Mass Effect 3 : Your Theories

[whycantibelinus]

I look at the reapers more as an idea than a race so a reaper in my mind is any lifeform striving to be better...or something along those lines.

From what I understand the Reapers are each a large genetic sampling and collective mind of an entire species.

Spoiler: Mass Effect 2 spoiler.

At least that's what I got out of the idea that the Collectors were liquidating all those human bodies to use as I guess life blood for the machine or something. Weird ass shit.

 

[Loop Stricken]

5: Protheans are coming back

Spoiler

Protheans already came back. Protheans are the Collectors.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Tracking down and eliminating highly-augmented sleeper-agents, complete with big boss battles. At least, I hope it'll be something like that. Cerberus splinter cell, Geth Heretics, Krogan racialists..
I'd elaborate, but I'm terrible at putting my thoughts on paper, so to speak.

 

[ecoho]

Nope, I think the choice is definetely happening. In any bioware game, in a time of war do people just start working together to defeat their common enemy? Nope. TO put it in Morrigan's words: It seems that everybody has decided that wartime is the best time to start killing each other. At least some quests will involve gathering allies, and this is definitely one of those. I am obviously very confident this will happen.

All weve seen from Quarians are techies, politicians, and Reegar, so seeing more like him would be cool. He does seem like kind of a bad ass, so he may actually be the deciding factor for me.

ok time for my actual theory ok here it goes if you did everything right (IE use ether paragon or renigade every time it came up) you shouldnt have to chose between any of the races. heres why first if you kept rex alive he think of you as a brother so hes not gonna betray you and he leads the krogan, now the rachni promised their suport when you freed them they arnt gonna back out after that, and finaly the reason i quoted you my friend IF you kept both tali and legion alive in ME2 they will keep them from fighting each other see they want to make tali an admeral and legion is a geth they share a mind the second he reconnected boom instant allys.Now i beleave the final battle will actualy take place on the reaper home world and you have to kill the first ever reaper who is the only thing keeping the reaper fleet together after you kill it they become completely unorganized and maybe even start fighting each other theres my theory hope i can get a few nods

That makes sense, but i think youre a little off. ME3 has to work as kind of a standalone game like ME2 did, because Bioware cant expect everybody who wants it to go out and buy ME2 first. I mean, they could if they wanted to, but they want it to make sense on its own. So I think that there will be times that you dont have to choose based off of paragon and renegade choices in that game, but situations will be made easier or harder based upon your history from ME1 or ME2, like you were saying. I think considering how character driven the story is, Bioware wont make it impossible to recruit both sides, but the story will play out on choosing allies, like iN DA:O.

Dont get me wrong theyll have a newly made chactor story but it wont be nearly as easy or as epic if you didnt by at least ME 2 first. Bioware is very good to their loyal fans i mean look at dragon age awakening it was just an expantion pack and it had 16 hours of game play alot of that can and was effected by playing the first game and if you just wanted to play it there was the option to make a new guy/girl and play the game from there. Now think about it if they do that much for an expantion pack for a game that was the first in its series im pretty sure when they make an end for their most known series(sorry kotor fans they are know better for Mass Effect now) theyll make it kick ass epic for those who had the 2 previous games and just epic if they didnt ether way itll be good

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I imagine it's going to be (at least part of it) like DA:O. You'll gather up the races your already friendly with (depending on what you did in the first two ME). Maybe you'll have to convince some other the other races to join up. I imagine that the council will be a pain in the ass and not join up right away (if at all, hell you might even have to fight them). Once your alliance is complete you'll move against the Reapers. Somehow a way to kill the Reapers in a more easier fashion will be discovered (giant space gun perhaps?) but it won't be perfect. They'll be a war, lots of casualties on both side and eventually Shepard will lead is Strike-team of Kills-everythingness into destroying the heart/brains of the Reaper force perhaps dying in the process. The rest of the Reapers will be killed in a much easier fashion and then there will be cake for all. Well, the ending will probably depend upon a slew of different options you took throughout the trilogy, so Paragon ending(s) will consist of the aforementioned free cake while the Renegade ending(s) will be a Pyrrhic victory.

Hopefully there are some twists and turns in the story to keep us on our feet. I'm seriously expecting the Council to become a serious obstacle in your creation of an alliance due to their constant head-in-the-sand behavior throughout ME 1&2.

Oh and Shepard will probably have the option to live happily (or not so happily, can't forget the Renegades) ever after with the teammate of your choice.

All and all, I'm looking forward to the (hopefully) sheer epicness of ME3.

 

[Druyn]

Dont get me wrong theyll have a newly made chactor story but it wont be nearly as easy or as epic if you didnt by at least ME 2 first. Bioware is very good to their loyal fans i mean look at dragon age awakening it was just an expantion pack and it had 16 hours of game play alot of that can and was effected by playing the first game and if you just wanted to play it there was the option to make a new guy/girl and play the game from there. Now think about it if they do that much for an expantion pack for a game that was the first in its series im pretty sure when they make an end for their most known series(sorry kotor fans they are know better for Mass Effect now) theyll make it kick ass epic for those who had the 2 previous games and just epic if they didnt ether way itll be good

Yeah, that makes sense to me. They already said that if you played both games, then ME3 will have over 3000 custom variables, which is pretty goddamned awesome. Most of em will probably be just one line references, but that will be the most customized, immersive game dialogue-wise that Ive ever seen. Maybe even playthrough wise. The only forseeable problem I see is a surplus of characters. And I dont mean just significant characters, I think major characters and party members. All party members I think should be well developed and central to the story, just like in ME2, because it just makes the game feel that much more realistic. The members from ME2 will inevitably show up (assuming they survived,) but not having any or only a few new members would be odd. SO we have all of the old characters, plus new ones. Thats a lot of people, even though most ME2 members wont be back in the party.

That sounds confusing, reading it over. But do you get what Im saying?

 

[ecoho]

Dont get me wrong theyll have a newly made chactor story but it wont be nearly as easy or as epic if you didnt by at least ME 2 first. Bioware is very good to their loyal fans i mean look at dragon age awakening it was just an expantion pack and it had 16 hours of game play alot of that can and was effected by playing the first game and if you just wanted to play it there was the option to make a new guy/girl and play the game from there. Now think about it if they do that much for an expantion pack for a game that was the first in its series im pretty sure when they make an end for their most known series(sorry kotor fans they are know better for Mass Effect now) theyll make it kick ass epic for those who had the 2 previous games and just epic if they didnt ether way itll be good

Yeah, that makes sense to me. They already said that if you played both games, then ME3 will have over 3000 custom variables, which is pretty goddamned awesome. Most of em will probably be just one line references, but that will be the most customized, immersive game dialogue-wise that Ive ever seen. Maybe even playthrough wise. The only forseeable problem I see is a surplus of characters. And I dont mean just significant characters, I think major characters and party members. All party members I think should be well developed and central to the story, just like in ME2, because it just makes the game feel that much more realistic. The members from ME2 will inevitably show up (assuming they survived,) but not having any or only a few new members would be odd. SO we have all of the old characters, plus new ones. Thats a lot of people, even though most ME2 members wont be back in the party.

That sounds confusing, reading it over. But do you get what Im saying?

yes but i dont think youll have to worry about new guys joining up in the 3rd game i think theyve added everyone they want you to have. Well probly get back everyone from Mass effect 1 thats like what 3 more people? they may add people depending on who you lost too. Damit now i have to go replay mass effect 2 again..... what a pain.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

Remember Tali's mission? The one where you recruited her in ME2? There was a lot of talk about the state of that star. When something seemingly unimportant is mentioned so much, it usually makes me mark that as important. There's also the damaged Reaper. Remember that they were trying to calculate the trajectory of a mass fired projectile that was able to take out a Reaper? I can easily imagine that these will come into play in ME3.

 

[Loop Stricken]

There's also the damaged Reaper. Remember that they were trying to calculate the trajectory of a mass fired projectile that was able to take out a Reaper? I can easily imagine that these will come into play in ME3.

They found the weapon, IIRC it was knackered after firing the killing blow.

 

[ecoho]

I'm guessing you're referring to those parts of the game where you were suddenly pulled into a briefing from the Illusive Man and immediately sent of on another mission. I wasn't a great fan of them myself, it was a little jarring when you were suddenly forced into a mission whereas you were normally just able to carry them out at your own pace.

Yeah, personally the first couple of times he forced a mission onto me after having some brief freedom to fly about, I went "WTF" when I tried to do anything else both before and after. After the constant playthroughs of ME1, I got rather used to just flying about, doing as I pleased.

Dont get me wrong theyll have a newly made chactor story but it wont be nearly as easy or as epic if you didnt by at least ME 2 first. Bioware is very good to their loyal fans i mean look at dragon age awakening it was just an expantion pack and it had 16 hours of game play alot of that can and was effected by playing the first game and if you just wanted to play it there was the option to make a new guy/girl and play the game from there. Now think about it if they do that much for an expantion pack for a game that was the first in its series im pretty sure when they make an end for their most known series(sorry kotor fans they are know better for Mass Effect now) theyll make it kick ass epic for those who had the 2 previous games and just epic if they didnt ether way itll be good

Yeah, that makes sense to me. They already said that if you played both games, then ME3 will have over 3000 custom variables, which is pretty goddamned awesome. Most of em will probably be just one line references, but that will be the most customized, immersive game dialogue-wise that Ive ever seen. Maybe even playthrough wise. The only forseeable problem I see is a surplus of characters. And I dont mean just significant characters, I think major characters and party members. All party members I think should be well developed and central to the story, just like in ME2, because it just makes the game feel that much more realistic. The members from ME2 will inevitably show up (assuming they survived,) but not having any or only a few new members would be odd. SO we have all of the old characters, plus new ones. Thats a lot of people, even though most ME2 members wont be back in the party.

That sounds confusing, reading it over. But do you get what Im saying?

yes but i dont think youll have to worry about new guys joining up in the 3rd game i think theyve added everyone they want you to have. Well probly get back everyone from Mass effect 1 thats like what 3 more people? they may add people depending on who you lost too. Damit now i have to go replay mass effect 2 again..... what a pain.

Yeah, I doubt we'll really be getting anyone new. We've pretty much got a team member from every race besides Batarian, Hanar, and the Vorcha. Its also a major possibility that we may get Liara back, even in ME2, since we will be dealing with her in the next DLC pack, as she goes after the shadowbroker personally.

Its also possible we will get everyone back, its not like other RPGs have not had an insane amount of characters you could get. Suikoden allowed you to have a team of 6 people, with many more you could switch in, and Radiata Stories had well over 100 characters you could have in your party. Thats why I suggested a suikoden-esque way of handling recruitment, as it would easily allow the return of any character still alive.

i think anyone you lost in the suicide mission will be replaced by another of that race if you can recruit them. Like you might get reger or the crazy quorian guy to replace tali, thanes son to replace thane, and you just get another geth who probly is legion just in another body the others wouldnt be replaced due to the fact that youll have one of eatch of their races on your crew already.

 

[Druyn]

Yeah, that makes sense to me. They already said that if you played both games, then ME3 will have over 3000 custom variables, which is pretty goddamned awesome. Most of em will probably be just one line references, but that will be the most customized, immersive game dialogue-wise that Ive ever seen. Maybe even playthrough wise. The only forseeable problem I see is a surplus of characters. And I dont mean just significant characters, I think major characters and party members. All party members I think should be well developed and central to the story, just like in ME2, because it just makes the game feel that much more realistic. The members from ME2 will inevitably show up (assuming they survived,) but not having any or only a few new members would be odd. SO we have all of the old characters, plus new ones. Thats a lot of people, even though most ME2 members wont be back in the party.

That sounds confusing, reading it over. But do you get what Im saying?

yes but i dont think youll have to worry about new guys joining up in the 3rd game i think theyve added everyone they want you to have. Well probly get back everyone from Mass effect 1 thats like what 3 more people? they may add people depending on who you lost too. Damit now i have to go replay mass effect 2 again..... what a pain.

No, I disagree. Would I like it that way? Yes. But that doesnt really fit in with the "still stand-alone" sequel that this game will most likely be. It would require people to know about character info from the last game if they want to know about the characters, and at the same time would remove the thrill of the older players learning new things about their allies. I mean, we all already know the ME2 characters pretty well, it wont be the same if the next game is just learning more about them. Although I do like your idea that those killed will be replaced by others of their race. I think it would be better though if Bioware just gave us all the characters we had before, but new ones on top of them. Mass Effect has shown to be pretty good at taking similar character types but making them significantly different with their special skills and abilities, so Id like to see more variation on that when they throw in new characters.

Remember Tali's mission? The one where you recruited her in ME2? There was a lot of talk about the state of that star. When something seemingly unimportant is mentioned so much, it usually makes me mark that as important. There's also the damaged Reaper. Remember that they were trying to calculate the trajectory of a mass fired projectile that was able to take out a Reaper? I can easily imagine that these will come into play in ME3.

Also yeah, I was thinking about this the other day. Im willing to bet that this will have something to do with the ending. It is wierd that they would talk about it so much and then do absolutely nothing with it. Could it be artificial maybe? Some sort of Reaper tech? Maybe a second way into the galaxy?

 

[Scythas]

Saren will be back, no doubt about it.

 

[kingcom]

Saren will be back, no doubt about it.

I really dont think thats going to happen. What purpose would it serve?

The probability that the game is going to be a "gather the armies" style of game or a "find the plot gun" is pretty high. Im guessing that since the super ancient civilization thing was already covered in the first mass effect they are going to go with a gather the armies quest. Basiclly shepard is going to have to go about getting all the armies to sign on together and start sharing equipment and technology with eathother. Its been shown that geth shields are pretty impressive even compared to reaper tech and Taurian weapons can do damage to them, throw in salarian reasearch, quarian ship development and you start to amass a technology base which would make even a quantity vs quality battle something of a chance against the reapers.

Throw in some special mission for shepard and his team to be running boarding operations on maybe the head reapers ships and that basiclly raps out mass effect 3.

Honestly though since they have been going the Babylon 5 route so far that is the most probable course. Perhaps even a throw in a "Cerberus is a spy!" approproach and you have yourself B5.

 

[Avayu]

Remember Tali's mission? The one where you recruited her in ME2? There was a lot of talk about the state of that star. When something seemingly unimportant is mentioned so much, it usually makes me mark that as important. There's also the damaged Reaper. Remember that they were trying to calculate the trajectory of a mass fired projectile that was able to take out a Reaper? I can easily imagine that these will come into play in ME3.

Also yeah, I was thinking about this the other day. Im willing to bet that this will have something to do with the ending. It is wierd that they would talk about it so much and then do absolutely nothing with it. Could it be artificial maybe? Some sort of Reaper tech? Maybe a second way into the galaxy?

That was the main part of my theory. Read my earlier post:

Spoiler

Okay, my theory:
Remember this sun in ME2, the one sun which was ageing too quickly and would soon explode in a Supernova? Exactly. This was the work of some kind of Geth technology, technology they probably haven't developed on their own but which was left behind by the Protheans or Reapers. So, throughout ME3, a team of scientists will try to further develop this technology to use it as a weapon. My guess is that this team will consist of Quarians and Geth, among others, and that you'll have to help them reconcile their problem so that they work together. This will be one act of the game. Then there will be a second one, in which you'll fly around the galaxy, fighting a few small and hopeless skirmishes against the spearhead of the Reaper invasion. You'll probably also have to fight against Cerberus, who will betray you. The game will reach its epic conclusion in a giant battle. All the races whose loyalties you have earned in the last two games will unite and face the entire Reaper fleet in a last stand. The last hope is to hold the Reapers long enough in this battle, to use the new weapon on a nearby sun to blow it up. Someone remember this one Stargate episode when they blow up a sun to destroy an enemy fleet? Just like that. There'll probably be different endings in which Sheppard either survives or dies a heroic death in the blast of the Supernova.

Honestly though since they have been going the Babylon 5 route so far that is the most probable course. Perhaps even a throw in a "Cerberus is a spy!" approproach and you have yourself B5.

So you think we'll have to find about the true nature of the Reapers and then Sheppard will give them a fiery speech in which he basically tells them to fuck off, leave the galaxy and the younger races alone and then they'll disappear forever? Maybe there will also be an incredibly old being that created the Reapers and treats them as its children?
Honestly, that wouldn't be the worst idea for the end, subverting nearly all the possible clichés.

 

[DazBurger]

I think that might have just been to show that they are still out there but Im sure that in me3 we will be dealing with those reapers and Im pretty sure that something stupid will happen to make us win, you know like the usual "we have no hope, but oh wait, someone put a kill all of them button over here, quick press it, yay we win forever, time for an orgy"

Umm.... you seem to be confusing Bioware with George Lucas.

and the difference is...

Bioware is a Canadian entertainment company, George Lucas is an American film producer/screenwriter?..

 

[LordLoudmouth]

5: Protheans are coming back

Spoiler

Protheans already came back. Protheans are the Collectors.

Protheans come back AS protheans, brainiac

 

[Spacewolf]

Remember Tali's mission? The one where you recruited her in ME2? There was a lot of talk about the state of that star. When something seemingly unimportant is mentioned so much, it usually makes me mark that as important. There's also the damaged Reaper. Remember that they were trying to calculate the trajectory of a mass fired projectile that was able to take out a Reaper? I can easily imagine that these will come into play in ME3.

they did calculate the trajectory they found the gun before they found the reaper

 

[ecoho]

Saren will be back, no doubt about it.

I really dont think thats going to happen. What purpose would it serve?

The probability that the game is going to be a "gather the armies" style of game or a "find the plot gun" is pretty high. Im guessing that since the super ancient civilization thing was already covered in the first mass effect they are going to go with a gather the armies quest. Basiclly shepard is going to have to go about getting all the armies to sign on together and start sharing equipment and technology with eathother. Its been shown that geth shields are pretty impressive even compared to reaper tech and Taurian weapons can do damage to them, throw in salarian reasearch, quarian ship development and you start to amass a technology base which would make even a quantity vs quality battle something of a chance against the reapers.

Throw in some special mission for shepard and his team to be running boarding operations on maybe the head reapers ships and that basiclly raps out mass effect 3.

Honestly though since they have been going the Babylon 5 route so far that is the most probable course. Perhaps even a throw in a "Cerberus is a spy!" approproach and you have yourself B5.

ok something just occered to me and it sent shivers down my spine after reading this and the one you quoted what if the person you left to die in the first game comes back as a reaper agent.....

 

[Scythas]

Saren will be back, no doubt about it.

I really dont think thats going to happen. What purpose would it serve?

I'm not sure what purpose it will serve really, but how tempting is it to pull a Captain Barbossa from Pirates 3 and have him show up.