuchanka. Differences without Garrus include that he's obviously not standing on the Normandy's bridge afterwards. I only talked with Joker about Mordin and his proximity dialog was the one where he says he wants to shoot something. Primarch Victus also doesn't mention that Garrus is coordinating the ships for the Crucible, but the larger one is that it's Traynor who tells Shepard to go to bed to start the 2nd dream.
As for not recruiting Thane in ME2, Joker has different lines for the start of Priority: Citadel II and it's instead a recording by Bailey which tells you that C-Sec is in trouble (and to pass the message onto the Citadel Fleet, but I don't think that really happens). The next change comes with Kai Leng just trying to shoot Councilor Valern and hitting tactical cloaked-Major Kirrahe point blank. Shepard also recognizes Kirrahe immediately, but when telling Bailey about his death Shepard just says "another salarian." And since Thane wasn't brought to the hospital afterward, Bailey instead says something about Udina's apartment having documents about the coup attempt.
I have noticed in past playthroughs Kelly Chambers can get a little out of sequence in the Citadel holding area. You can visit the Citadel often enough that she shows up early and she'll deliver her non-cinematic dialog about Cerberus during the coup well before Priority: Citadel II happens. But, this is the first time Ken Donnelly and Gabriela Daniels have had a conversation where they think Kelly was killed during the coup when she hasn't been. Not sure exactly how I triggered that this time, other than I wasn't given the Intel Terminal upgrade for having prejek paddlefish once Kelly returned Shepard's fish (and those were the only fish I had in ME2 this time).
Edit: I reloaded and Ken & Gabby didn't have that conversation.
Oh, I haven't commented on the Jack romance at all. So far, I'm liking it. I'm a bit surprised that it had a Paragon interrupt at Grissom Academy. Also, Jack is the one willing to give Shepard an out during the war and he says, "You're not getting rid of me that easily," after the coup.
For the first time, I walked off the platforms in the Geth Concensus. I took falling damage and then was standing on the white at the bottom, so I reloaded the mission.
I got through the Reaper destroyer fight on the first try. While I have done that before, I think being on casual difficulty played a part, as I didn't need get a phase with the Reaper firing and tracking as it did so.
I decided to do the first half of the Citadel DLC before Priority: Citadel III. Infiltrator let me just run up to Brooks in Ryuusei. I still wasn't great at stealth around those CAT6 engagements, and even during the casino I had to go and mingle twice at the end after guards noticed me. But, having a Black Widow V for the Citadel archives made short work of even the CAT6 Heavy. Wrex also was charging a whole bunch. Oh, and not having Garrus around gave Wrex an extra line before the casino. "I'm not fitting through there even with a bucket of varren grease." Taking Wrex and Kaidan also resulted in an elevator conversation hearkening back to an ME1 elevator conversation asking if Kaidan or Shepard would win in a fight.
I've done a large portion of the Armax Arsenal Arena, but this is the first time I had Jack's romance and went to blow up Cerberus with her. Usually, her conversation goes back to her students but this time it was all about... well, frankly, it seems like exhibitionism when you consider the AAA missions which explicitly tell Shepard that everything is recorded. There was once again a Paragon interrupt, so that was unexpected.
I also did Priority: Eden Prime. It's been long enough that I forgot that Liara is required, but it makes sense. Kaidan is also rather under-animated during the pre-mission conversation. I got the impression he was supposed to look lost in memories or wipe his eyes instead of blankly staring.
I didn't realize before looking it up on the wiki, but one of the DLC weapon mods cannot reach rank V in one playthrough. I just always assumed I missed a pickup in a mission, or didn't check the procurement terminals often enough, but the Fandom wiki says the pistol ultralight materials requires importing an ME3 character for the chance to get it's final rank.
I've completed most of the DLC. I went through the quiet version of the party once to hear, "Omni-tat. Omni-too." Sure, if my Shepard were a good infiltrator being quiet would be important, but that doesn't seem to fit Jack. At least I got to see what happens without Garrus or Miranda. But, I loaded the save again before it so I can go through the energetic party later, after Horizon.
Anyway, I did Leviathan and Omega. Only noteworthy thing I did in Omega was getting to pilot the Atlas just before Gozu district. The conversation with Aria about Mordin didn't trigger either, I guess I would have needed to start after Priority: Tuchanka. Leviathan... well, I took James and Kaidan to get some different dialog but it wasn't that much different. Although, Kaidan had a nice line on the Normandy about wondering about what else is in the galaxy and really reacts to banshee cries. James was... fine. Had one new line about nobody needing to go through what Ann does.
I took James during Priority: Thessia. I didn't predict his interaction with Liara being so similar to Javik. Also, he must have updated dialog with the From Ashes DLC (I suppose everyone would, but it's been too long for me to remember before installing that).
Since I didn't have Garrus, Tali instead is talking over the intercom with Samantha Traynor about Liara's mood after the mission. Instead of referencing Palaven, it's Earth's Reaper occupation and Samantha also brings up that Tali has known her longer.
Sanctuary with James and Kaidan wasn't that different, other than James' usual dialog after sounds less in-line with his reaction on the ground and Kaidan sounds much angrier.
The high energy party without Garrus has a line from Tali I hadn't heard before about her environmental suit being responsible for keeping her upright. That seems way more inline with the rumors in ME1 about quarians being part-robot, which I thought ME2 did a good job of dispelling. I guess trying to bring it back in the Citadel DLC sort of fits with the ME3 themes, but it's just so sudden. Also, Jack wasn't any different with Miranda, but was attracted to Tali.
I saved just before turning in the final war asset update, the Cerberus ciphers. Maybe that will allow me to keep the 8,000+ Effective Military Strength going into Priority: Cerberus Headquarters. It does so often fall from 100% to 50% despite my PS3 not having a network connection for years.
I didn't lose EMS (I think it only ever happened once in this playthrough). I went from 8188 before Priority: Cerberus Headquarters to 8288 after. Not that there's any dialog which changes at this point.
Since Garrus was dead, his voice did appear in the dream sequence.
Tali was in the Main Battery on the Normandy. I wasn't expecting that she would miss him, but she would have a chance to get to know him during ME2, and perhaps better without the ME1 elevator conversations where he insults her. She says that she wanted some of his confidence and Garrus would have been angry that we were finishing the war without him. She also quoted his, "Scoped and dropped," combat bark from ME2.
At the Forward Operating Base, Garrus is replaced by two turians talking about getting to die heroes in this war. The final change for Garrus being dead is that he is remembered by EDI during the Synthesis ending sequence (after Legion and before the Alliance soldier helmet in my case).
Oh and Shepard's last thought was about Jack. But, she's not there on the Normandy to memorialize Shepard and hug EDI, so Liara did that.
JTO is Typing