I said in this thread that I wouldn't be back:
http://social.biowar...3/index/9716259
Well, obviously I lied because here I am again. Yeah, I'm being honest about lying.
After I posted I decided to write a script for my own ending to Mass Effect 3. Just something that would close the game on a more positive/epic note while leaving the game open for ME4. It plays up the EMS and shepard's paragon/renegade game choices in a better way. A friend convinced me not to abandon Bioware just yet, but to give them a chance to respond to the fans before passing judgement. My friend also asked me to post my script here on the forums.
I'll let the community here be the judge if my script is any good or not.
This is a very rough 1st draft. Expect lot's of spelling and gramatical errors.
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[Scene begins with Shepard and company running towards the light beam to go up to the Citadel]
-Explosions all over, Reapers landing and blasting away.
[How hard it is for Shepard to make this run depends on two things, Effective Military Strength and the game's difficulty level. The effect EMS has is proportional to the difficulty. On the easiest difficulty it would have no real effect and the run is easy for shepard, on insanity a low EMS can make the run nearly impossible, the highest EMS in insanity would make the run hard but doable]
-Shepard hits the light and teleports to the Citadel, but arrives alone.
[Players don't know this yet and won't until the epilogue, but the EMS also affects which of your squadmates/major characters survived the run to the light. The highest EMS means they all survived but were beaten back by the Reapers, leaving you as supposedly the only person to make it. Lower EMS levels would progressively kill more characters (chosen at random, this is war after all), with your Love Interest if you have one being the last one to die. On the lowest EMS setting everybody else including your LI dies in the attempt.]
-Shepard arrives alone in the dark, when they turn on their flashlight they illuminate a Husk right in front of them, which immediately triggers a slow-mo quicktime event to avoid being killed.
-After this scare, Shepard begins exploring, finding piles of dead bodies being tended by Keepers. Harbinger also begins speaking to Shepard in an echoing voice, taunting Shepard.
-Soon Shepard finds a door which requires a bypass, when successful Shepard is temporarily blinded by the bright lights of the citadel. Before Shepard is a maze of passageways, but again Harbinger taunts Shepard, rearranging the passages so only a single path is available.
-Shepard walks down this path and begins seeing ghosts coming through the walls. Flashes and images
of things that are not real. It quickly becomes obvious that Harbinger is attempting to "fast track" indoctronate Shepard, and the pressure is on to move quickly or risk losing their mind.
[note shepard is actually in danger of being indoctronated. No kind of timer is shown, but if the player doesn't finish the boss battle with Harbinger in 1 hour, you get a non-standard "game over" with shepard willingly helping the reapers harvest the galaxy]
-Shepard hurries down the passageway to a large circular room, the ceiling is glass overlooking the interior of the citadel.
[At this point we see a cutscene of the crucible docking with the citadel, a voiceover determined by your EMS states how desperate the situation is. the highest EMS the VO states that the crucible is secure, for now. The lowest EMS the VO states that the reapers have broken through the allied fleets lines and are heading for the crucible to destroy it. Appropriate VO's for the other EMS levels state varing levels of fleet distress. in game terms, this only serves as a an additional push on the player, to give them a feeling of being rushed. the crucible is never actually destroyed.]
-Shepard sees the back of TIM but as they approach TIM turns around showing the glowing eyes of Harbinger. TIM failed in his attempt to control the Reapers and Harbinger has possessed him. Harbinger again taunts Shepard, telling them they are no match for the Reapers, and that alone Shepard is powerless against Harbinger. Shepard will serve the Reapers, or die.
-At this point we hear Anderson stating that Shepard is not alone, and the camera pans back to reveal Anderson, possibly with allied infantry in tow.
[The EMS level will determine how many reinforcements Anderson brings with him. Highest EMS means a full squad, gradually decreasing with lower EMS levels until on the lowest level it's just Anderson himself]
-The boss fight begins. Not only is TIM/Harbinger tough to kill, but he summons reinforcements at various stages of barrier/armor/health. Taunting Shepard all the while.
[Difficulty level and EMS plays a huge role in this boss fight. On the easiet difficulty level the EMS plays no role and the boss fight is trivial. The EMS level plays a greater and greater role on higher difficulty levels until on insanity a low EMS can mean a near impossible fight, whereas the highest EMS on insanity means a tough but winable fight.]
-When TIM/Harbinger gets low enough in health, he becomes enraged, taunts Shepard again, and does the "harbinger transformation". Now instead of just glowing eyes, TIM/Harbinger looks like a transformed collector, only with TIM's body instead of a collector's body. The resulting transformation blows everyone against the far walls of the room.
-Shepard is the only one to stand back up. Everyone else stays down, motionless. Shepard now must fight TIM/Harbinger alone after all.
[EMS has no influence on this boss battle whatsoever, only the game's difficulty level]
-After a tough fight and much taunting, Harbinger goes down. Shepard runs over to Anderson to check on him.
[EMS again comes into play here. Highest EMS has Anderson standing up and dusting himself off. Progressly lower EMS levels have him more badly injured. On the lowest EMS level Anderson is beyond help and dies]
-Shepard (and Anderson if he lives) approach the console in the center of the room without looking back. Shepard begins to use the console when suddenly TIM/Harbinger appears behind Shepard about to kill them. This triggers the game's final slo-mo quicktime event to roll out of the way. Shepard rolls out of the way and shoots TIM/harbinger again. TIM/Harbinger collapses on the ground, not yet dead but obviously no longer a threat.
[at this point the Paragon/Renegade system comes into play]
-Shepard has the option to interogate the Harbinger to try and find out why the Reapers harvest. If Shepard has enough Paragon or Renegade points, they can get Harbinger to explain themself. The Reapers consider themselves the apex of evolution, and they harvest sufficely advanced species as a form of procreation. Even Reapers are not completely immortal, the harvest must continue so the Reapers can exist as a species.
[renegade ending]
-If Shepard has a high enough renegade score, TIM breaks control of Harbingers will and tells Shepard that even though TIM has failed and is dying the reapers can still be controlled. Shepard has the option of removing the reaper implant from TIM, and plugging into the console. That way instead of destroying the reapers, the crucible will control them. Shepard can use that control to make Humans the dominate race in the galaxy. TIM goes on to reveal the horrifying truth, the reapers harvest the entire universe in cycles, not just the Milky Way. That means there are more reapers out there, and sooner or later they'll come to this galaxy to find out what happened to the previous reaper force. TIM insists that controlling the reapers currently in the galaxy is humanity's only hope not just for galactic dominence, but it's very survival.
-Shepard delivers a one-liner, and shoots TIM in the head, killing him for good. Shepard is now given the option of using TIM's reaper implants or not.
[if anderson is alive, his opinion on what to do depends on whether or not Shepard nominated him to the council in ME1. If shepard did, Anderson wants to simply kill the reapers. If shepard nominated Udina instead, then Anderson prefers to control the reapers]
-If used, the crucible fires, but instead of destroying all the reapers, it makes them docile, and shepard uses the controls to make the reapers pull back much to the shock of the galaxy.
-If not used, the crucible fires, and the energy wave propogates via the mass relay network. As each reaper is hit, the lights go dark, and they either fall over/become inert.
[Paragon ending]
-If shepard has a high enough paragon score, Harbinger retains control of TIM and speaks weakly to shepard. For the first time a reaper shows fear. Harbinger insists that Shepard must not break the cycle. The cycle *must* continue. Reapers are the apex of evolution, and they need to continue the harvest.
-Shepard at this point as two options. Attempt to talk to reapers down, or to destroy them.
[if anderson is alive, his opinion depends on his council nomination in ME1. If he was nominated, then he prefers negotiation. If he was not nominated, he prefers killing them]
-If shepard chooses to destroy the reapers, Harbinger taunts Shepard one last time, Reapers harvest the entire universe and another reaper force will eventually come to finish what his force started. The reapers die in the same cutscene as the renegade choice. TIM's body screams and glows and then turns to ashes as the reapers die.
-If shepard chooses negotiation, they realize that Harbinger is actually afraid. Shepard uses this as leverage. Leave the galaxy and don't come back, or I'm gonna push the button and send you all to hell. Harbinger reluctantly agrees, but leaves a final warning to Shepard. The reapers harvest the entire universe, and while his force will leave. Sooner or later another reaper force will come to harvest this galaxy. Harbinger releases control of TIM, who curses Shepard with his dying breath, Humanity could have controled the reapers, the galaxy, and have been able to easily defend against a future reaper threat, but shepard threw it all away. He then expires with a bloody gasp. cutscene showing reapers disengaging allied forces and leaving the galaxy.
[Neutral ending]
-If shepard has neither a high enough paragon or renegade score, their only option is to destroy the reapers, with the same cutscene as the other two branches. Harbinger dies saying that shepard is a fool, reapers harvest the entire universe, and another reaper force will come to finish the job.
[After ending, before epilogue]
-Admiral Hackett hails Shepard, demanding to know just what the hell happened. Shepard explains along the lines of the ending chosen (Renegade/Paragon).
-If fired, the crucible begins to break apart from the strain. If the reapers are controlled, the citadel stays in orbit around earth as earth's new capital while humanity's rule over the galaxy is solidified. If the reapers are dead, the citadel stays in orbit around earth as the allies currently have no way of moving it back. Forcing Humanity into a greater galactic role whether they want it or not.
-If not fired, the power of the crucible is used to move the citadel back to it original place in the galaxy, but again breaks apart from the strain.
-No matter how the crucible is lost, humanty or the allied races agree to build another one for when the reapers return, but can't agree on how quickly, there is a galaxy to rebuild after all, and building the first crucible all but bankrupted the galaxy.
[We post an epilogue with various backgrounds describing what happened to the various races. Shepard, shepards LI, normady crew, various major characters, etc. This would be highly variable depending on shepard's choices through the 3 Mass Effect Games. Also the general state of the galaxy will be described in the epilogue. It will vary from heavily damaged but rebuilding for the maximum EMS to near total devestation with the lowest EMS]
-Roll Credits
[After the credits, we see an additonal cutscene.]
-On an alien world in another galaxy, we see vague bipedal figures being forced into a building under construction. Faint crys can be heard from inside. The camera begins to slowly pan up to show the building is actually a reaper under construction, and nearing completion. The reapers eyes suddenly glow brightly as the reaper wakes up for the first time, then slowly fade back to normal. As this happens Reaper dreanoughts and destroyers that were hidden from view by the dreadnought's bulk begin lifting into the sky. Over the course of the next 10 seconds or so we begin to see more and more reapers, until we see many more reapers on the move than we've ever seen before. Fade to black, return to main menu.
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Alrighty there we go. Feel free to critque. I'm no writer so I'm sure it's got major holes!
Retour en haut
Maybe we'll see a fan-made comic if we never get the ending we deserve.![=]](https://lvlt.forum.bioware.com/public/style_emoticons/default/sideways.png)
