Overall I agree, the plot of the whole ME series is pretty basic space opera stuff (not helped by that bolted-on ending). But one thing ME2 did actually do well was not try to push a sense of immediate urgency like the other two did – especially ME3. Oh hey the reapers are turning the human race into soylent green by the billions as we speak, but yeah I’ve got time for all the side quests I picked up, sure! I mean fraks sake, the game starts with that. “No, don’t head for the citadel, make a stop at Mars first for, I dunno, something that’s probably useful, we don’t know what exactly.” I mean jeez, they could still have given you the same mission but at least wrote it the prologue in a way that made it at least sound drop-everything-this-instant critical.
talk to the creative writer types you knew in highschool/college.
yea its kinda uneasy when you goofing off with some characters doing some of their side-quests knowing what you should be doing story-wise D:
just another example of how all these character stories had nothing to do with the reapers; It just didn’t come together
also in the same vibe: some times there is fire/explosion/we-have-to-run urgence, but then I find out there were some log entries or additional items or whatever on that way, that I’ve missed - excuse me for actually acting like I really should hurry 
ME reminds me a bit of Babylon 5, where I found the relationship between Londo and G’Kar was a whole lot more interesting than the rest of the stilted and trite main plot, especially after it continued for a final aimless season. In ME3, the genophage side plot, where the character arcs of Wrex and Morden close in an epic show-stopper scene, basically upstaged everything that came later in the game. Good drama has to save the best for last.
“I am the very model of a scientist Salarian, I’ve studied species Turian Asari and Batarian…”
(You had to do a lot of talking in ME2 for that one to come up. Morden always had great lines.)
They also fucked up the reapers. In ME1 they were creepy, interesting, completely enigmatic
This is one of the most intriguing villain I’ve ever seen
JvrIFIjTGt0
However they dropped almost everything of this. Sovereign mocked organic life at large, but later in ME3 you learn that the are part organic actually - they definitely weren’t in ME1…
And introducing a race that build the reapers (ME3 dlc) was just lame - way to take away all mystery basically, in a bad way on top of that (also contradicting sovereign again: “we have no beginning, we have no end, we are eternal”
well me3 suffered enough deserved backlash…
can you tell us what you have so far?
Not much yet actually, unless you are talking about story. If you are, here is the story so far.
Backstory
Humanity has taken to the stars. Rapidly colonizing nearby stellar systems, we have established a vast, peaceful republic, but some have rebelled against our peaceful interstellar republic. We do not dispute their right to wish disunion, but their direct attacks against us have forced our government to send the order for war to defend republic and way of life. As the war dragged on, we were forced to innovate, to create new weapons to win this war. The most promising of these projects is codename Locotus Desperatus, or LD for short. This program was founded to create super soldiers. You are its first protege.
Story behind the rebellion: Early in the years of space exploration, the newly formed United Nations Interstellar Task Force, discovered something, a planet rumored to contain a trove of alien artifacts and knowledge. Some of the brightest scientists of the time were recruited to examine the finds. About a month after the Eta Joint Research Expedition had landed and set up their station, reports ceased. Mysteriously, the government declined to investigate the incident, leading to a variety of conspiracy theories. Decades years later, a shuttle returned, manned by 10 members of the original 1000-strong EJRE. They were immediately debriefed by the UNITF. The UNITF announced that the apparent reason for the radio silence had been that a massive earthquake had destroyed EJRE’s communications equipment and most of their interstellar cruisers. Using the remaining cruiser, some of the members volunteered to journey back while the others remained to continue their mission. When contacted for interview, these men refused on the grounds that they had nothing more to add. The government sent out a resupply mission, but when the radio silence continued, suspicion mounted. Some systems started a rebellion, claiming that our government was corrupt.
- UN becomes a global government
- Settlement of solar system
- Discovery of warp drive that functions by bending space around itself
- UNITF is formed
- Exploration of nearby stars begins
- Colonies founded
- [JUMP]
- Find what is termed “eldritch” cache on sole planet of Star Eta-1017 (called Planet Eta for convenience)
[list]
[li]Eta Joint Research Expedition is formed and arrives on Planet Eta - Discovery of physics engine (can warp laws of physics)
- Realizing the potential danger of their find, they destroy radio communication after sending a coded message asking for isolation
- Integrate physics engine into one of starships
- Encounter Songhai (Friendly)
[/li]
[/list]
Then, the main story begins, the main character has to assassinate leader of rebellion, fights way to leader’s bunker, and discovers that leader had been waiting. All had been elaborate ruse by leader to… arrange peace talks. Turns out, the rebellion’s not so bad and they discovered an alien threat (I need to think of something interesting for this). After this cutscene, aliens invade and player must guard leader as they fight way out to extraction ship. Game will be able to progress if leader dies, but will be harder (rebellion will blame UN and will not help). If leader survives, hostilities will cease and alien threat will be announced/hidden depending on character’s choices (I want branching storyline).
Well, that is the story so far.
you could get friends and play out certain scenarios.
what kind of game will this be? FPS? RPG?
I look forward to playing when you finally get this done.
Well, I will first make the entire game as a top-down shooter. I’m planning on making it a 3rd person action RPG, but I need to learn a bunch of 3d stuff first.
i guess the aliens could be like the boglodites from MIB 3 or strogg from quake 2. they invade and strip worlds for resources.
I had been more so thinking that they were remnants of the race that left the technology. Sortof like they had been driven out, then the threat vanished, so they were trying to come back in, but humanity had their technology. Maybe have a really bad race that is attacking them, so they need the technology, but are unwilling to work with humans for some reason.
2 warlike races get into a fight. The one that left the technology is invading to reclaim it. The original expedition discovered this, but the government didn’t believe them, so they formed a rebellion to force the UN to arm itself.
If you kill the leader, the rebellion will turn hostile. If you fail to protect him, they won’t help.
That sounds much more interesting than my original idea. Adds in the possibility for much more interesting morality issues.