wizardryforever wrote...
Well apparently people have this aspect (I'd call it a character flaw) in which they don't really care what happens to other people. It doesn't matter that tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings are being tortured and melted down by the Collectors on the orders of the Reapers, as long as they don't try something like that to me, we're cool. That's the vibe I get when people say "the Collectors weren't personal."
In part, you are right. We are all aware that in the real world, people do get hurt, get sick, die in wars, and so on. It's a sad thing to contemplate, but unless it affects you or someone close to you, it's not something you really dwell on. Unless you are a truly saintly altruist. How much harder is it to feel for fictional characters? For some Shepards It's not until your crew gets attacked on the Normandy. And for some not even then. It depends on the connection you have to the characters in the game.
One can use the same criteria using the Collectors. Despite their interest in Shepard, they don't seem to make much effort to come after you. Three missions, and one
you're going after
them. That's it. You
hear about disappearances, sure. But before Horizon, you don't actually see it, just the aftermath on Freedom's Progress. The info you get is really all secondhand. The Collectors don't involve themselves in Shepard's life, No spying, no subcontracting your capture or death, no other ambushes. In fact, I do not believe it is until Horizon that you can see the Collectors have the same kind of ship that blew up the Normandy. And not until the Collector ship ambush that you identify it as the same one.
The geth and Saren, however, make it very personal from the beginning. You see the attack on Eden Prime, watch Corporal Jenkins get gunned down by geth right in front of you. You pick up a sole survivor from her unit, witness geth use Dragons Teeth on colonists to make husks. In the end, Saren tries to blow up the colony and you along with it. All for a Prothean beacon you were supposed to safeguard (and ended up breaking). Afterwards, to add insult to injury, Saren mocks you in front of the Council.
Between that and the fact that Shepard and Saren were the only living beings to receive the visions from the beacon, Shep and Saren become inextricibly bound in the game. It's quite personal.
Were they engaging? Yes, though not as much as they could have been, especially after multiple playthroughs. However any game is going to get that way. The villian is going to be less and less engaging every time you play it, to the point that they become an annoyance .
I dunno, a good villain is a good villain. One problem with the Collectors is they had no "face" There was no single individual you can use to identify as their leader, The one who represents all. Not even the Collector-General. He only appears in a couple of scnes and is just as generic and flat as any of the others. He just looks different. There is Harbringer, but that's just a voice who gives cryptic statements. We needed another Saren.
Bioware might have tried to make them a symbol of what fate might be in store for humanity or others in the galaxy. To be reduced to this. But honestly, if that's true, they did not get the point across adequately. We don't get to see them or interact with them enough to get that creepy "this could be me" feeling. Even the characters don't care. They might as well have said "Screw exposition! Keep firing!"
I think the Collectors could have used more behind the scenes scenarios. Since they have relatively few numbers, massive attacks like the Geth used aren't feasible, so they have to be shady and manipulate things quietly. It's known that they pay exceptionally well for specimans for their research, and they do occasionally interfere with things in the Terminus (Mordin's recruitment) I think they would be a much more compelling enemy if their influence showed up in unexpected places. For instance, have a mission in which you are investigating smuggling (for whatever reason), and it turns out that the smuggler got started centuries ago (an Asari say, or a Krogan). The smuggler started out smuggling small stuff, until she was contacted by the Collectors, who wanted some rare specimans. The smuggler strikes a deal with the Collectors to be the first one they contact with a deal. On occasion the smuggler also plants indoctrination devices on various worlds, to be "found" in some mine, so the Collectors can see how species react to indoctrination. All of this is practically just stumbled upon by Shepard, and adds some depth to the Collectors, in that they have been preparing for the Reaper invasion for centuries.
I also think the threat they represented should have been more widely recognized. Most people in the galaxy are only vaguely aware that something is happening in the Terminus systems, that human colonies are going missing. Maybe some side missions involving retrieving some item or information from one of the abducted colonies, giving you more of an idea of how many colonies have been hit. This would help the Collectors be more recognizable as the true threat.
I agree with all of this
Modifié par iakus, 07 septembre 2010 - 08:56 .
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