SS3 What story do we want for Shock3?

[673feab356033Hikari]

Shock 3 could go a lot of directions story-wise. Frankly I don't want SHODAN as prime antagonist because as has been mentioned in a few different retrospectives to do so means her impact as villain is basically neutered.

Instead what I want is to explore Rebecca trying to pick between following the psychotic fairy speaking in her head urging her to discard the weak flesh, echos of the Many urging her to embrace Flesh, and possibly tommy or someone else trying to get her to keep her humanity in spite of the typical 'everything going to hell.'

Could even be a case of SHODAN as villain, but a new dynamic since, if I remember the official fiction, the UNN in many ways were as bad as Triop in terms of life for your average person. Have SHODAN as antagonist be leashed in a research lab, or even a repurposed remnant of citadel (they use the descindants of her mutants as survival training hazards, so why not?)

I dunno though given how the 'morality' based endings tend to be 'you are hitler or jesus' with no inbetween. Maybe have the game actually branch and have the endings happen at different places depending on the sorts of upgrades you took.

Also I want to see what shodan could come up with given the fact nanites can build anything.

[673feab356322ThiefsieFool]

Honestly I think we'll get a slight mention of Tommy&Rebecca mostly for homage, SHODAN will be the main undisputed villain in characteristic fashion and there will be some slight lukewarm Dad Gamer feel to the story and ending since everyone's so much older now, with any luck you don't get a rebellious Hacker daughter figure a la Thief 4/Bio Infinite/Last of Us and it's fairly restrained, not that going full edge is much better.
I'm mostly in it for the gameplay.

[673feab35649bZylonBane]

I'd like a story better and more original than anyone posting in this thread could think of.

[673feab3565f9fox]

Gameplay and story are important.

[673feab356829ZylonBane]

Gameplay and story are important.

Uh... yes? Did anyone claim otherwise?

[673feab356a6cHikari]

I'd like a story better and more original than anyone posting in this thread could think of.

As upbeat and helpful as always.

SO tell me, since you take such a dim view of my idea, what would you do different?

[673feab356df5fox]

Uh... yes? Did anyone claim otherwise?

Yes, it did sound that way.

I'm mostly in it for the gameplay.

Instantly made me think of Dishonored, which had relatively good gameplay but suffered from an uninteresting story - I feel.

@Hikari: I like your idea but it's only a rough sketch. The story for SS3 deserves to be handled "professionally" so I really hope that whatever they use, exceeds (usual) fan fiction level. Keeping it canon and continuing after two previous entries is going to be a fulltime job for a pro, I'd think. No disrespect intended.

[673feab356fcbKolya]

I'd like a bipolar Rebecca as heroine and unreliable narrator, torn between her humanity and the AI in her head who helps her survive through a David Lynch type story where you never know if the people you meet want to kill or rescue you. I can already hear them coming.

"Beccy, it's me Tommy. Please, don't shoot. These scientists are here to help you. They can free you from SHODAN. You just have to let them. Please."

Do you know what Tommy did while you were sleeping? I was awake. I had to witness it all. What he did to us! It's never going to happen again.

BAM BAM BAM

[673feab35710eHikari]

See that's kinda what I was getting at. SHODAN-as-ally technically has been done with SS2, but this is a new-ish take that allows us to keep her in the franchise and have her be something things hinge on. However it's also different enough, and yes having to question what's real, what's lies by those that don't trust Rebecca, and and what's SHODAN trying to manipulate events to her benefit.

It'd be fun.

Edit: BEcause we don't want SHODAN to end up being stail feeling, or worse... non-threatening.

[673feab35720efox]

That would probably be the kind of thing that Ken Levine would've done pre-Bioshock and it has potential. Not sure if that kind of mindfuck-angle would feel so original now that there is BS though.

[673feab3572e0ZylonBane]

No mid-game twists.

[673feab3574daJML]

Rebecca as protagonist would be awesome. I'd like to see a woman and split person as the main character in contrast to the male hackers. The threat in SS1 and SS2 is very feminin (SHODAN, the motherly many with it's midwifes and eggs). Would be awesome to see her getting mother's feelings over the Many, nanites, or whatever good the devs can come up with. Also womens bodily fluids (birth, menstruation) are quite repulsive to most people, so there's another shock factor. If there is choice in the game, then it opens up also huge philosophical and ethical areas to discussion (e.g. pro-life/pro-choice with abortion of for example "the many", meaning of life (SHUT UP!), racism (as in alien racism)).
I'm too lazy right now to hide that english is only my second language... I'm pretty sure it's still clear what I mean

[673feab3577e4RocketMan]

The only thing that came through in that post was menstrual fluid 

I'm going to have nightmares tonight about Rebecca panting and sweating and running through corridors, throwing used tampons at me.

[673feab357957XKILLJOY98]

Well with the new shodan design (and the returning of her iconic voice/voice effects), it's obvious that she will escape rebecca and put herself back into a computer at some point (maybe even before the events of the game).

From the teaser it seems like the protagonist is very likely someone that we have encountered before (possibly even the hacker or soldier G65434-2/goggles).

[673feab357bfbfox]

The only thing that came through in that post was menstrual fluid 

I'm going to have nightmares tonight about Rebecca panting and sweating and running through corridors, throwing used tampons at me.

[weyBqMZ.gif expired]

[673feab357fc7RocketMan]

Well with the new shodan design (and the returning of her iconic voice/voice effects), it's obvious that she will escape rebecca and put herself back into a computer at some point (maybe even before the events of the game).

From the teaser it seems like the protagonist is very likely someone that we have encountered before (possibly even the hacker or soldier G65434-2/goggles).

Brosius shouldn't have any trouble voicing Rebecca.  Her own natural voice isn't that dissimilar that it would be a problem and after hybridization with SHODAN it's plausible that her voice would change somewhat anyway.

I wouldn't care whether Rebecca stayed in the game or not EXCEPT that IG/LG was cognizant enough to end the game with the most iconic character hijacking her body and leaving us with her haunting laugh and crazy hair covering the screen.  What's that all about if they're just going to say "ehhhh fuck it!"  That's a bad decision to make IMO.  You leave a cliffhanger... you deal with it.  Otherwise it's just going to ruin the flow entirely.  People will think Shodan got Alzheimers or something and forgot why she wanted Rebecca.  I think it's pretty clear why she wanted Rebecca anyway.  She's a computer and computers are logical.  It's logical to think 10 steps ahead like a chess program and to have a backup plan.  What better backup plan than to hide in a human who is so far doing a pretty good job of staying alive and escaping, with a love-struck dude taking care of her.  At least if Shodan dies, Rebecca flies under the radar, which is exactly what happened.  Now she's got a shuttle and a new body and she can plan her next move.  The excitement of waiting 17 years for an SS3 is finding out what happens next, not to find out that it didn't matter and nobody gave a shit in the first place.  Not a good start to the game to get the impression that the developers aren't putting thought into their choices enough to follow them through.

[673feab3585baXKILLJOY98]

Brosius shouldn't have any trouble voicing Rebecca.  Her own natural voice isn't that dissimilar that it would be a problem and after hybridization with SHODAN it's plausible that her voice would change somewhat anyway.

I wouldn't care whether Rebecca stayed in the game or not EXCEPT that IG/LG was cognizant enough to end the game with the most iconic character hijacking her body and leaving us with her haunting laugh and crazy hair covering the screen.  What's that all about if they're just going to say "ehhhh fuck it!"  That's a bad decision to make IMO.  You leave a cliffhanger... you deal with it.  Otherwise it's just going to ruin the flow entirely.  People will think Shodan got Alzheimers or something and forgot why she wanted Rebecca.  I think it's pretty clear why she wanted Rebecca anyway.  She's a computer and computers are logical.  It's logical to think 10 steps ahead like a chess program and to have a backup plan.  What better backup plan than to hide in a human who is so far doing a pretty good job of staying alive and escaping, with a love-struck dude taking care of her.  At least if Shodan dies, Rebecca flies under the radar, which is exactly what happened.  Now she's got a shuttle and a new body and she can plan her next move.  The excitement of waiting 17 years for an SS3 is finding out what happens next, not to find out that it didn't matter and nobody gave a shit in the first place.  Not a good start to the game to get the impression that the developers aren't putting thought into their choices enough to follow them through.

I meant that they gave shodan a completely new design, they wouldn't do that if she stayed in Rebecca the entire game. Plus her voice sounded like 100% shodan, not a hybrid between her and Rebecca.

Plus again with the teaser, the protagonist seems to be someone that we have seen in a past game, and if that is so, it seems likely that she would be recognizable instead of being in Rebecca.

Plus on top of that as much as shodan hates humans, flesh, etc., I doubt that she would stay in Rebecca for very long.


I would like to see the whole Rebecca "possession" by shodan in some way though, and I'm sure that it will be explored in game.

[673feab3586f6RocketMan]

I don't think we can read too much into the teaser as it was not meant to be a template for the game... merely a PR tool to raise awareness that the team is working on SS3 and committed to awesome.  Even if the teaser were any indication of what was going to be in the game, there are ways in which SHODAN can exist in digital space while also residing in Rebecca.  I prefer not to speculate about such things.

[673feab358a0eXKILLJOY98]

I don't think we can read too much into the teaser as it was not meant to be a template for the game... merely a PR tool to raise awareness that the team is working on SS3 and committed to awesome.  Even if the teaser were any indication of what was going to be in the game, there are ways in which SHODAN can exist in digital space while also residing in Rebecca.  I prefer not to speculate about such things.

Still, what is the point in making them if they aren't going to use it?, if they really just wanted people to be excited all they would have to do is announce the game and people would already be excited for it. For reference, you need not look any further than other teasers that have already been released.

Also, in what way could she exist in two places at once?

[673feab358b0cfox]

It's pure speculation but I guess, while probably nothing is set in stone yet, the basic premise for the story was already in place before the game got officially announced.

[673feab358e24RocketMan]

Still, what is the point in making them if they aren't going to use it?, if they really just wanted people to be excited all they would have to do is announce the game and people would already be excited for it. For reference, you need not look any further than other teasers that have already been released.

Also, in what way could she exist in two places at once?

In much the same way that a CD of System Shock, and the installed game can exist in two places at once.  One is in your hand.  The other is on your hard drive.  But again, getting into this sort of debate is futile.  We really know jack shit about what they're going to do with this.

[673feab359113XKILLJOY98]

In much the same way that a CD of System Shock, and the installed game can exist in two places at once.  One is in your hand.  The other is on your hard drive.  But again, getting into this sort of debate is futile.  We really know jack shit about what they're going to do with this.

But that is installing something from a cd and to a computer, that's different. Shodan would simply have to download/transfer herself out of the implant/Rebecca and into a computer. The only way I could see how it would work the way you worded it is if shodan made copies of herself (which I'm not sure why she would, they would work together at first but probobly just fight over who is in control if/when they do take over something).

[673feab359213Kolya]

She did that before at least two times.

[673feab35941cXKILLJOY98]

She did that before at least two times.

You mean in beta grove and in Rebecca, that makes since, but not in the way that Rocketman described. If she is in two places at once she either made a copy of herself or was in two places at once (possibly by preforming multiple task at once, which resulted in a bit of a split/multiple locations of her conscious).