Oh yea, spoilers abound. Also. I'm sure there's loads of typos. I'm apologizing in advance.
Who's the bad guy?
ME2 was a success because it addressed many of the technical issues with ME1, but one area in which ME2 faulters from the first game is narrative structure and diversed character development -- mainly it lacked any true antagonist.
Sure, ME2 creates plenty of likable teammates and pits them in interesting situations to make you care, but does ME2 actually make you genuinely hate someone?
Let's look at the potential "villians"
Collectors: Before the game they're portrayed as these mysertious, mthyical bodysnatchers that work with precision. In reality, they're just the new replacement for the Geth. They're simply drones with no personality, and since we see them so early in the game, the opportunity to build up this "hate" against them doesn't exist. By the time they do something that is directly emotional/engaging to the character, it's too late. Also, there isn't one leadaer Collector that can personify them all..."but wait!", you're screaming. "What about..."
Harbinger: This can't count as a villain. There's never a true reveal. The first time Shepard encounters him is during a battle with little fanfare. Actually, during the entire game I don't think Shepard directly acknowleges him til after the last mission. There's no rapport here, no build up. Harbinger isn't given any mysterious allure or anything for us to attach a negative emotion to him. He's just a collector with funny one-liners for 99% of the game. Where was his "oh snap!" Virmire moment? (More on that later)
Illusive Man - He's the easy pick, and sure, by the end of the game the player may be fed up with his BS, but at the same time, he pulls double-duty as a necessary evil to push the plot along, so as a player you can't hate him too much because he's feeding you info and, at least for the time being, his questionable actions seem to be an ends to a means. As mentioned, the last few hours of the game switch this up greatly, but again, too little too late. The player should've been in a position to clash with him earilier, and in a more definitive way. I'm not sure how that would've impacted Bioware's over-arching story, but he's simply not enough.
Aria - Again, great potential to make a cool, antagonist mob boss character wasted. Though she's stlll cool and I'm expecting her to have a more prominent role in 3. So there's still hope she can be a deep character (good or bad)
All the Gangs - They're all just goons, hard to really create a negative bond with any of them. Again, Aria could've been the personification of all of them, but they didn't go that route (not too mad about Aria. Still an interesting character).
Now let's go back and look at ME1 villians/antagonists
Benezia - This is easy, and Bioware nailed it by creating a direct connection: Liara. So we have some context, which is always a good start for a great villian, though she's probably the weakest of them all in the game. She also lets the Thorian loose, destroying an entire human colony. So there's some personal context between her and Shep, though not much. This is different than any of the Collector invasions because we get to interact with the town's people before the colony is (potentially) lost. So we see the locals trying to help, we see some resisting, etc. There's just so much conflict and context created that we at least feel something for the people of Zhu's Hope. And all of that is tied to Benezia. Solid set-up. Not amazing, but a decent antagonist.
Udina - He's just an a-hole. A fantastic A-hole and represents everything wrong with politics. See again: context. We hate him because he's the personification of something we all hate to some degree: politics. Everyone hates politicians and Udina is the great bad policitan. Not only that but his actions create a direct relationship with Shepared when he grounds the Normandy, not to mention his overall pro-human position and questionable stance on your alian crew in his fancy new Alliance ship. He could've been so much more, though. He could've been the Palpatine to Anderson's Obi-wan. But alas, wishful thinking. Udina was a great character to hate. Like seriously, who picked him to join the council over Anderson? Exactly.
The Council: Their intentions are good, and their actions (mostly) justifiable, but through the game we get to develop this rapport with them that starts out pretty good, then trancends to grey, then they just loose all faith and ground you, halting your mission. Again, like Udina they personify the restrictive, diplomatic BS branch of politics and government. Great at times, totally effing up at other times. But this context exists with them that the player genuinely cares when they do something to hault my progress. It's so strong because you feel as though they have your back for once, letting you work as you pelase, then all of a sudden that's gone and you're back to square one. Also, the 3 members create a great dichotomy - all representing a different level of trust/emotion/personality trait. It's a great 3-headed monster and again, is managed and maintained throughout the entire game: from becoming a Spectre all the way to the arrival of Soverign. Great situational antagonist.
The Geth - Not much to say. Just a better rendition of the collectors. The perfect "Storm Trooper" characters.
Saren/Soverign - I don't really need to go into these two. I think we can all agree they are probably the strongest antagonists in the series thus far. And collectively they created myriad reasons for the player to hate them in some way, shape or form: Eden Prime, Saren's constant BS with the council, with him essentially manipulating everyone, playing games with Shepard. He just comes off as such a pompous-yet genius **** who is completely aware of his actions and his ability to control situations. Also, after the player's decisions on Virmire, you want dudes head on a platter. What a fantastic setup. He seems like a worthy adversary and the player cannot wait for the invetiable showdown. But it gets even better becasue he's not one-dimensional. We learn so much about him through the last half of the game that by the time for the final faceoff, the player can be semi-conflicted. That was a great little twist, espeically considering all he'd done up to that point.
Why couldn't we have a guy like this in Me2? Why couldn't Harbinger find yet another agent to work through other than the mindless collectors? I think this is the key missing ingredient from ME2: No Saren replacement.
As for Soveriegn. He's not really the focal point. He has Saren to do all his bidding/talking, etc. But just that one encounter, when all the sh*t hits the fan, you can't wait to take him down. The second you meet him, his arrogance just pours through, and instantly the player develops this great negative connection with him. But at the same time, I have no idea how to take him out, or even if I can take him out. So I'm a little apprehensive - he might be out of my league. This simple distinction is what separates him from Saren: doubt. As a character, I can't wait to fight Saren, but for Soveriegn, I don't even know where to start. And not just that, even If I somehow take him down, I know there's potentially millions more. Wtf? That doubt is powerful and helps propell the last 1/3 of the game as one fo the greatest sections in gaming history. By the time you complete Virmire you're in sensory overload. So much context is blown in your face, and now it's on. And you can't wait to at least try and tackle the seemingly insurmountable odds. And then the council grounds you...
F*CK!!
See? See how much a little characrer development, relationship and context can go to developing hate towards a character? That was a fantastic segment and Bioware nailed every aspect of it. Through ME2 I was waiting for my Virmire moment and it never came. The whole "collectors on your ship" nonsense seemed way too contrived and had little effect on me, personally. Yea it sucked, and yea I wanted my crew back, but the setup was flat, and as mentioned earlier, the collectors just weren't strong enough as antagonists for me to truly care.
Well, that's my rant. I hope Bioware addresses this in ME3. I hope the develop the Illusive Man into a great villian. But I hope there's more. I hope we get another "alpha dog" Repear, or maybe they develop Harbinger more. Who knows. But we need villians, we need bad guys. That's what drives the action and that's what keeps us engaged. ME2 was great, but could've truly been perfect with more visible characters for the player to personify negative emotions.
Modifié par Ron Stoppable, 12 juin 2011 - 11:42 .
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