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[F4H bandicoot]

Choices

Choices, that was what sold me on the original Mass Effect. The idea that I could decide the fate of my character, the people my character worked with, and the galaxy, was a large step away from the linear FPS's and driving games I owned at the time. It was an awesome and intriguing idea, and it had be interested the moment I heard about it. To emphasis how the choices we made would shape the story we were shown a trailer just about the choice mechanic, where Shephard had to make a decision regarding whether to go to Noveria, or Caleston. It was never fully realised in the full game, but the concept and idea were there, and with the promise that all my big choices, such as the fate of the Rachni, or whether or not I chose to sace the Council, would carry over to the next game, was enough to make me ponder decisions large and small, a first for me in gaming. Every choice had the potential to change future events in my mind, and even though I knew most wouldn't, it didn't stop me doing numerous playthroughs with radically different choices so that I might see the differing outcomes in both Mass Effect 1 and the as then unreleased future games.

Even with the release of Mass Effect 2, and the revaltion that my choices hadn't made all that much difference on the story, I was content with the idea that my big chocies would come into play in the final installment, that the Rachni would save the day, or my human council would sacrifice the other species to save humanity. There were nods to my choices, therachni contact on Illium, reminded me that although they were absent from the 2nd game, they had not ben forgotten.
There were new choices too, when to go to the derelict reaper, which squadmates to assign to which task, and the ultimate decision of what to do with the Collector Base. Although in hindsight these are relatively easy decisions to make, in that first playthrough, everything was thought through, calculated and only then was the choice made, My choices would matter in the grand finale remember.

Then, with the release of ME3, it unfortunately seemed that my main choices had been largely forgotten and done over with. Kill the Rachni?? Still Exist. Destroy Maelons data?? Genophage still curable. Destroy the base?? Still exists!!
For all the effort that had gone into all my playthroughs, I can play a remarkably similar story every time. Even my choice of counciller is overrided with no real in game explanation. For a series based around the idea of choices, and how those choices would shape the future. I was disappointed in what seemed to be a game that had taken my choices, and largely thrown them out of the window, then replaced them with it's own version of events.

The Problem

The two main issues with presenting us with choices that then impact both the current game and the future games are that two people can have completey different choices, and therefore need different things within each game to satisfy the choices they made, and two, that the people who pick up later games, who have not imported, do not get all the main options we do in the same context. It's easy to save the Base in Genesis, but without seeing The Illusive Man, and trying to work out his personality and intentions, you can't make an educated choide based on a few lines of text.

The first problem, that of different choices providing different experiences, is probably the biggest reason why Bioware went the way they did with ME3. Take the Rachni, personally I save the Rachni Queen as I trusted that she would keep away from the current races, but also that she would be a vital factor come the eventual war with the Reapers. I had this belief at the time that in future games the Rachni would play a vital role in story missions, and that my experience would be different to someone who did not save the Rachni. It turns out that no matter what, the Rachni are present, yes there's a difference with the eventual outcome if you save the fake Queen, but all in all, my decision to save the Rachni amounts to nothing in the end. They don't feature in any more story missions as allies, and they don't feature in the ending either. This is probably due to resources and time, afterall they can't make two games in one can they?? This happens time and time again. The Collector base decision is almost worthless, as is the appointment of counciller at the end of ME1. The decisions that should mean the most mean the little.

The second part of the problem is that new players to the series cannot be expected to make educated decisons based on lines of text and nothing else. You need more information. My first Collector Base decision was based on numerous things that I doubt can be found in the Genesis comics. This means that the choices need to have a similar outcome, this is why we see no maor differences in sequences where characters could be dead. If Thane's dead then someone stands in, same with Mordin. There's little effect on the outcome even if there should be. Again though, extra resources and time invested into what was probably already a very large project meant that this had to be the way they did things.

The fact that the series was a trilogy, and that there was probably millions of combinations of characters that could be dead, or choices that were made also presents a problem. If two players have polar opposite decisions and characters alive then two totally different games would need to be made, alongside new players to the series not having acess to every choice ever made and not having neccessary context to make important decisions means that Bioware was forced to negate our chocies into something that the player could relate too, but was ver similar to someone who had made opposite chocies.

A single game

In my opinion, a single game that was not designed to be part of a series, could fix a number of these problems. There would be no new player issue, no negating of choices to make sure the story goes the same way for every player, and with no choices having to be carried forward, characters could easily be killed, endings could be made wildy different and lots of decisions could be made to count. If certain characters are killed in ME2, there is very little impact on the storys they would have played a part of in 3.
A game with no sequel in mind could have characters being killed left, right and centre, and decisions being vital to the overall game. With no future games in mind, numerous endings could be made that centre around our decisions. Everything could be made important, which order you do missions for example, do x number of missions before mission y or even that doing one missions means you cannot do the other and with that there's a greater chance of a death or failiure to recruit a certain character. (due to mission time allowance or more enemies getting there the more missions you do)
I realise that this likely sounds a bit rusty and that's mainly because I can't think up any choices other than character deaths...
However I think that my point still stands, a single game means that BW could take more liberties with the story and characters, things like having to pick equally important missions over one another, (Such as the ME1 trailer suggested), all members of the crew able to die depending on your actions and treatment of them throughout the game. With no reason to carry decisions forward from BW perspective there's no need to have to keep characters alive or make the choices we make through the game mean nothing in the end. This would mean that each decision would actually have the potential to effect something else, that doing things one way could have an effect on the story in a way that was never possible with the ME trilogy. It'd be a game where choice truly mattered.

I still think Bioware bit off more than they could chew with the countless choice that could be made across all 3 games, and then trying to form these into a game that worked for all the choices everybody could have possibly made. A single game could fix that, and give us choices that have a serious effect on the game and it's ending, rather than having to substitue in new characters, keep certain characters from death or making almost every possibilty avliable regardless of previous choices.