Update: Fan "Fixes" Mass Effect 3 Ending With A 539-Page Rewrite

[Vargras]

It's been almost two years since ME3 released, and people are still complaining about the ending.

Seriously?

 

[Pr0]

It's been almost two years since ME3 released, and people are still complaining about the ending.

Seriously?

Actually the inverse thing to consider here is that its been almost two years since ME3 released and people are still having to be told how good the ending supposedly was, and/or be told "dude its been almost two years, you should let it go."

I'm afraid that either way....its crap.

 

[Alarien]

The original ending was, as another said, underwhelming and had a few really bad ideas in it (destruction of the mass relays). The extended ending was fine. It wasn't fantastic, no, but there had already been so much else resolved in ME3 that I felt that it was fine, and that most of my expectations for player driven story endings (i.e. Genophage, Geth/Quarian war, etc) had been suitably met.

I do think that, kinda unforgivably, the "real" endings require you to have Javik and Leviathan, both paid DLC's, as well as the extended edition patch.

Still, ME3 ranks as my favorite game of all time. My wife's as well, and between us we probably have around 43 years of active gaming.

Edit: To PrO: Or "how bad it was." The people who really hated the ending REALLY still feel the need to point out everything they hate about the ending and call everyone who disagrees wrong. The best part is that they think there is "truth" in their statement. "Because I said, and so did this youtube guy" does not make something "truth" any more than me saying "I felt it was fine" makes it truth.

 

[Seracen]

More power to the creator of this opus (which I intend to read), but how is this any different from the myriad of fanfics that came out after ME3 (which all sought to do the same thing)?

Hell, I rewrote "Priority: Earth," posted the damn thing, and got several thousand hits in a week, and that was just me. I am certain there are larger and more widely viewed works out there.

Let's not even get started on the Marauder Shields Comic, and all the various mod/video edits.

Like I said, I am looking forward to the read, but it's just one more addition to my compendium of "possible endings," which isn't a bad thing, I just question the need for an article about it.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Besides, claiming that some critique of art is pretty much an objective, irrefutable analysis that leaves nothing open to interpretation... well, the only thing you'll achieve is make me laugh.

Oi.

I am talking about the actual logical flow of the story, plot points, literary tools, and general writing etiquette. Not a person's enjoyment of the series, ending, or the overall game itself. That is another thing entirely and I have no beef with anyone who enjoys it. My reaction was a frivolous retort against the other persons sarcasm that I hoped could also lead to more serious discussion had he glanced over one of the videos or agreed to part ways if he'd neither the time nor interest.

P.S. I really hate sarcasm.

Are you implying that someone was only able to enjoy it because she is ignorant of the rules of storytelling? That if only she was more critical she would not like the ending as well?

Did you miss the part where I said that people wrote analyses just as elaborate as the one you linked, explicitly addressing all these criticisms yet still arrive at a different conclusion?

 

[Saulkar]

Furthermore I did not even remotely imply that I was irked by your enjoyment of the game. You can enjoy it and the ending all you want and it will not change how I think of you.

Okay, sorry. I'm sure I've seen those video you linked when I played the whole ME trilogy almost a year ago and then tried to look up everything there is plus discuss the ending with other people.

Unfortunately as a general rule, people who dare to claim the ending is fine tend to be attacked quite horribly (well relatively to other game-related on the internet) simply for liking something. Hence my original post which was a bit of a trolling on my side. But honestly I'd really be amused if some of those people who get into red rage when the ME3 ending is mentioned would catch on and write another essay.

Regardless, appreciating anything artistic or entertaining is subjective by principle. If I tell a joke and you don't like it, you can talk as much as you want why the joke is bad and there will still be people who like the joke and will laugh at it.

As for the ME3 ending, I played the games too long ago to discuss anything (I made a topic here on Escapist back then but in no way in hell am I going to look it up) and it's rather forgettable anyway, but long story short, the trilogy had too many flaws, shortcomings and just general stuff stuff for me to fall in love with it. The (extended) ending of ME3 was one of the definite high points though. The lowest point was the human reaper in ME2. Now that's something that gives me a gag reflex even now so I can sort of understand why the ME3 ending can have this affect on those who didn't like it. But still.

I am extremely pleased with your articulate response. I understand your reasoning and while I do not feel I have anything more to add I will say, looking back on my original response, that I was quite passionate and apologise if I seemed dickish.

 

[Agent 45]

Here, you want an objective analysis that smartassery cannot disarm? (rhetorical question)

Spoiler: Then pull up a chair, grab a drink, and turn your brain on...

This will be a long one.
Mind you, there is very little open to interpretation when you break the ME3 ending(s) down.

Do you realize that there are also a lot of people who wrote equally detailed analyses in defense of the ending as a reaction to all the critique? Just linking to a number of one select series of videos arguing in one direction does not proves you right, as much as me linking to one of those defenses would prove you wrong.

Besides, claiming that some critique of art is pretty much an objective, irrefutable analysis that leaves nothing open to interpretation... well, the only thing you'll achieve is make me laugh.

The few analyses that I've read that defend the ending seem to make a lot of mistakes as to why ME3's ending is bad. For one thing, they assume that people found it too dark and wanted a happy ending. Some people are fine with a dark ending, some are not, but that's not what matters. It's bad because of a ton of other reasons, which many people have made those lenghty videos about. I highly recommend MrBtongue's videos in this regard. Second, those articles that defend the ending also state that many people are upset over the lack of choice and consequence, while the final choice results in massive consequences. In the original ending, one could not have possibly understood what kind of effects the choices would have, the mechanics behind those consequences (how does synthesis even happen, for example) and so on.

So people were making a choice they did not understand, which is not something in the ending's favor. The extended cut did fix some issues, but most of them were still there. These are some of the reasons why I would argue that the ending was in fact, bad by some objective measure. Not completely of course, whether you found the manner in which the character's arcs were wrapped up satisfyingly is up to you, amongst some other things. But I would hesitate to call ME3's ending art. There is art in the Mass Effect series, but it wasn't in the ending. EDIT: That last part is a quote by MrBtongue, just for disclaimer's sake. Also I don't think that anyone who likes the ending is stupid or anything. Just something I felt needed to be said

 

[Gary Thompson]

Great, now he can fix the garbage story, rampant sexism, auto-dialog, half-assed cameos, unfunny jokes, retcons, and convoluted "emotional" scenes.

And once that's fixed, I might re-install ME3, might.

 

[Trishbot]

The original ending was sure something else, wasn't it... Confusing, anti-climatic, shallow, stupid, illogical, unfulfilling, inconclusive...

The Extended Cut was a very nice gesture. It didn't fix EVERY problem (the very foundation of it involving the Star Kid is totally broken), but, thematically, it works a hell of a lot better than "pick your ending, galaxy blows up in one of three colors, Joker and EDI appear on some random planet, roll credits, creepy Buzz Aldrin, buy more DLC please, end".

Still not perfect, but it raised an "F" ending to a modest "B". Still disappointing they couldn't just knock it out of the park (ME1 and ME2 were extremely satisfying to complete), but this is as good as it's going to get with that concept, and it's leagues better than the original ending.

Woe to those that were colorblind too.

 

[Saulkar]

Are you implying that someone was only able to enjoy it because she is ignorant of the rules of storytelling? That if only she was more critical she would not like the ending as well?

What? No! I am implying that I find genuine problems (going to avoid using the word objective this time as this seems to open up more arguments that I do not want to have as it appears I cannot articulate what I am specifically attaching the moniker to very well) with the plot and ending but while I personally cannot tolerate them I do not chastise others for doing so, ignoring them, or just not caring and enjoying it anyways.

Did you miss the part where I said that people wrote analyses just as elaborate as the one you linked, explicitly addressing all these criticisms yet still arrive at a different conclusion?

No, I simply did not know how to respond, simple as that. I have watched several defending the ending and plot and they did not make as much sense to me as those criticising it. Maybe I am just not as good at mentally juggling two different positions this complex or I simply did not watch the right videos. Can you embed yours?

 

[bug_of_war]

You can say it all you want. It won't make it true. Just look to your right and you will see another one like yourself proclaiming the end of the world or that the Mesiah has been resurrected in his pet chihuahua.

The ending was a trainwreck of EPIC proportions and just all round horrible writing. However unlike most people outraged or who were happy with the ending I expected it to suck. I was still angry but the signs were there from Mass Effect 2 that they really had no idea what to do given the meandering plot of the second game.

The ending in neither bad nor good, it has some interesting choices and depending on how you played and what your expectations were will depend on your reaction. This is a piece of subjective material and your post is somewhat offensive and is one of the reasons many still see gamers as children. Hell, this dude spending all this time re-writing the ending kinda prooves their point.

OT:This is more than passion, this is somewhat scary.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

It's kind of sad and awesome at the same time.

 

[conmag9]

Just read this version of the ending. Was skeptical at first, but admittedly this guy's writing is pretty good. Though all the extra content required makes it a bit untenable.

In short:

There's bad, medium and good endings dependent on your EMS score. One problem is that the good ending is a little too good; the fight on Earth goes very smoothly. With the worst ending, Shepard doesn't even make it up the beam.

Once Shepard gets up the beam and finishes the dialogue with the Illusive Man, Harbinger assumes control of TIM's body and 'supercharges' him, and there's a climactic boss fight. Once you kill TIM, Harbinger also dies for some reason.

The Star Child is then replaced with the Prothean VI you meet on Ilos in ME1 (Vigil), who appears and tells you about the reapers based on his studies of them (this version of the VI being a newer one with more information).

It turns out the Crucible is not a weapon, but a power source containing lots of dark energy. And Shepard is the catalyst (which makes a lot of sense in context) who can choose Destroy, Control or Synthesis as usual. In this version, Destroy is automatically picked if you're a paragon (get rid of reapers), Control is renegade (take their power for yourself) and Synthesis is for if you played an in-betweeny Shepard. Synthesis is portrayed here as being the inferior choice that Shepard resigns his/herself to as there is no other way they can foresee; you even have the option here (unlike the other two) to back out and get the "refuse ending" introduced in the extended cut.

In the good & medium endings, Shepard survives.

After all that, there's hours of epilogues. The writer even suggests providing the player with a kind of gallery, so they can watch each epilogue (one for almost every important character in the game) in any order, pause them and come back, etc.

Here's a list of the characters he writes epilogues for:
? Garrus
? Tali
? Kaiden
? Ashley
? James
? Liara
? Javik
? Cortez
? Ken & Gabby
? Engineer Adams
? Dr. Chakwas
? Dr. Michel
? Allers
? Khalisah
? Miranda
? Jack
? Major Kirrahe
? Admiral Hackett
? Primarch Victus
? Kasumi
? Zaeed
? Mordin
? Maelon
? Padok Wiks
? Falare
? Jacob & Brynn
? Aria
? Grunt
? Samara
? Kelly
? Eve (Bakara)
? Rachni
? Wrex
? Krogan Warlord
? Wreav
? Oriana
? Geth
? Admiral Koris
? Admiral Xen
? Admiral Gerrel
? Admiral Raan
? Major Coats
? Kahlee sanders
? Thane
? Morinth


And each one varies depending on whether you get a good, medium or bad version of the Destroy, Control or Synthesis ending. These are also in addition to the main epilogue. It's really over-the-top.

Thanks for the summery.

Warning, some spoilers.

While some of that is interesting, I'm deeply dubious at the simplification that Destroy is Paragon and Control is Renegade. At least, assuming that Destroy still blows the tar out of all synthetics. Blowing the crap out of every AI, the Geth (who I really like) and dropping the Quarians out of their new golden age within it's first days (I always managed the Quarian/Geth peace) isn't acceptable to me. On the other side of things, a Paragon in Control of the Reapers grants VAST stores of knowledge to the Galaxy, an immense armada of ultra-powerful starships for the reconstruction efforts, an awesome voice, and if people (understandably) aren't cool with one person, even a hero like Shepard, having all that power? Shepard can simply download all she got from them into servers, smash the entire armada upon itself somewhere in Dark Space, and even survive personally by performing the same download trick she used to get into the reapers in the first place with some new human-scale robot body(or, if that's not possible, keep one mostly disabled reaper vessel and run a body in the same way EDI did. A properly done Control ending is, bar none, the happiest outcome. Everyone wins, except the reapers.

Mind, that assumes a Paragon shep. Renegade Shepard isn't someone I would trust with a box of matches, much less the reapers.

 

[Thammuz]

I think in the end, the whole issue with the ending is more of a testament to the emotional investment people had in many of the characters and plotlines, which they felt had not enough closure, coupled with bad management and an awkward change of artistic direction.

Personally, I wasn't satisfied when i played it without the EC, and the EC seemed just a huge cop-out that filled the holes but didn't address the main issues, mainly the fact that the idea behind the ending contradicts one of the core principles the other games tried to build up. Synthetics versus organics as a theme was thoroughly denied as a dychotomy all through ME2 and 3, depending on your playstyle, and the ending did not reflect that. Add that the choices were very much irksome (or downright space-magic, as in the sythesis option) and you get an ending that left me, personally, feeling there was no right answer.

Until the very last moment I expected renegade and paragon choices to pop up, like every other time in the thrilogy where a character is being miopic and close minded, and when i ended having to pick i thought "No man should have the authority of controlling the greatest force in the galaxy, so that's the renegade option, destruction is imposing a sacrifice on an innocent populace you have no authority on, and sythesis is just damn weird, but at least i'm the only one dying." and went for synthesis. But i did so just because i had no other option, and even now that they've added the refusal option, a paragon shouldn't pick that, because can't just sacrifice the galaxy because you don't want to choose.

Basically, what i'm saying is that it killed my roleplaying experience. The game up until that point is actually quite good, but knowing i have no option i'm comfortable with that also makes sense makes me weary about the whole thing. If they just had the foresight to exchange synthesis for just "peace" or something, and didn't make it needlessly metaphysical and inconsistent with the otherwise pretty hard sci-fi of the rest of the trilogy, i would've enjoyed it just fine even with the plot holes.

That said, I have no interest in a huge rewrite, the game is still the game and everything else is wishful thinking.

I envy those who played a character that reached the ending and found one that worked for them. Personally, i felt i was suddenly playing the wrong person for the job, and maybe that was the idea. Maybe the point was to underline how the straight and narrow isn't always a tenable position, i don't know, at this point i don't even really care. I don't even begrudge bioware, honestly. It's just a damn pity that my experience wasn't what they planned for in the ending, i've been in form the beginning, i would've loved to be "there" in the end.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

I played Mass Effect from the beginning and wasn't that disappointed with the ending, especially after the Citadel DLC came out to sugar the pill. Between the violent reaction to the ending of Mass Effect 3 & Dragon Age 2, Bioware fans appeared to be entitled, angry people. Yes, you should always strive for better, but the reactions didn't tally with how good those games are despite their flaws.

There are some interesting ideas in this. Don't be put off by the length, the layout & concept art means it doesn't take anything like the same amount of time to read a book of that length.

Here's what I liked/didn't like from his magnus opus:

Neutral:
-Some changes are a tad pedantic like the colour of a drink Shepard shares with Dr.Chakwas
-It largely acts as a wish-list & some changes would need a lot of effort to pull off, if they could be accomplished. That is after all why a lot of the choices of ME1 & ME2 converge.

Good:
-Character epilogues (Unless you get the Zeta ending i.e. worst ending)
-Additional naturalistic dialogue (with exception of the 'romance' stuff)
-No need to re-fuel the Normandy
-Fleshing out of effects of past choices for Legion
-Expanded Reaper indoctrinated, included Elcor

Bad:
-One of the first suggestions & the first piece of concept art is topless Garrus, which makes the whole thing seem like a bad fan-fic. Then there's the obsession with Kelly Chambers & the weird proposal of having hack-journalist Kalisah as a love interest (Though picking the "I resent your disingenuous assertions!" option would probably hamper that one)...
-You still need a high effective military strength level before the endgame, otherwise you get the Zeta ending where you die prematurely. That would annoy some players who don't do side-missions.
-Except for the presence of the star-child, the majority of the pre-cutscene ending isn't that different.

 

[zerragonoss]

snip

I think the real reason the ending is so hatted is it made people stop and think about those flaws. I personally just tend to ride with a story and don't really think about it too much besides underlying themes. No structure analysis or watching for plot holes. The endings however was so WTF that it made me look back on the game which used a lot of illusion, that the ending dispelled, harming the entire series. (Not saying thats a bad thing video games have only so much they can do and illusion is one of their best tools which till the end mass effect used very well.)