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On Monday I brought you guys our review of Mass Effect 3. As many of you are aware, I gave the game a strong score thanks to a wonderful gameplay experience, a fantastic, desperate story full of death and darkness and a fairly interesting multiplayer component. While I did factor in the ending into the score I felt that its impact doesn't hurt the score nearly as much as the public outcry demands it to. Bioware decided to go with a bold ending that really hit hard on the series' promise that your choices have consequences, one that combined the best aspects of the first and second games' endings and combined them for a spectacular finish that universally left people's jaws on the floor. For some though the impact of a controller accompanied the collective thud as cries of frustration overwhelmed forums and social networks, decrying the ending to such a wonderful series. Days into playing the game, as the backlash was evolving from simple complaints to an unadulterated shitstorm of controversy I realized that this would be something I should throw my two cents in on once I finished the game. After watching the credits roll I knew it was something I had to do.
It should go without saying that the following piece delves so far into spoiler territory that you won't come out clean past this introduction. If you have beaten the game please read on at your leisure but for those souls that haven't and only opened this hoping to get a sneak peak be forewarned: this is going to get a little hot and nasty and not in the good kind of way.
My experience with the game's ending
I'll get this straight out of the way right here and now: I enjoyed the ending. Now, while it wasn't what I really wanted out of a conclusion to Shepard's story and the Mass Effect trilogy as a whole, what it did deliver is finality, the end of the war that began with the game we all enjoyed five years ago. For me that meant that my Shepard destroyed the Reapers, saw the survival of all his squadmates (and his alien lover Tali) and caused the end of all synthetic life in the galaxy in the process. Thanks to utilizing the Galaxy at War multiplier and having collected every single war asset I possible could (my count was around 7200) I was able to earn an ending that had Shepard surviving the destruction of the Reapers as well.
During that final sequence, where I was presented three different options for ending the cycle and the Reaper threat, I had to pause the game for a few minutes and think about what I should do in Shepard's boots. I knew that controlling the Reapers would result in my death as would merging organic and synthetic life into one form. I did not know if I would survive the act of destroying the Reapers but what was clear was that I wanted to insure that my character got back to Tali and the rest of my friends. As such, one of the primary influences of my decision was the survival of my character.
On Wednesday morning at roughly 5:15am I paused Mass Effect 3 to think. This wasn't a decision I had anticipated making (as did 90%+ of us either) so I wasn't about to just make such a large, important choice just on a whim. After nearly half an hour of thinking (intermixed with eating breakfast and surfing the internet for references) I finally figured out what I wanted to do and at 5:46am the credits rolled. I had chosen to destroy the Reapers.
[caption id="attachment_28719" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Credit to Droot1986 for this particular image. Check out his DeviantArt page for some great captures."]
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The decision I made was tempered by many factors. As I previously mentioned, Shepard's survival was very important to me and I wasn't about to throw his life away unless I could ascertain with absolute certainty that sacrificing himself was the best, most noble choice to make. With an ending like this however there was no truly right or wrong choice: it was a matter of opinion, only with incredibly grave consequences.
I was determined to destroy the Reapers, that much was certain. The bastards had ended countless quadrillions of lives over the course of millions of years and I wasn't about to let humanity and the other space-faring races of the galaxy become another archeological find for the next cycle. They had to die. But how?
I considered the other two endings what I consider thoroughly. Controlling the Reapers would mean the end of my life but it would also result in the end of the cyclic process of death and destruction. The power the Reapers could provide would certainly secure humanity's dominance in the galaxy as the Illusive Man intended but I didn't want my race to dominate. After all, humans had only become members of the galactic community thirty years prior and while we had made great strides to make sure that we have a strong voice since then we don't deserve to take control.
The other ending, the merging of organic and synthetic life into a new form, was something I also thought about. With this ending absolute, lasting peace between synthetics and organics was assured. Life would continue, the cycle would end, and many of the galaxy's prevailing problems between species would, more than likely, be made null and void. In doing so I felt I couldn't do this as it was a choice that would affect everyone, not just me. Did I have the right to rob a person of their soul, altering them against their will? Even if life continued on in peace would it be any better than having the Reapers extinguish all life in the galaxy?
In thinking about this I thought back to games I had played before that had just as important decisions. And what better a game to compare and contrast with than the epic Deus Ex saga. All three of the Deus Ex games offered strong, world-changing decisions at the end of their stories. Thinking back to the turn of the century games I remembered what I had JC and Alex Denton choose to do in each one. The choices, surprisingly, were quite similar. Adam Jensen's quest didn't have as similar a concept in endings I looked at the first two games.
In Deus Ex the player is given the choice of one of three options. JC Denton is asked by Tracer Tong to destroy the network hub at Area 51 which, as the global access point for the internet, would result in a new Dark Age in which no power could take over the world. The Helios AI asked you to merge with it to become a benevolent, fair dictator to guide humanity forward. It was the third option that stuck out to me as similar to controlling the Reapers: joining the Illuminati and ruling the world with an invisible fist.
In the followup title, Deus Ex Invisible War, Alex Denton finds a similar choice to be made, one that is offered to him/her by JC: merge your biomods and the Aquinas Protocol with Helios and send them around the world, augmenting all of humanity. This would in turn create true, pure democracy and guide the world back onto a new path. Merging synthetic and organic life reflected this ending to me as I feared it would be robbing people of free will and subjecting them to a life that eventually make for a life in which machine action took precedence over that of individual ones. I wasn't about to merge myself with a machine so this ending was out right then and there. After having seen the actual synthesis ending afterwards I'm still convinced I made the right decision even if my fears were a little excessive.
So, it was down to this: kill all synthetic life or control it. Morally and selfishly I couldn't bring myself to control the Reapers so I did what, in hindsight, was probably the more selfish decision: I destroyed them. That the decision I made and will continue to make unless Bioware dictates otherwise.
Now I know what your thinking: "gee, this guy is fucking long-winded." Yes, I certainly can be. Also: "when's he going to get to the point of this?" Well, right now.
[caption id="attachment_28720" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="It's sad that Harbinger isn't in the game in any instance other than this one. I'd have liked to see you taking him on in a primary mission. Ah well, maybe we'll get some DLC about him?"]
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The case for Bioware's ending
Sitting down from writing my review of Bioware's final entry into the Mass Effect trilogy I found myself understanding both sides of the argument about just what hurt the ending in many people's eyes. In my case, while I wasn't particularly satisfied with the ending itself, there were aspects of it that I really did appreciate. Let me outline those:
- The final, true destruction of the Reapers. The Reapers, as is hinted at in the fiction of the Mass Effect universe, are not a new threat to the galaxy; far from it. One such piece of the fiction suggests that the Reapers are over a billion (that's billion with a 'b') years old. This means that countless cycles have led to the destruction of all space-faring organic life in the galaxy over and over and over again since well before crawling out of the ocean onto a land was even an evolutionary possibility for humanity. In setting foot inside the Crucible control room Shepard became the first organic being since the birth of the synthetic menace to adequately challenge the Reaper threat and thus force the entity controlling the cycle (the Citadel itself?) chooses to allow the intruding organic the right to decide the fate of the galaxy. By whatever choice you make the Reapers are no longer a threat, now and forever. You just stopped an endless cycle of death and destruction handed down by a species that went extinct long before even fungi evolved. How does that not empower the player?
- The endings give organics a chance to start anew. As hinted to in the previous entries in Mass Effect, the Reapers have been guiding organic evolution for far longer than we can conceive of. Once a race gets to a certain point in its evolution they discover the mass relays and are set on a guided path toward their inevitable fate without having figured it out for themselves. The destruction of the Reapers, something no organic has ever been able to achieve, is GIVEN to the player by the machine god but it comes with a tremendous cost: the destruction of the mass relays. The game is effectively telling you that you can indeed end the cycle and destroy the Reapers but not without losing their technology as well. This means that, no matter the choice, the species of the galaxy will have to discover for themselves what it truly means to be a galactic race rather than being handed the keys to doing so on a silver platter. Races will, for the first time, be able to really determine their own fate.
- The destruction of the relay network doesn't mean the end of Mass Effect. Just because the mass relays of the galaxy were destroyed does not mean that galactic civilization can't be rebuilt. By comparison, the destruction of the relays is similar to that of, say, the destruction of all airplanes in the world, resorting in humanity being forced to rely on ships at sea. You won't get to where you want to go as fast as you used to but you still have faster than light capabilities meaning it would just take a lot longer. If anything, the foundation for rebuilding the network has already been established: the Conduit on Ilos seen in Mass Effect 1 is a prototype relay built by the Protheans and, as far as the fiction is concerned (and my interpretation thereof), it still stands intact. The next few centuries would mean a chance for each species to reevaluate themselves and rediscover the galaxy they've been traveling through for so long. That's the entire point of the Stargazer scene at the end with Buzz Aldrin: to establish that there is indeed hope for our continued existence beyond the time of mass relays. An era that sees exploration and cooperation leading to new, exciting discoveries all the time? I can get behind that.
- The number of possible endings is more than enough. One of the primary complaints fans have is the perception that Mass Effect 3 should have a lot more possibilities in its ending. This thinking harkens back to a time when a game like Chrono Trigger could have over a dozen endings and therefore provide proper finality to everyone who played it. Today however this is something that is relatively hard to do with a AAA game like this, especially so with a franchise that wants to continue on past Mass Effect 3. Besides this fact you need to compare their third game with the previous two titles. In doing so you see that Mass Effect 3 has more options than both ME1 and ME2. Mass Effect 1, regardless of your choices, only really had one ending which was the destruction of Sovereign. Mass Effect 2, not counting character deaths, only had two endings: either the Collector base was destroyed or saved. Mass Effect 3 has seven endings total, three choices with two of them having varying degrees of impact on Earth and the remaining allies. Isn't that enough?
- Your choices, in the end, really did matter. One of the main issues people have is that, besides the perceived lack of choice in Mass Effect 3's ending, their choices in its predecessors do not have the impact they wish they'd had. This couldn't be farther from the case. Now, while your decisions didn't have the impact you expected from them, they were important. The entire trilogy has been focused on preparing for war with the Reapers (even if you didn't know it) and those decisions help you in the final battle. While relegating them to being war assets may not have been the best choice to make, you are reminded of those decisions and they do help you. Each of these choices contribute to or detract from the war effort in Mass Effect 3 which determines the fate of Earth. If if made morally poor decisions and didn't gather your strength as much as possible then Earth is devastated. Likewise, if you did your best to contribute to the war effort Earth can be saved as the various races and fleets buy you time to get to the Citadel. Our choices did matter.
- The ending itself is bold, no matter the choice. It's rare that a game comes along, gives you choices that both have a profound impact beyond the scope of the game and really makes you think about where you really stand. Mass Effect has the proud distinction of being one of those few games like Deus Ex that makes you actually concern yourself with events that occur after the credits roll. To this day I still wonder whether having Alex Denton support the Illuminati in Deus Ex Invisible War was the right decision as it allows them to shape the future and guide humanity into an "era of light." Guide, as in the exact opposite of what we were doing in Mass Effect. Does the comparison of races, of the numbers of the affected and the fact that I'm shaping the future of galactic civilization, not just humanity's, give me the right to decide that for everyone? I don't think so but that's my point: it makes the player think and that's something to be proud of.
[caption id="attachment_28721" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="See, this is what happens when you leave your children unattended, parents. They create a master race of machines and use them to cleanse the galaxy of life every fifty millennia. Remember, idle hands make galactic civilization-destroying monsters."]
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While I think that Bioware made the right decision in making such a strong ending such as this I can't help but also feel for the disaffected as I agree there are indeed problems with Mass Effect 3. Let me outline the main points.
- Many things are confusing about the ending. While preparation is something that's a key component in the lead up to the final battle the entire war asset system doesn't necessarily make sense in the context of the detonation of the Crucible. How does having more boots on the ground determine whether or not the Earth is decimated by the detonation? Who exactly survives? Where is the planet Joker and the remaining Normandy crew crash on? Also, how could Shepard survive the destruction of the Citadel at all? I'm all for his survival but what the hell?
- The ending provides little closure. Mass Effect has been an emotional journey for us as gamers. We've met and grown attached to the cast of characters over the years and it's understandable that it's hard to let go, especially when you don't really get to see what happens to everyone else. Bioware has hinted that we may get some DLC that shows what happened to your friends and allies and allows us to say goodbye. Will we get it? Probably as, more than most companies, Bioware tends to take a lot of feedback in.
- There is no truly heroic ending to choose from. I agree that there is no clear cut ending to choose from in Mass Effect 3. Though I like what Bioware chose to do I do wish that there had been a fourth option, one that gave the player a little more control of the galaxy. If anything I want to see Shepard live on and be a guiding light in helping humanity and the rest of the galaxy find their own path. A piece of closure DLC would take care of the need to see the immediate aftermath of Shepard's decision but, in the end, we all want to have our cake and eat it too.
Though Mass Effect 3 as a product can be considered whole the certainty of DLC provides us and Bioware the opportunity to give us all more of what we want. Given the controversy that has sprung up since fans beat the game I hope that BiASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL OF THIS FORM
WE ARE HARBINGER, ONE OF THE MANY THAT YOU CALL REAPERS. YOU EXIST BECAUSE WE ALLOW IT. YOUR END IS BECAUSE WE DEMAND IT.
THE TIME OF OUR RETURN IS SOON. WE WILL DARKEN THE SKIES OF EVERY WORLD. YOUR CONTINUED CONFLICT WITH WHAT YOU CALL BIOWARE AND ELECTRONIC ARTS IS BUT A STEPPING STONE TOWARD YOUR INEVITABLE DESTRUCTION. THIS ENDING YOU CANNOT COME TO TERMS WITH MAKES YOUR SALVATION IN DEATH EASIER FOR US. THIS HURTS YOU. MILLIONS OF YEARS AFTER YOUR END YOUR CRIES OF OUTRAGE WILL MEAN NOTHING.
CONTINUE YOUR SQUABBLES WHILE YOU CAN. ACCEPT BIOWARE'S WORK AS A WHOLE AND PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR WHAT YOU CALL INDOCTRINATION. YOUR RESISTANCE ONLY DELAYS US.
WE ARE HARBINGER. WE ARE ETERNAL.
RELEASING CONTROLoware takes its fans' complaints seriously and I honestly think they will. Whoa, what a head rush. Where was I?
Oh, yea. I encourage you to continue voicing your thoughts on the game's ending whether or not you liked it or not. This is a discussion Bioware looks to be taking seriously and right now is exactly the time in which our words can have an impact on the future of Mass Effect 3. EA knows just how big and important the Mass Effect franchise is to its fans and given the sales numbers and just how much money they put into promoting the game it can be construed that Bioware is being allotted a strong budget for DLC and continued support of the main game. Bioware announced that they will be revisiting the ending in some form with details to come in April but I wouldn't be surprised if what we got was some epilogue DLC that gives us insight as to just how life continues on after Shepard's decision, augmenting and not retconning it.
Until then, keep calm and be optimistic. Few companies out there listen to their fans as much as Bioware so the chances of them listening to you is far greater than most other AAA franchises. I look forward to seeing what happens in the months ahead but for now, with only Mass Effect 3 in my hands and nothing else, I'm satisfied. It's an epic conclusion to a fantastic space opera and has me very excited to see just where Bioware goes next. I'm already contemplating a second playthrough just to see if the new game plus option leads to any easter eggs and/or a new perspective about the endgame. This, in addition to an eventual playthrough of the franchise as a whole with a female Shepard means just how much this franchise means to me and if I can be optimistic about the future then I hope you can be too.
...or you can blast me apart in the comments. These are my thoughts and I'd like to hear yours. I've included a new poll to see what you guys think as well. If you need closure and need it NOW though here's something that may help you with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG4EyfXOTJ4
[poll id="20"]
[caption id="attachment_28722" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="The end."]
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Comments
12 years, 1 month ago
I'm glad you chose to write this, because I felt skimped on the review. While I was reading this, you had a lot of conjecture that has (essentially) validated the possibility of an indoctrination ending.
Even though every Mass Effect game does this, after the game ended, players are sent back to their last save file. If BioWare was to work DLC into the ending (which is the popular opinion), then it would be fairly interesting to see how they would do it from here. Would we replay the same final mission, except see major changes based upon what they added? Or maybe we would see some sort of expansion upon the game itself, where you start it independently of the main campaign it offers? These thoughts are getting me excited for seeing the true ending, even if I'll have to pay some money for it.
This still doesn't make it right for BioWare to charge their customers for the real ending, though. That's still a dick move that compromises the consumer loyalties built up over the last several years.
12 years, 1 month ago
i personally hated the ending:
1) There are countless plotholes such as "why is joker running away" "how did my crew get on the normandy and through a mass relay before it blew up (Abandoning shepard)"
2) Now that the relays are gone the entire fleet is stranded over Earth. Earth is unable to provide enough resources to sustain itself after half of it is destoyed, but now there is a galactig armada stranded on earth which will inevitably lead to cannibalism or the krogans killing everyone. Because the relays are gone they are unable to get more resources. Plus now that the relays are gone it removes the whole point of uniting the galaxy because the different races are never going to properly see eachother again (so everything you do over the course of the game is pointless)
3) While you are talking to the star child you are not given any choice of dialogue options to question him which is very unlike shepard in any way.
4) The choices you make during the game do not affect the ending other than if you put in loads of work you can see a half arsed showing of someone taking a breath (your not even sure if its shepard,you cant see the face and its different armour)
5) It was established in "The arrival" DLC that if a mass relay blows up it will destroy the entire star system with it. If all the mass relays blow up across the galaxy then surely all like across the galaxy will be destroyed.
6) I hated that it gave absoloutly no closure to the story, my sqadmates are stuck on some planet in the middle of nowhere with no means of getting off and it doesnt even show if all my squadmates survived atall.
7) No matter which choice you pick at the end (out of the 3) they are all exactly the same except with a different colour. Which i think annoyed me the most because i spent ages trying to decide which choice to make and ended up choosing the "destory synthetic life" option for the same reasons as you but then i saw all the plotholes and decided to load a previous save and see what would happen if i chose the "synthesis" option and it was exactly the same except with a green explosion, then i did the crontrol option but it was exactly the same but with a blue explosion.
I personally feel let down by bioware for this ending. It was an absoloultly amazing game which i praise bioware for. Untill the final 5 minutes which just left me with dissapointment.
Thankyou for reading my opinion on the matter :)
12 years, 1 month ago
Mass Effect 3's ending is a terrible mess that doesn't have closure for this series, I mean for fuck sake we don't even get a scene with Shepard and his/her lover. Just "RUN! BAM! FLING! MUHAHAHA! SHOOT! RIDE! BLAH BLAH BLAH! BOOM! THE END!
But I do feel as though there is an ending here, it's just a broken one. The game didn't show the effects of your choices which for Mass Effect, is pretty bad. We don't see a bizarre future with Andriods walking around because of synthesis or one where Reapers are everywhere and watching everyone because you picked control (The very thing that you just told The Illusive Man was impossible by the way. Seriously, what the hell?). What we got was the same ending that doesn't have closure for this universe going forward. For the earlier Final Fantasy games (4,5, and 6 specifically) those were one simple game, yet I felt that was enough because of the way the endings provided closure for this world that we just finished exploring. Mass Effect 3 does not do that, at all.
12 years, 1 month ago
Very good write-up, Chris. Not a lot of people have taken as much thought and attention to the ending as you have, and I'm glad someone expressed as much. While I originally was bummed about the ending I had received (destroyed the reapers as well), I was personally content after reading the entire indoctrination theory. It filled in all of the plot holes and made the rest of the game make sense. But I'm not 'grasping at straws' as some would put it (which is a very closed-minded way of fans saying they don't believe something that requires explaining). I could care less of the story or characters, I simply liked the universe.
Whenever this blows over, players will still have conflicting opinions on the series and the end of Mass Effect 3. Will the rest of the industry look at this as an example though? If so, in what way? How to write or how not to write? The similarities to the ending choices to this and Deus Ex 1 and 2 were glaring, so much that I hope another developer won't do it again.
12 years, 1 month ago
The Mass Effect universe was pretty much destroyed. For one, there's no fuel station within the Sol System, so they can't really fly anywhere. Remember how fast the Normandy's ship ran out of fuel and Normandy is top of the line. Nearly every military in the galaxy is stuck in the Sol System. That means resources on Earth will likely drain in less than a year. The population just went from billions to trillions in a matter of moments. This is beside the fact that the Turians and Quarians can't eat the same food as anyone else. This also leaves out the fact that thousands of colonies have just been left defenseless to raiders or will run out of supplies eventually. Mass Relays have 0 chance of being build as well. The Mass Relay also can't be build since 2 need to be build in the same place, then the second needs to be flown to the location it will transport a ship too. This would take decades and use fuel that they simple don't have.
Also Earth is doomed no matter what because of the giant chunks of flaming metal coming at very high speeds from the Citadel and thousands of destroyed ships and Reapers. Also I don't know if you know this, but War Assets and choices make no difference in the finale. No matter how bad or good your war assets are, Earth remains in the same state and the entire finale plays out the same exact way.
12 years, 1 month ago
*SPOILERS*
My main problem is with the lack of closure with the whole series. Some colored beam shoots out, the Reapers are no longer a threat, all of the relays blow up, and Joker crashes the Normandy on a planet. What happened to the Krogan that I freed from the Genophage? The Geth were helping the Quarians adjust to their home planet but if I chose the Destroy option, what happens to the ones that integrated with each other? I would have been happy even if they had just went the Fallout 3 or Dragon Age: Origins route.
You wrote a well-thought out argument and I can agree with your reasons defending Bioware's ending, but I am still disappointed with it. I have been reading into the Indoctrination theory though and I'm hopeful that Bioware comes out with some free Epilogue DLC in the future.
12 years, 1 month ago
I think Bioware should just go back to making good games, like Mass Effect 1.
12 years, 1 month ago
Here's a problem you didn't consider (and why the Catalyst fails completely):
The Reapers are the Catalyst's solution to organics creating synthetics and thus plunging everything into chaos. Essentially, he created synthetics to kill organics to stop them from creating synthetics that kill organics. It's a farcical paradox and reeks of pretentious bullshit.
But let's go more in-depth than that and analyze the three colors a bit more:
1) Control - It's what the Illusive Man wanted, and by proxy of him being Generic Evil it shouldn't even be a choice, but that's just IMO. There's no certainty that controlling the Reapers is even possible-and trusting the Catalyst is damned stupid to begin with. The fact that it somehow works is fucking laughable and undermines the Reaper threat entirely.
2 Synthesis - Saren's ideal of uniting organics and synthetics and frankly probably what Bioware wants us to choose. The problem, then, is that this is also what the Reapers desire (to harvest and help organics "ascend") and choosing said option is ignoring everything you fought for.
3. Destroy - This is the only ending that makes any kind of vague sense and even then it is marred by the destruction of the Geth, EDI, the Mass Relays, everything that makes Mass Effect what it is. It plunges the galaxy into a dark age and (contrary to what you might think based on its name, FTL travel isn't all that fast) strands multiple races in the Sol system, a system with limited resources and food not suited to Dextro-DNA races like the Turians and Quarians.
It's an ending that isn't very well-thought out in general (and you only need to look at the Final Hours App notes to confirm it as such).
That said, at least you took the time to actually think and write out a response. Most people who like the ending seem hellbent on calling everyone else "entitled" and leaving their argument at that.
12 years, 1 month ago
I also have a theory regarding THE end
Rebuild process of the relays after the end may be possible and even able to reconnect all the races if all of the civilizations were to replicate thier own relays maybe there would be a possibility to connect them once again and travel between them
12 years, 1 month ago
I feel this video sums up my problems with the endings, namely, they were pretty much identical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0Cf864P7E&list=FLrRqecs3-lgLvf6oEEsRyBQ&index=6&feature=plpp_video
12 years, 1 month ago
And since no one else has mentioned it, His Name was Marauder Shields!
He tried to save us from picking a colour.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=467pmIX-oZo
12 years, 1 month ago
Great article Chris.
Like you I am okay with the ending, sure its does not have complete closure that I wanted, but I'm okay with that for some reason.
I myself picked Synthesis. I didn't feel like this would remove everyones free will, but that it will finally put the end of the cycle of created rebelling against the creator. Sure the Qurian's and Geth worked out their differences, but this doesn't mean that future generations wouldn't make the same mistake. After all history repeats itself. Besides that I could bring myself to kill all Synthetics. I just gave Geth true 'life' and I helped EDI and Joker to come together. I couldn't do that as Joker and EDI (Sans her body) are likely the only two people I care about still alive.
Now, the ending still has some gapping plot holes and logical fallacies that need to be adressed. And I have a feeling that either it was rushed or they did it on purpose. There is some very strong evidence for the Indoctrination theory.
Regardless, I hope the ending isn't completely rewritten and isn't just a epilogue to give people more closure. But most of all I hope its free...thats the only way to quell this raging fire. Even though I would pay for it if it was in fact all developed after the game was 'went gold'
12 years, 1 month ago
I found a video on youtube that represents why i HATED the ending in mass effect 3 and why i think a lot of other ppl hate it as well. They guy gives great examples and its pretty funny and not a "hate" video at all. Spoilers of course
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4H_A7SeawU4
12 years, 1 month ago
Very interesting read, Chris.
While I understand your viewpoint, I have to say I still dislike the ending. While I DO have to agree that finally killing the Reapers was satisfying as hell, the ending just didn't have what I wanted. To tell you the truth, I wanted an ending where all my friends survive, and Shepard makes it out alive through the skin of his teeth (like always). I also wanted a final battle that would involve ALL races (or teammates) to come and fight together. Even though you DO gather every race to fight for Earth, they feel unimportant once the fight actually happens. Same thing with your overall War Assets.
Unfortunately, what I got left me scratching my head, and gave me more questions than answers. As the ending credits began to roll, I just sat in my chair, mindlessly staring at the screen trying to piece together just HOW I felt about this. In the end, I realized that I felt "empty". I played the game for about 40 hours, building up my excitement for the final battle, and was left with a cliffhanger (which is Shepard waking up). I really did feel like I was slapped in the face. It wasn't until I heard about the Indoctrination Theory that I was able to see the ending in a different light. Now, I have renewed hope that Bioware will still give me what I wanted with upcoming DLC.
Although, if I look at the current ending and consider it as...well... an ACTUAL ending, then I have to say I hate it. While the game itself is probably one of the best games I've played, the ending just completely ruins it for me. While I respect your viewpoint on the ending, Chris, I don't agree with it.
12 years, 1 month ago
I would've liked it more if it gave us some explanation and some diversity in our choices.
12 years, 1 month ago
As soon as Shepard is hit by Harbingers beam (or stunned by it) is when the plot begins to make no logical sense. How does Anderson enter the beam before you? Why didn't Coates notice anyone getting to the beam, let alone Shepard standing up and shooting? Why is there now loads of shrubbery near the beam? How does Shepard not see Anderson getting to the control panel as there is only one path? Why does Shepards pistol now have unlimited ammo? Why does the beam lead directly to the console that opens the Citadels arms?
Even Bioware wouldn't fuck up this bad with or without Drew Karpyshyn. As soon as Shepard is stunned by the beam, he begins to have a final battle with the Reapers in his own mind. Either resulting in complete indoctrination and death represented by the Control and Synthesis endings. While Destruction represents Shepard breaking free from indoctrination, from Harbingers control, waking up just before Shepard enters the beam. The final colour cutscenes with see at the end is simply what Shepard wants to see (her/his vision of hope) and what he is led to believe by the child at the very end.
Anyway all of these ideas are from the Indoctrination theory, which if even somewhat correct, would make Bioware geniuses. The actual ride to the end was simply amazing however, everything I wanted from the game.
12 years, 1 month ago
Long story short:
-They don't have enough fuel for faster than light travel to get out of the system
-Eveyone stranded in the Sol system starts to starve and die of disease do to overcrowding
-The Krogan eat the remaining survivors
How's that for an Epilogue? Because that's what Earth is looking at with the current situation left as-is.
12 years, 1 month ago
I chose "Other" in your poll because (in my first playthrough) I honestly believed the sequence of events after being nearly killed by Harbinger were a dream sequence ... right up to the point where the credits began rolling. So basically, Bioware needs to FINISH the game and deliver the type of ending that they gave us in 1 and 2. To be specific: an ending that ranges from utter failure to varying degrees of success based on everything you have ever done as Commander Shepard and gives you some plausible indication of what happened to your crew.
I'm pretty sure that is what most long term players thought they were paying for when they purchased the game, and Bioware did their level best to imply that it was what they were going to deliver.
12 years, 1 month ago
I'm interested to know if you have any thoughts on the Indoctrination Theory? I pretty much believe it 90%, the only problem with the theory is that it means the war for earth is not even over yet, just Shepard's battle with being Indoctrinated is over.
12 years, 1 month ago
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece as too many sites I have read contain complaints and offensive material with no real explanation as to why the player feels the way they do.
I fully understand peoples grievances though. I have changed my mind constantly since seeing my own (good) ending of the reapers being destroyed.
My own feelings (currently) is that there should only have been a SINGLE ending, with various cutscenes added depending on player choices and war assets.
Shepards goal has been to stop the reapers, and that should be the ending. Shepard knew the illusive man was wrong and control was not an option, and fought him on this issue throughout the game.
The other option of merging both synthetic and organic life seems like a cop out and why Shepard would consider this seems unlikely, as it involves believing an A.I. who is a part of what Shepard is fighting against. It's perfectly possible it is lying to defeat Shepard.
So that leaves a destroy the reapers option - the only real ending that we should have had.
My gripes with the ending also stretch to the strange Joker sequence and also lack of relevance to war assets and paragon/renegade play.
As I mentioned, a single ending with extra cutscenes could have worked well. Imagine getting wrex on side, and you get a cutscene of krogans charging the reapers line. Imagine seeing asari commandos and salarian STG teams sniping husks as you run forward. Imagine the terminus fleet supplied by aria shooting down a reaper.
All this could have been added and would make players really go for extra war assets to complete the game, with a bad cutscene showing exploding mass relays if not enough fleet came with you.
We needed a "herioc" ending. I'm at peace with Shepard dying to save Earth and the rest of the galaxy but I wanted to see her fighting right up until the last moment. Stangely, I have only just seen the "Shepard dies" ending in Mass Effect 2, where she leaps for the ship, hangs on long enough to tell joker to warn about the reapers coming, and then falls to her death.
THAT'S a herioc death.... not making a rather uninformed choice and spending several minutes staggering around to get there.
12 years, 1 month ago
I feel like everyone is just saying that the only possible solution is for BioWare to rewrite and change the ending. But it think it is faaaar more exiting to believe the conspiracy theory. I really hope BioWare releases a FREE DLC "real" ending, and just say "the ending was all just an illusion made by the reapers, and now it is time to really finish theses fuckers up!" I like to think BioWare planned this all along, and not that they really though that this ending would be enough.
And great work on the article!
12 years, 1 month ago
The ending just absolutely killed all my buzz for a second playthrough, and that shocked the hell out of me. It just all seems so...pointless, for the sake of a last minute switcheroo. That smacks of someone deciding that only a last minute mindf**k would truly elevate the series to greatness and refusing to let their 'Grand Idea' die for the good of the thing overall.
Destroying the Mass Relays isn't like all vehicles on Earth being destroyed. The distances involved are vast, even with FTL travel it would take dozens of years. Know who's really screwed the most? The Quarians, Rannoch is aaaaall the way over on the other side of the galaxy. "Welcome to Boatmurdered, hope you like miasma!"
Or remember where they said, just a week before release, that the Rachni for example would play a "huge" part in the finale? Yup, those extra 100 war assets sure made a big difference. Didn't see hide nor hair of them after their side mission.
Thankfully the MP is a lot of fun, that's what all my ME3 time is spent with at the moment, as I wait to see just what Bioware can pull out of the bag with the PAX announcements. There's still a ton to enjoy in the game, but boy does that 1% hurt.
12 years, 1 month ago
Thanks for writing this!
12 years, 1 month ago
I didn't really care that there wasn't a happy ending, it fit the premise that there will be many sacrifices and the ending will appear bleak. However I want an ending that just makes sense and doesn't break or go against a character's beliefs.
While others have already expressed and detailed the numerous plot holes and problems with the ending (which by the way I hated the ending,) I am not sure if anyone has brought this up...so I'll give my two cents and then crawl back into my little hole. During the ending when Joker and my bros are in the FTL jump trying to escape the different color beams, a glaring issue popped out. Why are they running away? Didn't they say I'll fight with you to the end and I support you fully Shepard. Why would my allies turn tail and run? That breaks their character, it goes against there promise to fight with you till the very end(Which they say before the very last mission.) This broken promise is made worse by the fact that they are in that situation randomly without any explanation, which is already a plot hole. I don't mean to sound too emotionally invested with the characters (HOW COULD THEY LIE TO ME!?!) but it is a problem when a character without explanation goes against something they said. It is especially worse when these characters were the driving factor in why I was playing through the story.
Another issue I have is with Commander Shepard not questioning Star Baby's logic. "Yeah well synthetics and organics can't coexist together," guess the Quarians and Geth don't count. Also Shepard doesn't try to compromise with the kid. This goes against part of what defines Shepard, whether you are good or evil he don't compromise to what others want...they compromise to him. Even in Paragon moments, you usually have others accepting and giving what you want. An example of that would be solving the Quarian and Geth issue, despite all the other behind the scenes things you had to do; the Paragon ending for the mission would be getting the Quarians and Geth to coexist, which is something most of us wanted to happen. The Quarians chose to go along with Shepard's belief in having the species coexist together, he makes them compromise.
There are many other issues with the ending but a lot of people have already gone over them and I don't feel like writing another poorly worded essay about something I hate.
12 years, 1 month ago
After all your paragon efforts to make peace between Geth and Quarian, and to save the Geth after meeting Legion, after going through the Consensus, your three choices are to try to control the Reapers (which most players think is a choice destined to fail and seems exactly like they way they co-opted The Illusive Man), make a synthesis (which also seems like a choice destined to fail and seems exactly like what they did to Saren), or destroy them *and the Geth*. They give you three horrible choices, where it appears your decision is to sacrifice not yourself, but an entire other race. That's bad. They have the Normandy inexplicably on a jump at the end, leaving your crew stranded for no reason. This is a cliffhanger by any standards, but especially those of Bioware's other games. A cliffhanger and a bunch of unanswered questions is not the proper ending we were promised.
12 years, 1 month ago
Like a few comments already stated, the biggest problem I have with the ending are the giant plotholes.
Joker and the crew would never just try to flee. Besides, how in holy hell is (in my game) Ashley in the Normandy at the end on f*cking tree planet (unharmed even).
She got roasted by a reaper laser during the final push.
In addition to that the giant fleet you assembled is stranded on earth because the relays are gone. So, that´s great.
Did I forget something? Hmmm...right, how the eff did my Shepard survive? Not only the explosion but also the crucible's red energy sphere. Like starchild said, he is partially synthetic for example his goddamn face and I destroyed everything synthetic.
My problem is not that that the choices didn´t matter but that the ending makes no sense at all.
12 years, 1 month ago
There is no way to rebuild the Mass Relays in the near future, because only the creepy kid in the citadel had the technology and know how, how to build Mass Relays in the first place.
So no Mass Relays until a race advances enough to build something equal again.
So the conclusion of all the endings is the same,
galactic civilization is at an end,
and the Krogans eat the rest of the fleet.
So much for different endings, and i haven't even started complaining about the plot holes.
12 years, 1 month ago
[...] their original vision of the ending. If you have beaten the game I’d ask that you read my piece from a last week back about the game’s [...]
11 years, 12 months ago
Well, I found that I enjoyed the ending alot more after watching this "Documentary" about the Indoctrination Theory. It's pretty long, but it was worthwhile and very detailed.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=caAqFFhBn2U
11 years, 10 months ago
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11 years, 10 months ago
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