Just gave it a whirl.
The first line, "You cannot stop us," my brain instantly parsed as a ME2 quote taken out of context because it's repeated over and over. I would think a better line could be used as the first - when I watched AVPen's video, I was was blown away and got chills. With this, I wasn't really into the moment as much because the illusion is shattered more easily. There's also a sound cut at the end of "You can't stop us" that makes it feel less integrated into the music.
That, and honestly, "You cannot stop us" on paper is a good line, but it isn't as menacing or hateful as it needs to be. He says it like "today is monday." Again a line like, "Shepard. You have become an annoyance" is strong because it acknowledges then trivalizes Shepard's efforts in the eyes of the Reapers, which he follows with awesome power as he blows up everything with his eye beams. "You cannot stop us" is like, one of his more bland "NUH-UH YOU LOSE" lines he tosses out often. The annoyance line is also a good personal insult - you feel like, "Ah. Damn." You went through all this effort, got 5000 EMS, united the galaxy...and Harbinger still laughs at you.
If it's technically possible, I think Harbinger could use some more filtration/volume amplification to make him a bit "larger." His words don't really have the same level of cutting fear that AVPen's video gave him.
The gunship sound during the beam - the first half is like, it sounds like Latin and I can't even understand it, "so" something. "Can't even comprehend" can be made out though. The fact it is so quiet is out of place with the moment, I think - having it would be fine if it was a random character, who's taunts got kind of cut over the sound of his own huge explosions, but it feels random for Harbinger to go *BOOOOM* then *squeak*.It also sounds like there's a 2nd line in there that I can't even make out.
At the hope is irrelevant, there's the noticeable "audio" sound cut there too. And again, I just kind of feel it's an impersonal line and it doesn't have any kind of major impact. It also isn't the best line ever uttered by Harbinger as a stand alone - you can tell it's supposed to be one in a series of impersonal taunts.
And it's kind of a weird selection: of all the mean things to say, why is hope irrelevant? This is happening as he's getting blasted by a giant Reaper - hope is irrelevant feels more personal when waves of Collectors are possessed over and over and we're searching for a way to stop the Reapers. This is happening rapidly and fast and there's extreme danger - hope is irrelevant seems a bit deattached to the scary circumstance Shepard is in. Feels a bit out of place as a taunt in what is functionally the "Shepard vs Harbinger" scene. If he said something like, "Now you stand alone Shepard," that would probably feel more intimidating as more and more people are blown to death and his squad flew away.
It's just my opinion, but even when your squadmates were there in ME2, Harbinger really seemed to dislike you personally. A lot - he's always addressing Shepard, you. The final beam confrontation should be really personal as it's really our final moment with the jackass. The video's lines currently make him feel more deattached from the moment, where Harbinger was more of a personal antagonist for Shepard compared to say, the more reserved Sovereign. But then you have YOU HAVE FAILED which flows well with the beam, is a personal insult, and is just delivered in such a hate dripping way. I think that expresses what I love about the concept in AVPen's video that's kind of lacking in the first two lines.
"You have failed" is a PERFECT line there. Even though it is an old line from the end of ME2, it works great here. Just perfect. It expressed the personal hate needed for Shepard that demeans him in that Reaper-condescending way,
I like the idea of the final line, but it seems a bit too clear given the context of the whole "hazy white noise" segment. It booms over the audio in the right way though, that's pretty much what Harbinger should sound like at all times. It makes sense as to why he would say it, I'm not sure how I feel about it in game. It's a bit odd hearing Harbinger essentially think out loud instead of mind possessing things to communicate to his own soldiers. I think I'd prefer him just flying away (a powerful statement in of itself) and the final line is overkill.
I know that's a lot of "complaining," but that said - what you've managed to put into the game is pretty cool and if you made no changes, I'd still like the scene much better than with no Harbinger. It's also very technically impressive and it blows my mind you were even able to do it. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, you've managed to implement this in a way that just really boggles my mind - I expected a ending mod to come out, maybe in the next _five_ years. I said a lot of nice things about AVPen's video, but that was done outside of the game with editing - you actually put it into the game, which is a "bit" harder. : V
EDIT: Random question, might be a dumb one because I don't understand totally how you edit the game: with the gunship piggyback taunt, is the issue having to have both the gunship sound there and the taunt? That scene is so busy and loud that if a gunship had it's sound completely replaced with a Harbinger quote once, it wouldn't do any narrative damage or hurt the moment in anyway. That's probably not relevant but I just thought I'd throw it out there just in case.
Modifié par PKchu, 22 novembre 2012 - 04:03 .
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. For now, as you said, these ideas are beyond our capabilities. However, hopefully that won't be the case for much longer. That said, I personally do not plan to stick to ME3 modding for that long. As it is, I am hardly doing anything else in my free time et the moment and once MEHEM is in shape, I do not really plan to expand the project to a great extend, at least not as intensively as I am working on it now. However, I do hope that seeing what is possible will get enough people interested to carry the torch and continue this or other projects.
