Patching a story

[Joccaren]

By design, the game experience is impossible without the effort of both the developer and the player. But Mass Effect story has always been told by Bioware, with outcomes already created for the player just to explore, not to create. The player's choices in Mass Effect 1 or 2 are limited to what Bioware decided the player could do. Bioware decided what effects each of player's choices would have on the story; the players can't alter the story beyond that. The only difference with ME3 is that the later was done poorly and more restrictive; and the ME3 was re-written at mid-production (removing the Dark Energy plot by orders from EA) long before release.

To some extent that depends how you look at it, I guess. Yes, Bioware gave all the options, but the story of Shepard and the Mass Effect universe was one the players told as well. Who is Shepard? Bioware never told you, outside the very broad strokes. Shepard is a Marine/Specter, you gave him a bit of backstory yourself that they'd pre-written, but he could be an asshole, a saint, or anything in between, based on how you envisioned him. Even when the lines he could say were exactly the same, the ability to choose why you were saying each in your own mind, and choose the internal tone you had for that line, was a big part of creating your Shepard.

The problem when it came to three, was that that whole side of things went out the window. Shepard was no longer your character, he was Bioware's now. This is where the biggest problem with ME3 as a whole came in; it disconnected players from their characters, breaking one of the core attractions of the series.

There were a ton of other issues as well, yeah, that resulted from the rewrite - retcons all over the place, Deus Ex Machina, magical McGuffins, utterly nonsensical writing in a lot of areas...
But while it is the ending that is remembered the most, that was more just the straw that broke the camel's back. The game as a whole was deeply flawed from the get go. It managed some great moments, but that was in contrast to the several issues the game had as a whole with its writing, and the sidelining of the player's role in the game.

Its a bit of a shame that that's the ending the ME series got in the end. I wish games were treated like movies a bit more, and we could get a "Reimagining" of it in another 5-10 years time that actually makes it good, but I doubt that'll happen.

 

[Rangaman]

It does rub me up the wrong way. "Hey, we understand you might not have liked the story at first, but we're going to retcon it. Now do you like us?"

Day One patches are bad enough, but retroactively changing the story? Why even bother implementing the original story in the first place? Why even bother writing a story? ANARCHY!!!

 

[Dalisclock]

It does rub me up the wrong way. "Hey, we understand you might not have liked the story at first, but we're going to retcon it. Now do you like us?"

Day One patches are bad enough, but retroactively changing the story? Why even bother implementing the original story in the first place? Why even bother writing a story? ANARCHY!!!

The only excuse I can think of is that a game was rushed(and it does happen, because Damnit, that game needs to be out by CHRISTMAS!) so much that they had a choice between fully implementing the story and making the game playable and they choose game over story. In this case, I'd be okay with getting the rest of the story in later if the gameplay is worth it.

Xenogears is like the one example I can think of where they ran into this and decided to make the 2nd disc like 90% story at the expense of game-play(aside from a few boss battles and the final dungeon). So on one had it feels really wierd, OTOH it's not like "Wait, where did the plot go?". Especially since Xenogears never got a sequel.

Also if it cuts down on sequel baiting(Hey there HALO 2), especially for sequels that never happen(Looking at you Half Life Episode 2).

 

[Dalisclock]

By design, the game experience is impossible without the effort of both the developer and the player. But Mass Effect story has always been told by Bioware, with outcomes already created for the player just to explore, not to create. The player's choices in Mass Effect 1 or 2 are limited to what Bioware decided the player could do. Bioware decided what effects each of player's choices would have on the story; the players can't alter the story beyond that. The only difference with ME3 is that the later was done poorly and more restrictive; and the ME3 was re-written at mid-production (removing the Dark Energy plot by orders from EA) long before release.

To some extent that depends how you look at it, I guess. Yes, Bioware gave all the options, but the story of Shepard and the Mass Effect universe was one the players told as well. Who is Shepard? Bioware never told you, outside the very broad strokes. Shepard is a Marine/Specter, you gave him a bit of backstory yourself that they'd pre-written, but he could be an asshole, a saint, or anything in between, based on how you envisioned him. Even when the lines he could say were exactly the same, the ability to choose why you were saying each in your own mind, and choose the internal tone you had for that line, was a big part of creating your Shepard.

The problem when it came to three, was that that whole side of things went out the window. Shepard was no longer your character, he was Bioware's now. This is where the biggest problem with ME3 as a whole came in; it disconnected players from their characters, breaking one of the core attractions of the series.

There were a ton of other issues as well, yeah, that resulted from the rewrite - retcons all over the place, Deus Ex Machina, magical McGuffins, utterly nonsensical writing in a lot of areas...
But while it is the ending that is remembered the most, that was more just the straw that broke the camel's back. The game as a whole was deeply flawed from the get go. It managed some great moments, but that was in contrast to the several issues the game had as a whole with its writing, and the sidelining of the player's role in the game.

Its a bit of a shame that that's the ending the ME series got in the end. I wish games were treated like movies a bit more, and we could get a "Reimagining" of it in another 5-10 years time that actually makes it good, but I doubt that'll happen.

Part of the Problem with ME3 was the fact they lost some of the original writing team(including one of the leads) during the production of 2, so the guys who came into replace them had to try to figure out shit on the fly and it shows in ME3 that they really hadn't figured it out by that point(there are some wonderful bits but a fair bit of awful as well). Remember the plot point in ME2 where Dark Energy is brought up and how it's making stars die much earlier then they should and how it just kinda vanished after a bit? Yeah, that was supposed to be the reason for why the reapers do what they do, to stop it. And because of the new writers(and possibly EA fucking shit up again, as they do), we'll never know how well that would have worked out in the original plan for ME3.

 

[Joccaren]

Part of the Problem with ME3 was the fact they lost some of the original writing team(including one of the leads) during the production of 2, so the guys who came into replace them had to try to figure out shit on the fly and it shows in ME3 that they really hadn't figured it out by that point(there are some wonderful bits but a fair bit of awful as well). Remember the plot point in ME2 where Dark Energy is brought up and how it's making stars die much earlier then they should and how it just kinda vanished after a bit? Yeah, that was supposed to be the reason for why the reapers do what they do, to stop it. And because of the new writers(and possibly EA fucking shit up again, as they do), we'll never know how well that would have worked out in the original plan for ME3.

Yeah, after the EA consumption Bioware's founding fathers and best talent all kinda disappeared slowly. My guess is their greater RPG focus seen in games like Mass Effect 1, and Dragon Age, of their recent titles, didn't mesh well with EAs want for action blockbusters, so they kind of parted ways. And another grand old company swallowed by the EA machine.

I don't doubt EA meddling had a lot to do with it, but yeah, its quite obvious that the team didn't really know what to do with 3, and instead threw in as much fan service as they could, which doesn't exactly equate to a coherent plot. Honestly, ME3 feels rushed, haphazard and unplanned. It doesn't feel like they simply had to rewrite a single key plot point to be a bit different, but like they didn't know where it was going from the start, and just threw a bunch of random ideas together. Hopefully a new independent studio comes around soonish, and makes the sorts of games old Bioware was known for, either way Mass Effect is... not in the best shape, and honestly I reckon it'll be hard-pressed to recover.

 

[Blitsie]

I will say that even though I feel the DLC story ending was a kind of cheap shot, at least it wasn't MvC3 levels of bad and the conclusion to Asura's Wrath was one of the better ones I encountered. The ending was satisfying and you get not only one of the most emotional brofists in the history of ever, you get to punch the Creator of all things in the face and completely shatter half of it.

In conclusion, Asura's Wrath is, what I feel, a very good example of how DLC is both good and bad. And I still had a damn good time playing through the game to experience one hell of a story.

Oh man I know exactly how you feel! On the one hand, I just supported the scummy practice of charging for a game ending. On the other hand though, I got not only a substantial amount of content for what I paid, it also ended up being one of the most damn satisfying and over the top endings I've ever experienced.

Was that rumor that Capcom canned the sequel due to bad sales and this DLC ended up being their only way to finish the storyline ever confirmed? I was never sure if it was true or just something said to convince people to buy it.