Nathan Redgrave wrote...
Saphra Deden wrote...
Dean_the_Young wrote...
The actual Cerberus (re)expansion begins after the Retribution story ends. The means will be addressed in the game, but they're very much things that weren't known beforehand.
Retribution was a fun read so I'm very glad that Bioware rendered the entire experience pointless.
Right. And if they had gone down the "Cerberus is a total non-entity" route, we'd all be complaining that BioWare killed off the awesome pro-human black ops organization in a peripheral novel rather than in-game.
Cerberus could easily have been relevant without dominating the plot, strong enough to be relevant without being overpowering, and both an ally and an untrustworthy betrayer.
Consider this mental exercise: Cerberus isn't the 40% enemy of the game. If anyone is needed, blame the Batarian Hegemony for making a deal with the devils. Most those Cerberus troopers look like Batarian helments anyway.
Anyways: alternate Cerberus scenario.
Shepard is looking for the MacGuffin that will help complete the Super MacGuffin that will beat the Reapers, since a conventional assault won't work. Shepard tries and tries, but in one particular mission, Shepard fails. The Reapers are too prepared, perhaps, and it's a trap that Shepard barely survives, but loses the Artifact.
Cerberus, however, intervenes and is able to seize the critical MacGuffin piece that Shepard needs to save the galaxy.
Cue a call from TIM, saying he's willing to negotiate a trade. In exchange for the MacGuffin, as well as Cerberus support for the MacGuffin Project and Cerberus forces for Earth, TIM wants Concessions. With a capital C.
Recognition, legitimacy, power, a de facto legalization of Cerberus in the name of the common cause.
As a suggestion, TIM's price is SPECTRE status for himself... and as Spectres are above the law, as is their operations, doing so would be a de facto legalization of Cerberus. If not TIM, it could be one of TIM's hand-picked subordinates (Kai Leng?) to be his proxy.
So in exchange for Cerberus being beyond the reach of the law, effectively untouchable, and being able to do most anything they want openly... Cerberus offers the MacGuffin, its own tech-knowhow for the project, and its own forces for the liberation of Earth. If you kept the Collector Base, naturally Cerberus has a lot more resources to contribute, including the canonical army source. If you didn't, Cerberus has a lot less.
And here's where the choice comes in. TIM wants/needs Shepard to make the Council agree to the deal: after the Reapers finally vindicate Shepard, Shepard has the pull. But Shepard doesn't have to: either Shepard launches a raid to steal the MacGuffin from Cerberus, or Shepard calls TIM's bluff of holding the galaxy hostage, and TIM folds and hands over the MacGuffin.
No alliance. No legalization of Cerberus. No forces for the alliance, no tech know-how, and most importantly Cerberus is marginalized to the side of the war: rather than openly help Human colonies, Cerberus is on the fringes. Albeit very big fringes, if they have the Base and the Cerberus Army.
So a Big Decision, with War Assets and common cause and Consequences as the obvious effects. Right? But Cerberus is untrustworthy. Everyone says so.
That comes into play later. Right after the liberation of Earth, in which Cerberus assets contribute to the victory over the Reapers and opening of the opportunity for the MacGuffin to win the war.
Right after the opening, when Cerberus stabs the organics in the back and makes their own play for the wonderweapon to fulfill their secret plan. Unless you didn't side with them, of course, in which case Cerberus shows up after the battle, after the Reapers and Organics have wiped eachother out, and attempts to seize the Wonder Weapon. Turns out that the real reason they wanted to ally with the Council was to get their scientists onboard the wonder weapon project to make their desired changes to the weapon before it's used.
Now Cerberus has turned into an antagonist at a key point, and Shepard has to regain control of the Wonder Weapon to win the game, beating up Cerberus as he goes. When Shepard finally controls the Wonder Weapon, the end-game is upon us and we get to choose the ending.
If you allied with Cerberus, or if you didn't ally with Cerberus but gave them the base in ME2, then the extra time/knowledge Cerberus has allows an extra ending not otherwise available, and Cerberus survives past the game. If you stridently opposed them, the Cerberus-ending is absent, and the organization is crushed.
Shepard makes his/her decision, and the war is won.
That's an example of how Cerberus
could have been done. Never supplanting the plot, and offering both roleplaying preferences and validation for both sides.
People who think Cerberus is worth the cost can feel validated by the fact that Cerberus does contribute to the survival of Earth, and that giving them the base gives more assets: these benefits can be viewed as outweighing the cost of betrayal. Working with Cerberus, and the costs therein, are their choice, and Cerberus's survival past the end-game is a result of their choices.
People who hate Cerberus, however, are free to oppose them the entire way. Their suspicions of insincerity and duplicity are validated by the eleventh-hour betrayal that occurs no matter what. They are free to spit in Cerberus's face, and even ruin Cerberus's fate by leading to the downfall of the organization. The assets they lose are their choice, but they can hurt what they view as a cancer to the galaxy.
In this way, Cerberus plays the roles of both friend and foe, reliable and treacherous, and all without shoehorning anyone into a committed relationship one way or another. Cerberus doesn't need to be the major player for the rest of the plot, nor is it suffering an absence.
Guest_Saphra Deden_*
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