ME3: Why do the reapers all look the same?

[Woodsey]

They look the same to you? You humans are all racist!

But really, the answer is the same answer you can apply to almost any Bioware-related question:

The game was rushed and Bioware was lazy, that's it.

I figured it was mainly EA's fault. Didn't they only get two years to work on this, as opposed to four to five years for the older games?

The previous games had 3 years each (assuming work began on ME2 right after the first was shipped), this had 2 - which isn't really a cut-down considering they have most of their assets in place, what they wanted out of the engine done and dusted, the combat mostly finalised, and no doubt a much larger team accrued by the time they began work on the third.

OT: I'm sure the whole squid-look is a type of armour/uniform/gimp suit. So I imagine the answer's not that much different to why people in military uniforms look much the same; because they didn't call each other beforehand and co-ordinate.

 

[Quesa]

It's perfectly plausible that the Reapers are completely recreated in the centuries before they leave for hibernation and none of the previous cycle's shells remain, but obviously laziness was the key element here.


I was more annoyed at how they insisted on marching around like giant lizards while being bombarded from orbit or fighting land based organisms.

 

[King of Asgaard]

I am Commander Shepard and I approve of this incredibly racist thread.

 

[ThriKreen]

Always thought the scuttlefish exterior hid a cyborg version of the race that has been harvested (that the human reaper from me2). So to see what a reaper really looks like, have to pop open the shell to take a peek.

It's what I've been assuming up to this point anyways.

Ding.

Recall how big the human reaper was in ME2 (about what, 50', 5 stories tall?), then how big Sovereign was in ME1 (grabbing onto one of the arms of the Citadel).

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Resource management. People normally don't give a fuck so why should they bother with needless flourishes. Why don't all the Geth look different? Why over the course of 3 games I have yet to see a FEMALE Turian?

Also they're potentially a combination off the varieties they harvested, features from bits and pieces of each.

 

[Zhukov]

It explains this somewhere in the codex thingy.

The thorn bug/cuttlefish form is like armour or a shell. Inside they presumably all look different.

Of course, the real reason for this is that they just couldn't be arsed coming up with a unique design for each reaper.

nope.

in mass effect 2, they gave a shit.
see:[Bigass image that did weird things to my inbox]
in 3 they didnt

Why are you quoting my posts from nearly a year ago?

Also, having five or six vaguely different looking reapers in a ten second, pre-rendered cutscene is a rather different kettle of fish to designing, modelling and animating dozens of unique reapers throughout an entire game.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

Edit: Nevermind, didn't realise that the thread was dead.

Heheh. Rhymes.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Holy hell, am I seriously the only person here who knows about Mass Effect 3: Leviathan? Christ, they literally tell you how the reapers came about and why they look like they do.

I know, dead thread, but seriously you guys.

 

[endtherapture]

Holy hell, am I seriously the only person here who knows about Mass Effect 3: Leviathan? Christ, they literally tell you how the reapers came about and why they look like they do.

I know, dead thread, but seriously you guys.

This was before Leviathan came out.

Seems like pretty important information? Why wasn't it in the main game? Bioware fails again.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Holy hell, am I seriously the only person here who knows about Mass Effect 3: Leviathan? Christ, they literally tell you how the reapers came about and why they look like they do.

I know, dead thread, but seriously you guys.

This was before Leviathan came out.

Seems like pretty important information? Why wasn't it in the main game? Bioware fails again.

Oh. My fault, then.

It's certainly interesting information, but hardly important. I mean, really, it doesn't have any bearing on the main game. Yeah, there was that bit about the human Reaper in ME2, but it could've been replaced with pretty much any doomsday weapon and had the same overall effect on the narrative.

 

[Doom972]

The "Human Reaper" you see in ME2, is actually the Reaper's core, and not how it would've looked if it was completed. All finished flagship reapers have the same general shape, but different markings.

 

[Tom_green_day]

What's wrong with all the huge, omnipotent, god-like enemies to look the same?
Why do all the pirates in FC3 look the same? Why do all the supermutants in Fallout or draugr in Skyrim look the same? To show that they're the villain and you automatically associate that shape to the evil deeds that they have done. I think that having all enemies in a game like this look the same is perfectly fine. I'd have been annoyed if they looked different as it would be unnecessary.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

What's wrong with all the huge, omnipotent, god-like enemies to look the same?
Why do all the pirates in FC3 look the same? Why do all the supermutants in Fallout or draugr in Skyrim look the same? To show that they're the villain and you automatically associate that shape to the evil deeds that they have done. I think that having all enemies in a game like this look the same is perfectly fine. I'd have been annoyed if they looked different as it would be unnecessary.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[Emiscary]

Real reason: lazy/cheap game design.

Contrived and nonsensical reason: go fork up the money for "Levitation" (or w.e the fuck their newest dead albatross-DLC tack on is called) and slog through it if you'd like it.

 

[The_Lost_King]

Because we see every single Reaper in the galaxy during the course of the game, and there are absolutely no Reapers with any differences in design (*cough*Destroyers*cough*).

1 other model out of 100's of cycles worth of aliens, you're right! His complaint doesn't make sense at all. Everyone look at this guys post and see the light!

/really heavy sarcasm