663 réponses à ce sujet

[Southerndoom]

Nope.

[DrSpoonbender]

I envisioned “Take Back Earth” as a culmination of all of Shepard’s actions throughout the entire series. During the marketing campaign “Take Earth Back” in videos was accompanied by very distinct imagery of Shepard acting in tandem with a larger army during this final confrontation.

I was disappointed (not upset) that the combat mission on the Earth was not of the scope nor size that I had anticipated. We spent the majority of our time during combat isolated in our standard three man squad, I was hoping for something grander as part of this final push. To me this sense of grandeur was only met during the scene of Shepard insertion on the Earth’s surface and the final race to the beam.

*This final piece is me just blithely dreaming
I was also hoping we would actively utilize our war assets as part of the final mission. This deployment would be similar to the ME2 suicide mission. You would assign/recommend troops and a leader for various missions that would occur across the battlefield. I would want at least one mission that is a feint and it is clearly understood the troops are unlikely to survive. This would also have an impact on the final stand of the various intergalactic species at the end of the game.


If we saved the Earth, I was just hoping for something climactic.

Modifié par DrSpoonbender, 17 avril 2012 - 07:18 .

[Mriswith911]

With regards to the ending and the war assets you've been gathering I think certain things would have been cool.  Here are my thoughts.

1) Multiple missions that may or may not have revolved around war assets would've been cool and was definitely a missed opportunity.  For example, depending on the resolution from the Geth/Quarian conflict, why not have a mission where you have to use tech to shut down a Reaper harvesting hub?  Maybe it's the hub that controls communications between hubs across the planet.  The Geth do some sort of "ghost in the machine" infiltration that make it so Shepard doesn't have to hack a bunch of doors and removes some husks if they're available.  The Quarians use their tech knowhow to make the final shut down easier.  Either way you still finish the mission but the war assets assist you on the way.  Translate this to multiple, shorter plot missions required before the final push.  It was weird having multiple Rannoch and Tuchanka options but zero options on Earth.  If anything I would've expected MORE options for Earth.

1a) The push to the beam in London would make way more sense if you'd already been disrupting Reaper control of Earth elsewhere.  A single, targeted strike on the Reaper stronghold makes zero sense if the Reapers control the rest of the planet.  That would be like the Allies in WWII deciding to just air drop all forces into Germany rather than pushing inland from the beach.  So yea, having a single mission from a single landing on Earth was pretty lame.

2) Once you're in London the war asset assistance could continue.  For example, you run into a wall of Banshees and have a enough time to think "Oh crap!" when suddenly Jack and her students rip into them and open the way.  Some of these things would happen every time, some would happen depending on how you've handled your assets.  Some would make fights easier while some could just be seen in the distance.  Just looking off into the distance and seeing Elcor tromping along with rocket launchers on their backs shooting at groups of husks wouldn't change the game but it sure would've been cool and made me feel like I didn't waste my time saving the Elcor.    Every decision about war assets would'nt have to have a huge impact (that would be an insane nightmare for a game developer) but little neat things would have at least made some of the more mundane things you did "worth it."

3) 16 different endings would be nice, but ignoring all the other gripes, it would've been nice to see war assets play in to the ends a little bit more than they did.  At the very least, a few divergent endings would've been cool.  Maybe a Paragon ending with high war assets would see the quote unquote perfect ending ala ME2 when you manage to save everyone.  Maybe different assets would throw a wrench into this ending and you lose a lot of people and/or Shepard has to die.  Maybe a Renegade would have Shepard mercilessly destroy the Catalyst AI and the Reapers, collateral damage be darned.  Maybe the worst Renegade Shepard would have him being pragmatic enough to accept the "Reaper solution" and allow it to continue.

Sorry, had to throw in a little about the endings. To get back on track and answer the TC, no, I don't feel like I saved Earth. If I had saved Earth then I'm sure Joker would've been happy to land on Earth instead of running away or whatever he was doing. If I had saved Earth then why would the final visual of the game be a grandpa on a completely different world talking to his grandkid? It really seems the "Take Back Earth" was just a tag line to appeal to me on a human level in real life but really didn't matter much in the sense of the game.

Not only do I not feel like I took back Earth, I don't really even know what I did. The ending sequence to me was "Shepard made a decision from his three options and stuff happened. The End." That might be a little disingenuous to the developers but it's how I feel.

Modifié par Mriswith911, 17 avril 2012 - 07:18 .

[Lakeshow1986]

Nope.

I was left confused then disappointed.

[shadowreflexion]

 Iv'e been thinking, my other replies were centered on the most obvious of reasons about why Earth felt unimportant to me. I think that throughout the series, I felt like I was under pressure to fight for the weak. During all the fighting and rallying, the end never came back in full circle. We started in space and then went to Eden Prime where I lost Jenkins. We continued that fight across a galaxy in trouble. We met some interesting people who offered what little they could in ways of verbal support. We saved colonies, took losses but they were saved. We did whatever it took to insure that those who could be saved were saved and those who oppressed others were stopped.

We did so much to make sure that later on when "WE" needed help, the galaxy would be more than willing to help simply because we inspired a whole galaxy. That name "Shepard" has more value than credits. So, we finally do what we can and the signs of being exhausted are starting to show. But yet we perservere. We land, in our minds we're thinking, "This is it!" Your squad has found you to be not just an inspiration of why they must fight despite the enemy being superior, they find that because of your idea and actions, they have to hold themselvess to a higher standard.

We're finally back on ground and we fight to get to the FOB. Once there, we say our goodbyes when it should have been we need to hit the enemy at A,B, and C. But instead, we go to secure the missles to take down one Reaper. For a world in trouble, there would have been Reapers everywhere defending their ground, not just with pawns but also with knights, rooks, kings, and the queens. Strategy should have been present. Like, we could take the easy way and secure the missles but lose a ground team or we could have saved a ground team and then lose the missles which would have made us take the choice of engaging the Reaper up close and personal.

The way I fought for Rannoch, I might as well have been a Quarian myself. The way Tuchanka felt personal, Shep should have been a Krogan. When I fought on Earth, I felt alienated from my own damn planet. I didn't feel human, I didn't have the same concept of confidence that I exuded for others. I didn't even have any ideas about giving orders to the ground or fleet for assistance. Joker came through for me at the Citadel, during the Collector base, and Joker would have risked court martial and left the fleet to hit whatever target I asked him to. That's just the way his character was written. I just can't understand all of the "Priority" missions when Earth itself didn't feel as though it was classified as one. How can I rally the Quarians from the ground? How can I damn near break down because of Thessia? How can I be hurt when Mordin dies on Tuchanka? How can I not show any emotion when it's my own world burning? 

[Colancio]

Take earth back ? I was on earth 10 min, then I took a beam in the face, go through the other beam, talked to a nonsense child and then died on space. I think I didn't take it back.

Modifié par Colancio, 17 avril 2012 - 07:21 .

[Arppis]

Yeah, Reapers died and people cheered. I did just that.

[alterIncogn1T0]

No, I did not take back Earth. In fact, when I chose the destruction ending, I incinerated Earth with extreme prejudice.

[Jackal7713]

Lakeshow1986 wrote...

Nope.

I was left confused then disappointed.

THIS

[awwnuts07]

ArchedAlbatross wrote...

 So I have been brooding on the ending just as much as anyone else and have been trying to summarize why I feel complete dissappointment in the way the game ended. Then it hit me in the face. The tag line that was thrown around like crazy leading up to the launch of the game "Take Earth Back." I bought the game because I loved the first two and wanted to conclude one of the most epic journey's in video game history by taking back Earth and ridding the ME galaxy of the Reaper threat. So here I am, finished with the game, with no desire to play through ME3 again (which was one of the greatest selling points of the previous two games) and all because I feel like I failed to do the one thing that the game promised I would do. 

No amount of "clarification" will fix this, not unless it includes me waking up from my laser induced coma and kicking multiple baddies in the face (preferrably Suicide mission style). 

Addendum: List your #1 reason why in as few words as possible. 

I'm with you. On my first playthrough, I was caught up in the moment, but on the second and third playthroughs, I came to realize how boring the final mission was. Whenever I replay the previous games, I look forward to playing that final mission (especially ME2), but in ME3, I feel like I'm slogging through.

[WillamMT]

Nope

[Delta_V2]

Priority: Earth was simply outdone by Tuchanka and Rannoch. Both of those missions really felt like you were fighting for the future of entire species. Earth just felt...small. It was basically one battle in one city. Not to mention it failed to live up to the standards set by the Suicide Mission. THAT is how you end a game. Sure, Space Terminator was stupid, but the rest of the mission was just so epic. When you beat it, you really feel like you accomplished something. Earth, and the trip up to the Citadel, lack that sense of accomplishment.

[Snowyscar]

Allan Schumacher wrote...

I'm not proposing it as an either/or.  I'm just trying to make sense out of this idea of "Do you feel like you took back Earth?"

For example, you say that seeing the scenes of Drell, Krogan, etc. doing awesome things would help you feel like you are taking back Earth.  My question for you is: Would the feeling of taking back Earth felt significantly different if the kickass scenes you would have liked to have seen with the various races still existed but just with humans.

i.e. Is the lack of feeling of taking back Earth more due to a general lack of content (show the fight), or more due to the lack of seeing the combined forces.

The main critisism from the Retake Movement, is simply, that choice and consequences was promised, but very few options were given. I'd say that if we could actually see our gathered alliances and war assets actually DO stuff, rather than just be numbers on a screen. If we were simply given more scenes with random humans, fighting off reapers, it would not carry the same emotional weight such as if we'd see (as mentioned earlier) Wrex riding in on the big dinosaur-mounts (which was a side-quest to get for the Krogans), that'd actually would give a sense of completion.

The lesson to learn, is that if only more cutscenes are to be added in the Extended Cut, then, please, do so with CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES in mind, show our war assets doing battle with the reaper forces! And, if we didn't gain those assets, show the reprecussions of those battles.

[hippanda]

Allan Schumacher wrote...

ahandsomeshark wrote...

Allan Schumacher wrote...

Stuff like that would have been cool for sure, but would it have really helped contribute to the idea of taking back Earth if you saw that sort of stuff as ancillary content that was built around what is already there (i.e. not additional missions).

Fans would have enjoyed it for sure, but I'm not sure it would have contributed much to the question of "Do you feel like you took back Earth?"

I'm sort of confused by this statement, as in I'm not sure if you're proposing it as an either or (i.e seeing grunt riding on a dinosaur wouldn't have really contributed to feeling more like you took back earth). But assuming you are I'd disagree, because part of the how the game was set up was completing these missions in order to help facilitate the taking back of earth, so seeing direct consequences of my mission competiton (or not seeing them) would directly relate to how much I felt like I/my shepard contributed to taking back earth. Otherwise it raises the question of what does any of the ally gathering and former squad mate helping have to do with taking back earth. Would earth have been any less taken back had I just skipped all those side missions and played multiplayer for a few days? 

Especially if the assets had been specifically deployed, like instead of having to fight out one area with your crew, grunt rides in on a dinosaur and takes them all out. Or you see content of these assets possibly deployed in other areas of earth. (Drell forces infiltrating reaper strong holds in some desert, Krogan and the dinosaurs in the mountain areas of middle east/asia fighting off reapers.. Salarians STG forces in some jungle area. etc). That would have definitely contributed to taking back EARTH.

I'm not proposing it as an either/or.  I'm just trying to make sense out of this idea of "Do you feel like you took back Earth?"

For example, you say that seeing the scenes of Drell, Krogan, etc. doing awesome things would help you feel like you are taking back Earth.  My question for you is: Would the feeling of taking back Earth felt significantly different if the kickass scenes you would have liked to have seen with the various races still existed but just with humans.

i.e. Is the lack of feeling of taking back Earth more due to a general lack of content (show the fight), or more due to the lack of seeing the combined forces.

Well, the TLDR for my post is: Ideally said scenes wouldn't play out the same if it was "just with humans."

More thoughts (war asset concerns expanded upon near the middle/bottom of the post):

"Priority: Earth" didn't live up to expectations for me for multiple reasons.

First, the exposition for the final chapter wasn't executed properly. In ME1, launching the Ilos mission as a point of no return made sense. In ME2, launching the suicide mission as a point of no return made sense. In both of those cases, there follows a logical sequence of events that requires Shepard's full attention.

In ME3, launching the assault against Cerberus headquarters as a point of no return does not make sense. The events that follow said assault are illogical. They go beyond merely not making sense on their own, and actively force the player to question bits of information that previously made sense but no longer do in light of new "information."

Why are the combined forces of the galaxy comitted to hit Earth after taking care of Cerberus? Because the Illusive Man warned the Reapers about the Crucible, so the Reapers took control of the Citadel and moved it to Earth (how convenient!) But wait a minute - if the Illusive Man is indoctrinated, why did he have to warn the Reapers about anything? Wouldn't they already know? Furthermore, are we really supposed to believe that this is the first time the Reapers have heard about the Crucible? They have indoctrinated spies everywhere, and the project isn't exactly "hush-hush" (it's supposed to be, but it's obviously not in practice, seeing as Shepard overhears no less than 20-30 conversations about the Crucible while he's casually strolling around the Citadel).

Why did the Reapers wait this long before attempting to reclaim the Citadel? Even ignoring the Crucible's existence, the Citadel is still a crucial component of the Reapers' plan of attack (through it, they have control of the entire mass relay network (or do they? see next question). If Udina was indoctrinated, then at least you can make an argument that they've already attempted to take control of it / soften up the resistance at one point in the story, but the player is never given a definitive answer on whether Udina was acting out of his own self interest or if he was a servant of the Reapers (speculation from everyone!).

After taking control of the Citadel, why didn't the Reapers shut down the relay network? According to the informal Weekes "interview," the Keepers stopped them. What? How? We know the Prothean scientists from Ilos altered the Keepers so they wouldn't respond to some of the Reapers' signals, but at no point have we ever been led to believe they would actively fight the Reapers' efforts. Sovereign seemed to be doing pretty well for himself before we temporarily took control of the Citadel in ME1 (in the time that Sovereign had been doing his thing, he had already successfully shut down the relays in the immediate vicinity of the Citadel).

( ==> War Asset Discussion Starting <=== )

More importantly than any of the above, all of this happens off-screen. Why is that important? Because it completely invalidated the player's efforts in building the Citadel Defense Force (CDF), giving the player the distinct impression that all of the work they put into getting them ready for the coming battle was ultimately worthless. Yeah, obviously the CDF isn't going to be able to hold off a Reaper invasion on their own, but they could have at least given us a cutscene showing them evacuating people off of the station as the enemy advanced (with the overall success of the evacuation depending on the strength of the CDF).

The absence of our war assets being represented in the game also contributes to the feeling that the player ultimately wasn't important in "taking back Earth." Those Generic Alliance Marines (GAMs) will always be there. Whether I worked hard and collected every war asset in the game or merely patted myself on the back for at least showing up with my shoes tied doesn't matter. As a result, constantly pushing said GAMs in the face of the player gives us a sense that we didn't really bring anything to the table. The mission always plays out exactly the same.

At the end of the day, that's why most people liked Tuchanka and Ranonch, but not Earth (or Thessia, to a lesser extent) - the Earth mission is short, one-dimensional, and your decisions don't have any meaningful impact on its outcome. Given the marketing campaign, Earth should have been broken up into more missions with meaningful objectives (you know, other than just "fight through the horde" and "survive the horde"), and previous decisions should have come into play.

The sub-missions should have been separated by brief, "modular" cutscenes that showed your war assets and ME2 squad mates in action. As an example, perhaps they could show a cutscene of some GAMs trying to evacuate a refugee shelter. Did you save Jack and assign her students to a support role? Show them erecting barriers to protect the retreat. Did you acquire the volus bombing fleet? Show them annihilating an enemy entrenchment. Did you save the Rachni? Show their shock troops halting the advance of the enemy (etc.) Didn't do much or any of the above? Show the GAMs and the refugees being slaughtered.

You don't even need to show all of the war assets in cut-scenes. You know the Forward Operating Base (FOB) that Shepard navigates through, sporadically talking to ME3 crewmates and at one point talking to ME2 crewmates through the comm. officer? That area is mostly filled with meaningless doodads, GAMs, and empty space. There only seems to be one area that is meaningfully affected by player choice, and that's the Krogan or Salarian representative (Wrex/Wreave or Kirrahe) addressing his troops. 

First of all, why are those events even mutually exclusive? I cured the genophage, saved Wrex AND saved Kirrahe. Why not give each one their own designated spot to give their respective speeches, so those who saved both can see both? This area should be filled to the brink with examples of the various war assets the player collected over the course of the game. I want to see Rachni. I want to see Aria's Mercs. I want to see Batarians. I want to see Elcor "living tanks." I want to see Asari Commandos (etc.). Alternatively, if I didn't bother to collect a significant amount of war assets, then I want to see the place empty like it currently is (maybe even emptier).

In addition to the above, we should also see scripted events during the missions themselves that can play out differently depending on whether or not the player acquired certain "key" assets (perhaps depending on the survival of some of the ME2 squadmates).

The "sword" fleet should be better represented, too. Right now there's kind of an "all available units break off and delay Harbinger" thing going on, and whether the player has enough assets to activate that scene or not determines if the player's squad mates brought to the charge to the beam live or die. That's it. It isn't even clear in the game itself that that's what's going on. As far as the player is concerned, sometimes he sees his squad mates dead on the ground and sometimes they're *magically* gone, with the post-game cinematic implying that they somehow teleported to the Normandy. It shouldn't be difficult to do just about anything to this sequence of events and improve upon it.

Modifié par hippanda, 17 avril 2012 - 10:03 .

[DLClol]

No.

I became some Deus Ex Machina's b1tch though.

y...y..yes sir m...m..mister cataylst.

Modifié par DLClol, 17 avril 2012 - 09:58 .

[bowery tuff]

I'm going to have to agree with a lot of people here in that I was way more emotionally invested in the Rannoch and Tuchanka missions. When the fleet actually shows up in Sol and you see the shots of Alliance, Turian, Asari and Quarian ships I was like, "Ah snap! It's on!" But by the time I reached the beam and realized I was nearly at the end I guess I just felt kind of disappointed.

I mean Rannoch and Tuchanka had multiple missions to build up to an epic finale. Off the top of my head, Tuchanka had the beautiful battle where the Primarch's son sacrifices himself and then you get to the end where you see a thresher maw show a Reaper there are badder things in the galaxy and finally the touching sacrifice of Mordin. And don't even get me started on the scene where Eve gives the stirring speech to the Krogan and asks for support only to have Shepard step up and lend his/her support. Those few lines of dialogue may be my favorite scene in the entire game.

Then you get to Rannoch and you make your way through a Geth dreadnaught following a space battle, rescue the one Quarian admiral who can help you bring peace and then find out the truth behind the origin of the Geth/Quarian conflict. Oh and then Shepard takes on a Reaper on foot like it ain't no thang. Plus, romancing Tali made that scene even better.

But were those missions supposed to be the hilight of the game? The tagline was Take Back Earth, not Rannoch or Tuchanka. Ever since Mass Effect 1 ended, I thought about how cool it would be to have a scene where in a big battle with the Reapers, everyone starts freaking out because the Rachni have just showed up. And then ... HOLY ****! They're attacking the Reapers! Ever since I knew Earth would be the goal, I pictured this scene where Alliance forces are trying to protect civilians and are getting overwhelmed. Just as a cannibal or marauder (not Shields ) is about to bear down on people, a charging Krogan smacks it out of the way, leading to a whole platoon of angry Krogan charging in. Salarian snipers start picking off Reaper forces from rooftops, Asari commandos mow them down with biotics, Turian soldiers use well planned attacks with superior firepower and so on. Then the Alliance forces find new vigor and fight alongside their alien allies, a culmination of one of the main things you've been fighting for from the beginning; galactic unity. Oh well, hopefully something like that can still happen.

[Darth Spike]

Not at all. I felt like i was right there about to save the entire galaxy. Then BW came in and said 'nope, you fail. We are destroying the mass relays and dooming everyone. have a nice day and give us more money so you can continue to play our game with a crapy ending.'

[Zix13]

Allan Schumacher wrote...

I know there are some that found Priority: Earth to just kind of fall flat anyways. Trying your best, do people feel that they didn't take Earth back because of the bleakness of the ending and the sequence with the Catalyst, or because you were underwhelmed by the mission.

*snip*

I have to say some of both, the Priority Earth Mission was of far worse quality than the rest of the game had me expecting. Wasn't really any climatic feel to any of it past the opening cinematic, which was frustrating in itself since it didn't reflect what allies you had gathered. The FOB was the only part of the mission that had some "Mass Effect level" writing. However, the reason I didn't feel any satisfaction at the end, was, as I said before, that you basically destroy everything Shepard acheived as well as everything that made the Mass Effect universe compelling by finishing the game. The galactic community, the mass relays, the alliances...... gone. Hardly victorious and uplifting. I would find fighting the reapers to the last to be a greater victory. At least the races would die united fighting a common enemy than fighting each other for food and resources. 

Also, I didn't give a damn about Earth. I'd much rather... you know, win. 

Modifié par Zix13, 17 avril 2012 - 10:34 .

[Mooner911]

I played all 3 endings and none 'saved' Earth. In fact I destroyed the entire galaxy each time. Not in the 'un-make' sense, but in the sense that the galaxy that proceeded from my action bore no similarity to the galaxy that preceded it.

[Waldschatten]

Nope, didn't feel like I took anything back, though I wished I could return the disc after earth.

[ananna21]

Not in the slightest.

[Virginian]

Do humanity and their allies take Earth back? Were the protheans a nice bunch of people who didn't enslave sentient species? The answer to both is the same.

The leader of the Reapers gave us three choices about how to deal with the Reapers, only thing we did was do what the leader of the Reapers wanted. We became the next Reapers. We are indoctrinated.

Aftre the cutscene with the stupid kid and the adult telling said stupid kid a war story with some porn mixed in I was still waiting for the real ending level where I actually did something.

Modifié par Virginian, 17 avril 2012 - 10:38 .

[Sesshomaru47]

Sure I did, then they all starved.

[zarnk567]

Sesshomaru47 wrote...

Sure I did, then they all starved.