Here's the solution to the whole problem, would satisfy pro ME2 squaddie fans AND address all the issues Elite Midget is talking about.
ME3 begins. It's, let's say, six months after ME2. You start off with the following characters *depending* on their survival and certain variables:
- Tali if she was exiled by the quarians (It's made very explicit that the Normandy is now her home in every sense)
- Thane if you romanced him (he says "Any time I have left is yours to take.")
- Jack if you romanced her or was generally nice to her (she definitely seems to be part of the team, she even dies saying, "Wasn't supposed... to care.")
- Miranda and Jacob if you blew up the base and Miranda resigned (they both have nowhere else to go)
- Garrus... just because (while the dossier says he's "held back" by Shepard, he seems not to know or care about this, and his entire concept in ME2 is that he is "there when you need me")
The others have either left for personal/professional reasons (e.g. Zaeed, Grunt) or were actually offloaded by Shepard to do some prep against the Reapers (e.g. Samara speaking to the asari gov't about the Reapers etc). Same for the above squaddies if you didn't romance/exile/fire them etc.
So, ME3 begins. The Power that Be are all onboard with the whole saving the universe thing and tell Shepard to assemble his team as he sees fit for the final assault/defense/whatever. He is given the following dossiers and where the squadmates can be found, depending again on survival etc (asterisked people are guaranteed to be alive):
- * Ashley/Kaidan, who's with the Alliance
- * New squaddie 1, who's with the Council
- * New squaddie 2, who's either with the Rachni or just hanging out
- * New squaddie 3, who's with the Batarians
- * New squaddie 4 and 5, who are each with another faction that I can't think of atm.
- non-exiled Tali, who's with the fleet
- pro-Cerberus Miranda and Jacob, who's with Cerberus
- MAYBE non-romanced Thane or Jack (though I admit this might be less likely as non-romanced Thane may wish to spend time with Kolyat, and an unimpressed Jack may just want to take off) - I dunno, they're with the hanar (Jack went back to apologize for the whole moon thing
)
- Grunt, who's with Clan Urdnot
- Legion, who's with the geth
- perhaps the other squaddies as well, but each in some strategic location
Each person has some sort of quest to do to recruit them, part of which brings you into contact with whatever their "faction" is. These quests should be a bit more involved with the general plot than what we had to do in ME2; e.g. rather than helping the squaddies with their own missions, it could be like, "I've been talking the batarians around to the whole Reaper thing, but this one leader is still holding out, let's go talk some sense into him with our bullets." Things are all still reasonably peaceful, etc...
... until you recruit the 6th squadmate (number may vary).
At this point, the game triggers a sort of Horizon/Collector Invasion/Collector Base sort of scenario where Reapers invade Earth. Now Shepard no longer has time to recruit. Now the focus is on getting allies with which to strike back against the Reapers.
All of the dossiers are "replaced" instead with faction missions, going to Clan Urdnot or the geth or whoever and attempting to get them on your side. The unrecruited squadmates will be there, but now as NPCs or temporary squad mates who assist in gaining the loyalty of the factions mentioned above. This will add a small amount of extra dialogue to the mission. However, if the ME2 squadmates in question are already dead (or have already been recruited or something), the faction mission will still proceed as normal.
This solves all problems and conveys several benefits:
1) Tons of replay value, as one could go back and play through several times to get different squad makeups. This gives players a lot more agency, in that we actually get to build our team how WE want it rather than dutifully recruiting everyone they tell us to.
2) People who killed their entire team will still be able to build a full team; the consequences of their actions is that they no longer have a choice of who to bring (e,g, while they just get the new batarian tech expert, other Shepards could choose between the batarian and Tali)
3) It will convey a sense of urgency that, to a certain extent, ME2 lacks before the IFF/Omega relay section; rather than endlessly meandering the galaxy picking up squadmates like stray kittens, you're jolted into action, caught with your pants down, and are now scrambling to stop them.
4) In terms of "wasted design", the only major waste would be on the initial recruitment missions. The faction missions would still occur identically whether or not you had a relevant surviving squadmate there. Only a minor amount of extra dialogue would be added to these missions, so it wouldn't take much extra work. The NPCs, the planets, the levels would all be the same.
5) There would still be quite a lot of extra dialogue for the various squadmates, but none of it would be "wasted" as people would always be getting different squadmates anyway. Give those five new squaddies (and Kaidan/Ashley) enough meat on their metaphorical bones, and new players/murdering jerk Shepards will still get as good a bang for Bioware's buck as the Shepard who recruited Tali, Garrus, Legion, Grunt, Jack and Thane. And let's face it, we all have multiple Shepards with multiple saved squaddies anyway, so it'll all end up being used no matter what.
6) It solves the whole "full squaddie!" vs "cameo only!" debate... because they're both! If you didn't bother to recruit them, then they become a cameo, hooray.
7) Could be a reasonably good setup for brand new players. You could have it set up so that they recruit the new squaddies and the ME2 squadies, while alive for a default game, are all just NPCs. Or you could just have the above and let them get on with it.
Modifié par UsagiVindaloo, 22 mars 2011 - 02:44 .
Retour en haut
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...I love ME2 and certainly enjoy the game for what it is in itself. Just considering story line progression and how much Shep is going to have to accomplish in ME3...That said, my prediction is probably also shaded with hope, as I'm very fond of some of my squaddies and so,would rather put up with the squaddies I don't like, than loose the ones I really like.
