Fixing Mass Effect 3
With the release of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, everybody seems to be talking about 2 things: How good the new version of ME1 looks; and being reminded of how awesome ME2 is. But what about ME3?
In fact, it seems there’s talk about everything but ME3. Go to any gaming news site, and there are entire articles about how the picture of Tali’s face on your desk is different, or how the race of a forgettable NPC has been changed. Necessary updates to the game? Yes. But do we need an entire front page article about it? No.
So let’s remind ourselves why Mass Effect 3 was so criticized: its ending, because your choices throughout the series didn’t matter and everything ultimately came down to pick a color. No matter what choices you made, no matter which crew members survived, no matter what your Paragon or Renegade level was, when you made that final decision, you saw the same ending as everyone else. (And I don’t care what anybody says, that Extended Cut DLC did absolutely nothing. Further explaining the ending does not change the ending.)
But that’s enough about that. I’m not here to beat a dead horse, I’m here to talk about how to revive that dead horse.
No Crescendo
In spite of everything I just mentioned, I don’t think the narrative ending is the problem. I say this because I had a feeling from the beginning that the Mass Effect trilogy was going to have a singular ending, with maybe a couple variations depending on your paragon or renegade status. So when this became true, it didn’t really bother me because I expected it.
However, what I was disappointed in was the final mission. More specifically, the final battle of the final mission.
The current final battle can be summed up as such: push a button, fight off some enemies, push another button, done. It’s very underwhelming considering it’s the finale of an epic space opera trilogy. Long story short, it needs to be greatly expanded across the board. Map size, duration, difficulty, objectives, obstacles, there isn’t a single aspect of this battle that shouldn’t be improved.
What Could’ve Been
Now for my two cents on what could’ve been done to improve the ending and bring purpose to the choices made throughout the series:
Starting with my previously mentioned notion of expanding the literal size of the battle. I think the map should be at least 2 to 3 times larger, there should be multiple objectives that need to be completed, and an overall increased difficulty (which can then be mitigated by some of the following).
Having several objectives that need to be completed on a large map leads to the questions of what and where. This is where I think Liara and completion of the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC could come in. Starting with a baseline experience where the objectives are hidden from you and require discovery through context, they could become revealed with Liara’s access to information as the Shadow Broker combined with having a relationship with her in ME1.
Perhaps the Reapers are sending down orbital bombardments onto the battlefield that you have to avoid. This could utilize the loyalty and survival of Samara and Jack in ME2. They could use their biotic powers to help shield you from these attacks, where having 1 alive reduces bombardments by 50%, and having both alive gives 100% protection.
If you convinced Saren to kill himself in ME1, perhaps the soldiers of the reapers are less sure of themselves and not as aggressive. This would be a way of essentially lowering the difficulty that I previously mentioned should be increased. Perhaps the implementation of doubt in Saren is somehow spread to other indoctrinated soldiers. I’ll let the lore experts figure out how to make that one work, but you get it.
Achieving Garrus’ loyalty and keeping him alive in ME2 grants you the aid of the Turian fleet, who use their arial fighters for airstrikes to thin out the enemy, reducing the amount of reinforcements you have to fight.
Conversely, not gaining Garrus’ loyalty or having him die would only further the Turian’s indifference toward you. Perhaps they still conduct airstrikes, but with no regard to whether or not you get caught in the crossfire. They still help you in a small way, but become another hazard for you to avoid.
Keeping Wrex alive in ME1 and curing the Genophage in ME3 perhaps convinces him to rejoin your crew for one final fight, allowing you to use him as a squad member.
Achieving Mordin’s loyalty and keeping him alive in ME2 & 3, he’s able to give you a significant health and shield boost for the final battle.
(This would also introduce yet another choice for the player to make, as curing the Genophage and keeping Mordin alive cannot be achieved at the same playthrough)
Achieving Jacob’s loyalty and keeping him alive in ME2, being a soldier and gun nut, unlocks exclusive endgame only weapons.
Achieving Tali’s loyalty and keeping her alive in ME2 unlocks exclusive endgame only tech abilities.
(Additionally, allowing players to use these new endgame only features from the beginning of a second playthrough would not only increase the replay value of ME3, but also ME1 & 2, as players would go back to ensure these characters remained alive in order to obtain these unlocks.)
Now there are still tons of choices throughout the Mass Effect trilogy that could be implemented into the final battle in several different ways, these are just the few were I was able to think of a way on how to implement them. Obviously, there’s still things like saving or killing the Rachni Queen; saving or sacrificing the Council; giving Legion to the Illusive Man and never having him on your team; choosing between the Quarians and the Geth. These are all significant story moments that could’ve had a HUGE affect on how the final battle played out. But instead, we got to push a button, shoot some enemies, then button another button.
Here’s to hoping Andromeda can right the ship.
