(Spoilers) Mass Effect 3 Ending is Evil

[Nimcha]

The main reason I loved the ending is this very fact. No good or bad, no objectively perfect option.

Execution was another matter, but that was fixed in the EC. In my opinion.

But really, I kinda like the fact so many people can't seem to live with the fact that there was no ending they personally wanted.

 

[Estelindis]

The game really isn't nearly as bad as this thread would lead one to believe. There is a reason the escapist community voted mass effect 3 as game of the year 2012.

I personally remember being at the edge of my seat throughout the experience

Absolutely. Apart from a few clunky parts at the start, I enjoyed the story and the action almost until the end. And then that ending happened. I feel very little interest in buying anything else Mass Effect related now, but that doesn't take away from the great emotional moments along the way. I don't think less of that incredible moment with Mordin at the climax of the genophage arc just because I found the ending to be very poor. One could argue that it made what he did pointless, but I don't think so. It was still worth doing at the time, no matter what happened later.

The endings do mean, however, that the next game from the Mass Effect team will not be an automatic purchase for me. They didn't take away from what happened before them, but they made it almost impossible for me to have any interest in what might happen after them.

 

[sc1arr1]

The game really isn't nearly as bad as this thread would lead one to believe. There is a reason the escapist community voted mass effect 3 as game of the year 2012.

I personally remember being at the edge of my seat throughout the experience

Definitely. Personally I chose the synthesis ending and I loved every minute of it. Any minor loose ends I just used my imagination to fill in. The extended ending update helped a bit as well.

 

[King Billi]

The constant dredging up and whinging about this particular topic is starting to wear thin... Oh dear so some people were dissatisfied with the ending of a video game were they? Get the hell over it!

Any capacity to care about this and take the complainers seriously is just completely worn away at this point.

 

[talker]

I never did finish it, but I heard from others what the ending possibilities are and I don't see how they're bad. Maybe you have to play it to not appreciate it.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Everything that could be said over this particular topic has been said before.

It's still a shit ending though.

 

[CloudAtlas]

The game really isn't nearly as bad as this thread would lead one to believe. There is a reason the escapist community voted mass effect 3 as game of the year 2012.

I personally remember being at the edge of my seat throughout the experience

Of course it isn't. But there's just no point in arguing with people who think it's nothing but utter shit and entirely devoid of meaning. There's no point, and there's no reason to: undifferentiated opinions like that are just not worth discussing. If countless GOTY awards, a metacritic score of 89, and hundreds of pages of elaborate arguments didn't convince them that maybe there is something to this game, even if they didn't like it personally, then nothing will. This is as true for Mass Effect as it is for anything else.

There are plenty of games (and movies for that matter) that I didn't like much, but are beloved by many. And guess what, I was always able to see what those people liked about them, even though I didn't agree with their sentiments at all.

 

[elvor0]

Considering they ripped the ending(s) from Deus ex and Deus EX:HR I'm far from surprised.

There is no happy ending. That's the point. Doesn't mean you have to like it, but it's not a flaw of the game itself.

...Or perhaps you delude yourself into think so.

If they wanted to construct some meaningful way to conclude that there's "no happy ending" they could just rip-off Halo:reach. With the Destroy's hidden ending your argument is invalid as it's assumed Shepard lives. Also, the Forth is meaningless as the goal is achieved via the same means by a different time and generation.

I wouldn't say the destroy ending is happy regardless of Shepard surviving. The Citadel is destroyed as are the Mass Relays, leaving everyone pretty much stranded. People are going to get hungry and everyone is cut off from everyone else. We may have the tech to repair the relays, but it'll take a loooong time, and in the meantime the galaxy is going to decend into a state of anarchy. Shepard survives but at what cost?

Frankly, the endings themselves are actually quite well done. As we see here, everyone has differing opinions on what constitutes the "right" thing to do. I think Synthesis is the right thing to do(and happiest ending), because to me, considering the Geth have gained true Sentience, as has EDI, which when you see how the Geth "uprising" came about, you have to wonder at which point they actually gained that sentience, and to me, they deserve to live. It also allows them to understand what it truly means to be /alive/, to have a soul, and us to understand them in turn.

It may be forced, but it feels like the most peaceful ending, the ultimate culmination of us coming together to understand each other as species, and reveres the sanctity of life. Which was what fighting the reapers was about. Shepards sacrifice allowed everything she was fighting for to come to fruition. The other two options didn't feel like they'd fix the problem in the long term.

On the flip side, your world views and opinions see the Destroy/Shepard lives as the right thing to do, and various choices in the game in an entirely different light, I may not agree with your choices from my side of view, but it's entirely subjective, which is good, that the 4 choices can be seen vastly differently depending on the person playing.

Whats even more interesting is the way the colours are chosen for the choices. Blue is paragon and Red is renegade throughout the series, Destroy is represented as what Anderson would do, yet is red, while control; the illusive mans choice, is blue. What does that tell us about the endings? And is green supposed to be what Shepard would do, or what the player is expected to do? And green is straight on, the choice right in front of our faces.

Mind you, I didn't play through the Trilogy until the last few months, ergo I wasn't up in the hype, and I was totally invested in the ending, Running to the beam in particular, I was shouting at the screen for Shepard to get up, genuinely worried that it was possibly to fail right there. I was totally exhausted during the end mission/sequence because I managed to get so absorbed in it.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Considering they ripped the ending(s) from Deus ex and Deus EX:HR I'm far from surprised.

There is no happy ending. That's the point. Doesn't mean you have to like it, but it's not a flaw of the game itself.

...Or perhaps you delude yourself into think so.

If they wanted to construct some meaningful way to conclude that there's "no happy ending" they could just rip-off Halo:reach. With the Destroy's hidden ending your argument is invalid as it's assumed Shepard lives. Also, the Forth is meaningless as the goal is achieved via the same means by a different time and generation.

I wouldn't say the destroy ending is happy regardless of Shepard surviving. The Citadel is destroyed as are the Mass Relays, leaving everyone pretty much stranded. People are going to get hungry and everyone is cut off from everyone else. We may have the tech to repair the relays, but it'll take a loooong time, and in the meantime the galaxy is going to decend into a state of anarchy. Shepard survives but at what cost?

I don't understand how anyone could claim it is a happy ending. It's suggested that whole species are close to extinction, many billions died, the economic damage is astronomical, and the interstellar transportation network is unusable, at least for the time being. If that's already a happy ending, then the bar is really low. I guess World War II had a happy ending for the Jews too, because, you know, not all of them died?

 

[Estelindis]

I think Synthesis is the right thing to do(and happiest ending), because to me, considering the Geth have gained true Sentience, as has EDI, which when you see how the Geth "uprising" came about, you have to wonder at which point they actually gained that sentience, and to me, they deserve to live. It also allows them to understand what it truly means to be /alive/, to have a soul, and us to understand them in turn.

I would very much disagree that a good (let alone the best) way to show how much we appreciate the geth and EDI is to give them the "honour" of becoming more similar to organic life. That's implying that they're somehow deficient without whatever it is that makes humans (and krogan, and asari, etc) "alive." I think that's exactly the opposite of what the games showed until almost the very end. EDI and the geth were admirable even though they were different and their differences were worth appreciating and preserving.

Of course, synthesis is a two-way thing: it's not just EDI and the geth becoming part-organic, it's also humans (and salarians, and quarians, etc) becoming part-synthetic. But what if some people don't want to, not because they hate synthetics but because they like being the way they are themselves and also like synthetics whether they change or not? Aren't people entitled to stay as "plain" synthetic or organic without changing, if that's what they want?

Bottom line: if synthesis enabled synthetics and organics to choose greater unity on an individual basis, I think it would easily be the best ending. Not that any ending *has* to be obviously better than any other, because then there wouldn't be any real choice... If presented with two awful options and one great one, no prizes for guessing what people will pick automatically. But it's possible to write games in such a way that different choices appeal for reasons that are morally sound, even if each one has serious drawbacks.

I think that the endings of Dragon Age: Origins are great examples of this. People still have heated discussions about them, and no one can be 100% sure what the right choice was (since the outcome of the choice Morrigan asks you to make towards the end hasn't become clear yet), but in my view the drawbacks of the choices accentuated the themes and character of the setting rather than diminishing them. I wish that ME3 had gone for something in a similar vein, not 100% identical since the world and its themes are different, but having a similar form and achieving the same kind of dramatic effect. The ending of DA:O gutted me emotionally and felt very much like a tragic victory. The ending of ME3 didn't move me, just gave me a flat "What." (Of course some people like ME3's ending and their entitled to do so; I'm just presenting my view. And for those who are tired of the discussion, there is no need to read the topic, of course.)

 

[LetalisK]

The main reason I loved the ending is this very fact. No good or bad, no objectively perfect option.

Execution was another matter, but that was fixed in the EC. In my opinion.

But really, I kinda like the fact so many people can't seem to live with the fact that there was no ending they personally wanted.

I agree with loving that none of the endings were perfect[footnote]Though I get the feeling they tried to make Synthesis the perfect ending[/footnote], at least from the in-game point of view. EC didn't really fix it for me, though, since I hate Deus Ex Machina endings on principle. Hence one reason why I can't comprehend the popularity of Deus Ex.

 

[Ryan Minns]

I'm in the "That was pathetic" camp but I got over it. I've played games where the devs never even bothered to put an ending in so I consider not trying worse than being horrid so it put things in perspective. Bioware has very much gone out of the trusted circle now though (It survived DA2 funnily enough) so I'll just be less impulsive when they release their next game

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Right, hands up everyone who's seen The World's End.

I think the ending of ME3 should have been like the ending of that film. Would have been perfect, in my opinion. Any chance to ask the Star Child who the hell put him in charge would be nice.

 

[CloudAtlas]

I think Synthesis is the right thing to do(and happiest ending), because to me, considering the Geth have gained true Sentience, as has EDI, which when you see how the Geth "uprising" came about, you have to wonder at which point they actually gained that sentience, and to me, they deserve to live. It also allows them to understand what it truly means to be /alive/, to have a soul, and us to understand them in turn.

I would very much disagree that a good (let alone the best) way to show how much we appreciate the geth and EDI is to give them the "honour" of becoming more similar to organic life. That's implying that they're somehow deficient without whatever it is that makes humans (and krogan, and asari, etc) "alive." I think that's exactly the opposite of what the games showed until almost the very end. EDI and the geth were admirable even though they were different and their differences were worth appreciating and preserving.

Exactly. What's the solution to racism? Make everyone white! That sort of conflicts with the message of Mass Effect that diversity is something worth preserving.

Of course, synthesis is a two-way thing: it's not just EDI and the geth becoming part-organic, it's also humans (and salarians, and quarians, etc) becoming part-synthetic. But what if some people don't want to, not because they hate synthetics but because they like being the way they are themselves and also like synthetics whether they change or not? Aren't people entitled to stay as "plain" synthetic or organic without changing, if that's what they want?

This is a point that many people who champion the Synthesis ending without hesitation seem to miss. Synthesis is an extremely severe infringement on the right of bodily autonomy of every single individual in the galaxy. Now what Synthesis exactly does is unknown, but how would people react if you, say, sedate them in their sleep and irreversibly replace or enhance a number of their body parts with machinery without asking?

I think that the endings of Dragon Age: Origins are great examples of this. People still have heated discussions about them, and no one can be 100% sure what the right choice was (since the outcome of the choice Morrigan asks you to make towards the end hasn't become clear yet), but in my view the drawbacks of the choices accentuated the themes and character of the setting rather than diminishing them. I wish that ME3 had gone for something in a similar vein, not 100% identical since the world and its themes are different, but having a similar form and achieving the same kind of dramatic effect. The ending of DA:O gutted me emotionally and felt very much like a tragic victory. The ending of ME3 didn't move me, just gave me a flat "What." (Of course some people like ME3's ending and their entitled to do so; I'm just presenting my view. And for those who are tired of the discussion, there is no need to read the topic, of course.)

Since no one knows what Synthesis or Control actually mean, in the long run, there's a big deal of uncertainty about the Mass Effect endings as well. And, as I attempted to explain earlier, the endings of Mass Effect fit well to big themes of the overarching story as well.

Now Dragon Age: Origins is a game I didn't like at all. But can see why people like it... but it still felt so very generic, so devoid of soul to me.

 

[The White Hunter]

Can we get over this topic already?

I was about to come in here and ask "If your dog and a stranger were drowning who would you save?" But then I realised that unecessarily inflammatory "hot topics" that have come and gone should stay gone for a reason. ¬_¬

 

[CloudAtlas]

Right, hands up everyone who's seen The World's End.

I think the ending of ME3 should have been like the ending of that film. Would have been perfect, in my opinion. Any chance to ask the Star Child who the hell put him in charge would be nice.

The Leviathan DLC answered that question.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip.

You're a year and a few months late to the conversation my friend.

All the points you brought up have already been brought to the table by others, but let me go ahead and engage in debate with you since you took the time to write out that opinion of yours. And that's the thing to keep in mind: it's your opinion and it's perfectly valid, I'm not trying to argue that. I'm just presenting a new perspective for you to consider.

1: Renegade Red ending: In this ending, Shepard decides to use the power of the Crucible as it was "intended" to be used: as a weapon of mass destruction. Seeing as how the Reapers intend to kill all sufficiently advanced species in the galaxy, it's literally a "kill or be killed" situation. You wipe them out, or they most assuredly will wipe you out. It's not committing genocide on an innocent race of space squid, it's doing what must be done to ensure that life as you know it can continue existing. Now as with all WMD's, there's bound to be collateral damage...i.e. the Geth. However, since this is the "renegade" ending, Shepard obviously feels that sacrificing the Geth is worth saving the rest of the galaxy. There's nothing racist about Shepard's motives for going with this option. He's told "Doing this will completely wipe out the enemy with whom you're at war." He knows his enemy will not stop until it's mission - the extinction of all advanced life in the galaxy - is complete. As I said, the situation is kill or be killed.

2: Paragon Blue: I don't know if you got the Extended Cut ending or the standard cut ending, but either way it should have been clear that the Reapers DON'T have free will. Not necessarily, in the way that we understand it. They're free to fulfill their purpose - harvesting all advanced life - in whatever way they believe is the most efficient and practical. However, their reasons for harvesting advanced life aren't their own. They're guided by "Star Child", the Catalyst, or whatever you wanna call little Space Timmy at the end there. He's the overmind, the one who controls the Reapers, gives them guidance, and is the one who forces them to continue the cycle every 50K years. The Reapers are, in fact, his creation. He was tasked with ensuring that organic life never gets completely wiped out by synthetic life. He determined the best way to do this was ensure that organic life never gets too advanced and creates synthetic life...that is to say, by harvesting said organic life. That's why the patterns of evolution and technological advancement are all part of the cycle. The end of each cycle is right around the time that synthetic life is created. As such, with the Geth being made 200 years ago, it was time for the Reapers to become active and start working to usher in the next invasion. Anyways, the Reapers were made by Star Child so he could implement the solution to the problem he was tasked with. And as such, the Reapers do not have true free will to speak of.

Which means that when you go with the blue option, all you're really doing is trading out the consciousness of the Star Child for your own. You replace the puppet master and in doing so create a galactic defense force that can ensure that the peace that Shepard formed throughout the game (by making the alliances forged in battle) will last.

3: Synthesis Green: You do have a fair point with this one, and it's really why I personally never liked the choice myself. For me, the blue option was always my preference. But here's the reasoning behind Green: it is the "proper" solution to the question "How do you ensure that organic life never gets wiped out by synthetic life?" By making all organic and synthetic life a hybrid form of existences - part synthetic, part organic - the synthetics would be granted full comprehension of organic reasoning and emotions while organics would be granted all the technological efficiency and adeptness of synthetics. With the synthetics now understanding emotions and morals, the would no longer be prone to wipe out organics because "Organics are just an inefficient waste of resources, they must be purged." As such, the green ending is designed to usher in a utopian age of peace and tranquility. By removing most of the differences between species, you also remove most of the reasons for one species to hate another. It all becomes a bland, boring homogenization of life...as Star Child describes it: the pinnacle of evolution.

---------

So like I said, I'm not trying to argue with you, but rather give you a new perspective you might not have considered, as your interpretation of the endings is perfectly reasonable and understandable.

 

[Blachman201_v1legacy]

The game really isn't nearly as bad as this thread would lead one to believe. There is a reason the escapist community voted mass effect 3 as game of the year 2012.

I don't think you can claim that 13,8% of the votes are the whole community.

If you have ME3 for the PS, look up Mass Effect Happy Ending Mod.

removes the three choices so that Destroy is the only ending, but keeps all other synthetic life alive sans the Reapers.

Don't forget it exorcises the Catalyst from the game, which is pretty much the point where the narrative collapses in on itself and forms a pure black hole of contradictions. I would call that the most important feature of the mod

EDIT:

The Leviathan DLC answered that question.

And does a pretty bad job of it. The DLC is literally the writers blatantly retconning in a race of almighty morons to give in-universe excuse for their bad writing.

 

[CloudAtlas]

The game really isn't nearly as bad as this thread would lead one to believe. There is a reason the escapist community voted mass effect 3 as game of the year 2012.

I don't think you can claim that 13,8% of the votes are the whole community.

What kind of critique is that? Obama was elected by only about 30% of all Americans, so is it wrong to say that the US voted for Obama as president?
Like it or not, it still got the most votes of any game.

 

[blalien]

It's been a year and a half, and a thread complaining about Mass Effect 3 can still make it to the top five. I just want you to remember this the next time somebody complains about sexism in gaming and you want to tell them to get over it, it's not a big deal.