How Would You Have Written It?

[Ace Morologist]

So there's that video game (or series thereof) that you wanted to like, but the story just didn't measure up. Let's take this opportunity to fantasize about how we would have done it. I'll start by aiming my wishful-thinking lens at the Mass Effect series.

Mass Effect -- Actually, I was pretty happy with how the first game worked out. It had its flaws, but no deal-breakers.

Mass Effect 2 -- The whole Collectors thing bugged me. I loved the characters and the idea (and execution) of the loyalty missions. It was a fun game, but its premise was annoying. Also, Cerberus was awful. So here's what I would have done:

Out beyond the space borders, entire colonies worth of sentient beings are disappearing. Shepard is promoted to Captain and is given a newer, better Normandy by the Citadel government to go investigate the disappearances. What he ultimately finds is that the Cerberus group has gone completely rogue and is turning kidnapped colonists into husks in order to build a new Reaper from parts scavenged from destroyed Sovereign and that derelict Reaper that the actual Mass Effect 2 already has. They're doing this because the Illusive Man is indoctrinated and has come to believe in the Reapers' cause. (We also get to learn what the Reapers' cause really is -- i.e., why they come to wipe everything out, what problem they believe they're solving, and who created them.) The Illusive Man wants to use his Frankenstein Reaper to re-send the activation signal through the Citadel and reactivate the Citadel Mass Relay to bring on the Reaper invasion. It's up to Shepard and his assembled crew to stop this madness and put an end to Cerberus once and for all. Cerberus is stopped and the skeleton of the Reaper it's managed to finish thus far is destroyed, but not before the Illusive Man gets a message back to Reaper Central out in darkspace. This message sets things in motion...

The big moral dilemma at the end is whether to share what Cerberus knew and figured out about the Reapers with the rest of the Citadel races (thus exposing what Cerberus was up to) or cover up Cerberus' crimes, sit on the information it discovered and hope the galaxy's races are content with the fact that no more colonies will be disappearing.

--Morology!

 

[Evonisia]

I'd rewrite Silent Hill: Downpour so Murphy's crime (the crime he commits in the Best Ending) stays the same, that way all the symbolism pieces all point towards that crime, making the endings much more satisfying.

I would change the other endings so that he refuses to deal with Frank, and that the reason he descends into Silent Hill was because of his crimes as well as Anna.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Well if I had written Mass Effect there would be a lot less Garrus (he would die from shooting himself in the face repeatedly) and a lot more Space monkeys and giant crab dogs I can tell you that.

Really though beyond broad strokes its pretty hard to write a good story I have had some experience and getting your ideas down on paper worded to convey the same feel and meaning as what you have in your head and then structure everything to make sense once its down in black and white isnt easy although it can be satisfying.

I tend to write more abstract and fantastical stories and dislike science fiction in general so I suspect most games would make no sense if I wrote them, except to me of course.

Oh my stories also lack grammar I never could get proper grammar words are more interesting I let others do the fiddly grammar bits.

 

[Ace Morologist]

Now on to Mass Effect 3...

My Mass Effect 3 would begin some years after Cerberus has been stopped once and for all. Humanity is viewed with suspicion because of Cerberus's actions. How much suspicion is contingent upon whether Shepard revealed Cerberus's schemes or tried to cover it up. (If the latter, then that one annoying reporter has discovered the truth herself and outed it, making the other races actively angry with humanity.) Meanwhile, the Reapers have stirred to action thanks to the Illusive Man's efforts and they've worked out a way to sneak-attack a whole bunch of worlds. They can use their understanding of Mass Relay technology to go from where they're at in darkspace to any Mass Relay in the galaxy instantly. Only, they can't go en mass, so they're popping up seemingly at random to stage commando raids deep in enemy territory.

Thanks to intel recovered from Cerberus, however, galactic scientists figure out how to activate a one-way Mass Relay connection from the Citadel to a matching station in Reaper darkspace -- one that acts like a hive for the main mass of the Reapers' dreadnaughts. Shepard's ultimate mission is to help build up anti-Reaper defenses throughout the galaxy while gathering a team of specialists for a true suicide mission. Namely, he's to strike into the heart of Reaper darkspace with a secret weapon for use against the Reapers Dark Citadel to end the Reaper threat once and for all. The three possible endings are as follows:

1.) Trick the Reapers into believing they've done their job for this cycle and recall them. It puts off the invasion but doesn't solve whatever problem the Reapers exist to solve. It just foists both problems off onto future generations, leaving it up to the survivors to solve the problem the Reapers were supposed to solve.

2.) Send a destructive pulse from the Dark Citadel to the galactic Citadel and throughout the Mass Relay network to disrupt and permanently shut down the Reapers, effectively destroying them. Doing so, however, will also shut down the Mass Relays for an indeterminate amount of time (possibly forever) and will not solve whatever problem the Reapers exist to solve. BUT, the cycle of genocide will be over once and for all. Solving the problem in the Reapers' place is up to the survivors.

3.) Figure out, using Reaper technology and information Cerberus had, how to solve the problem the Reapers exist to solve. Doing so still involves going to the Dark Citadel but you have to go to a different more heavily guarded part and do different stuff. Whereas you can just take the Normandy and your crew for either of the first two options, you need a whole lot more ships and a whole lot more support to punch through the Reaper defenses well enough to accomplish this mission. Meaning you have to have done more of the side-mission minutia from this game and the two preceding in order to pull it off. Should you manage it, however, the Reapers find themselves suddenly without purpose and separate into the outer darkness to explore the rest of the universe in search of a new one, leaving your galaxy alone once and for all.

--Morology!

PS: Oh, and no multiplayer. Also, Shepard dies at the end of the third option from wounds taken getting to where he needs to be.

 

[Gatx]

Shepard dies at the end of Saren fight in Mass Effect 1 (you know, after they save your two party members, you don't heroically clamber over the rubble to do a heroic pose). Lazarus Project suddenly becomes a much better intro to ME2 since it doesn't require killing and resurrecting Shepard to happen within minutes.

ME2 should've had way more Ashley/Kaiden moments. The entire case with the exception of returning veterans ended up being unimportant to ME3 anyway other than to make you feel some warm fuzzies here and there anyway. Maybe like something like the game only having a fixed amount of money, so if you wanted to upgrade the guns, you wouldn't have enough left over to upgrade shields, ensuring that someone would HAVE to die on the suicide mission. It also really drives home the "choice" and "consequence" aspect of the series that's always touted rather than just "Did you do everything we put for you to do in the game? Okay you get the good ending." It would also make that one dream cutscene where the people you've left for dead come to make you feel guilty a lot more effective since in my game it was just Ashley and maybe Mordin I think (since the dream happens after Tuchanka) in my game. So for me it was like yeah, I stopped two galactic crises at the cost of two friends, no big deal.

 

[Robot Number V]

I have a couple of these, actually. In fact, I was thinking about making this thread.

Spoiler: 1. Uncharted 3

So anyone whose beaten the game knows there's a big, stupid section right in the middle that involves pirates and has basically nothing to do with the main plot of the game. I thought about it, and I think I figured out a way to incorporate it a little better. They established that Hitler was looking for the city, right? Well, let's say some of his some Nazi expedition found some kind of object that's supposed to help find the city, and were bringing it back by boat when they were attacked by enemy troops, or ran into a storm, or something. BAM! Instant ship-graveyard that's relevant to the plot. Easy.

Another thing I would change about this game is the ending. Rather then have Drake just ruin the climax early by stopping them from releasing the demon, let's say the demon actually gets out. Most of the ending would be exactly the same as it is, except, you know, with a demon chasing you. Towards the end, Drake has to help Sully escape the city and sacrifices himself in the process, getting himself buried in brass along with the demon. The whole time, people are warning Drake that he's messing with forces he doesn't understand, and he's going to get someone hurt. The way it is, this just....doesn't happen. No one gets hurt. Everything's fine. With my ending, Drake would actually learn a fucking lesson.

Spoiler: 2. Bioshock Infinite

One of the big complaints about this game's story is the vigors, and how poorly they fit into the rest of the game's narrative. I think this is a ridiculously easy fix. STEP 1: Make it so that all vigors are reserved for Comstock's forces, no one else. STEP 2: Instead of stealing guns for the Vox, have Booker and Elizabeth breaking into Comstock's Giant Vigor Vault instead. And instead of having some random, nigh unmentioned character create the vigors (I think it was Fink's brother or something?) just make it the Chinese Gunsmith instead. (Though obviously he'd have be a scientist instead of a gunsmith) There's no way I'm the first person to point out how easy that would've been, right?

 

[The Madman]

With the self-imposed rule of changing as little as possible, I'd say for Mass Effect 3 all that really 'needed' to change was the very ending, specifically everything past the moment the god-child is introduced right at the very end.

Personally I'd have done it much simpler: The Crucible *is* a weapon, and when activated it weakens the Reapers in much the same way killing Reaper-Saren weakened Sovereign in the first Mass Effect. Essentially stunning them for a short time and lowering their shields. Since we've seen this happen before there's already president for such an attack against them working.

Then from that point on it's time for your choices throughout the series to play out. The various forces you've brought to bear will be shown fighting the Reapers on a more balanced field. A player who sped through the game and barely did anything for example might not have the strength to win against the Reapers, resulting in a tragic 'bad ending' or some variance on a Pyrrhic victory where the cost of defeating the main reaper force was devastating beyond repair. Meanwhile a player who'd invested time into the series and done the side objectives, all while paying attention to the big picture, could see a cinematic of the fleets defeating the Reapers. Oh it would still be destructive as hell, with many sacrifices made and the Reaper threat broken but not entirely lost as lone survivors continue to plague remote colonies for decades to come, but it would be a definitive victory.

This would also provide the player a chance to see their decisions up to this point in action. For example If you had saved it in Mass Effect 1 you might see the Destiny Ascension bravely ram a Reaper, destroying both but giving the rest of the Asari fleet more of a chance.

Your loyalty to the crew and their personal status as well as that of the Normandy would be put to the test as well with a cinematic of it taking on Harbinger, adding a final bit of closure seeing as it has been the main antagonist among the Reapers for some time now. This would be done similarly to ME2's Suicide Mission with many characters survival hinging upon how you'd played the game.

And finally it would lead up to the moment where the surviving crew (If you wont the battle) find Shepard once all of the above is over. Cue dramatic sad scene where they gasp and cry out at seeing their leader on the brink of death. Cue final choices where the player decides whether they want this to be a tragic story or a more happy one. With her mission done does Shepard slip silently into death, or does she fight on to try and keep living? Up to the player.

Based upon that final choice you're then given the epilogues, which is something the actual ending sorely lacks. Short snippets depicting the universe in the future and, more importantly to most players, their companions fate as well as Shepards, should you survive. Think Dragon Age: Origins or Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhall, so it's not like Bioware hasn't done that before.

BAM, done. Satisfying conclusion where your choices matter without having to change anything else but the last final minutes of ME3.

That's how I'd have written it.

 

[The_Echo]

I'd rewrite Final Fantasy VII to have more direction and a faster/more consistent pace. Also, fix up some of the more awkward dialogue.

And I'd have Aerith die later in the game. Devote some real time to her character, her relationship with the other characters and her relationship to the player.

 

[Arrogancy]

I've given this a lot of thought to many series. The one I've been thinking about recently being Bioshock 2:

First off, get rid of Delta. He's superfluous and stupid. Instead, the game is centered around Eleanor as the main playable character.

The game begins with Eleanor as a child, going through the motions of being a Little Sister until her "rescue" by her mother. It then shifts forward toward her future, trapped in her own nightmares induced by her mother as she attempts to "perfect" Eleanor.

After breaking out of her own mind, Eleanor flees her mother's control, and tries to escape Rapture. This begins a tale through the bowels of Rapture, through insane cults and even stranger experiments. However, things become truly frightening when the Big Sisters appear. Recognizing Eleanor as a mature Sister, but not necessarily one of their own, one who hasn't gone through their reconditioning. She is hesitantly adopted by the Big Sisters, provided armor, given objectives, and tested.

As she progresses over days and weeks, Eleanor is increasingly integrated into their society, however, things continue to separate her from the Sisters, most notably her treatment of the Little Sisters, either positive or negative. This prompts a confrontation with the Big Sisters. After defeating several, she prompts a division within the Sisters society. Being trained assassins/bounty hunters, the Big Sisters value strength above all, and Eleanor, being different and stronger, becomes a kind of exemplar. The Big Sisters she defeats begin mimicking her. In turn, this prompts Eleanor to begin trying to empower the Big Sisters, providing them with additional plasmids and equipment such as she can scavenge.

After ending the division amongst the Sisters in whatever method deemed appropriate, Eleanor finally has the tools she needs to meet her mother and lead the escape of Rapture. After a battle, both psychological and physical, against her mother, Eleanor leads the Sisters to the surface, either to enter into the world, or to bring her wrath.

This is a rough, basic outline of a broader story I have sketched out in my mind that I doubt I could adequately or succinctly summarize.

 

[norashepard]

I would rewrite Skyrim and change just a couple things.

First I would add more varied job options. "Adventurer" is all well and good, but sometimes you just want to talk to people and get paid. Plus, it would add legitimacy to crafting 472 iron daggers if it was to sell them at a personal smithy shop. It wouldn't add much to the plot (and I mean, why try to save such a snoozefest), but it would make the world that much more intricate and, more importantly, liveable. It would also allow personal plotlines to be more robust. Skyrim was surprisingly hostile to RPers for a roleplaying game.

Secondly, I would replace the entire soundtrack with gangsta rap. Exploration music could be instrumentals, and combat could come in hard and fast with some wicked rhymes. It would be cool. AND it would have the double benefit of making literature snobs look really hard for a meaning behind the music. A definite plus.

Last, I would add some more goddamned elves and beast races. Like for real. Eight freaking bosmer women in the entire game? Come on! In Morrowind, there were a bajillion Dark Elves, but there were still a bajillion of everyone else too. In Skyrim it's like "Oh... you don't want to be a Nord? Ehhhh... Go play in the corner."

 

[Something Amyss]

Mass Effect 2 -- The whole Collectors thing bugged me. I loved the characters and the idea (and execution) of the loyalty missions. It was a fun game, but its premise was annoying.

Personally, what I find so annoying is the whole concept of "getting the band back together." Or, in this case, finding a new band. With blackjack. And hookers. And forget the loyalty missions!

This reeked of what a lot of second movies do when they don't have any ideas. Ghostbusters 2, for example. This one gets beat up a lot. After a big deal in the first movie, the guys get split up because ponies. This is done with the sole purpose of retreating the "getting together" deal from the first movie, complete with new rise to popularity and new montage before dealing with bad guy of the week.

Ghostbusters 2 stands out in my mind because, despite this rather large issue, I still find it massively entertaining.

However, there's a lot of pointless in ME2 that works just like that. Only boring. The game is a slog to begin with, and it starts off with a rather pointless death and rebirth. Then you have to deal with a council that despite your heroics and the definitive events of ME1 don't trust you because ponies and decide not to believe in an overarching threat because ponies. not only do you have to form your team up, now you have to ensure their loyalty because ponies. And then there's cerberus, which is almost wholly unnecessary. It feels like it's 90% retread.

I'm not going to do a whole rewrite of this game, but I would add real progression and probably drop the read herring. If we're to assume ME3 happens roughly as it does, I would also introduce hints to the future plot devices rather than dorpping them like giant asspulls in 3.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

I would rewrite Skyrim and change just a couple things.

First I would add more varied job options. "Adventurer" is all well and good, but sometimes you just want to talk to people and get paid. Plus, it would add legitimacy to crafting 472 iron daggers if it was to sell them at a personal smithy shop. It wouldn't add much to the plot (and I mean, why try to save such a snoozefest), but it would make the world that much more intricate and, more importantly, liveable. It would also allow personal plotlines to be more robust. Skyrim was surprisingly hostile to RPers for a roleplaying game.

Secondly, I would replace the entire soundtrack with gangsta rap. Exploration music could be instrumentals, and combat could come in hard and fast with some wicked rhymes. It would be cool. AND it would have the double benefit of making literature snobs look really hard for a meaning behind the music. A definite plus.

Last, I would add some more goddamned elves and beast races. Like for real. Eight freaking bosmer women in the entire game? Come on! In Morrowind, there were a bajillion Dark Elves, but there were still a bajillion of everyone else too. In Skyrim it's like "Oh... you don't want to be a Nord? Ehhhh... Go play in the corner."

I wanted to have my Khajiit thief J'kier settle down with a lovely lady/kitten after making enough money to buy half of Skyrim. No marriageable Khajiit in the entire freaking game. Really? Why? Also, I wanted the Thalmor to be a joinable faction for High Elves, with quests centered around capturing and killing Talos worshippers.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Wow, I can't actually think of anything right now except Mass Effect like the OP. The first game was ok story wise so I wouldn't have really changed anything. I would do the following though:

- In ME2 when Shepherd gets 'rebuilt' by Cerberus I would have spent some of the game hinting that they had earlier acquired some Reaper tech and experimented with it, keep dropping hints that the Illusive Man has actually somehow come in to contact with a Reaper and is possibly indoctrinated. Using this position the Reapers had put some of their gadgets in Shepherd which they don't activate until the middle-end of the story and she goes rogue. At this point you take control of the rest of your squad and have to fight against yourself oddly enough, Shepherd is knocked out and her subconscious does kung-fu battle against the Reaper tech in some kind of mind space and ultimately merges with the technology but boots out the Reaper influence. Illusive man claims he had no idea the Reapers could have done such a thing and he's really a cool guy, he'll buy Shepherd a drink some time.

- In ME3 Shepherd would ultimately use her Reaper tech to attempt to take over/reason with the Reapers using the whatchamacallit that you spent the game building. It would sort of connect the minds of all of the Reapers and let Shepherd do some mind kung-fu on them, only possible because she is now part Reaper. You'd get similar choices to the current ending just done better. 1) Reason with the Reapers, form an uneasy alliance; 2) Kill the bastards; 3) Join the Reapers on their quest to purge the galaxy of filthy organics; 4) Convince the Reapers to create a 'Star Child', then subject it to an eternity of pain for being poorly explained and generally shit. They think it's funny and let organic life off the hook now that they have an immortal being to torture instead.

I just think the idea of Shep's surgery could have done more plot wise other than bring her back, and since the Reapers are a big threat but they know Shepherd was capable of beating them/uniting the galaxy it might make sense for them to find a way to not just eliminate Shepherd but bring her over to their side and get her to do stuff. Rather than simple indoctrination they would want to put some tech in her so they can study her and see why she is so good at what she does, so taking over Cerberus and posing as them since they had significant resources (and Shepherd's body) would allow them to get her implanted as well as run her through tests of their choosing. The mission to stop the Collectors is a bit hard to explain unless there is a rogue Reaper involved who is potentially spoiling the big mission by being too obvious. So the Reapers get to train Shepherd and eliminate a problem to their nasty scheme at the same time.

Also space hamster would be a mission ally and there would be an Elcor mount for planet missions.

 

[Nimzabaat]

Bioshock Infinite

Spoiler

I couldn't get how when Booker A and Elizabeth A escaped from Comstock A (I'm using the term A for the first dimension characters) they still had the same motivations in dimensions B through however many. I mean once it is impossible to turn in your quest, the quest is over right? But what really didn't make sense is how Elizabeth/Anna A through F (?) killing Booker A long after he had fathered Elizabeth/Anna A "deleted" all of the Elizabeth/Annas including ones that he had nothing to do with. I mean to get rid of Elizabeth/Anna B, you'd have to kill Booker B, before she was conceived.

So I would have ended Bioshock Infinite thusly: Elizabeth/Anna A takes Booker A back to dimension A at the time when younger Booker A is attending the baptism, before he fathered her. Then Old Booker A kills Young Booker A (in front of the horrified onlookers, possibly clawing at him and trying to stop him) and Elizabeth/Anna A fades away. Everyone backs off because people fading away during a religious baptism may shock them into inaction. Then he goes through a last portal that either Elizabeth/Anna or the twins opened and sees a line of other Bookers all with the same haunted expression after having done the same thing. Finally the displaced twins show up and tell the Old Bookers A through ad nauseum that their slate is wiped clean. The End

Oh and for Mass Effect 3. I would have had the Reapers win. They've never lost before, no matter how hard every other species has tried. Not to mention that the Protheans fought for a hundred years or more before they were defeated and the Reapers had this cycles representatives on the ropes in a couple of days? There's no way we should have had a chance if we were losing that badly, that early. That, to me, is a good enough ending. Death is inevitable no matter how hard you struggle, it's the little things you do on the way that give your life meaning.

 

[ThatQuietGuy]

God of War 3, just gut the entire Pandora's box story. It was unnecessary, out of character, and ultimately didn't amount to much. It was like the game spent a third of it's story trying to retroactively justify it's own existence by drudging up some lore from the first game.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

I'd rewrite Final Fantasy VII to have more direction and a faster/more consistent pace. Also, fix up some of the more awkward dialogue.

And I'd have Aerith die later in the game. Devote some real time to her character, her relationship with the other characters and her relationship to the player.

Of course you can't delay it too much, or the player might have made her a key part of their party.

And I'm not sure if Cloud's cross-dressing desperately needs to be erased or must be preserved at all costs.

Anyway, I'd also pick a Final Fantasy, but one number off. I really want to rewrite Final Fantasy VIII. I liked basically every piece of the story and world individually, and disliked basically everything that happened. I'm not sure what I'd change precisely (beyond giving Ultimecia more character than...none), as almost everything felt like it got both too much and not enough focus, and I don't really want to cut most of it, but it needs lots of fixing.

 

[Fox12]

Bioshock Infinite

Spoiler

I couldn't get how when Booker A and Elizabeth A escaped from Comstock A (I'm using the term A for the first dimension characters) they still had the same motivations in dimensions B through however many. I mean once it is impossible to turn in your quest, the quest is over right? But what really didn't make sense is how Elizabeth/Anna A through F (?) killing Booker A long after he had fathered Elizabeth/Anna A "deleted" all of the Elizabeth/Annas including ones that he had nothing to do with. I mean to get rid of Elizabeth/Anna B, you'd have to kill Booker B, before she was conceived.

So I would have ended Bioshock Infinite thusly: Elizabeth/Anna A takes Booker A back to dimension A at the time when younger Booker A is attending the baptism, before he fathered her. Then Old Booker A kills Young Booker A (in front of the horrified onlookers, possibly clawing at him and trying to stop him) and Elizabeth/Anna A fades away. Everyone backs off because people fading away during a religious baptism may shock them into inaction. Then he goes through a last portal that either Elizabeth/Anna or the twins opened and sees a line of other Bookers all with the same haunted expression after having done the same thing. Finally the displaced twins show up and tell the Old Bookers A through ad nauseum that their slate is wiped clean. The End

Oh and for Mass Effect 3. I would have had the Reapers win. They've never lost before, no matter how hard every other species has tried. Not to mention that the Protheans fought for a hundred years or more before they were defeated and the Reapers had this cycles representatives on the ropes in a couple of days? There's no way we should have had a chance if we were losing that badly, that early. That, to me, is a good enough ending. Death is inevitable no matter how hard you struggle, it's the little things you do on the way that give your life meaning.

But here's the real question! If Elizabeth drowns Booker, than that means Elizabeth was never born! But then, who drowned Booker? It couldn't be Elizabeth, because she was never born, which means she couldn't go back in time to drown Booker! Which means Booker didn't drown, which means he went on to father Elizabeth, who in turn went on to drown Booker! That means she was never born! But if she was never born, then who drowned Booker? It couldn't be Elizabeth, because she was never born, which means she couldn't go back in time to-

I would give Bioshock Infinite a less convoluted ending. I would also have the city slowly fall apart over time, creating a better sense of pacing, instead of just randomly teleporting to a world where the fighting had already started. Honestly, the pacing in that game was awful.

 

[Nymi]

So there's that video game (or series thereof) that you wanted to like, but the story just didn't measure up. Let's take this opportunity to fantasize about how we would have done it. I'll start by aiming my wishful-thinking lens at the Mass Effect series.

Mass Effect -- Actually, I was pretty happy with how the first game worked out. It had its flaws, but no deal-breakers.

Mass Effect 2 -- The whole Collectors thing bugged me. I loved the characters and the idea (and execution) of the loyalty missions. It was a fun game, but its premise was annoying. Also, Cerberus was awful. So here's what I would have done:

Out beyond the space borders, entire colonies worth of sentient beings are disappearing. Shepard is promoted to Captain and is given a newer, better Normandy by the Citadel government to go investigate the disappearances. What he ultimately finds is that the Cerberus group has gone completely rogue and is turning kidnapped colonists into husks in order to build a new Reaper from parts scavenged from destroyed Sovereign and that derelict Reaper that the actual Mass Effect 2 already has. They're doing this because the Illusive Man is indoctrinated and has come to believe in the Reapers' cause. (We also get to learn what the Reapers' cause really is -- i.e., why they come to wipe everything out, what problem they believe they're solving, and who created them.) The Illusive Man wants to use his Frankenstein Reaper to re-send the activation signal through the Citadel and reactivate the Citadel Mass Relay to bring on the Reaper invasion. It's up to Shepard and his assembled crew to stop this madness and put an end to Cerberus once and for all. Cerberus is stopped and the skeleton of the Reaper it's managed to finish thus far is destroyed, but not before the Illusive Man gets a message back to Reaper Central out in darkspace. This message sets things in motion...

The big moral dilemma at the end is whether to share what Cerberus knew and figured out about the Reapers with the rest of the Citadel races (thus exposing what Cerberus was up to) or cover up Cerberus' crimes, sit on the information it discovered and hope the galaxy's races are content with the fact that no more colonies will be disappearing.

--Morology!

A much simpler plot in some ways that's not nearly as compelling. Also, your moral choice isn't really a moral choice in the way the one in the game itself is. Your choice is just "Good guy" vs. "Asshole for no perceivable reason." That, at least, Mass Effect avoided excellently in most cases. Contrary to a lot of other games.

 

[The_Echo]

Of course you can't delay it too much, or the player might have made her a key part of their party.

Well, I already had her set up as a mage/healer that I took with me whenever possible, so...

And I'm not sure if Cloud's cross-dressing desperately needs to be erased or must be preserved at all costs.

It's no question; Cloud will always say yes to the dress.

But here's the real question! If Elizabeth drowns Booker, than that means Elizabeth was never born! But then, who drowned Booker? It couldn't be Elizabeth, because she was never born, which means she couldn't go back in time to drown Booker!

The Booker we play as has himself branded in repentance for selling Anna. Elizabeth was already born from that Booker.

 

[Cybylt]

So there's that video game (or series thereof) that you wanted to like, but the story just didn't measure up. Let's take this opportunity to fantasize about how we would have done it. I'll start by aiming my wishful-thinking lens at the Mass Effect series.

Mass Effect -- Actually, I was pretty happy with how the first game worked out. It had its flaws, but no deal-breakers.

Mass Effect 2 -- The whole Collectors thing bugged me. I loved the characters and the idea (and execution) of the loyalty missions. It was a fun game, but its premise was annoying. Also, Cerberus was awful. So here's what I would have done:

Out beyond the space borders, entire colonies worth of sentient beings are disappearing. Shepard is promoted to Captain and is given a newer, better Normandy by the Citadel government to go investigate the disappearances. What he ultimately finds is that the Cerberus group has gone completely rogue and is turning kidnapped colonists into husks in order to build a new Reaper from parts scavenged from destroyed Sovereign and that derelict Reaper that the actual Mass Effect 2 already has. They're doing this because the Illusive Man is indoctrinated and has come to believe in the Reapers' cause. (We also get to learn what the Reapers' cause really is -- i.e., why they come to wipe everything out, what problem they believe they're solving, and who created them.) The Illusive Man wants to use his Frankenstein Reaper to re-send the activation signal through the Citadel and reactivate the Citadel Mass Relay to bring on the Reaper invasion. It's up to Shepard and his assembled crew to stop this madness and put an end to Cerberus once and for all. Cerberus is stopped and the skeleton of the Reaper it's managed to finish thus far is destroyed, but not before the Illusive Man gets a message back to Reaper Central out in darkspace. This message sets things in motion...

The big moral dilemma at the end is whether to share what Cerberus knew and figured out about the Reapers with the rest of the Citadel races (thus exposing what Cerberus was up to) or cover up Cerberus' crimes, sit on the information it discovered and hope the galaxy's races are content with the fact that no more colonies will be disappearing.

--Morology!

So... you'd replay 1? That's pretty much what it comes across as anyway, all you did was Search/Replace "Saren" with "Cerberus" and "Illusive Man" where applicable.

The final choice you offer feels a bit weak as well, sharing the info comes off as clearly advantageous since it helps everyone while the other is set to completely bite you in the ass because you don't trust the aliens for... reasons. You were never put into a position where you owed Cerberus that secrecy, they weren't doing anything good for anyone in this story line.

My Mass Effect 3 would begin some years after Cerberus has been stopped once and for all. Humanity is viewed with suspicion because of Cerberus's actions. How much suspicion is contingent upon whether Shepard revealed Cerberus's schemes or tried to cover it up. (If the latter, then that one annoying reporter has discovered the truth herself and outed it, making the other races actively angry with humanity.)

Humans being distrusted as a whole because of a singular group's actions is kind of dumb, unless you covered for them, and you never had reason to do that in the first place as I pointed out above.

Meanwhile, the Reapers have stirred to action thanks to the Illusive Man's efforts and they've worked out a way to sneak-attack a whole bunch of worlds. They can use their understanding of Mass Relay technology to go from where they're at in darkspace to any Mass Relay in the galaxy instantly. Only, they can't go en mass, so they're popping up seemingly at random to stage commando raids deep in enemy territory.

Reapers... doing covert commando strikes when they have both superior numbers and firepower... wut? Reapers whole deal is swarm and overrun and there's no good reason to have them do this.

Thanks to intel recovered from Cerberus, however, galactic scientists figure out how to activate a one-way Mass Relay connection from the Citadel to a matching station in Reaper darkspace -- one that acts like a hive for the main mass of the Reapers' dreadnaughts.

That's... actually not bad, pretty good really. Though it ignores their self-sufficiency.

The potential endings offered just come across as bad, good, golden too, the cost of the best ending is even an afterthought. It also ignores the idea of choice in the games, you simply get rewarded for more work in sidequesting and little to no consideration put into moral choices/player alignment.

Shepard dies at the end of Saren fight in Mass Effect 1 (you know, after they save your two party members, you don't heroically clamber over the rubble to do a heroic pose). Lazarus Project suddenly becomes a much better intro to ME2 since it doesn't require killing and resurrecting Shepard to happen within minutes.

ME2 should've had way more Ashley/Kaiden moments. The entire case with the exception of returning veterans ended up being unimportant to ME3 anyway other than to make you feel some warm fuzzies here and there anyway. Maybe like something like the game only having a fixed amount of money, so if you wanted to upgrade the guns, you wouldn't have enough left over to upgrade shields, ensuring that someone would HAVE to die on the suicide mission. It also really drives home the "choice" and "consequence" aspect of the series that's always touted rather than just "Did you do everything we put for you to do in the game? Okay you get the good ending." It would also make that one dream cutscene where the people you've left for dead come to make you feel guilty a lot more effective since in my game it was just Ashley and maybe Mordin I think (since the dream happens after Tuchanka) in my game. So for me it was like yeah, I stopped two galactic crises at the cost of two friends, no big deal.

This I agree with a lot more. I'll also add, get rid of the kid entirely, especially in its Expository Space Baby incarnation. Either change that setup entirely or swap out the kid with who you left on Virmire, plus everyone else who died over the games so in the dreams you're faced with a legion of death instead of bland child nobody else even acknowledges who spouts a creepy line that makes little sense.

So you'd have Ashley/Kaiden, Jenkins, Presley, other crew members who died in the Normandy, the first council/ship commanders of the human fleet who died in the battle over the citadel. Sounds more visually compelling to me anyway. And you still get rid of the Expository Space Baby incarnation, instead placing the reaper's motivation threads in the first and second games, revealing entirely early on in 3 and not the last five minutes. The moral of the story and key antagonist motivations shouldn't be revealed in the last five minutes of 60+ hours, that's just stupid.

The whole "We are beyond your understanding" deal is fine for the first game but when you plan 3 games and it's still being used in the second and third acts/games that's just shouting "We didn't think this far ahead... at all."

Honestly 2's core story offers a very shaky foundation for any future plot developments because it does the whole "getting the band back together" arc. There'd need to be very big changes to it and even bigger changes to 3 to get it to work.