164 réponses à ce sujet

[Quarian Master Race]

And that. Shepard's behavior in that scene should have been part of the dialogue wheel rather than a fixed cutscene thing.

 

Given the option, my Shepard would've been a pretty big jerk to the asari councilor, and wouldn't apologize for jack.

My thoughts exactly. Shepard is railroaded into blaming themself  when the result (and the entire Reaper war in general) is completely the fault of the Asari government breaking their own laws about sharing Prothean technlogy. Then there is the disastrously stupid exchange with Joker. Easily the worst part of the game as far as player choice is concerned.

[AresKeith]

And that. Shepard's behavior in that scene should have been part of the dialogue wheel rather than a fixed cutscene thing.

 

Given the option, my Shepard would've been a pretty big jerk to the asari councilor, and wouldn't apologize for jack.

 

Would've been better if they had more missions around Thessia for a better build up along with better dialogue 

[RatThing]

Should I really be happy about the news? I'm not really sure how to evaluate his writing. The Genophage arc had its moments but also had everything I thought was wrong with the writing of ME3. The resolution of the genophage was absolutely unsatisfying. The formerly morally grey issue became black and white. All the reasons for the genophage were ignored or downplayed (at least with Wrex). Some previously established things have been turned completely upside down. Wrex and Kirrahe didn`t resemble their ME1 counterparts at all. Krogan women were not passive at all in the past, they had an active part in the rebellion as well (see Krogan warlord Shiagur). Not to mention that it is a cheap cop out to set the hope on the females (refusing to bear children? seriously?).

The roleplay experience was also completely unsatisfying. I wish I could give one example where I thought I had control over my character. Doombrows writing is not an example. In my first playthrough I wanted to cure the Genophage, but before that I wanted to confront the Krogan just like I could confront the Salarians multiple times. I wanted to confront him about the Rebellion, about their own guilt for their situation (which they definitely have), get it all out of my system and see what he'd have to say about this. Not a chance. This does not fit in the agenda. So frustrated about this I ended up sabotaging (relodaded and reverted the decision later though). This is a roleplay game, so the character you're playing should be the most important one. Yet for a long time Shepard looks like a supporting actor here who let other people take the lead for him. At least you should be able to voice an opinion, one that is not predefined. The few times you could actually do that, all you got were some uninspired one-liners ("The Krogans weren't ready for a cure    bläh :P").  

 

That all being said, I'll keep an open mind about Doombrow. He is also responsible for writing Javik, not only my favourite character, but also the only anti-synthetic who's not a strawman, which is a nice change from the fairy tale villains you usually got. He also wrote some of the best lines. As for the genophage arc, something tells me Weekes had a lot of influence on this, and Doombrow as a relatively new writer followed the senior's lead. This godawful scene with the Dalatrass definitely looks like Weekes' work (and this guy though... please tell me he won't return). Doombrow doesn't seem to be a bad writer per se, but he better realizes that he's writing for a role play game.       

 

 

Didn't he have a lot to do with the Leviathan DLC as well? I thought that was one of the best DLCs Bioware had done.

 

Edit: Is that true? I always thought this was mostly Walters` work, because it supports his ending. Anyways, if it is true I'm a little more hopeful. Leviathan DLC was awesome except, yet again, no satisfying roleplay experience. I hardly remember how Overlord was.

[KaiserShep]

Edit: Is that true? I always thought this was mostly Walters` work, because it supports his ending. Anyways, if it is true I'm a little more hopeful. Leviathan DLC was awesome except, yet again, no satisfying roleplay experience. I hardly remember how Overlord was.

 

Well, the ending can't reasonably be rewritten, so it's only fitting that the DLC follows along with the narrative. It was kind of interesting how you could take the expedient path to finding the exact location of the Leviathan at the cost of Anne Bryson's well being, though it just seems to be one of those mean choices that only serve for negligible benefit. As for Overlord, I thought it was satisfying to see David at Grissom after choosing to save him, and of course pistol whipping fool NPC's I don't like is always satisfying.

 

Ironically, as much as people badmouth Omega for being all combat and little else, there was quite a lot of things you could do to shape your Shepard and by extension Aria.

[Vazgen]

I don't think that writing for Thessia mission sucks. Forced emotion comes after the mission, are you certain it's his doing?

Thessia suffers gameplay-wise. It is the first combat encounter with Kai Leng where you don't even have to move to kick his ass. It lacks enemies in general, it seems that all the enemies from the level are condensed in that one encounter right before the temple entrance. Some parts of it lack music, which makes those encounters underwhelming. 

But writing-wise, temple conversations, Lieutenant Kurin, Javik's comments (you can get a first glimpse of his past during the Renegade conversation on the shuttle)... Priority: Thessia shows Asari people from a different side - fierce, loyal fighters who will give their lives for their homeworld. 

I like that mission. It's not my most favorite of ME3 (this has to be Grissom Academy which he had wrote the first draft of) but it's quite high in my list. 

[themikefest]

 Priority: Thessia shows Asari people from a different side - fierce, loyal fighters who will give their lives for their homeworld. 

 

They sure aren't team players. Remember Shepard using the turret, or not, to stop the uglies? What were the asari doing? They were standing around doing a whole lot of nothing while Lt. Kurin is yelling and telling  Shepard what to do

[Vazgen]

They sure aren't team players. Remember Shepard using the turret, or not, to stop the uglies? What were the asari doing? They were standing around doing a whole lot of nothing while Lt. Kurin is yelling and telling  Shepard what to do

Your squadmates are not doing anything either. Video

Like I said, the mission suffers gameplay-wise. I would've added a Harvester or two in the starting section and have Asari and squadmates fire at husks and Brutes. 

[themikefest]

Your squadmates are not doing anything either. Video

Like I said, the mission suffers gameplay-wise. I would've added a Harvester or two in the starting section and have Asari and squadmates fire at husks and Brutes. 

Yep. Makes you wonder why Shepard needs squadmates. I mean what good is having squadmates if they don't do anything. If only this game offered Shepard to solo the game by herself

[Dunmer of Redoran]

So the guy was a major player with Overlord, Leviathan and Citadel, and wrote Garrus and Javik, two of the best characters in ME3?

 

Even if you leave out the non-DLC missions which he wrote, that's an impressive résumé.

 

 

That's excellent news. I didn't even know he was gone but it'll do the series a lot of good to have someone like that on hand.

[Han Shot First]

On Leviathan...

 

Dombrow's linkedIn has him listed as a supervising writer for the DLC.

[CaIIisto]

Interest level and expectations massively boosted by this news!

[Dunmer of Redoran]

I liked Garrus more in ME2. It was Walters writing then. He was a good friend, but I think they played up the best pal thing a bit much here. And if they have a "word budget", I would've preferred it being spread to extra companions or at least extra dialogue in their missions (Grunt, Miranda, Jack, etc). I know he's super popular, and they do it for all the fans, but I'd prefer Garrus' "BFF" status being my choice too. It's the same problem with how Liara turned out. 

 

And the only people who will argue with me about this are the ones who like viewing Mass Effect as having a "canon" in some way. Something I never encountered before ME3. The more cinematic they get, the more they dillute player agency. Which is why people complain about the post-Thessia stuff too. It's all about pushing the cinematic angle. It has upsides, of course.. but there are moments where it rubs me the wrong way.

 

No, I definitely understand that. I think Garrus had much better writing backing him up than Liara did, though. Liara's writing went off the rails in ME3. It was pretty erratic even in ME2, what with her going from a naïve archaeologist to a ravenous political animal in the span of less than three years. At least with Garrus, the Turian Hierarchy is a meritocracy, and since he's allegedly one of the best fighting Turians and knows a few things about the Reapers, he does have the qualifications to move up.

 

I think Garrus' status comes down to the fact that besides Tali, he's the only squadmate who teams with Shepard for all three games (not counting potential teammate deaths, obviously), and since most people play ManShep, having Garrus as the Wingman was a better choice than having Tali as the Wing-Lady. That and Garrus is a multipurpose action-oriented character. There really isn't a mission he's not useful on, but unlike Miranda, has connections with Shepard going back to the first game and is therefore an easy choice to stick around. I don't think it was a perfect plan having him be close to Shepard, but I can't think of anyone who was a better option and incorporating that kind of depth for all the characters would have taken a lot of extra time and effort with the writing.

[wolfhowwl]

It isn't Dombrow's fault that BioWare sucks at boss fights.

[Dunmer of Redoran]

You make good points.. he's useful. At the end of the day, he and Tali are still the people I bring with me on Priority Earth's final run. Without my ME2 companions, I don't know who else to connect with as much. Maybe Javik... just because he's so ****** miserable. lol

 

Yep, I'm a Team Dextro guy too. I think having Garrus/Tali at Shepard's side at the end of each game is just a really cool feeling. It makes it seem less like it's about Shepard and more like it's three people who time and again have each others' backs and refuse to let anything get in their way.

[Barquiel]

Hm...I liked his missions (except for Thessia - the asari/Liara deserved a more thoughtful treatment here), but not his squadmates. Still, good news! I can ignore irritating characters

[Darkarus]

The first time I did the Thessia fight I realized just how much better Cerberus tech is vs everyone else I mean the other gunships from ME2 and the Asari ones on Thessia go down pretty easily but that gun ship is invulnerable man that is what we need if we had a few thousand of those with Thanix cannons their would not have been a reaper war we would have slaughtered them. Meaning no Crucible no Shepard death/near death = Marriage, Old age and a Lot of little blue children...

[Massa FX]

Well... I felt a lot of emotion during every scene that involved Kai-Lame. 

 

that's for sure.

[KaiserShep]

The first time I did the Thessia fight I realized just how much better Cerberus tech is vs everyone else I mean the other gunships from ME2 and the Asari ones on Thessia go down pretty easily but that gun ship is invulnerable man that is what we need if we had a few thousand of those with Thanix cannons their would not have been a reaper war we would have slaughtered them. Meaning no Crucible no Shepard death/near death = Marriage, Old age and a Lot of little blue children...

 

Man, it's not so much that it was invulnerable, but it finally found the secret weapon to thwart our hero's efforts: a big ass spotlight. If everyone else did the same we would've died a million times over.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

My thoughts exactly. Shepard is railroaded into blaming themself  when the result (and the entire Reaper war in general) is completely the fault of the Asari government breaking their own laws about sharing Prothean technlogy. Then there is the disastrously stupid exchange with Joker. Easily the worst part of the game as far as player choice is concerned.

 

They sure aren't team players. Remember Shepard using the turret, or not, to stop the uglies? What were the asari doing? They were standing around doing a whole lot of nothing while Lt. Kurin is yelling and telling  Shepard what to do

 

You guys don't get it.... Space Jesus must bear the sins of the entire galaxy on his/her shoulders so that they may be cleansed in the burning green beam at the end.

 

Shepard must also use the turret because he/she's the only one who can kill the uglies. No one else has the ability. Shepard could single handedly save an entire planet.

[RatThing]

To Dombrow's credit, he also wrote Wrex here, and gave Weekes the idea for Jack ("Wolverine protecting the kids in the X2 mansion")

 

That was actually a terrible idea. A convicted felon with anger issues working with kids was just highly irritating (and if only for the sole reason that no one in their right mind would hire her for that). And since he also turned Wrex from ruthless merc into a wise and peaceful leader it makes me wonder, does he have the urge to rehabilitate every crook and miserable bastard and turn them into saints? Would Morinth be fighting against poverty in the galaxy if she were written by him? Writing characters consistently should also be on his list.

 

 

Ironically, as much as people badmouth Omega for being all combat and little else, there was quite a lot of things you could do to shape your Shepard and by extension Aria.

 

That is true actually, now that I think of it. The Omega DLC did a solid to good job in giving you control over your character. I loved the part where Aria can call Shepard a "truly dangerous person" depending on your dialogue choices. Does anyone know who is responsible for the writing here?