Mass Effect 3 - Better Final Assault (fan creation)

Fans and critics have complained about the many shortcomings of Mass Effect 3. The relatively linear progression of the game compared to the previous two games, the shallow development of some characters, some odd story decisions, and, of course, that ending. 

The thing that chafes at me personally about Mass Effect 3 is the final combat sections. It's just more of the same stuff we've had throughout the game. One reviewer said he just wanted all these characters we'd come to know so well to each have their badass moment of glory, and I agree that fighting alongside Garrus and Wrex as leaders of squads of turians and krogan would (for me) have really emphasized the coming together of species to defeat the Reapers. The horde mode stuff works, I guess. But what would it take to have made the final ground battle really epic (besides sheer numbers)? 

I have no idea if what I'm about to outline is even programmable. But I would have loved something like this. I hope you enjoy it. There's no professional pride here. If you've got comments, let 'em fly.

(From the game, in London) Anderson: I'll give you a moment with your squad. Pick your team well...

At this point, an option window appears. The assault to the beam will involve five teams: Shepard (up the middle), the left flank, the left wing, the right flank and the right wing. (The “flank” teams are immediately adjacent to Shepard's team, which occupies the middle; the “wing” teams are even further to the left and right.) It might be possible to have multiple routes to the missile battery, allowing Shepard to be assigned to a position other than the middle. But that would have meant more work for BioWare...

(Why five total teams? Because of the upcoming boss battle. Read on.)

Possible default options for command of the four support teams include:

- Admiral Anderson (Alliance)

- Major Coates (Alliance)

- James Vega (lost his own command in Paragon Lost, gets his redemption) (Alliance)

- Garrus Vakarian (will take command of the Turian Armiger Legion) (Turian)

      - Primarch Victus (alternate to Garrus if the latter dies in Mass Effect 2) (Victus is present in London and is characterized as a “soldier's general”, so it makes sense for him to assume a command in the final battle)

- Kaidan / Ashley (Alliance)

- Wrex (krogan shock squad; maybe the new “Arlakh” company?) (Krogan)

      - Grunt (alternate if Wrex was killed on Virmire)

      - Wreav (alternate to Wrex and Grunt if Grunt's tank was never opened and Wrex is dead)

- Liara T'Soni (shadow broker wet squad / asari commandos) (Asari)
These choices will always be available.

Additional choices will be available. These will be strictly optional appearances based upon game actions. Optional commanders and squads include:

- Tali Zorah vas Normandy (engineering squad) (Quarian)

- Admiral Zaal Koris vas Quib-Quib (alternate to Tali) (Daro'Xen is the vocal alternate for Tali in the Geth Dreadnought mission, but Zaal Koris' more moderate stance towards the Geth makes him a better choice for a "coming together of species.") (If Tali is dead and the Quarians are eliminated on Rannoch, the squad does not appear.)

- Prime Ajax (my name for the Prime who appears in London.) (commands a squad of flamers, hunters and soldiers) (Geth) (If the Geth are eliminated on Rannoch, the squad does not appear.) (It'd be nice if Legion didn't have to become a robo-messiah; if that were changed, he would appear here instead of Ajax.)

- Major Kirrahe (commands an STG squad) (Must survive Virmire and the Citadel coup attempt) (indications are that STG would support Shepard regardless of the position of the Salarian government, so getting Salarian support is not a condition for their presence)

 - Jondum Bau (Kirrahe alternate) (If Kirrahe does not survive and Bau's mission is never completed, the STG squad does not become available for assignment.) (I theorize that before he was a Spectre, Bau was STG; thus he would not be a complete stranger to the squad.)

- Aria T'Loak (commands mercenaries) (must complete the Omega DLC for Aria and squad to appear)

- Miranda Lawson (commands a group of Cerberus defectors)

- Jacob Taylor (Miranda alternate) (Jacob doesn't want to be on the front lines if possible, which is why he declines to join Shepard in the game; with everything at stake, though, I think he would step up.) (If Miranda dies and Jacob's mission is not completed, the Cerberus defectors squad will not be available for assignment.)

- Samara (squad of justicars) (doesn't really command them, as justicars answer to no one but the code; Samara functions more as a liaison) (If Morinth was chosen, Samara's mission is never completed or Samara does not survive her mission, the squad does not appear.)

- Jack (commands the Grissom Academy Students) (to have them appear here, must not choose the “support role” dialogue with Kahlee Sanders in the Grissom Academy mission. If the “support role” dialogue was chosen, Jack does not survive Mass Effect 2, Jack is not at Grissom Academy when Shepard liberates it, or Shepard does not liberate Grissom Academy, the squad does not appear.)

Every character listed may be chosen as a squadmate for Shepard if not chosen for a command. Zaeed, Javik, Kasumi and EDI are available as squad-mates, but not as commanders. (Javik was military, and could command; I'm simply not sure which allied faction would trust him with command of their soldiers.)

Push forward

There could be some contextual acts requiring the efforts of the support teams. Maybe Shepard gets pinned down by Ravagers, requiring one of the flank teams to clear them before (s)he can proceed (Shep fights a few waves of enemies in a confined space). How quickly the flank team succeeds in clearing the resistance depends on the command rating of the team leader. Maybe use some of those un-used multiplayer maps for this (two of them looked to me like they were planned to be Earth levels). Shepard, in turn, could clear out a few nests of resistance so the flanking teams can advance (maybe a chance to use some heavy weapons again?).

Defend the missile battery

Missile battery defense will happen in five waves. The first Shepard & squad must handle by themselves; the second wave (s)he has the support of one of the flanking forces. The third wave sees the arrival of the other flanking force; the wave ends with the first attempt to launch the Thannix missiles. One of the sides collapses (in the game, it was the left; here it would be randomized, left or right – perhaps based upon which commander assigned to a wing had the worse command rating). Wave four the wing force (the one that didn't collapse) arrives. Wave five is the battle royale (cue the music https://youtu.be/xPLoxSS4aV4), ending with the successful firing of the last two Thannix missiles (as in the game). All surviving support teams could fight alongside Shepard for wave five. After the missiles fire, stragglers from the destroyed wing force arrive at the missile battery in the ensuing cut-scene.
(The idea here isn't that there are dozens of allied troops on the field - that would be hard if not impossible to program. The big set-pieces would appear in cutscenes. During the fighting, the allied troops would be in the distance, with the commanders that Shepard assigned to lead them joining him/her in the fight - perhaps with contextual triggers.) 
(What I mean by a contextual trigger is, for instance, both of Shepard's squad going down, six Brutes being on the map at once, Shepard's health being reduced to a critical level. Any one of those could trigger a cut-scene.
-Shepard's health is low- Cut to Wrex leading the krogan shock troops: "Shepard needs our help! Krogan! CHARGE!" In-game, Wrex and a few krogan would spawn into the map to provide assistance.
or
By not killing fast enough, there are six Brutes or six Banshees on the map at once - the numbers could vary based on difficulty - Cut to Major Kirrahe: "The line is breaking! We have to hold it!" In-game, Kirrahe and the STG squad spawn.
Each squad-leader would have their own cut-scene and moment of glory - except for the ones that were supposed to hold the collapsed flank, of course. Not all squads need necessarily trigger.)

Final push to the beam

(ride in the truck, conversation with Anderson; truck crashes to a halt, they get out and see the beam – all as it happens in the game)

Harbinger arrives

EMS check – if too low, Shepard executes the run to the beam, as we have it now.

EMS check – if high enough, Shepard fights Harbinger (why the EMS check? Because defeating Harbinger will require pulling ships away from the Reaper battle; if too few ships remain in the fleet – i.e. too low of an EMS score – the Crucible would never make it to the Citadel, meaning Shepard & Co. might defeat Harbinger, but the Crucible would be destroyed, resulting in a Critical Mission Fail.)

Harbinger boss battle, Stage 1

Shepard calls down two artillery strikes from the fleet on Harbinger (similar to the Rannoch Reaper fight). Obviously, (s)he must survive while doing so. The strength of these hits is much greater than on Rannoch.

Harbinger boss battle, Stage 2

To keep Shepard from calling down more strikes, Harbinger attempts to control Shepard's squad or assigned commanders, forcing him / her to fight them.

On Easy: 1 squad-mate or commander becomes indoctrinated

On Normal: 2 squad-mates or commanders

On Hardcore: 3 squad-mates or commanders

On Insanity: 4 squad-mates or commanders become indoctrinated.

At the start of this section, you must choose a new squad for Shepard from those who are not indoctrinated. (The in-game explanation is that those not indoctrinated rally to Shepard to help him / her; those who are indoctrinated turn on him / her.) So, for example, Shepard could have Anderson and Tali in his / her squad; (s)he could wind up fighting Garrus, Liara, James Vega and Wrex. Thus choosing the strongest allies to command the support teams or to support Shepard in the squad at the initial stage of the final battle might seem like a safe choice at the time, but could result in an incredibly difficult fight here.

Shepard's indoctrinated allies are encased in a strange shield that Shepard must break through in order to crack the indoctrination (visually, just another layer over their health bar). Once this additional layer is depleted, the target falls to the ground and lays motionless.

Harbinger boss battle, Stage 3

The effort to directly, rapidly indoctrinate (up to) four unwilling subjects quickly tires even Harbinger, and his shields drop (similar to what happened with Sovereign and Saren). Shepard climbs into a Mako, trying to avoid Harbinger's laser beams, attempting to reach another Thannix missile battery. (I wonder whether there should be a wave or two of husks here, but at this point the fight will have gone on for a very long time). If successful, all missiles are fired at once, Harbinger is killed (with something like this (from 1:11 to 1:42) playing over the top of it as he falls  https://youtu.be/HFq-7ecXKFA?t=1m11s).

At this point, between defending the missile battery and fighting Harbinger, the attack force is almost completely wiped out. But, they have reached the beam.

(I don't have a set of numbers to determine who would become indoctrinated and who wouldn't. EMS and maybe a hierarchy of command + loyalty from previous games for each character could come into play.
The LI can never die from indoctrination, regardless of who it is.
Javik and EDI can never become indoctrinated by Harbinger. Javik because his thirst for revenge is stronger than any power Harbinger could wield; EDI because her actual self is miles away aboard the Normandy, not housed in her platform.
Liara and Anderson might become indoctrinated, but cannot be killed. 
Those who had no loyalty mission in the franchise would always die IF INDOCTRINATED (James Vega, Wreav, Major Coates, Zaal Koris, Major Kirrahe, Jondum Bau, Aria T'Loak, Prime Ajax). It is possible to have any of these characters assigned a command or in Shepard's squad, and survive because they do not become indoctrinated.
If a commander or squad member had their loyalty mission completed, they won't die after being indoctrinated / possessed by Harbinger.
As an example: Shepard could go into the Harbinger boss with Tali and Anderson as the squad, fighting indoctrinated Garrus, Wreav, Jacob and Liara. Garrus' loyalty mission was completed in ME2, so he survives after the indoctrination is broken. Liara cannot be killed due to indoctrination, so she survives. Wreav will die. Jacob's loyalty mission was not completed in ME2, so he will also die. Doom is not certain, but the fact that everyone except Shepard + squad could die would bring that choice-and-consequence back to the final fight of the game.)

(Having a Harbinger boss battle creates the issue that a Harbinger boss is never properly prepared in ME3, though I think that could easily be rectified with Harbinger communications at several places throughout the game.)

I drafted several versions of this post. This is the most complex, intricate version. The trimmed down version involved only involved two support squads - one on the left flank and one on the right flank. That version would have been easier to create, no doubt, but I just wanted to go as big and epic as possible.