[starbug]

The only things i have heard Bioware say that Mass Effect isn't the end of the mass effect universe, as their are talks of a MMO. To my knowledge they haven't stated that their will be no victory in ME3. If thats the case in that you can't win against the reapers and save earth, wheres the pay off for the player?

I think their will be a victory(ie save earth) but not wipe out the reaper threat, but it depends on the time period the game covers as well.

[Ransom]

That's unlikely.

I remember BioWare saying that, but the universe they've created is robust enough that they don't need the Reapers to keep telling stories in it.

[Luis Dias]

*autosnip stupid stuff*

[Gloriano]

ME3 is not gonna end in victory, its gonna end SHEPARDS STORYLINE, ME3 is the start of the war, not the end....

Expect Bioware themselves said that Me3 finishes the reaper story line and the Shepard story line so it will end at victory or whatever since if there are diffrent endings it mighty end losing too

[T-LoW]

I'm so hoping for a dark side ending. All hail to our new Reaper overlords!

Or even better:

Sephard hacking the Reapers and conquers the galaxy with his new pets, riding one of them while crushing the Turian homeworld

[StarSlayer]

I dunno about that, I did really like the idea of doing something brütally pragmatic to defeat them.  Such as using that dark energy stuff that was effecting Haestrom to basically quick nova the Sol system wiping out the majority of the Reaper fleet and leaving a portion manageable enough for the remaining Citadel forces to mop up.

[Luis Dias]

iow, to outshivan the reapers.

[TrashMan]

I'd call giving TIM the base a pragmatic thing. And saving the Rachnii queen. And helping the Geth. And practically doing ANYTHING that increases your chances, even if it has big risks involved.

Reapers are super-hardcore and the galaxy stands so little chance, that ANY plan is now viable. The Godzilla Treshold has been passed.

And yet  I fear all of that will amount to nothing in ME3....

[Liberator]

I'm afraid nothing short of a Deus Ex Machina of cosmic(almost wrote comic)  proportions would suffice to close this story out.

[Luis Dias]

It will involve excavations in mars due to archaelogic findings about prothean technologies.

I can almost see the first few hours of game. First london then usa megacity, then mars. They'll find something to get past the reapers through the mass relay. Perhaps another secret conduit. We'll get to see the citadel version ME3. Then it's rallying time. Shepard has to rally the turians, the asari and the salarians. Sounds not too hard. Harder will be to rally the krogan, the geth, the quarian, and hardest of all, the batarians.

You say it's about deus ex machina. Well, let's see if these writers are indeed talented or not!

[LordPomposity]

Well, let's see if these writers are indeed talented or not!

[The E]

Art designers != writers.

[LordPomposity]

The Terminator wouldn't have been in the game unless somebody wrote a script that called for it.

I will say, however, that ME2's writers created very high-quality side-arcs for the companion characters. If they turn that talent to the main plot in ME3 instead of writing in an Asari-Reaper that shoots fanservice, we'll have a great game.

[The E]

...

The script probably something like "a newborn reaper with human features". If you look at the actual concept art, there were a number of designs for that thing. Whatever made them choose that particular design, it came only after the script was written, and thus after the writers had pretty much done the majority of the work they had to do.

[Luis Dias]

The larvae reaper was actually not so bad a script. The first concepts depicted a more "larvaesque" design, but was abandoned, perhaps because it resembled Half Life too much (pure speculation, notice).

What really screwed the whole experience was basically the facepalm-its-Shwarzenneger-up-there-for-godssake-wtf moment. And that you can blame more the artist than the writer.

[NGTM-1R]

The Terminator wouldn't have been in the game unless somebody wrote a script that called for it.

Do I have to scan the friggin' artbook that came with my superspecialedition of the game here? They had a whole range of proposed looks for it.

[LordPomposity]

I fall into the camp that thinks the whole Human-Reaper thing was a highly questionable storyline move at best even notwithstanding the artistic crash-and-burn that capped it off. However, maybe that's just because the hilaribad artistic execution is so deeply burned on my retina that I have difficulty extricating the parts of the finished product from one another and judging each on their own merits (which really, really, shouldn't be necessary).

Do I have to scan the friggin' artbook that came with my superspecialedition of the game here? They had a whole range of proposed looks for it.

And yet they chose the one that they did.

[NGTM-1R]

And yet they chose the one that they did.

Which is hardly the writer's fault. You may construct an argument that he was, perhaps, consulted. But it's unlikely he had the ability to veto or even to argue very strongly.

[Luis Dias]

Point in case, the ones who made the choosing weren't the writers. Probably you can blame Casey Hudson on that one.

Yes, I know people have a lot of problems separating the plot from the wtf moment there, most people will tell us all about the "bad plot" of ME2, etc., but if you look closely, the plot isn't bad at all. It's a good set up for ME3, and it explores well what the reapers may want from organic lives in the galaxy. The idea of "ascension" through a very specific kind of "singularity", where mankind goes to something greater "through death" is a very compelling and rich plot idea.

Their problem was that they couldn't shock Shepard (or the players) in the larvae reaper without a very shocking visual cue. To show a complex cube without a human shape would be very cool, but it wouldn't be emotionally compelling, in the sense that we wouldn't connect with it as we should (since it would be "composed" with human "don't know what").

If it talked a little, perhaps uttering basic sentences.... Idk. The point is that the general plot was good. The implementation wasn't. And that's the only dark spot in an otherwise amazing game. So I don't fuss much about it (and I'm really a pain in the neck for anything that isn't excellent)

[LordPomposity]

And yet they chose the one that they did.

Which is hardly the writer's fault. You may construct an argument that he was, perhaps, consulted. But it's unlikely he had the ability to veto or even to argue very strongly.

You're right, it's not. I was wrong to lay the blame on the writer for that particular fustercluck.

It's a good set up for ME3

I wouldn't say that (or the opposite, for that matter) until I've actually played ME3. Which I plan on doing. Despite (what I perceive as) the storyline flaws of ME2, it still had good enough gameplay and characters to make me think the sequel will be worth my time.