Should bioware do one final shepard game?

You said everyone is expecting a trash fire, but now you’re talking about the backlash from new players who get to experience a thing you hate with fresh eyes. If these people had no interest in looking into all the material for a game franchise almost a decade old, they wouldn’t expect much of anything. If you mean to say that these people expect the new players to feel as much a negative impact as they did when they played ME3 in its initial release state, they might need to readjust their expectations setting to a date post-expansions, since it’s more than likely that even if some new players hate it (which is not even a guarantee that most will), experiencing a fully expanded ME3 might not turn out to be the shitshow these allegedly bitter vets might think would happen. 

I’m referring to the people who *would* expect something, being the people who are fully aware of the games and played them before or at least have seen enough feedback online to get a good idea of what’s going on. They’re the ones I’m calling stupid, for expecting anything more than whatever BioWare might promote. 

But a new player, by definition, couldn't have any expectations WRT a rewrite of the story because he doesn't know what the story is.

In my view, ME3's issues arise primarily due to the issues ME2 put in the franchise. The first two entries need to be in order so that the final one stands any chance of being decent.

Despite the whole fuss about the ME3 ending, the game I worry the least about is ME3. I worry the most about ME2, because since that one was hyped to the moon, developers keep using that one as some sort of golden reference despite its enormous list of issues. I just came across these articles, which also depict the issues with ME2, and I share that opinion.


www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=28485

www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=28582

The most relevant part...;

The writers not only failed to make use of [the ME1] plot elements, they took every single aspect of this setup and smashed it to pieces. The council is retconned to not believing in the Reapers and not caring about the massive attack that nearly wiped out their government. Shepard loses his status as both a Spectre and a member of the Alliance. Liara goes away and forgets all about Prothean archaeology. Shepard’s ability to understand Prothean is no longer an asset to their mission. Shepard’s relationship with the council reverts to the pre-Ilos status quo. Shepard is no longer the protagonist because his team is uniquely qualified to learn about Reapers, but instead he’s the protagonist because of his fame and combat prowess. 

ME2 should have been about securing alliances and looking for ways to defeat the Reapers, ending with hearing the Reapers are here. Then in ME3 it focuses more on the war itself.

Various Reaper husks (maybe one for each race instead of just a few) and Indoctrinated forces mainly. And a few Reapers of course. So pretty much what we fought in ME3, just more variety. 

You do understand why that doesn't work, though. And why, because that doesn't work, we had to fight Cerberus, instead?

Because there's no progress. And it becomes apparent real fast. There is an inexhaustible supply of husks, marauders, banshees and .. the other guys, the big guys, what where they called? And Reapers, too. In fact, there are so many of them, that it doesn't make sense bothering with them, on a per individual basis. Even if we kill 10 Reapers in the game, besides the fact that it would just be the same as in the Rannoch mission, where we just paint the target for orbital strikes, how long before it gets repetitive and boring? There is no progress being made. What type of missions would we even be doing? Evacuations? How many evacuations will we do? One for every planet? What changes? At what point does it become awfully transparent that we're basically doing the same mission, over and over? Bioware knew this. Which is why we fight Cerberus for 50% of the game. Which is a problem in itself, because it makes the Reapers look like extras, in their own game. But you have to, because there's no feasible way of fighting them. But you should, because they're the enemy. So from there, you're going around in circles, over a premise that is fundamentally flawed.

Yes, because the conversation progresses. It wasn't meant as a full stop. The point is for you to realize the weak point of the argument, by drawing the answer out of you, because you already know it.


Again, a drop in the ocean, with no end in sight, or point. There will always be more husks, in a galaxy of trillions, where millions get turned into husks every day.


This is the big question. What would these objectives be? Hold out? From what? The endless hordes? Evacuate? To where? And how many times? There is no fighting back these waves that never stop coming, an enemy that never loses morale, or falters, or retreats. Because they don't feel fear or doubt. They'll just keep coming, until either you die or the galaxy is completely depleted of souls. Unfeasible.


How do we find this weapon? What is it? Is it the crucible again? Only this time, instead of a single cache depot, we go to four? So we're just going to be rehashing ME1 again? How does resulting in the crucible again fix ME3's problems? Not to mention we would need to examine the proposed ME2 much more closely, to see if it even stands on its own. But lets assume, it already did, for now.


So you would give budgets to make Sur'Kesh, the Flotilla, Thessia, Palaven and Tuchanka expanded, to be explored, both pristine and ruined, but adding 2 characters to the crew in ME3 is out of budget and time. One of these two takes immeasurable more time and money to make, than the other.

Have I not argued about adding at least a couple of ME2 characters into ME3 with you, only to be given the "time and budget constraints" talk? At this point, I take for granted that I've argued that with everyone here.

Well, consider that one thing we are in agreement with and one apology from me. Dreadfully sorry for attributing to you a conversation that never actually happened.

The ragtags could work fine, just make a lot of the missions in the terminus sector so you have a bunch of unaligned ragtag mercenary types as deniable assets so you don't set off a war as an alliance ship. It also helps fluff up why you are can be a specter in the now ME2. Have the end fight change a bit so you know the collectors were working for some force behind the scenes but you have no idea who or why.