Instead of adding a trial, why not just rework why Shepard is on Earth instead?
Not having the trial was just one complaint I had with the intro. Had the rest of the intro had been awesome, I probably would've gotten over the no trial thing. But if Shepard is on Earth, it would have to be for a very good reason.
I think it's safe to assume Liara probably contacted Hackett, knowing he was an Admiral that she could trust given Shepard's history with him.
Liara said that Hackett contacted her to use her resources as the shadow broker to find a way to stop the reapers
https://youtu.be/IaSm9PRQaC4?t=3m15s
What history did Shepard have with Hackett? I know my Shepard wanted nothing to do with the guy
Liara said that Hackett contacted her to use her resources as the shadow broker to find a way to stop the reapers
Oh that's right. But why is that hard to believe though? The Alliance isn't stupid. I mean they've done stupid things like all military/governments have, but they are resourceful and have sniffed out the likes of Ceberus activities in ME2 for example. Plus it makes sense that Liara probably didn't do as good a job keeping her identity a secret as the previous Shadow Broker did.
What history did Shepard have with Hackett? I know my Shepard wanted nothing to do with the guy
Listen if you're gonna just keep saying "Well MY Shepard wouldn't do that" then I can't argue with that. You're talking about playing Mass Effect 1 in a certain way where you have zero interaction with Admiral Hackett, which means doing no side quests. Okay then, if that's how you want to play your Shepard. I don't know why you would want nothing to do with the highest ranking Alliance officer who's supported you since the first game.
I don't know why you would want nothing to do with the highest ranking Alliance officer who's supported you since the first game.
For one he gave my dogtags to an alien instead of my mother, if I was playing a spacer or if I was romancing Ashley/Kaidan. Why would he give my dogtags to an alien?
If he supported me, why didn't he make any effort to find a way to stop the reapers after my ship was destroyed?
Why didn't he give me the heads up that I might encounter Cerberus on Mars?
SImply flavor?
Dude you can't add a segment heavy in roleplaying in a game like this. Its just pew pew now.
Dude you can't add a segment heavy in roleplaying in a game like this. Its just pew pew now.
Listen if you're gonna just keep saying "Well MY Shepard wouldn't do that" then I can't argue with that.
You jest, but you're kinda right. The scale of the situation at this "trial" would be quite a bit different than the Leland rep convo.
Flavor really would be all that could amount there.
The best jokes have at least a kernel of truth to them.
While I'd be all for a trial segment, to do it any justice it would be far too in depth and far too long for any intro for the mass market. About the only thing I could see is some kind of strung together short clips that is literally in the intro title screen time frame. Where you are clearly on trial and evidence is being displayed against you. Have a couple shepard statements change based on your paragon/renegade import levels and end it with him in jail enforcing some kind of railroading vibe. Have the reapers invade X months in to your sentence.
For one he gave my dogtags to an alien instead of my mother, if I was playing a spacer or if I was romancing Ashley/Kaidan. Why would he give my dogtags to an alien?
Wow that son of a b****.
If he supported me, why didn't he make any effort to find a way to stop the reapers after my ship was destroyed?
Who says he didn't. His introduction in Arrival kinda suggests that finding a way to stop the Reapers and finding proof of their existence was part of his agenda. Maybe he didn't directly do anything, but had contacts such as Kenson to do the work and report to him. But there's only so much he can do if he doesn't have support from the rest of the Alliance.
Why didn't he give me the heads up that I might encounter Cerberus on Mars?
Because he didn't know. That and he was a little busy trying to reorganize the fleets after getting the ass whipping of the century. Did he really need to say "Oh Shepard, bring a gun just in case" anyway? The Reapers were in the Sol System. Danger was pretty much implied.
(Other stuff about the trial)
Actually I was thinking months after the verdict.
Verdict? What verdict?
Do you realize how many versions of the trial would have to be written? What about Shepard's Attorney? Shepard has the right to an attorney and would be an absolute idiot not to have one. Or do you want Shepard to carry the idiot ball again? In a Court Martial it is up to the prosecution to prove that the defendant, in this case Shepard, is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt - I'll assume they'd model this after the US and Canadian militaries. So who is going to testify? The mechanics would be very clumsy even if it did get to trial. Shepard would be sitting next to his/her attorney while his/her attorney asked questions or made objections, and made opening and closing arguments. Shepard wouldn't say anything. Unless Shepard represented his/herself which would be carrying the idiot ball. Also, unlike you see on television, the defense attorney does not put the defendant on the stand when they're winning.
Meanwhile the Batarians are being turned into cannibals so I doubt the Hegemony sent anyone to represent their side.
Trials also don't happen overnight. The defense team has to have time to prepare a defense. This means that the start of any trial could drag on for months. Shepard could be confined to base, and would probably be enjoying the facility's golf course while awaiting trial. He/she wouldn't be confined to a room especially not with the flimsy evidence being presented. Shepard would be pretty steamed at Anderson for bringing him/her in by stabbing them with the needle in that bar, however - something that Walters wrote happened in the Dark Horse comics and then white washed it in ME3.
Okay, so you have to subpoena Shepard's team: Garrus, Miranda, Tali, the entire team. But wait. Garrus is on Palaven. Grunt is on Tuchanka. Tali is with the Migrant Fleet. Samara is who knows where? Liara wasn't involved in the Cerberus stuff. Miranda and Jacob and Jack? Sure you can subpoena them. Now the prosecution has to get them to testify against Shepard regarding the Cerberus Base IF and only if Shepard turned over the base to Cerberus. Regarding the Bahak System? I guess that's going to be Hackett and the Batarians. Hackett wasn't there. None of those mercenaries that were on that asteroid are anywhere to be found. Shepard wasn't caught or killed. The Batarians might have some video of Shepard busting Kenson out of a prison. Kenson was a friend of Hackett's so Shepard won't be charged with that. But like I said the Batarians are being processed. And there's absolutely no evidence that Shepard blew up the relay even if he/she did.
So, like I said, what verdict? What trial? There's not sufficient evidence to bring Shepard to trial unless Shepard confesses. If Shepard doesn't sign a confession there's nothing that can be done. Too bad. It's over. Done. If they wanted a trial they did bad writing to set it up. And it would take even worse writing to pull it off.
But aside from this, from a plot standpoint, ME3 was far and away the best of the three. It's just that it had such a poor setup from ME2, which happened to be probably the most fun of the series even though it had no plot to speak of. I think the fact that the game play was so dramatically better than ME1 had a lot to do with its reception.
They should have simply written out the arrest and trial after they didn't hear anything from the Batarians, and just made canon that Shepard went back to the Alliance after ME2. The beginning scene up even through the defense committee was well done. The defense committee could have been better written giving Shepard his/her mission. They knew what they were up against, especially once they lost contact with Arcturus. They shouldn't have been a bunch of idiots.
Priority Earth could have been better done, too. And so could the ending. --- and this is why we're in Andromeda.
So, like I said, what verdict? What trial? There's not sufficient evidence to bring Shepard to trial unless Shepard confesses. If Shepard doesn't sign a confession there's nothing that can be done. Too bad. It's over. Done. If they wanted a trial they did bad writing to set it up. And it would take even worse writing to pull it off.
Shepard's cooperation with Cerberus alone is enough to warant a trial for a host of reasons, the most severe one I can think of is aiding the enemy. For one it's a unavoidable aspect of ME2 Shepard makes, and secondly we know that the Alliance and the council where aware of Shepard's connection to Cerberus, and Shepard makes no attempt at deyning this connection.
Moreover, from what Hackett said in Arrival and what can be made from his dossier in lair of the Shadow Broker, The Alliance has been looking for an opportunity to bring Shepard in for some time, probably to interrogate him/her with regards to Cerberus, the trial is heavily implied to be merely a cover for such interrogation. Even then the Alliance is most likely unwilling to let Shepard go off after working wiht Cerberus without some measures being taken, hence Hackett has Shepard on such a short leash throughout ME3.
With that all said, there's no denying the opening of ME3 is one of the worst moments in the series and I do believe that a trial or at least a questioning, regarding Shepard pas action would be fitting as the opening of third game, for new players it would introduce to past events and the returning players would see their choices being acknowleged. In addition I would move the opening in it's entirety from Earth to Arcuturus, among others.
There is no such thing as *No choice*
nobody was holding a gun to their heads, demanding them
to make the story take place in a whole diffrend place
there is always a choice and they choose the easy way out and ignoret what they had created.
Listen if you're gonna just keep saying "Well MY Shepard wouldn't do that" then I can't argue with that. You're talking about playing Mass Effect 1 in a certain way where you have zero interaction with Admiral Hackett, which means doing no side quests. Okay then, if that's how you want to play your Shepard. I don't know why you would want nothing to do with the highest ranking Alliance officer who's supported you since the first game.
Shepard's cooperation with Cerberus alone is enough to warant a trial for a host of reasons, the most severe one I can think of is aiding the enemy. For one it's a unavoidable aspect of ME2 Shepard makes, and secondly we know that the Alliance and the council where aware of Shepard's connection to Cerberus, and Shepard makes no attempt at deyning this connection.
But that makes any trial preposterous. Shepard works with Cerberus with the knowledge and consent of both the Alliance and the Council. Though you could do the trial anyway, if Shepard was allowed to point out the blatant hypocrisy.
Yeah, it is quite evident in ME2 that both the Alliance and the council let Shepard be for the time because he/she is doing something about the Collectors, they see no merit in proactively hindering Shepard's progress so long he/she is fully comitted to the Collectors, they are wary however that in Shepard (possibly unknowing) aids Cerberus' activities, hence they want to neutralize him/her as soon as the Collectors are dealt with, that's my interperation, anyway.
Why not both?
Because I don't believe in free money. If we're only discussing the zots to alter a single mission, there's far better missions to use them on than the tutorial mode which ultimately doesn't change the plot.
On the other hand, if we're imagining limitless resources to remake the series, I wouldn't start making changes at ME3: I'd go back further and change ME2, or even ME1. Writing weaknesses there are also far worse than anything about the ME3 tutorial.
Who says he didn't. His introduction in Arrival kinda suggests that finding a way to stop the Reapers and finding proof of their existence was part of his agenda. Maybe he didn't directly do anything, but had contacts such as Kenson to do the work and report to him. But there's only so much he can do if he doesn't have support from the rest of the Alliance.
For someone who's in a high position not to do much makes me wonder how high up the chain of command he really is. He maybe overruled by politicians, but he could have people investigate under the radar and not just Kenson. Why couldn't he tell Anderson to get hold of the the characters that helped Shepard chase Saren go back to Eden Prime to see if there's anymore that can be found where the beacon was found? Or how about sending Liara to Mars? She does study the Protheans. Or send them to Ilos to see if there's anything useful that might help.
Because he didn't know. That and he was a little busy trying to reorganize the fleets after getting the ass whipping of the century. Did he really need to say "Oh Shepard, bring a gun just in case" anyway? The Reapers were in the Sol System. Danger was pretty much implied.
If he didn't know why would he say I thought Cerberus might try something when talking with him after Mars?
You jest, but you're kinda right. The scale of the situation at this "trial" would be quite a bit different than the Leland rep convo.
Flavor really would be all that could amount there.
True, but flavor tends to be what it amounts to in general, with a couple of exceptions. Me, I'm a fan being able to express my motive for taking x, y, or z action, so the beginnings of a trial would have been a fun means of going into why I murdered the Rachni, etc, etc.
Yeah, it is quite evident in ME2 that both the Alliance and the council let Shepard be for the time because he/she is doing something about the Collectors, they see no merit in proactively hindering Shepard's progress so long he/she is fully comitted to the Collectors, they are wary however that in Shepard (possibly unknowing) aids Cerberus' activities, hence they want to neutralize him/her as soon as the Collectors are dealt with, that's my interperation, anyway.
Still, that's a rather rough approach to take, just given that Arrival can be completed as early as Horizon. We could always argue that they tell Shepard to come in for the trial after dealing with the Collectors, but even in that regard, if I'm trying to manipulate someone into killing my enemy for me, I'm not likely to telegraph that I'll be putting him in prison following his killing of said enemy.
A trial? Will Judge Judy be there? hahahaha
Not sure what a trial would add to the game.
Still, that's a rather rough approach to take, just given that Arrival can be completed as early as Horizon. We could always argue that they tell Shepard to come in for the trial after dealing with the Collectors, but even in that regard, if I'm trying to manipulate someone into killing my enemy for me, I'm not likely to telegraph that I'll be putting him in prison following his killing of said enemy.
Hackett's just being honest I supose, though it comes down to poor design, if you ask me arrival should only be player after completing the main quest.
But that makes any trial preposterous. Shepard works with Cerberus with the knowledge and consent of both the Alliance and the Council. Though you could do the trial anyway, if Shepard was allowed to point out the blatant hypocrisy.
But that makes any trial preposterous. Shepard works with Cerberus with the knowledge and consent of both the Alliance and the Council. Though you could do the trial anyway, if Shepard was allowed to point out the blatant hypocrisy.
It's almost like Bioware didn't know what they were doing with the trilogy... 
It's almost like Bioware didn't know what they were doing with the trilogy...
^It's actually impressive how some series, like Breaking Bad, are able to turn out so well, despite the writers have absolutely no idea what they're doing/planning the entire time. Most of the Season 5 flash forwards were like this, where Vince Gilligan actually had no idea what Walt would be using the assault rifle for until the last couple episodes.
This might be more controversial, but the Dark Knight Trilogy, also one of my favorites, falls into that category as well.
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