Shepard Can Lose in Mass Effect 3

[Manji187]

I wonder whether it will be an extended "cutscene failure" (like Joker's death) or something more substantial...like playing for several hours in the knowledge that everything is lost and everyone will die....one by one...until Commander Shepard's head contents will be smeared over some fancy metal wall in an ending FMV.

It can never be natural failure though...cuz at some moment the game will yank control away from you to tell you that "Now you've lost and can't continue".

Even if your previous decisions will have contributed to your downfall...if they are anything like the Paragon/ Renegade dialogue options they will be easily side-stepped. In other words...you will most likely only fail if you ACTIVELY CHOOSE TO FAIL.

That would suck because it's not exactly imaginitive.

EDIT: The best failure is failure that comes as a surprise but makes complete sense in the mind of the player. It is also practically impossible to pull off.

 

[CalPal]

Wait ... exactly the same feature as ME2 had? Only now they expect me to believe that holograms can stab? I'm sorry. I liked Mass Effect when it was still slightly Science Fiction.

Then you'll be happy to know that one of the staff members at Bioware - can't remember if it's Casey Hudson or Preston Watamaniuk - confirmed that the omni-blades are a combination of kinetic barriers and something else. As we speak, I'm trying to find the original source, which was on a twitter post from one of them.

 

[ProtoChimp]

Whats this "Origin" thing?

 

[PingoBlack]

Then you'll be happy to know that one of the staff members at Bioware - can't remember if it's Casey Hudson or Preston Watamaniuk - confirmed that the omni-blades are a combination of kinetic barriers and something else. As we speak, I'm trying to find the original source, which was on a twitter post from one of them.

Right. Instead of metal or ceramic blade, arm mounted and powered by Eezo motor, they want to sell me solid holograms?

Too bad they threw Drew over to ToR, eh?

 

[Kopikatsu]

Oh no.. I can see where this is going. I can be a very good Shepard, who acts noble and goes out of my way to help everyone out. Next thing I know, the ending of the game ends up screwing me over spite all the efforts I put into bringing peace. That's not.. cool. It can also be said for people who act tough, or just don't see the bad ending coming.

I am not against people who prefer or like the idea of failing.. but in an RPG game where you're the only fate that not only humanity has, but the whole galaxy has.. there is a quote that defines the main role of Shepard:

Failure is not an option.

Have you never played a tabletop RPG? Not only was failure an option...it was generally probable. Depends on how sadistic your DM was and what game you were playing.

Interested again. Though personally, I would actually prefer a no win scenario. No matter what you do, how hard you fight, who you recruit, all you can do is minimize losses and buy time for a few ships of refugees to escape while the universe burns.

I'm pretty sure that if the Reapers win, there will be no refugees to save.

Besides, Bioware hates making players face consequences for their actions - we all know that.

It's not just Bioware. It's sad, but these companies see us not as mature people who can handle this kind of thing, even if it goes bad and results in 'losing' the game, but it's shit like this:

Most games I play these days have that happen. You then start again from your last save and don't fuck it up.

That stops us having nice things. As long as people can just turn around and instantly undo any 'bad' choice, then devs are not exactly going to be keen to really write in things and code parts of the game, which can and will be ignored by most gamers, because most gamers are weak.

A lot of people won't have played Deus Ex yet, so I don't want to spoil, but early on there is a very real possibilty to fail an innocent woman, resulting in her death. Methinks most players that fail that challenge(like I did), will restart and do it 'right'(Which I didn't. I chose to have both myself and Adam live with that).

And if they made the endgame of ME3/the build up of it, actually challenging in a real way, and thus made failing right at the finish quite a real possibility, then I guarantee that a small number of us would be deeply impressed, but a HUGE number would be seriously put off.

I actually succeeded on my first try...I also won every other argument on the first try. Aside from when you accuse that one guy of murder because I couldn't remember all of the details of the case. I didn't restart when I failed to get the 1000 EXP bonus though.

 

[Jake the Snake]

I'm guessing you'd have to fail catastrophically for the reapers to win.

 

[Somethingfake]

"In Mass Effect 3, the theme is literally galactic extinction..."

So what were the other two about, returning late tax forms?

 

[Cenequus]

Too bad because of the Origin factor in the equation.

The Mass Effect trilogy is too good to catch flak from those knuckleheads at EA.

Can someone please tell me what Origin is? Everyone goes on about it but I've not seen anything which explains exactly what it is and what it does. I can only assume it's some kind of DRM.

No it's not it's EA's online shop,like Steam D2D etc. And funny thing is you don't even need Origin to install and play the game. So don't mind the Steam fanboys and enjoy your games.

 

[Whateveralot]

Wait ... exactly the same feature as ME2 had? Only now they expect me to believe that holograms can stab? I'm sorry. I liked Mass Effect when it was still slightly Science Fiction.

With "visceral" "edgy" "insert bad hype here" stabby holographic UIs they completely lost me on Science part.
When they started outsourcing their design decisions to Facebook votes, then added EA Origin, the case was shut for me.

Sad that all BioWare PR is now handled by EA, people that brought you Dead Space 2 comercial ...

Errr...who started a discussion about the meelee in ME3 here? No-one did. And about Origin? Is it about Origin? No it isn't either. Irrelevant post is irrelevant. Either way, "slightly science fiction" doesn't excist, as much as it's "slightly 2011" this year.

The Omni-blade is as much part of the game as anything else in the Mass Effect universe. There's nothing you should believe. It's all a bit silly. Faster-than-light travel? Really, do you believe science today has proven this is possible? I find the omni-blade more feasable than that to be honest. Still it's about as feasable as a lightsaber, but it doesn't sound as impossible. You just sound allergic to chagne.

Resorting to Facebook was a very smart move. All companies strive for optimal customer satisfaction. The best way to do this is by finding out what customers want. Market research is getting outdated and the new way to go is through social media. It's all done so YOU get what YOU want. They're actually listening to you now; what's so bad about that?

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

Oh no.. I can see where this is going. I can be a very good Shepard, who acts noble and goes out of my way to help everyone out. Next thing I know, the ending of the game ends up screwing me over spite all the efforts I put into bringing peace. That's not.. cool. It can also be said for people who act tough, or just don't see the bad ending coming.

I know what you mean. Last time I played ME2, I did all the loyalty missions, upgraded the ship, learn enough about my teammates to pick the right people for the Collector Base, and the game still ended with Shepard and everyone dead.

Oh wait. That's what happens when you don't go the extra mile.

 

[PingoBlack]

And funny thing is you don't even need Origin to install and play the game. So don't mind the Steam fanboys and enjoy your games.

Are you sure about that?
Like Steam, Origin is a DRM system as well, one BF3 will use.

You think ME3 will not?

 

[CalPal]

Remember Pinnacle Station? Shitty DLC, yes, but that helps prove that this is possible.

Also, think about it this way: it would be 10x more convenient for a soldier to have a knife that weighs nothing versus a metal-blade knife that can increase weight on body armor that already looks like it's heavy as shit, so the Omni-blade would have to be a more preferable choice from a practical view.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

ME 1 and 2 are one of the few games if played through a number of times making different choice to see all the different effects and outcomes. On top of the 100% good or evil choices and to save all shipmates or let some die. You also have whether you destroyed that space station at the end of ME2. An any number of small choices could end up having huge issues. Like whether you saved/sacrificed original council etc etc

Gonna be awesome. Although i expect i will have to purposefully play badly to kill off Shep in ME3. lol

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

Most choices in ME games have never mattered apart from the occasional "YOU ARE OUR SAVIOR" or "YOU HUMAN DICKHEAD!" you get from various NPCs anyways.

I think it's pretty obvious that some of the choices were meant to feed into ME3:

Spoiler

It's easy to see how many of the choices you made in ME1 and ME2 - most of which didn't have immediate consequences within those games - can mean something in the endgame. If you saved the Rachni Queen, you can be sure a new Swarm will come to your rescue at an appropriately dramatic moment. If you integrated the Heretic Geth, they might know something about how to stop the Reapers. And if you persuaded Mordin to keep the Genophage cure, who's to say Wrex won't turn up leading an entire army of Krogan?

 

[PingoBlack]

Resorting to Facebook was a very smart move. All companies strive for optimal customer satisfaction. The best way to do this is by finding out what customers want. Market research is getting outdated and the new way to go is through social media. It's all done so YOU get what YOU want. They're actually listening to you now; what's so bad about that?

Erm? In a creative process you ask?

I think BioWare did much better when they did what they well pleased. Listening to fans never produced good products.

 

[T_love]

I bet the bad ending is going to go like this:
- Join us Shepard
- No
- We have cookies
- mmmm ok

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Slighty Science Fiction...? How is Mass Effect 'slightly' Science Fiction?

Are you seriously saying that this sort of thing is the most 'out there' thing in the Mass Effect universe?

It was out there all along, but consistent. Most good SciFi is consistent tho.

But when a holo-UI became a "visceral stabbing weapon" ... I'm outta there. BTW, did you hear about HuttaBall?

HuttaBall? What did they add an all Jabba sports team to Star Wars: The Old Republic?

OT. I don't see what people are getting worked up about. This is flippin' Bioware we're talking about. Also known as the folks who would put neon lights up to indicate that "This will give you the bad ending" and "This will give you the good ending."