These are problems that every layman can see, which only makes matters worse.
I'm a staunch believer in the fact that the Mass Effect trilogy suffers from both a great blessing and a major curse. The blessing comes in the form of a stellar writing team creating great characters. What kept us in this galaxy wasn't the Reapers, it were the people inhabiting it. While everyone has their own favourite characters I will always see the ME trilogy as synonymous with Zaeed, Legion and Wrex. These have become some of my favourite sci-fi characters ever and I will remember them even when I'm old and shaky and can barely hold a controller anymore.
On the other hand, there's something that the ME trilogy has never been capable of doing well, and this is its curse, namely the main story. For some reason the writers have always left good opportunities pass them by in favour of more contrived solutions, and I never really understood why. In ME1 I always had problems with the Conduit plot because it seemed like Saren was putting in a lot of work to get what he already had: access to the Citadel. In ME2 I never understood what the Collectors were doing with the human Reaper if the main fleet was already approaching the galaxy anyway, and I understood it even less when the events of Arrival invalidated the urgency of both ME1 and ME2. Then ME3 came, and well... let's not walk the beaten path.
So I've taken it upon myself to rewrite the trilogy to be internally consistent and provide a logical sequence of events. I understand that I can't possibly gain anything out of doing this other than personal closure, but I have to do it anyway. I'll be most grateful to whoever reads this, and feedback would be very welcome. Cheers.
I present to you:
Mass Effect: Reboot.
The first installment of the trilogy begins with the discovery of a prothean beacon on Eden Prime. Communication with the colony has been lost, and Shepard is being sent there in the company of Nihlus, a turian Spectre who wishes to see if Shepard has what it takes to become the first human Spectre. Once the Normandy approaches Eden Prime, it rapidly becomes clear that this is going to be no routine mission.
The introduction act to ME1 plays out as ME1 did, for the most part. We meet Ashley, establish the characters of Anderson, Kaidan and Shepard, and establish Saren as the villain with the Geth as his lackeys. This is clear and obvious. We also get our first signs of Sovereign.
Shepard interacts with the Prothean beacon and so receives his vision of the Reapers. Saren is prevented from blowing up the colony, but manages to escape and sets out to do whatever evil thing he's going to do. This information then gets taken to the Citadel, where the Council is hesitant to believe Shepard and instead blames him for the death of Nihlus.
We scavenge the Citadel looking for evidence, establishing the Citadel's importance to galactic society. We eventually find Tali, who has a recording proving that Saren is on the hunt for something called the Conduit and that this quest brought him to Eden Prime.
Saren's guilt is proven and so is Shepard's innocence, and the Council requests that Saren be tracked down and stopped from doing evil things with his army of Geth. They don't believe in the Reapers, but they do believe that Saren is a menace, and so the game begins.
Shepard is given command of the Normandy, and three main questions:
Therum -> Mars
1) The Mars Archives are the most important source of Prothean information, and one Dr. Liara T'soni is a prothean expert and archeologist who is familiar with the language. She has last been spotted on a planet called Therum, and it's Shepard's job to find her and bring her to the Mars Archives so that she can excavate them for proof of the Reapers' existence.
Noveria
2) Matriarch Benezia's working with Saren and is on Noveria finding something. Nobody knows what, go find out.
Feros
3) The Geth have landed on Feros, a formerly prothean planet, and are causing havoc. Find out what's going on.
Noveria and Feros play out as in the old game, but Liara never becomes a teammate due to her importance on Mars. Instead we get another biotic in the form of Shiala, whom we recruit from Feros after rescuing her from the Thorian.
Liara's Mars research leads her to the discovery of two things: The Crucible, a weapon designed to interact with the Citadel and specifically made to destroy Reapers. This evidence convinces the Council that the Reapers may have been what wiped the Protheans out. The second thing she discovers is that the CItadel is missing an item called the Conduit, which appears to be what Saren is after.
On Noveria and Feros, Shepard discovers that the Conduit is located beyond the Mu Relay, but its location has been lost. The Council says that a Salarian STG team may have uncovered clues about the Mu Relay on Virmire, a planet that's been revealed as the base of operations for Saren. On Virmire Shepard discovers that Saren's trying to get another army in the form of the Krogan by curing the genophage, but is also studying the effects of indoctrination.
Once Shepard gets to Virmire however, another faction is encountered. Cerberus is raiding the compound for reasons unknown, and Shepard + Kirrahe's STG team try to sneak their way in while the Geth and Cerberus troopers duke it out. Once inside, Shepard discovers the following:
- Cerberus wants Saren's data on the effects of indoctrination.
- Saren's flagship Sovereign is an actual Reaper
- The Mu Relay is located in region XYZ and Saren is already there.
Shepard contacts the Council and tells them to place fleets around the Citadel, as Saren may already be in possession of the Conduit, and Sovereign is an actual Reaper quite capable of trashing Citadel defenses. Navies from around the galaxy are called in to protect the Citadel, and Shepard hightails it to Ilos.
On Ilos Shepard meets Vigil, who reveals to Shepard two things:
- The Citadel is the hub of the relay network and linchpin in the Reapers' plans, and the Protheans sabotaged its relay functionality by removing the Conduit, which is like the Citadel's central processor. By replicating its technology they have created a Mass Relay of their own which leads directly to the Citadel, which they would've used to kickstart a new prothean empire with but due to the deactivation of lifepods on Ilos this plan never came about.
- The Conduit is also the very item that the Crucible would interact with, since the Crucible is designed to use the Citadel as a signal amplifier to send damaging energy through the relay system. Without the Conduit, the Citadel will never amplify anything for the Crucible and the weapon will be useless. It must be integrated back into the Citadel, but doing so will also make it possible for the Reapers to execute their main invasion plan, thus making it a double-edged sword.
Shepard races to the Citadel through the mass relay on Ilos, through which Saren has also taken his Geth, thus attacking the Citadel's forces in the rear. Since all navies were focused on guarding the relay through which Sovereign would've appeared, the Citadel got taken with impunity and Saren is already hard at work installing the Conduit back into the Citadel's hardware.
A final battle between Shepard and Saren ensues as Sovereign battles the Citadel fleets with his Geth. Their preparation proves too strong for Sovereign however, and he must keep his distance, but once Saren finishes installing the Conduit, Sovereign sends the activation signal that he would've sent if the Citadel had never been sabotaged in the first place. The Relay opens, and another Reaper enters the galaxy. Then another. And another. Slowly but surely the Citadel's fleets get overwhelmed and the battle grows more desperate with every passing minute.
Shepard removes the Conduit just in time, and the united might of the galaxy cleans up what remains of the Reapers, coming in at a tally of five dead Sovereign class Reapers. It is important that this happens because it proves that individual Reapers can be beaten conventionally, and that the main thing that makes the Reapers so dangerous are their numbers.
With the Reaper threat confirmed and the galaxy now aware of the stakes, the Crucible's construction commences while the Reapers get to work on their manual return from dark space.
ME2 and ME3 following soon.
Modifié par Eain, 05 mai 2012 - 02:36 .
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