Mass Effect 3
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:14 pm
Well trailers are coming out for it and it's scheduled for a fall 2011 release. Anyone else as excited about it as I am?
The big thing I've seen being debated is what's your party going to be this time around? Bioware has it's work cut out for it for sure. In ME 1 half your party was up in the air, Kaidan or Ashley could die, and you could kill Wrex. This wasn't that horrible seeing as at least one of the humans could live (giving either one a completely interchangeable role in ME2 on Horizon) and Wrex could either be made a ruler on Tchunka or a corpse. Of the members sure to live you got Garrus and Tali and they sent Liara off to PMS.
As a side note, does anyone else find it a bit odd that most of the big plot points in ME1 are assumed to have been done the renegade way if you don't import a character into ME2? If you don't import its canon that you let the council die and shot Wrex in the face. Given that Renegade in ME1 wasn't so much cowboy justice as it was out right stupid it seems odd.
Anyways, moving forward to ME2 literally everyone can die, even you, permanently. This creates an obvious problem as just about any combination of party members can survive making it hard to craft a game around your party members if some or even most of them won't be there. So what are Bioware's options.
1) Dump the old cast and start over.
This is the simplest solution. Everyone who didn't die just up and leaves you. It's not that far fetched as it sounds at first. Given that some of them are just along for the collector mission (Mordin, Samara, Zaeed, Kasumi, etc.) others have no real connection at all to you (Jack sans romance), and the others can be reassigned (Miranda, Jacob, Kelly). Space-Batman, sorry Garrus, seems to like you but he's gotten his own direction since ME1 and if he thought something else needed doing I can see him leave (sans Romance) and both Legion and Tali could be called back to their respective people's as sort of ambassadors for their races. You can pretty much pull the entire party apart in character with little effort. The only real issue is if you've romanced someone like Jack or Thane but even then Jack is nuts enough to still leave and they can just kill Thane, etc. So IC there's nothing really stopping them from disposing of the old crew and starting fresh. OOC though this is likely to start a shit storm. It wasn't that horrible in ME2 as you could get Garrus and Tali back and Wrex moved on to an impressive place. Liara sucked as she treated you like you were still dead, really bad if you romanced her, while your human team mates ream you out for... well dying on purpose I guess. Completely dumping your crew, especially after doing all the loyalty missions to... you know, make them loyal, would suck ass. Especially if after two games Garrus and Tali take a hike and you cannot get them back. You'd be starting over with more new team mates, more new romances (it's going to happen, it's fucking Bioware), and just in general a clean slate. Bleh.
2) Dump most of the old cast and fill in the gaps.
There are some teammates that you've really gotta work at getting killed. Not just not doing their loyalty mission but not taking them with you at the end or just making really bad decisions. Who doesn't do Garrus' mission or Tali's if only out of a sense of nostalgia for them still hanging with you through it all? How about Grunt's for the great interrupts or Jack just to give the psycho bitch some much needed softening? All in all assuming that some characters survive isn't that far out there, especially the fan favorites. Some of the hangers-on like Zaeed, Kasumi, Thane, Samara, Jacob, etc. could be lost without many people really caring all that much (Don't get me wrong I love Kasumi but losing her wouldn't hit me like having Liara act like I'm not even there). Either killing them in the final mission or having them move on. No huge loss and it lets Bioware bring in a few new characters and move them forward. The downside is that one of the biggest choices in the game, who do you get loyal and who do you not care, becomes flat as you arbitrarily decide that certain characters survive no matter what. You can leave the others up to the player but some of the characters are going to survive even if you watched them take a rocket to the face or fall down a bottomless pit in ME2. I'm honestly thinking this is the most likely solution though it will generate some bitching depending on who gets plot armor and who doesn't.
3) Everyone's Back.
This is my preferred option. On the Bioware forum I have one of those user bars that says, "I support getting the band back together in ME3" or something to that effect. I want the ME2 crew back and I want to get Ashley back as well even if she is a bigot because she's one of my crew damn it. And seriously, how did she not find out that Sheperd was in Cerberus and think, "Human superiority, fuck over aliens, I'm so there!" Thanks to Shadow Broker Liara's not coming back though I do like her place in the over all story, ditto for Wrex. So why should Bioware do it? Well first off I suspect that most people will have tried for a perfect mission and will have that save on their hard drive somewhere. So most of us will have done it. Even if you didn't try to save everyone you probably saved most except for a few you may have intentionally let die, *cough*JACOB*cough* so having one or two survive that you may have killed off isn't that bad. The biggest benefit of all this is that ME3 wouldn't have to waste time on rebuilding a squad. You just hit the ground running with your ME2 crew, maybe pick up a few additional ones, and just dive right into ending the Reapers. If Bioware wanted to they could easily dump a few of the extras (Samara, Jacob, Thane, etc.) to make room for a handful of new guys but by and large just keep what they've got and tackle the story directly. Even my mama bear FemShep would be hard pressed to justify running errands for her crew in the middle of a full on Reaper invasion.
Any other opinions on what Bioware might do? Personally I really hope they just bring everyone back in ME3. ME2 was really all about your squad. The actual core "kill the Collectors" plot was contained in about five missions. There were about fifteen just for assembling your squad and gaining their loyalty. I think this was a good use of the middle game if, If, IF, they make use of that squad you've built to take down the Reapers in ME3. If I get a new squad to kill the Reapers I'll be constantly looking at them wishing I had Jack or Tali or Garrus back for this go around and not these new schmucks. Yes, they could be cool and Bioware does well on characters but I want ME3 to be all about the Reapers, not getting to know new people. I want to take the existing characters deeper...
...and to convince Jack and Miranda they'd be much better off working out their aggression towards each other naked and with lots of baby oil.
The big thing I've seen being debated is what's your party going to be this time around? Bioware has it's work cut out for it for sure. In ME 1 half your party was up in the air, Kaidan or Ashley could die, and you could kill Wrex. This wasn't that horrible seeing as at least one of the humans could live (giving either one a completely interchangeable role in ME2 on Horizon) and Wrex could either be made a ruler on Tchunka or a corpse. Of the members sure to live you got Garrus and Tali and they sent Liara off to PMS.
As a side note, does anyone else find it a bit odd that most of the big plot points in ME1 are assumed to have been done the renegade way if you don't import a character into ME2? If you don't import its canon that you let the council die and shot Wrex in the face. Given that Renegade in ME1 wasn't so much cowboy justice as it was out right stupid it seems odd.
Anyways, moving forward to ME2 literally everyone can die, even you, permanently. This creates an obvious problem as just about any combination of party members can survive making it hard to craft a game around your party members if some or even most of them won't be there. So what are Bioware's options.
1) Dump the old cast and start over.
This is the simplest solution. Everyone who didn't die just up and leaves you. It's not that far fetched as it sounds at first. Given that some of them are just along for the collector mission (Mordin, Samara, Zaeed, Kasumi, etc.) others have no real connection at all to you (Jack sans romance), and the others can be reassigned (Miranda, Jacob, Kelly). Space-Batman, sorry Garrus, seems to like you but he's gotten his own direction since ME1 and if he thought something else needed doing I can see him leave (sans Romance) and both Legion and Tali could be called back to their respective people's as sort of ambassadors for their races. You can pretty much pull the entire party apart in character with little effort. The only real issue is if you've romanced someone like Jack or Thane but even then Jack is nuts enough to still leave and they can just kill Thane, etc. So IC there's nothing really stopping them from disposing of the old crew and starting fresh. OOC though this is likely to start a shit storm. It wasn't that horrible in ME2 as you could get Garrus and Tali back and Wrex moved on to an impressive place. Liara sucked as she treated you like you were still dead, really bad if you romanced her, while your human team mates ream you out for... well dying on purpose I guess. Completely dumping your crew, especially after doing all the loyalty missions to... you know, make them loyal, would suck ass. Especially if after two games Garrus and Tali take a hike and you cannot get them back. You'd be starting over with more new team mates, more new romances (it's going to happen, it's fucking Bioware), and just in general a clean slate. Bleh.
2) Dump most of the old cast and fill in the gaps.
There are some teammates that you've really gotta work at getting killed. Not just not doing their loyalty mission but not taking them with you at the end or just making really bad decisions. Who doesn't do Garrus' mission or Tali's if only out of a sense of nostalgia for them still hanging with you through it all? How about Grunt's for the great interrupts or Jack just to give the psycho bitch some much needed softening? All in all assuming that some characters survive isn't that far out there, especially the fan favorites. Some of the hangers-on like Zaeed, Kasumi, Thane, Samara, Jacob, etc. could be lost without many people really caring all that much (Don't get me wrong I love Kasumi but losing her wouldn't hit me like having Liara act like I'm not even there). Either killing them in the final mission or having them move on. No huge loss and it lets Bioware bring in a few new characters and move them forward. The downside is that one of the biggest choices in the game, who do you get loyal and who do you not care, becomes flat as you arbitrarily decide that certain characters survive no matter what. You can leave the others up to the player but some of the characters are going to survive even if you watched them take a rocket to the face or fall down a bottomless pit in ME2. I'm honestly thinking this is the most likely solution though it will generate some bitching depending on who gets plot armor and who doesn't.
3) Everyone's Back.
This is my preferred option. On the Bioware forum I have one of those user bars that says, "I support getting the band back together in ME3" or something to that effect. I want the ME2 crew back and I want to get Ashley back as well even if she is a bigot because she's one of my crew damn it. And seriously, how did she not find out that Sheperd was in Cerberus and think, "Human superiority, fuck over aliens, I'm so there!" Thanks to Shadow Broker Liara's not coming back though I do like her place in the over all story, ditto for Wrex. So why should Bioware do it? Well first off I suspect that most people will have tried for a perfect mission and will have that save on their hard drive somewhere. So most of us will have done it. Even if you didn't try to save everyone you probably saved most except for a few you may have intentionally let die, *cough*JACOB*cough* so having one or two survive that you may have killed off isn't that bad. The biggest benefit of all this is that ME3 wouldn't have to waste time on rebuilding a squad. You just hit the ground running with your ME2 crew, maybe pick up a few additional ones, and just dive right into ending the Reapers. If Bioware wanted to they could easily dump a few of the extras (Samara, Jacob, Thane, etc.) to make room for a handful of new guys but by and large just keep what they've got and tackle the story directly. Even my mama bear FemShep would be hard pressed to justify running errands for her crew in the middle of a full on Reaper invasion.
Any other opinions on what Bioware might do? Personally I really hope they just bring everyone back in ME3. ME2 was really all about your squad. The actual core "kill the Collectors" plot was contained in about five missions. There were about fifteen just for assembling your squad and gaining their loyalty. I think this was a good use of the middle game if, If, IF, they make use of that squad you've built to take down the Reapers in ME3. If I get a new squad to kill the Reapers I'll be constantly looking at them wishing I had Jack or Tali or Garrus back for this go around and not these new schmucks. Yes, they could be cool and Bioware does well on characters but I want ME3 to be all about the Reapers, not getting to know new people. I want to take the existing characters deeper...
...and to convince Jack and Miranda they'd be much better off working out their aggression towards each other naked and with lots of baby oil.
