7052 réponses à ce sujet

[Rip The Reaper]

Why were the ME2 romances disregarded in ME3? More (left out) content should be patched in to the game.

Regarding Jack's romance in ME3. There's not enough emotion.  There's not enough time with Jack.  There's no alone time with Jack.  The total difference between all Jack friendship dialogue and all Jack romance dialogue is five lines and a Paragon interrupt.  Everyone gets to dance with Jack, but dancing with her when she's romanced grants the Paramour achievement, which is almost insulting.  Something is off with the voice direction, and not even Ms. Taylor could save it.  Jack is apathetic about Shepard possibly dying, when the last time he risked dying, she came to him to pour out her emotions at him.  Jack is apathetic about Shepard choosing to break up with her, and no dialogue afterward acknowledges her feelings of hurt, disappointment, anger, or betrayal.  Shepard sounds completely uninterested in Jack.  The Jack romance feels empty.  It feels like it was given token treatment only.

[IntoTheDarkness]

I will add an ending DLC suggestion too in point forms.

1. reapers are slaves -> reapers are master of their own.

2. the child is harbinger.

3. new DLC kicks off as Shepard awakes from Harbinger's beam attack ONLY IF the player chose to destroy reapers. Other 2 routes lead to direct bad endings.

4. No superweapon or deus-ex-machina. Furthermore, it doesn't make any sensee that Javik knows of Crucible while he didn't know about Ilos. It indicates Javik was a mere soldier, not someone with top secret information. So when reapers indoctrinated Javik's comrades, they should have learned of crucible.

5. no weakening reapers. give reapers the power Sovereign demonstrated in ME1.

6. don't care if there is a happy ending or not. anything that makes sense is welcome.

7. don't mind paying $30 for DLC if it comes out months later and complete ME trilogy in perfect condition.

8. logical explanation for reapers behavior. It took humans only 100 years from *now* to be as advanced as other races. If reaper cycle happened in something like 1000 BC, they would have left humans alone. Then humans would have easily outgrown reapers in terms of technology over next 49000 years. There must be reasons why reapers do what they do.

[perfect_victime]

I guess I am a troll now. I don't like the MP or the ending. Casey Hudson says I am in the minority. Everyone likes the way ME3 is. The New York times no less. I didn't even know that many computer gamers read the New York times for their advice on what is good, shows you what I know. Well I do extend my apology to the comunity and to Bioware for being a troll. Spreading poison in the forums because I am just 'some'. "But we also recognize that some of our most passionate fans needed more closure" -Casey Hudson.
The word SOME = minority as it is less than MOST and only a fraction of ALL.
I am sorry for my MALCONTENT Bioware, and MOST of the players of ME3

[perfect_victime]

I have posted this apology in both of the forums I have aparently been a Troll in.

[torpoodo]

Here's the thing:  I just can't whip myself into a frothy rage about desecrated philosophical themes or plot holes or inconsistencies since, for me, the whole ME franchise simply boils down to cheezy, megalomaniac space melodrama in the first place. To me, Mass Effect represents pulpy, cheezy, sexy, ridiculously epic space opera fun.

eghbdgdsgh wrote...

[...]This is an EPIC SPACE OPERA, with
a lot of funny moments, a lot of dramatic moments, a lot of action...
This is NOT a survival horror, NOT an existencialist essay... but THAT
is what we get at the end, and it appears suddenly from NOWHERE.

I couldn't agree more!

See, I play games to have fun. I bet a lot of people play games for fun. That Bioware, a major game developer, seems to have forgotten this is totally baffling and frankly embarrassing (oh yeah, I'm still sore about DAII, godDANG that was a depressing game).

What I want is a happy ending with Shepard high-fiving his/her squadmates after defeating the Reapers before retiring to a remote tropical colony to have blue/masked/sideburned babbies with the LI. Not "Thank you Mario! But our princess is... DEAD."
IF THAT'S WRONG, I DON'T WANT TO BE RIGHT.

Oninotaki wrote...

I want to feel like I have just
finished a GAME and WON. It is that simple. ME3 is a game, not a movie,
book, or art gallery. When I finish it I want to feel like I WON. To
what extent I win should be based upon how well I succeed at the tasks
the game has presented me with, with the option to LOSE if I do not do
well enough at those tasks.

A thousand times this!

[IntoTheDarkness]

I need an explanation of why cycle is 50,000 years long.

Humans advanced technology in game too fast. it took them 130 years from building the first colony to building drednaughts that can take down one reaper in 4-1 battles.

If reapers came like 3,000 years ago, they wouldn't have harvest humans deeming them too primitive. That would have enabled humans to develop for 47000 years before the next cycle, outmatching reapers in technology by a huge gap.

[Sobe2988]

Please fix that robotic dog that comes with the collectors edition. The ads claimed it was a sidekick that followed you around the Normandy, all it does is walk around the shuttle bay.

[Larryboy_Dragon]

If they are forced to update it, I hope they update it with content showing what happens to the crew without changing the endings themselves. I'd hate to see the wonderful endings ruined because the crowd wants little blue babies.

[Jenlocks]

better romance for ME2's LI's that got shafted
Cure Thane option please...(femshep is so sad)

[Durontan]

Okey, I won't go into that end needs to change. I myself hated the ending but I ain't demanding it to vanish.

What I would like is a bit of explanation in it. Game went wrong when Hackett asks Shep to activate the Catalist.

Entire God-child AI thing is messed up. Overall I must admit it wouldn't be a bad plot hook that gives us 3 choices we don't really want but have no real choice in. Point that is bad here is that Shepard doesn't even try to convince the kid of co-existance. That here we tried and kid told us on a way that players can actually understand it how it was tried back in the start of things and on multiple ocasions it went wrong then I could accept the choices given.

Only then could a "paragon" choice of destroying reapers be accepted, and sacrifice of Shep, geth and EDI would still be Paragon choice if I knew that at some point syntetics would rebel without any way of coexistance (which I doubt is possible to convince Shepard of but a really good writing could, and not the **** that was given with the God-child). I understand destruction of Mass relays here as it is syntetic tech and syntetic tech dies but really, someone should say that relay destruction is not a supernova and won't wipe out everything in the bloody system, don't have players fill the gaps there. Not to mention problem of stuck fleet, let us prior to using the destroy reaper button have a chance to warn the fleets to get back to their homes as mass relays will be destroyed in a minute.
Another problem is that syntesis choice is the only paragon choice right now. As no Paragon would ever commit a genocide of Geth and kill EDI knowingly (and if we count how game always counted, it is considered destroy reapers a paragon choice (blue), control reapers renegade (red) and I presume syntesis (green) was meant as alternative to both, a neutral Shepard if you will).
Like I said, problem is syntesis is only paragon choice atm and as such it also suffers from the problem of not warning everyone to get back home.
Problem with Control ending is why the hell do mass relays get blown up here? They shouldn't in no way be destroyed with control as there is no reason or explanation for their destruction here.

Overall, all 3 endings suffer from a bad conversation with the God-child AI. The child is not the problem, choices are not, elaboration and Shepard's easy acceptance of things as they are given are.

Next, what all endings suffer BIG times is the Normandy plot hole. Yes, I understand that Bio wanted to give players a "relief" how Joker survived and Normandy crew escaped together with Shep's LI and Squad... problem is that on itself made story quite unbelievable. End animation NEEDS either total removal of Normandy or elaboration how Joker picked up the squad and went running through mass relays prior to their destruction.

It is not much that is needed, but writing in that final conversation was amateur at best, sloppy at worst. That conversation needs a change, and ending animation of Normandy either needs to be "upgraded" or removed entirely. I'd rather live unknowing of the fate of my squad and Normandy then have them in unbelievable situation.

Modifié par Durontan, 20 mars 2012 - 11:13 .

[Jayelle Janson]

Things I loved:

• The inclusion of Kahlee Sanders and Kai Leng. The excitement I felt when Kai showed up and I thought "I’m going to have fun tracking you down". The final scene with him was very satisfying.

• All the cameos of the previous crew members. I was surprised that Jack was my favourite of all them as she wasn’t my favourite in the second game. Also liked the fact that the Archer brothers showed up.

• The revelations that Udina was with Cerberus and that the Reapers were being controlled by a higher power. The thought that the reapers were doing this for what they perceived to be our own good gave me chills.

• The interaction with previous and current love interests. The tension between Shepard and Kaidan came through and the romantic scenes with Garrus were excellent, making it feel like a proper relationship between two people and the little comments by the other crew members added to that feeling.

• Legion’s death which for some reason affected me more than Mordin or Thane’s although the reading beside Thane’s deathbed was great.

People I'd like to see in DLC:

• Gianna Parasini and Kal'Reegar

Things I disliked:

• The lack of diversity in the ending. A lot of players have multiple Shepards which feel like they exist in parallel universes so to be forced to choose what was essentially the same conclusion at the end of each trilogy takes all the enjoyment out of any future playthroughs. I never got tired of playing 1 and 2 and always found something new with every playthrough, but I don’t want to go near number 3 again for quite a while as it currently stands.

• I don't want to completely disregard the ending, I'm sure it would be perfect for my renegade "I hate all AI" Shepard, but I think there need to be more diverse endings and yes, maybe even a happy one for the romantics out there. I know there is the Mass Effect canon and this ending is it but for some of us our canon is that the Council survived and Anderson was councillor for a while. For practically three whole games we've felt like we've been crafting our Shepard's story, even though those choices have led us all to the same place, but the lack of choice at the end felt incongruous with everything that had gone before, regardless of whether you were paragon, renegade or neutral.

• Storywise I felt that as none of the choices Shepard had to make were palatable to me and every choice led to her death and the mass relays being destroyed then it didn’t really matter which choice was made as, to me, every decision was a bad one. The circular argument that the reapers are killing organics to stop synthetics killing organics is something Shepard could have argued against as is the catalyst’s assertion that the cycle will keep repeating. Shepard achieving peace with the geth and the quarians disproves this theory at least for the time being and as the catalyst is infinite it could surely wait a few decades to see if Shepard really could break the cycle. The catalyst said itself that no one had ever got as far as Shepard had before so why not have the option for Shepard to argue the case that organics be given a chance to prove themselves, especially now they knew what was at stake. It has been said that the ending is bittersweet, but for me it is just bitter, there’s nothing sweet about it. I felt the mission for Shepard was always defeat the Reapers or die trying but the ending just felt like surrender to me. If Shepard dies at the end of the trilogy then fair enough but I’d rather she die for something I feel she’d believe in rather than be forced to choose the lesser of three evils.

I’m not someone who likes to criticise a writer and claim I could do a better job, but I have gone from telling anyone who’ll listen for the last four years that Mass Effect is the best game since Baldur’s Gate to now telling someone not to bother at the moment because they’ll only be disappointed in the end.

[*]Not sure if this is the kind of feedback you wanted but I only finished the game yesterday so maybe my thoughts aren’t as coherent as they could be as I’m still trying to take it all in. I’m a big fan of Bioware games and it’s only because Mass Effect is so wonderful in the main that so many people feel deflated by the ending as we just wanted it to be as beautiful as the rest of the universe.

Modifié par Jayelle Janson, 21 mars 2012 - 12:11 .

[Sesshaku]

You're forgetting the fact that humans advanced that much thanks to the knowledge they got from all the other civilizations, they just "catch up" with the rest of the citadel. If all advanced civilization were destroyed, humans would probably become the first arriving to the citadel on that cycle.

That doesn't mean that the 50K cycle thing doesn't have any flaws, it has serious flaws. But im not that interested on that.

Im more interested in the fact that the Reaper's goal had no sense. I think the best thing Bioware can do it's to work on the indoctrination theory, well developed and with a few tweaks, can be the easiest and more awesome way to solve the ending problem, well...not the ending per se, but the ending you made, after shepard "wokes up" you would still have to figure out a better way of ending all.

Modifié par Sesshaku, 20 mars 2012 - 11:11 .

[Delta_S]

How about this: after Harbinger touches down on Earth we get the option to either cointinue towards the lift and have the current ending (which would satisfy anyone who actually liked the original ending), or choose to have a proper final boss battle with Harbinger. How the battle itself actually plays out is up to the developers.  If you win the battle, then the Reapers are eventually defeated by the coalition fleet and you get your happy ending and playable epilogue if your EMS is high enough.  No relays destroyed, and no gianax ending.

But, if you die during the battle, you don't get the critical failure screen.  Rather, the game ends there, and the outcome after that is determined by your EMS.  Obviously, no playable epilogue in this case.  You gave it your all, but it just wasn't quite enough.  Of course, there isn't anything stopping you from reloading a checkpoint if you are near death to try again.

As for the whole deal with the Crucible, I've thought of that too.  Since no one in the galaxy actually knows what it does and believes it to be a superweapon, it's still Plan A.  Harbinger simply presents itself as a target of opportunity, and killing it would be a serious blow to the Reapers.  If your EMS isn't quite high enough, it would still be possible for the Reapers to pull out a win.  Essenitally, the battle becomes an all or nothing situation.

Come on, a game like this needs a proper final boss, and this would at least be a somwehat fresh mechanic.  I can't really think of any other game off hand at the moment which handles the final boss like that.

[detolicious.com]

For convenience this post has been split into different subsections.

FOREWORD

With Mass Effect 3 one of the most anticipated games of 2012 has been released. Its
predecessors, both ME1 and ME2 had thousands of people bound to the PC or
Console for some very good reasons – these reasons will be the subsections
addressed here.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that a rather large group of fans is unsatisfied with Mass
Effect 3, I specifically use the term ‘fans’ as it so happens that the point
raised are not coming from new players... So what went wrong in Mass Effect 3?
(Keep in mind these are my opinions)

CHARACTERS (+ CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT)

Clearly oneof the strong suits in the Mass Effect universe and one of the key reasons why
fans spent countless hours playing and re-playing the games.

Mass Effect 3 starts equally strong into building its characters from the start
on but has some flaws when it comes to wrapping up the trilogy

Shepard’s Fate (Post ME2)

In the Mass Effect 2 DLC titled ‘The Arrival’ we heard Admiral Hackett proclaim
that when Earth calls, Commander Shepard better heed said call in his dress
blues – meaning he’s still considered a member of the Systems Navy, despite
serving in a different outfit called ‘Spectres’ or commanding a rogue ship
owned by a terrorist organization. While this little dilemma may be overlooked,
I personally wanted to see and hear a bit more about the trial to understand
what my character has been going through in the meantime.

Shepard’s Fate (Post ME3)

Even if you’re only partially giving in to pessimism in your life you’ll  come to the
conclusion that Shepard dies (even if he does take that [last] breath right before
the screen goes black and the credits roll). After the credits there is another
sequence where it’s laid out as if someone told exactly that story to a kid, since
this is the end of the story it appears that Shepard was not found in time or did not
survive despite the decision taken. For me it leaves too many question marks,
considering ME3 should wrap up the Shepard story arc.

Team’s Fate (Post ME3)

Where did my guys go? If the end is only being dreamt, why on earth (literally)
was I not picked up and carried to safety. What happened? It's unlikely that my
team chickens-out, I mean they said it themselves that back in ME2 I lead them
into a suicide mission every 2 minutes so why would they suddenly becoming
concerned about their well-being if a failure will be certain death anyway? Did
Joker pick them up but forgot all about me? (I swear I wasn't checking out
EDI!)

Starchild/Godchild?

It’s very unorthodox to introduce a new character with a tremendous impact to
the story in the last five minutes – basically because it never works out. It’s
just not a very good writing style to reach into your pocket and go “Hah, you
haven’t thought of this one!” It leaves the story tainted and reduces it to
something you expect from a cartoon that is in season 17 while only planned for
10 seasons or so.

Apart from that the character development is just as amazing as it was in the
predecessors. Depth is being added and the story is being enriched by most
conversations we’re able to experience. Characters have matured and it feels
that quite some time has passed since the adventures of Mass Effect 2 – for
example, I was never really fond of Jack – I always thought she was an
annoying, obnoxious brat and yet in Mass Effect 3 I suddenly found myself
liking her – more down to earth and therefore much cooler.

Garrus, Tali and Liara are very strong supporting characters which add massive value to
the Franchise. The fact that known faces are brought back is helpful and
immediately makes you feel at home.

STORY (+STORY TELLING)

Similar to the character development the story has been what made fans spend their spare
time hopping from mass relay to mass relay. The story leading up to Mass Effect
3 has been very thrilling, mostly because the antagonists were very charismatic
for one part and players could relate to them for the other part.

But like many others out there I could not get myself to like the ending. While there
may be those players that say it’s simply an ‘artistic decision’ – I have to
respectfully disagree. The death of Mordin and Legion were artistic decisions
which, granted might not be what some players wanted to see, but can live with
because up to that point it actually made sense and they very nicely woven into
the story. Here is what didn’t really make sense though…

Decisions Matter: Rachni

Back on Noveria I let the Rachni Queen escape and when I heard the news cast
that ships that looked like Rachni design were spotted I was wondering: “Was
this the right thing to do?” This was re-occurring question until ME2 where an
Asari on the Citadel announced that the Rachni will help me in the coming
darkness. I thought: “Well, this is creepy but still pretty awesome to have a
big hive helping me kick some Reapers back into the dark corners of space from
which they came. Instead, they were reduced to a breeding facility and a number
in my war assets – they never actually showed up in the fight for Earth which
is disappointing to say the least.

Decisions Matter: Feros Colony, Zhu’s Hope

I saved colonies and tried to have minimal casualties, but they likewise never
showed up even though I had them as war assets.

Human Reaper Larva

How convenient that me blowing up the space station did practically 0 damage to
the Reaper Larva inside. Cerberus was able to salvage so much that I wonder if
putting my team members in harm’s way back then was actually worth it.
Certainly it was logical that Cerberus went back and tried to get their hands
on the technology but it's disappointing that the Reaper I discovered inside
TIMs stronghold is practically the same thing I've been fighting in the previous
installment. This marks the beginning of a downward spiral because the logic
after this point folds like a cheap suit.

Rebellion

This Starchild/Godchild says that the created will always rebel against their creators
- however, if you are paying attention to the virtual mission you can see that
the Geth did not start the rebellion against their creators. Also, they did not
eliminate the Quarians when clearly they had the ability to do so. It's also hinted
that Legion may have been present at the times of these events, as Shepard
notes that the rifle used by one of the Geth is the same that Legion uses. When
being asked, our synthetic friends claims that it's a proficient model - remember
the "there was a hole" conversation?

It therefore appears that the kid is constantly lying to you (read End1/2/3)

Can’t count the endings

There aren’t 1000 possibilities of how it may play out, especially since we
lack the closure of that happens to all the different races or single characters…

End 1 (Blue)

Color has always been important in the Mass Effect universe and there is one end that is
highlighted blue which basically means a Paragon ending. In a short sequence we
can see TIM grabbing the terminal to control the Reapers - in his misguided
state he is lead to believe that he has the power to control the Reapers but
we've learned throughout the series that they cannot be controlled – if
anything, they control you! If you choose this end, the reapers win because it
would suggest that you have been indoctrinated and are lead to believe that
this is actually the good ending - which it isn't.

End 2 (Red)

The same color rule applies here, it is suggested that destroying the Reapers is
bad even though it was the central theme of all games.
Also, this end will kill all synthetic life - or so it is claimed by the space
brat - however, this would mean Shepard dies and be unable to take a breath
since he too is part synthetic. All Geth are killed as well, rendering Legions
sacrifice pointless and also EDI is killed (poor Joker) - so if it should be
hinted that Shepard could indeed live then all other synthetic life forms would
live as well and making this end the only good one.

End 3 (Green)

Red and blue turn into ... who would have guessed, green. The seemingly best
end, however there is one fatal flaw. Throughout the series we learn that the
key to success is diversity, this is also reinforced by the Prothean you pick
up in the Day 1 DLC - he basically says they failed back in the days because
they were not diverse enough (with that in mind I would have scrapped the dude
as well for the final game). Synthesis invalidates the whole diversity theme of
the game and can therefore only be wrong - also, the Reapers sort of live. This
green-approach was used by our ME1 antagonist Saren and look where he ended up.

Mass Relay Fireworks

In the Mass Effect 2 DLC – The Arrival we’ve seen what happens when a Mass
Relay is destroyed, an entire system is basically purged, killing everybody.
Regardless which of the 3 endings you choose the relays will blow up and would
thus destroy all life in their subsequent systems. In comparison, the Reapers
only kill the ‘advanced’ species while letting the less evolved live. With that
in mind, we would actually be worse than the Reapers. However, since part of
our crew lives in the end it leaves the question why there is an inconsistency
regarding the destruction of the relays (unless Joker did not do a jump through
a mass relay and is somewhere just outside the Sol System beyond the blast
radius – not very plausible either).

Joker, are we there yet?

When the mass relays blow up we see that the Normandy flying away from the
blast radius, which is very odd because; if the blast damages ships then the
entire fleet we mustered would have been destroyed (basically killing most of
the Asari, Quarian and Geth [may have been killed anyway if you decided to
destroy the reaper] population). Furthermore, seeing the planet on which the
Normandy crash lands we can be fairly certain that it isn’t within the Sol
system, meaning that your team members did not participate in the last push on
earth even if conversations with them state otherwise and that they used at
least one mass relay to get away from the battle. Fleeing wouldn’t make sense
though, since this very battle is all the team prepared for. It leaves us
believing that the moral is something like: Cowardice pays off and lets you survive
while standing strong and holding the line gets you killed. This is especially
underlined if you neglected the Salarians, they are on their planet not
involved in the war and living a pretty good life.

Wake up!

Either Shepard picked up Snakes bandana while dodging the Reaper beam or the
game is broken because I've got unlimited ammo and what appears to be an
'instagib' mod on my gun - one shot one kill is pretty neat.

These things might underline that the end did not really happen and you actually
only imagined it, the black lines creeping in from either side of the screen
could also be an indicator. However, this is not explained and needs a lot of
Theorycrafting which is not what was promised.

GAMEPLAY

War Assets

The game lets you believe that acquiring war assets is absolutely elemental to
the outcome of the final battle. I have raised my total military strength to
over 6800, getting all the assets I could find (+ Multiplayer obviously) from
the Delta Team to the Volus Bomber Fleet but I can’t see how they helped me in
the end. I can’t figure out what the difference is between 5000 and 6800 points
– it feels a bit unrefined for something that looked like a pretty cool ingame
mechanic. So if it all only comes down to Shepard taking a breath in the end
then I can actually save some time since he dies anyway, regardless of if I
topped out my strength.

Claims not fulfilled

See, if the fanbase reads sentences such as "everything can happen in the
end because we don't have to tie it up into a next installment" and "we
work on more endings than ever before" then the expectations are incredibly
high and even more so because Mass effect has been just one epic ride for all
players.

A specific point should be clear to anyone: You mustn't use misleading claims
to sell your product. It's evident that most endings were pretty much the same
for people which is not in line with the "uncountable" ending claim
we've heard before.

Reaper Beam

On Rannoch when hit by an inferior Reaper we're instant tomato sauce, reduced
to ash so to say. However when we get roasted by Harbinger (the big-baddie) we
somehow still live albeit baldy hurt. A more logical explanation would be
though that we're in fact dead and in our dying moments we fight against
becoming a Husk (it's still pretty dense but it could at least be somewhat
justified with space magic)

Bugged Quests

Yes some quests were bugged and couldn’t be finished after leaving the Citadel
without progressing on the story – this is somewhat annoying and should be
ruled out by a thorough Q&C testing. 


CLOSING

Let me get make this perfectly clear, I'm not trying to soil an awesome game. I've played
ME3 for somewhat around 42 hours (ok sometimes I was idling, granted) but for
the majority of that time I enjoyed myself and had a blast. So many funny
moments meeting my old squad mates but also sad minutes seeing some of them
making the ultimate sacrifice. It all built up to a huge expectation for the
grand finale and that is why I am so disappointed - the end does not live up to
the otherwise epic experience. Imagine your favorite sports team, they dominate
the entire season and are on a sure track to win the championship but in their
last game they play their worst game and lose to an inferior team - this is what
it feels like seeing the Mass Effect ending unravel.

I wish to commend BioWare - with the Mass Effect trilogy they have done a stellar job, an
RPG that dwarfs not only many current games but will likely continue doing so
with upcoming games. A game that has shown how character development is
actually done. Creating such a superb game is a double edged sword though,
because the community takes great passion in it and this is seen with the
recent outcry. This shouldn't be considered a problem, on the contrary it shows
how involved the community is (I mean, let's be honest, what other community would
raise money for charity and think about the less fortunate in their
disappointment? Many lesser involved communities would resort to insults and
threats and we all agree that's just silly) - I personally believe that the
guys over at BioWare should take great pride in knowing that their fans are
living and breathing the franchise. BioWare has been holding the line for so long
and stumbled in the last couple minutes - it's up to the fans to help them up,
dust them off and stand behind them.

Modifié par detolicious.com, 20 mars 2012 - 11:21 .

[Enrai_bg]

Hello, Bioware! Hello, Jessica Merizan!

In the recent days, after finishing the game and the balancing of the mixed feelings I had for the Mass Effect 3, I managed to clear several things in my head and wrap up some suggestions. I won't share them all at once, but one by one, as it would become a really large post and I will probably lose myself in it

In this post I will share my opinion on the rachni role and implementation in the game series. Here I go ...

Today I was disccussing with a friend his progress in the game. He had currently reached the rachni related mission. As he didn't manage to import his ME2 character, he started a fresh one in ME3. As far as I know, the default decision for the "Did you kill the Rachni queen in ME1" is that you have killed her. I remember when playing for the first time the ME1 and when I saved the queen and made an agreement with her. Since than I was eagerly expecting the rachni to appear in one of the next parts of the game. This didn't happen in the second, but I had my chance in the third. This made me very happy as I thought that the mighty rachni will join tha galaxy and overwhelm in the fight. However, talking with the queen and the letter saying the rachni workers are scaring people at the Crucible construction site were the only things I heard about them in the whole ME3 (I don't count the Reaper-created ravagers).

ME1 decision
So while discussing, my friend told me that despite having killed the queen (by default) with his newly created character in ME3, the queen still appears in the game. I didn't happen to have the oppurtunity to replay the game with a hero that killed the rachni in the first game (currently I don't have any enthusiasm replaying the ME3). However, the reapers have helpfully "built" a new one. This totally ruined my decision and the emotions caused by it in the first game ... No matter what you do, you get a rachni at the end. This, in my humble opinion, forces the story to go in a specific line - there has to be rachni in the last game no matter what. This made the experience quite unpleasant for me. What would have been good and in the spirit of the idea behind Mass Effect is to remove the rachni from tha ME3 scene if the character had killed the queen in ME1. Yes, this mean sparing him fighting with ravagers, or maybe still having the rogue queen, but unable to turn her on your side and having to shut her down for good. I know that you can bring up even better scenario options. (Anyway, how is it possible that the reapers assembled it, but it has the mind and the soul of a queen. I thought that the reapers could indoctrinate (which is not possible if you've killed the last queen), or create husks,  soulless creatures entirely based on the physical characteristics of the respective species.) Taking this into account makes the decision-making throughout the series quite more difficult and emotional -> makes the game even better. For the players who have saved the queen and have to face the problems fighting the ravagers, make the asset really valuable. This way both sides get balanced. I looked through my assets (correct me, if I am wrong) and the only asset I found regarding the rachni was under the Alien section "Rachni workers - 100". So it looks a little spoiled to me. Rachni is a race that was a threat for the whole galaxy and only the krogan could stop them, yet they are represented only by workers. I know that it has been only about 3 years (game time) since the saving of the queen, but I don't believe she was the last rachni in the galaxy. Last queen - yes, but last rachni - doubtful. So, to wrap the things up - this decision in Mass Effect 1 should have more weight in the third game and lead to a lot more than a slightly different dialogue with the rachni queen. Probably this is not the only decision that is messed, but its the one that I found. It is good to see the consequences of your actions throughout the game. Now when I am replaying ME1, I will know this decision doesn't add up, because even if I kill her I can save another queen later. Boom, the emotion is gone.

Rachni interaction
I am pretty sad, that the only option I had to interact with the rachni was talking to the queen. And the dialog was pretty much rushed because of the situation. After that there was nothing from them except a letter mentioning the workers frightening scientsits on the crucible.

I would have loved to have had the option to interact with the queen, after I have freed her (for a second time). I wanted to learn more about their history, to hear more about their songs , to experience why they were so feared in the past, how do plain rachni look and more. I even wanted to see them fighting beside me, overwhelming the marauders and the ravagers like elephants walking through a porcelain shop. I don't even know whether they use ships, or just fly on their songs through the galaxy... How does a rachni ship looks like? How were the rachni accepted by the other races after joining the "team"? How were they integrating, showing their new nature? ... and so on, and so on. These things apply for other races too.

Conclusion
So as a conclusion, I can say that the rachni are completely neglected in ME3 and their story potential is unused (for now). I personally get the feeling that they were placed in the game just for the sake of reminding us of the decision in the first game, nothing more. Actually you are placed in the same situation again, just like Windows asking you "Are you sure you want to close this window?". This doesn't add nothing new to the rachni role in the game, just an answer to where the ravagers came from (which you have already figured out  if you've played the final Tchuchanka mission first) and an additional mission allowing Grunt to appear and play his part. (This was an epic moment, I really loved it! This compensates for the absence of Benezia type boss guarding the queen this time). I agree it can be argued, that it is not possible to give the rachni such a big place in the story line, because there are other species that deserve the same too. But the story deserved the rachni to be brought in the front just for a little bit in this last game of the series. They were one of the greatest mysteries throught the games, in my opinion. Maybe they will find their place in a DLC, which I think will be great.

Greets,
Martin

P.S. I don't think everything in this post is a must. These are just my thoughts and suggestions. I also know I have spent too much time and have written too much text on an issue, that in a no way ruins the overall experience of the game. But I still wanted to share my thoughts on this. I really loved the rachni since ME1.   Despite there being a far more important issues with the ME3 (the ending for example), I believe that more competent than me people have already brought ahead and expalined the major flaws. And as I completely agree with them, I don't intend to write the same over and over again.

Modifié par Enrai_bg, 20 mars 2012 - 11:35 .

[RockSW]

also like to add something

assuming the ending is fixed it would be cool to have another interactive comic or someway to change my choices to see how the new decisions play out. also show us tali's real face plz, that stock photo was lame as hell.

Modifié par RockSW, 20 mars 2012 - 11:23 .

[RocketManSR2]

 I'm certainly no writer and this may have been done already, but I have an idea for another ending which won't change what's there, just extend it. This is based off of the Starchild actually being Harbinger attempting to indoctrinate Shepard. Shepard resists and chooses red. We get a little trash talk from Harbinger and it breaks contact.That scene we see of the relays blowing up is what the Reapers are planning to do as a last ditch effort (Shepard got a brief glimpse before Harbinger broke contact and flew off). They will attempt to use the Crucible to destroy the relays and cripple the galaxy. A "scorched earth" desperation move.

We then see Shepard in the "breathe" scene wake up and try to talk to anybody in charge and warn them. He gets Joker (the Normandy hasn't left the fight) and EDI puts Shepard in contact with every ship. Shepard gives the order to destroy the very thing we were building the entire game. If your rep is high enough, nobody questions the order. The Reapers want to use the Crucible and the 2 fleets clash with Harbinger leading the Reapers. A massive, brutal, all-or-nothing space battle ensues. If your assets and are high enough and nobody questioned the order, you can destroy both the Crucible and the Reapers, but there will be heavy losses (possibly including the destruction of the Normandy during the battle). I suppose 3 possible endings can come of this: 1)The Reapers indoctrinate Shepard and the cycle continues 2) The Crucible is not destroyed but the Reapers are, however Harbinger manages to destroy the relays before it's taken out 3) Best: The Crucible and Reapers are dealt with and Shepard reunites with surviving crew and/or LI.

There should be a scene where we see how badly the combined human and alien fleet was mangled by the Reapers, though. Bodies and debris both. Maybe even some named ones. There could then be the time jump to Earth where we see Shepard with his/her son/daughter & LI some years later with the planet slowly being rebuilt but still badly scarred. Things will get better, but they won't be the same again. Maybe even mention that some parts of Earth have been rendered uninhabitable with Reaper forces still hiding in places and the Alliance doing their best to eliminate them. It's not a sunshine & rainbows ending. It's still bittersweet, but it has closure and leaves the player with hope. I know you can't use any ideas word for word, but I'd be honored if even part of mine made it in. Thanks for your time.

Modifié par RocketManSR2, 20 mars 2012 - 11:41 .

[christrek1982]

three simple things that you can do to maybe make the ending better while using most of the existing scenes

1 make the shepherd lives scene longer. show his/her squad mates finding shepherd and helping him/her up lower the EMS or make it doable in SP also make EMS non reliant on MP.

2 remove or relocate the Normandy crash to earth.

3 have a proper epilogue video would be grate but DA:O text boxes would be fine that tell us what happened to the places we have been people we have met did shep stay with LI (if he/she lives) and so on

this is not the hopes and dreams of most fans but it is the cheapest and simplest way to do a DLC ending fix

I would love to play the game againg but I can't face the soul destroying endings.

[BLACKOUT228]

I've been holding back since I finished the game for a week an a half now. I've hammered the multiplayer and just sat in thought about the ending. First reaction was that the ending didn't fit the whole game... and as time has gone on that feeling has stuck with me. At first I didn't think the uproar from the ME3 community was warranted, but as time has gone on, I'm defiantly in favor of a new ending. Things that I believe need to be fixed....

-Harbinger was given the role in ME2 as the leader of the reapers, and in ME3 he's reduced to firing a beam at Shepard at the end. Where's the final epic faceoff between the will of humanity and the will of the reapers? I understand that creating a new final boss is most likely not feasible, but how awesome would a Harbinger controlled Illusive Man be? The two main factions against you combined into one epic battle.

-The affect of our choices is reduced to pick-a-color, many others have stated this. I don't need to rehash it.

- Lack of closure, again has been repeated many times, but I want to know what happened because of the decisions I made. Did my crew survive? What happened with the other races? WAYYYYY more than seeing a grandpa and his grandson discuss the Legend of the Shepard as a fairy tail.

-An ending that fits the theme and tone of the story. Like many others have said. We don't care if we lose in the end, or if Shepard dies... we just want our choices to make a difference.

[Hekros]

In my opinion the endings to the game aren't horrible, they just didn't get worked into the story enough. The explanation behind the Reapers' cycle of destruction is the only weak point in my opinion. Having Shepard destroy/control the Reapers could have worked if they had brought a little more doubt into Shepard's actions throughout the course of the game. The Illusive Man's story was an attempt at this but Shepard spent the whole game shoving "It's us or them" down everyone's throat.

If the writers had picked up on the beacons Liara left behind they could have served as an epilogue and made the endings work as a point somewhere between being annihilated by Reapers and Destroying them and letting life in the galaxy continue as it desired. As a midway ending, I would have been more than satisfied knowing that, while Shepard may not have saved his own cycle, he at least ended the Reapers' harvesting for future ones. I think this may be what the writers tried to do but did not properly flesh out.

That being said I really believe we should have been given an ending where we could stop the Reapers for our own cycle and allow the galaxy to continue, albeit in a crippled manner due to the heavy costs of a war with the Reapers; even if you had to have 100% completion to obtain it. The sheer amount of times Shepard has come out unscathed while facing impossible odds combined with his clearly stated view of "Us or them," would have made this ending more than plausible, although unavoidable casualties on Shepard's side (i.e. Garrus, Liara, etc . . .) wouldn't have been out of place . Plus I don't think anyone would have minded too much if we got to save an entire galaxy.

It's hard to say how this could be done exactly, since I really can't afford to spend too much time coming up with specifics. However a chain of side quests between attacking Cerberus headquarters and the assault on Earth could have been done if you had a large/effective enough military force to hold off the Reapers for a short while. EDI could have found out how the Crucible worked with the Prothean VI's help (the shockwave being sent across the galaxy via the mass relays) and a short series of quests could give you a way to modify the Crucible so it will cripple the Reaper forces without destroying the mass relays or other tech. Although I believe the citadel should be destroyed in any case. Shepard is already implied to be able to survive the explosion, depending on your playthrough, so either a survivor's ending with your LI or others (if your love interest doesn't survive) or a hero's funeral/memorial service of some kind could take place. This seems like a plausible ending in my opinion, although a little sketchy on fine detail, thoughts anyone?

[Arbiter156]

before i begin ME3 is an amazing game, well done to the team there are only two criticisms besides the ending that i can really lay down on it (ill get to the ending in a second) anything else would just be my opinion.

the first criticism is that the journal/sidequest structure isnt very good, it would need a lot of tidying up, just make it like the journal from ME1/2 and also keep the missions updated half the time i couldnt remember whether i had found an item or not.

the other criticism i would say is that there wasnt enough exploration, seriously we need vehicular exploration back just like in ME1, you know what we do and dont like from testing the hammerhead out in ME2 so use that data and work it out. id really like to see the vehicles back in future DLC.

now as for the ending which is my only major problem ill keep it simple as people have already explained the ideas very well so no point in repeating them.

firstly use the indoctrination theory/something similar as a springboard for an actual ending.

make all our chioces in the ending matter, how strong our forces are should dictate just how many we lose.

there should be a "reapers win" ending if say we have a low enough EMS.

conversely we should have the chance to at least gain a "happy" ending through a huge amount of effort as well as having made the "right" chioces.

have shepard wake up from the indoctrination theory and then the real battle begins where we begin the final push for better or for worse.

i really want a final climatic boss battle with harbinger (one that if we fail shepard actually dies properly).
if squadmates are killed do it on screen so that we feel bad, (like the deleted scene of garrus and liara getting lasered).

ditch godchild or at least turn it utilise it in a way that doesnt riddle us with plotholes.

we also need a proper epilogue when its all over. showing how our chioces played out, who survived, who has died etc.

at minimum we need at least 5 diverse endings (thats at minimum) ideally id like to see the 16 diverse endins you supposedly promised us.

more voice acting is also essential. obviously it would take time to get the actors in ad get it done but as long as we know somethings in the works people would be more willing to wait.

it should be free DLC, if you charged for it a lot of people will be extremely miffed.

one last thing. replace the ending song with M4 pt II which would remove any bad taste left over in peoples minds.

just please fix the ending and give your game the ending it deserves.

after all is said and done fix the ending and i can then proudly put it at the top of my best games ever list, which right now is held by none other than Mass Effect 2.

i really hope you are listening bioware, dont let us down.

[christrek1982]

oh ps we may only be a few or mabe it's just not "cool" to whant are shaphers to live or at least have the chance the choice.

[spiriticon]

I would really like a "developer's commentary" video on the ending, if BioWare decide not to change it.

I want to know, scene by scene, what the scriptwriters were trying to convey because it wasn't very clear in game.

[Ares91]

I don't have a problem with the ending of ME3 per say. Me sacrificing myself *Or not if you destroy* is fine with me. My problem is in the ending cut scene it made no sense to me and to many others apparently.

Give us an ending that shows what happened do to our actions you dont have to show every little detail but letting us know if our crew survived what happened to our love interest if we had one, show the galaxy recovering and that it hasn't been blown up do to the Mass Effect Relays blowing up.

However if you guys do decided to go with the indoctrinated theory or a similar one where you are still alive then do all of the above only not in a cut scene let us the player see/experence the result of our choices.
Also if your alive at the end then let us do something with our love interest. my LI was Miranda and I felt kinda left out when all I got was a kiss and my friends who went with Ashley got to do the final mission with her and have a "love scene."

Last thing I do love 99% of ME3 I think the ending just fell flat compared to the rest of the game.

[pho3nlxl]

..

Modifié par pho3nlxl, 21 mars 2012 - 05:57 .