User blog:Martolives/Ideas

My Mass Effect 3 Alternative Ending
After some weeks of carefully examining the ending of Mass Effect 3, and arguing alternative perspectives with various players (most of the time respectfully, with some intellectual discussion about narrative and interpretation, but some people had no idea what I was doing and were just outright rude with me), I have come to the conclusion that the ending could be a lot better. It's not bad, just that it could be better.

The ending is good in it's own way; the philosophy behind it is sound, and the mass relay destruction (although controversial) is perhaps a necessity for breaking the cycle, in my opinion and according to lore, but would have to depend on circumstances, or consequences of a a player's choices. However, where it really goes wrong horribly and logically wrong is the Catalyst - an eleventh hour character is a terrible plot machine, and I have come to agree that it is a cheesy deus ex machina. However, it can still be used... in way.

When BioWare released Lair of the Shadow Broker, to activate the quest, it simply added a dialogue option to the wheel when talking to Liara on Ilium. In my opinion, they should do the same here, but better - at the point where the Catalyst says, "but we found a way to stop that from happening, a way to restore order for the next cycle..."

There needs to be an interrupt - not your usual one though, where it's a single Renegade or Paragon interrupt, but a Reputation-based interrupt. They have this new Reputation system in place, and here's how they can really make it count.

When the player makes this interrupt, if their reputation is high enough, Shepard's words are along the lines of "So have we!" He or she will argue with the Catalyst, use the stupid God-child's own circular logic against him, and the Quarian/Geth peace as an example, and show the Catalyst why it's wrong. The player now has a series of Paragon or Renegade dialogue options that require high scores in each to talk the Catalyst down, to make it see the error of its ways, like you did with Saren, and the Illusive Man, and various other characters and even squadmates... or, failing that, you continue to try to convince the Catalyst that it's wrong. If you have high enough Paragon/Renegade scores, you talk it down, and convince it that it's wrong, and it goes into self-destruct - now, you have to escape the citadel. If you can't do it with Renegade or Paragon, then you have to fight the Catalyst - somehow, i don't know how that would work, but I'm sure the awesome storytellers and game designers of BioWare would find some fancy way to fight it.

Either way, the citadel is going up in smoke, and you have to escape, wounded and slow, but never fear! Cuz Joker hasn't run off with your love interest to an alternative solar system somewhere and is there to pull you out at the last second.

Either way, the fleets and soldiers continue to fight, and depending on how successful you are fighting or convincing the catalyst, you lose more and more forces as time drags on. This is where EMF comes into play - as the dialogue or fight with the catalyst drags out, the EMF counts down, and your forces start to dwindle. If it is low, everyone dies. Too bad, so sad. But a cut scene has to show this - it has to show your failure, in its magnitude. It has to bring closure, even if the player fails.

If EMF is high, then there is still a fight to win, and win it you can. If the Catalyst is the controlling factor of the Reapers, with the Catalyst gone, then the Reapers are thrown into chaos... they are still powerful, but they are confused. They are easier to beat. The EMF counter slows down tremendously, and the fleets start to destroy Reapers. It's not over yet - your EMF is counting down, but if it's high enough, it can win this battle, and it's now time to take the fight to Harbinger.

Of course, if your Reputation score isn't high enough to interrupt, then you get stuck with the current endings - fair punishment for lack of work. If you can defeat the Catalyst, though, the Mass Relay network still needs to end somehow - perhaps due to the Citadel's destruction. I stand by the necessity of losing the mass relay network - a common theme throughout the story is how civilisations advance on their own vs how they advance if the are uplifted. Technically, galactic civilisation is uplifted by the Reaper-built mass relay network - without it, civilisation will now face a struggle, and through being force to overcome that struggle, the people of the galaxy will advance on their own, and become self-sufficient. Having their own technology, perhaps there will never again be a need for a mass relay network - who's to say they can't figure out how to make FTL technology far more effective?

Back to the ending, and if you got this far, and you're taking the fight to Harby, then you can board the bastard and find a way to bring the it down. Harbinger represents the personification of the threat of the Reapers, so established in Mass Effect 2 - the fleets can engage the rest, and your EMF continues to count down, but Reapers are being devastated in their confusion (without the controlling mechanism of the Catalyst, they aren't even really sure why they're here anymore or what they were doing - only Harbinger retains a sense of purpose) Shepard is mad, now, and Harby just shot him/her with a massive laser, so Shep wants some payback, and so does the crew of the Normandy. Shepard gets some medical attention from Chakwas and some fresh armour, and Joker flies right at Harby, dodging various laser attacks and drone fighters, blowing a few outta the sky at the same time, and you board Harby with your team - now, it's you and your crew again, the REAL final confrontation, the one in which you might survive, or you might not, but at least it'll matter. This is the climax, where everything you've worked for comes together, and your choices will matter. If you got this far, that is. Here, you win, or you lose. Here, the conflict matters, win or lose. Here, winning or losing is the trigger for resolution, and your choices and actions and their consequences are the machine that drives that resolution. If you live or die, or your team lives or dies, whether victory is achieved or not, then it has to matter to someone, somewhere, especially the player.

Then, of course, BioWare must provide the closure that is needed in the game, even for those players whose Rep scores weren't high enough, who got stuck with the endings as the are - those endings need closure too. By this setting, this ending, BioWare can keep the endings as-is, and add to them with a little programming. That's it. IMO, I would pay for this as DLC. I'm sorry it was long, but over the last few weeks, I've put a lot of thought into this. A lot of people who have debated or spoken with me on the endings won't understand why I appear to be backflipping, but a lot of people on here don't understand the difference between defending the ending, and discussing it in perspective - I've merely attempted to do the latter, and I maintain that being a knob about things won't get the results that anyone is after. I've looked at the ending from as MANY perspectives as I can, and I honestly believe that BioWare has done what they thought was right, but I also honestly believe that they can do better.

And THIS is what I would pay for. That's not to say I wouldn't be interested in what BioWare can create, but I will not pay for indoctrination - there's no real fight in that, no real substance to the story. If Shepard could be indoctrinated, why put him/her through a process that allows Shep the opportunity to so easily escape the process? If I was a Reaper, and I could indoctrinate Shepard, I'd turn him/her against friends and allies, and take the fight to the resistance on Earth. I believe my ending has substance, and a real climax too, not some anti-climax with an eleventh hour meta-clown. The Catalyst should NOT be the final showdown. The Reapers, the real antagonist of the story, should be the climax, and Harbinger is the personification of that antagonist.

Also, what happened to this dark energy idea? It was obviously something they were toying with... but meh, just looking forward to having the story end with some proper closure.