Poll: Did the ending of Mass Effect 3 ruin the whole trilogy for you?

[T3hSource]

No,I only disregard the moments after Anderson's death.I agree with this though:

They were so close to a good ending there for a while. Wouldn't have minded it at all if it ended like this:

However it would've been somewhat unsatisfying if it really was just that,but comparing to what we got,that's actually better and much less people would've raged.

Mass Effect to me originally isn't really a game per say,but much rather an experience of a starship commander in his epic tale of saving the galaxy.The original game had that vibe,but ME2 and ME3 took away that in favor of a more character-driven narrative,action and set pieces.The trilogy is still a great experience and I enjoyed every bit of it,excluding grinding elements.

 

[Kapol]

Yes, but it's also because ME2's ending and main story were pretty weak and ME1's ending had some problems too. I was willing to ignore those problems because I expected an epic and well written ME3 that made sense.

You see, that really seemed like evidence that Bioware really didn't know how to write any endings for the ME series to me. Every single one of them was virtually the same no matter what you did. The only pay off was knowing you got some sort of recognition for it later (though I never noticed anything being recognized about what you chose in 2's end). So it's kind of surprising to realize, or at least it was for me, that... we really should have expected this. Because after two games with pretty shitty stand-alone endings, why would the third be a lot better? I think the main reason is because this time we can't cling to the fact that 'oh, this will change something later so it WAS a big deal.' Even though neither big end choice made a whole lot of difference in how things played out.

I also really, really hope they don't do the whole indoctune theory thing. While I'm not the biggest fan of the endings, I'd rather think the big end choice (which I thought was actually a pretty hard choice and rather interesting for a number of reasons) stayed and Bioware will just expands on what was actually caused by them rather then just throwing everyone's hands in the air and saying 'well this didn't happen at all so your choice REALLY didn't matter!'

OT: No, the endings didn't ruin the series for me. They didn't even ruin 3 for me. While I understand a lot of the disappointment and share it (choices don't matter, cutscenes are the same pretty much no matter what you choose, not seeing what real effect the choice had, etc), there are a number of things I actually liked about the ending.

 

[SS2Dante]

Nope, I thought it was a satisfactory ending. Not everything has to be sunshine and flowers.

There was no clear "good" was to end conflict after the explanation of what the Crucible would do. I like that. Because even if you got the perfect ending like me, the Mass Relays are still destroyed but Shepard lives, even though his team are stranded.

Also what's all this indoctrination business everyone is talking about? If Shepard was indoctrinated, why did he destroy the Reapers and kill the Illusive Man instead of controlling the Reapers or helping the IM?

Also, I know it's not part of the ending but Mordin dying really got to me. He was by far my favourite character in the series. And the way they cut him off singing with the explosion wrenched my heart out!

I haven't looked too much into the indoctrination theory but as I understand it that whole final scene is pretty much a metaphor for the reapers trying to control shepard and shepard either succumbing to their will or resisting it and destroying them which is why destruction is the only way in which shepard even possibly survives

wanted to embed a clip of mordin singing as well but I see someone beat me to it so I'll just say
"asari-vorcha offspring are lactose intolerant" and if you don't know what I mean you should talk to eve more

Yeah, the idea is that when you are hit by Harbingers laser you are knocked out, and the rest of the game (all 6 minutes of it) is Harbinger trying to indoctrinate you. It's really interesting and makes a hell of a lot of sense, I'd advise you to check it out in more detail

 

[kouriichi]

No, in fact it didnt even ruin the 3rd game for me.
>.>; Everyone is freaking out over the ending when theres a chance the ending itself is just a giant mindf*ck, and is just setting up for a DLC where you really complete the game.

I loved every ME game. I still do. And i thought the 3rd one was just gold. >.>; sorry if others disagree, but its not about the ending, its about the journey to get there. You dont drive to California from Michigan to get there. You could take a plane for half the cost of gas. You drive there to stop at the Grand Canyon. To gamble a few bucks in Vegas. To stop by a friends house in Utah who you havent seen in years.

To say "This Single Moment in a video game Ruined Every Single moment in every game before it", is just being dramatic. Angsty. Like your sitting there Duck Faced in front of the PC, talking about how this was the worst thing to happen since the Holocaust. Never mind that everyone shut up about the Day one DLC that people were going to boycott over. Nope. That completely vanished. Now its all about the ending that wasnt sparkles and ponies. ((Due note, i am a fan of sparkles and ponies))

Will this ending ruin the entire series for me? No, it didnt even ruin the game. I didnt care for it myself, but im not going to get up in arms, start charity funds, and say it ruined 4-5 years of happy memories.

It wasnt great ((unless the "secret" behind it is true)), but that doesnt mean im going to freak out and lynch Bioware.

 

[Zorg Machine]

To everyone who says that we shouldn't whine just because it wasn't a happy ending,

Spoiler

Throughout the last two games (especially the third one) we have been shown that synthetics are perfectly peaceful and war with organics are the last things they want to do (EDI, Legion and all the rest of the geth) but in the end we have to just accept that all synthetic life will always be evil and kill organics because the evidence is the reapers...which are ordered to do it by the crucible.
You might say that there was another option. You can make everyone partially synthetic. While this is great and all it completely negates all the points about equality that the games have tried to make. It also hints at the fact that synthetics cannot coexist with humans and they both have to be half-half to live in peace.

Everything boils down to synthetics=bad even though everyone who plays the games (especially the quarian/geth part of ME3) knows that this is not the case. I got the quarians and geth to coexist and I saw that the entire war was the quarians fault and the geth were trying to avoid the war. This is complete bullshit and inexcusable in a game that prides itself on choice.

Not to mention that because of you, all of the fleets of the milky way are stuck over earth with decades (at least) of travel (assuming they have food and fuel) before they can see their homes again. Almost all of the quarians (who in my playthrough finally got their planet back) will die with the Turians because Earth don't have the capabilities to grow food for them. Everyone else will die when they realize that earth no longer has the capabilities to grow enough food for all of them and the Krogans kill everyone else and claim the planet for themselves.

A trilogy of games where the key selling point is deciding the fate of the galaxy should not have the endings: Green, red and blue explosions.

/rant

To answer the question, yes it did. That was the worst letdown I have ever experienced in a movie, game, book or TV-show. I wish I had never bought the games, I will never buy DLC for this game and I will vote down bioware in march mayhem despite choosing them in the finals in my bracket.

 

[Zorg Machine]

double post...so I guess I should take this opportunity and say, ME3 has a crappy ending and nobody should ever do the final mission. Your imagination will definitely come up with something better.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

I dont know why people think Mordin's death was a waste due to the ME3 ending.
He a) cured the genophage b) got Shepherd a Krogan army to help him punch through to the Citadel. dying curing/repenting for the genophage is a meaningful way to go IMO

 

[Lunar Templar]

i ... never actually got past the point in ME1 where you get Tali ....

for what ever reason i couldn't get interested in the story at all. Saren seemed evil for the sake of some one had to, the game play left me ... confused (Shepard been in the army a while by then right? why then is his aim so unsteady...) and really, i didn't like any one cept Tali -.- wish i could ether get my money back or give them to some one else (got ME2 at the same time expecting to be blown away by how good it was)