75 réponses à ce sujet

[PwrdOff]

The idea of dream sequences is sound, but the execution was a bit cliche.  What would have been cool is if the dreams had played out like actual missions, where all the variables are completely screwed up and random "glitches" happens but everybody, including you, acts as if this is perfectly normal and as it should be.  So you would be taking dead squadmates on missions, having flashbacks or flash forwards to missions where the details are all wrong, and of course forgetting what happened after you wake up.  Maybe there could also be an ongoing thread as to whether the war is just taking its toll or if the Reapers are somehow responsible.

[Drone223]

Dreams were a nice idea, but the execution needed to be handle better.

[Killdren88]

Replace starbrat with freinds and loved ones. Would have added a larger impact.

[Oni Changas]

The ability to skip them would have been good. Alternatively, I'd have Earth be much longer. You'd start there soon after James and Anderson bring Shepard into custody. During the period before trial, you get to walk around a hub area where you meet the kid. You get to know him as an orphan (Earthborns get more dialog) and he follows you around and before Shepard goes into house arrest,, he gives the kid a ship model that is later seen when James escorts him to Anderson and the Alliance committee. Rather than repeated nightmares chasing only the kid, you see your dead comrades and NPCs who've died because of the reapers (such as Jenkins and Lilith). Hits harder and is much more personal.

[Revan299s]

The ability to skip them would have been good. Alternatively, I'd have Earth be much longer. You'd start there soon after James and Anderson bring Shepard into custody. During the period before trial, you get to walk around a hub area where you meet the kid. You get to know him as an orphan (Earthborns get more dialog) and he follows you around and before Shepard goes into house arrest,, he gives the kid a ship model that is later seen when James escorts him to Anderson and the Alliance committee. Rather than repeated nightmares chasing only the kid, you see your dead comrades and NPCs who've died because of the reapers (such as Jenkins and Lilith). Hits harder and is much more personal.

Hmm. that kind of intro would of atleast had a bigger impact with the dreams.

[L. Han]

I hate to ram this on BioWare. But I really felt like the idea of the protagonist being worn down by mental conditions (like PTSD/Shell Shock or depression/stress) seem to be inspired by games like Spec Ops: The Line, which by the way, executed far better and had much more impact BECAUSE the game is built around that idea and Mass Effect isn't. 

 

I guess I didn't like it much because it didn't seem to have much impact and weight. Or any relevance for that matter, with the exception of a few dialog between Shepard and Liara (which I also found rather dull).

 

Relevance in the sense that there are more indications that Shepard is suffering from nightmares, not just in a few cutscenes/sections coupled with a couple of dialog. Shepard should be hallucinating at times, seeing illusions, hearing voices, etc. These are just basic things that could add a whole new layer of depth.

[Nitrocuban]

The dreams have not much connection to the rest of the game, no final conclusion, no "now it all makes sense" moment.

ME1 was full of wtf-moments and 99% of the players expected something even bigger for ME3 with the dreams leading to and foreshadowing the ending - and all we got was starbrat

[voteDC]

Well, you know, they kind of lose their purpose when you can just do the following...

 

 

 

You can just stand there and you'll automatically go to the kid?

I know what I'll be doing in future play throughs.

[Farangbaa]

Something like this. Have Shepard dream of friends/loved ones getting killed by the Reapers.

 

This is exactly what happens, lmao. With the addition of chasing a kid.

 

Do you play with your sound off or something?

[Iakus]

This is exactly what happens, lmao. With the addition of chasing a kid.

 

Do you play with your sound off or something?

 

Pretty sure the intention is instead of the kid.  Not in addition to the kid

 

Edit:  Just want to reiterate my thought that the Prothean Beacon had plenty of Nightmare Fuel for any Shepard to have bad dreams

[Chashan]

You can just stand there and you'll automatically go to the kid?

I know what I'll be doing in future play throughs.

 

Only the final dream before Chronos where you can do that, would be my guess. Other dreams do appear to be triggered by Shepards' proximity to the kid, although I have not tested this.

 

Even so, given the rather central position Chronos takes it is quite...embarassing, yeah.

[voteDC]

I'm about to start a new run through Mass Effect 3, so will try it out and report back.

[The Sarendoctrinator]

^ I'd like to know how that works out. It would be an interesting way of roleplaying in the dreams if possible, to have some Shepards chase after the kid and others ignore him until the end scene. 

[themikefest]

Not sure if anyone has done this before, but when I see the child in the dream I run in the opposite direction and after a few steps Shepard automatically is turned around like he/she hit a wall back towards where the child is.

[PCThug]

The problem is, we're never given much reason to care about this one kid. I guess they tried to imply that Shepard regularly watched him from their window. Which, fine. People do get attached to people and things in their environment that they don't directly interact with. But the player never sees this or has it explained. I like the idea mentioned previously, of seeing Shepard interact with the kid and maybe mention their own background. But since we don't see any previous interaction it doesn't really make sense to me why this one kid is apart of their recurring dreams.

 

Seeing fallen squadmates and reliving past events would've packed way more of an emotional punch. I think a lot of the ideas listed in this thread would've been more engaging than what was in the game.

 

I actually didn't mind the slow motion running. It felt like a real dream where you're willing yourself to move quickly but instead end up being painfully slow. Just wish it wasn't the kid we were chasing after.

[The Sarendoctrinator]

Not sure if anyone has done this before, but when I see the child in the dream I run in the opposite direction and after a few steps Shepard automatically is turned around like he/she hit a wall back towards where the child is.

 

This happened to my Shepard by accident when I lost track of the kid. 

[voteDC]

Well tried it on the first dream and waited for about five minutes and nothing happened. I had to give chase manually. 

[Chashan]

Well tried it on the first dream and waited for about five minutes and nothing happened. I had to give chase manually. 

 

Not really surprising. :/

 

I imagine one could theoretically try and have a look at the dreams' sequences and try to copy the final dream's timer to earlier dreams. I am not proficient with sequence-editor, however. This thread here may give a rough idea of the basics.

[Han Shot First]

Unlike so many on the BSN, I've always enjoyed the dreams and thought them entirely appropriate for Shepard to experience. In my opinion, it would have been unrealistic for any Shepard--of any origin and no matter how "renegade"--to be psychologically unaffected by the events she's experienced over the course of the trilogy.  And the atmosphere of the dreams themselves was absolutely beautiful.

 

I agree that having Shepard experience PTSD in some form was a good idea, though perhaps it could have been executed better.

[Mordokai]

Drop the kid(I never felt any attachement to him and if they were hoping for me to feel sorry for him because of the whole innocent child vibe, well, they were sorely mistaken), have Shepard interact with the dead she left behind. First dream, Ashley or Kaidan, depending on which died on Virmire. Second one,  a member who died on suicide mission. Now, I realize this would actually require a certain death on SM, which can't be guaranteed. Alternatively, invent a NPC relevant to Shepard, based on her backstory. Sole survivors could have Toombs. War heroes, Haliat, or random soldier they were close with before they died on Elysium. Relentless... I actually feel Balak would be good choice, especially after the Alpha relay incident. No matter how renegade, you must feel some regret for killing so many. Third dream, watch your LI die... not even needed for Reapers to kill them. Just imply that them being close to Shepard is enough for it.

 

Make the scenes more interactive, with dialogue choices. Make me care for this, show me my mind is crumbling. Right now, when I chasing the kid, I'm asking myself... why I am doing this? What is the point? Where can I get out? And it kinda kills the mood. And the supposedly horrified reaction on Shepard's face when she sees herself and the kid burning doesn't quite work as well.

[Karlone123]

I found the whole premise of wandering through the woods, chasing a child who repeatedly set on fire at the end of each dream sequenxe to be very confusing. We all have our own ideas on what we would have liked to see in the dream, mine being vivid dreams of Reapers demoralising Shepard reflecting on past events and characters instead of trying to make Shepard have a connection with a child we don't really want anything to do with.

[Lucky Thirteen]

I had actually thought prior to ME3's release, that it would be cool if Shepard would have some kind of set of flashbacks of her history based on the player choices. In particular, I imagined playable levels based on the psychological profiles.

 

War hero would relive Elysium

Ruthless would relive Torfan.

Sole Survivor would relive Akuze.

 

War hero would have the option to make a renegade choice over the paragon one made.

Ruthless would have the option to make a paragon choice over the renegade one made.

Sole survivor would have no options because there were no choices to be made in that one but to survive or die.

 

In a way, it would provide some player directed character development for Shepard, questioning past choices and experiences.

 

When I initially played ME3 and the first dream popped up, for the first two seconds I thought they were doing exactly that. And now I really wish they had done exactly that.

 

edit: actually, Sole Survivor would have choices, plow through and save herself or attempt to save others, resulting in renegade or paragon points, but ultimately the ending is the same because everyone dies. So questioning the paragon, was it worth bothering at all and questioning the renegade, could she have been able to save anyone if she tried.

[The Sarendoctrinator]

^ That's a really great idea, giving Shepard the chance to do things differently or show that they wouldn't change anything about their past. Now I wish they had done that too. 

 

 

Well tried it on the first dream and waited for about five minutes and nothing happened. I had to give chase manually. 

Thanks for the info. Too bad it didn't work though. 

[Wires_From_The_Wall]

I'd prefer there were no dreams and bioware stayed out of my character's head.

 

Everything your character ever says is written and performed by BW writers/actors. Point of entire series is to take distance to abstract video game narrative and flirt with approach to dialogue you'd see on TV show.   I understand and partially agree with your seemingly extreme "My char is mine own!!"stance here..but boy did you pick a wrong franchise, haha.

 

It is a rare thing to be able to control what you dream of IRL. Not sure expecting you get to do so in video game is all that..reasonable.

[Lucky Thirteen]

Everything your character ever says is written and performed by BW writers/actors. Point of entire series is to take distance to abstract video game narrative and flirt with approach to dialogue you'd see on TV show.   I understand and partially agree with your seemingly extreme "My char is mine own!!"stance here..but boy did you pick a wrong franchise, haha.

 

It is a rare thing to be able to control what you dream of IRL. Not sure expecting you get to do so in video game is all that..reasonable.

 

I'm going to get off topic for a minute, but this series took a drastic turn from what it originally started as. The first game, Shepard literally can't say a word without player control. The third game went to the complete other extreme and I frankly don't understand why they even bothered giving the player any choice at all in the end if they wanted to make the dialogue that much like a movie/tv show. It's that bare boned and drastically different compared to the previous two games. Personally, I prefer the balance of the second game when it came to the dialogue and wished they had kept that.

 

Shepard started as a typical RPG character and ended as a restricted character more typical of other game series that certainly was not what was presented in Mass Effect 1 or 2. If that was the type of dialogue and choice system Bioware had always intended for the entire series, they sure did waste a lot of hours and money on the first two games for truly wanting something so simplistic and streamlined.

 

Back on topic, with the dreams, the control of Shepard during the dream sequences should be purely for entertainment purposes and should have reflected what the previous games had established with controlling Shepard.

 

The current dream sequences are limited, boring, and felt completely irrelevant to the average player until the last ten minutes of the game when it's revealed it actually did mean something all along. It was ultimately a pointless attempt at being artistic and symbolic in an extremely mundane way. It was not vital to the game's story, hardly improved on Shepard's character, and was something that should have been cut. Unless someone could have come up with something much more interesting for the player to play through.