When Earth begins to fall in an ancient cycle of destruction, Commander Shepard must unite the forces of the galaxy to stop the Reapers in the final chapter of the original Mass Effect trilogy.
Hopefully spoilers aside in this thread, I haven't and hopefully no one else has played the beta here, which may have given enough potential spoilers to even answer this question. Anyways, the way I see it, I feel like you'll start out on Earth, and after doing a few things, you go get help from other races and the council, and leave for the majority of the game to do so, but what I'm wondering is, while you have to do that, will you be timed to do everything quickly so you can save Earth? I really hope not. That'd put too much... well I don't know a word for it, but I know it'd make it harder for me to fully enjoy the setting and otherwise, and that's a problem. A part of me respects the idea, but I don't really enjoy the thought of going through it. I very much want to experience it all, but if they were to put a time limit on it; well I think you understand.
If they were going to id of thought they would on the first 2, i doubt they would go down this route Bioware understand that allot of people like to explore every aspect of a game and take they're time i respect them to do a good job of it and not do to make bad decisions like that.
I doubt it ... maybe there'll be a situation like 'we've only got enough time to do one of two things' kind of thing, a choice to make. But I hope there won't / doubt there will be a real-time timer on anything.
I hope not. Or if they do, it'd be nice to know about it, unlike the aforementioned one at the end of ME2. I could have saved those people if I knew time was a factor! And I did, upon replaying the game.
Even if there is, it'll probably be a mission by mission kind of thing, because otherwise there'd be a huge incentive to not talk to anyone on the Normandy, because that would just be time that could be spent saving the universe.
The timer that unknowingly started when your crew was abducted in ME2 pissed off a lot of people, so probably not!
This. That was handled so badly.
Although, that was mainly due to the fact that the game had never used it previously and it suddenly appeared out of nowhere, without communicating to the player that 'hey, remember all those times we told you that you needed to get somewhere quickly but it didn't really matter how long you took? Well, this mission isn't going to be like that'.
If the timer was visible in some way and introduced at the start, it might not be as awful. Not that I'd want something like that in ME.
This seems like a kind of odd thing to assume they might do.
It completely makes sense from a story perspective, if the Reaper invasion is as imminent as Arrival made it seem. And they did do it with the last few story missions in ME2. Hopefully, they know better... but I can expect everything from EA/Bioware these days.
That won't happen, at least not in a literal timed fashion. There could be something like in ME2 where if you don't prioritise one option over another at the right time it could have consequences - the way to minimise the chance of that is to always do all secondary stuff when it becomes available, before progressing the main storyline.
The timer that unknowingly started when your crew was abducted in ME2 pissed off a lot of people, so probably not!
So the one moment where Bioware made good on the promise of decisions that meant something pissed people off? I guess that doesn't surprise me.
When do people finish their sidequests and left over thingies? Before the point of no return. Which was, for many as they went into the game unspoiled to enjoy the story, right after the abduction.
And like @Vitor: said: First it doesn't really matter how long you take for any situation and then suddenly it starts counting down.
It's strange that a good story sucks you in and makes you ignore sidequests till you can mop em up at the end right? Right, and then you get punished for mopping up too.
Well I learned my lesson, especially after Dragon Age 2 where I did every sidequest before going into the Deep Roads...and as a result had burned myself out on the game already.
@AndrewB: It's not the fact that your actions had dire consequences. It's the fact that many people felt unprepared for it. Throughout the entire game, ME2 observed a form of gameplay-story segregation where everyone says the Collector threat is imminent, but mechanically, you have all the time in the world to scan planets or bone crew members or whatever. You know, like a video game.
Then they changed the rules immediately, instead of establishing a cause-effect relationship over time, and they used a poorly-conceived and transparent set of events to make it go. Why would Shepard's entire crew leave the ship undefended to complete a mission, when you can only bring two dudes with you everywhere else? Why do they not even describe where they are going or why? It was just poorly done, all around.
"Geeze, BioWare, you forgot to add consequences to the choices! Get it right next time!" "NO! WHAT THE FUCK! I thought EDI was just kidding about that dumb 'decision' bullshit... This isn't how I like my RPGs, BioWare! Get it right next time!"
This seems like a kind of odd thing to assume they might do.
It completely makes sense from a story perspective, if the Reaper invasion is as imminent as Arrival made it seem. And they did do it with the last few story missions in ME2. Hopefully, they know better...
Yeah. I mean, before, I didn't really think (much) of it, but just a while back, they were talking about how there's much more at stake (which I assumed was just within who lives or dies throughout the games smaller sequences rather than the overarching story), and they've been somewhat pushing the time aspect of when the Reapers will finally make the attack to destroy Earth. I mean, I'm not exactly saying I fully expect it to happen, I'm just saying it makes sense story wise, and while it may not happen, it's truly not an odd thing to assume.
I hope not. There was nothing in either mission in the leaked demo that gave any indication of one, but only one of them took place after such a timer would start.
My idea for Mass Effect 3 was that Shepard would have to push back several invasions on multiple homeworlds (Rannoch, Earth, Thessia, Palaven, Kahje, so on). You'd pick any one of them to do first. Whichever planet you do first, the Reapers are just starting their assault, you push them back without too much severe damage to the planet's infrastructure. Around the middle planets, you arrive to see the Reapers have destroyed vast numbers of the population and destroyed entire continents to ash. Incidental characters you would've met there are gone, it's just the story important characters who have survived. Whichever planet you leave last... by the time you get around to it, it's too late. That entire planet has been reaped, everyone is dead and the planet's ecosystem has been damaged to the point that it's inhospitable for any life for thousands of years.
So do you save Earth first? Who do you leave to die? There is no 'golden path', no matter what, an entire planet, billions of sentient beings are going to die. Who do you save, who do you doom?
But they would never do that, because gamers would complain and complain and complain. "BioWare forced me to let the turians die! I should be able to save everyone!"
Currently replaying Mass Effect 2 with all the DLC on PC in preperation, the only DLC I haven't played is Arrival, but Hackett just contacted me about it. Surprised me since I thought that was post game content. Does it matter when I play it during the course of the game?
And I've thought about this too, Bioware better not stress me during my playthrough, I wanna explore and take my time, like I always do
Just wondering, and not that they care for the certain character, but you all know that if you save Kelly, then you don't save the Horizon colonist (Lilith) taken from earlier in the game right?
@Venatio: I haven't played Arrival (yet) either, but I can tell you what I know. I don't think they'll punish you if you play it before the suicide mission, but I think it's probably best if you do hold out for after you're done with everything you feel needed to be finished. Or was your question rhetorical?
@Venatio: I did it both ways on different characters and some dialogue and other things are adjusted to make it fit your current situation. IMO it fits better as post suicide mission content. Same thing for Lair of the Shadowbroker.
No, I have reliable information from Anderson that this isn't the case. The Reapers will hold the attack until you've united the galaxy to destroy them.
It's like Half-Minute Hero. Shepard and the Normandy move super fast, like a blur, and you have a few hours before Earth is wiped out. Conversation choices are kiss or shoot, for everybody. I would play this game.
The ME2 thing didn't bother me all that much because it had virtually no impact on the story. It was handled in a short cutscene. In general, I don't like timers in games, especially in RPGs. Mass Effect hasn't had a lot of timed missions, but when it has ... I've tended to avoid those missions on replay, if possible. I understand the logic of having a count-down in some situations, but I don't think it adds anything but frustration to gameplay. I suspect that ME3 will have a few of those types of missions, but more broadly they'd be stupid to time the ending of the game. There's a fundamental conflict between offering a game that encourages exploration and freedom and slapping a timer on it.
The timer that unknowingly started when your crew was abducted in ME2 pissed off a lot of people, so probably not!
I agree and if they made the same mistake in ME3...well...that would only mean , they never learn and , in the end, they don't give a fuck of what you wish as fan.
The timer that unknowingly started when your crew was abducted in ME2 pissed off a lot of people, so probably not!
They had no right to be pissed off... they have no one to blame but themselves if they didn't think rescuing their crew from certain death should have automatically been at the top of their to do list after the fact.
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