Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread [Spoiler tag free, beware]

[Venkman]

Ah! Cool ok. So they'll just let it peter out naturally. That's not a bad thing.

[Nayr]

So, anybody got any idea what they're gonna do for the tentatively titled Mass Effect 4?

Sequel, prequel, in-between spinoff, total reboot?

Obviously there is enough wiggle room in between the three games for a side story.

I'm hoping for a prequel myself. I'd like to see the events that led up to the discovery of the Mars cache and the founding of the Systems Alliance, colonization of Shanxi, and the first contact war.

Don't think a sequel is possible to be honest. People like to say that all the endings are the same, but the themes behind each of them and the impact they each have on the galaxy's future are vastly different. A galaxy without synthetics, a galaxy that has the Reapers as eternal protectors, and a galaxy where there is no distinction between man and machine anymore. And canonizing one would not be cool with me because each one has their bright sides and downsides.

And I'd go for a spinoff during one of the time gaps if it meant seeing some old faces. Maybe see Garrus setting himself up on Omega as Archangel, or seeing Wrex/Wreav taking power in Clan Urdnot.

[koro]

Ugh, no prequels. Especially pre-first contact prequels.

Ideally, I'd like to see EA flat-out retire the franchise (or put it on the backburner to cool off for a few years) and be done with this whole mess, but we all know that'll never happen.

Barring that, I guess I'd be okay with seeing some one-and-done spinoffs or side stories, like a C-Sec officer getting framed for something, losing his job, and joining a crew of misfits for Space Adventures or something.

[Sjofn]

I don't know what they'll do, and honestly I do not much care. I liked the setting and the trilogy, but I just do not see me giving any craps about whatever they come up with for ME4. I am not interested at all in any sort of prequel, only barely interested in side story one-offs (Garrus becoming Archangel seems like it would work best, since he builds a team and everything! But the entire time you know he gets betrayed and they all die, so uh. I'm not sure it would be very interesting.), and not particularly interested in a sequel because they'd have to make an ending canon, and while I'm sure they'd pick my preferred one (destroy, it's not like the knowledge how to make AIs died with them, and you just know people would build them again nigh-instantly) it would just be a sort of final fuck-you to the fans of the trilogy, you know?

[Morat20]

Supposedly in the Far Distant Future or At the Same Time, Other Adventures of Non-Shepard People are the big bets.

Personally, I'm hoping it doesn't end up: 300 years later, the Backup or Andromeda Reaper Fleet Arrives or Leviathan and it's ilk decide to reconquer the galaxy.

It'd be kinda cool if they did some sort of alternate history version of the story (I dunno, everything from the Relay 314 incident being with the Quarians or the Batarians and going off the rails to Humans not finding the Mars Cache and stumbling onto the Galactic Scene with an entirely different tech base right before Saren finds the beacon), but it'd probably be boring as hell to play since you know that the Reapers are coming and there will be war and blahty-blah Catalyst.

They'll probably just set it, say, 500 years in the future as the galaxy is finally knitting itself back together into a coherent political whole -- with all sorts of tech offshoots explained as people having a bias against 'Reaper tech' mass effect stuff -- and probably be against a sort of either political game as races via to control the galaxy, or probably the Yagh or something showing up and playing Rachni Wars 2.0.

[Ceryse]

I'll guess that what they'll do is something like...

A few centuries (maybe a thousand years, who knows) pass and all the races are just about done putting the galactic community back together when the Krogan become subverted by "something" (eventual plot reveal, surprise!) and are attacking the rest of the races for room to expand due to the genophage being cured. You are a plucky Alliance marine, a descendant of the Shep and.. oh, let's go with Ashley to piss off even more people, and are the one to find clues that the Krogan invasion isn't simply just about expansion, but something more sinister! First game ends with you doing something to halt the Krogan advance (perhaps even by using the rachni against them! Irony!) by taking out the representative of what's made the Krogan bad, but you, and only you know there's something sinister still out there.

But no one will believe you.

So, second game happens with you out to find more proof to show the morons out there who have forgotten history. Along the way you find out elements of the Aliiance have turned somehow and are ruthlessly expanding into lawless areas by destroying alien colonies to open up planets for humans and you end up exposing them, finding your evidence of the "surprise villains" behind everything while doing so, showing this rogue Alliance arm were merely indoct-er, controlled. You also find out the Quarians have done it again. AIs. Whoops?

Third game is you uniting the galaxy to fight the AI invasion from Quarian space, who are once again pushed to near extinction. Find out remnants of the Reapers are behind the Quarian/AI mess/rogue Alliance/Krogan Rebellion part deux... and the galaxy must destroy them once and for all!

Hilarity and hijinks ensue.

I'm far more serious than I wish, as I don't give their overall ability to create a plot all that much credit.

Plot of the next, inevitable trilogy aside... I'm actually playing this again (this time legally!) as I had an entire Origin account fall into my lap with the game and DLC. I've actually installed Origin which makes me a little uneasy as I hate the thing (its not as good as Steam, by any measure, with my limited experience, much less the EULA thing which is horrible), but I wanted to finish a number of my Sheps and see what all the DLC was like (since I didn't have to pay for it) given my prior experience with the game was with just one Shep and only the base game+Prothy the Prothean. Already finding they nerfed the War Assets requirement hard.. and there's far more of them with all the DLCs now. I think I met the bare minimum before I even allied the Krogan and Turians, and am nearing 5k war assets with no DLC (other than Prothy's) done and yet to ally the Quarians and Geth (which, honestly.. I kind of hate doing since I know I'll just be taking the Destroy ending anyways as Synthesis and Control bug me way too much to consider).

Also considering the multiplayer, even though I'll suck eggs at it -- if only because that 50% readiness counter annoys my lazy perfectionism.

[Nayr]

Don't think the Leviathans could reconquer the galaxy in any of the endings, personally.

In destroy, all the Leviathan artifacts they use to control people would be destroyed and they would only be able to control thralls that are on their world. Which there are none. So they're basically stranded on a practically uncharted world in the ass end of Sigurd's Cradle.

In control, all the Reapers are still around and more than the three remaining Leviathans can handle.

In synthesis, again, the Reapers are still around, and everybody in the galaxy has been put on equal grounds, even the Leviathans.

In refuse, Reapers more than likely destroyed the last of the Leviathans.

[calapine]

I cannot be too explicit due to but don't be surprised if ME4 centers around a dark threat spawning in the corners of the universe... *taps nose knowingly*

Another word on the street is out-of-studio support: One of the industries most proflic writers (no names, but his company starts with "B" as well) is rumored provide new direction in plot and character development...

And again, I am just spit-balling here. It's not like I am sleeping with one of the devs, so my guess is as good as yours, right? This info is absolutely not *wink* based inside connections within the industry.

[Fabricated]

And here I was hoping for more political drama and a smaller more character focused plot instead of space cthulu again. Ah well.

[Morat20]

And here I was hoping for more political drama and a smaller more character focused plot instead of space cthulu again. Ah well.

I suppose a lot depends on what the 'official' ME3 ending is. Control or Synthesis?

[Fabricated]

I was thinking destroy really. That leaves the most openings for plot fiddling.

[Maledict]

Destroy is the only ending that really leaves a viable universe for further games open to be honest. Control basically creates a god-emperor with an unbeatable armada to protect the universe, and synthesis changes everything so drastically and wildly its hard to see how the game would continue. (Whilst it might be fascinating to explore the effects of a synthesis universe, it very much gave the impression of being an 'ascension' ending which does limit your writing somewhat - it's by no means impossible, but a it out of the ordinary and would require greater skill to pull off than I fear the ME team have).

[Fabricated]

Oh god, I just thought of something.

They can totally pull this out of their asses for control: all of the sudden Shepard-brain's armada of reapers mysteriously disappears back into deep space and no one knows why. Turns out some threat even worse than the reapers somehow has appeared out of nowhere and Shepard's reapers are fighting a losing battle and you must somehow help!

[Maledict]

Oh gods. I feel ill now!

[Paelos]

They can call the new threat: The Creepers.

[Fabricated]

It'd technically work for Synthesis too. You just pick your flavor of Shepard. Control Shepard might have some sort of negative connotation like people being kinda scared his machine consciousness might go SHODAN and start the Reaper wars over, and Synthesis being the hippy Shepard pick where people are upset they're gone because they were helping rebuild the half of the universe the Reapers originally fucked up. Either way they can have the game focus at first on figuring out why the Reapers mysteriously disappeared off into dark space or something, with the big reveal being some war with whatever retarded new universal threat they cook up.

They'll let you have a pow-wow with a holo-shepard consciousness like the star child at some point, using default models or if they're really cute they'll let you import your Shepard.

[Venkman]

Set this a thousand years out and all options are on the table. Every ending story has a decay point with enough time.

Destroy is the easiest because species forget and will inevitably use the same technological techniques to leap frog through evolution. Control is second easiest because that leads to inevitable repression and the raising of militias (could be centered on Omega). Synthesis would be kinda tricky but it's not like that was well-defined so much anyone would even recognize a retcon (could be easily written as only "some" people did it, or it was temporary) like it didn't take hold or something.

(sorry if this sounds familiar ).

This can tie back to what sounds like Rise of the Rachni. That too requires some story work because you had some choices on how to deal with that too. Whatever your ME3 ending was, and however you addressed the Rachni, I'd think it all needs to be handwaved away so that ME4 starts everyone on an even playing field. Best way to do that is the inverse of the ME3 sequence of ending cutscenes with maybe some ME2 "fill out your profile" action ala ME2 opening.

[Morat20]

I guess it also depends on whether they want to make the game like ME2 (a cover-based shooter with RPG elements) or like ME1 (an RPG whose combat is kinda cover-based shooter).

If they did destroy, though -- that puts the galaxy back in "new and weird". Call it a few hundred years before FTL and non-Reaper based tech has the galaxy banging into each other, and IIRC you've got all sorts of cultures mixed up (Krogans and Turians all over Pavalen, god knows how many refugee planets that are flat-out just mixtures of everything, and then there's Omega which I suspect would be pretty self-sufficient).

You'd have enough Asari and Krogan around who personally remembered the 'old days', but you'd be past the planet of Hats stuff. Cultures would be wildly divergent.

If we're lucky, they'll take that and run with that and non-Reaper tech to give it a bit of a different flavor, and maybe have the big story be political/war related as factions vie for galactic control or survival. I mean if you want to keep the Reapers, they could just be a phantom menace -- a reason for one side or another to be trying to put together a galaxy-wide rule (whether democratic or military or whatever) -- what if there are more Reapers out there? What if there's something worse? Yadda, yadda...

I still think Leviathan's a possibility. It never outright stated that there were only three left. Just that some survived, went into hiding, and the one you met was their progeny.

There's also the Yahg, I guess.

[Sjofn]

I cannot be too explicit due to but don't be surprised if ME4 centers around a dark threat spawning in the corners of the universe... *taps nose knowingly*

ME4 takes place on Thedas?

[calapine]

I cannot be too explicit due to but don't be surprised if ME4 centers around a dark threat spawning in the corners of the universe... *taps nose knowingly*

ME4 takes place on Thedas?

It's the merging of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchise. After all, it worked for The Avengers (most successful movie-start of all time, 207m$ first weekend!)

Grey Warden Shepard will bring moneyhats and bonus payments for everyone!

Edit: Look at the possibilites. If you let Mordin live he can cure the Grey Warden afflication. Alistar will hook up with Tali. Sten and Wrex would end up as the cool kickass BFF team (with romance option!)

[rk47]

And Wrex with the Mabari hound.
Don't you ever forget that.

[Stormwaltz]

What.

[Merusk]

Way to go, you broke stormwaltz.

[Fabricated]

Someone post the image of the guy on the Bioware forums who figured out the chemical composition of Tali's sweat again.

[Lantyssa]

ME4 should just take place in a different galaxy.  If there must be a tie to the old game, have a coalition use ReaperTech (tm) to travel the vast distance to Andromeda.  Suddenly we find a universe where the Reapers weren't around to wipe out things every 50k years.  Or they were doing so on a tighter schedule.  Or a looser one.  The possibilities are endless.

[Venkman]

Grey Warden Shepard will bring moneyhats and bonus payments for everyone!

Duh. We all knew that was coming when they put in the DA armor as a purchasable in ME3. 

Finally picked up Citadel, and recently finished Leviathan and Omega. All three are fun, but got me wishing I'd played them before playing the ending. As good as they are, it's hard to care as much as I would have. Almost makes me wish they'd released the ending as a DLC.

Yes yes, the fans would have howled louder than the Marketing department and GameStop would have shut down for the lack of secondary sales. But in some alternate timeline, they did that. 

[Ingmar]

As far as I'm concerned they did release the ending as a DLC.

[Venkman]

Ok, that was good 

[Venkman]

Whoever scripted Citadel needs an award or something. The dialog is (relatively) hilarious, especially further in. I think that was mentioned before. I've actually laughed out loud on some of the parts, super rare for me for video games in general.

[Morat20]

Whoever scripted Citadel needs an award or something. The dialog is (relatively) hilarious, especially further in. I think that was mentioned before. I've actually laughed out loud on some of the parts, super rare for me for video games in general.

Haven't done the party yet, but found Grunt's post-Hospital escapades, the Garrus Tango, and the Joker Cerberus assault to be hilarious.

Wrex complaining about the new responsibilities of leading a fertile people and asking for bags of ice was pretty funny too. (As was the image of him trying to sneak out a bathroom window).

Grunt's was pretty good, especially the "Since they didn't seem to want their car...." line. (Although the image of him and three other Krogan dancing on the statue was great!).

[Venkman]

Shit, there's more after the party? I thought after the clone stuff was done it was pretty much over, and then I get to the Silversun strip, the combat arena, and now you're saying there's even more.

I think I've already played Citadel for longer than Leviathan and Omega combined. Pretty meaty DLC. Too bad ME4 isn't coming out this year so I can move right into whatever-it'll-be....

[Reg]

Are any of these DLC's absolutely intended to be played after the main game?  I got a little ways into Leviathan and when I next talked to Wrexx he told me there'd been a huge nuclear explosion on his homeworld that pretty much wiped everything out. And suddenly I noticed in my journal that the "defuse the bomb" mission had disappeared.  Maybe the DLC is intended to be played between major chapters?

[Ingmar]

Are any of these DLC's absolutely intended to be played after the main game?  I got a little ways into Leviathan and when I next talked to Wrexx he told me there'd been a huge nuclear explosion on his homeworld that pretty much wiped everything out. And suddenly I noticed in my journal that the "defuse the bomb" mission had disappeared.  Maybe the DLC is intended to be played between major chapters?

In the case of that mission, it is essentially time-limited. If you run off and do 3 missions between getting it and completing it, boom.

[Morat20]

Shit, there's more after the party? I thought after the clone stuff was done it was pretty much over, and then I get to the Silversun strip, the combat arena, and now you're saying there's even more.

Some of the stuff -- like Joker and Grunt -- aren't actually even on the map. I got them wandering around. There's a series of "invites to quarters" -- two or three waves of it.

I did the start of the Citadel right before Priority: Whatever the Hell Meeting Tali Is. I checked back pretty often. Still haven't started the party -- just finished Priority: Horizon and wanted Miranda there. (She sends you an email asking to drop by after Priority Horizon -- she complains her favorite Sushi place is closed).

FYI: On Xbox, at least, there's a bug -- hitting "invite all" means everytime you invite someone up, it starts the "start the party" cutscene. Had to jump back a save to fix that.

[Venkman]

Oh so you haven't yet seen: "A couple of neighbors showed up last night to complain about the noise. I put their bodies in the incinerator" or "uuuuhhhh, is it time to rule the galaxy yet? Kneel before Jaavik!". Where the hell was this writer in the rest of the series and DLCs and stuff??

The save I'm playing this on I think it right before the assault on TIMs* base. Hope I'm not missing too much. Just finishing party sequence now. I guess I skipped past the "invite to quarters" stuff somehow.

* Man what a wasted opportunity. Great character, totally cut loose.