I Shouldn't Have Feared The Reapers
Believing in the story screwed up my game of Mass Effect 3
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Believing in the story screwed up my game of Mass Effect 3
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I Shouldn't Have Feared The Reapers
- Thread starter Dennis Scimeca
- Start date
I agree completely, it's always a problem in "save the world" type RPGs - every single type of game I've played like that, I've gone around doing main quests with all urgency, and then I'm suddenly at the end of the game and I've done NO side quests, it's quite annoying really.
Luckily in ME3 I avoided your problems
1. Because I've learnt from this in previous games.
2. Because I heard how bad the ending was, and didn't want to rush to experience it.
3. Because I wanted to savour as much ME3 possible before the ending.
Luckily in ME3 I avoided your problems
1. Because I've learnt from this in previous games.
2. Because I heard how bad the ending was, and didn't want to rush to experience it.
3. Because I wanted to savour as much ME3 possible before the ending.
The ironic part is that you could have just kept playing and there'd be no difference to your ending 
Made me feel pretty silly for doing every single side quest in the game only to get... that.
Made me feel pretty silly for doing every single side quest in the game only to get... that.
Yeah. We aren't told how deep their resources run, but given the circumstances in ME3, they decide to drop all subterfuge and go all-in, and they have A LOT.Irridium said:
EDIT: Also, before the attack, they were being funneled a VERY significant amount of money by Udina.
Going to have to be careful interacting with you all in here this week lest I see spoilers. It was totally worth replaying those nine hours again but man, I gotta see this ending fresh.
@Irridium: Your avatar is fantastic.
@endtherapture: That's the thing, I know the risk of losing side quests through narrative progression, was not necessarily in any rush to get to the end, and generally want every drop of content a game has to offer me - but the narrative was so engrossing that I forgot all of that and pressed on.
That's also my point - no RPG has ever done this to me before, which is the exciting part. I LIKED that the artificial nature of RPG worlds didn't shine through over the cinematic narrative being given to me by Mass Effect 3. I didn't like that I had to miss content in order to enjoy the "realness" of the game world. Hence the idea that RPGs which want to have driven narratives could alter the typical RPG structure accordingly.
@Irridium: Your avatar is fantastic.
@endtherapture: That's the thing, I know the risk of losing side quests through narrative progression, was not necessarily in any rush to get to the end, and generally want every drop of content a game has to offer me - but the narrative was so engrossing that I forgot all of that and pressed on.
That's also my point - no RPG has ever done this to me before, which is the exciting part. I LIKED that the artificial nature of RPG worlds didn't shine through over the cinematic narrative being given to me by Mass Effect 3. I didn't like that I had to miss content in order to enjoy the "realness" of the game world. Hence the idea that RPGs which want to have driven narratives could alter the typical RPG structure accordingly.
While very true, and I fall on the side that loathes the endings, I must say I would not skip all the side quests along the way. True doing them wont change the ending, but one of the most powerful moments in ME3 include Thane. I wouldn't miss that.MiracleOfSound said:The ironic part is that you could have just kept playing and there'd be no difference to your ending
Made me feel pretty silly for doing every single side quest in the game only to get... that.
I understand where you are coming from. At first when I started playing I felt a rush to do main story lines too, but somewhere before the end of the Tuchanka I stopped that line, and finished up side quests. It still felt a bit wrong at first to be doing side quests while earth burned, but then I understood that the side quests were progressing the story too in the form of building war assets.Dennis Scimeca said:
WARNING: Mass Effect 2 spoilers in here
This seems terribly nit-picky to me. I suppose if you want to you could fault the game for not making it urgent enough but then you get the issue of ME2 where you're forced to either skip a bunch of the game or have a bunch of your NPC's get turned into reaper slurpies.
Story-wise, a forced timer adds tension but game-wise, this locks out a bunch of stuff. I feel that you need to meet the game half-way here...
This seems terribly nit-picky to me. I suppose if you want to you could fault the game for not making it urgent enough but then you get the issue of ME2 where you're forced to either skip a bunch of the game or have a bunch of your NPC's get turned into reaper slurpies.
Story-wise, a forced timer adds tension but game-wise, this locks out a bunch of stuff. I feel that you need to meet the game half-way here...
I thought it was pretty well implied that Cerberus was a very powerful and VERY rich organization based on Mass Effect 2. I mean, they obviously had the abilities and financial backing to raise someone from the dead...Irridium said:
Oh agreed 100%... I was more meaning all the busywork like planet scanning and collecting random things for people. The actual fleshed out sidequests were fantasticDaft Ghosty said:While very true, and I fall on the side that loathes the endings, I must say I would not skip all the side quests along the way. True doing them wont change the ending, but one of the most powerful moments in ME3 include Thane. I wouldn't miss that.MiracleOfSound said:The ironic part is that you could have just kept playing and there'd be no difference to your ending
Made me feel pretty silly for doing every single side quest in the game only to get... that.
It's not really that bad. They ARE said to have a lot of resources and recruits (who are being controlled with Reaper tech), but the amounts never feel THAT implausible. For example, the assault on the Citadel is not something that they do to attempt to control it, it's a fast smash-and-grab sort of raid with a very specific goal in mind. This feels right; they have resources, but they can't last too long in an fight against actual military and they know it.Irridium said:
Just to give an indication of how deep Cerberus' resources run, here's a couple of factoids about their past achievements. Spoilers if you haven't played Mass Effect 2 or read any of the books.Irridium said:
-Rebuilt a top secret warship that cost more money than likely any ship the Alliance had built previously. And then upgraded it.
-Brought the dead back to life(that's you).
-Invaded the Quarrian Migrant Fleet(much harder to get onto than the Citadel) and set them up the bomb.
-Engaged in extensive(and often disastrous) studies of Reaper technology.
-Sponsored a research project to allow a human to speak to the Geth.
-Located the previously untraceable Shadow Broker.
Also, in Mass Effect 3, they pretty much have the capability to use Indoctrination to boost their numbers. So they definitely have the army thing down, and there's no need for a fleet if they can capture key points of the Citadel and lock down security. At that point all they have to do is outgun C-Sec and any currently docked military units since they can mostly keep other ships from docking.
Though especially with the ending we got I'm glad I got a strict sidequests-before-core-missions policy I keep to in all games. Those sidequests were worth it all by themselves. Another problem with those priorities was that the sidequests involving characters who could potientially be dead by the end of Mass Effect 2 couldn't be too story-centric, at least not all of the time; missions that did replace those dearly departed with almost identical standins just felt so much better with the original characters already. It would probably have been silly if they had done that for all of the ME2 squadmates.MiracleOfSound said:The ironic part is that you could have just kept playing and there'd be no difference to your ending
Made me feel pretty silly for doing every single side quest in the game only to get... that.
Ironically, the only missions that have some kind of timer on them are sidemissions, like the Cerberus attack on Grissom Academy. That timer worked similar to the timer after you installed the Reaper IFF in ME2 (where you had to get to the collecter base really fast to save your whole crew).
I think the game has a point there: The Reaper invasion is was happend inevitably, the gathering of war assets is what you have to make time for. You let a lot more people die on earth to give the rest a fighting chance (as opposed to hurrying back as soon as possible with a fleet that's probably too weak to make the difference you need).
It's a shame to miss any content at all, tho. Even the most insignificant background event can be hilarious, heartwarming or just plain awesome. I'm glad I was right to trust in the bit of gameplay/story segregation that allowed me to explore every bit of the game.
Started a new Shepard in ME1 a few days ago. I heard there was still some content I missed. Not this time.
Irridium said:
Get ready to be miffed then. Udina is moving large sums of money, but there is no way with all the resources that IM has that it can be accounted for.
Agree. I was half expecting a Volus would ask me to go turn off his stove on some moon for a Bombing fleet.MiracleOfSound said:
I kinda felt the same way about Shep's dilly dallying on the Citadel.
"Oh look, Shep's doing some embarrasing Shepard dance."
-------------- meanwhile on Earth --------------
"HELP US, SHEPARD!!! PLEASE!!! OH GOD, WE CAN'T HOLD OUT MUCH LONGER!!!"
Sorta killed some of that looming threat.
"Oh look, Shep's doing some embarrasing Shepard dance."
-------------- meanwhile on Earth --------------
"HELP US, SHEPARD!!! PLEASE!!! OH GOD, WE CAN'T HOLD OUT MUCH LONGER!!!"
Sorta killed some of that looming threat.
The problem with eliminating or streamlining the side quests in the game is that Bioware games are already fairly linear, and without the side quests, you would have something a lot like Final Fantasy X in structure. I know a lot of people like that game, but when it came out, a lot of people complained that it was just a straight path with no room for deviation(and then FFXIII came out). If Bioware went that route, you really would have Call of Mass: Modern War Effect.
The scanning game, though? That can die in a fire. I would prefer more mini-missions to liberate forces and resources than scanning.
The scanning game, though? That can die in a fire. I would prefer more mini-missions to liberate forces and resources than scanning.
Very nice article. I remember experiencing the same feelings when I started playing. Was able to avoid those pitfalls for the same reasons as endtherapture listed.
I also remember thinking at the time on how the beginning could've been done a bit differently in order to avoid this. As in dialing back the initial feeling of urgency ever so slightly so as a player you didn't feel guilty every time you strayed away from the priority missions. It mainly centered around delaying the fall of Earth. Could've had the fall of Earth happen about a third of the way into the story. The opening cutscene would've dealt with the Reapers arriving in the Sol system with a massive engagement taking place at Pluto, which would've been built up as the Alliance's version of the Maginot Line. The logic behind that being the humans having decided that, given the location of the Charon relay, any invading force would have to drop in next to Pluto, which would be fortified with multiple planetary defense cannons. Have these cannons take down a Reaper or two before the Reaper counterattack that annihilates the planetoid. It would be shortly after this point that the Normandy would sneak out of the system to seek reinforcements. The Reapers not jumping immediately to Earth via their FTL drives would be explained via a plot device of humans employing a recent Alliance creation: Mass Effect Interdiction Fields. a device that interferes with the Mass Effect field, preventing faster than light travel within the system and giving Shepard a time frame of a week or two to gather reinforcements. That way you would still have the Reapers closing in on Earth, but not actively processing millions of people a day. When Earth did inevitably fall a third of the way in it could've had a similar feeling to the gut punch we felt when Thessia falls near the end.
I also remember thinking at the time on how the beginning could've been done a bit differently in order to avoid this. As in dialing back the initial feeling of urgency ever so slightly so as a player you didn't feel guilty every time you strayed away from the priority missions. It mainly centered around delaying the fall of Earth. Could've had the fall of Earth happen about a third of the way into the story. The opening cutscene would've dealt with the Reapers arriving in the Sol system with a massive engagement taking place at Pluto, which would've been built up as the Alliance's version of the Maginot Line. The logic behind that being the humans having decided that, given the location of the Charon relay, any invading force would have to drop in next to Pluto, which would be fortified with multiple planetary defense cannons. Have these cannons take down a Reaper or two before the Reaper counterattack that annihilates the planetoid. It would be shortly after this point that the Normandy would sneak out of the system to seek reinforcements. The Reapers not jumping immediately to Earth via their FTL drives would be explained via a plot device of humans employing a recent Alliance creation: Mass Effect Interdiction Fields. a device that interferes with the Mass Effect field, preventing faster than light travel within the system and giving Shepard a time frame of a week or two to gather reinforcements. That way you would still have the Reapers closing in on Earth, but not actively processing millions of people a day. When Earth did inevitably fall a third of the way in it could've had a similar feeling to the gut punch we felt when Thessia falls near the end.
nice work!
I made a similar mistake in the first Mass Effect. I took the whole "plant bomb on Virmire" to seriously, I though if I didn't return to the bomb then it wouldn't go off, so I left Ashley to die (Shep mourned for at least an hour before jumping into bed with Liara!)
I made a similar mistake in the first Mass Effect. I took the whole "plant bomb on Virmire" to seriously, I though if I didn't return to the bomb then it wouldn't go off, so I left Ashley to die (Shep mourned for at least an hour before jumping into bed with Liara!)