Also, I should note that the point of this is not to tell people they are wrong, our question people's intelligence. It is to simply share different views and generate discussion.
So, Let's jump in shall we?
REAPER INFO??
A lot of people are saying that it makes no sense that Everyone says this info is about reapers when Shep is the only one that believes in them. You have to listen closely. Hackett simply says that, before he lost contact, Kenson told him that she had found something on the reapers. He never said he believed it or even what his views were. He simply said what he had been told.
SOLO MISSION
Yes, I feel this was a bit awkward. Shepard must go it alone, despite having plenty of stealthy people around him. I personally this was BioWare's response to too many people complaining that Squad mates don't talk in DLCs. The simple truth is that it is not worth the money to bring 13 voice actors back just for a DLC. Fan's would not cut them slack, so they tried to come up with another solution. Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. Still, it was awkward and could have been handled better.
A lot of people also complain that the sneaking part was lame. To be honest, I did not even know you could sneak. The whole game I have seen an enemy and unleashed the drone on them (ahhh yes, the combat drone. When you absolutely have to kill every mother F***er in the room, accept no substitute). How was I to know this was different? Honestly though, what did you expect? The game engine does not cater to stealth all that much. They are not going to re-invent the system for a $7 DLC. They tried to trow a little variety in there using the system they had. Take it for what it is worth.
In the words of the immortal Ackbar, "IT"S A TRAP"
Ahhhh the power of meta gaming. Everyone complains how they saw this trap coming a mile away. Even I saw it coming, and I am a few pies short a bake sale. The question, however is whether Shep would have seen it coming. It's like watching a horror movie. You are screaming, "B**ch, don't open that door!!! The lights are going out, and something is scratching the other side!!" After she opens the door and the space bunnies kill her, you do the, "I told you so" bit. This is because we are watching a horror movie and expect things like this to happen. In real life, if someone was afraid to open a door just because the lights were flickering and there was a sound on the other side, you would look at them funny, and tell them to pay their electric bill.
The point I'm making is that we expect these things because it's a game and we know something is going to go wrong somewhere. Shepard does not know this. He/she has no real reason not to trust Kenson. Yes, they have reason to be concerned when they hear about the reaper artifact. They even ask about it, and Kenson assures him that they are being very cautious. Shep would be concerned, and want to check things out, but I don't see why red flags should be going off just yet. If you watch the conversation again but pretend you are Shep and have no idea that things are about to go horribly wrong, you will see what I mean. I'm not saying you would not be concerned, but you would not be screaming trap all over the place.
HOW DO YOU KNOW THE REAPERS?
Another small point, but Kenson says that even a dead reaper has power. Even I said, "Ummm... how do you know this? I don't see the Cerberus logo anywhere..." Until you realize that she has been talking to one. We have no idea what naughty things Harby has been whispering to her in the night, but it is obvious she feels they are these wonderful, almost god like beings. Showing her that Reapers have power after death is a great way to do this. Again this is simply guess work, but since we do not know what she has learned, we cannot discount her knowledge as a plot hole. You could say, Shep should have asked about it, and I would agree. I never said the story was perfect. My guess is that the developers felt that such a conversation would do nothing to carry the story forward and left it out.
WHERE IS THE NORMANDY?
Another criticism of the DLC is the fact that the Normandy never went to look for Shepard during the 2 days he was gone. My question is, how do you know that? We have no idea what they were doing. I don't remember Shepard calling the Normandy and telling them where he was headed (hell, they did not even know). So the Normandy is suppose to find one asteroid in an entire system in two days?
The question then becomes, "Why didn't Shep call the Normandy to tell them where they were going?"Mostly because if anyone other than the Normandy was listening (I.E. some sort of Batarian outpost with 300,000 people on it)they would now also know the location of the project and Shep would be placing everyone there in danger. You spend half the game listing to other people's com traffic during missions. You think they can't hear yours as well? Again, at this point, Shep has no reason to believe he is going anywhere but a friendly alliance facility.
BLOW UP A MASS RELAY? RETCON!! RETCON!!!!
I hear this one a lot; a super nova could not blow one up, how could an asteroid. It's all about distance me hardies. Someone on youtube put it perfectly. It is the same reason why a nuclear blast that is far enough away only knocks you on your bum, while a rock to the face can crack your skull. Energy dissipates with distance. All we know is that a "Near by" star went super nova and knocked the relay out of it's position. In space terms, near by can be a very long distance.
Some people said that if a simply asteroid can destroy a relay, than a lot of relays should have blown up over the millions of years they have been around. First of all, the chances of a planet sized asteroid hitting a relay in the vastness of space is pretty slim. Earth has been around for billions of years and nothing even close to that size has hit us... this is proven by the fact that I am even here to type this. Yes an asteroid that size would tear this planet apart. (Now that I think about it, one might have hit us. There are theories that the moon was made by a large impact knocking off the enough parts to form into a moon. Still this was billions of years ago, when our solar system was not nice and ordered as it is now. Back then tons of flying derby was everywhere.)
Secondly, the asteroid was moving much faster than a normal asteroid would be. It was being propelled towards the thing at great speed. This equals a much greater transfer of energy upon impact than a normal asteroid would have.
And lastly, we have no idea that this hasn't happened to other relays. All we know is that it has not happened in the past few thousands years that the Asari have known about them. That is a very small window for such a massive event to happen.
RESTRAIN THAT MAN!!
Another big complaint involves Shep's capture and escape. First of all, why was he captured? They could have just killed him. Anyone saying this needs to pay more attention to ME2. They have been trying to Capture Shep the whole game. The Reapers want him for some reason. No we don't know why, but there is a whole nother game coming so cool your jets and wait for it.
Why didn't they restrain him to the table?
Well, probably because they felt that pumping him full of sedatives and placing 2 armed guards over him was more than enough. On a normal person, drugs work wonders. Just ask an anesthesiologist. The table itself had no restraints on it, and they felt it was unnecessary to install them for a drugged man under armed guard. Smart? Maybe not, but definitely far from an unbelievable plot hole. If you are going to start complaining every time a bad guy underestimates Shep, you are going to have a lot of complaining to do.
Why did Shep just wake up from sedatives with no explanation?
(yes, I have seen this argument) This should be no surprise to us by now. He woke up on the operating table when he should not have and he survived the poison in his ale (and I'm not just talking about the Ryncol). Shepard has some sort of cybernetics or other little Goodie in him that counter acts things like drugs and poison.
Why did his "cell" have a mech terminal in it?
I use quotes because this "cell" was no cell at all. This was not a prison. It was a lab. If you look at he surroundings, shep was in what looked like a medical center or lab of some sort. This was probably the most secure place they could find. They did not have time to remodel the room to take the terminal out, and again probably felt that the drugs and armed guards were enough.
Well, why didn't they just break the terminal then?
We have no idea what it was used for. The doctor might have needed it for something. You are simply assuming that the terminals only purpose was to control mechs, when in reality it probably served several purposes. Some might say that this should have been explained better, but how much more explanation do you really need? Just look around. It is obvious that this is not a jail cell.
Why didn't he get he guards guns?
And do what exactly? Shoot the walls? He was in the room by himself. Once he got out of the room,, his/her own equip was right there.
Well, Why was Shep's guns and armor right there?
It's a game where you shoot things. Move on.
WHY NOT DISMANTLE THE PROJECT?
This is a common question. If they were indoctrinated, why didn't they take down the project so that no one could use it. The problem is that you have no idea how long they have been indoctrinated for. It's a slow process. From the way Kenson was talking they were trying to figure out if they should use it when she got captured. This suggests that they had reached the stage of, "We probably should not do this." but had not reached the, "Let's burn this Mother F-er down" Ala Burger shack form Herald and Kumar go to White Castle. You are also overlooking the fact that the reapers could have wanted to use this for something else. If you just took over people controlling a ballistic missile and you are planing to invade, you don't tell them to destroy it. You keep it to use yourself. I'll agree that they might have explained this better, but the lack of explosion does not change the logic behind keeping it.
WHY CAN"T YOU CALL AGAIN?
Some people complain that you should just re-call the colony or Normandy after Kenson cut you off. Remember the "She cut you off" part? She shut down your transmission. Jammed it in some way. You think she un-jammed it once she stopped talking to you? Later when you try to contact Joker, the computer even tells you that comms were damaged.
NO CHOICE?
Yes, you had no choice. Whether you are Renegade or Paragon, you are still out to save as many people as possible. It's simple numbers. Kill 300,000 or kill trillions. Not to mention the Batarians will be wiped out anyway once the reapers get there. Sucks, but it is a no win situation. Tell me what Shep could have done? I saw someone say that Bioware should have let you save someone. How exactly? Comms were down. Like I said, give me an alternative. Are you saying you are upset because you didn't like being forced to kill 300,000 people. Here is a news flash: That's the point. You are not supposed to leave with a warm gooey feeling.
You realize that Bioware has to tell a story' right? Getting choices is fine, but you have to lead a player down a path or you have no story. You had no choice about loosing someone on Vermire. This is because you cannot give 100% control to the player and still tell a good story.
WHY DID HACKETT EVEN GO TO THE NORMANDY?
He likes Shep and felt that he should be there to personally tell him what he/she is going to be facing. This makes a huge difference. Remember all the gripes about just receiving an email form someone. Well, Hackett wanted to show Shep enough respect to tell him in person. It shows he cares.
HOW CAN THE BATARIANS BLAME SHEP?
Well, let's see... There is a good chance they can ID shep as the person who freed a terrorist suspected of wanting to slam an asteroid into a relay. Then a few hours later, they pick up a transmission FROM said asteroid placing SHEP on it hours before everything goes boom. You don't think this info would be kicked up the chain of command? Like Hackett said, it's not solid, but it is enough to raise serious suspicions.
THE REAPER BABY NOT PLAN B?
Some people think this makes ME2 pointless. I disagree. To me the point of ME2 was to learn to care about your team and the universe you are in. Think Two Towers. Most of the book was about taking down Saruman . He was not Sauron's main focus or plan. In the end, beating Saruman did not change much. Sauron was still coming. What it did do, was provide an excellent way to learn more about the world and the characters in it. That's how I feel about ME2. The Baby reaper was not plan B, it was just another weapon the Reapers planned to use. This does not mean it was not important to take it out. Anything you can do to hurt the Reapers is important. So the Reapers were already coming. So what? Are you saying that this makes it ok to just ignore what he Collectors were doing? Does this somehow change the fact that we eliminated a major base of operations for them in the galaxy?
Yeesh, that was a wall of text. I am sure I have missed some things here and there, but those are the major ones I can think of. Was Arrival fantastic? No. I don't like it as much as LOTSB, but it's still better than most DLC of most games, and it sets up ME3 nicely. I felt the story was decent and had a lot of emotional weight.
So, that's that for now. Sorry it was so long, but I wanted to properly address these issues. Fell free to counter me or point out flaws. God knows I can make them. All of us a bi-est to one degree or another. Some people hate the story of ME2 and look at Arrival seeing tons of flaws.
Others like me, loved the story and see Arrival from the other side. I try to be objective, but if I am seeing the game through rose tinted glasses, I would be the last to know. That's kind of the point. That is why I enjoy debating here. It shows me other view points. It helps to build an objective picture in my mind. If you want to help build that great! Maybe you will learn something as well. If you just want to pretend your opinion is better than everyone else's, go write a book.
Modifié par squee913, 14 avril 2011 - 08:46 .
Retour en haut
My point about rendezvous with Normandy still stands.
