Poll: What would your mass effect 3 ending be like?

[RyuujinZERO]

I'd be quite quite ok with a crapsack ending, where the relays DO explode, and the fleet is left stranded and the capital worlds are lost in the relay's shockwave.

The important thing is that they need to resolve that this IS what happened, or resolve what DID happen and also a good reason for why it happened, not star-child bullshit speil. Because we're given these long-distance views that suggests fridge horror abounds, but nobody REALLY know what happened for certain and the uncertainty is what kills me.


Even a crapsack ending can have an uplifting ending note; cue hackett, maybe even Shepard if he survived giving a speech that this has cost billions if not trillion of lives and the hearts of their civilisations, but for that price they have bought something no race in 40 million years has had: A future

 

[darkcalling]

Personally I love the endings we got. I'd warn about spoilers but I doubt anyone who hasn't played the game yet is reading this thread. If you are then that's your own fault.

I myself would have been very disappointed if there had been some way to get a real "happy, cheery" ending to the series.

Mass Effect (especially this last one) has never been about the triumphant victory. It's been about the hard choices one has to make in war. Morality doesn't always enter into it. Do you save your friend? Or do you let him die to save a dozen others? Sometimes someone could find that magical third option but there's often no other way out.

The first Mass Effect included one of the best examples of this kind of grey and grey morality I'd ever seen. It was a big part of why I loved it. Do you save the council at the cost of a large portion of the Alliance fleets? Or do you let the council die, potentially causing humanity to be in a stronger position in the galaxy at the cost of the possible hatred of the other races?

Control/Synthesis/Destroy is simply the epitome of this concept. Paragon/Renegade doesn't matter in the end. How Shepherd got there is important but in the end good or evil doesn't enter into it. Instead the ancient superweapon gives you three options.

Destroy ALL synthetic life in the galaxy, wiping out the reapers, but taking with them the Geth who had finally begun to make peace with their creators, as well as your squadmate EDI a character we'd come to really care about over the course of the last two games.

Control the reapers, killing yourself to do it. This leaves things mostly the same but you're validating the ideas of The Illusive Man, one of the greatest tragic villains I've ever seen.

Or Synthesis, forcibly "evolving" life to it's next phase of existence. Technorganic, cellular level cyborgs, merging organic and synthetic life so that there won't be a need for AI to turn against it's masters. Shepherd has to sacrifice herself to do it though. She'll never see the supposed "next stage".

And no matter what choice you make, the Mass Relays are destroyed.

There is no definitive right or wrong. No place for Paragon or Renegade. Only the choice. This was one of the best endings to anything I've seen in quite awhile, let alone a video game.

Would I have enjoyed seeing more evidence of my war assets in action? Sure. Would I have enjoyed playing many of these endings on this thread? Definitely. But don't give me the Hollywood happy ending. This series deserves better than that.

 

[XMark]

I just want an explanation of why the Normandy was running away. I'm okay with everything else about the ending.

 

[Mr_spamamam]

they should keep the ending as is. Its a videogame, the story ends how bioware wanted it to end. If you dont like the ending of a book, you dont whine and complain at the author till they do what you want. you just dont read the book again. if the ending is so hateful then trade the game in

 

[Thammuz]

When you say terminate, do you mean like this?

Or like this?

That will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

 

[Grivahri]

I thought Bioware said that the reapers could win. So many lies. There should be at least three significantly different endings. One ending when the reapers kill everyone and return to dark space waiting for the next cycle. A bittersweet ending where Shepard dies but the reapers are defeated at great cost. And a happy ending where Shepard and friends survive and and can live their life.

 

[Nelle]

My ending should stick out with the original ending.

It's Bioware's decision to end it like that. And i respect that. I know i am a little pissed off to see my War Assets go away. But its how the game works. so lets stick to that.


Anyway On to topic IF I GOT THE CHANCE TO MAKE THE ENDING: I would do it like this:

Joker turned back again to save Shepard. When Shepard saw the Normandy again. Its your choice to enter Normandy and escape like hell or stick with the original ending.

 

[Samantha Burt]

I'd be fine with the current ending. So long as Bioware adds some sort of epilogue that talks about what happened to the galaxy and my squadmates based on my choices. Hell, a rolling text screen would do. So long as it makes the choices I had to make throughout the series mean something.

This is what I was expecting. Something similar to Fallout 3 or Marvel Ultimate Alliance. A brief glimpse of the events that unfolded after the conflict, so we could see what weight our choices carried across the galaxy.

Get James Earl Jones to do some voice snippets for the Squadmates and/or major races. "Garrus returned to C-Sec to help in the rebuilding of the citadel" or "The Krogan rebuilt their people and, led by Wrex, they became a guardian force across the galaxy." Maybe it's a bit cheesy, I don't know, but I think it could have worked.

 

[RyuujinZERO]

Or Synthesis, forcibly "evolving" life to it's next phase of existence. Technorganic, cellular level cyborgs, merging organic and synthetic life so that there won't be a need for AI to turn against it's masters. Shepherd has to sacrifice herself to do it though. She'll never see the supposed "next stage".

Asides from the morasse of technobabble and no solid foundation to this other than SPACE MAGIC - how exactly will this stop the AIs turning on their creators.

Because everyone is made out of the same grey goo, we'll suddenly start seeing eye to eye and BFFs forever? - because you know, in the real world all organics totally see eye to eye and never fight.


...humans can't even see eye to eye with their own kind, and they treat different races like second class citizens, and lets not talk about ANIMALS. because let's face it, an organo-geth, and a cyber-human are about as closely related to each other as a lion and a gazelle and we all know how that story ends...

 

[Grivahri]

Oh, also, at some point in the ending, this would be playing.

It would be awesome if that song played in the credits after a good ending

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

We hear the star childs spiel just like the old ending, and he gives shepard those three choices.

Shepard starts to laugh at him.

"Why are you laughing?"

"You think I have to pick from your choices, but you didnt know that I have one more friend, hes old, older than even you. Hes crossed time, space and even the dimensional barriers to get here. Hes come to help us and he will drive you monsters screaming back to hell!"

Then we hear a strange sound, and then behind shepard appears a blue police box. A man wearing a bowtie opens the door and grins.

"Hello, Im the Doctor."

ROLL CREDTIS!!

 

[Matt King]

i posted an answer to what i wanted in a basic mode and someone else expanded it and this is what we got i think the blue control ending would be serving the reapers (control/being controlled) but that does leave green then the odd man out. Really sense their two respective headers fell into the same trick with different ideas Saren and IM both ended up "serveing".. Donno.. this is how I can see the last two working out at least in my head..

Control would have a tech evolved Shepard/harbinger mix (ASSUMEING DIRECT CONTROL) leading the counter attack against his old allies and friends (Darkspawn chronicles/evil end infamous2 style) you fight through London facing down the combined forces of marines krogan turians ect. eventually you board the main alliance ship and kill your remaining allies and either Anderson or Hacket, best part would be the inverse of the first where the more you collected before the ending makes this ending harder and harder. Be especially fun if you recollect your allies by turning them as you defeat them. Might even have the "bad end" be the good end of sorts where the final fight can end with shepherd taking back control (much like the turned big bads from the past games) and is given the choice to take his own way out. (and perhaps the galaxy rebuilds in spite of Shepard instead of because him in the last hours depending on how much work the player did along the way.)

Sense green is the middle of the road of the two.. (synthesis combining ends up tearing sheperds mind apart.. it's a stretch but I'm gonna run with it -shrug-) Have this ending brings him to his death.. Take over as the rest of the crew playing out their final hours without their leader. Liara presses on to hide time capsule.. Garrus and the primarch (and other turians) fight till the end. EDI defends joker and the crew after harbinger shoots down the Normandy. Vega and the Survivor (ash/kaiden) try to defend a wounded anderson. Tali.. hmm.. donno what to do with that one.. (not sure where to send the engineer sense her main connection to the ground forces is shepard at least Garrus has noteworthy friends on the ground.. could send her off with garrus if they have their romance in the end.. otherwise.. donno..) could even continue this ending with a few others like the me2 characters on the ground on their last stands. (grunt and wrex, jack, jacob, ect) Give a feeling of the hopelessness of the war without their "icon" leading them and pressing them foreward against the odds. (or even again the opposite succeeding without him without enough work. again the main people collected along the way making this easier or harder even impossible without.)