Mass Effect 3 SPOILERS THREAD

I agree with a lot of the recentcomments... except for having patience.

Now I'm a patient person in general so that's not the issue. But now we're having to be patient "possibly" to receive the True ending to a game that we all paid a significant amount of money for...

Sorry but if I purchase a car I can't be patient that it will stop after I drive off the lot and hit the brakes at the first stoplight.

I get this is a game, like a movie/tv show... but this wasn't Matrix 1 or 2... this was the 3rd and supposed end of the trilogy. We shouldn't have to be patient at this time for the real ending.

I do plan to be patient with any future EA/Bioware games and will probably avoid them entirely, just too much of this bullshit from them over the last two years.
 
Well I just finished the game for the first time a few hours ago. I managed to avoid any spoilers, apart from knowing there was a lot of controversy about the ending. In the end it didn't really make me angry or upset, on balance I just felt it was lazy. They always (as far as I can recall) intended ME to be a trilogy, they allowed you to make galaxy-defining decisions right from the start which was always going to mean an increasingly complex set of possible outcomes, and they were in a position to make good on that, being a AAA title with money to burn. But instead they could only be bothered to knock together a single dumb ending which essentially pissed on everything which had gone before, except with a choice of 3 exciting colour tints. And now they'll probably pull Valve's trick of pretending there's meaning where there isn't, because it's "enigmatic" or some shit. It was a sad way to wrap up a phenomenal series of games which deserved better.
But I was loving every minute, pretty much right up until the nonsensical showdown with TIM, even including the CoD4 rip-off post-nuclear slo-mo bit.
 
If this 'The Truth' DLC turns out to be the real thing, I hope I don't wake up as an ugly ass'd Husk because I chose the 'Synthesize' option during my first play through (that little ghost boy was very convincing!).

Another quibble I have with the game is the lack of some decent Rachni combat. When I first made the pact with the Queen in ME1, I was hoping to get to see them kick some Reaper ass during the final conflict. Instead all I got was some added military strength, and an e-mail mentioning their involvement with the construction of the crucible.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
Everything they've said since the community backlash has been a face-saving measure. I've seen no indication that they planned for any of this.
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And evidence to the contrary as well. If you bought the collectors edition, as I did (what? I didn't know it was going to suck :p) In the art book there is a bit that says "One of the plans on the drawing board was to have the Illusive Man turn into a Reaper creature for the final battle. Eventually, this plan was scrapped, since we wanted to give players the satisfaction of fighting a character they know rather than a random creature. The design implies that the Illusive Man’s weapon is his intelligence, not his physical strength."

Now does that sound to you like a "We meant it to only be a dream sequence," kind of thing? No to me it sounds like this was pretty solidly supposed to be a real big battle where the player takes on a long term enemy.

My guess in terms of this ending crap is it is a confluence of two things:

1) For some reason, someone in power, either the director or lead writer or whatever thought that "darker is better," the more dark and shitty the story gets the more people will like it. So they ran with that, rather than thinking about it that we all were wanting our 3 act heroic epic (since that is what the series was) and that means a good ending. We love 3 act heroic epics, hence why there's a name for that kind of thing, and we are accustomed to how they go.

2) They half-assed the endings. Maybe it was a budget thing, maybe a time thing, whatever they didn't do what they intended. Bioware originally claimed ME3 would be wildly divergent based on choices in the game and games before it. Since there was to be no sequel they didn't have to have everything arc back to a point as they did with 1 and 2. However it wasn't divergent at all, everything went back to a single point, a single " OMG choose UR ending," like we got in Deus Ex HR. So perhaps the original design had bad endings like this, but only as one of the divergent paths and they cut everything else.


Whatever the case I'm not at all buying the "Oh we intended for the REAL ending to come later, this is just a teaser," type of shit. They mean for it to be this way, and now are in full "oh shit" mode. Makes sense particularly since ME has become a really popular franchise. They moved like 3.5 million copies in a week. I'm quite sure they want to continue with the universe in some other way, but that isn't going to fly if the fans are all pissed off and decide they won't want more ME.
 
Sycraft said:
Whatever the case I'm not at all buying the "Oh we intended for the REAL ending to come later, this is just a teaser," type of shit. They mean for it to be this way, and now are in full "oh shit" mode. Makes sense particularly since ME has become a really popular franchise. They moved like 3.5 million copies in a week. I'm quite sure they want to continue with the universe in some other way, but that isn't going to fly if the fans are all pissed off and decide they won't want more ME.
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Which means that any response better be completely honest. We'll smell a rat a mile away.
 
A pretty good read about the ending and all the things that don't make sense. It's an argument for the indoctrination theory but if you don't believe that then it can also be an argument for how the Bioware writers have lost their minds. It covers pretty much everything.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/...0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true

It's a pretty long read so here are some of my favorite parts
The game contains an entire mission meant to convey the docile nature of the Geth to the player.

The only instances in which a Geth ever harmed an organic for reasons other than self-defense were under influence from the Reapers. In other words, the only instance of the problem the Reapers exist to solve was a result of the Reapers intentionally causing the problem that they exist to solve. This makes absolutely no sense.
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and

"But it also proves my solution won't work anymore."

The Star Child's entire purpose is to preserve order in the galaxy by using the Reapers to "prune" organic civilizations. But for no reason, Shepard being in the Citadel means his solution won't work anymore. He could have Shepard killed, or tell Shepard to sod off and everything would proceed as it has for all the previous cycles.

However, again for no reason at all, he presents Shepard with the options to destroy or control the Reapers, both of which would bring this alleged "chaos" to the galaxy, which he spent untold aeons labouring to prevent. And he's just totally cool with this.

He could have never appeared to Shepard, never brought her up to the Catalyst room, or simply never said a single word... and Shepard would not have understood the purpose of the devices in that room, thus preserving the Solution.

To a rational human being, nothing about this scenario makes any sense.
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and

1. What is the purpose of letting Shepard control the Reapers???

For no reason whatsoever, the Star Child presents you with the choice to let Shepard control the Reapers. Shepard would obviously then choose to keep them from harming organics. If this was an acceptable outcome to the Star Child, he could have just made the Reapers retreat back into dark space, producing the exact same result as letting Shepard control them. Shepard would not have had to die.

This makes absolutely no sense. It needlessly places Shepard in an important sacrificial role, almost as if Shepard's unconscious mind is creating an illogical scenario, contrived to focus on her despite it being utter nonsense - much as we do when dreaming.
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and

E) The concept of using the "essence" of a single partially synthetic human being to merge all life in the galaxy including plants and trees into hybrid organic-synthetic lifeforms, thereby creating a new "D.N.A." is completely ridiculous.

What does this even mean? How does this work and who came up with it?

The Child said the Crucible created this possibility, meaning the organic species who designed it sccidently created a method by which Shepard’s essence is used so that the D.N.A. of every being in the universe is reconfigured from a wave of space magic and they don't feel anything or noticeably change in any way, they just instantly become the apex of evolution thereby automatically solving the chaos resulting from the existence of robots, a problem they were never aware of.

Did anyone really watch this ending and believe it was actually happening? Like, for real? Who listened to this and nodded their heads, sagely considering the choice ahead? This is such crazy off the wall nonsense that it sounds like something from a delirious dream. Are you still wondering why so many people believe the ending actually IS one?
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I lol'd here..
Everything about the final moments of the game is absolutely messed up. Either something is not as it seems and Bioware did this intentionally, or any casual player paying moderate attention to the events depicted on-screen is apparently paying a lot more attention than the professionals whose job it was to craft this story. If that's the case, we, as a society and consumer base need to demand a higher degree of competence from the people we pay to make art and entertainment for us.

It's inexcusable. Part of what drove me to write this analysis is that it is inconceivable to me that a professional writer could have produced this staggering degree of literary incompetence and I truly want to believe that it's all part of the plan - not necessarily for the sake of the Mass Effect story, but for the sake of my continued faith in human competence.
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i dont get it,why does it have to have an happy ending?so what if some people died at the end,its pretty hard to believe they made it so far,3 people on each mission faced the whole galaxy lol.....its only logical they die in the end to save the galaxy ,wich actualy happens.Even the normandy crew survives.Seems like a pretty logical ending to me.I get that people are upset i dont get the rage......if i were bioware,i would post a message : DEAL WITH IT
 
Florin22xxl said:
i dont get it,why does it have to have an happy ending?so what if some people died at the end,its pretty hard to believe they made it so far,3 people on each mission faced the whole galaxy lol.....its only logical they die in the end to save the galaxy ,wich actualy happens.Even the normandy crew survives.Seems like a pretty logical ending to me.I get that people are upset i dont get the rage......if i were bioware,i would post a message : DEAL WITH IT
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Just by looking at your post, I have to ask... Are you Mac Walters?

I just deleted two paragraphs of commentary on your post, and I realized I'd probably get in trouble.. I keep forgetting we're not in Genmay!

Okay, seriously though. I don't think you've actually read any of the complaints. It's not that the ending was not a happy ending, it's that the ending was an illogical ending.

Oh, another problem - ending. Singular. There's pretty much one ending with slight variations. And that ending is illogical.
 
thats not it im fine with people dieing
the issue is how out of place the ending is
its just bad
and every one dies
what happens to the fleets stuck in Sol ? relay is gone how are they going to get food and water?
earth cant support all them hell be luck to support whats left of the humans
 
Actually, if they had the capability to wipe out all AI, why not just set it to go off every 500 years?

Derp.

All of the SAVING THE GALAXY, none of the KILLING EVERYBODY OMFG.
 
KatalDT said:
Actually, if they had the capability to wipe out all AI, why not just set it to go off every 500 years?

Derp.

All of the SAVING THE GALAXY, none of the KILLING EVERYBODY OMFG.
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doing so nukes the relays they would have to rebuild them each time
 
I put off beating the game for a while because I was SLOWLY grinding out that atrocious multiplayer component.

The game was amazing...until the end. I didn't read any of the spoilers but saw many complaints of it and now I understand why. It's just so terrible. Literally nothing that you did in the first 2 games made a difference in the end. What a joke. I think the ending honestly ruined even going back and playing the first 2 again, I can't believe how shitty it is.
 
Killa_2327 said:
I put off beating the game for a while because I was SLOWLY grinding out that atrocious multiplayer component.

The game was amazing...until the end. I didn't read any of the spoilers but saw many complaints of it and now I understand why. It's just so terrible. Literally nothing that you did in the first 2 games made a difference in the end. What a joke. I think the ending honestly ruined even going back and playing the first 2 again, I can't believe how shitty it is.
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this seems to be what i get from any one i tell the about the end of ME3 too
how the writers missed this is mind boggling
 
Killa_2327 said:
I put off beating the game for a while because I was SLOWLY grinding out that atrocious multiplayer component.

The game was amazing...until the end. I didn't read any of the spoilers but saw many complaints of it and now I understand why. It's just so terrible. Literally nothing that you did in the first 2 games made a difference in the end. What a joke. I think the ending honestly ruined even going back and playing the first 2 again, I can't believe how shitty it is.
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Yep. It really ruined it for me. Part of the problem is that Bioware invites and encourages you to like and sympathize with your NPCs. I mean really what ME has going for it is good story and a neat universe. That's about it. The combat is fairly meh, it is just a so-so shootie. But that's not why you play it. Yo play it because it is a compelling story you care about, all the more so because it is interactive. You feel as though your choices matter and in one and two, they do and in three they seem to at least at the beginning.

Then in the end, nothing you did matters hardly at all. Everyone is fucked, particularly those you cared about. Screw you, the end. Major slap in the face. You were invested in these characters and now they are stranded in the middle of nowhere, probably to die? Ya that is great.

A much better ending example would be Dragon Age Origins. There, even if you chose for your character to die, it often felt like a good ending. Yes you made a sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, but it MEANT something, you saved people you cared about. Also, they made it so that with work, you could indeed have a really happy ending.

To do it you have to do several things:

1) Harden Allister. This means when he meets his sister, tell him that everyone is out for something and to remember that. It'll wake him up to some harsh realities of the world and he'll talk to you about it later.

2) Spare Logaine. Give him a second chance.

3) Have Allister and Anora rule together. You will lose Allister, he'll agree to become king, but he'll leave the wardens.

4) Tell Morigan to fuck off.

5) Let Logaine kill the arch demon.

Do that and Allister and Anora rule together well, you survive, Logaine regains his honour and is remembered as a hero, and Morigan doesn't get to raise a dark god. Requires a bit of doing and some tough choices, but it CAN be done.

None of that here, just a punch to the cock.

Also as I've harped on about and will continue to harp on, it breaks the kind of story it was telling. We have various kinds of classic, easy to identify stories because we as humans like them. We enjoy that story and want to hear it in many variations. So when someone sells us that and then screws us, we get angry. ME was a 3 act heroic epic. Everything in the writing and presentation said it. Those end with triumph for their heroes. Not always triumph without loss, but triumph. It ended with a big fuck you dark ending.

It would be like getting a Pixar love story and then finding out that the characters get sold in to slavers, killed, and beaten. You'd be furious. Not because there can't be a good movie about that. I saw it, it was called Roots and it was powerful. The problem would be you wanted and expected one thing and got another.
 
Just beat the game through the "renegade" ending, which had zero bearing on my paragon Shepard.

The game was awesome all the way up to the Priority: Earth mission, but after that it sucked bad. I couldn't stand the gameplay or anything. Why'd they have to keep throwing heavy troops at me instead of giving me a brain puzzle or something to figure out.

I sure hope that the upcoming DLC will be legendary to fix this major dismal dump of an ending for an epic space RPG trilogy.
 
Sycraft said:
Yep. It really ruined it for me. Part of the problem is that Bioware invites and encourages you to like and sympathize with your NPCs. I mean really what ME has going for it is good story and a neat universe. That's about it. The combat is fairly meh, it is just a so-so shootie. But that's not why you play it. Yo play it because it is a compelling story you care about, all the more so because it is interactive. You feel as though your choices matter and in one and two, they do and in three they seem to at least at the beginning.

Then in the end, nothing you did matters hardly at all. Everyone is fucked, particularly those you cared about. Screw you, the end. Major slap in the face. You were invested in these characters and now they are stranded in the middle of nowhere, probably to die? Ya that is great.
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Well I guess we could of seen this coming if you watch how the game went from the first to the third. The original is probably one of the best games I've ever played. Considering how much negative attention this ending is receiving, I feel that we might actually get something changed out of it.
 
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Killa_2327 said:
Well I guess we could of seen this coming if you watch how the game went from the first to the third. The original is probably one of the best games I've ever played. Considering how much negative attention this ending is receiving, I feel that we might actually get something changed out of it.
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Which would be nice but what I'd really like is for them to admit they fucked up. What I don't want is for them to make believe like "We always intended this, we intended for you to not like it but see this was the fake dream sequence/indoctrination ending not the real one! Aren't we clever?" Because that will be bullshit and I'll be mad about it.

What I'd like is for them to say "Yep, we fucked up. We made a bad decisions and these were the reasons. So, here's a free DLC that alters the game to fix it. You now can choose to play it "as shipped" or with the DLC changes, up to you."
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
Just beat the game through the "renegade" ending, which had zero bearing on my paragon Shepard.

The game was awesome all the way up to the Priority: Earth mission, but after that it sucked bad. I couldn't stand the gameplay or anything. Why'd they have to keep throwing heavy troops at me instead of giving me a brain puzzle or something to figure out.

I sure hope that the upcoming DLC will be legendary to fix this major dismal dump of an ending for an epic space RPG trilogy.
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That's pretty much my take on it as well. From Priority: Earth all the way through the ending feels rushed, not terribly polished and of course, like nonsensical garbage. Up to that the game is polished, functional, great story, character interactions, fun missions, etc. then it falls on it's face BADLY. ME2 ended with a puzzle of sorts that was a lot of fun and didn't even feel like a puzzle. You had to figure out which people went to which mission. Failure meant people died and you may not get the ending you want. Your decisions mattered. They don't seem to here.

I'm curious as to what BioWare's real intent was behind this ending.
Though again I theorize that one of the following is going on:
  • They had a great idea for a DLC which works off this ending. This nonsensical crap is actually just a piece of a larger puzzle without context as we don't yet have all the pieces. Thus they did it for story, and of course found a way to make money off doing it this way. Rather than giving you the extra piece for free and making the game longer. In this case the ending and what comes later is no different than the clearly integrated story behind Javik and the Priority: Eden Prime mission are in that they are clearly built into he game and removed to capitalize on the game financially.
  • EA pushed them to do something like this to sell DLC and for no other reason. Thus it's a money grab, and nothing else.
  • This is the ending BioWare truly envisioned and they actually like the ending and someone in charge over there actually think's its good. This one seems rather unlikely.
  • Another popular theory is that they changed the ending because the original ending was leaked with the game script. This is possible and it could be that BioWare wanted the rewrite so that it was a surprise to everyone, and EA shoved the game out of the door before it was ready. If that's the case, BioWare had to throw something in there and by making it a dream more or less, they can pretty much throw any old crap in there and explain it away later.
I seriously doubt we'll ever truly know why it was done this way. We'll probably speculate for a long time as to why the game ends this way. Though I don't guess that even matters. Its what they choose to do about it going forward that is of more concern to me. What's done is basically done.
 
game is too short, ending sucks. ME2 was better. DLC ruined this game.
 
39 hours here, most of which was more intense than ME2 or ME.

Don't you guys agree that the longer BioWare stays quiet about any "The Truth" DLC, the more likely it is that the game ended the way BioWare wanted it to?
 
Dan_D said:
You had to figure out which people went to which mission.
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That wasn't so much "figuring out" as guesswork. It's easy to look back and say "well of course so-and-so should do that" but first time round when you don't really know what they're going to be up against, it's more or less random. I don't think any of the games had strong endings, in fact I don't think ME3's is any worse than 2's in terms of actual game play, but of course in terms of story it sucked as a conclusion to the trilogy.
 
Not really guesswork for the final collector mission. The game basically tells you what kind of teammate you need to send on a mission, and the valid ones actually volunteer or point someone valid out in some cases. All the info you needed to make the right choices was given to you ahead of time and even reiterated during the mission a bit.
 
Ryom said:
Not really guesswork for the final collector mission. The game basically tells you what kind of teammate you need to send on a mission, and the valid ones actually volunteer or point someone valid out in some cases. All the info you needed to make the right choices was given to you ahead of time and even reiterated during the mission a bit.
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Also your choices earlier in the game mattered for the ending. If you had more loyal crew, people were more likely to survive. If you upgraded the weapons and skills they used, they were more likely to survive. If you upgraded the ship so your full squad made it to the base, they were more likely to survive.

Basically if you put in a bunch of pain and sweat, and them made some logical decisions, there was a good chance you could walk out of there with all your people. If you half-assed it and rushed to the end unready, you were probably going to lose people, maybe even Shepard.

THAT was an ending that felt like your choices mattered. Your choices playing the game could result in two diametrically opposed endings: One where the whole team dies, including Sheaprd, and one where you leave no one behind. And of course there was a whole gradient in between.

In ME3, it made fuck-all difference, except you got a few more choices that really weren't choices at all and had the same shitty thing happen.


A better system, something more like ME2, might have been where your military strength depended the path it took. Bring too weak a military, and you get wiped out, you fail, the crucible doesn't work and the Reapers win. Bring more and you get the shitty sort of ending you do now, where it is a desperate fight and the Catalyst (I probably would have gone with something different but whatever, the big baddie) offers you something of a choice, to avoid all out destruction. Bring more and you are able to fight off the Reapers, you decimate (in the Roman sense, reduce to 90%) them with conventional means and are working on bringing the Crucible on line and they retreat, but the big baddy it beyond reach. You know your victory is only temporary. Bring a massive amount and you have a real victory, you rush and board the citadel, you use the Crucible to wipe the Reaper fleets out, and now you have your sites set on the big baddie, the fight against which will come out in DLC.

There it would feel like the shit you did mattered. Work hard to make peace and get the most massive fleet possible and they payoff is you fight a winning battle. Bring a pathetically small fleet and get crushed.

Hell it would even play in to the lore better. You read the codex stuff and it says that multiple ships firing on target can overwhelm Reaper barriers. Makes sense that you bring a massive fucking fleet you could do some real damage. Particularly since their weapon has always been dividing the galaxy, they fight and subdue small pockets, they don't face a unified galaxy. They aren't as tough as they think they are and that is their weakness.

Or hell if they want to cop out and just do one ending, whatever, then just make it a good ending if you bring a big enough military. That wouldn't be what I'd most prefer, but better than something both dark and non-nonsensical. Had it just been "Shepard brought a big enough fleet, killed the Reapers and the galaxy was happy, the end," along with telling some stories as to what happens, I would have said "The ending was kinda a rushed cop out, but over all a real good game." As it stands the ending ruins it so hard for me I recommend people not get ME3.
 
Well, they shouldn't have made it where Shepard has to die. Controlling the Reapers should have meant that you become some nasty, possessed monster. You go on to rule the galaxy, yada yada yada. Or, you can save the galaxy; you get your Segway and your Reaper ice cream cone. Everything's cool, plus you get the girl. Make one other ending somewhere in the middle: You can't decide which way to go, so you appoint someone else to make the decision for you (TIM, Anderson, anybody).

As far as the size of the military you bring, I think it should be reflected in the amount of killing you personally have to do. Have a big military backing you? You don't have to kill so many armored troops in the final battle; instead, you can sit back and enjoy some cool cutscenes. Bring a pathetic army? You get to kill, kill, kill to the point of tedium.
 
I'm only going to say one thing about the ending: I liked it and I'm glad they didn't go down the bullshit happy ending route. I would have been fucking irate if they had slapped everyone in the face with a long happy ending.

PS: Stop arguing that ME2 had some brilliant fucking ending. It didn't You had no real choices. You either picked right or you let people die. PERIOD. It's nothing more than a bullshit illusion of choice. Its just as bloody binary as the paragon/renegade system.
 
I would have been fine with Shep dying at the beam and the victory coming at the hands of the allies. The space kid and his color coded options aren't for me. Making the color coded options tangible to Shep was fairly goofy as well. I felt like Shep was on a game show.

I'd rather have the allies fall to the reapers too than have victory come in that fashion.

I really didn't care for some big intergalactic dick blowing its load all over the universe.

I would have much rather seen the building of the crucible fail and the victory or defeat occur because of the allied forces.

I wouldn't have minded seeing TIM trying to use the crucible and pwning himself as well as breaking it in the process.

Good post below-

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10022779/1

I certainly didn't want an option for a utopia where chaos, cycles and war are minimized or done away with. As long as there are self-aware creatures there will be conflict and war.

When you're dealing with self-aware creatures there will always be those that want to; preserve the dominant order at all costs, those that want to modify it to a degree, and those that want to completely replace it for what they believe to be better. Of course there are those that just want to get by and don't give a fuck too.

I didn't want a happy Disneyland ending where everyone is toasting and partying after putting down the reapers either.
 
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Derangel said:
I'm only going to say one thing about the ending: I liked it and I'm glad they didn't go down the bullshit happy ending route. I would have been fucking irate if they had slapped everyone in the face with a long happy ending.

PS: Stop arguing that ME2 had some brilliant fucking ending. It didn't You had no real choices. You either picked right or you let people die. PERIOD. It's nothing more than a bullshit illusion of choice. Its just as bloody binary as the paragon/renegade system.
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Its wasn't an ending, it was the complete destruction of life in the galaxy. If you played "The Arrival" in ME2, you would realize what the largest problem with the ending is.

Its pretty much the elephant in the room for me, the elephant that Bioware completely ignored.
 
AdamNesvick said:
Its wasn't an ending, it was the complete destruction of life in the galaxy. If you played "The Arrival" in ME2, you would realize what the largest problem with the ending is.

Its pretty much the elephant in the room for me, the elephant that Bioware completely ignored.
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Unless it's all an illusion.

But yeah, if it isn't an illusion, I hate the ending so much.
 
J W said:
Unless it's all an illusion.

But yeah, if it isn't an illusion, I hate the ending so much.
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If they pulled this ending to get DLC money, its torches and pitchforks time. They better give it away, considering I've bought every PC game they've ever made and I have come to expect far better of them than charging for a proper ending.
 
^^ Some are saying just that; it's about stirring up controversy and/or possibly pimping future DLC.
 
AdamNesvick said:
If they pulled this ending to get DLC money, its torches and pitchforks time. They better give it away, considering I've bought every PC game they've ever made and I have come to expect far better of them than charging for a proper ending.
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If that's the way it is, I'd be in a bind.

Mass Effect is like a dog to me. I love this dog, but it's a stupid dog that eats from the garbage can. Though I whack this dog with a rolled-up newspaper and say "stop," he still eats from the garbage can. One day he gets sick. I take him to the vet. The vet wants $1000 to fix my dog. What do I do? I love the dog.

*I don't actually own a dog.
 
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Derangel said:
I'm only going to say one thing about the ending: I liked it and I'm glad they didn't go down the bullshit happy ending route. I would have been fucking irate if they had slapped everyone in the face with a long happy ending.

PS: Stop arguing that ME2 had some brilliant fucking ending. It didn't You had no real choices. You either picked right or you let people die. PERIOD. It's nothing more than a bullshit illusion of choice. Its just as bloody binary as the paragon/renegade system.
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ME2 didn't have a brilliant ending.

However, you need to consider a few things...

Mass Effect has always been a character driven game. The characters are strong. The story is fairly generic, some interesting twists, but it was a classic three-act heroic tale.

The main reasons ME2 was more satisfying than ME3?
  1. Your decisions impacted the characters most of all, which is where Mass Effect has always been strong.
  2. The ending of ME2 wasn't THE END. It was part two of a trilogy.
  3. Your decisions in ME3 affected the characters during the game (some), but your final decision really does little besides decide if Joker and EDI finally hook up, and if they're half-machine or not.

An unhappy ending is absolutely fine. It's been done well many times, and it can have a lot of impact. What you (and most defenders of ME3) seem to ignore is that the ending really presents three choices that are BARELY DISTINGUISHABLE from each other, and the YEARS we've spent becoming engrossed in the characters and universe are just thrown in our face when all of our decisions ultimately become meaningless.

If I was playing a fairly linear shooter like Gears of War XVII: MARCUS GOEZ 2 SPACE, and this was the ending, I'd be like... oh, huh, pretty cool. But that's not what this game is. It's all been about player choice. Action and consequence. And don't spout any 'your choices are always illusions' crap at us - the entire game is an illusion. It's not real. We know it.

Bioware broke our suspension of disbelief.
 
Litfod said:
That wasn't so much "figuring out" as guesswork. It's easy to look back and say "well of course so-and-so should do that" but first time round when you don't really know what they're going to be up against, it's more or less random. I don't think any of the games had strong endings, in fact I don't think ME3's is any worse than 2's in terms of actual game play, but of course in terms of story it sucked as a conclusion to the trilogy.
Click to expand...

There is nothing random about it. If you pay attention the game does tell you what type of person you need for each job. The tasks aren't total unknowns either. What you'll face on the ground is somewhat unknown, but not the tasks you assign your crew to do.

Ryom said:
Not really guesswork for the final collector mission. The game basically tells you what kind of teammate you need to send on a mission, and the valid ones actually volunteer or point someone valid out in some cases. All the info you needed to make the right choices was given to you ahead of time and even reiterated during the mission a bit.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
Some of the anger is really overblown here for one simple reason (keep in mind I agree with a number of the criticisms made):

It's NOT over yet! We all know that DLCs are coming for this game. Even if everything had been awesome from start to finish, that would still be the case.


I agree that I felt the endgame to ME2 was far more satisfying and coherent as a whole and that was even before excellent DLC like Overlord and Shadow Broker ever showed up.

I fully expect to see DLC of comparable quality for this game as well before it's all said and done.


Some of you are reacting as if this is IT. As if Bioware said: "That's all folks! We're not adding ANY content to what you've seen now. No DLC, no nuthin'. So long suckers!"

If that were the case, I'd have my pitchfork out, too, but it isn't and we all know it.

It's not over yet. :)

Cool off. Let the dust settle. Go play some other games and do some other things. Let it go.

The jury is still technically out on this whole thing and I think the totality of the series has earned Bioware SOME benefit of the doubt.

If the DLCs all come and go and it's all still FUBAR, I'm there with you the pitchforks.

But we're not there yet.


Relax. :)
 
KatalDT said:
ME2 didn't have a brilliant ending.

However, you need to consider a few things...

Mass Effect has always been a character driven game. The characters are strong. The story is fairly generic, some interesting twists, but it was a classic three-act heroic tale.

The main reasons ME2 was more satisfying than ME3?
  1. Your decisions impacted the characters most of all, which is where Mass Effect has always been strong.
  2. The ending of ME2 wasn't THE END. It was part two of a trilogy.
  3. Your decisions in ME3 affected the characters during the game (some), but your final decision really does little besides decide if Joker and EDI finally hook up, and if they're half-machine or not.

An unhappy ending is absolutely fine. It's been done well many times, and it can have a lot of impact. What you (and most defenders of ME3) seem to ignore is that the ending really presents three choices that are BARELY DISTINGUISHABLE from each other, and the YEARS we've spent becoming engrossed in the characters and universe are just thrown in our face when all of our decisions ultimately become meaningless.

If I was playing a fairly linear shooter like Gears of War XVII: MARCUS GOEZ 2 SPACE, and this was the ending, I'd be like... oh, huh, pretty cool. But that's not what this game is. It's all been about player choice. Action and consequence. And don't spout any 'your choices are always illusions' crap at us - the entire game is an illusion. It's not real. We know it.

Bioware broke our suspension of disbelief.
Click to expand...

Actually on that third point, the crew leaving the Normandy unchanged tells you that the middle option is a lie. I still think "synthesis" is giving up and letting the Reapers win because people live on in a twisted way when they are harvested by Reapers. They are already fusion of organic and inorganic materials. The idea that they can be controlled is ludicrous and the fact that there was an organization in Javik's time similar to Cerberus tells you that the idea of controlling them is nonsense.

The Mass Effect story itself isn't really original. Not in any of them. There are a lot of similarities to other science fiction stories. Star Trek, BSG, Star Wars, etc. are all influences in the game's basic story. However, Mass Effect presents classic science fiction, and modern science fiction concepts in a unique way. ME2 and ME1 for that matter presented the material they have in a strong and fairly consistent manner. ME3 does as well for 98% of the game where it goes to shit. And yeah, the characters are definitely Mass Effect's strong points. If it weren't for the character driven stories, Mass Effect wouldn't have lasted this long as the first one was a terrible shooter, and the second one was mediocre at best. The third one is actually a pretty good shooter, but their combat components and general game play wouldn't be enough to stand on their own.

I'd prefer a happy ending as I somewhat disagree with the idea that unhappy endings can be done well. At least I usually don't like it. I think its almost a cop out. It seems easier to kill characters off than actually write a satisfying conclusion to their story. They can be done well in some instances, but I rarely enjoy films and stories like that. And we figured Shepard might die and I was OK with that to some extent. But the way he "dies" now doesn't count for anything. The galaxy isn't really any better off for all the hard work of the three games. Your decisions and efforts are all virtually fruitless at the end of the game and the destruction of the Mass Relays (if that really happens) means fracturing the galaxy that Shepard united. Again its the barely distinguishable and non-sensical endings with serious plot holes that are the problem.

I still think ME1 and ME2 had a stronger final act than this game did. Aside from the endings discussion, the game play was much more solid in the previous games. In ME1 you fought hard to reach the Citadel and to get to Saren. Then you had to destroy what was left of him. Then in ME2 you stormed the Collector base, but it was more than that. You had to know your crew and know where to assign each person who needed to complete a task as well as fight your way through. The music, level design and overall presentation of everything aside from the final boss itself was excellent. Above all ME1 & ME2 had end games that were actually fun. ME3's final act has bad level design and almost nothing going for it. You just feel overwhelmed with enemies, but you can power through them. And for what? To ultimately fail.
 
Actually I thought ME1 had the perfect ending. Go through waves of different enemies in an interesting location. Take on Saren. Beat him. Epic cutscene. Shepard dies? Nope! He's too badass.
 
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