Mass Effect 3: The Process

[BX3]

the basic issue is that the finale of the game is essentially "well you are fucked, but please, press buttons A B or C to choose your ending cinematic"

Did you play a model citizen? Doesn't matter same ABC

Did you play a violent Arrogant Prick? doesn't matter ABC

did you speed run the games? Doesn't matter ABC

Did you painstakingly complete EVERY sidequest? doesn't matter, ABC

Ah, I see, so not the endings, but the way in which they were implemented. That does sound pretty rage inducing. Seems like a bit of a cop out on Bioware's part, especially given that many of the game's fans are attracted to the story driven and role playing nature of the franchise.

Thanks for explaining it in layman's terms.

 

[Daft Ghosty]

I liked the ending. What the hell makes it 'universally wrong' that I'm not seeing?!

...then again, I liked the ending of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, too. So maybe I'm just an idiot.

You an idiot? Not at all. I'm happy you enjoyed the endings. I'm happy for anyone who enjoyed the endings, because you don't have to feel the way that those who didn't enjoy the endings feel. I hesitate to explain all the problems that make the games ending, at least to me, the worse I've seen for a game series I loved, because I don't want to make you go 'oh yeah that does suck'. It's not the worse ending ever made. There are plenty of games that are bad from beginning to end. But I digress.

There will be spoilers ahead so don't read if you dont want to know things about the endings.

I'll try to put it as simple as I can, as to what my problem with the endings are.

It comes down to a few things. One of which is choice. Be it ME1, or ME2 Shep always made his own choice. Not the ones that were presented to him. That is what the paragon, and renegade options were for in the conversations, and in the interrupts. It was Shepard making a choice that changed the situation in ways that no one else had seen. That is what is missing from the end. Sheppard is given three choices by the AI god child. In the conversation there are no options to use paragon, or renegade to prove the reaper god child wrong. There is no way for Shepard to tell the AI to go F itself. Shepard just meekly takes one of the thee choices, and that is not Shepard. Not through ME1, ME2, or even ME3.

Two would be results of building your forces up. In both ME1, and ME2 what you did through the game ended up effecting the ending. In ME3 the same can not be said. Earth being destroyed or not, and Shepard living in one of the endings, depends on building up your forces. That value can be changed from just doing multi player. I'd have to test it out, but from what I see you can build up that force with multi player, do only the priority missions, and skip loads of forces, and missions, and go to the end and get the best ending the game can give you. There is no pay off for spending the time prepping your fleet, and building allies.

And that brings me to point three. Seeing the forces, and companions in action. Which is part of the payoff. We want to see the fleet, and people we brought together in the battle. We want to see what happened to them after the battle. We got neither. We want to know why Joker is in either FTL, or riding a mass effect relay. We want to know that if the mass effect relays are gone that they can be rebuilt. We want to know that all the effort we put into uniting the galaxy payed off.

What we get in the end is the normandy stuck on a planet, and in my case with a companion who was with me on that last mission (leaving me going wtf). This happens in all endings. The Mass Effect relays destroyed, and in two out of the three endings Shepard dead (no real problem there. I Thought I'd die anyway). The fleets are all stuck at earth. And that is it. The reapers are gone in one way or another in all endings, but that is all we get. The NG+ ending is a joke. It really does nothing but show that humans survived and they tell the story of Shepard. This is the end of the trilogy of Shepard. This was suppose to be a hell of a ending that made you sit back and go 'wow that was great'. Instead the three cookie cutter endings just come across as lazy, unimaginative, and rushed.

 

[Agayek]

People are just afraid to let go I guess, I for one, was a bit sad, but all good stories need an ending...

The problem isn't that it's a sad ending. The problem is that it's an ending without logical basis, riddled with more plot holes than stars in the sky. There's real, fundamental problems with the ending, very little of which has to do with the fact that no matter what you choose, everybody dies.

 

[Agayek]

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.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

the basic issue is that the finale of the game is essentially "well you are fucked, but please, press buttons A B or C to choose your ending cinematic"

Did you play a model citizen? Doesn't matter same ABC

Did you play a violent Arrogant Prick? doesn't matter ABC

did you speed run the games? Doesn't matter ABC

Did you painstakingly complete EVERY sidequest? doesn't matter, ABC

Ah, I see, so not the endings, but the way in which they were implemented. That does sound pretty rage inducing. Seems like a bit of a cop out on Bioware's part, especially given that many of the game's fans are attracted to the story driven and role playing nature of the franchise.

Thanks for explaining it in layman's terms.

Not to mention that the ending scenario is a contrivance which you should NEVER, EVER do.

In the characters too, exactly as in the structure of the incidents, [the poet] ought always to seek what is either necessary or probable, so that it is either necessary or probable that a person of such-and-such a sort say or do things of the same sort, and it is either necessary or probable that this [incident] happen after that one. It is obvious that the solutions of plots too should come about as a result of the plot itself, and not from a contrivance, as in the Medea and in the passage about sailing home in the Iliad. A contrivance must be used for matters outside the drama?either previous events which are beyond human knowledge, or later ones that need to be foretold or announced. For we grant that the gods can see everything. There should be nothing improbable in the incidents; otherwise, it should be outside the tragedy, e.g., that in Sophocles' Oedipus.
-Aristotle, Poetics
^Motherfucking ARISTOTLE

 

[Falsename]

[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. We need you to infiltrate Bioware and retrieve or create an alternate DLC for Mass Effect 3"

[Shepard]: DLC?

[Illusive Man]: Downloadable Content. It would appear not too many humans are pleased with the ending of Mass Effect 3 *smokes some more* Cerberus believes that it is in the best interest of our species to rectify this terrible mistake.

[Shepard]:

-I'll do it, but because I want to help humanity not Cerberus
-Where do I start?
-I'm gonna twist Bioware's Quads!

[Illusive Man]: Good to hear. And Shepard... You better still be reading this in my voice.

 

[Daft Ghosty]

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.

 

[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.