One of the other problems resulting from how condensed ME3 is is that a lot of elements just happen; specifically the Crucible just comes out of nowhere, and right at the start. I don't mind the idea of using the Citadel as a weapon against the Reapers, but doing so apparently by accident feels very cheap.
Anyway, if I were to have structured ME3, I would have done so as follows:
Mass Effect 3: Invasion
Opening
Reapers arrive on Earth with Shepard barely escaping on the Normandy. Passing by Mars Liara is rescued from Cerberus, and reveals new Prothean data concerning the Citadel, which has been under heavy scrutiny ever since Saren's attack, also recover's EDI's new body.
Shepard travels to the Citadel to rally support to reclaim Earth but finds the other council races in similar disarray, with the Turian military struggling to function with the attack on Palaven progressing quickly.
Shepard travels to Palaven to rescue the Turian Primarch and recovers Garus at the same time, if he survived that far.
Gathering Support
The bulk of the game's first half is gathering support on the Citadel, and with missions to Palaven, and a (currently safe) Thessia. In order to help the Turians Shepard must pursue the genophage cure and recover Krogan clans from Tuchanka. Shepard recovers either Grunt or Wrex if either survived this far.
At the same time, resources are being accumulated to aid with science teams on the Citadel, including putting skilled refugees to work searching for the secrets of the Citadel. Includes some side-missions for Shepard to investigate some of the hidden locations on the Citadel, working to open up a section of the station that no-one has been able to (or needed to) access before.
Attack on the Citadel
Cerberus forces attack and capture the Citadel and manage to move it before a fleet can be gathered to retake it. The Asari councillor reveals the presence of a beacon on Thessia that may hold additional clues to the Citadel, and which Cerberus may also be looking for.
Completing missions on Thessia reveals new leads on Cerberus, which ultimately lead to Horizon and Cerberus' indoctrination experiments. Shepard follows the trail to the Illusive Man's flagship, and learns the location of the Citadel. Jacob or Miranda is added to the party (if either survived this far).
The finale of the game is an attack on the relocated Citadel, retaking it from Cerberus who have unwittingly led the Reapers to the station. In the sealed, Reaper-tech riddled, depths of the station Shepard confronts the Illusive Man who wants to control the Reapers. After defeating him, Shepard, his team and the surviving project scientists reveal the systems in the Citadel that allow for control of the Mass Relay network, and shut-down the relays, effectively using the Reaper's own tactics against them by isolating them while the council races remain able to move unimpeded.
The stage is set for the combined fleets to retake Earth.
Omega DLC
At any point during the game (including afterwards) Shepard can accept Aria's offer of support in exchange for retaking Omega. This would reveal some of the technology that Cerberus was able to recover from the Collectors, differing depending upon whether the Collector base was destroyed or not. Either way they will have pulled a large piece of the Collector base through the Omega-4 relay for study.
Mass Effect 3: Retaliation
After initially using the relays to destroy Reapers (hurling them into stars/black-holes) the council forces are slowly isolating and destroying Reapers in their space and retaking worlds and systems. The forces from Omega have joined with or without Shepard's help (though with greater losses if Shepard didn't help them retake Omega).
The Battle for Earth
The entire first half of the game would be devoted to retaking Earth once the other council races have rallied their fleets to help, with multiple missions across the globe to undermine and defeat major Reaper forces and arm the resistance fighters to finally take the fight to the Reapers on a large scale. Culminating in a showdown with Harbinger that breaks the back of the Reaper invasion.
The Quarian/Geth War
The second half is largely focused on the war between the Quarians and the Geth, but with more missions and more interplay with the guilt of the Quarians about what they did to the Geth, and what it cost them. End result is either a Geth force bolstered by safe Reaper tech, at the cost of most of the Quarian fleet (and their loyalty), a strengthened Quarian force with the ability to interfere with Reaper tech, but at the cost of the entire Geth race, or weakened forces from both sides with possible peace and cooperation (depending upon past choices). Either Tali or Legion are added to the party (if either survived this far).
Final Push
As the various allied fleets prepare to launch a campaign to wipe out the remaining Reapers, the fleet is ambushed by a force of Reapers, having taken control of several Mass Relays that were believed to be non-functional. The finale is of the Normandy crashing on a nearby world after barely making a jump from the staging point, meanwhile the allied fleet is crippled as it attempts to flee.
Leviathan DLC
This DLC changes the end of the game, revealing that the planet on which Normandy crashes is Despoina. However, by playing the earlier missions in the game the Normandy will instead travel to Despoina on purpose, ahead of the allied fleet's counter-offensive.
By uncovering Leviathan, Shepard learns more about what drives the Reapers. As the allied forces are ambushed, Leviathan explains that the Reaper counter-attack was inevitable, and merely one of the many contingencies that were planned for. It reveals that the Reapers' purpose is to curb the chaos of organics, and that they cannot be stopped so long as the Catalyst continues to drive them, as their numbers are far larger than the invading force.
Citadel DLC
This DLC would make most sense before the end of this segment, but after Earth has been rescued (can also be done after the Quarian arc), as the Reapers are on the defensive and most of the fleets are enjoying some brief shore leave as battle plans are drawn up and forces organised for the final offensive.
Mass Effect 3: Revelations (I suck with names btw)
Regardless of whether the player played the Leviathan DLC Shepard and the team are seen finding a Prothean ruin left by a team that also managed to uncover Leviathan in the previous cycle, but were stranded on the world with no way to use what they had learned. What they did uncover from Leviathan themselves however was a means to reliably weaponise the Mass Relays as a potential means for later races to fight the Reapers, as well as how to reach the Catalyst.
Survivors
The Citadel has been relocated to the centre of the efforts to once again defend against a full scale Reaper invasion. For the first half of the game the player will use it as a hub for missions to rally defensive efforts, even though it all seems in vain, while also gathering new expertise for weaponising the Mass Relays.
The Omega-4 Relay
Efforts to use the relays as a weapon have pointed to only one logical location to try this last-ditch effort; Omega. As the only relay able to send ships into the galactic core it is the most powerful relay that the allied forces can control. Shepard must lead a team to capture a large section of the Collector base that was moved through the relay and into the Omega system by Cerberus for study, however it is overrun with a chaotic mix of surviving Cerberus troops and failed experiments.
After successfully weaponising the relay the tide is turned, marginally, in the favour of the council races once more as they bombard the Reapers over huge distances using the Omega-4 relay.
The Catalyst
Knowing that the weapon won't hold the Reapers for long the allied forces rally at the Citadel to take the only chance they have left; evacuate the Citadel and use its relay to travel into deep space to reach the Catalyst, which is beyond the edges of the galaxies at the Reaper staging point where they have waited for millennia between each cycle.
Not knowing what they will find, a large fleet is sent through with the Normandy to find the destination infested with Reapers that have not yet joined the invasion. The Catalyst itself is a large, incomplete sphere formed of large Reaper tech pieces around a spinning Mass Effect core, which has clearly been constructed from sacrificed Reapers in order to create a mass relay for the Reapers to re-enter the galaxy in spite of all efforts to stop them.
With the fleet acting as a distraction, the Normandy lands on the Catalyst so that Shepard's team, and various other teams from other factions, can try to find their way into the core. Inside is a dreadnought sized Reaper. Confronting it the team are told that this Reaper is the first of its kind, formed from the harvested memories and experiences of its entire race and masterminded by Leviathan (if you met it). It was created to bring balance to the galaxy as organic life grew beyond control, resulting in dark energy proliferation that threatened the galaxy itself while synthetics warred against organics, only causing the problem to worsen. The imminent disaster became too great, and rebel synthetics and organics came to an extreme solution; they developed a mechanism to harvest both organic and synthetic life into a single Reaper, preserving a legacy of themselves as this Reaper proceeded to indoctrinate and harvest all sentient life in the galaxy.Alone, it began preparations for the next cycle, repairing the Mass Relays, preparing the Citadel and adding new Reapers with each cycle.
It is clear however that the Catalyst is in total control of the Reapers, who are as indoctrinated as their own victims. However, with every cycle each new Reaper brings them all a little closer to a true solution to the dark energy problem through its accumulated knowledge. It is also clear that the Catalyst sees the struggle between synthetics and organics as endemic to the problem, and that Reapers are necessary to prevent this struggle and to ultimately save the galaxy. The human Reaper in the Collector base was in fact an attempt by Harbinger to delay the current cycle by creating a Reaper with, what Harbinger believed, was a better than average chance of solving the galactic dark energy problem. But by destroying this Reaper Shepard actually forced the cycle to continue as before.
Shepard is faced with an impossible choice; allow the Reapers to win, and in so doing create new Reapers that may someday save the galaxy, attempt to replace the Catalyst and use the Reapers' knowledge to devise a solution for the current cycle, or destroy the Reapers and hope that the council races are able to find a solution on their own where the first cycle could not. If the Geth and Quarians are reconciled it is also possible to convince the Catalyst that it is wrong, and that synthetics and organics can work together, providing the same ending with Reaper help but with the Catalyst's invaluable experience of the first cycle. Accumulated progress through the games will determine the success of each solution, and whether Shepard survives. For example, destroying the Reapers can work if the Catalyst is used to destroy them but with enough of it remaining to salvage.
Conclusion
I know it's really just an academic exercise, as the chances of ME3 being changed to fix the weak overall storyline and terrible ending is non-existent, but this is just something that I think would have tied together more elements of the series, and given a more satisfying ending.
It's still somewhat arbitrary, as the first Reaper was clearly created in desperation to apply its warped logic to countless exterminated races. Though to a nation of disembodied synthetic and organic minds born from an horrific harvesting process it was probably quite reasonable.
Modifié par Haravikk, 09 mars 2013 - 03:31 .
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