Mass Effect 3: The Process

[Agayek]

I don't get it. Can someone explain to me, a person who has not played Mass Effect, what the big deal is? I read about the endings on some spoiler thing and I just don't understand the issue. Is it because it's hard to get the happy ending? You can't deal with a depressing ending? Other?

Other. The problem is three fold.

1) When we meet the Catalyst (god-child thing that created the Reapers), we are told the reason the Reapers exist. Specifically, "In order to stop organics from creating synthetics that kill them, I created the Reapers and the Cycle to kill the organics first".

It's self-contradictory and flat out retarded logic that wouldn't pass muster with anyone with half a brain.

2) There's no epilogue/closure. There's no details about what happened afterwards, and all of the ending cutscenes are identical bar the color of the space-magic. Thus, it feels like none of your choices matter. They could easily solve it with a DA:O or Fallout style static image with text slideshow that explained what happened with your crew and the various plot decisions you made during the game.

3) The way the options are presented to you runs directly counter to the tone and themes of the series thus far. The whole series has been about defiance in the face of the inevitable, refusal to surrender, the power of free will and optimism in the face of Armageddon. The way the end is presented, it's pessimistic and a surrender to fate. There's no way to fight against it, you simply must accept what you are told at face value, that synthetics will always kill their creators, and must make a decision accordingly.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Finally, because its starting to get embarrassing. Not the people commenting about there disappoints in a calm fashion, but the over the top raging and whining about every single little thing.

I was also disappointed by the endings, and just decided not to play it again and sold it - which is a shame as i played ME1 and ME2 at least 5 times each. Thing i hated was the game seemed smaller, could only walk around on the Citiadal....why no where else? I was actually more annoyed that there was no game manual in the box.

 

[putowtin]

I'm sure I had more that 5000, I had every asset, but now I'm curious....
Maybe when my heart stops feeling so heavy I'll re-play!

Don't bother. If you have >5,000 assets, you get a 4 second cutscene after the Normandy crashes that the chest of a human (the implication being Shepard) that gasps suddenly before the screen fades to black and the credits start. It's literally no different up until that point.

ok just went in and checked my game, I had 4621 assets, and got that ending anyway
(yeah I went with the blow up the enemy ending).
Ah crap, back to being depressed!

 

[penthesilea180]

Wow, this is scarily accurate.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

 

[penthesilea180]

uh, yeah, control was the paragon option, you take control of the reapers and can therefore send them all back to dark space and stop the war outright. Besides, only merge or destroy ended up with the relays being blown up i think. Still, all awful endings

Nope, I did control and the relays still blow up.

 

[Agayek]

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler

The short version is that right at the very end of the game, as you're getting ready to fire your magical space MaGuffin that will get rid of the Reapers, an elevator drags you up to meet the Catalyst, the intelligence that created the Reapers and started the cycle.

When you meet him, in the guise of a child you see killed by a Reaper very early in the game, you get some expository infodumps. Primarily that he created the Reapers for one purpose: To prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, because synthetics will inevitably betray and kill their creators. If this has already thrown up red flags for you, good job.

After that, the Catalyst says that you have three choices. You can either assume control of the Reapers, destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy, or merge all synthetic and organic life in the galaxy.

You then get a cutscene, which plays out exactly the same no matter which option you chose, save for the color of the wave of space-magic that fulfills your choice

The primary problems with it are that A) The reason the Reapers exist at all makes absolutely no sense, and is self-contradictory, B) the lack of proper closure and epilogue, and C) the severe tonal and thematic shift from the rest of the series.

 

[Karathos]

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Read my post on page 2. I've spoiler-tagged the part which explains how pretty much NOTHING in the ending makes sense.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler

The short version is that right at the very end of the game, as you're getting ready to fire your magical space MaGuffin that will get rid of the Reapers, an elevator drags you up to meet the Catalyst, the intelligence that created the Reapers and started the cycle.

When you meet him, in the guise of a child you see killed by a Reaper very early in the game, you get some expository infodumps. Primarily that he created the Reapers for one purpose: To prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, because synthetics will inevitably betray and kill their creators. If this has already thrown up red flags for you, good job.

After that, the Catalyst says that you have three choices. You can either assume control of the Reapers, destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy, or merge all synthetic and organic life in the galaxy.

You then get a cutscene, which plays out exactly the same no matter which option you chose, save for the color of the wave of space-magic that fulfills your choice

The primary problems with it are that A) The reason the Reapers exist at all makes absolutely no sense, and is self-contradictory, B) the lack of proper closure and epilogue, and C) the severe tonal and thematic shift from the rest of the series.

I actually really, really like the endings.

Spoiler

Few games actually make the endings phyric victories like that.

The reasoning is really, really stupid. Assuming ME canon is anywhere near halo in level of size and depth, I expect a mind blowing valid reason will be explained at some point.

The fact the cutsecnes are the same and you don't see the aftermath is also stupid.

Regardless, I'd be pretty happy with the ending, if I were a ME fan.

EDIT:

I get the reason for the reapers now, and how it's not circular logic:

Spoiler

They aren't killing the organic races, they are assimilating them, right? We are still looking at it from the POV of assimilate = kill.

It's like with the flood: They view themselves as the SAVIOR of life, not the end of it

I don't even know what the citadel or a relay is, and I figured that out.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler: Do Not read this if you don't want the ending spoiled

Spoiler: I warned you

After disposing of the Illusive Man and activating the Crucible, Shepherd collapses onto a segment of the ground, which glows bright white and turns into an elevator that takes him to the top of the Citadel/Crucible link.

There he meets 'The Catalyst/Starchild', a ghostly glowing blue effigy of the little boy he saw die on Earth. The Little Boy informs him that he controls the Reapers, and that they were his solution to 'chaos'. He explains to Shepherd that war between Synthetics and Organics is and always will be inevitable, so the little boy created the Reapers - every 50,000 years, the Reapers fly through the galaxy and harvest advanced civilizations to convert into more reapers while sparing the less advanced, giving space for new life to grow and sparing all organic life genocide at the hands of the Synthetics they make ('The created will always turn on their creator'). He then, depending on your War Assets #, presents Shepherd three options.

Control the Reapers, which the Illusive man tried to do but failed because he was already indoctrinated, destroy the reapers and -all- Synthetic life (including the Geth) in the Galaxy simultaneously, or achieve 'Synthesis', that is combine all organic and Synthetic life into a new form. Three paths open, depending which path you take you get that ending - in reality the ending video's are all the same, the only thing that changes is the color of the light that shoots out of the citadel and into the mass relays.

Via this colored space magic, the desired effects are achieved, and all the mass relays are destroyed, whichever ending you choose. At the end, you see Joker fleeing the colored space magic in the Normandy, but it overtakes him and he crash lands on a jungle world and a few members of your crew step out of the wrecked ship.

Depending on your war assets, you may receive 2 additional vignettes. One is an old man talking to his grandson about Space on a snowy world, revealing that 'The Shepherd' was a story he was telling his grandchild. Another is a brief snippit of a slagged N7 breastplate (assumed to be shepherds) surrounded by rubble, suddenly drawing in breath with a gasp. The latter video of 'Shepherd' 'living' is only viewable if you had 5000+ warassets and chose 'destroy the reapers'. Then it shoots you back to the place in the game right before you launch the Point Of No Return assault with a little message about how Shepherd has become legend and encourages you to purchase DLC.

 

[Ninedeus]

Haven't laughed at my screen like that for some time. At least now I am on the acceptance stage but this pretty much sums up my reaction on what happened after ending my 1st game.

Captcha: lager frenzy - ok, will do that!

 

[FFHAuthor]

My only hope currently with ME3 is to hold onto a fan fic ending someone wrote, b/c I don't see Bioware fixing this insult.

Which one are you going with? I just hammered out the start to my own yesterday.

I'm going with this one.
http://arkis.deviantart.com/art/Mass-Effect-3-Alternate-Endings-SPOILERS-289902125?offset=10#comments

It uses allot of the reaper AI convo you get in the game, but expands on what Shepard would do and say when given the three choices. Its a bit of a read, but it made me fill allot better. I've since filled in some of the companions actions of my own, but for me.. this is the ending of ME3.

Damn that's nice. I've got work to do.

 

[Starke]

Yah the ending was pretty shit. But here something that will at least make it interesting if true. http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/1/topic/355/index/9727423/1

Basically it states that the entire part with the citadel was an indoctrination test set by the reapers in Sheppard's death coma, its an interesting read the theirs allot of evidence to support it.

Still pisses me off though cause that means it's incomplete and they will charge us for the ending. Not cool man, not cool.

Honestly, I still think the ending would have been a lot better if they just cut the elevator, post elevator three switches sequence, and had the energy wave sequence destroying the reapers, and bouncing relay to relay, without the Normandy.

 

[Starke]

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler: Do Not read this if you don't want the ending spoiled

Spoiler: I warned you

After disposing of the Illusive Man and activating the Crucible, Shepherd collapses onto a segment of the ground, which glows bright white and turns into an elevator that takes him to the top of the Citadel/Crucible link.

There he meets 'The Catalyst/Starchild', a ghostly glowing blue effigy of the little boy he saw die on Earth. The Little Boy informs him that he controls the Reapers, and that they were his solution to 'chaos'. He explains to Shepherd that war between Synthetics and Organics is and always will be inevitable, so the little boy created the Reapers - every 50,000 years, the Reapers fly through the galaxy and harvest advanced civilizations to convert into more reapers while sparing the less advanced, giving space for new life to grow and sparing all organic life genocide at the hands of the Synthetics they make ('The created will always turn on their creator'). He then, depending on your War Assets #, presents Shepherd three options.

Control the Reapers, which the Illusive man tried to do but failed because he was already indoctrinated, destroy the reapers and -all- Synthetic life (including the Geth) in the Galaxy simultaneously, or achieve 'Synthesis', that is combine all organic and Synthetic life into a new form. Three paths open, depending which path you take you get that ending - in reality the ending video's are all the same, the only thing that changes is the color of the light that shoots out of the citadel and into the mass relays.

Via this colored space magic, the desired effects are achieved, and all the mass relays are destroyed, whichever ending you choose. At the end, you see Joker fleeing the colored space magic in the Normandy, but it overtakes him and he crash lands on a jungle world and a few members of your crew step out of the wrecked ship.

Depending on your war assets, you may receive 2 additional vignettes. One is an old man talking to his grandson about Space on a snowy world, revealing that 'The Shepherd' was a story he was telling his grandchild. Another is a brief snippit of a slagged N7 breastplate (assumed to be shepherds) surrounded by rubble, suddenly drawing in breath with a gasp. The latter video of 'Shepherd' 'living' is only viewable if you had 5000+ warassets and chose 'destroy the reapers'. Then it shoots you back to the place in the game right before you launch the Point Of No Return assault with a little message about how Shepherd has become legend and encourages you to purchase DLC.

Also, it might be worth pointing out that the Normandy cut-scene makes no sense, from a continuity standpoint:

Spoiler

The crew of the Normandy, including all of your party members were planet side before, and the two you take with you for the final push are both vaporized. In that context, it's hard to explain why they would, in the middle of a climactic battle: (potentially) rise from their graves, shuttle back up to the Normandy (which at this point, based on player actions, may not even have a shuttle or shuttle pilot anymore), and flee the system.

There are a couple ways you can guarantee you'll be seeing dead crew members in that cut scene by the way.

 

[Starke]

[Illusive Man]
*smokes cigarette and breaths out slowly*
"Shepard. By now you should be reading this in my voice, which may speed up the process.

Goddamnit, now I have Martin Sheen in my head! (

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler

The short version is that right at the very end of the game, as you're getting ready to fire your magical space MaGuffin that will get rid of the Reapers, an elevator drags you up to meet the Catalyst, the intelligence that created the Reapers and started the cycle.

When you meet him, in the guise of a child you see killed by a Reaper very early in the game, you get some expository infodumps. Primarily that he created the Reapers for one purpose: To prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, because synthetics will inevitably betray and kill their creators. If this has already thrown up red flags for you, good job.

After that, the Catalyst says that you have three choices. You can either assume control of the Reapers, destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy, or merge all synthetic and organic life in the galaxy.

You then get a cutscene, which plays out exactly the same no matter which option you chose, save for the color of the wave of space-magic that fulfills your choice

The primary problems with it are that A) The reason the Reapers exist at all makes absolutely no sense, and is self-contradictory, B) the lack of proper closure and epilogue, and C) the severe tonal and thematic shift from the rest of the series.

I actually really, really like the endings.

Spoiler

Few games actually make the endings phyric victories like that.

The reasoning is really, really stupid. Assuming ME canon is anywhere near halo in level of size and depth, I expect a mind blowing valid reason will be explained at some point.

The fact the cutsecnes are the same and you don't see the aftermath is also stupid.

Regardless, I'd be pretty happy with the ending, if I were a ME fan.

EDIT:

I get the reason for the reapers not, and how it's not circular logic:

Spoiler

They aren't killing the organic races, they are assimilating them, right? We are still looking at it from the POV of assimilate = kill.

It's like with the flood: They view themselves as the SAVIOR of life, not the end of it

I don't even know what the citadel or a relay is, and I figured that out.

The problem isn't that it's a Pyrrhic victory, that would be fine, and, I agree, something we don't see enough of. The problem is, the conditions that stipulate the three best case options are all predicated on "facts" that the player has quite possibly disproved during the course of the game.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

[Illusive Man]
*smokes cigarette and breaths out slowly*
"Shepard. By now you should be reading this in my voice, which may speed up the process.

Goddamnit, now I have Martin Sheen in my head! (

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler

The short version is that right at the very end of the game, as you're getting ready to fire your magical space MaGuffin that will get rid of the Reapers, an elevator drags you up to meet the Catalyst, the intelligence that created the Reapers and started the cycle.

When you meet him, in the guise of a child you see killed by a Reaper very early in the game, you get some expository infodumps. Primarily that he created the Reapers for one purpose: To prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, because synthetics will inevitably betray and kill their creators. If this has already thrown up red flags for you, good job.

After that, the Catalyst says that you have three choices. You can either assume control of the Reapers, destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy, or merge all synthetic and organic life in the galaxy.

You then get a cutscene, which plays out exactly the same no matter which option you chose, save for the color of the wave of space-magic that fulfills your choice

The primary problems with it are that A) The reason the Reapers exist at all makes absolutely no sense, and is self-contradictory, B) the lack of proper closure and epilogue, and C) the severe tonal and thematic shift from the rest of the series.

I actually really, really like the endings.

Spoiler

Few games actually make the endings phyric victories like that.

The reasoning is really, really stupid. Assuming ME canon is anywhere near halo in level of size and depth, I expect a mind blowing valid reason will be explained at some point.

The fact the cutsecnes are the same and you don't see the aftermath is also stupid.

Regardless, I'd be pretty happy with the ending, if I were a ME fan.

EDIT:

I get the reason for the reapers not, and how it's not circular logic:

Spoiler

They aren't killing the organic races, they are assimilating them, right? We are still looking at it from the POV of assimilate = kill.

It's like with the flood: They view themselves as the SAVIOR of life, not the end of it

I don't even know what the citadel or a relay is, and I figured that out.

The problem isn't that it's a Pyrrhic victory, that would be fine, and, I agree, something we don't see enough of. The problem is, the conditions that stipulate the three best case options are all predicated on "facts" that the player has quite possibly disproved during the course of the game.

How so?

I thought the fact that the reapers

Spoiler

assimilated life into cyborgs and into other reapers

was covered way back in ME1/2?

 

[Starke]

How so?

I thought the fact that the reapers

Spoiler

assimilated life into cyborgs and into other reapers

was covered way back in ME1/2?

Honestly, the Reapers being partially organic wasn't explained until the reveal at the end of ME2.

Spoiler

The Starchild claims that conflict is inevitable between synthetics and organics, that nothing you do can prevent that, and that said conflicts will always be apocalyptic. However, it's entirely possible that the player has already managed to make peace between the quarians and the geth. To say nothing of the fact that the geth deliberately allowed the quarians to escape, or that the quarians effectively forced the geth to rebel through implausible levels of stupidity.

 

[V8 Ninja]

I googled "Mass Effect Garrus Body Pillow". The first result was a Tumblr page.

THE WORLD IS IN NEED OF A GARRUS BODY PILLOW!! STAT!!!

 

[mdk31]

[Illusive Man]
*smokes cigarette and breaths out slowly*
"Shepard. By now you should be reading this in my voice, which may speed up the process.

Goddamnit, now I have Martin Sheen in my head! (

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler

The short version is that right at the very end of the game, as you're getting ready to fire your magical space MaGuffin that will get rid of the Reapers, an elevator drags you up to meet the Catalyst, the intelligence that created the Reapers and started the cycle.

When you meet him, in the guise of a child you see killed by a Reaper very early in the game, you get some expository infodumps. Primarily that he created the Reapers for one purpose: To prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, because synthetics will inevitably betray and kill their creators. If this has already thrown up red flags for you, good job.

After that, the Catalyst says that you have three choices. You can either assume control of the Reapers, destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy, or merge all synthetic and organic life in the galaxy.

You then get a cutscene, which plays out exactly the same no matter which option you chose, save for the color of the wave of space-magic that fulfills your choice

The primary problems with it are that A) The reason the Reapers exist at all makes absolutely no sense, and is self-contradictory, B) the lack of proper closure and epilogue, and C) the severe tonal and thematic shift from the rest of the series.

I actually really, really like the endings.

Spoiler

Few games actually make the endings phyric victories like that.

The reasoning is really, really stupid. Assuming ME canon is anywhere near halo in level of size and depth, I expect a mind blowing valid reason will be explained at some point.

The fact the cutsecnes are the same and you don't see the aftermath is also stupid.

Regardless, I'd be pretty happy with the ending, if I were a ME fan.

EDIT:

I get the reason for the reapers not, and how it's not circular logic:

Spoiler

They aren't killing the organic races, they are assimilating them, right? We are still looking at it from the POV of assimilate = kill.

It's like with the flood: They view themselves as the SAVIOR of life, not the end of it

I don't even know what the citadel or a relay is, and I figured that out.

The problem isn't that it's a Pyrrhic victory, that would be fine, and, I agree, something we don't see enough of. The problem is, the conditions that stipulate the three best case options are all predicated on "facts" that the player has quite possibly disproved during the course of the game.

How so?

I thought the fact that the reapers

Spoiler

assimilated life into cyborgs and into other reapers

was covered way back in ME1/2?

An example is the assertion used by the god-child-deus-ex-machina thing that:

Spoiler

synthetic life and organic life can not coexist because the synthetics will always destroy the organics. However, you prove that false if you manage to broker peace between the quarians and geth. The quarians created the geth 3 centuries ago, but if you manage to broker peace, they live together on their homeworld, reunited and (presumably) peaceful.

That's one example. Then there's the continuity problems mentioned above. Also the fact that

Spoiler

destroying the relays is shown in the Arrival DLC in Mass Effect 2 to sterilize the system the destruction occurs within. In every conclusion to ME3, every single mass relay everywhere is destroyed. So every single system in which a relay exists (almost every home system of major spacefaring species, for instance) has just been utterly destroyed. You cause more damage in the conclusion than the reapers ever could.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I think for most it just stops at the Anger stage.