Meeting up with other flight sim enthusiasts, we load up a co-op game and plan a mission. I climb into the cockpit of the A10 and boy is it a beauty. I FLIP ALL THE SWITCHES and dials and I take off from the runway. I take a steer from a controller and drop ordinance on some enemy tanks. And the gun! I shoot all sorts of vehicles with the gun. Then, sated, we head back to base and execute a perfect landing, all the while whooping and bro-fisting over ventrilo.
What actually happened:
Crash on take off. Uninstall.
We must have played different versions because I got the first ending. :P
I mostly agree with the ME2 haters. I remember talking to a friend of mine about it when it first came out and we had both just finished it. He was all, "it was awesome!" and I felt kind of let down by it. I mean, it was fun and all, but something about it just didn't sit right with me, and later I realized it was most of the story. Certain elements I liked and had no problem with, like the undead thing and Cerberus, and even the Collectors themselves and their little project, but most of the main story points were completely nonsensical. I did enjoy all of the characters and their missions, though, and actually agonized over the final decision for a few minutes, not sure which was the best way to go, but ultimately I realized it was an arbitrary thing.
I think the game would have been better as a spin-off or something. As a sequel and the middle of a trilogy, it was kind of lame. I don't really see anything they can do in part 3 to change my feelings of 2, and I'm kind of worried it's going to feel rushed or deus ex machina since, like mentioned, they're not any closer to dealing with the threat than they were at the end of the first game.
I didn't dislike the story of ME2 particularly, although I can see why people didn't. I do think the ending would've been a lot better though, if
the paragon option had been to give the collector station to the alliance/citadel/whatever, rather than blowing it up. That would've made the story seem a lot more weighty (since let's be honest, the option to blow it up makes it tough for it to figure prominently in ME3), and would've given them more opportunity to explore the whole transhumanist thing they're playing at with shepard.
My other gripe isn't necessarily that we didn't get any closer to dealing with the reapers, but it felt like we barely learned anything about them either. I mean we spend all this time fighting their lackeys and taking over the reaperfactory, but it doesn't feel like we know much more about them than we did at the end of the first game.
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
In a bizarre 11th hour turn, Gabriel fights Satan of all people, wins, and is left to wander the Earth while his love ascends to heaven. We're then treated to a flash forward where Gabriel is revealed in the second least shocking twist of the game - the first being that the character voiced by Patrick Stewart, named Zobek (I guess it's a little more subtle than Moustachio LeTwirler, but not by much) - turns out to be Dracula. And instead of using that as a jump off point for an interquel, there's two crappy DLCs that show Gabriel going to some kind of dark world, defeating the MOST EVIL SPIRIT EVER by absorbing the power of darkness, and having that transform him into Dracula.
So, wait...
There are two Draculas?
I accidentally cursed god twice so now I am Twodraculas!
Dammit, I need to stop breaking my sentences apart so much. They're like Frankenstein with the way I shoehorn thought fragments left and right.
No,
The twist is that Gabriel is Dracula, and that Zobek betrays him (and Zobek is also Death).
Wouldn't have known from the confusing-ass way I write.
Ah, okay. Thanks for clearing that up!
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
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The AnonymousUh, uh, uhhhhhh...Uh, uh.Registered Userregular
edited January 2012
Remember11.
What should've happened:
Following an unexpected twist - a possibly confusing one, depending on whether you saw a certain bad end beforehand - the story should have gone back in time, showing us the events that led to Satoru executing his plan to...well, do whatever it was he was planning. There's a lot of stuff that's only in TIPS, radio dramas or the official timeline, or just not explained at all, which is slightly annoying because all of that should have been in the fucking game.
What we got:
Satoru: All right, everybody's safe!
Kokoro: Actually, we let Hotori hold one of Kali's twins, except she's back to being that mass murderer who killed a dozen people. And now she's holding the baby over a cliff. Whoops.
Satoru: Damn. Oh hey, it's my ex! Say, you wanna start dating again now that I just saved your life, or...?
Mayazumi: You're not...the Yukidoh Satoru I knew...
Satoru: *mind breaks*
I didn't dislike the story of ME2 particularly, although I can see why people didn't. I do think the ending would've been a lot better though, if
the paragon option had been to give the collector station to the alliance/citadel/whatever, rather than blowing it up. That would've made the story seem a lot more weighty (since let's be honest, the option to blow it up makes it tough for it to figure prominently in ME3), and would've given them more opportunity to explore the whole transhumanist thing they're playing at with shepard.
My other gripe isn't necessarily that we didn't get any closer to dealing with the reapers, but it felt like we barely learned anything about them either. I mean we spend all this time fighting their lackeys and taking over the reaperfactory, but it doesn't feel like we know much more about them than we did at the end of the first game.
Here's how Mass Effect 2 should have ended.
Everything is the same up until the final boss battle. Everything. Once you kill it, instead of falling to its doom below the floating platform, it slumps over it and just hangs there, motionless. All goes quiet except for the distant rumblings of battle and the creaking of metal. It's eerie. It's a strangely ethereal moment. You've just won, but why doesn't it feel like that? Have some tinkling piano notes as backing music. Some sweeping circular shots of Shepard calmly planting the explosives in preparation to detonate/purge the station, just as in the original ending.
Then just as he's about to call EDI and arrange for a pickup in a calm, desolate collector base that now seems completely empty; one more platform comes floating down from above. This one looks different. It looks more like a cocoon, still chitinous and alien but definitely a container for something, in keeping with the bee hive/ant nest motif.
It settles down before Shepard, who looks at it suspiciously and arms the device he just planted. The station starts to rumble, the platforms around him vibrate and collapse. The Reaper Larva grinds metal loudly, bits fall off it and it slides off the ledge and falls into the dark abyss below. Sparks fly, the station all around them is collapsing. Just as the dropship flies in and touches down behind Shepard, the cocoon opens up and out spills the Collector Overmind, his luminous orange eyes showing he's still possessed by Harbinger.
As Shepard steps up onto the ledge of the dropship door, the rest of his team safely inside, he turns back toward the Overmind with a look of confusion. After all, he has - at no point so far - seen or even known about its existence. But he recognizes the Harbinger voice when it says something grandiose and final like 'we cannot be defeated'. As he says that, it blasts the dropship, sending Shepard and Shepard alone tumbling back down onto the now rapidly disintegrating platforms.
What follows is a final, climactic confrontation. Shepard alone with the Overmind on a smaller platform with no teammates and squad to assist. It's a simple fight, but a fluid one due to the much more rapidly changing landscape. There are moments when the Overmind lunges at Shepard, pinning him to the ground, that require you to hammer the A button to fling him off. It's a more personal fight, more up close. Aggression and rage are the driving forces here.
During the combat, Harbinger displays more human inflection in his voice. His lines are no longer reserved, robotic and distant, they are angry. They rise in tempo. He no longer states that Shepard's doom is inevitable, he says he wants it. His facade breaks. Harbinger shows that he wants Shepard dead, breaking the bland monotone voice that has been used so far and creating real fear and confusion in the player. There are no stages to the fight, and the Overmind goes all out for your death. It's weapons are over the top, rapid firing and hugely damaging. Everything is frantic and noisy and confusing. It is a difficult fight, with no cover and no time for stop-and-pop.
This fight mirrors the Saren final form at the end of Mass Effect 1. Showing that when the Reapers are pushed to the brink, they waver in their stoic belief in the inevitable. This makes them not only an omniscient foe to be defeated, but an increasingly threatening one. It diverges from the Saren fight crucially in that Shepard has learned so much since then about their nature. Saren said, quite explicitly, that when beings are controlled by the Reapers, they are weakened and made less able. This was, as he said, his only saving grace. But it was also his downfall. When Sovereign possessed Saren, it was an act of desperation. It weakened Saren, and Shepard was able to triumph.
Here, the same happens. The Collector Overmind lunges at Shepard, flinging itself into harms way with no concern for safety, allowing Shepard to win through calculating strategy and smarts. In essense, the roles are reversed. The all powerful machines become emotional, become blinded by hubris. While Shepard, now part machine, wins through calculating tactics and a control of his character.
Shepard has become part machine and won the day, setting up a powerful conflict in ME3 over just how far he wants to tread down that path. Linking in with the duality of save the base/destroy the base, Shepard has appropriated Reaper attributes and won, but at what cost? Has he lost his humanity? Was it worth the sacrifice. Similarly, Harbinger has become more human, more organic in his pursuit of Shepard. He's fallen to bravado, to arrogance, and that has been his downfall.
This is what was missing from ME2.
By pursuing Shepard, by chasing him and trying to turn him, the Reapers have taken a personal interest in him. This personal interest is a human trait. An emotion. A thing for the biological, not the mechanical world.
Conversely, Shepard has become part machine. His rise from the grave has changed him, has made him stronger and more resolved. He is not only the one who knows the most about the Reapers, but he is the one who is becoming more like them. A Saren 2.0 if you will. This should have been played up more. Will Shepard retain his humanity when the machine part of him becomes stronger?
These themes were ignored entirely and should have been central. Having Shepard fight the Collector Overmind and have their roles reverse in a mechanical, gameplay sense would have put this at the forefront and set up a lot of philosophical debates for ME3.
Once the fight is over, Harbinger delivers one parting message. The one he delivers at the end of ME2. Your salvation through destruction, etc. Then the eyes stop glowing orange and the Overmind regains its faculties, just as Shepard is picked up in the dropship and flies back into the Normandy hangar.
One parting look between the two is all that remains. The Overmind has a look of sadness, or realization, and so too does Shepard. He sees in that final moment, the ultimate doom of the Prothean race. What they have become, what the Reapers took from them. This moment reaffirms his desire to destroy Harbinger and his allies. This was sorely lacking from the real ending to ME2, any lasting desire to win. Shepard sees a crippled, dying Overmind lying among the bodies of other drones and it looks at him, knowingly. Perhaps glad in its final moments that Shepard gave it a death it has long desired, as the last traces of the Protheans die out from the galaxy, only Shepard knows the full truth of their legacy.
Then ensues a thrilling scene where the Normandy escapes the collapsing station and the resulting explosion and flies off into hyperspace.
Cut to the Normandy some days later. Shots of the ship being repaired, new crew members helping out; but also, tellingly, lingering shots of places where dead crew would have been but are no longer. Then we see coffins. Whether you saved all of your squad members through loyalty or not, and no matter how quickly you went to rescue the crew, some died on the way. The entire remaining crew is there, in dress uniform. Garrus and Tali and all the others are now part of the Normandy, they have a unified appearance rather than their disparate get-ups. It is a moment of unity. One crew. One mission. One leader.
Shepard stares out a window at space. Joker walks up to him and says 'what now, captain?' and Shepard says something pithy and dismissive but equally badass in context like 'we win' or 'we end this' or something that shows new resolve and determination. That shows the last forty hours of gameplay had an impact on his character. Before, he knew the Reapers had to be defeated, he knew their danger. But know, after all of ME2, he knows that victory is not assured. He hasn't read the script, he doesn't know that in all RPGs ever the hero wins in the end. He needed to have doubts but also a little bit of arrogance. A bit of determination.
Then that shot fades to a close-up of the actual Harbinger floating in space. He says nothing. No cheesy voice over. Just a thousand lightyear stare. The shot slowly pulls back, and back, and even further back. Revealing more and more Reapers. The pull back is slow, high pitched violin strings rise and rise and it becomes deafening. It seemingly never ends. A moment ago we had hope that Shepard could win. But throughout ME1 and ME2 we had only ever fought skirmishes. We were only told that the Reapers were unstoppable and that their numbers were legion. Here we are shown that.
Then it cuts to black, it ends and the credits rolls.
Not going to lie, I like the ending of DAII a lot. The ending of BioShock, though, has serious issues. Probably because I've always had the feeling that Levine wanted to end the game at that scene. You know the one.
And Mafia II had a great ending that wrapped the game up perfectly. Congrats! You're now one of the most powerful men in the Mafia, with plenty of opportunities to get rich again!
But your best friend is dead, your mom is dead, your sister is scared shitless of you, and you've sold your soul to the devil.
Oblivion needed a DLC that addressed the fact that the head of state of the government that united the continent just turned into a dragon and killed a demon.
At the very least, drop a few legions of pirates, mercs, and rebels from the past few games to bum rush the capitol, elves live a long time and I'm sure a few guys would have been willing to carpool out to Cryodil to take a shot at the crown.
I mean, I'm against stupid fantasy made up names as much as the next guy. But the next guy literally is, in my case, Martin. And it was so weird. This is the one and only time when Martyn would have been acceptable.
Oblivion needed a DLC that addressed the fact that the head of state of the government that united the continent just turned into a dragon and killed a demon.
At the very least, drop a few legions of pirates, mercs, and rebels from the past few games to bum rush the capitol, elves live a long time and I'm sure a few guys would have been willing to carpool out to Cryodil to take a shot at the crown.
By that point the Elder Council had the place locked down. There were so many Emperors killed in the Septim Line that they'd gotten used to that kind of thing.
Actually. In Skyrim do they actually say that dragons haven't existed for thousands of years? I recall that bring a thing. Because I also recall Oblivion was supposed to be something like 200 years before it and.... Well.... Dragon.
Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
No, it was an Akatosh.
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Descendant XSkyrim is my god now.Outpost 31Registered Userregular
So it was a god then?
Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
I'm surprised the Kane & Lynch games haven't been brought up yet. Funny thing is I really like the presentation of both games, in that few straight-up action games have gone as far in painting such an unflinchingly bleak picture. It's deceptively mature; as I said in the Dog Days thread, Kane isn't saying 'fuck' because fuck is a bad word, he's saying 'fuck' because he's trying to do something morally repugnant to save his family and Lynch just fucked it up. Mistakes are permanent in these games, in ways most stories never really touch on. I am not exaggerating when I say "You should have let me talk to them!" is one of the most darkly memorable moments in gaming history.
But the endings... good god the endings. Spoilered to be safe:
The first game's could work with a little adjusting, what with Kane finally getting to speak with his (now wounded, possibly dying) daughter. It would certainly fit the tone of the game to end on a down note. The real problem is the entire game takes a nosedive when it abruptly shifts to South America; no longer a crime drama but now some nonsense about an old gang of mercenaries staging a coup as part of their retirement plan. The script still has moments of intelligence - in desperate pursuit of his daughter, Kane blurts out something over the radio that comes back to haunt him in the endgame - but it's just too disconnected from the first 2/3 of the game.
The second game is more coherent, with few abrupt plot shifts beyond "we just fucked up" and "we gotta get the fuck out of here". Again, it does a commendable job giving permanence to K&L's misadventures; their mistakes don't go away just because they can shoot their way past an army of mooks. But the ending is also somehow more abrupt, literally stopping the very second the two "escape" Shanghai. I knew better than to expect a satisfying ending, but you don't stop the game when the codependent sociopaths shoot their way onto a commercial airliner. Even downer endings need some kind of denouement.
The story and characters really deserve better games, and I say that as someone that still enjoyed them (to a point, at least). It's a shame, really.
You can easily write a coherent story, it gets harder when art assets can't catch up.
1-A contract with a VA is up, now you need to write him off as you only have three more days with him, and he can't finish his lines.
2-The final stage isn't finished just yet, other milestones and the project demand that you just edit the writing so they can fit the game's ending in the stage before last (or creativly, Use old assets with diffrent coloring scheams to make it a dream/dark world, which makes for the worst endings ever).
I'm always amazed how bad the soul reaver games were gameplay wise, but force you to finish them through awesome art,VA and writing.
I'm surprised the Kane & Lynch games haven't been brought up yet. Funny thing is I really like the presentation of both games, in that few straight-up action games have gone as far in painting such an unflinchingly bleak picture. It's deceptively mature; as I said in the Dog Days thread, Kane isn't saying 'fuck' because fuck is a bad word, he's saying 'fuck' because he's trying to do something morally repugnant to save his family and Lynch just fucked it up. Mistakes are permanent in these games, in ways most stories never really touch on. I am not exaggerating when I say "You should have let me talk to them!" is one of the most darkly memorable moments in gaming history.
But the endings... good god the endings. Spoilered to be safe:
The first game's could work with a little adjusting, what with Kane finally getting to speak with his (now wounded, possibly dying) daughter. It would certainly fit the tone of the game to end on a down note. The real problem is the entire game takes a nosedive when it abruptly shifts to South America; no longer a crime drama but now some nonsense about an old gang of mercenaries staging a coup as part of their retirement plan. The script still has moments of intelligence - in desperate pursuit of his daughter, Kane blurts out something over the radio that comes back to haunt him in the endgame - but it's just too disconnected from the first 2/3 of the game.
The second game is more coherent, with few abrupt plot shifts beyond "we just fucked up" and "we gotta get the fuck out of here". Again, it does a commendable job giving permanence to K&L's misadventures; their mistakes don't go away just because they can shoot their way past an army of mooks. But the ending is also somehow more abrupt, literally stopping the very second the two "escape" Shanghai. I knew better than to expect a satisfying ending, but you don't stop the game when the codependent sociopaths shoot their way onto a commercial airliner. Even downer endings need some kind of denouement.
The story and characters really deserve better games, and I say that as someone that still enjoyed them (to a point, at least). It's a shame, really.
I love Kane and Lynch 2. Such a shame it got caught up in the wave of bad press that afflicted the series after all the mess with Jeff Gerstmann.
It's such a bleak look at what it really means to be the kind of person that we usually laud as heroes in our videogames (and action movies).
The ending is abrupt, but it's really just where the game decides to take its leave, because realistically, there is no ending to that story that does not end with the protagonists dead - so instead of killing them off in some inane cutscene and insulting the player ("Hey, I got out of all this other shit, why does my character have to die now?") the game just puts a stop to your agency altogether and cuts out right there.
I should also add that I just bought NIER on a lark. Here...we...go...
I like it too! It just does the same thing all the PSX-era games did: go all Belushi on the crazyjuice midway through disc 3 and leave you wondering what the hell happened. If the end of the story had a little more continuity to it (and if the whole rinoa/ultimecia thing actually had been the big reveal) I think it would be considered one of the best of the series.
Yeah, but the ending of FF8 was MEANT to be convoluted to make you try to sort it out. FF9 on the other hand...
I'm sorry, but right after you beat the enemy you've been pursuing for the bulk of the game (no small feat in itself by the way) you think "Oh this is over, time for the ending." You then get the glory of the crystal that's on the cover title come out, talk about some junk that makes no sense then throws ANOTHER boss that comes out of nowhere, is more difficult, you get no time to prepare, and randomizes your groups! There is absolutely NOTHING about that fight that makes ANY sense!
I thought the ending to Mafia II was terrible. The rest of the game was great, but I hated the ending.
The rest of the game wasted a lot of the potential in the subject matter, as well. Most of the mob shit your character gets to do is in montage cutscenes, without so much as any dialogue. But the part where you load boxes until you don't, and the part where you drive around selling ration cards? Fully interactive.
I love Kane and Lynch 2. Such a shame it got caught up in the wave of bad press that afflicted the series after all the mess with Jeff Gerstmann
I really don't believe the sequel's lackluster sales can be blamed on that debacle. In a crowded genre, it didn't stand out well enough and/or wasn't marketed well enough to pull a Homefront or a Metro 2033. The marketing strategy seemed to be, hey, let's play up the new multi modes, as if it were continuing an established franchise with a large and loyal base.
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
I'm surprised the Kane & Lynch games haven't been brought up yet. Funny thing is I really like the presentation of both games, in that few straight-up action games have gone as far in painting such an unflinchingly bleak picture. It's deceptively mature; as I said in the Dog Days thread, Kane isn't saying 'fuck' because fuck is a bad word, he's saying 'fuck' because he's trying to do something morally repugnant to save his family and Lynch just fucked it up. Mistakes are permanent in these games, in ways most stories never really touch on. I am not exaggerating when I say "You should have let me talk to them!" is one of the most darkly memorable moments in gaming history.
But the endings... good god the endings. Spoilered to be safe:
The first game's could work with a little adjusting, what with Kane finally getting to speak with his (now wounded, possibly dying) daughter. It would certainly fit the tone of the game to end on a down note. The real problem is the entire game takes a nosedive when it abruptly shifts to South America; no longer a crime drama but now some nonsense about an old gang of mercenaries staging a coup as part of their retirement plan. The script still has moments of intelligence - in desperate pursuit of his daughter, Kane blurts out something over the radio that comes back to haunt him in the endgame - but it's just too disconnected from the first 2/3 of the game.
The second game is more coherent, with few abrupt plot shifts beyond "we just fucked up" and "we gotta get the fuck out of here". Again, it does a commendable job giving permanence to K&L's misadventures; their mistakes don't go away just because they can shoot their way past an army of mooks. But the ending is also somehow more abrupt, literally stopping the very second the two "escape" Shanghai. I knew better than to expect a satisfying ending, but you don't stop the game when the codependent sociopaths shoot their way onto a commercial airliner. Even downer endings need some kind of denouement.
The story and characters really deserve better games, and I say that as someone that still enjoyed them (to a point, at least). It's a shame, really.
I love Kane and Lynch 2. Such a shame it got caught up in the wave of bad press that afflicted the series after all the mess with Jeff Gerstmann.
It's such a bleak look at what it really means to be the kind of person that we usually laud as heroes in our videogames (and action movies).
The ending is abrupt, but it's really just where the game decides to take its leave, because realistically, there is no ending to that story that does not end with the protagonists dead - so instead of killing them off in some inane cutscene and insulting the player ("Hey, I got out of all this other shit, why does my character have to die now?") the game just puts a stop to your agency altogether and cuts out right there.
I should also add that I just bought NIER on a lark. Here...we...go...
Neir honestly makes me wish I could erase my mind and replay it again. I envy everyone who goes into it blind. Its beautiful and fantastic.
Resurrect the thread. You'll want a support group about halfway through.
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
So, you know that whole big thing you went through to save your people and fulfill their purpose for existing in the first place by containing an ancient evil that I kinda tagged along for so you could constantly save my ass when I fell of the face of the planet?
Yeah, fuck that, I just undid it all. Aren't you happy to see me again?
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chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
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Goddamn. Nier's Ending D was amazing.
And Drakengard's E ending was... unique.
Just look at this shit. From 1:00 onwards.
And it all makes SENSE.
God I loved NieR.
We must have played different versions because I got the first ending. :P
I mostly agree with the ME2 haters. I remember talking to a friend of mine about it when it first came out and we had both just finished it. He was all, "it was awesome!" and I felt kind of let down by it. I mean, it was fun and all, but something about it just didn't sit right with me, and later I realized it was most of the story. Certain elements I liked and had no problem with, like the undead thing and Cerberus, and even the Collectors themselves and their little project, but most of the main story points were completely nonsensical. I did enjoy all of the characters and their missions, though, and actually agonized over the final decision for a few minutes, not sure which was the best way to go, but ultimately I realized it was an arbitrary thing.
I think the game would have been better as a spin-off or something. As a sequel and the middle of a trilogy, it was kind of lame. I don't really see anything they can do in part 3 to change my feelings of 2, and I'm kind of worried it's going to feel rushed or deus ex machina since, like mentioned, they're not any closer to dealing with the threat than they were at the end of the first game.
My other gripe isn't necessarily that we didn't get any closer to dealing with the reapers, but it felt like we barely learned anything about them either. I mean we spend all this time fighting their lackeys and taking over the reaperfactory, but it doesn't feel like we know much more about them than we did at the end of the first game.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Ah, okay. Thanks for clearing that up!
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
What should've happened:
Kokoro: Actually, we let Hotori hold one of Kali's twins, except she's back to being that mass murderer who killed a dozen people. And now she's holding the baby over a cliff. Whoops.
Satoru: Damn. Oh hey, it's my ex! Say, you wanna start dating again now that I just saved your life, or...?
Mayazumi: You're not...the Yukidoh Satoru I knew...
Satoru: *mind breaks*
Here's how Mass Effect 2 should have ended.
Everything is the same up until the final boss battle. Everything. Once you kill it, instead of falling to its doom below the floating platform, it slumps over it and just hangs there, motionless. All goes quiet except for the distant rumblings of battle and the creaking of metal. It's eerie. It's a strangely ethereal moment. You've just won, but why doesn't it feel like that? Have some tinkling piano notes as backing music. Some sweeping circular shots of Shepard calmly planting the explosives in preparation to detonate/purge the station, just as in the original ending.
Then just as he's about to call EDI and arrange for a pickup in a calm, desolate collector base that now seems completely empty; one more platform comes floating down from above. This one looks different. It looks more like a cocoon, still chitinous and alien but definitely a container for something, in keeping with the bee hive/ant nest motif.
It settles down before Shepard, who looks at it suspiciously and arms the device he just planted. The station starts to rumble, the platforms around him vibrate and collapse. The Reaper Larva grinds metal loudly, bits fall off it and it slides off the ledge and falls into the dark abyss below. Sparks fly, the station all around them is collapsing. Just as the dropship flies in and touches down behind Shepard, the cocoon opens up and out spills the Collector Overmind, his luminous orange eyes showing he's still possessed by Harbinger.
As Shepard steps up onto the ledge of the dropship door, the rest of his team safely inside, he turns back toward the Overmind with a look of confusion. After all, he has - at no point so far - seen or even known about its existence. But he recognizes the Harbinger voice when it says something grandiose and final like 'we cannot be defeated'. As he says that, it blasts the dropship, sending Shepard and Shepard alone tumbling back down onto the now rapidly disintegrating platforms.
What follows is a final, climactic confrontation. Shepard alone with the Overmind on a smaller platform with no teammates and squad to assist. It's a simple fight, but a fluid one due to the much more rapidly changing landscape. There are moments when the Overmind lunges at Shepard, pinning him to the ground, that require you to hammer the A button to fling him off. It's a more personal fight, more up close. Aggression and rage are the driving forces here.
During the combat, Harbinger displays more human inflection in his voice. His lines are no longer reserved, robotic and distant, they are angry. They rise in tempo. He no longer states that Shepard's doom is inevitable, he says he wants it. His facade breaks. Harbinger shows that he wants Shepard dead, breaking the bland monotone voice that has been used so far and creating real fear and confusion in the player. There are no stages to the fight, and the Overmind goes all out for your death. It's weapons are over the top, rapid firing and hugely damaging. Everything is frantic and noisy and confusing. It is a difficult fight, with no cover and no time for stop-and-pop.
This fight mirrors the Saren final form at the end of Mass Effect 1. Showing that when the Reapers are pushed to the brink, they waver in their stoic belief in the inevitable. This makes them not only an omniscient foe to be defeated, but an increasingly threatening one. It diverges from the Saren fight crucially in that Shepard has learned so much since then about their nature. Saren said, quite explicitly, that when beings are controlled by the Reapers, they are weakened and made less able. This was, as he said, his only saving grace. But it was also his downfall. When Sovereign possessed Saren, it was an act of desperation. It weakened Saren, and Shepard was able to triumph.
Here, the same happens. The Collector Overmind lunges at Shepard, flinging itself into harms way with no concern for safety, allowing Shepard to win through calculating strategy and smarts. In essense, the roles are reversed. The all powerful machines become emotional, become blinded by hubris. While Shepard, now part machine, wins through calculating tactics and a control of his character.
Shepard has become part machine and won the day, setting up a powerful conflict in ME3 over just how far he wants to tread down that path. Linking in with the duality of save the base/destroy the base, Shepard has appropriated Reaper attributes and won, but at what cost? Has he lost his humanity? Was it worth the sacrifice. Similarly, Harbinger has become more human, more organic in his pursuit of Shepard. He's fallen to bravado, to arrogance, and that has been his downfall.
This is what was missing from ME2.
By pursuing Shepard, by chasing him and trying to turn him, the Reapers have taken a personal interest in him. This personal interest is a human trait. An emotion. A thing for the biological, not the mechanical world.
Conversely, Shepard has become part machine. His rise from the grave has changed him, has made him stronger and more resolved. He is not only the one who knows the most about the Reapers, but he is the one who is becoming more like them. A Saren 2.0 if you will. This should have been played up more. Will Shepard retain his humanity when the machine part of him becomes stronger?
These themes were ignored entirely and should have been central. Having Shepard fight the Collector Overmind and have their roles reverse in a mechanical, gameplay sense would have put this at the forefront and set up a lot of philosophical debates for ME3.
Once the fight is over, Harbinger delivers one parting message. The one he delivers at the end of ME2. Your salvation through destruction, etc. Then the eyes stop glowing orange and the Overmind regains its faculties, just as Shepard is picked up in the dropship and flies back into the Normandy hangar.
One parting look between the two is all that remains. The Overmind has a look of sadness, or realization, and so too does Shepard. He sees in that final moment, the ultimate doom of the Prothean race. What they have become, what the Reapers took from them. This moment reaffirms his desire to destroy Harbinger and his allies. This was sorely lacking from the real ending to ME2, any lasting desire to win. Shepard sees a crippled, dying Overmind lying among the bodies of other drones and it looks at him, knowingly. Perhaps glad in its final moments that Shepard gave it a death it has long desired, as the last traces of the Protheans die out from the galaxy, only Shepard knows the full truth of their legacy.
Then ensues a thrilling scene where the Normandy escapes the collapsing station and the resulting explosion and flies off into hyperspace.
Cut to the Normandy some days later. Shots of the ship being repaired, new crew members helping out; but also, tellingly, lingering shots of places where dead crew would have been but are no longer. Then we see coffins. Whether you saved all of your squad members through loyalty or not, and no matter how quickly you went to rescue the crew, some died on the way. The entire remaining crew is there, in dress uniform. Garrus and Tali and all the others are now part of the Normandy, they have a unified appearance rather than their disparate get-ups. It is a moment of unity. One crew. One mission. One leader.
Shepard stares out a window at space. Joker walks up to him and says 'what now, captain?' and Shepard says something pithy and dismissive but equally badass in context like 'we win' or 'we end this' or something that shows new resolve and determination. That shows the last forty hours of gameplay had an impact on his character. Before, he knew the Reapers had to be defeated, he knew their danger. But know, after all of ME2, he knows that victory is not assured. He hasn't read the script, he doesn't know that in all RPGs ever the hero wins in the end. He needed to have doubts but also a little bit of arrogance. A bit of determination.
Then that shot fades to a close-up of the actual Harbinger floating in space. He says nothing. No cheesy voice over. Just a thousand lightyear stare. The shot slowly pulls back, and back, and even further back. Revealing more and more Reapers. The pull back is slow, high pitched violin strings rise and rise and it becomes deafening. It seemingly never ends. A moment ago we had hope that Shepard could win. But throughout ME1 and ME2 we had only ever fought skirmishes. We were only told that the Reapers were unstoppable and that their numbers were legion. Here we are shown that.
Then it cuts to black, it ends and the credits rolls.
Yeah, I lol'd.
It's funny because now I must reinstall this game.
And Mafia II had a great ending that wrapped the game up perfectly. Congrats! You're now one of the most powerful men in the Mafia, with plenty of opportunities to get rich again!
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
At the very least, drop a few legions of pirates, mercs, and rebels from the past few games to bum rush the capitol, elves live a long time and I'm sure a few guys would have been willing to carpool out to Cryodil to take a shot at the crown.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I mean, I'm against stupid fantasy made up names as much as the next guy. But the next guy literally is, in my case, Martin. And it was so weird. This is the one and only time when Martyn would have been acceptable.
By that point the Elder Council had the place locked down. There were so many Emperors killed in the Septim Line that they'd gotten used to that kind of thing.
But the endings... good god the endings. Spoilered to be safe:
The second game is more coherent, with few abrupt plot shifts beyond "we just fucked up" and "we gotta get the fuck out of here". Again, it does a commendable job giving permanence to K&L's misadventures; their mistakes don't go away just because they can shoot their way past an army of mooks. But the ending is also somehow more abrupt, literally stopping the very second the two "escape" Shanghai. I knew better than to expect a satisfying ending, but you don't stop the game when the codependent sociopaths shoot their way onto a commercial airliner. Even downer endings need some kind of denouement.
The story and characters really deserve better games, and I say that as someone that still enjoyed them (to a point, at least). It's a shame, really.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
I love the setting and the characters, but hated the last act in 1, and 2's non-ending.
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1-A contract with a VA is up, now you need to write him off as you only have three more days with him, and he can't finish his lines.
2-The final stage isn't finished just yet, other milestones and the project demand that you just edit the writing so they can fit the game's ending in the stage before last (or creativly, Use old assets with diffrent coloring scheams to make it a dream/dark world, which makes for the worst endings ever).
I'm always amazed how bad the soul reaver games were gameplay wise, but force you to finish them through awesome art,VA and writing.
I love Kane and Lynch 2. Such a shame it got caught up in the wave of bad press that afflicted the series after all the mess with Jeff Gerstmann.
It's such a bleak look at what it really means to be the kind of person that we usually laud as heroes in our videogames (and action movies).
I should also add that I just bought NIER on a lark. Here...we...go...
Yeah, but the ending of FF8 was MEANT to be convoluted to make you try to sort it out. FF9 on the other hand...
The rest of the game wasted a lot of the potential in the subject matter, as well. Most of the mob shit your character gets to do is in montage cutscenes, without so much as any dialogue. But the part where you load boxes until you don't, and the part where you drive around selling ration cards? Fully interactive.
I really don't believe the sequel's lackluster sales can be blamed on that debacle. In a crowded genre, it didn't stand out well enough and/or wasn't marketed well enough to pull a Homefront or a Metro 2033. The marketing strategy seemed to be, hey, let's play up the new multi modes, as if it were continuing an established franchise with a large and loyal base.
Neir honestly makes me wish I could erase my mind and replay it again. I envy everyone who goes into it blind. Its beautiful and fantastic.
Resurrect the thread. You'll want a support group about halfway through.
Did that body come out of a skygina like in The Langoliers?
Final Fantasy 10's ending.
What happened:
https://medium.com/@alascii
I still refuse to believe that the outcome of failed the QTE is real.
So, you know that whole big thing you went through to save your people and fulfill their purpose for existing in the first place by containing an ancient evil that I kinda tagged along for so you could constantly save my ass when I fell of the face of the planet?
Yeah, fuck that, I just undid it all. Aren't you happy to see me again?
What?
Just because the game over images is straight out of RE4?
Why I fear the ocean.
How it ends:
How it should have ended:
How it ends:
How it should have ended: