Mass Effect

[MissKittyFantastico]

I feel like the Crucible would have been okay if it had been the grey option in the middle of your classic morality wheel - like early in the game, maybe on Mars, you've got five seconds to grab something from the archive and leg it, and the choice comes down to where you place your faith. Paragons take Prothean data on fighting Reapers, because they trust that the whole galaxy will be able to come together as a unified force and make it count, Renegades take data on indoctrination so they can, I dunno, backstab Tim to steal the human-Reaper tech Cerberus salvaged from the Collector base and become the new techno-god-emperor of humanity, and if you just can't commit and want to win the game by picking the middle option every time, fine, you build a magitech gizmo that makes the Reapers fall over.

[CharlesPhipps]

I also wouldn't have Cerberus be your enemy in ME3.

[Admiral X]

The evolution of Cerberus throughout the games was one of the most WTF aspects of it. They went from some highly secretive black-ops group that went rogue, cobbled together anything they needed from multiple untraceable sources that left no definite proof of who they were, and killed anyone who got in the way, to basically a mirror version of the Alliance military that had ships, massive space stations, and uniforms, all sporting a logo for their organization, which was funded by various rich people, to a massive military force that was actually superior to the Alliance military. It's also funny how in the second game they constantly try to explain away Cerberus's actions in the first game to justify Shepard working with them, or even whey they brought her (yeah, that's right) back from the dead to begin with, then in the third game it was right back to mustache-twirling evil.

[CharlesPhipps]

Cerberus is awesome in Mass Effect 2.

But it only works if your Shepard is the kind of guy who is willing to bend the rules to work with SPECTER to defeat Cthulhu.

Not all Shepards are.

They needed Anderson to order Paragon Shepard to do it.

[Enterprising]

The evolution of Cerberus throughout the games was one of the most WTF aspects of it. They went from some highly secretive black-ops group that went rogue, cobbled together anything they needed from multiple untraceable sources that left no definite proof of who they were, and killed anyone who got in the way, to basically a mirror version of the Alliance military that had ships, massive space stations, and uniforms, all sporting a logo for their organization, which was funded by various rich people, to a massive military force that was actually superior to the Alliance military. It's also funny how in the second game they constantly try to explain away Cerberus's actions in the first game to justify Shepard working with them, or even whey they brought her (yeah, that's right) back from the dead to begin with, then in the third game it was right back to mustache-twirling evil.

From small a rouge Black Ops and clandestine organisation to being literally the Empire within 3 years - makes sense! It's also a prime example showing that Bioware had no clue they were doing a planned trilogy (or even a trilogy full stop) despite all their PR saying they were. They made the original game end in a way it could stand alone if there wasn't going to be any sequels.

[Fixer]

I think if I were to rewrite ME3 with a minimum of changes I'd do the following:

* Make Javik part of the main game
* Make the Leviathans part of the main game
* Have the Crucible be made by the Leviathans
* Have whichever two companions you take with you on the final mission die (because ANGST)
* Have the Crucible just be a big bomb that blows up all the Reapers in the system
* Have Edi and the Geth survive if you got over X amount of points but die if it was under it
* Have Shepard live (Anderson dying was enough angst)
* Have the ending include slides.

The Javik day one DLC being important story content locked behind a paywall was actually one of the first controversies that came up with ME3.

Problem with the Leviathans is that they still tie into the cliched "monsters are doing evil things for good" storyline that undermines the Reapers and contradicts all the lore from the previous two games.

The Reapers were utterly malevolent, using terror tactics, horrible mutilations and transformations of sentients and cause madness with their mere presence. Even their dead corpses can dream and indoctrinate people.

They were an eldritch horror that mounted helpless, innocent victims on spikes, converted them into soulless abominations and then merged them together into monstrous lurching war-crimes to subdue entire species. Who they would then painfully render down into mulch to convert into more of their kind.

The Reapers went from lovecraftian beasts that were older than time itself, with motivations mere mortal could not understand. To mecha-squid too embarrassed to admit they were murdering everyone in the galaxy because some dumbass AI couldn't figure out the plot to every piece machine uprising fiction ever written.

I'd scrap the AI subplot and the associated baggage. Instead tie more into the Mecha-Cthulu storyline and expand the mythos with parts of the storyline already instead.

Okay, how about this.

Instead of the crucible being just discovered, it is actually supplied along with other anti-reaper technology early in the game by a mysterious benefactor called "The First". Some of which is vital for Shepard's escape from the Sol system.
There are arguments about whether or not the devotion of resources to the Crucible should be undertaken when they could be spent on conventional forces for the war effort, but the First continues to provide aid and earn trust.
Theories abound from companions. Perhaps the first is a rogue reaper, the illusive man, an ancient AI. Around the galaxy you find lore entries from the First discussing the endless cycles before and how a multitude of strategies, species and races both noble and ruthless failed.
All that's discovered is that the First is communicating from somewhere in the Mass Relay network.

When the final battle comes. It's a last ditch attempt to join the Crucible to the Citadel, you are fighting amongst the ruins of the wards and predidium, you discover who the First actually is. We have something akin to a Vigil AI meeting like on Ilos.

The First is actually the leader of the species that was re-purposed into the Keepers. He explains that they evolved when the universe was young and they were alone amongst the stars. When the Reapers came they were truly ancient, in a reality that was newly born. The Reaper's existence is poison to our universe and element zero which was introduced by them is the cause. The Dark energy build-up in ME2 is merely a symptom of a larger problem.

He states that the most logical explanation of the cycle is that the Reapers are trying to find away that the element zero that forms the core of their existence can be used without harming our reality. The massive science experiment of sentients with biotic capability, and their randomness involved in organic life adapting mass effect technology is how the Reapers are advancing their knowledge. However the millenia of observations by the first suggest that there are multiple additional ulterior motives he cannot comprehend and their actions, coldly logical, do not comply to that simple goal.

The Keepers species managed to hold off the Reapers for some time in their age, and managed to even kill some of them. This had enraged the Reapers so much that they decided to punish the first by making him an eternal passive observer to each following culling and making the converted slave species of his kind complicit each time.

When the Ilos team visited the citadel at the end of the last cycle, they prevented it from sending the signal by freeing him. Now he uses all the knowledge he has gained from countless previous cycles to fight the Reapers in one last ditch attempt to destroy them.

The options available for defeating the Reapers now depending on Shepard's choices, technologies acquired and how well the final battle for the citadel is fought.

[CharlesPhipps]

Eh, while the Leviathan plot removes some of the Reaper's mystery, I actually prefer it because the whole point of the game should be that the Reapers AREN'T as powerful as they claim to be.

That if the races unite they CAN defeat them.

Also, the writers have admitted they were basing the Reapers on both Cthulhu AND the Berserker series by Saberhagen.

Which are...malfunctioning A.I. dreadnoughts.

[Fixer]

I am familiar with the Berserker series Also they added a nice nod to the Qwib-Qwib in ME2.

However I don't think "faulty AI" in this situation. The Berserkers were imagined from the start as killer robots.

The Conversation with Sovereign outlines the Reapers as far more cosmic horror.


youtu.be/JvrIFIjTGt0

We learned in ME1 they were sentient ships that culled the galaxy. Developing organic cultures along the technological lines they planned. With absolute disdain for life as a whole.
In ME2 we learned the Reapers were specifically interested in humanity because of their biotic potential and genetic diversity. Other races such as the Protheans were not culled because they were not of use.
In ME3 we learn all of that is a mistake. They're just AI trying to preserve life because they couldn't figure out how to stop AI rebellions.

It's disappointing, cliched and contradictory to how they've acted before. Changing the Reapers from godlike intellects who can't impart their plans to mere mortals as it would shatter their frail sanity... to pretensious blowhards trying to cover up the fact their entire reason for existing is stupid.

If the Leviathans were to be included somehow, it would have to be in such a way that the Reapers can still keep their incomprehensible motivations.

[Independent George]

* Have whichever two companions you take with you on the final mission die (because ANGST)
...
* Have Edi and the Geth survive if you got over X amount of points but die if it was under it
* Have Shepard live (Anderson dying was enough angst)
* Have the ending include slides.

Instead of just automatically having your two companions die on the final mission, it would be better if they took a page from ME1 and ME2 and assigned your companions to various side objectives in support of your final mission (instead of doing... whatever the heck they were doing in ME3). A certain number of deaths would be inevitable (you don't assault an eldritch abomination without casualties), but the manner of deaths & consequences would be tied to your decisions in-game.

Instead of just depending on the number of 'War Resources', they should be tied to the actual type of war resources available. Sending Krogan to jam a Reaper signal, or having Salarian STG to bottleneck a wave of heavies, are not wise uses of resources. The Rachni was a lost opportunity - there should have been a mechanic where the Rachni only appear if a Paragon Shepherd in ME1 saved the Queen, while killing her worked to deprive the Reapers of another resource.

Likewise, having Shepherd live or die, plus the ending slides, should be tied to those same decisions. If you want the best ending galaxy-wide, you have to be willing to send Garrus or Tali or Liara on an actual suicide mission to save the galaxy. If you prioritize protecting your friends ahead of the mission, there should be consequences there, too. Heck, make that an endgame conversation with your love interest - you have the option of assigning them to an extremely dangerous task which they are well suited for. You can coddle them, or put your trust in their skills and send them into danger. Make their survival dependent on which support resources you obtained in-game (sometimes depending on your decisions in the previous games), and make some of them mutually exclusive. You can still save them at the end, only at a cost to someone else.

[GloatingSwine]

Also, the writers have admitted they were basing the Reapers on both Cthulhu AND the Berserker series by Saberhagen.

Which are...malfunctioning A.I. dreadnoughts.

Though they feel closer to the Inhibitors from Revalation Space.

The Inhibitors were built after a cataclysmic war in the first million or so years after the milky way formed, by a species who first predicted the collision with the Andromeda galaxy (coming to a galaxy near you in about four billion years). If advanced spacefaring societies populated the Milky Way at the time that happened, they would be irreparably disrupted (Because gravitational forces will shuffle everything around in both galaxies) and would have used too many of the resources of the galaxy to recover.

Hence the Inhibitors, a machine intelligence which, basically, is the Great Filter. They nix spacefaring races before they can get too far, but they're starting to break down and aren't as good at recognising new upstart species as they used to be.