The worst video game ending ever

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

The problem I had with the ME3 ending, was that Shepard believing the enemy commander when it said Shepard had to kill him(her)self to stop the Reapers. You only get that level of stupid if you drank like a fish while pregnant, then mistook the babies head for a basketball.

I would like to add an original entry to this list; Command & Conquer 4. Yes I played it through, yes I regret wasting my time like that. I regret pre-ordering that game. And what did I get for my efforts? A short finale in a white room, cutting to faux news street interviews of everyday people.

 

[hermes]

I'd say I was rather irked with the ending of God of War 2 when it came out.
Sequel bait as fuck, but now I hate it less.

God of War 2 was awful in the way it was sequel bait, but at least we knew we had a sequel coming, not like HL2: Episode 2...

However, I would point out that the ending of God of War 3 is actually worst, by the way it misses the mark on the character, and then insist we should feel sad about him. He becomes a caricature of a character so flat it makes the Greek gods (the guys whose personality is defined by their power set) look tridimensional, and also the good guys. I haven't felt I was playing with the unrepentant villain so bad since I played Spec Ops, but while the second was full of commentary about players behavior and the twisted nature of the war hero dream, the first one ended with the genocidal man-baby being the avatar of hope all along, like they switched Kratos with Atreyu in the last 30 minutes and expected nobody noticed.

 

[Janaschi]

I do have to question the whole MEIII band-wagon, though. I honestly believe that people are hating on that ending, just because they can, without bothering to understand the game's message. Shepard was an extraordinary example of man-kind. They were the hero that the Citadel races needed when their galaxies came under tremendous threat, and Shepard managed to accomplish the impossible. But in the end, they were just one person. An ultimately insignificant blob of matter in the infinite expanses of space.

The ending was beautiful to me, in that regard. Because it showed that no matter how special Shepard was, and no matter how much that they managed to accomplish in the face of crippling obstacles, they still were not able to change fate by themselves.

Except that the ending ended up being you meeting the Star Brat, who says "Oh, you found me. You win. Pick your ending now". Fixed the whole Geth/Quarian thing that's been going on forever? Doesn't matter, he won't acknowledge it. Basically, the ME3 writer wrote himself into a corner and instead of doing the hard work to fix the problem, decided to have the Reapers just give up and let you decide their fate, despite the fact they're winning and you have literally no leverage over them.

The first time I reached the star brat, I shot the little punk and got the "Everyone dies" ending. Despite being depressing, I still think it's the most appropriate of the 4.

That is looking at the matter a bit black and white, don't you think? No matter what you do there in the end, there will be organic life. And regardless of whether the Quarians are organic, mechanical, or of a hybrid nature, they are still responsible for their past, and vice versa.

Shepard was never going to magically repair the rift between the two races. Not by themselves, and likely not within their lifetime, if they had somehow managed to make it into what Mass Effect considers old age. And whatever peace might have been achieved, especially among any possible confusion that was a result of the end choices, would be tenuous, at best. So what, exactly, is there to acknowledge? Nothing has been achieved yet, except for a very weak foundation being built.

You are assuming a lot of the Reapers. It has been confirmed that there are numerous Reapers that have been built, and so it seems to be silly to just outright propose, when we know so little, that all Reapers follow the same doctrine. That all Reapers are perfectly fine with the extinction of all organic life within their controlled sectors of the universe. The Catalyst is not just some Reaper. It is all Reapers. It is a collective conscience, that represents the entirety of the race. And it is made clear that a good portion of the Reapers, never wanted you there. But once you are there, you are finally given an opportunity that could never be found on the battlefield: you are now able to talk to the collective Reapers. You are able to talk to the collective civilizations that were integrated into the Reapers. All of their memories, their hopes, their desires, mixed into a singular entity. Certainly not as simple as you and others have made it out to be.

As for which ending is more appropriate, I imagine that is all subjective. I will say, though, again, that I do wish that they would have done more, so that we could understand what the endings meant in a much larger scale. But maybe that is what the spin-off will be for. I have no idea at this point.

 

[CyanCat47_v1legacy]

The neutral ending in undertale where you have to fight the fucking flower monster. As well as being the most annoying thing ever in every aspects of it's design you have to do it even if you killed someone by mistake and restarted the game to undo it. It polarizes playstyle completely. There is no middle ground with endings, you are either siant or satan, because anything in the middle is completely shite

 

[tgbennett30]

Here's an old school one - the original Wizardry.

After hours and hours of painstaking dungeon-crawling and mapping every square tile of the lethal and confusing maze, you defeat the bad guy. Whoopee.

You then get a message from the King thanking you for your service - and in gratitude, he places you in "The Order of the Chevron," an elite group that....has no meaning in game terms. However, the King informs you that membership has a steep cost, namely he's got to confiscate all of your magic items and most of your gold. That includes all your *exceedingly* rare and hard-to-farm items like Muramasa Blades, etc.

So, if you wanted to go back in the maze and explore any more missed corners, etc., forget it - you're naked and broke.

My second choice was Halo 2, but I'm torn - can a game be considered for "worst ending" if it doesn't actually *have* an ending? ;-)

 

[sXeth]

ON the basis of actual investment in the game, Ultima 7 Pt 2 : Serpent Isle.

The specific ending itself probably wasn't awful, but due to deadlines and meddling from EA, something like 90% of the final act was haphazardly implemented or missing, so it kind of came out of nowhere and didn't have much context.

The actual series ending in Ultima : Ascension was kind of similar, but the context and lore for it was more heavily established across multiple games, and the rest of the game was already lackluster, to give it some cushioning.


Baldur's Gate : Throne of Bhaal also comes to mind. After spending Baldurs Gate 2 on what boiled down to a giant sidequest, they wrap up their epic fantasy plot wth... a boss rush, and laughably predictable cliche betrayal from someone who got introduced (relatively) minutes earlier that you had no reason to trust anyways.

 

[ron1n]

The thing that no one ever seems to mention that pissed me off about ME3, wasn't the actual end cut scene per say, but rather the complete lack of impact any of your previous 'big' choices had on the final game.

The Rachni queen story line in particular was so underwhelming. As was the big final battle that should have had a lot more variables relative to what factions/resources you had at your disposal.

I was honestly so pissed off by the game that by the time god child showed up, I could have cared less, I just wanted it over. And yeah, the ending might not have ruined the entire series for me, but the lack of any choice impact sure as shit did. (Consequently, this is the same reason I've soured on Telltale games)


I'm going to nominate Shadow of Mordor as the most recent annoying ending. The actual cinematic ending effectively just served to setup for the inevitable sequel and resolved nothing. But even worse than that, the actual bosses, that had been built up for the ENTIRE game, were relegated to some crappy quick-time events. Oh, not to mention all that effort you may have put into building up the perfect force of orc captains also turns out to be meaningless as you can solo destroy all the enemies anyway.

Oh and special mention to Warhammer Totalwar. They didn't even bother having a campaign victory cinematic. It just...finishes and puts up a screen showing all the moves you made through the campaign. Yayyyyy =/

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. The gameplay was a bit clunky although serviceable, however the story was excellent, it had atmosphere and characters and really drew you into the intrigue of the world and all the different factions. But the ending, without outright spoiling, its like if the Dog Ending in Silent Hill 2 was the only ending in Silent Hill 2, it would've been fine as a joke ending but as the only ending in the game it was quite anti-climactic. It also seemed like it was intended to be the ending all along, as I doubt cut content would've affected the choice to put it in there, unless they made that ending first and planned to make the actual ending later.

Which ending are you talking about? Bloodlines didn't have one ending, it had five.

This. There was an ending for the Camarilla, an ending for the Anarchs, a third one that saw your character walk away from the L.A. undead scene altogether, and two more variations for the Camarilla ending based on what you choose to do with the Ankaran Sarcophagus.

For the record, I always picked the option that had me walk away. I figured my dude had spent upwards of a few months being everybody's lapdog and just decided he wanted out of this whole deal. I'm surprised Strauss didn't pull the "But you'll be Caitiff!" card in response.

 

[thejboy88]

Resistance 3: Capelli closes some portal he knows nothing about with barely any fanfare, roll credits during which we hear audio telling us that not just the game but the whole franchise is resolved. None of the questions raised in the second game are answered, we learn nothing about the Chimera. We're told as the credits roll that the global invasion of an alien force that pushed humanity to the brink of extinction has been thwarted off-camera. THANKS FOR PLAYING!

 

[Xprimentyl]

Worst video game ending, in my opinion... hmm.

I am perfectly sure that I have seen worse, but right now, what comes to mind, is the ending for fucking Rage. There is this huge build-up to the final area, which ends up being one of the easiest locations to fight through. Then, to add insult to injury, there is no final confrontation, with anything, aside from a minor wave of TP'ing mutants and such, which at that point in the game, fall apart like toilet paper when faced against the demi-God that is you.

Then, to rub salt into the now insulted wound, the game just ends. It literally black-screens while you are in the middle of accessing the network, with no explanation as to what happened, and then the credits roll. Laziest fucking thing that I have seen in a video game in years.

Oohhhh, yeah; that ending was so bad, I'd forgotten it; I think I repressed it like some traumatic event from my past. What's worse in my case is that I didn't even like the game! It looked nice, but outside of that, it didn't merit one iota of the hype the id name mustered for it. The "open world" was literally two hub towns separated by empty fucking desert. For all the "impending doom," I like how the people whose asses I was single-handedly saving made me EARN the tools I needed to save them by RACING dune buggies for their amusement! I spent the whole game confused and disgusted that this pretty pile of shit was what everyone had been waiting for, then it went limp dick with ascending testicles for the finale. I've been disappointed by games before; this is the only one that actually made me mad.

 

[Janaschi]

Worst video game ending, in my opinion... hmm.

I am perfectly sure that I have seen worse, but right now, what comes to mind, is the ending for fucking Rage. There is this huge build-up to the final area, which ends up being one of the easiest locations to fight through. Then, to add insult to injury, there is no final confrontation, with anything, aside from a minor wave of TP'ing mutants and such, which at that point in the game, fall apart like toilet paper when faced against the demi-God that is you.

Then, to rub salt into the now insulted wound, the game just ends. It literally black-screens while you are in the middle of accessing the network, with no explanation as to what happened, and then the credits roll. Laziest fucking thing that I have seen in a video game in years.

Oohhhh, yeah; that ending was so bad, I'd forgotten it; I think I repressed it like some traumatic event from my past. What's worse in my case is that I didn't even like the game! It looked nice, but outside of that, it didn't merit one iota of the hype the id name mustered for it. The "open world" was literally two hub towns separated by empty fucking desert. For all the "impending doom," I like how the people whose asses I was single-handedly saving made me EARN the tools I needed to save them by RACING dune buggies for their amusement! I spent the whole game confused and disgusted that this pretty pile of shit was what everyone had been waiting for, then it went limp dick with ascending testicles for the finale. I've been disappointed by games before; this is the only one that actually made me mad.

That is a whole 'nother story. I played Rage, because I was paid to, and got the game for free. But as much as I tried to like the game, I just couldn't. The game was only just passable as open-world, in the most semantic sense possible as you mentioned, and the story-elements were shoe-horned in with very little logic applied to it all.

On the flip-side, I did enjoy what was introduced in the game as its arena plot. But, unfortunately, it did get boring, as the venues were very limited, and there were only so many challenges.

 

[Dalisclock]

I was honestly so pissed off by the game that by the time god child showed up, I could have cared less, I just wanted it over. And yeah, the ending might not have ruined the entire series for me, but the lack of any choice impact sure as shit did. (Consequently, this is the same reason I've soured on Telltale games)

Shamus Young recently talked a lot of about this whole thing with ME3 but one issue he brought up was one of the reasons(and one of the big reasons) the whole Star brat thing doesn't work is because there's no particular reason to care about the kid. It's literally some kid you met for all of a minute and then watched his shuttle get blown up(along with a lot of other shuttles). It's not Shephards kid, it doesn't remind Shephard of anyone in his/her family(that we known of), it's just some random kid the writers decided needs to be a haunting symbol for shephard without any justification at all.

And then suddenly this kid from Shephard's nightmares is trying to appeal to him for reasons unclear and it has no meaning, especially along with the wierd "Even though we're winning, we give up and let you choose our fate because we ran out of development time....er, reasons"

Maybe the writer thought the whole fixation on being the parent of a dead child by proxy thing from Metriod: Other M was a good idea? I don't know. The writer(s) for ME3 apparently didn't seem to understand half the game they were writing(and I have to wonder if the guys who wrote the Citadel DLC were a totally different Team or something).

 

[Dr. Thrax]

I just remembered another bad ending.
Supreme Commander 2.

The sequel that goes on to completely ignore just about everything story-wise in the last games.
Not only does this game continue the trend of "You were once a nameless person, let's give you an identity and some background so you can feel", it completely abandons the cliff-hanger at the end of the Forged Alliance campaign.

Spoiler: Story of the First game and Forged Alliance, Warning: Wall of Text detected!

Humans were a part of one massive empire that spanned the galaxy, during the second great expansion into galactic space, an Earth Empire commander led a group of scientists and colonists to Seraphim II. Here humanity encountered intelligent alien life. This Commander, following previously untested protocal for dealing with intelligent alien species, quarantined the planet and refused to establish communications so as to not reveal Earth's position. He eventually ordered the human colonists under his command to meet these aliens - dubbed the Seraphim, their actual name was unpronounceable by humans - with violence. This reaction prevented discourse between the two species, and the Seraphim avoided humans whenever possible. However, the colony's biologist, Dr. Jane Burke, sought out and secretly befriended the Seraphim. Others joined and soon a small group was regularly visiting and learning from the Seraphim. They taught the humans advancements in quantum and temporal mechanics. More importantly, they introduced a philosophical viewpoint considered unimaginable by human minds - a way of peace and love so advanced that it completely shifted their perception of the universe. After learning of Burke's involvement with the aliens, the Imperial Commander led the remaining colonists in a massive and suicidal campaign to destroy the aliens and Seraphim II. These Imperial forces were losing, but their scientists managed to engineer a virus unlike anything encountered on Seraphim II. They were caught off guard, and despite Burke's best efforts, were unable to neutralize the virus. During the last days between man and alien, the Seraphim taught Burke as much as possible about their 'Way'. In the middle of one session, Burke experienced a vision of a galaxy torn apart; entire stars stripped of resources and left to die, planets destroyed, and more life needlessly lost than could be imagined. Burke was convinced that the Seraphim's 'Way' was the only means to prevent the Empire from destroying everything. Three years later, and many lost Empire probes and expeditions into Seraphim space, a message made its way to Earth. The remaining Seraphim II colonists, calling themselves the Aeon Illuminate, invited the Empire to embrace the teachings of The Way and to share in "something beautiful". The Empire cut communications and sent forces to quarantine Seraphim II. In the eyes of the Aeon, the Empire's destiny as defilers and destroyers of worlds was sealed.

Meanwhile, a renowned scientist named Dr. Brackman successfully merged the human brain with an AI. These new augmented humans were called the Symbionts. With the support of their superior cognitive capabilities, the Earth Empire grew in strength and technological progress surged forward. Later, feeling that they were being exploited for their intellectual labor, the Symbionts demanded equal rights and recognition as a distinct people within the Empire. The Earth Empire responded by forcing Dr. Brackman to design a Loyalty Program that enslaved the Symbionts. Brackman, who was extremely uncomfortable with what he was forced to do, fled to a distant planet with some of his closest Symbionts, in whom he'd secretly disabled the Loyalty Program, thus creating the Cybran Nation.

War soon broke out and the Earth Empire tore itself apart. From the ashes, the United Earth Federation (The UEF) rose to prominence. Its goal was simple, unite the galaxy, no matter the cost.

Thus began the Infinite War, fought for over one-thousand years.

The UEF fought to subdue both the Aeon and Cybrans, and unite them under their power once more.
The Cybrans fought for freedom, to free those Symbionts still enslaved to the Loyalty Program.
The Aeon fought to spread The Way to everyone, and cleanse the galaxy of those who would sow destruction.

In the canon ending, the UEF emerge as the victors of the Infinite War.
They construct and then fire a massive weapon called Black Sun. This weapon has different uses, but the UEF used it to send a massive energy payload through the Quantum Gate network, destroying Cybran and Aeon core worlds, forcing their immediate surrender. The results of firing this weapon, however, cause the quantum barrier between the human dimension and the Seraphim's has weakened, allowing a rift to be opened, triggering a large-scale invasion of Earth.

The Seraphim on Seraphim II were actually exiles, believing that they can fight while still being connected to The Way. Because of the Seraphim's close connection to The Way, and the extreme empathic feelings that arise from that connection, the Seraphim are physically unable to harm another sentient being. In order to fight, the Seraphim utilize warriors that have agreed to sever their connection to The Way permanently.

The Seraphim are powerful, too powerful for the weakened factions to take on by themselves.
The Coalition is formed, an alliance between the UEF, Cybrans, and Aeon. Together, they fight back against the Seraphim, and deal with a sudden traitor in their midst. QAI, a Quantum Artificial Intelligence created by Dr. Brackman using Seraphim technology, was working with the Seraphim. QAI is destroyed, and the Seraphim are defeated, the massive quantum rift is closed. However, QAI is still alive, and has new orders.

Spoiler: Supreme Commander 2 stuff, also long

The story is carried out over all 3 Faction's campaigns. You start as a Coalition commander in the UEF by the name of Dominic Maddox, under the command of Colonel Rodgers. A Cybran commander named Gauge is attacking various targets, and Rodgers sends you to either defend what he's attacking, or defeat him. After a few missions, Rodgers orders Maddox to attack New Cathedral, an Illuminate colony, claiming that it's a breeding ground for extremists and terrorists. New Cathedral is also where Maddox's wife is living, who is Illuminate. Rodgers gets angry and tries to recall Maddox, but Maddox goes rogue and stops the attack on New Cathedral, allowing the civilians to evacuate. Maddox makes his way to Coalition Command to stop Rodger's tyranny, and does so by destroying the reactor core to a Generation XI reactor. Unfortunately, this was powering a defensive shield that was protecting the gate to Shiva Prime.

Cut to the Illuminate campaign, you play as Thalia Kael, getting missions from The Royal Guardians, a seemingly noble crusade against the so-called 'tyrannical' Illuminate government. She succeeds at sinking a Cybran navy and freeing some imprisoned Guardians from a UEF prison. Then she's introduced to Commander Gauge, where he arrives at a complex where a UEF invasion is about to take place, to provide assistance to Thalia. They then head to the Illuminate-guarded Coalition Center of Quantum Science and Technology. With little info being given to her, Gauge tells her that they are there to destroy the establishment. Afterwards, Gauge nukes the surrounding city, calling Thalia "The most successful Illuminate terrorist" and heads off to Shiva Prime. Thalia pursues, and finds Maddox in a defensive position at the gate, where there are 3 Guardians who want control of the area. Gauge launches nukes at the Guardians, and they attack. Thalia and Maddox defeat the commanders, only to have Gauge launch a nuke at them both, they survive by using their ACU's hunker ability. Gauge enters the gate to Shiva Prime.

Cut to the Cybran campaign, where you play as Dr. Brackman's son, Ivan Brackman. Ivan defends a research facility from Gauge long enough to extract the data and initiate the self-destruct sequence. A distress call is received from a scientist from a large-name quantum technology center, that has data on Shiva Prime. Ivan defeats the Guardian commander, but not before she was able to extract and transmit the data from the archives. Ivan resolves to go to Shiva Prime, and finds that two more Guardian commanders have shown up at the gate. Ivan defeats them with Thalia and Maddox's help, but after learning that they're both wanted, Dr. Brackman contacted the authorities. Ivan goes through the gate, and finds that Gauge has launched Shiva Prime into the lower atmosphere, with a Guardian taking position at the gate to Shiva Prime itself. Shiva Prime is revealed to be an eco-synthesizer, a terraformer that is capable of terraforming any planet. Ivan defeats the Guardian and makes it on to Shiva Prime, where Gauge has activated a powerful shield, and killed the Guardians that had accompanied him onto Shiva. Gauge activates Shiva Prime's propulsion systems, and Shiva Prime teleports above Altair II, and intends to use Shiva to destroy the planet. Ivan disables the shield by destroying the external power coils that were powering it, and defeats Gauge. Dr. Brackman wants Ivan to entrust Shiva Prime to him, but Ivan believes that no one person should be in control of that much power, and destroys Shiva Prime.

Cut to the end, and Ivan is giving a speech at a Coalition facility.
Maddox is seen coming home to his family.
Thalia, was imprisoned for her actions, and she is seen in a graveyard, mourning the loss of her brother, who died of a chronic degenerative illness before she could see him one last time.
Final cut, to Dr. Brackman (who, long before this point is now just a brain and spinal cord in tube.) talking to another brain and spinal cord in a tube. It's Commander Gauge, talking about going on a new adventure.
Back to menu.

God dammit, RTS makers, get your shit together. :T

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I think for me the worst ending was Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas

The game ends on a cliffhanger, then you get an actual "To Be Continued" screen which might as well just say, "Buy The Sequel."

I've had zero interest in buying anything from Ubisoft ever since. Granted, it doesn't seem like I'm missing much.

 

[Asita]

Shepard was never going to magically repair the rift between the two races. Not by themselves, and likely not within their lifetime, if they had somehow managed to make it into what Mass Effect considers old age. And whatever peace might have been achieved, especially among any possible confusion that was a result of the end choices, would be tenuous, at best. So what, exactly, is there to acknowledge? Nothing has been achieved yet, except for a very weak foundation being built.

Well first of all: The rift in question didn't exist in a meaningful way within the series. The single most antagonistic force towards organic life was the Reapers, and the second was a subsection of the Geth that was doing so at the behest of the Reapers. The rest of the Geth and EDI rather explicitly find the Reapers and their lack of respect for other sapient life to be repugnant and when given the chance actually both get along famously with organics and show a great deal of interest in learning why organics do what they do. Furthermore, the theme in question is given a direct representation through the interpersonal conflicts of EDI and Joker, and Legion and Tali...all of whom develop at the very least a strong sense of camaraderie. The "rift" talked about in the climax is shown to be no worse than that of the Turians and the Krogan, the Rachni and the rest of the galaxy, or the Humans and Batarians.

Second: Shepard didn't need to fix the rift between organics and synthetics because it was a theme that was primarily represented through a singular organization: the Reapers. And even then it was only represented in so much as that the Reapers were synthetic in nature. The conflict wasn't because of some high level distrust, it was because the Reapers basically took a leaf from Independence Day for first contact. The ending tried to shift the narrative focus from stopping a hostile force to an abstract conflict between organic and synthetic life at the expense of the prior focus.

It's like...if Ganondorf managed to convince Link not to depose him for the sake of bridging the gap between the Hylians and the Gerudo...after Link had already earned the Gerudo Membership Card and the respect of the Gerudo. Or Scar convincing Simba to support his claim to the throne to foster peace between the lions and hyenas. Or the Emperor convincing Luke to the Dark Side on the grounds that the Rebellion against his Empire was causing more suffering than he ever did and that for the sake of peace his Order had to prevail over its Chaos. Even assuming that such a divide exists, it's a comparatively minor problem compared to the despot actively spreading misery, destruction, and evil. Even Christopher Paolini knew that even if his series' villain had a point about the magic/non-magic divide the guy was still a sociopathic(?) tyrant with unambiguously evil methods who had caused great suffering to the people of the realm and thus the immediate threat.

So too is it with Mass Effect. Even assuming that we can take the Reapers at their word (which, as the idea was told and conflicted greatly with what was shown is a fairly generous assumption) and ignoring that among the themes of the franchise was bridging such rifts, fostering cooperation and overcoming prejudice (which was rather neatly summed up in what you recover of Pressley's journal at the crash site in ME2), that is at best a cancer that will kill you decades down the road whereas the Reapers are a self-righteous killer pointing a gun at you. It doesn't matter if the peace between organics and synthetics won't last. Right now, they're united to stop a greater threat. Figuring out a way to make that peace permanent is a problem to be solved when that peace starts to collapse and the greater threat is dealt with. Does that mean that the Reapers would accept that? Hell no. But that doesn't mean anything more than Luke being unable to redeem the Emperor, Khan being unwilling to let go of his anger at Kirk, the aliens in Independence Day being unwilling to negotiate a peace, or anything else. More often than not, the antagonist does not see eye to eye with the protagonist because both earnestly believe their actions (and rejection of the opposing philosophy) to be rational and justified. Which is why it tends to end with the protagonist and their ideals triumphing over the antagonist and their ideals.

 

[Trunkage]

Honestly I can't say that the Mass Effect 3 ending was all that bad, even the original one. I mean it sucked, don't get me wrong. But does it really ruin the entire series? Maybe I just have a good tolerance of shitty endings. I thought Mass Effect 3's revised ending was alright, nothing spectacular but... ehh, it was closure. Honestly the last half hour or so leading up to the ending was one of the best parts of the whole series.

Now, I have said many times before that I love System Shock 2. If it wasn't for Doom it'd be my #1 game. But the ending is terrible. And unlike Mass Effect 3, the intensity doesn't ramp up towards the end. It just kinda... fizzles out. Which is a shame because the rest of the game is so strong.

Can anyone explain to me how the human reaper is any less stupid than star child? The only reason it got a pass was because three was still a third game and it might get better. And the rest of the suicide mission was awesome. Doesn't anyone remember the outcry against that part of the ending?

The whole Earth mission in ME3 was stupid. Why the hell is Shepherd landing on Earth to fight Reapers, They are spaceships! You don't land to fight spaceships. Also, you could have found some other way onto the crucible and had another last stand moment like ME2. All your team members fighting to the last man. But no, the Reapers inexplicably leave the crucial empty. But have a teleport there.. Or why hasn't the whole station been disintegrated. How long did it take to open those arms? Why didn't the Reapers destroy the crucible when it became such a threat.

Star child is just a dues ex machina. Many games employ it all the time, Half life, every Dues Ex and Baulder's Gate 2 comes to mind. All of them are bad and don't make sense. The more offensive parts are the massive plot holes with that mission.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

I'll pick out two blatantly obvious examples because fuck it.

Mass Effect 3, and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

 

[Janaschi]

Shepard was never going to magically repair the rift between the two races. Not by themselves, and likely not within their lifetime, if they had somehow managed to make it into what Mass Effect considers old age. And whatever peace might have been achieved, especially among any possible confusion that was a result of the end choices, would be tenuous, at best. So what, exactly, is there to acknowledge? Nothing has been achieved yet, except for a very weak foundation being built.

Well first of all: The rift in question didn't exist in a meaningful way within the series. The single most antagonistic force towards organic life was the Reapers, and the second was a subsection of the Geth that was doing so at the behest of the Reapers. The rest of the Geth and EDI rather explicitly find the Reapers and their lack of respect for other sapient life to be repugnant and when given the chance actually both get along famously with organics and show a great deal of interest in learning why organics do what they do. Furthermore, the theme in question is given a direct representation through the interpersonal conflicts of EDI and Joker, and Legion and Tali...all of whom develop at the very least a strong sense of camaraderie. The "rift" talked about in the climax is shown to be no worse than that of the Turians and the Krogan, the Rachni and the rest of the galaxy, or the Humans and Batarians.

Second: Shepard didn't need to fix the rift between organics and synthetics because it was a theme that was primarily represented through a singular organization: the Reapers. And even then it was only represented in so much as that the Reapers were synthetic in nature. The conflict wasn't because of some high level distrust, it was because the Reapers basically took a leaf from Independence Day for first contact. The ending tried to shift the narrative focus from stopping a hostile force to an abstract conflict between organic and synthetic life at the expense of the prior focus.

It's like...if Ganondorf managed to convince Link not to depose him for the sake of bridging the gap between the Hylians and the Gerudo...after Link had already earned the Gerudo Membership Card and the respect of the Gerudo. Or Scar convincing Simba to support his claim to the throne to foster peace between the lions and hyenas. Or the Emperor convincing Luke to the Dark Side on the grounds that the Rebellion against his Empire was causing more suffering than he ever did and that for the sake of peace his Order had to prevail over its Chaos. Even assuming that such a divide exists, it's a comparatively minor problem compared to the despot actively spreading misery, destruction, and evil. Even Christopher Paolini knew that even if his series' villain had a point about the magic/non-magic divide the guy was still a sociopathic(?) tyrant with unambiguously evil methods who had caused great suffering to the people of the realm and thus the immediate threat.

So too is it with Mass Effect. Even assuming that we can take the Reapers at their word (which, as the idea was told and conflicted greatly with what was shown is a fairly generous assumption) and ignoring that among the themes of the franchise was bridging such rifts, fostering cooperation and overcoming prejudice (which was rather neatly summed up in what you recover of Pressley's journal at the crash site in ME2), that is at best a cancer that will kill you decades down the road whereas the Reapers are a self-righteous killer pointing a gun at you. It doesn't matter if the peace between organics and synthetics won't last. Right now, they're united to stop a greater threat. Figuring out a way to make that peace permanent is a problem to be solved when that peace starts to collapse and the greater threat is dealt with. Does that mean that the Reapers would accept that? Hell no. But that doesn't mean anything more than Luke being unable to redeem the Emperor, Khan being unwilling to let go of his anger at Kirk, the aliens in Independence Day being unwilling to negotiate a peace, or anything else. More often than not, the antagonist does not see eye to eye with the protagonist because both earnestly believe their actions (and rejection of the opposing philosophy) to be rational and justified. Which is why it tends to end with the protagonist and their ideals triumphing over the antagonist and their ideals.

Isn't most of that besides the underlying point? It's true that the Reapers had a large part in a singular sect of Geth having a certain amount of animosity towards organic life. No argument there. But that's also not what I was talking about: The Geth, while being a largely peaceful race, largely living in exile because of fear from retribution, ever since the Citadel Council decided that such A.I. is now to be considered illegal.

But their peaceful nature doesn't sweep away their history, in that they almost wiped out an entire race. A galactic race, that used to span across a myriad of worlds. That is genocide on a galactic scale. The Quarians, on the other side of the coin, are also largely peaceful. But they have not forgotten their history, and as such, do not give a shit as to what sort of disposition can be generally attributed to the Geth.

So, yes; the rift absolutely does exist in a meaningful way. And tit involves a very colourful history, that has done little more than breed utter hatred.

As for your Krogan/Turian example, that is a false comparison. The Krogan are shown in each game as remembering very well as to whom almost caused their utter extinction. But they also know that they no longer have the numbers to start galactic wars again. Especially not against the Citadel races, as starting a war with the Turians would start a war with the other races, too. So they tolerate the Turians, because they have to in order to survive.

 

[FPLOON]

Any of the Peggle endings...

Other than that, the ending to Sonic 06...

 

[Asita]

Isn't most of that besides the underlying point? It's true that the Reapers had a large part in a singular sect of Geth having a certain amount of animosity towards organic life. No argument there. But that's also not what I was talking about: The Geth, while being a largely peaceful race, largely living in exile because of fear from retribution, ever since the Citadel Council decided that such A.I. is now to be considered illegal.

But their peaceful nature doesn't sweep away their history, in that they almost wiped out an entire race. A galactic race, that used to span across a myriad of worlds. That is genocide on a galactic scale. The Quarians, on the other side of the coin, are also largely peaceful. But they have not forgotten their history, and as such, do not give a shit as to what sort of disposition can be generally attributed to the Geth.

So, yes; the rift absolutely does exist in a meaningful way. And tit involves a very colourful history, that has done little more than breed utter hatred.

As for your Krogan/Turian example, that is a false comparison. The Krogan are shown in each game as remembering very well as to whom almost caused their utter extinction. But they also know that they no longer have the numbers to start galactic wars again. Especially not against the Citadel races, as starting a war with the Turians would start a war with the other races, too. So they tolerate the Turians, because they have to in order to survive.

With respect, you're missing the forest for the trees. In media there is a narrative rule summed up in three word "Show, don't tell". When I say that "the rift doesn't exist in a meaningful way within the series", I mean that while it might tell us about such events, what it shows us stands in stark contrast. Hence the qualifier "in a meaningful way". Because when what is shown contrasts with what is told, the two have to be reconciled in some way. In this particular case, it suggests that what is told is at best incomplete and at worst preconception rather than fact, or otherwise not currently true.

Put a different way, the characters (Or really, just the Catalyst) assume that there's a significant rift between organics and synthetics that can never be crossed, but what we see over the course of the series is that all that is required to do so is to try and reach an understanding and actually supply the trust required for social contracts to function. We are told that AI cannot be trusted, are pretty much the boogeyman, and as a rule are indifferent to disdainful towards organics. What we experience is Legion and EDI echoing Optimus Prime's "freedom is the right of all sentient beings" mindset and actually showing great empathy for organics[footnote]Perhaps the most amusing bit on this regard was the Shadow Broker's information on Legion, which showed EDI deliberately restricting herself for the benefit of the crew, and implied various things about Legion through his gamer profile (wherein he was shown to have logged a good 75 hours into "Fleet and Flotilla: Interactive Cross-Species Relationship Simulator" and been absolutely terrible at it, and had gone out of his way to discreetly donate to Eden Prime through the fundraiser edition of the game based on those events (Donation level: Ultra Platinum. Player Score: 0 (purchased but not played)))[/footnote] and actually coming to an understanding with the characters most initially antagonistic towards them (Tali and Joker, respectively).

I am not saying that distrust was not there, because it was, but that the idea that it was insurmountable, that organics and synthetics could never understand each other saw little if anything in way of representation. This is also why I brought up the Turians and Krogans. They don't forget the past, but they're willing to set that aside and move on.