Five Things That Could Have Made ME3 Great…for me

 

WARNING: This gets very spoilery towards the end when I start talking about the big finish, but the first four points should be safe reading. Still, if you really don't want to be spoiled and you haven't finished ME3, this is fair warning. Turn back now!

 

ME3 is something of a mixed experience for this player.

 

On a technical level, it's hard to point to another game that carries its story the way it has across three titles using its saves. The character moments during the downtime between missions were also among the best in the series, or anywhere else, for that matter. But as for the climactic end to this five year journey, the big Reaper baked enchilada, it still left much to be desired. At least for this armchair Spectre. 

 

So it got me thinking – what would have made it more fun? Or at least have helped to avoid some of the petition waving vitriol hurled at it from those it had wronged? Here are five things off the top that I thought would have boosted its shields.

 

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According to BioWare, the bits and pieces pulling him together didn't quite make it to the gold copy of ME3, so he came out as DLC instead. DLC that was relegated to the LE version of the game which became something of a rarity.

Granted, he's only $10 extra if you didn't get the LE, but what rubs more salt into the wound is that BioWare has a precedent of giving away content like this for free to encourage customers to buy new. If you bought used and wanted the extras, then you had to pay up.

 

The weapon is pretty much the only reason to get the DLC. The Prothean is okay, too, but he's

no Shale. Or even Zaeed, because at least that scarred bastard got his own loyalty quest.

 

From Ashes is also extremely shallow compared to Shale for Dragon Age: Origins. Sure, you get a Prothean that shares some lore on the Prothean Empire, but you don't get the kind of expansive quest line that made Shale an incredibly deep addition to your party. This Prothean won't take you on a quest into a forgotten, Ilos-sized dungeon to crack open even more of the mysteries in his past. It's a bizarre disparity that seems hamstrung by time and the need to get the game out.

 

If they opted to give it away for free with every copy, maybe they wouldn't have so many irritated gamers to field answers to. Or just not buy it. You really won't be missing much and hopefully send a message back saying that this arrangement sucks.

It's fun, I'll admit that much, though I'd rather have more quests to replace things like the system scanning. Or a number of the shallow NPCs. I'll even take the pre-fab buildings from ME1 as long as there's loot to be found, which brings me to…

ME3's loot scale could be more exciting. There's no spontaneity, no real surprises. Just an antiseptic progression from low end to high end. No sudden OMG moments in finding anything until late in the game. Enemies also fail to drop anything other than heat clips. It's as if the game that wants to be a shooter doesn't quite want to put in the extra effort.

 

ME3 doesn't need Borderlands' nigh infinite arsenal, but I wouldn't complain if it had a fraction

of the kind of variety and drop potential that it does.

Even the most basic shooters recognize that players will probably want to relieve a corpse of its weapon in the hopes that they might snag something neat. With ME3, it could have been even more interesting to see what mods could have been attached to said weapons and add those to your arsenal.

 

That made me sad. Also, being unable to outfit your team with armor detail in the same way as Shepard is also something I miss from ME1. I still miss a lot of stuff from ME1.

System scan jobs were often picked up by wandering around and listening to certain NPCs. Then you went out, found what was lost by pinging a system as if you were on the hunt for Red October, and then brought it back to them. 

 

"Artifact, dead ahead!"

 

I hoped that more could have been done with these. Some sounded like they could have been used as seeds for a great side adventure instead of leaving it to some probe. At least it wasn't as bad as Dragon Age 2 whose items magically updated your journal with the relevant information for simply stumbling over them. ME3's, at least, made an effort to start from somewhere in a clever way.

I'll admit that I was satisfied with the ending that I got in terms of Shepard's personal sacrifice. Some of the surrounding filler, however, immediately before and after that pristine moment of truth, not so much. What happened to the awesome work that had been done with Dragon Age: Origin's ending epilogue?
 

I hope you had a pint for me after I saved the world.

 

At least Origins blamed me for turning Alistair into a drunken sod who disappeared into obscurity. I would have also liked to have known whether Kaiden and James, a Spectre and an N7-to-be, could have teamed up to become the Greatest Crime Fighting Duo ever. Or what happened to (enter love interest here) after my disappearance?

 

At least it didn't punch me in the jimmy in the same way that FFXIII-2's ending did. Good Lords of Thunder that was garbage.

 

Then I read this from BioWare's forums: 

 

Mac Walters on the Star Child/Reapers

"Originally, with the catalyst, the star child at the end of the game, I had written that much more in the guise of a investigative style conversation, where there is something he tells you but then, you get to ask a bunch of questions and you get your questions answered. But then me and Casey talked and decided, lets keep the conversation "High level". Give you the details that you need to know, but don't get into the stuff that you don't need to know. Like "How long have they been reaping?" You don't need to know the answers to the mass effect universe. So we intentionally left those out" 

 

And there it is. I guess I didn't need to know the answers, after all. To anything. 

 

At least there's always Xenosaga III. 

 

Xenosaga III's story has some of the most bizarre twists ever seen in a game, but they all

manage to make sense. Well. mostly.

At least I still have Xenosaga III.Five things that could have made ME3 great (for me)

 

This gets spoilerrific towards the end when I start talking about the big finish, but the first four points should be safe reading. Still, if you really don't want to be spoiled and you haven't finished ME3, this is fair warning. Turn back now!

 

That said, ME3 is a mixed experience for me. On a technical level, it's hard to point to another game that carries its story the way it has across three titles using its saves and the character moments during the downtime between missions were among the best in the series. But as for the climactic end to this five year journey, it left much to be desired. At least for this armchair Spectre. 

 

So it got me thinking – what would have made it more fun? Here are five things off the top that I thought would have helped.

 

1 – If they had only released the Day One DLC for free

 

He didn't quite make it to the gold copy of ME3, so he came out as DLC instead. DLC that was relegated to the LE version of the game which became something of a rarity. Granted, he's only $10, but that's half the cost of the LE version. What rubs more salt into the wound is that BioWare has a precedent of giving away content like this for free to encourage customers to buy new.

 

From Ashes is also pretty worthless compared to Shale for Dragon Age: Origins and I've played through both. Sure, you get a Prothean that shares some lore on the Prothean Empire, but you don't get the kind of expansive quest line that made Shale an incredibly deep addition to your party. It's a bizarre disparity that only serves to make From Ashes seem like a naked play for your wallet.

 

If they opted to give it away for free with every copy, maybe they wouldn't have so many irritated gamers to field answers to. 

 

Or just not buy it. You really won't be missing much and hopefully send a message back saying that this sucks.

 

 

2 –  Multiplayer is interesting, but I'd rather have more quests

 

It's fun, I'll admit that much, though I'd rather have more quests to replace things like the system scanning. Or the shallow NPCs. I'll even take the pre-fab buildings from ME1 as long as there's loot to be found, which brings me to…

 

3 – Guns! Guns! Guns!

 

ME3's loot scale could be more exciting. There's no spontaneity, no real surprises. Just an antiseptic progression from low end to high end. No sudden OMG moments in finding anything until late in the game. Enemies also fail to drop anything other than heat clips. Even a game like Modern Warfare recognizes that players will probably want to relieve a corpse of its weapon in the hopes that they might snag something neat. That made me sad. Being unable to outfit your team with armor detail in the same way as Shepard is also something I miss from ME1. I still miss a lot of stuff from ME1.

 

4 – “Would you like to have this incredibly valuable relic!”

 

System scan jobs were often picked up by wandering around and listening to certain NPCs. Then you went out, found what was lost by pinging a system as if you were on the hunt for Red October, and then brought it back to them. 

 

I hoped that more could have been done with these. Some sounded like they could have been used as seeds for a great side adventure instead of leaving it to some probe. At least it wasn't as bad as Dragon Age 2 whose items magically updated your journal with the relevant information for simply stumbling over them. ME3's, at least, made an effort to start from somewhere in a clever way.

 

5 – The ending around the ending

 

I'll admit that I was satisfied with the ending that I got in terms of Shepard's personal sacrifice. Some of the surrounding filler, however, immediately before and after that pristine moment of truth, not so much. What happened to the awesome work that had been done with Dragon Age: Origin's ending epilogue? I get that it's a different team and all that, but it's not like it didn't stand out as a solid in-house example.

 

At least Origins blamed me for turning Alister into a drunken sod who disappeared into obscurity. I would have at least liked to have known whether James and Kaiden teamed up to became the greatest Spectre Crime Fighting Duo ever. Or what happened to (enter love interest here) after my disappearance?

 

At least it didn't punch me in the jimmy in the same way that FFXIII-2's ending did. Good Lords of Thunder that was garbage.

 

Then I read this from BioWare's forums (http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9999272/1):

 

Mac Walters on the Star Child/Reapers

"Originally, with the catalyst, the star child at the end of the game, I had written that much more in the guise of a investigative style conversation, where there is something he tells you but then, you get to ask a bunch of questions and you get your questions answered. But then me and Casey talked and decided, lets keep the conversation "High level". Give you the details that you need to know, but don't get into the stuff that you don't need to know. Like "How long have they been reaping?" You don't need to know the answers to the mass effect universe. So we intentionally left those out" 

 

And there it is. I guess I didn't need to know the answers, after all. To anything. 

 

At least I still have Xenosaga III.