The Priority Earth mission is just bad. Everything but the good bye scenes are utterly terrible. The level design, the lack of objectives, no sense of scale, presentation, bad AI and other issues plague this section of the game. It's the only section I had zero fun playing. It's too late and too costly to fix all that. With a decent ending, I could forgive this terrible mission because there is some kind of pay off due at the end. Everyone makes mistakes, and again I could forgive this if everything else were handled right. Too late to add a boss fight as well. Alright, I can accept that. I hate it, I think most people find it totally disappointing that we can't kick Harbinger in the daddy bags, but whatever.
So here is what EA/BioWare can do. It shouldn't take their cinematic team no more than two or three weeks to do this.
Let the **** sandwich endings play out as normal. At the end of all that, but not necessarily the credits, they need to add a scene in which the screen fades to black after the normal ending plays, but before the credits. Your squad mates or love interest's voice all of the sudden says: "Shepard..........Shepard....WAKE UP." or something like that. You can be all jacked up, they can get you medigel or whatever, and haul you out of there. A little com traffic telling Hackett or someone you will regroup at xx location is all that's needed. You can probably find what you need already recorded for this. Even if you don't, minimal dialog is all that's needed. If your EMS was too low, an alternate scene in which Shepard is clearly dead could be used. If it's slightly higher but not great, simply have the same scene, but leave it with your last two squad members dead and regular Alliance marines tending to Shepard, or better some of those ME2 characters that were relegated to cameo roles previously.
Have Shepard taken to a field hospital and end the game with the credits, perhaps after Shepard says something, or not, or doctors do. You can even leave Shepard's ultimate fate variable based on your choices. Essentially with dialog BioWare can confirm the ending was a dream. They do not have to call it indoctrination. The game was already set up for this in a way with the existing dream sequences. What's one more? As abstract as much of the ending is, it feels like a real dream rather than the cliche' "slow motion running through the woods." Which never made sense to be because our dreams usually reflect the world we know, and a wooded area makes little sense for Shepard. But the fight with the Reapers isn't done yet. I'll get to why in a minute.
Roll the credits, have your stupid Stargazer scene, and even your insulting "Buy DLC" message. Now, is this the best solution? I think it's the best they can do with what they've got. It's also the cheapest way out for them. But what it really does is it buys time to go back to the drawing board and get a do over with the ending. That second chance is something few fans would be willing to give a game designer. They should embrace it, not let their vanity blind them to the possibilities. They can either release a large DLC like Lair of the Shadow Broker to finally conclude the game or better yet, bridge the gap to Mass Effect 4.
Why would we want that? Well we don't. Truth be told we didn't want this, it's not what we were promised and it sure as hell isn't satisfying in the way we would have wanted initially. The sad part is this type of ending would probably make many people feel a lot better. But what we wanted a real, satisfying and potentially happy ending and an ending in which we felt some sense of accomplishment, a personalized experience, and one in which our choices mattered. This type of ending is a compromise. It tells BioWare they've got more time to get things right. It basically gets us what we want. While this isn't a satisfying conclusion in itself, it does remove concerns about the state of the galaxy going forward by resolving all the plot holes we encountered originally.
It accomplishes several things and resolves a lot of issues.
- Minimal effort on BioWare's part to implement.
- Very low production cost. This should please both BioWare and EA on that front.
- It unifies the ending for a sequel and or DLC content.
- It solves the problem of creating sequels by removing the one road block preventing sequels which is the synthesis ending.
- Eliminates the plot holes by making them just part of a nonsensical dream.
- Eliminates the Starchild, or at least the implications of it which create plot holes and incongruity with the series. It minimizes it's importance. That's always a win.
- BioWare doesn't have to admit they were wrong creatively.
- BioWare can say they preserved their artistic vision and claim they meant to do this all along.
- BioWare can call it a dream and don't have to use the term "indoctrination theory."
- BioWare can even call us idiots who just didn't get it the first time.
- This ending would provide new context and provide clarity. Which makes their previous statements absolutely true.
- Electronic Arts wins big time because it means the franchise and series can continue FORWARD.
- Previously planned or cut content which may have been reserved for DLC's can be held back for ME4. Thus again reducing the work load on BioWare to do it.
- People who do not want the ending changed can simply avoid downloading it. They can choose for their Shepard's story to end right then and there.
The best part about it is that it gives us hope for a real resolution some day. It allows BioWare and EA to make more money, we get another game (we just have to hope that it's a good game) but BioWare can take the lesson's learned here and apply them to their next installment. That last part requires them getting over themselves and recognizing that they went wrong. But it still doesn't force them to admit it. I'd also point out that while this fix is cheap in a monetary sense and cheap even from a story perspective, it should work. Is it as good as an ending done right the first time would have been? No. I wouldn't want to argue that point. And for those who'd whine about a lack of closure, yeah it wouldn't provide closure, but rather open a door that was slammed in our faces. Many games, TV shows and movies end on a cliff hanger and while Mass Effect has never done that, it does solve certain problems and while it wouldn't please everyone, I think most people may see this as a middle ground we can live with.
Now this doesn't mean that BioWare is free and clear. I think a real ending DLC or a discount on ME4 is absolutely needed to appologize to the fan base they bent over who bought ME3. This would also be for NOTHING if future DLC and future games had the same terrible writing and low quality found in ME3's final act. So it's a chance for BioWare to recover from this and get back on track, not a license to continue the way they have been. I'll admit the one thing it doesn't fix is really creating an ending by itself in which your choices make a lot of difference beyond what I stated earlier. However, your choices can and should matter going into future DLC or ME4.
Modifié par Dead_Meat357, 19 avril 2012 - 06:22 .
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