Sulimo said:
I'd really like it if there were no twists at all. Seriously, I don't see the need to win the war against the reapers. They should make sure you have to find out as much as you can about the reapers so you can defeat them, but by the time you figure it out the universe is lost (i.e. fleets destroyed, supply lines cut, infrastructure ruined - seriously, name me one decent game that shows how important these things are save for Paradox-games) and you're pretty much boned.
Along similar lines, I would love it if, in a truly devious twist, Bioware made it so that your choices from the previous games really
did matter and could actually make it impossible for you to win against the reapers. Or at least make it so that there was no good ending - no matter how you won, it would be a bittersweet/Pyrrhic victory. For example, one possible scenario:
* If you went full paragon and had the support of the council, the rachni, and all the other groups you'd helped out with your paragon-y ways (e.g., preventing the geth and quarians from going to war, using Legion to reprogram the geth to be more organic-friendly, preventing Mordin from using the modified genophage and thus giving the krogan the ability to replenish their numbers, etc.), you could spend the game uniting them and win a war of attrition against the reapers over the course of the next few decades, though likely at some devastating cost in terms of the damage to the galaxy and number of casualties. Plus, once the war was over, the coalition of races would fall apart, and all of the old problems and hostilities would resurface. The krogan, their numbers unchecked while other species struggled to repopulate, might begin their wars of conquest again; the geth and quarians would continue to fight territorial disputes; the council would fall victim to its old faults once more; the rachni would be forced to raid already-inhabited planets for land and resources as their population increased back to its old numbers; and so on. Ultimately, although he saved the galaxy, all of Shepard's attempts to change it for the better would prove futile. ("War, war never changes." / "What can change the nature of a krogan?" / etc.)
* If you went full HUMANS, FUCK YEAH renegade in the previous games, weakening other species and strengthening humans at every chance you got, then humans would be able to consolidate their power, force the other races to work with them, and use the reaper tech and other advantages you gained for them to win. However, you would also leave the human race universally hated and severely weakened by the war, things like the indoctrination technology and husk conversion process would be leaked and become much more commonplace, and it wouldn't be long before another galactic conflict broke out, possibly leaving the humans in a much less favorable position than they had to begin with. In the end, historians would curse Shepard as the man responsible for setting humanity on the path that led to its downfall.
* On the other hand, if you were more moderate in your actions, maybe saving the council but dooming the rachni, sending the quarians off to fight the geth while saving the krogans, etc., then the conflicts among the various alien species would leave them too weak to put up a fight against the reapers, but strong enough to prevent humans from taking over. Thus, the galaxy would be divided and present easy pickings for the reapers, no matter how hard you struggled in ME3 to prevent it.
I wouldn't want this exact scenario to happen, since it would pretty much shoehorn you into playing a full paragon/renegade Shepard in order to win, but it's where I'd expect the series to naturally progress based on the setup in the first two games if a company with more cajones than Bioware were making ME3. And it could be frustrating if you played a more neutral/nuanced Shepard, but it'd be worth some respect++ for a company willing to gamble the popularity of a major franchise like ME for such a conclusion if it was well-executed and they did it for the right reasons.
As for what the twist will
actually be, my guess is this: there was a strong theme in ME2 of how gaining power/technology without developing it on your own (and thus gaining the experience needed to use it wisely) causes problems. See, for example, Mordin's discussion of the krogan's actions following the Rachni Wars or everyone's reactions to your endgame decision about what to do with the collector base. Sovereign also mentioned in ME1 that the reapers left behind the mass relays and other such technology so that the various races of the galaxy would develop along the path the reapers desired. So my guess is that the races of the galaxy will have to forsake all the technology that's been left for them by the reapers in order to defeat them. Of course, players will still want to explore the galaxy, use eezo, etc., so Bioware will come up with some excuse about how scientists were finally able to come up with a way to travel great distances without depending on the mass relays. This would all be very stupid for a number of obvious reasons, of course, but it's Bioware, so that only increases my confidence in this theory.
Either that or the asari turn out to be evil. I never did trust those mind-controlling freaks.
