What I'm getting from all of this is that, with the exception of Sovereign, the Reapers really aren't all that powerful. I mean, an entire race of killer machines take on Earth and Sheppard really has time to unite the different races? They can't be all that impressive.

In fact, now their strategy makes all the more sense. Separating the planets then taking decades/centuries to fully wipe everyone out? They only have the forces to take on a planet at a time so use the Mass Relays to ensure there's no backup coming once they go down.

With the Mass Relays still active however they switch to Plan B, keep the races fractured so that their forces don't get overrun. With that in mind Earth makes perfect sense as a target. Humanity is a power player, but we're also a really, really young race. Earth is still our crown jewel, taking it out is different then taking out Thessia for example. Losing Thessia would be a great demoralizing blow but it wouldn't have a massive affect on the asari command structure. We're still centralized on Earth, conquering it not only cripples us logistically, it sends a message of "We are strong. We took out one of the four great races. Don't risk helping one another, protect yourselves." Which is exactly what the Reapers want.

 

It's inferred that the Reapers harvested the Protheans (Collectors) to extinction before wiping out as much of their tech as they felt was necessary. If they do see humankind as the greatest threat they face, then they'd probably focus their resources on doing the same with them.

The last one was merely a vanguard attempt, like Sovereign, to shake up the galaxy or establish a foothold before they came en masse. These things seem to thrive on arrogance and self-assurance, so they probably think they could swat the rest of the galaxy away like flies.

EDIT: Looks like I was semi-ninja'd by Kalas.

EDIT 2: The narrator in the trailer mentioned dead, not captured or missing. Perhaps the Reapers are just saying "Fuck it!" and going for the kill instead?

 

Just to compare, this was the first trailer for Mass Effect 1.

Maybe I'm a bit obsessive here, but I still think an epic music score would have made this newest one so much better.

 

London? Cthulhuesque machines coming from the sky? There is only one quote that would be appropriate for it.

 

... Link? or at least what chapter thats in?


Also I kept expecting at the end of trailer :

"This is Commander Shepard. Begin the attack."

 

The whole "why is it taking a week for reapers to conquer one measly planet" thing is really bugging me. Nevermind that these supposed reapers just "showed up" ignoring all detection and survellience and that (what seems to be the case) the other alien races didn't send any aid to Earth. If you have superspeedy stealth ships, you should have super powerful bio/wide area weapons to quickly subdue a planet...

I think this last installment will be epic and action packed, but I don't have much hope for the game's story (which has been getting progressively worst since the first one). It's almost like they're going to sacrifice plot for "epicness" (something that seems to have already happened to Starcraft, if you go watch the leaked footage of HoS's ending).

 

Off the top of my head, because they're busy chasing everyone down and liquidizing them and pumping them into portable reaper-wombs? And hell, no reason they couldn't've turned off the Charon relay and now Shepard's running around making deals while they (the Council? Cerberus? Mordin?) try to figure out how to turn it back on remotely.

 

Brilliant, hadn't even considered them shutting off the relay to Earth. That makes perfect sense.

And agree with the rest of your post, they're not there to conquer in the traditional sense. They're there to dominate and harvest. And it's not as if the Reapers have to fight their way into winning. Indoctrination means that after a while, the weak minded will already be in their grasp and you suddenly have a portion of the human population turning against the rest. All a Reaper has to do is show up and sit there and sooner or later it's already got an army working for it. Any extra destruction and havoc on the side is probably for the lulz.

 

Necroing. Game Informer's got a preview in their next issue.



Got this off someone on GameFAQs who's apparently read it:

Sounds like a good start to me.

EDIT: Here's that Ashley pic he mentioned, for those who don't want to follow the link.

 

Nice. I really can't wait for the end of this year.

Above someone asked why they would hit Earth. I see it has the sole person responsible for thwarting them twice is a human. A person able to bring various races together as a team. If he is any indicator of what humans are capable of, why not knock them out first?

 

It seems to me (looking at the trailer) they've already won, and now they're just mopping up. And wouldn't you think that by the time help got to Earth, if harvesting humans is what they're after, they'd have already collected a ton by then?

 

Ah fuck.

Why do you do this to me?

I JUST put aside ME2 earlier today... and now this.

I was all kinds of happy with my ME1&2 character, didn't have any regrets about deleting my Shep/Ashley character and sticking with my Liara one... and now I get a look at Ashley with her hair down.

I can't pass up a sexy brunette.

Speculation and spoilers below.

Spoiler

Taking events from Arrival into account, its likely that the Reapers would change course to the Artemis Tau Cluster, once they have access to a Mass Relay they can go anywhere almost instantly. The Local Cluster is only three jumps from Artemis Tau, unfortunately the Exodus Cluster is along the way and its home to both Eden Prime and Terra Nova, combined population of 8.1 million.

But I think the Reapers have abandoned the idea of Human Reapers at this point, too time consuming and resource dependent. From what they did with the Protheans we can see that they aren't above breaking their routine of creating Reapers based on the species they're targeting, so I'd put my money on annihilation over capture.

Clearly humans are the Reapers primary concern (hence the Human Reaper) so Earth would be their primary target. Since we don't actually know how long it takes to travel between relays, and the delay between ships using it (I can't recall an instance of multiple ships using a relay at once) its hard to determine a possible Reaper plan of attack.

Logic would denote that each relay is monitored by the primary species in control of that area, so massing a force one Reaper at a time doesn't seem likely, as the first one through the Relay should make people freak out and sound the alarms.

Planetary defense systems don't seem that widespread (at least in terms of the Alliance) but they were being tested in ME2 and could have come into play by now.

Defeating the Reapers sure as hell isn't going to come down to the fleet, so I'm putting my money on some kind of Deus Ex Machina that instantly shuts them all down. Possibly even a modified version of the virus created by the Heretic Geth.

Meh, all speculation.

Probably wrong, usually am.

But I am excited.

Off to play ME1.

EDIT: Links always done that in spoilers?

 

So...I realise it's early days, but do we think it'll be necessary to have played the DLC to understand at least the start of the game, if Shepherd's starting position follows on from Arrival?

Happy to see the RPG elements are being boosted

 

shiny: since Arrival ended up being... less than satisfactory (read:complete shit), I would urge anyone to read a detailed synopsis in a wiki instead of getting it. Believe me, you're not missing anything.

As for RPG elements ; Enhanced skill trees sounds good, but I'd love a few old school additions. More complex puzzles, game segments that can be completed with either combat or diplomacy, more value to in-depth exploration of the environment & dialogue, that sort of thing. Not really hopeful however ><

What I really, REALLY want is a goddamn Samara romance, since she was the most interesting NPC for me. I fucking raged when I found out that my ultra-paragon 1st Sheppard couldn't boink her. I mean wtf, all the romances sucked anyway, it would have been adding a few more dozen lines of dialogue and a 10 second lame sex scene... Fuck you Bioware.
at least with Morinth you died happy d:

/rant

My theory on possible plot:

Spoiler

My theory is that the Normandy goes around, kills lone reaper due to the special algorithms, then proceeds to harvest it's parts - then the crew uses the parts to create more AI's with anti-reaper algorithms and distributes them to more ships. Rinse and repeat. They could outfit Geth (I'm guessing they'll get a bigger role) or Quarian (biggest fleet in the galaxy) or 5th fleet (Hackett seems the type to throw all his weight behind Sheppard instantly in this kind of situation) ships.

Thus slowly a capable fighting force would be raised.

Of course there's a pretty high chance that they'll go with the deus ex machina thing like Dr. Strange Lulz mentioned. Bioware loves dropping the ball lately.

 

Something I definitely want in the game is more opportunity for Shepard to act more like a real character. Like the missions you could do in ME1 where you met the enslaved girl from your home colony or helping the guy who knew your mother with PTSD. And the scene with Liara in your cabin at the end of Lair of the Shadow Broker, especially if you're romancing her. We need more of that.

It really pissed me off how Shepard never really seemed to say anything about his/her death other than "well I got better." You'd think something as momentous as that would merit some... introspection.

 

^ That.

I think the biggest problem I had with Arrival was the lack of choice. Every option you have is basically cosmetic. There wasn't a single point in the entire DLC that relied on a choice from the player, everything was planned out and plays out the same way regardless.

I was expecting another

Spoiler

Blow up the city or Blow up the factory district

moment. (Hopefully without the choice interface that mission had. Click A to NOT save option 1, Click B to NOT save option B. Fucking retarded.)

Puzzles were really lacking in ME2, there were a few good ones in the N7 missions (Solar Shield) but they basically just fell short.

^ That.

I didn't quite realize the first time around just how pissed she gets at you when you try to initiate a romance. She basically storms off and wont talk to you again... serious disappointment there.

The romances in ME2 felt lacking to me. Jack was interesting, but broken, and your sex scene is basically her crying. Miranda was too perfect (funny, I know.) and her romance was basically boring, good sex scene though. Tali and her hero worship was cute, but I'm not looking for cute.

With Ash and Liara I actually felt like our characters had chemistry, unfortunately that sense in the romance mechanic didn't make it into ME2.

Hell, one of the problems I'm having in ME1 is that I'm trying to romance Ashley, but my mind just keeps wanting to go with Liara.

^ That.

The messages I get from people I've helped or saved are an aspect of this game that I really love. Talitha (The slave girl) is the reason I've hated Batarians since the beginning of ME1, hearing that she is doing well was amazing, a tiny letter from a 5 minute character in the previous game, and it made my heart happy.

That's the power of Bioware, and I hope they make use of it in ME3.

Tali is the first one he encounters and all he says is "I was unconscious for 2 years, Cerberus rebuilt me." he then says the exact same thing to Ash on Horizon or Liara on Ilium. What?! Seriously? That's all you have to say on the matter?

"I was only 'mostly dead'." is probably the best line he has regarding his death, and he says it to a C-Sec officer.

I think the problem I have with Shepard is his utter lack of emotion in every circumstance.

The happiest I saw Shepard in ME2 was on the Archangel recruit mission. He was happier to see Garrus than to see his love interest from the first game.

Shepard will crack jokes or get angry, but he's never happy or sad when the occasion calls for it. If I had been (mostly)dead for two years, I think that that I would have more to say to my love interest than "O hai. I got better." Annoyed the shit out of me.

I think ME3 is going to focus HEAVILY on the choices we've made in the first two games.

Spoiler

That Rachni husk. Did the freed Rachni get indoctrinated again? Were there Rachni hiding out in the far reaches of the galaxy, and your freed Rachni will help you fight them? Do they even show up in games where the player decided to kill the queen?

I'm thinking that from the way we've heard the game stars, with Shepard on trial for the Arrival incident, that Bioware is going to make a point of saying "The good choices aren't always the best choices. And that doing the right thing, isn't always doing the right thing."

Just because you played a Paragon Shepard, doesn't mean that some of your choices were in the best interests of the galaxy. Having literally just replayed Noveria, I felt like I was making a HUGE mistake by freeing the Rachni Queen, but I'd make the same choice every time. If they turn on us and I have to wipe them out, so be it. But until then I'm not going to wipe out an entire race (Unless they were Batarians) just because they MIGHT turn bad.

I play way too much Mass Effect...

 

Just a short anecdote on the Batarian thing... they're not all bad you know. It's just that their government is space-North Korea and the only ones that are really shown to the galaxy at large are career criminals, slavers, pirates and the like that have essentially been let loose and ignored by the Hegemony to stir shit up. There are good, if heavily oppressed, people within Batarian space, just as there are good North Koreans.

 

Hey, Batarians killed my family on Mindoir.

You let me have my video game prejudices.

 

I have the same problem when I try to romance Kaiden. Liara is to awesome/hot to pass up.

And in ME2 if I romanced Liara in ME1 (Which is most of the time) I feel really guilty flirting with anyone else.

My only option is to import a save that has a Fem Shep that didn't romance anyone in ME1.

I seriously can't play through ME1 without romancing Liara. Its really sad.

 

I never could get into a Male Shepard at first, so went with a bitch female Shepherd. I romanced Liara and was disappointed you couldn't in the sequel. All I got was a kiss and a, "I need revenge." Haven't played lair of the Shadow Broker yet, probably need to before ME3 comes out.