Mass Effect 3 Trailer Confirms Earth is Screwed

[jamescorck]

I honestly don't know how to feel about the announcement. I am happy, confused, cheerful, dissapointed and excited. I will make myself clear right now.

When I saw the trailer, the first one, I already expected a Mass Effect spin-off based on the first contact war. That could have been good enough for me, as I want to know more about that event that had the humans and the turians at each others throats. I kept this up until this morning when I saw that, in fact, it is Mass Effect 3.

Before jumping into the conclusions I get from this trailer, I would like to mention how I feel about this. I am really happy that we will get the conclusion to this epic sci-fi story next year instead of having to wait three years for it. This might be a double-edged sword, as I don't know how BioWare will imply gameplay improvements with just months before they release the game, so just for the possibility of them cutting corners my excitement is reduced and so I will preserve my hype until I see gameplay footage of it. And now, to the conclusions I get from the trailer.

I am pretty sure that, for those who couldn't have their Shepard to survive the end of the second game they will be given the option to play as the guy with the sniper rifle in the trailer. That would be awesome. For those who managed to keep Shepard alive, the sniper rifle guy may be a new squad member.

Since it's Earth that is under attack, what might be preventing Shepard from grabbing the Normandy and going to the closest Mass Relay? Maybe the Mass Relays will get disconnected or jammed, forcing Shepard to travel the Galaxy for a long time before reaching Earth and so elongating the gameplay time.

Now, we got stablished that Shepard's going to Earth. What if your Shepard was a Colonist, a Spacer or an Earth-born? Will that affect the character? Will Shep be amused for seeing Earth for the first time or will he/she just complain about how nothing changed? Also, it will be nice to see more developement of the love interest in the third part.

TL;DR - I am keeping myself calmed about ME 3, not hyping it nor making any preconceptions at least until I see gameplay footage of it. They just need to bring back the planet exploration mechanic with the new Firewalker and that will make the game better than the second.

 

[Broken Orange]

Maybe they could do a "Dragon Age: Awakening"? Defend earth, defeat them, then chase after them to their base of operations?

 

[GloatingSwine]

Hooray for new mass effect, but this does appear to indicate that the whole plot of Mass Effect 1 was completely irrelevant because the Reapers could just turn up whenever the fuck they pleased.

 

[Grahav]

Looks like Gantz.

 

[Blondi3]

Can't wait...don't really care about the hype or trailer. Just happy to know that ME3 is coming out!

 

[Epictank of Wintown]

...you realize that the Citadel is much, much closer to the Galactic Core and much, much more heavily defended than Earth, do you not?

You also realize that Humanity has been a rather prominent thorn in the Reapers' side this whole time, what with Shepard being 'lol i ruin ur planzzzzz,' right?

Step back from your impotent rage for a moment and consider that it actually MAKES SENSE for the Reapers to hit Earth first. We're on the trailing edge of the Perseus arm, very close to "black space" out past the edge of the galaxy. Where do the Reapers come from? Oh! That's right! Black space, past the edge of the galaxy.

Also consider that we don't know, at all, the size of the Reaper fleets or how many ships and indoctrinated soldiers they have under their command. For all we know, from this trailer, they could be using the divide and conquer strategy. Hit several of the Citadel worlds all at the same time and, when the fleets protecting the Citadel are deployed to their homeworlds, punch right through the middle and retake it.

Then again, that would be asking the entirety of the internet to take a step back and think for a moment before assessing the strategy of the situation and looking at it from all sides.

This is what we know from the trailer, and I quote:

-Earth. It be fucked. Hard.
-That English guy is a BAMF.
-Big Ben needs a fixer upper.
-Reapers have lasers.

That's it. That's all.

But why waste resources on such an unimportant target anyway, compared to the Citadel.
Why not just go for it and crush it as soon as possible seeing as its the most obvious and biggest threat?

You have some good points, and I admit my first criticism wasn't thought out very well anyway, my main subject of bitchery is the fact it just looks so damn typical and done to death.

They could have done anything in this trailer, but they show a place which while obviously pretty damn important has been hardly mentioned or shown in game getting blown up by barely shown metal squid monsters while whole thing is basically screaming 'Oh noes!', attempting to make the viewer 'emotionally invested' or something like that.

Its almost like when a dev makes a game with a generic character and they say, 'This is Generic Game Dude No.7348238418. Feel for him.'

Maybe, but again, this is only the teaser trailer for the third game in a very, very popular series of games- anyone that's going to be interested is generally going to know the story so far and such.

On another note, Earth is a rather important target. If you've read your codexes, humanity has the second largest fleet in Citadel space, just behind the Turians. The other Citadel species are also somewhat intimidated by humanity because of our military prowess. Combine that with the fact that Harbinger said that the Reapers have 'plans' for humanity makes it a perfect storm, so to speak, of 'lolbyeEarth.'

 

[Ir0n Squid]

...you realize that the Citadel is much, much closer to the Galactic Core and much, much more heavily defended than Earth, do you not?

You also realize that Humanity has been a rather prominent thorn in the Reapers' side this whole time, what with Shepard being 'lol i ruin ur planzzzzz,' right?

Step back from your impotent rage for a moment and consider that it actually MAKES SENSE for the Reapers to hit Earth first. We're on the trailing edge of the Perseus arm, very close to "black space" out past the edge of the galaxy. Where do the Reapers come from? Oh! That's right! Black space, past the edge of the galaxy.

Also consider that we don't know, at all, the size of the Reaper fleets or how many ships and indoctrinated soldiers they have under their command. For all we know, from this trailer, they could be using the divide and conquer strategy. Hit several of the Citadel worlds all at the same time and, when the fleets protecting the Citadel are deployed to their homeworlds, punch right through the middle and retake it.

Then again, that would be asking the entirety of the internet to take a step back and think for a moment before assessing the strategy of the situation and looking at it from all sides.

This is what we know from the trailer, and I quote:

-Earth. It be fucked. Hard.
-That English guy is a BAMF.
-Big Ben needs a fixer upper.
-Reapers have lasers.

That's it. That's all.

But why waste resources on such an unimportant target anyway, compared to the Citadel.
Why not just go for it and crush it as soon as possible seeing as its the most obvious and biggest threat?

You have some good points, and I admit my first criticism wasn't thought out very well anyway, my main subject of bitchery is the fact it just looks so damn typical and done to death.

They could have done anything in this trailer, but they show a place which while obviously pretty damn important has been hardly mentioned or shown in game getting blown up by barely shown metal squid monsters while whole thing is basically screaming 'Oh noes!', attempting to make the viewer 'emotionally invested' or something like that.

Its almost like when a dev makes a game with a generic character and they say, 'This is Generic Game Dude No.7348238418. Feel for him.'

You got to figure the psychological impact on the attack. Earth, in the hearts and minds of all humans, is pictured as invincible, untouchable. It's not the seat of Political or Military power in the Alliance (Arcturus Station takes that role) but it still holds that "Ye Motherland" aspect of it... Crush Earth, crush the morale of any coherent counter attack.

 

[JediMB]

I thought the Reapers were supposed to be efficient machines that can conquer a planet in a matter of days (or hours), how is Shepherd running around the galaxy for days/months/whatever going to save the Earth in time again?

As Vigil stated in the original game, the Reapers spent hundreds of years on wiping out the Protheans, and that was under the ideal circumstances where they were able to start by taking control over the Citadel.

Now the Reapers are instead striking at what is probably the most well-protected human planet in the galaxy, with the overall infrastructure of the Systems Alliance still working to send in reinforcements. Needless to say, the harvesting process might be slowed down a bit.

 

[RewardMe]

The voice actor is Sean Bean. Or for anyone living outside of england you may know him as Boromir from lord of the rings.

Wait, is he credited? I recognized the similarity in the voice, but are you sure that's him? Because if it is and Richard Sharpe XIII isn't in your squad, I will be very dissapointed.

His not credited. Some people have put another name out there and it does sound like him aswell. When i first watched it i could of sworn it was sean bean, having grown up on sharpe myself. But now i'm starting to doubt myself.

I still think it's sean, though. His just lowering his voice for DRAMATIC EFFECT.

EDIT: No one has been credited yet for the voiceover. Not sure why.

 

[RedDeadFred]

The reason they are going after Earth first is because they clearly think humans have the potential to be the most dangerous and adaptive.
Hence why the collectors were trying to make a human reaper.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I'm not surprised at all that the Reapers are going to Earth. And not because its the classic "Earth is always attacked first" cliche used in Sci-fi stories. It actually makes sense in the ME universe. In ME2 the Reapers (and by extension the Collectors) took an interest in humanity due to Shepard's actions. Only make sense that the Reapers would hit Earth in their first wave. I'm sure though that other planets are being attacked as well. Perhaps the home planets of all Citadel races are being hit. Cut of the collective heads of the resistance, mop up the rest. Thats a sound military plan. Plus the Reapers are coming in from outside the galaxy. We denied them the use of the Citidel in ME1 so they can't just teleport in through there, so coming in from the outside and just wiping us out as they go along makes sense. Or they're just making an example of Earth in particular, "You're precious Shepard is a human and has done so much to save you from us. But look at how easily we destroyed his species home planet. You guys are FUCKED." Shock attack essentially.

Although I do hope that Shepard doesn't spend too much time on Earth. If ME3 is anything like the first two, it won't be, and Shepard will instead be out collecting allies for a fight against the Reapers. You might have to make a majority morality choice in helping out Earth like either helping to evacute surviving citizens and military forces from the planet or focusing your actions elsewhere and leaving Earth to die.

And I doubt that this will be indicative of the game as a whole. Both of the trailers for ME 1 & 2 didn't really show how the game would be played, they just sort of revealed the atmosphere. I have faith in Bioware, they'll make ME3 good. At least story-wise, which is the most important for me right now.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I just thought of an epic moral decision. The Reapers are probably gonna attack multiple planets, not just Earth. You have to decide which planets to bring the Galaxy's forces to first. Obviously some are just going to be wiped out.

 

[MisterShine]

Spoiler: Yeah, this will pretty much kill ME2 for you if you haven't played it.

It would've been fine if they'd just changed one simple thing: if they'd had you fighting a regular reaper that was fueled by mashed-up people, that would've been fine and exciting, as well as still giving us the cool boss fight. As it is, you wound up fighting a half-finished terminator-- one that was constructed by the Reapers. The Reapers are, mind you, a race of eldritch near-omniscient Lovecraftian horrors that can bend reality and the minds of others to their will, vaporize planets from orbit in a matter of hours, and destroy entire fleets with their periphery defenses.

What did they need a big human skeleton for? Was it gonna punch spaceships or something? Seriously--why?

So yeah, it's more of an aesthetic complaint than a story one. But hey, it's a pretty big gripe all the same.

I always assumed that the Crustacean-oid shell we always see on reapers is surrounding

Spoiler: Me2 ending spoilers

the "native" form of whatever species was turned into smoothies to make it. Hence why the reaper is called a "larva", it doesn't have its shell yet. Maybe that's a bit of fridge logic though. Or brilliance?

 

[nightwolf667]

I thought the Reapers were supposed to be efficient machines that can conquer a planet in a matter of days (or hours), how is Shepherd running around the galaxy for days/months/whatever going to save the Earth in time again?

As Vigil stated in the original game, the Reapers spent hundreds of years on wiping out the Protheans, and that was under the ideal circumstances where they were able to start by taking control over the Citadel.

Now the Reapers are instead striking at what is probably the most well-protected human planet in the galaxy, with the overall infrastructure of the Systems Alliance still working to send in reinforcements. Needless to say, the harvesting process might be slowed down a bit.

A galaxy is a very LARGE place, it would take centuries to steamroll and eradicate all intelligent life even if the enemy in question was highly efficient. The planet Earth however is a very small one, with a tendency to group it's intelligent lifeforms in large population centers. The Reapers should still have the potential to harvest them (that is still a really dumb plot twist) in a matter of days, not weeks, not months, days. Like you said, they've been doing this for a hell of a long time, no matter how much of their plan has been interrupted it shouldn't slow this part of the process down that much.

What I'm saying is that if you have to leave to come back with an enemy that's been set up the way the Reapers have been, it's already too late. Time to fall back to colonies outside the solar system, make your stand there, count your losses and call it good.

It may be that like in Dragon Age, they'll start on the outer colonies and work their way inward. Supposedly giving you the months you need to gather and mobilize your armies and whatever. It's still moronic, not to mention cliche. But no worse than what I was expecting them to do. As someone else noted, the Reapers get less effective and less machine-like with each installment. Their motivations in the second game made little sense in reference to the first. For me, it doesn't make Shepherd look awesome, it makes them (and the writers) look incredibly incompetent.

I was sick to death of Dragon Age by the time I finished it. I don't need to play it in shooter format IN SPACE! So, I probably won't.

 

[Chelsizzle]

Definitely flailed my arms a little when I saw this on the VGAs.

Oh, and looking through some of the posts here people still think that if you died in ME2 you can transfer the save over. You can't. So if you died in ME2, you'd have to either transfer a new game were your Shepard is alive or (presumably) start another one in ME3. So this BA sniper guy won't replace Shepard.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

So basically doing everything in ME2 to save earth as a massive waste of time?

You weren't fighting to save just Earth in ME2, you were fighting for humanity everywhere in the galaxy. A slightly major difference, there.

Yes but the Collectors next target was Earth (and even if it wasn't I'm pretty sure Earth is part of "Humanity everywhere in the Galaxy")

Seems to me like Shepard could've just stayed dead the entire second game and not a lot would have changed.

The Collectors would not have gone after Earth. They were hitting the Outer Verge/Terminus colonies for the sole purpose of remaining incognito to the rest of the galaxy. They didn't want to have their presence known beyond those they worked with, as that could severely complicate their plans (people would know the truth about the harvested colonies) and possibly defeat them (force them to retreat back into the Omega 4 Relay and let knowledge of their presence slowly die off once again - if the Reapers didn't kill them first for failure). The only way the Collectors would have dared Earth, was alongside a Reaper armada.

They may be tough for the Normandy, but even they can't simply destroy an entire Alliance fleet themselves. And still, no less, that was never their objective from the Reapers to begin with.

 

[[Gavo]]

ME2 perfectly ended. It shouldn't continue because it's going to ruin the story... Well for me.

Wait, what? Ended perfectly? What about the part where

Spoiler

There's about 1,000 Reapers closing in on the galaxy?

 

[teebeeohh]

i don't think it will be set on earth
maybe the finale and the attack on earth might work well as a framing device, only problem is: how do you explain doing side mission while earth is destroyed?(maybe the reapers shut off all mass relays to earth and we have to wait for 25+ hours of gameplay for mordin and his team of singing scientist to open them again)