Mass Effect 3 Discussion Thread

As for those who think something is 'missing' from the endings. The pessimist in me assumes the real ending was cut for use as DLC. Just like the extra party member was cut for day1 DLC. Lacking the full ending, they threw together the quick ones we saw.
 
SilverSliver said:
I tend to agree with this point of view. My thoughts below.

in my opinion, Shepard never made it to the beam. In two of the endings, Shepard "dies" and the machines live in one way or another. The only ending in which Shepard "lives" is when he's gasping for air in the rubble ( CONCRETE ) after choosing to "destroy" synthetics. There is also, apparently, gravity.

Now think about that. Number one, the Citadel is not made out of concrete. And number two, he's not floating in space as you would expect after a space station blowing up.

My answer is that the whole thing was a hallucination. He got hit with the reaper beam and then they tried to indoctrinate him. The hallucinations where the machines live were the Reapers indoctrination. The hallucination where he destroys the machines is him breaking the indoctrination, and then likely dying shortly after. In all three cases, he imagines his squad mates ( including those you took with you that got beamed in the face by the Reaper ) flying off to some world to live out their days.
Click to expand...


Reapers are just Despair Squid? I hope I don't have to be Dwayne Dibley.
 
Every time I see Diana Allers I think about strapping her to the front of the Normandy and using her as a battering ram. I am convinced that butt could pierce a Reaper's hull.
 
CreganTur said:
Every time I see Diana Allers I think about strapping her to the front of the Normandy and using her as a battering ram. I am convinced that butt could pierce a Reaper's hull.
Click to expand...

I didn't realize there was so much Jessica Chobot hate.
 
Both Dan's non-spoiler and spoiler posts about the ending (in the last few pages of the thread) are excellent. I agree 100%.

I don't mind the part about Shepard dying. Sure, I would have loved to see him live and some cut scenes about him riding off into the sunset with your love interest. But he was pretty used up after all he had done, and in the 3rd game I thought they actually did a good job showing his growing despair.

What absolutely killed it for me was the ending of the universe. The relays get destroyed, really?! That just seemed gratuitous and served no real purpose other than kicking us in the nuts. And yes Dan, as soon as I saw each relay blowing up I immediately thought...wait a second, wouldn't that destroy each system anyway?

I didn't even mind the "blue child" so much - the force just takes the form that it feels will be most compelling to Shepard. Or perhaps that is just how Shepard himself visualizes it - the force doesn't even really take that form. But as other's have again already mentioned, there are so many very blatant logical flaws in the argument it kills the entire "feel" of the scene. This is supposedly the force/person/thing that is controlling the entire universe, and it doesn't seem all that bright, really. And it leaves all sorts of questions as to what then created the Citadel/Catalyst. Talk about a literal deus ex machina ending.

And even the last march towards the Beam in London...there was no interactivity! The majority of your squad is just sitting in base, you're not forced to make any choices as to specialties, etc. It would have been really easy to set up support roles...for example choose one squad member to put up shields for the infantry, another to be a sniper/fire support on the roof, etc. But instead it's just one last shooting sequence without that much to it.

Ugh. Such an excellent game, such an excellent series, and then they just dropped the ball at the end. I don't get it. :( I've never been as emotionally vested with any game as I have with ME, so they obviously did a good job but...wtf ending, wtf.
 
kcthebrewer said:
I didn't realize there was so much Jessica Chobot hate.
Click to expand...

I don't hate her. I'd bend her over my couch any day of the week.

Ritorix said:
As for those who think something is 'missing' from the endings. The pessimist in me assumes the real ending was cut for use as DLC. Just like the extra party member was cut for day1 DLC. Lacking the full ending, they threw together the quick ones we saw.
Click to expand...

What's sad is that I hope this is the truth.
 
KatalDT said:
Anybody else here NEVER EVER USE OR EVEN TALK TO VEGA after the intro?
Click to expand...

I forced myself to talk to him every now and then just to be sure I got any reputation points. But he was such a lame stereotype - both the typical muscle bound jock and the hispanic - "pendeho" or "Hey loco". Really?

Although... I think my favorite dialog of the entire game was just a random encounter where he and Garrus are sitting by the kitchen on the crew deck talking shit to each other...that was well done and had me cracking up.
 
Further thoughts.

TwistedAegis said:
Both Dan's non-spoiler and spoiler posts about the ending (in the last few pages of the thread) are excellent. I agree 100%

I don't mind the part about Shepard dying. Sure, I would have loved to see him live and some cut scenes about him riding off into the sunset with your love interest. But he was pretty used up after all he had done, and in the 3rd game I thought they actually did a good job showing his growing despair.

I can agree about it showing his despair. They did a good job with everything in the game up to that last act. But if Shepard is to die, I want it to actually count for something and do some good. But yeah, it's the destruction of the Mass Effect universe that bothers me more than anything else.
Click to expand...
 
Wouldn't it be a kick in the balls if they release a DLC with the "real ending" and the main character is Vega saving the day? They could have a dramatic introductory cut scene with his shirt off, ala Twilight, with an M55 in each hand screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
 
Dan_D said:
Further thoughts.

I can agree about it showing his despair. They did a good job with everything in the game up to that last act. But if Shepard is to die, I want it to actually count for something and do some good. But yeah, it's the destruction of the Mass Effect universe that bothers me more than anything else.
Click to expand...

That's it exactly. I felt so shitty at the end because not only were none of the choices good for Shepard - NONE were good for his friends or anyone he cared about, either! I chose to actually control the Reapers, thinking about it kind of like the ending of Diablo - I'll take the devil into me and try to control it, and hopefully leave my friends with something worth living for. But with the relays destroyed...it doesn't much matter.

I think they really killed off the franchise, unless they go for some prequel style action...say set in the ME universe, prior to ME1-3 games. But that's a lame copout. :(
 
SilverSliver said:
Wouldn't it be a kick in the balls if they release a DLC with the "real ending" and the main character is Vega saving the day? They could have a dramatic introductory cut scene with his shirt off, ala Twilight, with an M55 in each hand screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Click to expand...

Hahahahaha! Thank you, after being depressed about the shitty ending this made my day. :D

EDIT: And you know you've been playing too much ME when you wake up hungover as hell, trying to figure out your alarm (wtf is this thing?!) and thinking, "Well it shouldn't matter if I call in, the Reapers are going to kill everyone anyway...why isn't everyone more bothered about this?"
 
SilverSliver said:
Wouldn't it be a kick in the balls if they release a DLC with the "real ending" and the main character is Vega saving the day? They could have a dramatic introductory cut scene with his shirt off, ala Twilight, with an M55 in each hand screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Click to expand...

Or they could make it black and white with a shaky camera, no audio, just a musical score - something from Twilight.
 
Thought I'd post here. Interesting if true.

Cali3350 said:
One of the more promising theories going around now:

If you dont destroy the reapers, you lose the game. Either merging the synthetics or Trying to control them essentially means the reapers won. The entire ending is actually the repears attempting to fully indoctrinate you. They do their best to make you think just killing them is a terrible choice, and push you to make them leave. This is further supported by the fact that only the ending where you kill the reapers shows Shepherd actually moving afterwords as though he survived. The end is just a giant indoctrination test. You dont actually destroy the universe no matter what you choose, you just either kill the reapers and save everyone and everything, or you fail, become indoctrinated, and the reapers win.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9751583/1
Click to expand...

Here is hoping I was too stupid to understand all this the first time around. There is some credence to this based on how the game behaves after you "beat it."
 
Dan_D said:
Thought I'd post here. Interesting if true.



Here is hoping I was too stupid to understand all this the first time around. There is some credence to this based on how the game behaves after you "beat it."
Click to expand...

Ok, now THAT is really interesting. It actually makes a lot of sense, and doesn't seem to be some over-thought rationalising either, which sometimes happens with endings. Hmm...
 
Dan is a man of wisdom. He helps build good machines, offers great one-liners in genmay, and puts most (if not all) of our thoughts on this game into words.

All this game needs is meaningful endings. I think American developers could really learn a thing or two from the way Japanese games tend to have 20 endings (even if 15 of them are all "bad endings"). Man, there's so much this game could have done if they just followed the Jap models...

Also, I never talked with Vega either unless I met him on the Citadel. He was barely better than Jacob.
 
Dan_D said:
Thought I'd post here. Interesting if true.

Here is hoping I was too stupid to understand all this the first time around. There is some credence to this based on how the game behaves after you "beat it."
Click to expand...

So ME3 is pretty much Matrix Revolution...
 
Dan_D said:
Thought I'd post here. Interesting if true.



Here is hoping I was too stupid to understand all this the first time around. There is some credence to this based on how the game behaves after you "beat it."
Click to expand...

I would not mind that. My only beef is how he got back to Earth then. And how the squad members that got beamed by the Reapers made it back to the ship unscathed.
 
Dan_D said:
Thought I'd post here. Interesting if true.

Here is hoping I was too stupid to understand all this the first time around. There is some credence to this based on how the game behaves after you "beat it."
Click to expand...

This would make the most sense. After the scene with Illusive Man and the conversation regarding taking control of the reapers as an evil thing to do. You are then presented the option to do what you just stated as evil as a Paragon/blue choice. The only option would be to destroy the AI.
 
TwistedAegis said:
That's it exactly. I felt so shitty at the end because not only were none of the choices good for Shepard - NONE were good for his friends or anyone he cared about, either! I chose to actually control the Reapers, thinking about it kind of like the ending of Diablo - I'll take the devil into me and try to control it, and hopefully leave my friends with something worth living for. But with the relays destroyed...it doesn't much matter.

I think they really killed off the franchise, unless they go for some prequel style action...say set in the ME universe, prior to ME1-3 games. But that's a lame copout. :(
Click to expand...

They could easily make more ME games, minus rapeShep. They would just need to be done hundreds of years in the future, probably a different setting
 
If the Protheans with all their technological strengths couldn't even build a two-way mass relay link in their era, what do you think the chances are the Citadel races could even hope to rebuild the network in a reasonable time frame? I don't think their FTL drives were ever rated for any particular speed but if EA goes that route it's just going to feel like a Star Trek cop out with the Reapers substituting as the Borg (assuming the Reapers return...).

Oh wait. The reapers are supposedly destroyed with the right ending. Seems like they've locked themselves into a prequel alright.
 
Dan_D said:
Thought I'd post here. Interesting if true.



Here is hoping I was too stupid to understand all this the first time around. There is some credence to this based on how the game behaves after you "beat it."
Click to expand...

That's my take on the ending, it's the only thing that actually makes sense out of what we're shown. And I also like that view because it makes me not hate the game BUT it means that the fight isn't over.
 
This image kinda sums up my big issue.......

IhOjP.png

Found it on the BW forums and was like, "yep, thats how it felt".
 
Limahl said:
This image kinda sums up my big issue.......

IhOjP.png

Found it on the BW forums and was like, "yep, thats how it felt".
Click to expand...

I agree, but we can't exactly expect an Arcanum like RPG from Bioware. Not ever.
 
I'm surprised at so many people comparing Vega to Jacob. Vega's a renaissance man compared to Jacob, in my opinion. I like him a lot more than I thought I would. He's nowhere near the level of my favorite NPCs, but I expected to hate him and found that, through talking to him, there is a good character under the shaved-ape facade.

Talking to him about his N7 reccomendation was a great character moment that really made me understand and even like the character more.

I'm already hearing rumors about a Mass Effect 4
 
polonyc2 said:
if I hadn't read that the voice actor playing Mordin Solus was different in ME3 I never would have noticed...he sounds fine to me and pretty much exactly like he did in ME2
Click to expand...

Agreed. Never missed a beat imo.

I'm right at the end of the game just before you start the final mission. so I look forward to seeing if [H] is just being its atypical wah wah crybaby self or if the ending legitimately sucks.

After some of the wah wah comment I've read so far, seriously someone complaining about plot issues 1 hr into the game that are answered 1 hr 1 min into game if they just shut up and played another minute longer, have me doubting that theres a legitimate reason for concern.
 
Some of you fuckers need to use spoiler tags. Even if you don't reveal actual detail you can still give away everything with sloppy wording. sigh.

I noticed Mordin's voice was different instantly. His voice in ME2 was part of what made him a great character imo. The replacement was good, but not the same as the original.
 
DemonDiablo said:
Agreed. Never missed a beat imo.

I'm right at the end of the game just before you start the final mission. so I look forward to seeing if [H] is just being its atypical wah wah crybaby self or if the ending legitimately sucks.

After some of the wah wah comment I've read so far, seriously someone complaining about plot issues 1 hr into the game that are answered 1 hr 1 min into game if they just shut up and played another minute longer, have me doubting that theres a legitimate reason for concern.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing... then I beat the game and realized how wrong I was. I don't see how anyone can be happy with what was given, especially fans of the series.
 
Dallows said:
I noticed Mordin's voice was different instantly. His voice in ME2 was part of what made him a great character imo. The replacement was good, but not the same as the original.
Click to expand...

I agree totally. Still a great character though, and

my eyes got a bit teary when he died :(
 
PureBooYah said:
That's my take on the ending, it's the only thing that actually makes sense out of what we're shown. And I also like that view because it makes me not hate the game BUT it means that the fight isn't over.
Click to expand...

Even then I'd say the ending still sucks. But it's hope for a DLC ending that's better than this shit.
 
At this time, with over 30k votes, 2% of responders are happy with the ending as is, and 89% think it sucks, and would like to see it significantly revamped.

Poll:
http://social.bioware.com/633606/polls/28989/


The ending as shipped, is terrible, in just about every measurable way. It has huge gaping plot holes, it creates huge inconsistencies with the story so far, it has a multi-level deus ex machina, it's theme and tone in no way resemble the rest of the series, Sheppard is way way way out of character in all dialog interactions in the ending. The only significant difference in how the endings affect the Normandy and Crew, is the color of an energy field/explosion. It contains elements of the horrible/cliched Adam and Eve were astronauts SF trope. And to top it all off, the decisions you make, over the course of 3 games(including ME3 itself) have almost no effect on how the ending plays out. In short, it serves as a perfect example of almost every major faux pas to avoid when writing a story.


I do like the hallucination/indoctrination idea, and it might give BioWare a way out. But, as the game currently stands, it's a pretty far reach to say that it was intended.

When I finished ME1, I immediately started a new game, when I finished ME2, I immediately started a new game, and I probably replayed the finale mission 20 times or more. When I finished ME3, I had no interest in starting a new game, and I almost wanted to forget I had ever played any ME game. It is THAT BAD.


I think a lot of elements in ME3's story and game, are the direct result of a budget and time crunch, probably imposed from on high.
1. Introduction of the never before mentioned crucible Deus Ex Machina/"magic wand" to get things moving.
2. Off screen movement of the citadel to earth, to shorten the finale, and add some cheap dramatic impact.
3. Why does the galaxy map almost look like a strategy game with reaper controlled space indicated?
4. Why even bother with the galaxy readiness and strength ratings to have them all boil down to a simple table lookup for end variations?
5. The construction of the unprecedented alliances was rushed, and then almost completely disregarded by the end. Heck the establishment of the Geth/Quarian peace alone was almost worthy of a ME2 sized storyline.
6. EDI and Legion's evolution is significant. And both demonstrate that AI/synthetics are not inherently evil/destructive. But they are almost completely disregarded by the ending.
7. The great villain of ME2, the reaper Harbinger, get's a total of 15 seconds screen time as you run down the hill to the terrible end. Anything less than an epic battle ending with Joker+EDI+Normandy's new ME2 main gun, kicking his sorry reaper ass, is a complete let down.
 
Dan_D said:
Even then I'd say the ending still sucks. But it's hope for a DLC ending that's better than this shit.
Click to expand...

Yeah, which why I said "not hate" rather than "like." All it does is remove my nerdrage, but I'm still not satisfied since it's also not an ending if we view it that way. And if they do release DLC, that leads me to the next problem of having to buy an ending to a game.
 
DemonDiablo said:
Agreed. Never missed a beat imo.

I'm right at the end of the game just before you start the final mission. so I look forward to seeing if [H] is just being its atypical wah wah crybaby self or if the ending legitimately sucks.

After some of the wah wah comment I've read so far, seriously someone complaining about plot issues 1 hr into the game that are answered 1 hr 1 min into game if they just shut up and played another minute longer, have me doubting that theres a legitimate reason for concern.
Click to expand...

Well you will get to see. However for perspective, I am pissed about the ending, and have posted about it here and on the Bioware forums. I've never posted about ME1 or ME2 (other than to tell people to buy them) and in general I don't post my feelings about games.

It was that bad.
 
Not sure what this stuff about not being able to load saves that have DLC if you're not connected to the internet stuff is all about. I use my phone as my wireless adapter, and don't bother to hook it up everytime I boot my computer up, and ME3 (w/ From Ashes) has worked just fine the last few days without an internet connection.
 
You have to hand it to BW. Not many other games (especially action-RPG type games) have people critically thinking like this and talking about elements like deus ex machinas.

The ending makes it hard to see the forest for all the trees, it seems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top