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[SpacePirate Ridley]

Yeah, combat and in-engine cinematics mostly. Some conversations, nothing that could really be used to establish context. No HUD though, so I don't know about any mechanical changes.

As for returning squad mates...yes. But I'm not going to say who, cause that's probably off limits.

 

[Peff]

Yeah, combat and in-engine cinematics mostly. Some conversations, nothing that could really be used to establish context. No HUD though, so I don't know about any mechanical changes.

As for returning squad mates...yes. But I'm not going to say who, cause that's probably off limits.

No need, yes is good enough. Thank you very much

 

[The Antitype]

Ok, I just want to clarify that no characters were ever addressed by NAME in the trailer.

And since I can't tell one member of an alien race from another member of the same race (see how I don't say which one? ) in the middle of fast-moving action sequences, I'll just say I THOUGHT I recognized some returning characters.

So, sorry if I break hearts or destroy my credibility. I just wanted to make sure I was as honest as possible.

If you held a gun to my head and asked if I thought characters are coming back, based on what I saw, yes.

 

[Lostconfused]

As for returning squad mates...yes. But I'm not going to say who, cause that's probably off limits.

Well guess its time for me to get to work on saves where Garrus and Tali are the only ones left alive.

Spoiler

Legion too, cause he is awesome. Mordin is going to die of old age anyways.

 

[IoCaster]

Ok, I just want to clarify that no characters were ever addressed by NAME in the trailer.

And since I can't tell one member of an alien race from another member of the same race (see how I don't say which one? ) in the middle of fast-moving action sequences, I'll just say I THOUGHT I recognized some returning characters.

So, sorry if I break hearts or destroy my credibility. I just wanted to make sure I was as honest as possible.

If you held a gun to my head and asked if I thought characters are coming back, based on what I saw, yes.

OK, let's break this down. Human squad members aren't overtly addressed here. Tali is easily recognizable so we can probably infer that she's not one of the 'aliens' that you were referring to. The main contenders would be Garrus, Grunt, Mordin, Legion, Samara and Thane. Thane, Mordin, Samara and Grunt would have an easy explanation for their absence. So we're probably looking at Garrus (almost a certainty) and Legion (makes sense on many levels).

Now, I think it would be obvious that if a character is dead in a save file they won't make an appearance, but really who can say the way BioWare operates these days.

 

[APZonerunner]

Samara almost certainly won't be playable again as she's a problem - she could be either her or Morinth, of course, which means there'd be different dialogue options and such depending on your actions in her loyalty quest. They're unlikely to waste the disc space on that, so she'll probably be relegated to a cameo. Same reasoning as why Ash/Kaiden didn't get a bigger role in ME2 - giving one of them a large role is easy, but having that role potentially filled by either of them would mean doubling up on a lot of stuff, so they got a smaller part.

 

[Kinyou]

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

How is Miranda's ass?!

Don't answer! That's a trick question!

 

[IoCaster]

Samara almost certainly won't be playable again as she's a problem - she could be either her or Morinth, of course, which means there'd be different dialogue options and such depending on your actions in her loyalty quest. They're unlikely to waste the disc space on that, so she'll probably be relegated to a cameo. Same reasoning as why Ash/Kaiden didn't get a bigger role in ME2 - giving one of them a large role is easy, but having that role potentially filled by either of them would mean doubling up on a lot of stuff, so they got a smaller part.

There's some absolute truth contained in this post. I'll edit my post to reflect this.

 

[Chairman Yang]

I hope there aren't too many new player characters in ME3. I'd be happy with all the cast members being ME1/2 alumni, quite honestly. And Mordin is an absolute must.

Anyways, I just finished Lair of the Shadow Broker, and I'm more excited about ME3 than ever. That module was Bioware at their best. Like, BG2-level Bioware.

 

[Vamphuntr]

Well guess its time for me to get to work on saves where Garrus and Tali are the only ones left alive.

Spoiler

Legion too, cause he is awesome. Mordin is going to die of old age anyways.

I want Kasumi again. I really loved her. Too bad she was DLC and ME3 will make it as she never existed.

 

[IoCaster]

I want Kasumi again. I really loved her.

Me too.

 

[Draft]

Just please put in a Volus crew member. Please.

 

[Wiggum2007]

Just please put in a Volus crew member. Please.

Sadly will never happen because of the animation rig they use where all the squad members are interchangeable but all have to be able to fit into the same animation set for any given scene. Maybe we'll get an abnormally tall and slim volus. :lol

 

[Kinyou]

I want to finally control a battle in space.
Wanted to do that since I read about the tactics in the codex of ME1.

 

[DuckRacer]

Now, I think it would be obvious that if a character is dead in a save file they won't make an appearance, but really who can say the way BioWare operates these days.

"Because of your preserving of the human reaper and collector station and the massive influx of reaper technology, we have located the remains of your fallen squadmates and resurrected them after the relaunch of Project Lazarus."

Plus it'd reveal that Shepard is part reaper.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

Samara almost certainly won't be playable again as she's a problem - she could be either her or Morinth, of course, which means there'd be different dialogue options and such depending on your actions in her loyalty quest. They're unlikely to waste the disc space on that, so she'll probably be relegated to a cameo. Same reasoning as why Ash/Kaiden didn't get a bigger role in ME2 - giving one of them a large role is easy, but having that role potentially filled by either of them would mean doubling up on a lot of stuff, so they got a smaller part.

While realistic, this is sad. The twist with Morinth was one of the more awesome things in ME2. I loved the drastically altered outcome of that mission because it gave me a seemingly very impactful choice that's not often seen in games. I felt she was a way more interesting character than Samara and thought the potential story repercussions would be more engaging than opting for the default. A lot of the choices I made in ME2 were based around this reasoning: what could have the most interesting repercussions vs what would lead into more predictable straightforward situation.

As a result I was damn disappointed with how they handled the character after the mission was wrapped up. While I understand why they did what they did I would have been pleased with slight differences between Samara and the Morinth emulating Samara when in the presence of the other party members.

Don't get me wrong, ME2 is my GOTY but this and the way they handled the effects of choices from ME1 bugged me, simply because of the wasted potential there. My main fear for ME3 is that they've indeed written themselves into a corner by allowing everyone to die.

 

[IoCaster]

"Because of your preserving of the human reaper and collector station and the massive influx of reaper technology, we have located the remains of your fallen squadmates and resurrected them after the relaunch of Project Lazarus."

Plus it'd reveal that Shepard is part reaper.

 

[Draft]

Sadly will never happen because of the animation rig they use where all the squad members are interchangeable but all have to be able to fit into the same animation set for any given scene. Maybe we'll get an abnormally tall and slim volus. :lol

Well that's bullshit.

 

[APZonerunner]

That said, as long as it was a specific mission you could get a temporary squad member as a Volus, as all those actions would be pre-animated. Perhaps we could have a Volus as the doomed tutorial mission character following in the proud tradition of Jenkins and Wilson!

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

That said, as long as it was a specific mission you could get a temporary squad member as a Volus, as all those actions would be pre-animated. Perhaps we could have a Volus as the doomed tutorial mission character following in the proud tradition of Jenkins and Wilson!

And Trask Ulgo!

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

I hope there aren't too many new player characters in ME3. I'd be happy with all the cast members being ME1/2 alumni, quite honestly. And Mordin is an absolute must.

Anyways, I just finished Lair of the Shadow Broker, and I'm more excited about ME3 than ever. That module was Bioware at their best. Like, BG2-level Bioware.

Seeing that half of the ME1 cast could be dead (Wrex, Kaiden and Ahsley) and that the whole ME2 cast could be dead too, the best thing we could get is mostly cameos for most of them.

 

[K.Jack]

Sadly will never happen because of the animation rig they use where all the squad members are interchangeable but all have to be able to fit into the same animation set for any given scene. Maybe we'll get an abnormally tall and slim volus. :lol

Put that rotund motherfucker in a 6'8" battle-ready exoskeleton. Cerberus special model, of course.

But, only if you donated Legion "to the cause".

 

[Draft]

Put that rotund motherfucker in a 6'8" battle-ready exoskeleton. Cerberus special model, of course.

But, only if you donated Legion "to the cause".

Or riding an Elcor.

 

[Wiggum2007]

And Trask Ulgo!

For the Republic!

 

[Deleted member 13876]

Seeing that half of the ME1 cast could be dead (Wrex, Kaiden and Ahsley) and that the whole ME2 cast could be dead too, the best thing we could get is mostly cameos for most of them.

If they go this route, and there's a substantial chance they will, I feel like they will have flushed away most of ME2's impact on the franchise. As many have noted the Mass Effect story as a whole didn't move a lot farther in 2, but one thing they did do is giving us a good getting the band together story. I would dread seeing Garrus, Mordin and Miranda regulated as Shepard's Spacebook buddies in ME3.

Garrus Vakarian likes this.

It would greatly diminish the relevance of ME2.

 

[Vamphuntr]

I've been thinking about how ME3 should work gameplay wise and plot wise since the trailer implies the reapers are finally going to attack the earth. It would be pretty cool if as soon as you start the game the reaper fleet is slowly approaching earth. If they reach earth and you don't find a way to beat them then it's game over but you can keep you exp and weapons acquired for your next playthrough (a la Dead Rising, BOF Dragon Quarter). The game would start with a bunch of intels or mission which your allies think could be useful in saving the earth. You would really have to choose what to do and some choices you could make could be terrible for the mission. Are you going to try to rally races to your cause? Explore protheans ruins to get more intel on the reapers? Recruit party member? Mine ressources? Work it out or try to take over Cerberus to get their intel and technology? Help set up defenses on earth?

With a time limit it would really make decisions matters. It would be what the ME 2 suicide mission should have been to me. Depending on your choices in the past games you would get some advantages. If you saved the rachni queen then her troops might help you slow down the reapers and would net you more time to fly around the galaxy to do stuff before the assault. If you let the council die then they would refuse to send their fleet to save the earth so you wouldn't get a time bonus from that. Something similar would happen if you reprogrammed the geths. If you kept the collectors base you would get bonus weapons/equipment or items/upgrade and so on. It would really help in making a difference in the final battle. If you made all the "right" choices (and by right I don't mean paragon) then you would have a lot of extra time and advantage to do everything without needing to do a second playthrough to make it alive and saving the earth. It would be an amazing concept in my opinion but it's clearly not mainstream enough I guess.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

If they go this route, and there's a substantial chance they will, I feel like they will have flushed away most of ME2's impact on the franchise. As many have noted the Mass Effect story as a whole didn't move a lot farther in 2, but one thing they did do is giving us a good getting the band together story. I would dread seeing Garrus, Mordin and Miranda regulated as Shepard's Spacebook buddies in ME3.

Garrus Vakarian likes this.

It would greatly diminish the relevance of ME2.

Like a lot of people said, that the whole ME2 crew could die in ME2 was a big mistake in that sense.

My theory is that probably characters that you can romance will have a somewhat big role while the others will be present while recruiting the other races, Legion survived in your ME2 save file? You get him as temporary member while recruiting the geth faction, he died? You get a random geth as companion or nothing.

It would be cool that other choices you made in ME2 like encouraging quarians go to war while saving the "bad" geth faction strengthening the whole geth faction would led to quarians losing the war and most of its fleet.

...yeah, not happening probably Bioware will come with some standard scenario.

 

[MotorbreathX]

I've been thinking about how ME3 should work gameplay wise and plot wise since the trailer implies the reapers are finally going to attack the earth. It would be pretty cool if as soon as you start the game the reaper fleet is slowly approaching earth. If they reach earth and you don't find a way to beat them then it's game over but you can keep you exp and weapons acquired for your next playthrough (a la Dead Rising, BOF Dragon Quarter). The game would start with a bunch of intels or mission which your allies think could be useful in saving the earth. You would really have to choose what to do and some choices you could make could be terrible for the mission. Are you going to try to rally races to your cause? Explore protheans ruins to get more intel on the reapers? Recruit party member? Mine ressources? Work it out or try to take over Cerberus to get their intel and technology? Help set up defenses on earth?

With a time limit it would really make decisions matters. It would be what the ME 2 suicide mission should have been to me. Depending on your choices in the past games you would get some advantages. If you saved the rachni queen then her troops might help you slow down the reapers and would net you more time to fly around the galaxy to do stuff before the assault. If you let the council die then they would refuse to send their fleet to save the earth so you wouldn't get a time bonus from that. Something similar would happen if you reprogrammed the geths. If you kept the collectors base you would get bonus weapons/equipment or items/upgrade and so on. It would really help in making a difference in the final battle. If you made all the "right" choices (and by right I don't mean paragon) then you would have a lot of extra time and advantage to do everything without needing to do a second playthrough to make it alive and saving the earth. It would be an amazing concept in my opinion but it's clearly not mainstream enough I guess.

While interesting, please no timer.

 

[Messi]

Like a lot of people said, that the whole ME2 crew could die in ME2 was a big mistake in that sense.

My theory is that probably characters that you can romance will have a somewhat big role while the others will be present while recruiting the other races, Legion survived in your ME2 save file? You get him as temporary member while recruiting the geth faction, he died? You get a random geth as companion or nothing.

It would be cool that other choices you made in ME2 like encouraging quarians go to war while saving the "bad" geth faction strengthening the whole geth faction would led to quarians losing the war and most of its fleet.

...yeah, not happening probably Bioware will come with some standard scenario.

This was my worry, I really like the ME2 cast

 

[Chuck Norris]

Sadly will never happen because of the animation rig they use where all the squad members are interchangeable but all have to be able to fit into the same animation set for any given scene. Maybe we'll get an abnormally tall and slim volus. :lol

Why do they have to do that?

 

[DuckRacer]

On average, those who completed the game kept 86% of their squadmates alive. I'd be surprised if they relegated everyone to mere cameos and forced players to have completely new squadmates when they generally only lost 1-2 people.

 

[Wiggum2007]

Why do they have to do that?

Well, because you can take any of your squad members with you at any time, so the animation skeletons used in the cutscenes with squad members have to work for any squad member you might have with you at the time. For example, there might be a scene where one of your squad members jumps down a ledge, then walks over to a door and presses a button. That same animation has to work whether you have Grunt or Samara or Mordin in your squad, so each character has to have a roughly humanoid skeleton so they can fit into the scene with little modification. If you introduce say a volus or elcor squad member then that means adding a whole new animation set for every scene with squad members in it to cater to their different frames, which would just be an insane amount of work.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

On average, those who completed the game kept 86% of their squadmates alive. I'd be surprised if they relegated everyone to mere cameos and forced players to have completely new squadmates when they generally only lost 1-2 people.

That's my main hope as well. That number is HUGE especially when you know it takes a decent amount of effort to keep everyone alive, mostly just knowing what to do, but it shows people truly care. Also consider at least some of those remaining 14% will have let people die on purpose for gimmick Shepard only finishing runs etc. Of course things like achievements for keeping everyone alive also skews that percentage, but I'd say it's a safe bet that more people than not actually cared about a lot of the cast.

 

[Wiggum2007]

That's my main hope as well. That number is HUGE especially when you know it takes a decent amount of effort to keep everyone alive, mostly just knowing what to do, but it shows people truly care. Also consider at least some of those remaining 14% will have let people die on purpose for gimmick Shepard only finishing runs etc. Of course things like achievements for keeping everyone alive also skews that percentage, but I'd say it's a safe bet that more people than not actually cared about a lot of the cast.

That 14% was everyone purposefully killing off Jack.

 

[Beowulf28]

Bioware should've used this trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkhgde1kUBE

 

[X-Frame]

Like a lot of people said, that the whole ME2 crew could die in ME2 was a big mistake in that sense.

My theory is that probably characters that you can romance will have a somewhat big role while the others will be present while recruiting the other races, Legion survived in your ME2 save file? You get him as temporary member while recruiting the geth faction, he died? You get a random geth as companion or nothing.

It would be cool that other choices you made in ME2 like encouraging quarians go to war while saving the "bad" geth faction strengthening the whole geth faction would led to quarians losing the war and most of its fleet.

...yeah, not happening probably Bioware will come with some standard scenario.

I agree with all the conversations here, but just wanted to respond to the bold - Legion is just 1 physical terminal of thousands of geth inside .. so if he "died" .. couldn't The Legion just download into another terminal body?

 

[Deleted member 13876]

I really wouldn't care if they copped out and made it so 5 or 6 characters that are killable have some sort of scripted deus ex machina plot device that explains their survival. I know it's hypocritical having just pleaded for more followthrough on player plot decisions, but I'd feel it would be a way bigger waste storywise to just flush away the entire cast they've spent a whole game developing.

Also as far as I know despite being robotic Legion was unique and implied death in the suicide mission would indeed result in an irrecoverable loss.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Bioware should've used this trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkhgde1kUBE

End of ME3 if you didnt keep the base:

Ah yes, "Earth"

we've already dismissed that claim!

:lol :lol

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

I agree with all the conversations here, but just wanted to respond to the bold - Legion is just 1 physical terminal of thousands of geth inside .. so if he "died" .. couldn't The Legion just download into another terminal body?

If I remember right he was a quite special terminal, he hold more programs that any other standard geth.

PD:Sorry DP.

 

[Chuck Norris]

Well, because you can take any of your squad members with you at any time, so the animation skeletons used in the cutscenes with squad members have to work for any squad member you might have with you at the time. For example, there might be a scene where one of your squad members jumps down a ledge, then walks over to a door and presses a button. That same animation has to work whether you have Grunt or Samara or Mordin in your squad, so each character has to have a roughly humanoid skeleton so they can fit into the scene with little modification. If you introduce say a volus or elcor squad member then that means adding a whole new animation set for every scene with squad members in it to cater to their different frames, which would just be an insane amount of work.

It wouldn't take an insane amount of work, it would just mean custom animating that character in the cutscenes where it is necessary, which they already go through and do for facial animation. Why should we expect such compromises anyway?

 

[enzo_gt]

Bioware should've used this trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkhgde1kUBE

After just finishing ME2... :lol :lol :lol

 

[Vamphuntr]

That 14% was everyone purposefully killing off Jack.

I approve of this

Anyway a bunch of them won't be back for plot reason even if they survived. It's implied that Thane is dying from his lung disease and will probably spend his last moment with his son. Jack has some kind of neurodegenerative disorder because of the experiments they did on her. Zaeed and Kasumi were hired/paid by the illusive man for the collectors mission. Samara's vow was to help Shepard deal with the collectors and with Morinth out of the picture she will finally get to take a rest. Grunt is expected to take on his role as a member of the Urdnot clan. Mordin might want to pursue his study/work on the genophage seeing the whole development on the matter in ME 2 or go back to his clinic.

We are thus stuck with Garrus, Miranda, Jacob, Tali. Wonder what they will make Garrus do, it really felt like they had trouble writing him. He was always busy because of calibrations duties.

 

[Mike M]

I agree with all the conversations here, but just wanted to respond to the bold - Legion is just 1 physical terminal of thousands of geth inside .. so if he "died" .. couldn't The Legion just download into another terminal body?

I took it as Legion was operating well outside the "broadcast range" of the Geth, hence he was designed to carry so many more Geth programs, and had to use the Normandy's FTL communication system on a couple occasions to download/ upload data to the Geth collective.

 

[valeo]

We are thus stuck with Garrus, Miranda, Jacob, Tali. Wonder what they will make Garrus do, it really felt like they had trouble writing him. He was always busy because of calibrations duties.

In my opinion this kind of points to a problem that video games usually have - it's easy to introduce a character, make up a back story and deliver a few key points about their personality etc. via dialogue but it's much harder to keep that character interesting for an extended period of time while making them feel 'real'.

 

[APZonerunner]

I approve of this

Anyway a bunch of them won't be back for plot reason even if they survived. It's implied that Thane is dying from his lung disease and will probably spend his last moment with his son. Jack has some kind of neurodegenerative disorder because of the experiments they did on her. Zaeed and Kasumi were hired/paid by the illusive man for the collectors mission. Samara's vow was to help Shepard deal with the collectors and with Morinth out of the picture she will finally get to take a rest. Grunt is expected to take on his role as a member of the Urdnot clan. Mordin might want to pursue his study/work on the genophage seeing the whole development on the matter in ME 2 or go back to his clinic.

We are thus stuck with Garrus, Miranda, Jacob, Tali. Wonder what they will make Garrus do, it really felt like they had trouble writing him. He was always busy because of calibrations duties.

Eh. The dialogue/dilemma during and after Garrus' loyalty mission are some of the best in the game. He's a great character. That said, in ME3 he'll probably just slot in (as default, but obviously this'll depend on how you've treated him and if he survived) as Shepard's right-hand man. He's a natural military leader, and he'll be the only one who has that expertise who has served with Shepard on all his missions.

There's Tali, but we've seen her lead two Quarian missions and both of them ended up with either all or most of her squad dead. :lol

As for the above... they'll have a Krogan party member, it's expected now - so I think Grunt is actually fairly likely to return. I can't see them introducing yet another super-powerful, super-impressive Battlemaster.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

I approve of this

Anyway a bunch of them won't be back for plot reason even if they survived. It's implied that Thane is dying from his lung disease and will probably spend his last moment with his son. Jack has some kind of neurodegenerative disorder because of the experiments they did on her. Zaeed and Kasumi were hired/paid by the illusive man for the collectors mission. Samara's vow was to help Shepard deal with the collectors and with Morinth out of the picture she will finally get to take a rest. Grunt is expected to take on his role as a member of the Urdnot clan. Mordin might want to pursue his study/work on the genophage seeing the whole development on the matter in ME 2 or go back to his clinic.

We are thus stuck with Garrus, Miranda, Jacob, Tali. Wonder what they will make Garrus do, it really felt like they had trouble writing him. He was always busy because of calibrations duties.

All of them coming back would also be forced, sure. But I wouldn't count out everyone you dismissed. Hired guns can be rehired, although Zaeed felt a bit tacked on in 2 and I personally would want someone else to take his slot. Mordin could work on the genopahge sure, but he could also easily view the Reapers as the more urgent threat he should spend his short life span focusing on, despite it being a less personal issue cold logic could trump guilt.

Garrus is an interesting one considering how they handled him in 2. While he was indeed often unavailable for new convos the game let you subtly influence his moral compass more so than you could the other characters. That always felt like something that could potentially pay off in the third game, but could also easily be swept under the carpet.

 

[Chairman Yang]

Seeing that half of the ME1 cast could be dead (Wrex, Kaiden and Ahsley) and that the whole ME2 cast could be dead too, the best thing we could get is mostly cameos for most of them.

Not an issue, considering that most players kept most characters alive. Just add two characters to ME3. If players don't have anyone else, they can only use them and finish the game (albeit in a gimped way).

 

[APZonerunner]

All of them coming back would also be forced, sure. But I wouldn't count out everyone you dismissed. Hired guns can be rehired, although Zaeed felt a bit tacked on in 2 and I personally would want someone else to take his slot. Mordin could work on the genopahge sure, but he could also easily view the Reapers as the more urgent threat he should spend his short life span focusing on, despite it being a less personal issue cold logic could trump guilt.

Garrus is an interesting one considering how they handled him in 2. While he was indeed often unavailable for new convos the game let you subtly influence his moral compass more so than you could the other characters. That always felt like something that could potentially pay off in the third game, but could also easily be swept under the carpet.

Well, it's worth noting one of the very, very few things from Squad that carries over from ME1 to ME2 is about Garrus. What carries over is: Romance Choice, Death Choice, Wrex's Fate, Did you give Tali the Geth Data and Garrus. Specifically, if you completed the Doctor Heart mission and if you in dialogue between missions nudged him back towards C-Sec (Paragon) or pushed him towards applying to be a Spectre and doing things his way (Renegade).

There's no real way to tell, but it's likely this counter keeps on ticking in ME2. In ME2 the count from ME1 only effects a few dialogue options - like it remembers when you first meet him 1) if you recruited him - he's more distant if you left him back on the Citadel and 2) how he ended up on Omega - if you pushed him to C-Sec he went back but couldn't take it, if you pushed for Spectres he went and applied but got rejected for being too hotheaded.

 

[Sickboy007]

Not an issue, considering that most players kept most characters alive. Just add two characters to ME3. If players don't have anyone else, they can only use them and finish the game (albeit in a gimped way).

This makes sense and would also help keep the story on its tracks. I wouldn't have a problem with just adding the soldier in the trailer plus a random alien. Non fundamental characters will be available in DLC down the line.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

Didn't know those things in exact detail, but it did strike me as if they apparently had set up a continuing character arc or rather continuum for his character that will span the trilogy.