Why do people completely ignore how great 98% of Mass Effect 3 was and just focus on the ending?

[Hawk eye1466]

Because the ending is what everyone remembers so you could have a fantastic beginning and middle but if the ending is total shit then people will decide it's the worst game ever just for fucking up the characters that you've grown to love with a stupid cut to black or something.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Mass Effect 3 did something to me: it lifted the blinders.

The first two games were so good, I was willing to overlook plot holes and inconsistencies, and how Mass Effect 2's plot was kinda limp. 3 on the other hand, sucked so hard the plot holes came back with a vengeance to distract and befuddle. The ending made the entire series seem less good retroactively and made the whole ordeal a huge waste of time.

With the story no longer holding my attention, the gameply came under full scrutiny: The controls suck, having every action (run, take cover, vault, roll, use, jump) be mapped to the A button was pure stupidity. The levels are linear to a level that would make FFXIII pink with envy, having very little in the way of breaking up the monotony. None of the battles are all that exciting, especially if you've played the multiplayer and blew through hundreds of foes in a single match with only two guns and three powers to work with. The incentive to replay is basically non existant, as there is very little roleplaying involved; you are not Commander Shepard, you are playing as a guy/gal named Shepard. There are huge swaths of the talking scenes that go by without player input, and Shepard has gotten progressively dumber as the series went one. And most damning of is the complete lack of a final boss to defeat-- I would have been way more lenient on this game if there was an actual final encounter with some giant Reaper abomination to give some semblance of finality, but no- just a battle that would have been laughed at in a Bronze MP match and a completely unsatisfying (and piss-easy) verbal duel with the Illusive Man.

So yeah, instead of a blockbuster that I fully expected to blow my shit down the street, I got the poorly executed direct to DVD sequel. Fuck. That.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

I can't for the life of me understand why people hate the mass effect ending. It made perfect sense to me and was a satisfactory conclusion to one of my favorite series. I will quickly address all of the "plot hole" I hear people continuously quote in order to justify it as a bad ending.

The mass relays. People keep on saying that if the emp let off by the crucible that destroyed the mass relays and didn't blow up the solar systems is a contradiction to what we learned from the arrival dlc for ME 2. Bollocks. In Mass Effect 2 they smashed a bloody asteroid into the relay, it wasn't an emp. The scope and execution is completely different.

The fact that there was still the color emp for the control option. My first thought is to ask why the hell you would pick the control option? That goes against the motivation of the character to that point. If you saved the geth like I did I can understand synthesis; but back to the point. The energy emitted from the crucible was still doing the same thing, sending a large amount of energy to the reapers. It needs to be sent somehow and the mass relays are probably the best delivery system. They got destroyed due to the large amounts of energy. They can be rebuilt like the ghost kid said. Speaking of the ghost kid...

The ghost kid. People keep on saying that the ghost kid was pulled out of someones ass at the last second. This isn't true. There was a codex of said kid in Mass effect 1.

How Shepard's crew was on the Normandy. There was an evac. scene.

How Anderson was ahead of Shepard in the citadel. This has two explanations. The first being Anderson was flung into the beam by the explosion and still had the momentum. Or two the dialogue between them. The walls were shifting infront of them. They could have arrived about ten feet from each other and been far enough apart due to the whole wall business.

Why Joker left. If you saw the blast emitting from the crucible and had the i.q. of a deck chair would you stay there and wait.

Hopefully this has calmed all yo people who couldn't think for about .5 seconds about these "plot holes" and found that there were no plot holes. Most of the time I have a feeling that everybody who said the ending was stupid comes from one of two camps. Either they never played it and just kept on spouting everything they heard on the internet or they were one of the people who thought that Inception was confusing or complicated, i.e. retards.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

Continued:

Multiple endings. Thinking about it no game had "Multiple endings". Let's take mass effect 2 for example. The only differences was the amount of people that died.

And to be honest I feel that Mass effect three has too many options to end it on. I feel that a game should have a definite ending, a proper conclusion, not be open ended. Many people may say otherwise, but those people can shut up.

If you need validation for the lack of endings think of it like this: a singular opening, a singular (almost) ending. Unless they reveal that Shepard received brain damage they shouldn't let you do the control option.

 

[Jailbird408]

Spoiler

Destroy still kills off EDI and the Geth. Fuck you Starchild. You had better believe I am finding a way to remake Geth, AND Legion, AND EDI once the Relays are repaired. Fucking Reapers.

That's weird, I went with the Control ending, and

Spoiler

EDI didn't die. She went down with the Normandy along with everyone else, but she was still functioning.

Truth be told, I didn't really mind the ending. It went by so fast I still had a good taste in my mouth from the rest of the game, which DID NOT SUCK.

 

[Smeggs]

Yeah I was let down, and even hated, the original ending to Mass Effect 3, but does that mean Bioware is now the worst triple A developer in the world and I will never buy any product they make ever again? HECK NO! Am I going to ignore the rest of the GOTY-potential game that had points that literally made me laugh out loud and cry tears of sadness for the characters? Hell no! Developers sometimes trip and make mistakes, and just because you didn't like the ending to the game doesn't mean that Bioware will never make any decent product again.


That is just how I feel about the whole cluster-f. Just my opinion on the matter and I hope at least 2% of the raging escapist community agrees with me.

You're eating a delicious meal.

You go to take the final bite when you suddenly feel something wriggling in your mouth.

The back end of a cockroach with one of its legs still twitching had somehow gotten mixed up in your food.

You won't remember that meal after a day or two, but you'll always remember that horrible, disgusting final bite.

If you fail to deliver a proper ending, you have failed. Period. It'd be like watching Old Yeller but at the end instead of killing the dog suddenly St. Bernrd Jesus comes down from the sky and lifts him up to doggie-heaven to spare the boy's innocence.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

Spoiler

Destroy still kills off EDI and the Geth. Fuck you Starchild. You had better believe I am finding a way to remake Geth, AND Legion, AND EDI once the Relays are repaired. Fucking Reapers.

That's weird, I went with the Control ending, and

Spoiler

EDI didn't die. She went down with the Normandy along with everyone else, but she was still functioning.

Truth be told, I didn't really mind the ending. It went by so fast I still had a good taste in my mouth from the rest of the game, which DID NOT SUCK.

Ah, but Control only affects Shepard and the Reapers. Synthesis affects everyone (Though not to the extent of death in EDI's case, or that of the Geth or even Reapers), while Destroy only affects the Reapers, other synthetics including EDI and the Geth, and possibly Shepard depending on Effective Military Strength.

EDI would have been just fine with the Control ending. Personally though, I myself could never make my Sheps make that choice. But, to each their own.

 

[Jailbird408]

Spoiler

Destroy still kills off EDI and the Geth. Fuck you Starchild. You had better believe I am finding a way to remake Geth, AND Legion, AND EDI once the Relays are repaired. Fucking Reapers.

That's weird, I went with the Control ending, and

Spoiler

EDI didn't die. She went down with the Normandy along with everyone else, but she was still functioning.

Truth be told, I didn't really mind the ending. It went by so fast I still had a good taste in my mouth from the rest of the game, which DID NOT SUCK.

Ah, but Control only affects Shepard and the Reapers.

If Coltrol only affected the Reapers and Shepard, why did the Normandy crash? I picked Control specifically to avoid that.
Come to think of it, I don't know why I'm okay with the ME3 ending.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

Spoiler

Destroy still kills off EDI and the Geth. Fuck you Starchild. You had better believe I am finding a way to remake Geth, AND Legion, AND EDI once the Relays are repaired. Fucking Reapers.

That's weird, I went with the Control ending, and

Spoiler

EDI didn't die. She went down with the Normandy along with everyone else, but she was still functioning.

Truth be told, I didn't really mind the ending. It went by so fast I still had a good taste in my mouth from the rest of the game, which DID NOT SUCK.

Ah, but Control only affects Shepard and the Reapers.

If Control only affected the Reapers and Shepard, why did the Normandy crash? I picked Control specifically to avoid that.
Come to think of it, I don't know why I'm okay with the ME3 ending.

... Good point, forgot about the Normandy. In that case, all of the endings affect the Normandy, but it depends on EMS on how badly its damaged.

And trust me, Extended Cut improves on what I thought were absolutely shittastic endings. I still think they're mediocre, if only for the fact that the writing team CLEARLY had the potential for greatness.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

I can't even comprehend how anyone who was a fan of WRPGs can say the rest of the game wasn't awesome. The ending was TERRIBLE. It was utterly awful, perhaps the worst ending in video game history... but the rest of the game was excellent. The combat was the best I've played in an RPG. The characters, while much more limited than in ME2, were still excellent. The missions were the most interesting and fleshed-out in the series. There was a lot more emotional depth to the game, and more memorable moments.

I haven't played many new games this year, but of the few I have played ME3 is MILES ahead of the competition.

 

[votemarvel]

The ghost kid. People keep on saying that the ghost kid was pulled out of someones ass at the last second. This isn't true. There was a codex of said kid in Mass effect 1.

I assume you are referring the the planet Klencory and the entry about the Beings of Light?

True that could have changed over time from one being who has decided to kill us all to multiple being who want to save us from being killed by synthetic machine devils.

However as pointed out by the hologram kid, no-one but Shepard knew he existed. While legends of the Reapers would of course pass down through the ages, would a tale of something people didn't know existed. Would the Leviathans really passed on that knowledge if it increased their chances of being discovered?

It's possible that the Beings of Light are the Catalyst, though for me unlikely.

How Shepard's crew was on the Normandy. There was an evac. scene.

The evac scene was added in by the Extended Cut DLC. In the shipped endings they seemingly teleported onto the Normandy.

How Anderson was ahead of Shepard in the citadel. This has two explanations. The first being Anderson was flung into the beam by the explosion and still had the momentum. Or two the dialogue between them. The walls were shifting infront of them. They could have arrived about ten feet from each other and been far enough apart due to the whole wall business.

That's an interesting point but Anderson wasn't in front of Shepard when they were running to the beam, so the changes of him being thrown into it are slim.

The shifting walls idea is most likely true. PC modders who activated the floating camera found another passageway littered with corpses that Anderson could have gone through.

Why Joker left. If you saw the blast emitting from the crucible and had the i.q. of a deck chair would you stay there and wait.

A very reasonable point.

However it wasn't running that annoyed people. It was again the time frame. As originally presented, for Joker to be where he was, he would have had to start leaving before he knew the Crucible had activated.

Continued:

Multiple endings. Thinking about it no game had "Multiple endings". Let's take mass effect 2 for example. The only differences was the amount of people that died.

And to be honest I feel that Mass effect three has too many options to end it on. I feel that a game should have a definite ending, a proper conclusion, not be open ended. Many people may say otherwise, but those people can shut up.

If you need validation for the lack of endings think of it like this: a singular opening, a singular (almost) ending. Unless they reveal that Shepard received brain damage they shouldn't let you do the control option.

In the shipped ending, whatever you may think of the hologram kid's logic, it described three very different outcomes.

The game then proceeded to show us three near identical ending cinematics where the biggest difference seemed to be a palette swap.

Don't tell people your choices are going to produce wildly different results, only to then show them that they are virtually identical.

The Extended Cut fixed many of the issues with the endings. They added the evac for the crew, they added Joker being ordered to leave thus fixing the botched timeline, they added cinematics that made each choice truly distinct.

Have you played the endings without the Extended Cut installed? It seems to me that you haven't.

 

[FitScotGaymer]

Mass Effect 3 wasn't a bad game.

Discounting the ending I would have gave it a 6.5 out of 10 myself. Decent but not spectacular. My reason for that is that while the game has some truely memorable and awesome moments (Tuchanka as an example) it also had moments that were just appalling ("STEEEVVE!!!" anyone?) and it is this schizophrenic nature of the game and the fact that it has no proper introduction that makes the game not anywhere near as good as the prior ME's.

With the extended cut that score rises to about 7.5 out of 10 for me. Because while the ending is no longer batshit insane, it still has no real introduction, the game renders ME2 pointless, and is still schizophrenic in the nature of its writing.

Even Dragon Age 2, which was at the time the worst Bioware release ever, scores better from me (7.5 out of 10) prior to the EC because while the game had flaws it's narrative is more or less coherent and its characters are memorable. Even if the game does end on a flat note, ending on a flat note is better than being batshit insane.

The problem is now that there is a very real perception and culture in gaming right now that anything less than a 10 out of 10 is an abject failure and deserves flung out; and because of this people react more negatively than they really need to.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

The game then proceeded to show us three near identical ending cinematics where the biggest difference seemed to be a palette swap.

Don't tell people your choices are going to produce wildly different results, only to then show them that they are virtually identical.

The point I was trying to make it that if you took a few seconds to think about each ending you would see that it made sense, even the choice to control the reapers. It's not the creators fault everyone needs every little detail spelled out.

 

[alik44]

Well in hind sight about 50-68% of mass effect 3 is just a plain old disappointing. the ending on the other hand was just a huge huge misstep out of nowhere that just just....its that bad.

 

[carpathic]

I waited a long time to play it, hoping the EC would fix things.

It didn't. I cannot even do a second playthrough of this game. The story is all there, on ME1 and ME2 I have still found the odd thing I either did not remember, or had never found (the toilet in Shepard's room in ME2 for instance, never found it until my last playthrough).

The game was destined to be crushed by expectations. Playing up the bromance with Garrus helped, I almost cried when Legion died. I wanted to throw my controller when I didn't get to Kill Kai Leng on first meeting him (especially since a healthy Thane would've owned that little punk).

Also, (almost) mandatory multiplayer made me FURIOUS. If I want to play with an asshole, I'll just play by myself.

Even parts of the ending I liked - like where Shepard and Anderson talk about being tired. I just felt like the ending didn't live up to its possibilities. Maybe one option where I could have a happy ending. The whole sacrifice for the good of all didn't fit thematically.

 

[The Human Torch]

That's a silly question.

(a) Some folks don't consider the 98% to be great. (EDIT: See above.)

(b) The ending is the final impression, the taste that lingers on your tongue so to speak.

(c) The climax and the ending of a story are what everything before it leads up to. If those parts suck then I can't blame people for no longer being enthusiastic about the lead-up parts.

This.

Plus, who needs an ending, right? Endings are for losers, real men play games without coming to a satisfying conclusion. /sarcasm

 

[votemarvel]

The point I was trying to make it that if you took a few seconds to think about each ending you would see that it made sense, even the choice to control the reapers. It's not the creators fault everyone needs every little detail spelled out.

There is a famous saying "show, don't tell."

So there is the flaw in the endings. Bioware told us they were going to be vastly different and then showed us that they weren't.

That's not people not being able to figure out the endings and needing it spelt out, it's simply bad story telling.

Also in regard to the destruction of the Mass Relays. Bioware seemed shocked that people would conclude that it meant that the fleets would be stuck in the Sol System and the turians and quarians would starve before reaching a suitable system at conventional FTL speeds.

Another conclusion they didn't seem to think people would come to is that when the Citadel exploded it would mean the death of everyone on it, both the presidium and the wards.

That's shocking to me as those are conclusions the overall dark theme of the game would draw people.

Bioware said that they'd never just kill off all the people on the Wards you spent the game saving just like that but it's hard to see how people could think differently.

Just speaking of Destroy, if the explosion didn't kill all the people on the Citadel by destroying the power sources that kept the atmosphere together, and why should we think it didn't when the pulse disabled not only the Reapers but their technology, then the millions of people on the Wards would also starve because there is no way the Alliance could get enough food and water to them with the trade routes now inaccessible because of the destruction of the Mass Relays.

So even if the turian and quarian fleets could get to a system with enough food for the fleets, it's even more likely that the people on the Citadel are now dead.

It seems to me that Bioware intended the endings to be interpreted in one way, then were shocked when people thought something different.

 

[Judgment90]

tbh, I didn't think the ending was good, but it wasn't terrible, kinda lazy, but not terrible.

also, just because the game didn't have a good ending, it doesn't mean the rest of the game is horrible.

 

[crimsoncheesecake]

when you have a game that clearly focuses on and shines with its compelling story, setting, characters and cinematics (the actual gameplay was never that important in ME, lets face it) i understand completely why ppl got pissed off that the ending just completely turned all that made the trilogy so good in the first place on its head. Adding to that all the seemingly significant choices u made in ME1 and 2 turned out to have no real consequence whatsoever (except for some bs "galactic readiness" rating which just didnt really work well at all), this raises the question of why they ever bothered giving you a choice in the first place (e.g the collector base, the geth heretics, rachni queen etc.). The only part of the game that to felt like it truly gave choices made in me1 & 2 meaning was the tuchanka campaign. I understand it would have been hard to pull off so im not pissed off about it, just dissapointed. I still enjoyed playing me3 but the only thing it wasnt worse at than me1&2 was gameplay, which was a lot more fun but then again not why i played the ME games.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It's sad that I have to preface this with "In my opinion", but there it is.

The reason is twofold:
1) The main appeal of Mass Effect as a series, at least for me, was never in the gameplay but the story and characters.
The gameplay is bare-bones, Gears of War gunfights. They look cool, but they are not mechanically engaging.

Dialog leads almost entirely to predestination, with the Paragon and Renegade choices being the only significant deviations for most branches. But at least there are branches until ME3.
If nothing else, the multiple branches helps punch up the dialog on repeated playthroughs, but it isn't really gameplay.

2) When one is invested that firmly in the story, a terrible ending is about the worst thing that could happen; it denies the player closure.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game with MUCH MUCH better gameplay, despite also being a cover-based shooter.
I was far more lenient with it for that reason, though its awful ending (which works in a remarkably similar fashion to ME3) still pisses me off to no end.

Mass Effect 3 takes the premise of choice, a central theme in the series, both in narrative and gameplay mechanics, and stomps it into a mudhole. The ending of ME3 is essentially the same no matter what you do; you choose the color of the explosion, and that shows who lives and who dies.

Some have interpreted this as a near-death "dream sequence" (Indoctrination Theory); others, an "artistic" commentary on the futility of choice.
However, I see this more as people trying to take something that is blunt and devoid of meaning, and imagining that is has meaning because of vague connections, "Inspired by the abyss" and such.

If there is any argument to be made about "artistic merit" in video games, it's that this ME3 nonsense has caused me to think more about the subject than warranted. Not all art is pretty, and neither are its motives.