Mass Effect 3

[andrewks]

If AMoL ends like the Mass Effect series, I will seriously lose faith in all forms of Fantasy/Sci-Fi media. Did anyone in this community finish Mass Effect 3 and felt betrayed? While I was playing it, I felt like I was eating the most delicious chocolate cake, only find that the last bite was a turd.

 

It's almost like the future Mass Effect universe will be Avi's future of the Aiel. HORRIBLE.

[Hallow]

Take a trip to the Bioware Social boards. You'll find that 98% of the people who has played the game are feeling exactly like you are. There's even a huge online campaign for Bioware to release an "Alternate endings" pack.

 

 

There's also some very convincing evidence for the current endings being either an hallucination Shepard has after being hit by Harbingers beam in London or Shepard fighting indoctrination in his mind.

[andrewks]

Since I beat it last night. I've been all over the forums on BSN. I am hoping that the hallucination theory is true. Anything but the other endings. Its just terrible.

[cwbys21]

I don't think you have to worry about that kind of ending. I seem to remember Brandon jokin that he is going to do everything necessary to not screw up the ending because fans would burn down his house.

[Silver]

Yeah, I hated the ending as well. But I'm beginning to believe in the indoctrination theory more and more. It just makes so much sense and I'll hold onto any hope that the game doesn't really end the way it does.

[Nolder]

can someone explain to me what was so bad?

I've never played any ME games and know nothing about it but this seems to be a big deal right now

[SinisterDeath]

I'm torn on it all, I actually liked the goal of the synthesis ending, I just didnt' care for the motivations they gave the reapers, and some other bull crap. And Honestly, If they did release DLC new endings, That'll piss me off. Because they didn't feel fit to give us the 'REAL' ending in the FINISHED product. Now, a 'DLC' after the events?

 

The only thing I have against, and not so much that I dislike the idea, just inconsitancies? This is Bioware we are talkign about. Why would they use the indoctrination ending, as something that potentially subtle, instead of simply showing Shep being fully indoctrinated after the choices? I think what we see in the ending, is what happened, and that the 'indoctrination part' is the 'last boss' encounter, and not the 'choices' you make.

[Mats Spare Hat]

Sure am glad I spent all that time scanning for war assets. Boy howdy they made all the diffeereen...yeah, what a load of crap, it all ends the same way!

 

My literal reaction at the end was that I blinked, and said "oh...kay?" out loud with an expression of perplexity.

 

The whole Joker running away thing is just inco-freaking-herent. It doesn't fit at all, and if they did one thing in hindsight to alter the outcome, they should have left that part on the cutting room floor.

 

Otherwise, I can accept(note: not enjoy) the really bleak outcome, that there's some sense that the galaxy, in game, couldn't have it's cake and eat it too - If the Reapers are to be destroyed, than so too goes their mechanisms: the citadel & the relays. But then you add in the whole when a relay goes kaboom, it obliterates everything in its solar system (as per the DLC from ME2)...Thereby it's sort of a complete restart where everyone's free from the Reapers, but at the same time everyone and everything's toast.

 

Combine that with whoever the dipshit big whig over at Bioware who was all ooohh this isn't the end of the mass effect universe, but it is the end of Shepard's story... ...except at the end of Shepard's story they just happened to destroy that universe.

 

 

Swell. My one conclusion from it all is that somewhere down the line of development, somebody got lazy. Reeeeall lazy. How the hell the game played and went fantastically. for the first 47.45 hours, and then just goes straight down the shit-hole in 10 minutes right at the end?

 

Somebody licked too many psychedelic toads.

[SinisterDeath]

Otherwise, I can accept(note: not enjoy) the really bleak outcome, that there's some sense that the galaxy, in game, couldn't have it's cake and eat it too - If the Reapers are to be destroyed, than so too goes their mechanisms: the citadel & the relays. But then you add in the whole when a relay goes kaboom, it obliterates everything in its solar system (as per the DLC from ME2)...Thereby it's sort of a complete restart where everyone's free from the Reapers, but at the same time everyone and everything's toast.

 

Its stated right in the game, that the explosion isn't the same, Its an 'explosion' of 'energy' (or magic) that does what each of the 3 endings are meant to accomplish. Aka, it magically contorls, destroys, or synergizes the entire galaxy, not destroys it. Thats the biggest misconseption abou thte mass relays exploding = everyone dies.

 

And besides, the ending, even though people hate it, people are still talking about it, a week later. ;)

[Mats Spare Hat]

Yeah, talking about how much suck it delivers.

[SinisterDeath]

Yeah, talking about how much suck it delivers.

 

 

 

If they did any other ending, they wouldn't have people making theories like that up.

[Silver]

And besides, the ending, even though people hate it, people are still talking about it, a week later. ;)

 

People still talk about Hitler and 9//11, your point?

 

Also, the things I didn't like about the ending are:

A 'god' suddenly appears. I can't stand it when that happens.

The Catalysts entire motivation. Like SD told me earlier, why doesn't it consider synthetic life LIFE?

Why can't I argue with the Catalyst? I've argued with everybody else.

Relays get destroyed. Effectively destroyed galactic civilization. Sure people can still get around but it'd be like destroying every highway in the US. It'd take forever to get anywhere.

Wtf was Joker running away (and already going through relays) with the squad I WAS JUST USING?!?

[SinisterDeath]

People still talk about Hitler and 9//11, your point?

 

Had it been a straight up simple, everyone lives, nobody dies, rainbows and unicorn ending, people wouldn't be making crazy theories about it all being a 'lie'. :P

[Shendare]

Wow, that was an intensely engaging theory, SinisterDeath! Thanks for linking it.

[Werthead]

can someone explain to me what was so bad?

I've never played any ME games and know nothing about it but this seems to be a big deal right now

 

The complaints about the ending are varied. Some people are fine with the ending being bleak, but hate the way it was presented. Others want a 'happy' ending. Others want a choice between a 'happy' ending and a dark, bleak one.

 

The principal problem is that the entire Mass Effect trilogy is based around player choice. In the first game the player can make important choices (some involving the fates of entire species and planets) which are reflected in the second game and play a major role in the third game. At every turn your character can make impactful choices that resonate through the rest of the game and the entire trilogy.

 

However, the ending betrays this concept by boiling everything down to three choices. And there are many things in those three choices which stay the same no matter which you choose. Ultimately the trilogy's underlying ideal of basing everything on choice is betrayed. More to the point, after making your choice the game restores you to a save just before the finale, so you can easily try out the other two choices (which goes against the trilogy's idea of you having to make irrevocable choices that resonate many hours of gameplay later on and can't be fixed by quickloading).

 

The other problems are that the endings don't make much sense. A minor subplot in the second and third games (but barely touched on in the first) is suddenly enhanced and inflated into the underlying backstory to the entire saga, and done so through a deus ex machina character who shows up from nowhere and gives you the three choices. Your character is not given any option to discuss the situation further with the DEM character or investigate the choices in more depth (rather bizarrely, given the trilogy's love of dialogue and allowing you to verbally question everything in depth, even minor story or background points). Even more offensively, the game's ending depicts your spacecraft fleeing to another star system, despite the fact that it's not physically possible (your ship was engaged in a space battle over Earth, hours and hours away from the system's Mass Relay/FTL jumpgate orbiting Pluto) and it's hugely out of character for your crew to bug out and run. More likely, they'd be trying to rescue you (you end the game on a space station orbiting Earth, so relatively easy to get to for your ship).

 

What really doesn't help is that we know the original writers didn't work on ME3, having been moved to The Old Republic, and the new writers were directed to change the originally-planned ending (the one that the first two games were written to work towards) at short notice after a script leak last year. We also know that at one point they were veering towards a hallucinatory/vision-like ending which would be exposed as a lie, but then chose not to make that 100% clear, instead leaving things vague (with the phrase, "Lots of speculation for everyone!" written on a piece of paper about the ending).

 

However, ultimately I think people just thought the ending was a massive cop-out. After the debacles of the endings to Lost and Battlestar Galactica, BioWare also choosing a similarly bizarre/weird/vague ending to their own SF series is part of an unfortunate trend of building up complex stories and then flaking out when the time is reached to provide a resolution. In this case it's even worse because, unlike a TV series or a novel where the fan is a passive observer, in a game and especially in the choice-heavy ME series, the player is an active participant in shaping the story and the characters, and having no satisfying resolution given to that situation is much more annoying.

[SinisterDeath]

Wert, Just to let ya know.

 

The Citadel = A Mass Relay.

So, Joker 'could' have used 'that' mass relay launch, to get through the 'pluto' one, and beyond, and thusly, still make sense.

 

And Deus Ex (minus the Machina) had the same type of ending scenerio. (Almost blatantly?)

 

Theres a number of theories about the end of the game, the biggest one being its entirely a 'lie', and they have many, many good points.

 

However, I think the ending 'actually' happened,but some of that, easilly may not have been entirely what we 'saw'.

 

 

[cwbys21]

Very well said Wert. You should probably send that to all the gaming websites out there who have attacked commenters almost as if they were the PR deparments for EA. (Which, in a sense, they are, but that is a rant for a different time.)

[Elden]

 

That is about the long and the short of it IMO.

[cwbys21]

That is great Elden.

[Werthead]

Wert, Just to let ya know.

 

The Citadel = A Mass Relay.

So, Joker 'could' have used 'that' mass relay launch, to get through the 'pluto' one, and beyond, and thusly, still make sense.

 

And Deus Ex (minus the Machina) had the same type of ending scenerio. (Almost blatantly?)

 

Theres a number of theories about the end of the game, the biggest one being its entirely a 'lie', and they have many, many good points.

 

However, I think the ending 'actually' happened,but some of that, easilly may not have been entirely what we 'saw'.

 

 

 

 

The Citadel acts as an intergalactic mass relay, catapaulting ships into intergalactic space. At no point is it said it can be used as a normal relay to transport to another star system. In addition, the Citadel is shown in a state of advanced kaboomness at the end of the game. Though it isn't totally blown to pieces, it suffers catastrophic damage at the very least and is inactive. In addition, we do not see the Normandy travelling through the Citadel or the mass effect signature special effect being used.

 

Even if that could work, we're still left with the question of why Joker and your crew would bug out and run from a fight that, at the end of the game, your side is winning.

 

[SinisterDeath]

Wert, Just to let ya know.

 

The Citadel = A Mass Relay.

So, Joker 'could' have used 'that' mass relay launch, to get through the 'pluto' one, and beyond, and thusly, still make sense.

 

And Deus Ex (minus the Machina) had the same type of ending scenerio. (Almost blatantly?)

 

Theres a number of theories about the end of the game, the biggest one being its entirely a 'lie', and they have many, many good points.

 

However, I think the ending 'actually' happened,but some of that, easilly may not have been entirely what we 'saw'.

 

 

 

 

The Citadel acts as an intergalactic mass relay, catapaulting ships into intergalactic space. At no point is it said it can be used as a normal relay to transport to another star system. In addition, the Citadel is shown in a state of advanced kaboomness at the end of the game. Though it isn't totally blown to pieces, it suffers catastrophic damage at the very least and is inactive. In addition, we do not see the Normandy travelling through the Citadel or the mass effect signature special effect being used.

 

Even if that could work, we're still left with the question of why Joker and your crew would bug out and run from a fight that, at the end of the game, your side is winning.

 

 

 

You are SHOWN that it works exactly LIKE I said, because the Citadel 'fires' just like a MASS RELAY at the end of the game, and from there, it Hits the next Relay, and the next, and the next, So it stands to reason, The reason joker got 'into it' was his ship was probably Caught in the so called 'magical energy wave' across the galaxy. and its basically implied that the only reason they even got that far, was because they were the 'fastest' ship around.

 

[Silver]

Wert, Just to let ya know.

 

The Citadel = A Mass Relay.

So, Joker 'could' have used 'that' mass relay launch, to get through the 'pluto' one, and beyond, and thusly, still make sense.

 

And Deus Ex (minus the Machina) had the same type of ending scenerio. (Almost blatantly?)

 

Theres a number of theories about the end of the game, the biggest one being its entirely a 'lie', and they have many, many good points.

 

However, I think the ending 'actually' happened,but some of that, easilly may not have been entirely what we 'saw'.

 

 

 

 

The Citadel acts as an intergalactic mass relay, catapaulting ships into intergalactic space. At no point is it said it can be used as a normal relay to transport to another star system. In addition, the Citadel is shown in a state of advanced kaboomness at the end of the game. Though it isn't totally blown to pieces, it suffers catastrophic damage at the very least and is inactive. In addition, we do not see the Normandy travelling through the Citadel or the mass effect signature special effect being used.

 

Even if that could work, we're still left with the question of why Joker and your crew would bug out and run from a fight that, at the end of the game, your side is winning.

 

 

 

You are SHOWN that it works exactly LIKE I said, because the Citadel 'fires' just like a MASS RELAY at the end of the game, and from there, it Hits the next Relay, and the next, and the next, So it stands to reason, The reason joker got 'into it' was his ship was probably Caught in the so called 'magical energy wave' across the galaxy. and its basically implied that the only reason they even got that far, was because they were the 'fastest' ship around.

 

 

 

 

Don't buy the getting 'caught' theory. In the video it shows them already in the 'stream' and watch as the wave quickly catches up to them. If they were caught they wouldn't be ahead of the wave.

 

And that doesn't explain why your last squad was on the ship. The last I saw them was just before rushing a reaper (probably Harbringer) that was shooting everything down. Where would they have time to get a shuttle to them, fly back to the Normandy, then get to the Citadel to use it as a mass relay.

 

Side note, if they COULD get close enough to the Citadel to use it as a mass relay, why couldn't they get close enough to land a squad directly on it instead of going down to Earth?

 

 

[Silver]

So I just realized a huge plot hole while replaying ME1. If the Catalyst is the Citadel, then why did it need Sovereign to turn on it's mass relay? Why not just turn it on itself, then call the reapers?

[SinisterDeath]

Catalyst is a Reaper. so why would soverign activate something that 'created' soveriegn?

besides, they probably never 'thought' of that lore wise during ME1.

[A. Pseudonym]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRRpGlmtws8