Il Divo wrote...
I think you are misunderstanding my point. Their reasons for stopping the Collectors was not made clear. Their utility however was pretty self-evident. It's pretty obvious what skills an individual like Samara brings to the table: exceptional biotic power, etc. These are intentionally 12 of the most deadly fights in the galaxy that you are recruiting. Contrary to this, it's not clear what use Ashley or Kaidan are to me in stopping Saren beyond having been on Eden Prime. I was unaware that Spectres typically worked with anything outside of other Spectres.
No one is going "Oh I wonder what we
might use Samara for." The questions are why and how. There is no rhyme or reason, no setup, no tie in to the narrative or plot. Who cares that they're the most deadly of fighters in the galaxy? This is not explained. Are we having a fighting match with the Collectors? No. We're here to "stop" them, whatever that means, however, wherever, etc. Which makes the ending (it's locale, reasons, setup, etc.) and use of such people in roles completely contrived, and some completely useless. (Oh wow, we managed to crash land our ship directly on the Collector
homeworld (planet?!) base. How unexpected. I guess we're forced to have a land war in Asia now.
Ashley and Kaidan are marines. It's their duty. Ashley would feel personally motivated because Shepard saved her, and both would feel a sense of camaraderie and thanks to Shepard for saving them from the beacon.
You've just repeated my own point about Mass Effect 1. I know that the Mass Effect 1 characters have motivations to join Shepard, but why in God's name would I care? What does Garrus/Wrex hating Saren or Tali looking for protection have to do with them helping me bring Saren down?
1. Garrus hates/is suspicions of Saren.
He was the lead C-Sec investigator on Saren. His boss took him off the case, forcing him to seek other means to pursue justice. In his gut. he knows Saren is bad news.
2. Wrex hates/wants to kill Saren.
Well there you have it.
3. Tali
a) Had incriminating evidence on Saren, his involvement with Lady Benezia and the Geth, the main opposing force that her people created.
The Geth drove her people from their homeworld, forcing them to wander the stars, in environmental suits, struggling to survive. c) Shepard saved her from a backstreet deal gone sour. d) On a coming of age quest, called her pilgrimage, where she hopes to prove herself by returning to her people with something of value by working with Shepard.
Now if you don't care for these characters, that's fine. Obviously their recruitment and reasons for joining didn't do anything for you.
Here we still have a clear goal (stop Saren), but no explanation as to how they can aid me in achieving this goal, Liara aside. Tali providing insight to Quarian culture would be wonderful if I were writing an encyclopedia, but how it's relevant to stopping Saren is not at all clear. Providing exposition through Tali is a great idea, but only if her presence can be justified. If not, find a new means of delivering this exposition.
So you don't want to learn about the main opposing force, the people who created them, their history, their culture? That was completely optional exposition . Obviously that didn't do it for you.
In regards to how they can help you, how exactly is unclear, aside from knowing their skills and class (which every member has a unique one. Engineer Adams seems to really like Tali, but what she did we've no idea.) But, we know what our goal is, we know exactly what our target is, and what we have to do about it. We just need to find the guy, and eventually the Conduit: but he's always one step ahead of us, and our leads make us learn about our enemies plans, and what their intentions are.
Compare that to ME2, where we don't even know the scope of our goal is, where it is, how many of them there are, what they're like, what they're doing, what their motivations are, what their goals are, nothing. We get a little info after the Collector Cruiser level, but nowhere near as much to explain wtf is even going on with that (they're in the Galactic Core. Okay. So now it's conveniently time to get an IFF?) And if you think Harbinger's taunting is exposition, then Saren's dialogs are reminiscent of Shakespeare.
Really? So, you were unable to infer the context of what was happening? Despite knowing that the Reapers hibernate in dark space for two games, despite knowing that the Collectors were Protheans repurposed by the Reapers, despite watching Harbinger mind control the Collector general in addition to countless minions, despite having just watched Shepard eliminate the entire Collector Base, and despite his conversation with Illusive Man about the coming Reaper invasion, you honestly could not infer that Harbinger is a reaper and that they are all finally making their way out of dark space to come kill us all? These are what I call context-clues, very blatant ones.
Actually it's not as clear as you think, based on content and context.
1. TIM believes the Collectors are agents of the Reapers.
2. 3rd person omniscient view of Horizon Ash/Kaidan freezing, where some bug creature (Collector General) assumes control of a drone and says "We are the harbinger of their perfection. Prepare these humans for ascension." Okay, so our main bad guy is some bug creature.
3. Harbinger becomes a voice that taunts Shepard during fighting, rambling about genetics.
4. We go to a derelict Reaper and take a piece of Reaper technology.
5. "That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through descrution." Okay?
6. We then get a 3 second holographic image of what looks like a Reaper ship amidst the Collector General madly trying to push buttons "You have failed. We will find another way." Okay, who failed? Shepard? The Collector General? Wasn't the big scary voice the Collector General? Okay so it was that holographic Reaper thing? So if Harbinger is the holographic Reaper, is he saying he himself failed because he was in control of the Collector General? What did the Collector General do where he failed, since Harbinger was in control? What other way? Who's we? The Reapers, or is Harbinger referring to "We" as in the many AI's that make up Harbinger (since he's a Reaper?)
There are minor references of Mordin talking about how Collectors were altered by the Reapers, but there's no evidence to support the Reapers did the alterations (although considering the Collectors are Protheans, which make them 50k years old, it's not hard to make the connection there.)
I
think Harbinger's a Reaper, and it certainly looks that way. But throughout the entire story we've no clue, except that last 1 point at the end. Harbinger could've been the base's VI controlling the Collector General, or some other piece of software left by an actual Reaper, who knew of Reapers, or his creators.
I've no doubt that Sovereign's a Reaper: we see it several times, and talk to it. We also are not confused as who or what Saren is.
(Then there's the completely wild belief that "Harbinger is coming" by Shepard, but that's unrelated. It certainly seems Shepard believes Harbinger's a Reaper, and if that's good enough for the protagonist, I guess it's good enough for the audience too?)
Modifié par smudboy, 08 juillet 2010 - 12:50 .
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