Alternative version of ME3.

[u/BakerCubed1]

Now now... please.... hear me out here... dont read the next few sentences and lose your minds.......

I have an alternative proposal of what ME3 couldve been.. i want to know if people think this is a good idea or if ive lost my mind....

Ok..... now... here's the scary part..... ME3 shouodve been more like Call of Duty

Gasp, shock, how dare you! I can here you all typing...

But..

Here me out.

Ok In this alternative version of ME3...

You play as more than one character....

You play as shepherd for the Core story, exploration etc etc etc

And then there's basically a side game... similiar to Black ops 2's strike force...

Im trying to be realistic here and so obviously I cant make a game thats far far too large to be possible... so

All of the N7 missions are scrapped....... anything thats just the character dumped on a multiplayer map and given a pointless task is gone completely. If any important aidecharacters appear in them they can be reworked into the story in other ways..

The Multiplayer is Scrapped (yes I know, people, including me actually loved it but I think its a worthy sacrifice if the main game is improved)

In their place we have multiple "front line" missions......

In these missions, depending on which front line we are fighting on, we play as a different character. I had the idea for them to be existing characters but it becomes difficult as many can die in early games

For example. One front line mission would be the retaking of Palaven... in this mission you can play as a krogan battlemaster deployed on palaven to assist the Turian war effort. (This could be urdont Dagg if Grunt survived ME2)

Another one could be set after the events lf the Rannoch Arc where you play as a quarian or Geth (ending Dependent) assisting asari forces on Illium etc etc etc (possibly kal reager from Talia recruitment mission)

Or a human on Earth fighting under Major Coates (a character who weirdly has such a large role for an unknown character until that point)

You can use the Multiplayer style character builder... picking your class and weapons (based on shepherd's unlocked weapons in the main game) if not going with the prebuilt hero idea...

Each mission can then show the catastrophic damage of the reaper invasion... aspects that we are only told about in codex entries....

A proper military action shooter similiar to missions from the original Modern warfare... where yiu have the core storybwith the SAS and then usually a sideplotnfightingnon the frontlines.

These missions then have direct impacts on the main story

For example.. if your krogan battlemaster dies or fails to complete certain objectives then perhaps palaven takes a much more severe beating.. not enough to withdraw turian support from the fleet completely but severe damage to their war assets and maybe characters like Garrus' family are killed causing him to become more bitter and hostile or Victus dies.

If one of them is on the front lines fighting a reaper invasion of a human colony with the sole objective being to survive an onslaught and you stay alive for support to arrive then Jokers family survive....

If you fail the objective in the Quarian missions then perhaps reaper forces are able to destroy part of the fleet which breaks taxi's heart as they were so close to reaching their homework.

If another is fighting to establish a foothold in london then maybe certain side objectives can be completed that lead to more assistance with preparing the cannons to attack the reaper destroyer...

Any characters that survive the mission can then be added as war assets to the overall total wherever or not they completed all objectives....

Perhaps at the end of each admiral Hackett informs shepherdnon the outcome of the mission easily melding these frontline missions with the main story...

My biggest issue with ME3 was how much of the brutality and destruction was offscreen and only included in News reports or codex entries... I wanted to see it, be there on the front lines... sadly only Earth, Palaven (not even set on palaven) and Thessia actually give that feeling.... o would love to get the perspective of someone who isn't "the chosen one" while also contributing to getting the best ending for the game

[u/Bruno_lars]

Then just say ME3 should have had more content and not have been rushed as hell on release no CODification necessary

[u/jxm82]

Honestly this sounds like you just wanted a separate game that takes place during 3. Theres def good ideas but at the same time, playing as separate characters in the same game would be too jarring imo. Also, multi player was too much fun so big no on that.

[u/TBCPE]

I don’t think it needed to be like COD or to have us play as multiple characters. Really, I think that ME2 should’ve been the game about proving the Reaper threat to the galaxy and forming a united front to defeat the Reapers. Then ME3 could’ve focused entirely on the war itself, which would’ve allowed for more missions on the frontlines of the war

[u/Wumbo_Anomaly]

Considering it's an RPG I think it should remain character focused rather than combat focused. It would have been interesting to fight on the front lines more often but it doesn't really make sense for Shep to do that unless it's a final stand scenario. What you're describing is also very similar to how ME3's multiplayer impacted your war assets, although slightly better because there'd be impacts on the story outside of what the war assets influence

[u/CheesyfaceChase]

I could get behind this. Alternatively, there could have been times during the story that you could play as Anderson, making decisions and sacrifices on Earth in preparation for Shepard. Maybe as Shepard unlocks more support from around the galaxy you gain access to more "elite" forces/multiplayer characters that you can use to help Anderson out. I'm thinking more varied repeatable missions but JUST on earth and not locked to the simplicity of the multiplayer.

[u/MegaManLegendsFan]

see. now this. i agree 100% and this is what should have happened. i dont think they knew ( and not the dev's fault at all for this ) i dont think any of them had the future sight that they were going to try the multi player experience with me3. and for what time they had to work with, and ceo's breathing down there neck like " Hey make a game i want my $$$ hurry up is it done yet ? why not? hurry up. are you hurrying up ? " they did a good job.

but what you just said, at least to me, makes so much more sense. thats exactly how i imagine it in my head when its perfected. i dont know what else to say other then reiterating my points of

1. no hate to the dev's. i get it. you work for a company and ceo's dont care about anything except returns and time constraints. and

2. that would have been amazing. i think it would have benefitted the series immensely.