Saturday, March 17, 2012

Feature: Why Mass Effect 3's Ending Didn't Suck

Like any gamer on the Internet, I've stumbled across countless articles, forum posts, and videos that have ruthlessly bashed the ending of Mass Effect 3.  Fans claimed that Bioware was heartless, cruel, and just plain lazy with their lackluster conclusion. 

As a person who hadn't finished the game during the time that these uproars were starting, I was absolutely terrified by this sudden rush of negativity.  Naturally, I isolated myself from all things gaming related on the Internet for quite some time, as to avoid spoilers and such.

Well, now that I've gotten my ending, and the story of Commander Shepard has been wrapped up, I have to say that I feel pretty damn satisfied.  And here's why...

"Put up the flame shields, I'm going in!"



#1: It's Good That It Was Vague
One of the biggest complaints that I've been seeing a lot centers on the fact that Mass Effect 3's ending seems way too brief to be able to conclude an entire saga.  The entire ending, after the last decision is made, lasts about 10 minutes or so.  During that time, we see the fate of the Reapers, as well as what becomes of Earth.  We see what happens to the Mass Relays, and we witness what happens to Joker and the rest of the crew on the Normandy. 

However, after that we see nothing about what happened to the rest of the fleets on Earth.  We're never enlightened about what became of Shepard's squad that joined him in the fight.  Heck, we don't even see what Joker plans to do now that he's permanently grounded on some unfamiliar planet.

Unless his new hobby has something to do with sitting down,
he might just be screwed.

In short, there are only two things we know:
1.  The Reapers are gone
2.  Nobody's going to be traveling around the galaxy any time soon.

Everything else is left up to the interpretation of the player.  Why is this a good thing?  Because, as you watch the cutscene, and even after you sit through the credits, you have absolutely no idea if you made the right choice

You were given 3 different options to rid the galaxy of Reapers, each with its own set of consequences.  When you made your decision, you were left to wonder if the sacrifice was worth it in the end.  But you never truly find out.  Why?

Because you're dead.

Although he's a galactic war hero, inspirational peace keeper, and a symbol of an unstoppable force of justice, Commander Shepard, at heart, is still just a soldier.  He or she (aka: the player) is put into some tough situations that need to be dealt with.  Decisions have to be made, and Shepard only has a vague set of morals and a gut instinct to use as a guide. 

Sure, some of the choices come to bite him/her in the butt in later installments, but the final decision in the ending never offers such closure.  Commander Shepard dies doing what he/she (the player) thought was best for the galaxy.  As a result, Shepard is gone before he/she can confirm if the right choice was made.  As the scene plays out, Shepard witnesses flashbacks of some of his crewmates, which acts as a final goodbye to those he will never see again.

What?  There's nothing in my eye, I swear!

These moments are filled with emotion and struggle, and they really work hard to leave an impact on the player.  Not knowing the final result of the Shepard's decision is supposed to leave things open for speculation, and the simple lack of complete closure is what helps to drive the point home about decision making.

Say what you want about the polarity of some of the choices in the Mass Effect series, at least Bioware never had the balls to flat-out tell you that you were right or wrong.  All of Shepard's choices worked toward accomplishing the same common goal; it's just his methods that varied.  The player's choices were met with consequences, and whether they were good or bad was up for the player to decide. 

Was saving the Queen Rachni worth it, if her species was later overrun by the Reapers and they were forced to endure an eternity in an altered, mechanical state?  Was it worth saving her a second time at the cost of Grunt's entire crew?  The answers to these questions are up for the player to decide.

This way of thinking is no different for the choice you make in Mass Effect 3's ending.  You pick an option, and you live with the results.  But, you don't get to see how everything pans out in the end.  The player is forced to interpret if what happened was good or bad, and that has been the point of everything since Mass Effect 1.



 #2: Bittersweet Was the Point
So, the galaxy is pretty much screwed on all fronts during the final moments of Mass Effect 3.  Reapers are tearing apart everything, killing humans and aliens by the millions.  But!  You alone have the power to stop this!  You have 3 different options for ending this madness.  Take your pick:

A.  Destroy everything synthetic that has ever been created, ever.  This includes advances in technology, the Mass Relays, and the newly sentient Geth armada.  The Reapers will be gone at least, and everything can start anew in the galaxy.

B.  Sacrifice yourself to fuse together synthetic and organic life across the galaxy.  Some people may not want that, but they'd have no choice.  The Reapers would no longer pose a threat, and the Mass Relays would be destroyed, thereby isolating all systems from each other and preventing any future space travel.

C.  Obtain the ability to control the Reapers, at the cost of your life.  The Reapers will leave, and your final actions will directly mirror the aspirations of the Illusive Man, who has been despised by people across the galaxy.  Choosing this option practically confirms that you support the experiments that were conducted on Horizon, and believe that they were carried out for the greater good.

Choose wisely...

Well, damn.  None of those options sound very inviting...

What confuses me is that fans wanted a different option.  They wanted a "good" choice, where Shepard finds a way to destroy the Reapers while preserving the rest of the galaxy.  They wanted to see the Commander kicking it with his crewmates on an empty battlefield littered with Reaper corpses, silently nodding to each other and smiling for a job well done.

If I had unknowingly chosen an option like that, I would undoubtedly be incredibly pissed.  In an ending where everyone lives, and everything is returned to order in the galaxy, the player is basically told, "Good job!  Thank goodness you were able to make such a deep, high-risk, all or nothing decision, and got through it without having any sort of consequences or repercussions whatsoever!  Now everyone can live happily ever after!"

That would be BS.  Mass Effect has always been about consequences for your actions.  If the storyline suddenly threw out this core idea during its final moments, it would cease to be the emotional roller coaster that it has always been.

"Well, alright then," I've seen some fans say, "Then at least have a legitimate 'bad' ending for a choice you make.  There's consequence in that, right?"

Well, yeah, but it's the nature of the consequences that would still be unrealistic.

Imagine an ending where Commander Shepard picks an option to destroy the reapers, and instead it wipes out the entire galaxy along with it.  Mission accomplished, but now everything's dead.  Too bad, you got a "bad ending!"

Or, imagine that Shepard chose to do something, and it ended up failing to destroy the Reapers.  Whoops!  You made the wrong choice!  Bad end!

This would probably be even worse than a "good" ending.  It would be like the game just took the story away from the player and said, "Sorry, that's the wrong choice."  Just simply implying something like "you're wrong" would break all of the immersion in the game.  Mass Effect has never been about judging a player's actions.  It's been about conveying the consequences of a bunch of "what would you do?" scenarios that have no right or wrong answer.  If there was one "bad" choice that decided the ending to the game, it would feel like an enormous slap in the face.

Also, another thing that is worth noting during this final decision is the fact that nothing is labeled "Paragon" or "Renegade" as the player makes his or her choice. This further drives home the fact that nothing is inherently "good" or "bad" in this situation. All the player has to worry about is consequence.

Was it worth it?

So, without the presence of an obvious "good" or "bad" option, Mass Effect 3's ending is able to drive home its point about decision making.  Sometimes, a person is forced to make a decision where none of the options feel like the best thing to do.  Everything has a consequence, and sometimes a person just has to pick the choice that doesn't seem to have the worst outcome.  That aspect is what forces the player to think about his or her actions during the ending.  That is what makes for good storytelling.

Throughout the entire course of the game, as the player witnesses Reapers tearing apart worlds and executing entire populations in an instant, it becomes blatantly obvious that the galaxy will have a hard time going back to status quo after everything is over, no matter what the outcome is.  An invasion of this magnitude is a big deal, and there's no way that civilization is going to get out of it unscathed.  The galaxy's only hope is to use a weapon that it doesn't even know how to work.  If one little thing goes wrong, everything is lost.

There's absolutely no way a person can realistically craft a happy ending out of that situation without having some sort of loss come out of it.  Doing so would seem incredibly contrived, and almost childish.  The sacrifice of Commander Shepard and the fate of the Mass Relays (along with the rest of the galaxy) are necessary to keep the story grounded and believable.  Not to mention, this feeling of loss and sacrifice help to bring even more emotion out of an already emotionally-charged game.  In my opinion, having a bittersweet ending was probably the best option for the story as a whole.


Crafting a conclusion to one of the most beloved and innovative sci-fi dramas in the past decade is a tricky operation.  However, I applaud the folks at Bioware for their efforts, and wholeheartedly approve of what they came up with.  Sure, the final moments are vague, and the player never gets a satisfactory "happily ever after" ending, but things were never supposed to be clear and direct in the first place.  I can't think of a more plausible or efficient way to put the finishing cap on this entire series.  So, despite what many gamers are saying around the web, Mass Effect 3's ending doesn't suck.  It was emotional, impacting, and met all of my expectations for a conclusion to one of my most favorite series of all time.

56 comments:

  1. I think you bring up some good points, however I also think you'be completely missed what most people are complaining about. Do some people want rainbows and unicorns? Yea a small percentage of fans do so, but we (you and I) aren't in that group. You state that if there was an ending that failed to destroy the Reapers it would be just as ridiculous as the before mentioned rainbow and unicorn ending. What about an ending that destroyed the Reapers, Humans, Quarians, Krogan, and every other race/species in the Mass Effect universe? May I ask you, did you play Mass Effect 2? It so did you play the DLC Arrival? If so what does the good doctor say about Mass Effect relays? What happens when you (Shepard) destroy one? In case you didn't play arrival, destroying the Mass Effect relay in that system destroyed that system. So if the Sol relay was destroyed by an energy pulse would not the Sol system be destroyed? Would not every system with a relay also be destroyed. Now, even though this being (kid) built the relays I don't think he could change the laws of physics or thermodynamics. It seemed to me his Reapers were bound by the same physical laws as all the other races, just more advanced tech. So, this is just one plot hole in the ending that people (I) am complaining about. Hey it's Bioware's universe I just play here, if they want to kill off everyone, then do it, but do it within the confines of the universe they themselves created.

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    1. I have played Mass Effect 2, as well as Arrival. However, it should probably be noted that the Mass Relay destroyed at the end of the mission was forcibly demolished when a gigantic asteroid was hurled toward it. It's probably safe to assume that the resulting imbalance in the Relay (what with all of the energy those things probably store) likely triggered the system-wide explosion. Fair enough.

      However, it seems unfair to assume that the Crucible would have the same kind of effect. Maybe destroying a Mass Relay is a lot like disarming a bomb. If you try to just break it with force, it'll probably blow up in your face. However, if you get into the guts and dismantle it from the inside, you can demolish it all you want afterward without fear of an explosion. Who's to say the Crucible doesn't work like this? It did charge the Relays with a beam before destroying them. Perhaps it was shutting down the system so the Relay didn't get overloaded and obliterate everything.

      That's just my theory, anyway.

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    2. While theories are being discussed, what lets me sleep at night is this:

      When the alpha relay was destroyed, the energy contained in the core dispersed in a spherical manner, with no direction. However, it seems that the energy release seen in the conclusion of ME3 had direction and focus, resulting in minimal collateral damage at individual relays (however, perhaps wherever the final relay is, the damage would be more catastrophic, but this is just another detail to be filled in by the player's imagination).

      As for the above article, I am also one who did not despise the ME3 conclusion (although the one thing that trips me up is how all the Normandy crew ended up back on ship, and travelling through relay while the assault on the reapers was still in progress). One additional ending choice that I think would have been awesome would be the choice to allow the reapers to fulfill their mandate (i.e. finally acknowledge that the cycle is necessary). I suppose the child said this solution is no longer satisfactory, and one could argue synthesis is pretty much the same thing. Just sayin', it would make one hell of an emotional cut-scene as Shepard watches the reapers finish their duty.

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  2. U suck and so do the endings...
    But in all seriousness, Normandy ending up on planet "Inbreed"
    is not a non sucky ending. Space magic teleportation of the crew who was with me while getting hit by a beam back to the Normandy is not non sucky. And no, i'm not dead, commander Shepard is. If that's ur argument, why not have the screen go black after your "big choice" of three colors and a suicide.
    Don't even get me started on the idiocracy of the Reapers and the space Casper's motivation of harvesting life...
    Maybe it sucked so much coz they devitaed from the original script Drew had made before ME2 even came out...

    I would've loved to see something where my choices during all three games actually made a difference in that lazy excuse of an ending. Yes, the music was nice, and the "bitter" part was there, but in no way was it bittersweet. More like Bitter retarded.

    My grammar is not the best, but English is not my native language so no need to point that out...

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    1. The ending was perfect.
      People keep harping on about their choices being made pointless. So basicly what they are saying is that only Shepard has made any choices? What about every person/alien/Squid monster that we have met/seen/shot? Couldnt they, in theory make choices to?
      The end showed me that no matter what Shep did others were making choices to. And that includes Ghost/Hologram/Dream kids. And Shep is just one person. Sure, the best of a species. But one species.

      I think that we got any choice how it plays out to be a bonus. Shep isnt a Mary Sue. Shed is a person.

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    2. It is not about your choices affecting the ending. What people fail to remember is that Shepard's choices set the stage for how the galaxy will continue post-threat. In the new galaxy (where on some planets, aliens coexist, trapped together), different species will progress in different ways because of his influence. Quarians on Rannoch may be able to live outside of their suits because he united them with the Geth (assuming you didn't kill all synthetics), Krogans trapped on Palaven may actually get along with the native Turians. Or, these planets may go extinct because of a different choice made during the game.

      This ending is basically Shepard saying "I have set the stage for a new galaxy, my time is over, where you go from here is up to you".

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    5. Are you really pretending that one single organic being personal choiches could have great consequences in the final of Mass Effect 3 without crucible existance? that is so childish that you have to be degraded to a nursery school.. i was a little bit disappointed like you to your "magic teleportation" point, but nobody know what happened to the crewmates with you in the portal assault scene, maybe they were pushed back by an explosion and the normandy rescued them, don't you think? like jared says, those points are up to player imagination, the real point is that you are so used to have the game to establish for you the story that you get mad if the developer team decides to leave something to your imagination.. Actually, i was disappointed to the death of Shepard, but thinking about it, i can agree completely to Jared, he wrote exactly the same things i had writen on a video on youtube yesterday, reality is not " and they lived happily ever after" you can't get nothing without sacrifice, exactly like none human being is so important and strong to make a great difference with his own choiches, with his/her own strength, keep this in mind and set your mind at rest.. Crucible shows that that kind of results were been achieved only to passing through the hands of tens or hundreds civilizations and millions of years, shepard made only the last step to break the cycle, and that is not modifiable by 3 years choiches, lol

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    6. Face it, Retakers. You guys wanted a Return of the King style ending that ties up everything in a knot. Answers every question and shows you the fate of everyone in the galaxy after you make your choice. Squadmates, minor, or other characters, you're looking at around 30 different endings for each. Perhaps more. Followed by variations like renegade/paragon, control/synthesis/destroy. Hell, that's roughly 100 endings.

      Need I remind you that this is not a fantasy game. It's sci-fi. One of the staples of sci-fi, is that you use your imagination and think for yourself a bit. People tend to use the argument "I spent $60 on this game, or $200 on this franchise. I don't have to use my imagination. It's the writers job to spoon feed me closure, or do my thinking for me".

      Mass relays had to go. Reapers made them, remember? By using them, you develop on the path they desire. No one dies in the destroy ending. At least if you get the high EMS ending (EDI and the Geth are fine. Catalyst lied to you. Said you would die as well as EDI and the Geth. Yet, you live. They live. You don't need to see that to know he was lying. Low EMS everyone dies, but that's why if you want a decent ending, you have to work for it.

      Consequences for your actions. Just like the writer states.

      As for the ending not making sense, once again, consequences for your actions. If you read the codex entries and pay attention to the subtle clues during the course of the game, the ending makes perfect sense. Reapers are here to harvest everyone and destroy the galaxy one planet at a time.

      The complete depopulation of Earth within a decade, followed by the enslavement of your friends to be used for slave labor. That's a freebie codex entry. Next one will cost you.

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  3. People aren't complaining about the lack of an ideal ending. People want "closure", I.E., "what happened to xyz?"

    Sure, you can leave it up to a person's imagination, but then what significance was there in brokering a treaty between the Turians and the Krogan?

    I want to see the Geth and Quarians rebuilding.

    I want to see the Turians and Krogan training together.

    I want to see the consequences of my actions in the ending. Like you said, there is no good or bad. I don't want a good or bad. If I faked the genophage, I want to see another war break out with the Krogan. But I just want to know what happened.

    There actually isn't much left to the imagination. Everybody is stranded in their own system, or even their respective planets.

    What if the whole thing is a bigger cycle? What if after you make everybody synthetic, and then Joker's great great great great great grandchildren use their half-human half-robot intellect to build another catalyst, and then they build mass replays, and then the build reaper-like structures that rebel, and then the reapers-like structures kill them all...

    What happens?! That's what people want to know. The ending was bad because regardless of Shepherd or a random alien/squid's choice, it would be the same.

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    1. I can see how a person would want to see those kinds of things.

      However, that thought never crossed my mind, because I already had a pretty good idea of what would happen in the future, based on what the characters told me during the missions.

      Wrex was dead in my playthrough, and Wreav promised to take vengeance on the galaxy after the genophage was cured. Eve promised to rally the females to prevent this. Thus, there would be an internal struggle on Tuchanka after the war was finished.

      As for the Geth and the Quarian, Tali explained that the two races were cooperating with each other, and the Geth were actually playing a role in advancing the Quarian civilization by decades in the span of mere weeks. Soon the Quarians probably wouldn't need their suits any more.

      All of this was clear and explicitly stated. Would it have been nice to see? Sure, maybe as some silent scenes next to the scrolling credits or something.

      However, to try and cram ALL of Shepard's major decisions into one jam-packed super ending just seems outrageous, especially when one considers how many different variations there could be. There's WAY too much content to cover, which is why the player was instead informed of the outcomes of his/her decisions as the game progressed, through dialogue and the occasional cutscene. And for me, that was all I needed.

      I will admit, though, that condemning the largest fleet in the galaxy seems like a pretty massive plot hole, but who's to say that everyone didn't get wiped out in the fight?

      I didn't see many ships floating around when the Crucible went off, and they didn't exactly look like they were doing crazy amounts of damage to the Reapers in the first place...

      Still, it's not like entire species were wiped out during the fight (except maybe for the Quarians, which is unfortunate). There are still other species out there who will continue on with their lives on the planets they live on. Sure, they may be cut off from the rest of the galaxy, but at least they're safe.

      These are the kind of theories I'm talking about when I say that the ending is up to interpretation. Not many things are explicitly stated in the ending, and that forces the player to think hard about the final moments of the game.

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    2. Too bad none of that will happen cause everyone is stranded in our Solar system with no way of getting home and only a depleted ruined earth to fight over which can't sustain the Turian and Quarians.

      Basicly regardless of red, green or blue ending the Turian fleet and entire Quarian race die of starvation (They can't eat what we do and they don't have enough ressources to get home) and knowing the Krogans and Batarians they would start to claim a piece of earth fighting the remaining humans over it. Anarchy, chaos and death then follows.

      So much for wildly different ending, lol. Regardless of what you choose, everyone you've rallied to the final battle dies. So much for bringing everyone together.

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    3. I dont want to know what happened.

      I dont want to see Garrus sitting on a beach sipping a drink with an umbrella. That would break immersion completly. This was Shepards story. Shep cant see things that he isnt present for. You are shep. Lots of stuff happend that we never saw. Tali and Garrus getting promoted. Wrex/Wreav kicking ass. Hell. How did Mordin get home after ME2? Did he hop a space Taxi? We dont know because Shep doesent know.

      They cant just show us what happens....That wouldnt make sense.

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    4. I generally agree with you minus the fact that we were Shepard and do not see what he didn't see. It was impossible for Shepard to see what happened to the crew of the Normandy, yet we still saw that. I too do not hate the ending, so do not take me as a hater of it.

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  4. You do realize that with the destruction of the Relays, EVERY SINGLE SOLAR SYSTEM that had a relay goes extinct with it, right? According to Arrival and a Codex Entry in ME3, that would occur.

    Why do you save a galaxy while also dooming it?
    And where ARE the "consequences of our actions"? They're nowhere, the only consequential decision is the last one, which is "do you want a green, red or blue explosion with your lemon pie".

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    1. The consequences for our actions were through the game. The whole of Mass effect was the Story and Mass effect 3 was the End. Lots of things got concluded and there was a ShedTon of Consequences.

      There was no Destruction of the Relays. The one in Arrival was smashed and its energy had nowhere to go.

      The energy is pumped into the next relay and they crumble. Even to look at they look like they just break apart not explode.

      And the colored light option changes nothing. It just proves that some God like Space Aliens have more power than regular human Shep. When a god forces you to chose A, B or C. You choose. And thats fine.

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    2. Yeah, you're also missing a point here... Without the relays how are people supposed to get around and sustain themselves?

      "Destroying the relays effectively kills most space civilizations in the galaxy. I read the descriptions of the planets when I scanned them - I am well aware that most food and fuel for FTL drives is mined/farmed in places that require the relays to access, so no access means no galactic economy and mass starvation. Add to that the fact that pretty much all the important people from all the major races are stuck orbiting a dead planet like Earth (how long until they start fighting each other for the meager resources of the Sol system? So much for humanity - hope they like Turian food) and you can see that the galaxy is as doomed as if the Reapers had won." this quote by Tom Malthais I found on a petition (http://www.gamerevolution.com/news/mass-effect-3s-ending-sucks-sign-petition-to-change-it-11639) makes sense, doesn't it?

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    3. Didnt miss the point. That wasnt the point i was arguing.

      If we need relays (And i do agree we do) Why wouldnt we just build some new ones.

      We have mastered Mass effect Tech a long time ago, considering all our guns, ships and probably toothbrushes use it.

      It was established by The Matriarch in Omega that we can build new Relays, we just havent needed to, or more accuratly following the ancient laws not allowed to.

      All the Crucible scientists, ships, man power are in one location with potentialy enough raw materials.

      What is stopping us? Sure some people with different choices would be screwed but Turians and Quarians can munch on the same Taco's. And the Quarians Flotilla has been producing its own food for an age.

      Now i understand that Long term viability isnt practicle but considering how quickly we build the Crucible why wouldnt a roughshod relay be in the realm of possibility? I mean its realy just a big slingshot.

      (I refer to we as in the collective mass effect world we not as in we as in my uncle trevor and myself. Not that he COULDNT build a relay, just that he is to lazy)

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    4. FTL still exists and is a viable method of transport.. If you actually read the Codex in game... And since looking at everybody across space times comments it seems I am the only one.

      FTL can get you across the universe. All Ships have it as their back up. We just use the Relay because it is quicker and we are Lazy Jerks. Its like Travel across our world. We all use Air planes to get around, but you can travel by Ship. Its slower but it still gets you there...Or Zepplin..

      I wish people actually listened and read before going off about things.
      1. The relay discharged its energy. Not Exploded.
      2. FTL works.
      3. No body is trapped. Nobody is doomed. People can go back to their own worlds.

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  5. Thanks for the article. It summed up my feelings about the ending perfectly. I love ambiguous endings!

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  6. some very good points however, it doesn't get away from that fact that what ever choice you make when faced with your big 2/3 choices (dependant on Galactic Readiness) all the endings are all basically THE SAME!

    Mass relays destroyed
    Normandy crashes
    Joker emerges with various companions
    Shepard dead/alive (dependant on Galactic Readiness and it also may require you to play Mass Effect: Infiltrator on an iphone/ipad FFS)
    Future based cut scene with the same dialogue what ever happens

    And that's why the endings sucks.

    Ambiguous I can take, but this was just plain lazy.

    Want to see an ambiguous ending that generates debate and lets people interpret it in multiple ways watch the end of the sopranos to see how its done.

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  7. 1. The main issue isn't the fact that we have no good ending or what so ever, it is the fact that after you played a large amount of hours making choices, since mass effect 1, you get 3 choices for the ending that fail completely to reflect any gameplay you had in the mass effect series.

    2. Also, the fact that we would defeat the reapers in one or other way was already obvious, since, as yourself said, an ending where everything is destroyed would be BS. They made the ending completely dull. Nothing was explained, nothing interesting happened, no problems were solved, nothing really changed, and Sheppard would still have a hella lot of work if he was still alive.

    3. The ending doesn't give the player anything he didn't already have, even any piece of interesting information. It may have some emotional value as would any generic "there are aways consequences" crap out there, but it failed to conclude a more that complex story that is mass effect. This is accentuated even more by the fact that mass effect 3 is the LAST game of the series, requiring a good explanation for what we saw in the game.

    4. You can say how much times you want but leaving almost ALL the after game to the players imagination is just crap. Its just a lazy job. I would I even play if I could just imagine everything and experience it as if it was part of the actual story? Since bioware gave us 3 choices we could not run from despite all our efforts trought the three mass effects then give us the efin after game. Didn't they worked hard to write these three "great" choices we can select from?

    5. You're lucky to have liked the mass effect ending but, just guessing, I bet your favorite game is COD(joke).

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    1. The problem is. How else could you finish it? We cant beat them in combat. That's obvious. We cant out think them. We cant use Guerilla tactics on them. What else is there but a big final solution?

      I personally am a big fan of the Indoctrination theory. I mean, they have been hinting about it since Early ME2.

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    2. This comment sums it all up for me. What is wrong with the ending should as plain as the nose on ones face, yet people need to find some way to justify a horribly written endinng and wind up saying nothing at all.

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    3. Ok then, all good points, but how WOULD you do it? If not Indoctrination nor IWIN button?..How? I am a creative bloke but i aint got two clues how i could do it and make it stick.

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  8. The ending sucked so much because Mac Walters choked, and Drew Karpyshyn didn't want anything to do with the EA-Bioware clusterfuck anymore.

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    1. Sarcasm mode: Yes Human, that is exactly the reason..

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  9. Quote: "are necessary to keep the story grounded and believable." --- Yeah exactly why I play a sci-fi game. I don't mind a bittersweet everyone dies ending as long as it makes a little bit of sense. How does everyone end up back on the Normandy? Why do all the mass relays need to be destroyed, thereby ending galactic civilization? A series which celebrates choice deserves a better ending than 3 different explosion colors with marginally different results.

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    1. Well i dont know WHY the relays had to be destroyed. Probably something about not relying on the tech of thine slaine foes. Meh.

      But as for the Normandy, i read an interview with some of the writers and Seth Green about that. Right at the End when Shep drags his ass up off the ground there is a heap of Radio Chatter, saying hammer is dead, no one made it, the fleet is getting wiped out, retreat, all of that. And you can hear, apparently, Joker on the coms saying that he isnt going to leave them (Squad mates) behind. They did a scene where the Normady flies in and the shuttle just makes it on board. But apparently it was shelved.

      meh

      Delete
  10. I'll put it simple. The problem with the ending is that it is completely detached from the first two ME games. If ME3 was a stand alone game, with no prior story or plot elements, the ending would have been fine. ME3's ending ends the third game NOT the entire series. THAT is the problem. You cannot give the FINAL chapter in a series the same 'what happens next' sort of ending like you do with prequels. ME 1 and 2 ended a game. ME3 ends a SERIES. HUGE difference. After investing over 100 hours, spanning 3 games, the final ending is a joke. Bioware screwed up and it's about time they admit to it.

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  11. http://jmstevenson.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/all-that-matters-is-the-ending-part-2-mass-effect-3/ makes a whole lot more sense than any of the drivel on this post. Was Mass Effect 3's ending OBJECTIVELY bad? Yes.

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  12. Since the objective of the entire series was to destroy the Reapers and since that objective was met in the ending, I'd say the ending was OBJECTIVELY met, but SUBJECTIVELY bad.

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  13. This ending was good. If you paid attention to the little conversations none of this sophmoric closure complaints would seem valid. Also, this doesn't end the series, obviously from an IP standpoint to the GODDAMN ENDING YOU PEOPLE KEEP BITCHING ABOUT, it just ends the story of Shephard. People were bitching about this 2 days after release. Give BioWare a chance to tell you don't jump the gun.

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    1. It's kind of silly, how Mass Effect 3 was the end of Shepard's story, but people took it as "the end of the franchise", so they wanted an individual ending for every major character in the game (squadmates, and even people like Anderson, etc). Not to mention, they try to push the "Mass Effect has always been about the characters, so each character should have their very own ending scene at the end" bit.

      http://www.twitch.tv/spoonyone/b/312765460?t=18m25s

      Sadly, Bioware seems to have listened to this, and future games will provide more character closure (ROTK style I assume with little blue children and all that), because people got so attached to the characters.

      Delete
  14. I wrote a song about it if you want to check it out =D


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCPHS1GFlKw&feature=plcp&context=C48b94b1VDvjVQa1PpcFNyUnuxM_r0jja3mfTDGga2bpxQfcbZAyU%3D

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  15. the ending sucks. done

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  16. Whoever wrote this article is either :

    A) A Hippie who wants to have a different opinion from everyone else even if the fans are 100% dead on with the ending.

    B)Stupid

    C)PR from EA/Bioware

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A) I believe the term you're looking for is "hipster". But sorry, I'm not one of those.

      B) Having a differing opinion is not grounds for stupidity.

      C) If I were a PR rep from EA or Bioware, I would probably post something like this more publicly on high-traffic websites, not on a tiny blog like this.

      Delete
  17. Sry Jared, but your opinion is not valid to support the offered ends that bioware and EA gave to us.

    - Major points to clarify:

    1° - The reapers are not invencible... damnit, shep killed four (or help on the kill at least) of them.

    2° - the entire galaxy is united (if you done everything right) against the reapers, you had trouble to achive that, at least this shit has to do some difference on the end.

    3° - There's no good or bad end in RPG games, there's only different ones, and the only requirement that is asked from them... is to MAKE SENSE and EXPLAIN THINGS... so... with that in mind, let's go to some:


    I don't want a Barbie end, in fact i just don't care for an end where everybody go home happy and that (and yet i think in a multiple end game a final like this had to be a place), but and end with explanations as:

    Who is the ghost boy? Or if he is a manifestation of the citadel Bioware/EA should explain that, cos they make 2 no sense dreams about the boy).

    The reapers are wrong, sheppard can prove this by making peace betwen the geth and the quarians. So... if Legion, a geth can understand that, a more advanced tecnology can't?

    With multiple ends is really ask to much for 2 extreme ends? One where the main ppl survive and the stability of the galaxy continue? Damn if Shep did everything right the entire galaxy is on sol system fighting the Reapers.
    Would be really so impossible a failure end? Where the war is lost and the galaxy is destroyed? Mass Effect 2 had one just to remember.

    What about the illusive man, his past, reasons for his beliefs and his synthetic eyes?

    well... there so many questions... and mostly unanswered.

    EA game really destroy near everything it put hands in, that's really sad (with some exceptions).

    When i end assassin's creed brotherhood, i really liked the game and i brought the Assassin's creed games after that (yes, im one of those ppl that play 1°, and if i like i buy, i did that with AC, Baldur's Gate, Planescape and many other games), but with this end... that's not going to happen in this ME3, work for you money and improve this shit of an end Bio/EA.

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  18. joker still alive... -.-!

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  19. The ending cucked.....end of story..Those who are satisfied with the ending either haven't played the whole series or like " OH it LOOKS COOL" ! guys who don't see reason or were not connected with the characters at ALL

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  20. Your second point is not very relevant to why people hate the endings. Are there some people who are upset they didn't get a happy ending? Sure. Is it everyone who's complaining? Not even close. I fully expected Shepard to die in the end. No, this is why I hated it, and all six of these reasons are far more valid than "it doesn't have a happy ending":

    1. I wanted to fight HARBINGER in the end, you know, that Reaper who was the main antagonist for the entire second game. If there was ever a Reaper that Shepard SHOULD have had a chance to destroy, it was Harbinger.

    He doesn't even have dialogue in ME3! He appears only at the end, blast Shepard with that cheap laser attack and then flies off without so much as a "if I must tear you apart, Shepard, I will." How they could possibly have completely overlooked a resolution to such a central conflict of the second game staggers belief.

    In the end, we get to have an argument with the Illusive Man (the same we had with Saren in ME1) and fight a marauder and some husks. It doesn't get much more anti-climactic.

    2. The Reapers' motive for destroying advanced civilizations makes no sense at all. According to the God-child, they slaughter organics to prevent the organics from being killed by different synthetics. Uhh... What?

    3. Shepard undergoes a disturbing personality change while talking to the Reaper-God. You're not given the option to even question or challenge him, even when what he's saying makes no sense and is in direct contradiction to things that happened earlier in the game.

    If synthetics and organics MUST fight to the death, why is making peace between the Geth and Quarians even a possibility? My Shepard once threw a guy off a high-rise for not answering a question, would he/she really accept a bunch of nonsense spouted by his/her ultimate enemy without argument?

    4. Joker's last-minute personality change. Nothing about him tucking his tail between his legs, abandoning Shepard and the Victory Fleet, and fleeing the Sol system right at the most critical moment of the entire series makes any sense. Why would he do so? And why would my other squad mates let him? And never mind the formerly unmentioned space magic that brought them back to life and beamed them aboard the Normandy...

    5. War assets did what, exactly? We get a handful of short cut scenes showing mostly Alliance soldiers and that's it. Where's the Rachni? Where's Aria and her mercs? Where's Jack and her biotic students? Did you spot the Destiny Ascension anywhere? Did anyone see any Geth ships in the Victory Fleet? I think I saw a couple Quarians when Hackett was giving his pep-talk, but I can't be sure, it went by so fast!

    Having more or less war assets has almost no effect at all on the ending. If it's all the same three choices (read: colors), why the hell did I bother collecting them in the first place? One could play just the last game and have the exact same ending as a person who imported a Shepard from all three games. WTF?

    6. Here's a video comparison of all of the endings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPelM2hwhJA

    Bioware told us we would have sixteen "wildly different" endings. What's the difference between any of those? "The relays are destroyed, Shepard is dead, the Normandy crash lands" or "the relays are destroyed, Normandy crash lands, Shepard takes a gasping breath" are the only two I see.

    So much for player choice having an impact.

    So much for "wildly different conclusions based on the player's actions in the first two chapters." Casey Hudson

    So much for not being "forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets." Mike Gamble

    So much for "not doing a Lost and leaving fans with more questions than answers after finishing the game." Mike Gamble

    And so much for us not being able to "say even how many endings there are or whether you got ending A, B, or C." Casey Hudson

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    Replies
    1. How dare you.

      Bioware never lies or exaggerates about their games.

      Delete
  21. You have no taste or are on EA's payroll

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  22. The backbone of your argument seems to be 'we can only see/know what Shepard knows'. If that was the case why were we privy to Saren's activities in Mass Effect 1? Why show us the collectors harvesting in mass effect 2? Hell why show the dialogue between Harbinger and the collector general at the end? Face it-that was NOT the idea the team had when tackling the ME series. You just don't want to admit the painfully obvious. Those non-Shepard moments were shown because without them the game's events wouldn't make a lick of sense, just the same way the ending doesn't make any sense.
    The 3rd anonymous above pointed out the main reasons why mass effect 3 (not just the ending to me) just outright sucks. Bioware dropped the ball plain and simple. No amount of self delusion will change that, but if it makes you sleep at night, by all means

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  23. The ending didn't suck because it wasn't a happy ending, it sucked because it introduced a completely new story in the last five miniutes, and left it entirely unexplained.

    The entire trilogy, Shepard is fighting the Reapers, and then five minutes before the end it turns out that this is a massive organics vs synthetics dillema to which the Reapers are the solution, but it is not explained how or why? Why? Everything you experience during the game in terms of organics' relationship to synthetics points to the fact that they can live in peace (EDI's evolution and the geth, who didn't turn on their creators, it was in fact the other way around), in that sense the explanation of the space being thingy (which is, literally, we are destroying you so you wouldn't be destroyed - wat?) doesn't make sense whatsoever.

    And for a game that was pretty intent on describing of how everything works, in the end you get no explanation how the solution works. How will the Crucible destroy the synthetics? How can you at the same time die and be able to control the Reapers? How can you fuse your DNA with synthetics to create a new DNA when synthetics don't have DNA, wat?

    Also, after all the abominations created by the Reapers which represent the most obvious fusion of organic and synthetic life in the game, you're supposed to believe that synthesis is a desirable option?

    The whole ending is one giant WTF not because it wasn't a happy ending, but because IT MADE NO SENSE.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wasn't introduced in the last 5 minutes, but rather earlier in the game.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OLBXJ9MngE

      As for Shepard just doing a "yes man" in front of the Catalyst:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI1yekAjJls&t=1m11s

      See, the answers are there. The ending makes sense if you paid attention to the story. All 3 games do tie in with each other.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-D4bBIzp4c&t=43m20s

      The Catalyst is not some new character that was introduced to you in the last 5 minutes. You were looking for it the entire game. Pay attention and you should know this stuff.

      Delete
  24. Okay, if you care enough to complain, go ahead and write your own ending. Then wait for people to point out the many flaws in your ending. Face it, there is no such thing as a perfect ending. BioWare made a brilliant one, but some retards are just used to everything being told to their face. Learn to use your imagination. The ending is so great because it lets you imagine what will happen, and anyone with more than 5 brain cells could see that.

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    1. Agreed. I also did not hate the ending. I also have one of these imagination things. And to all those who say everyone is dead....to quote a comment above....

      FTL STILL EXISTS!!!!

      So with FTL still existing and the ability to create imaginings in my own head......No issue. Great Game.

      Delete
    2. Agreed. A lot of people I talked to liked the ending, but they did not like the idea of using their imagination to figure things out. They expected Bioware to spoon feed them 95% of it and maybe come up with the other 5% themselves. Sort of wanted a Return of the King style epilogue tying things up (Extended Cut wasn't enough closure for them, if people can believe that). I have not known many sci-fi stories that do that sort of thing. Lastly, no one back then petitioned that one be put in either for any series that didn't wrap up everything. What an age we live in. Least back then, they had respected the series wishes instead of signing petitions and asking for more closure on top of DLC that provided them closure.

      Delete
  25. I was raised in an age, when I could use my own imagination. My ending: 1.Synthesis(e.i. my hippie ending): Krogan cured, rebuilding and eating each other as always. Salarians pissed off at them, plotting something. Earth population mostly wiped out, fleets can land and start rebuilding, will have to get along or kill each other, their problem. Reapers go away and stay green. Rachni are singing a song somewhere in a hole. Geth and Quarians stay together, if they go retarded, they can wipe each other out again.
    I dont need hugging videos, Liara and Ashley end up together and can share their memories of how they got pounded by my Shepard. Tali got sick because I didnt like her and she has no immunity. Miranda is pregnant. Who cares about others..
    I didnt like too much the other endings:
    2.Control(Nazi ending) - Lets control the reapers like a police force and hope it wont end up in another bloodshed or they dont break that control. 3.Destroy (Anarchist ending) - Kill all machines, kick technology 5000 years back.
    Reminds me of Deus ex anyway.. :-D

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  26. And yes, point noted, none of it has any sense in a scientific way. But since you can cope with giant beam thing(mass relay) shooting you around galaxy light speed ++, you can deal with green/blue/red light from the conduit. Just scifi magic. If EA could explain one, they could probably build one with NASA and Chinese aid.

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    1. None of it makes sense scientifically? Hate to say it, Mass Effect 3 is a work of fiction. As such, there are no such things as mass relays, turians, quarians, reapers, etc. It's all made up. Fictional stories do not have to conform to real world laws or theories about stuff.

      Delete
  27. Your choices will become less appealing as the Reapers devour your galaxy--Javik.

    So much for easy choices. Instead of a really hard boss fight, this game winds up with you making a really hard choice.

    That's a good thing though. The ending is groundbreaking in that respect.

    As stated sometime during the game, the really bad choice (destroy, as stated by the kid), is usually the right one.

    Also, during Mass Effect 1, Shepard states "there is no right choice for something like this. I just hope I don't have to do it again" after you do the Virmire mission.

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  28. For all those who say "it's not about a happy ending, it's an ending that makes sense", read this:

    http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-Story-and-Campaign-Discussion-Spoilers-Allowed/The-Ending-We-Deserve-Complete-9792751-1.html

    A summary of what the fans thought the ending the game should have had. Aside from Shepard telling the Catalyst to shove it, the Reapers blow up, Shepard and his LI get reunited, and the end. Sorry, that is a happy ending.

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