noxsachi wrote...
The talk about the ending seems to be dominating the discussion here, and rightly so, for its many flaws, but I would like to give some feedback about what I felt were some of the most jarring sequences in the game, why they fell flat, and possible ways they could have gone better. Now the dreams especially are seminal to the indoctrination theory, but I will be talking about them as presented, ie. that ventkid was just a kid and the nightmares are simply nightmares.
One of the great things about Bioware games is that the protagonist is a blank slate shaped by you as a player, and Commander Shepard is no exception. In the first two games you get to control how Shepard reacts to things, you choose their backstory, you choose everything essential to Shepard as a character. However in ME3 the game breaks this, by dictating how Shepard feels in a manner that is alienating to the player. Both the ventkid and Thessia's loss are shown in game to be devastating to Shepard, while before the player choose how something impacted the character. These losses could of course be devastating, but the presentation robs them of any force they could have had.
The ventkid is especially egregious because of how heavy handed the scene is with the emotional manipulation. The slow motion, the sad music, the fact that it is a little kid, all telegraph that the scene may as well have been a placard that flashes "BE EMOTIONAL". To me this sequence became laughable because of how blatant they were being. How does a character introduced five seconds before, whom you have no connection with, actually serve to disturb either Shepard(who has faced far more disturbing deaths, no matter the background) or the player? If you wanted that scene to actually be emotional, kill Anderson. I would venture that most players like him, Shepard certainly does, and if you killed him it would impact both Shep and the player.
Thessia is more of a case where you lose via cutscene magic, so the loss does not actually feel devastating. In the fight the cutscene only triggers when you reduce Kai Leng to a certain percentage...which in video game terms means you won! How am I supposed to be upset about that? If you want me to lose...actually make me lose. Have Kai Leng show up with four gunships, instantly kill your squadmates, get you in that little melee battle sequence, then they blow up the temple. It is as cutsceney...but something like that would convey the fact that you actually lost.
Lastly the nightmare sequences are both desperate attempts to move you emotionally and horrible gameplay segments. They are a huge pain to get through and they do little to nothing to the player. Shepard having nightmares is a good conceit given what is going on, but the opportunity to do anything interesting with them is lost. If you want to have a nightmare, actually make it disturbing. Referance Shepard's backstory, what you saw in the beacon, or at the Collector base. Or hell, have a new sequence where you think you are awake, only things go horribly wrong and you wake up and it is a nightmare. Have us have to do something disturbing, like see our LI get huskified and we have to kill them. Something like that would impact both Shepard and the player, while running slowly after a stupid annoying kid just wastes your time.
Basically the point of this long discussion is that Shepard has been connected to the player, but in all of these circumstances the game says that something affects Shepard without it impacting the player at all. This is utterly against the point of a blank character like Shepard because you as a player are supposed to react as Shepard would, something the series had accomplished very well til this point.
QfT, everything you say matches up with my thoughts on big parts of the game, but you were able to put it down in a much more eloquent way. Personally, I didn't give a s**t about that kid, in fact my first thought was "Hah, that's what you get from not coming with me you stupid kid." If they wanted to have this kid die in the beginning of the game, but wanted you to actually care about him, they actually had to attempt something here. It could have been interesting if before the trial you met up with the kid and talked to him for awhile. Then when you see him in the vent, he comes with you but still tragically dies (perhaps in one of the current events where the floor comes crashing down, there's a paragon prompt to grab his hand, but he still slips out of your grip and falls to his death). I still wouldn't have cared about him as much as Mordin or Thane (I was a bit of a cry baby during those scenes), but at least Bioware would have attempted to create some real emotion in the player linking to emotion Shepard is supposed to feel. Really the only reason they had to not do something like this, was if the Indoctrination Theory is true and the boy couldn't interact with anyone, therefore he couldn't come with Shepard as Anderson would have said something about him.
With the dreams, as a player I found them to be annoying and stupid, oh you want me to run in slowmotion in a linear line until I trigger something that will allow me to wake up. Yay that sound so fun! (say this sarcastically in your mind when you read it) As a Mass Effect fan I found these scenes goofy, why is he having these recurring dreams? (I also had a wierd moment when in one of the dreams the dissembodied voice of Thane called my male shepard Siha) The dreams would have been much more interesting if they were actually scary or horrible. For example, a scene where you're fighting an unstoppable series of Reaper ground forces. You watch your whole team being killed, and then if you succeed in killing off a certain amount of the enemy, a Reaper comes down and burns you to a crisp with its laser. Again, to me the dreams only work (even though they still suck as gameplay) if the Indoctrination Theory is true.
Modifié par BigZ7337, 01 avril 2012 - 07:03 .
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