3 Years Later: Mass Effect 3 Ending Revisited [spoilers!]

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

In order to keep my anticipation of The Witcher 3 in check I decided to make a complete playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy, starting in early April. So I picked up all the DLC I didn't have (which was Kasumi and the ME3 DLC) and went to work. Now, a month down the road I have completed the trilogy again, finally got around to seeing the extended cut and felt that I wanted to have another talk about the conclusion of the trilogy.

The question is simple: What did you think of and feel about the ending of Mass Effect 3? Was it good? Bad? Did it measure up to your expectations? Did the Extended Cut change your opinion on the ending?

Personally, I was never a big fan of the ending and still ain't. The Extended Cut made it slightly more compelling, but it didn't solve my main problem with it. That problem being that everything after the showdown with the Illusive Man is a massive tonal whiplash. The entire game has been this gritty war story in space, similar in tone to the first season of Battlestar Galactica Re-imagined, and the game sets the Crucible up to be a weapon of some sort. Then Anderson dies and Shepard is hurled into something that's tonally closer to 2001: A Space Odyssey with its' pondering pace and philosophical overtones. The aesthetic is completely changed and the game just springs a four way choice on you without any real set-up to the choice at hand (this is even worse if you haven't played the Leviathan DLC, which offers crucial backstory pertinent to the ending). It comes so far out of the left field that both times I've played it, the ending has broken my suspension of disbelief.

It is not the choice itself that's the problem, nor the consequences of the choice. Had the choice cropped up as you fought your way through the Citadel to power up the Crucible, and your team discovers that it isn't necessarily a weapon to destroy the Reapers with, I would probably have been fine with it ("Shepard, you must decide a setting on the Crucible or it won't fire!"). But as it is, the sudden shift in tone and the annoying kid spouting pseudo-philosophy, that a high school student could reasonably engage and pick apart, is so jarringly different from everything I've done in 80+ hours of game time in the trilogy up to that point that I just can't keep my suspension of disbelief. Which sadly pulls the entire game down for me.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, it's not like my opinion has changed any. Still not a fan, although the EC helped.

My main problem was the complete lack of closure. Not defending the star child or any of that crap, that was all still bad but it was the kind of bad that I can disregard. A lack of closure and a long list of unanswered questions however I cannot disregard, especially not when it comes at the end of one of my favourite series.

So the Extended Cut helped by providing a sense of closure and patching a few holes. But it only took it from a complete trainwreck F grade to an oh-fine-I'll-take-it C grade.

 

[Risingblade]

It still feels tacked on and silly.

 

[Diablo2000]

Well... Someone really wants to discuss Mass Effect 3 ending today.
Strange I just finished a new run on the series today... Ok, then.

I agree with the OP. EC makes better however, as in, a punch in the gut is better than a kick in the balls but neither is necessarely good in fact neither of them are.

Strange, I thought about this time and Bioware managed to make a such clouster fuck of an ending that almost every ending wouldn't have caused the shitstorm that this one created... Press a button to decide without the space brat there would have been a bummer, but it wouldn't have the bullshit explanation and logic behind and therefore wouldn't have caused the same shitstorm... Doing away with the Crucible and defeating the Reapers in a conventual way even if means fucking nerfing then at a point it was possible would have upset people, but wouldn't caused the same shitstorm... A "Continue on Mass Effect 4" would be bullshit and lot of people upset but a lot of them looking forward to ME4.
But no, bullshit it is...

And the Stargazer epilogue always rubbed the wrong way... I understand why is there being more of homage of sort and I don't fully understand why I don't like it, but I don't like it.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

And the Stargazer epilogue always rubbed the wrong way... I understand why is there being more of homage of sort and I don't fully understand why I don't like it, but I don't like it.

Because it is needlessly tacky and tacked on for no apparent reason? Because it contributes absolutely nothing to the actual ending and, just like the proper ending, violates the tone and mood of the entire game leading up to it? I don't know, but those are the reasons I don't like it.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Well, even with the EC I found my enthusiasm waning until I found the Mass Effect 3: Happy Ending Mod, which despite narrowing the game to a single ending at least felt like a hard won overall good ending in which Shepard could ride off into the sunset with their love.

I would be interested to know about the planned ending with the dark matter which is what all that (now pointless) foreshadowing on Haestrom was about.

 

[EXos]

My biggest issue is that if you look at all the different ending you could have had in the past 2 games. And in the end even those choices didn't matter that much.
Sure it was easier to fill up the bar if you made some good decisions in the previous titles but it all boiled down to:
"Do enough side missions and the End-O-Tron 4000 will crap out the same Four choices."

All the integrate stories that have been woven over the past two games and even in the 95% of the third just get resolved with a big meat cleaver.
The story build up was really sucking me in to the game and they ended it with something that could fit on a post-it...

 

[DementedSheep]

I played it after the extended cut and...it was ok. Not really satisfying but not bad enough to throw a fit over. It's annoying that you can't argue with the Star Childs "logic" and meekly go along with it. Although to me its not quite as stupid as "sending synthetics to kill you so you won't be killed by synthetics", it considers making a race into a Reaper preservation and it's doing this more for the sake of pre space faring species who would never get to advance if synthetics became dominant, not the current dominant races that they are attacking. If they wanted to do that sort of theme I think it would have been simpler if they were just trying to stop any race becoming too dominant and too advance to ever be challenged by developing races and didn't make it a synthetic vs organics thing.

I mostly dislike the synthesis ending. I can ignore a lot of things that don't quite make sense or are justified with "it's really really advance technology, ok?" but that was just bullshit space magic that came out of nowhere (at least biotics where in at the start and justified with their made up element). I also don't really like the implications of it and thought it was too "nice". I ended up going with destroy. I like the tone of it more than the other ones (you won, people are starting to rebuild but it came with an extremely large cost).

Some people didn't like that it came down to once piece of tech to stop the reapers rather than fighting them off traditionally but it was fairly clear that it would have to be something like that from the first game with how powerful the reapers are meant to be.

I more disappointed that they did nothing really compelling with indoctrination or Cerberus. I also wished they kept Kia Leng out of the games.

And the Stargazer epilogue always rubbed the wrong way... I understand why is there being more of homage of sort and I don't fully understand why I don't like it, but I don't like it.

I disliked it as well. I'm not sure quite what it is. Maybe its the voice acting or that fact that they refer to Shepard as "The Shepard".

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It doesn't matter how long ago it was, it's a shit ending. It will always be a shit ending. Furthermore, Casey Hudson lied about the endings. It was literally what he said it wouldn't be. A shame really. I was enjoying ME3 until that ending when the entire trilogy fell apart. Well, that's how I felt at the moment anyway. I remember rage. I felt genuine fuckin' rage. Like I was conned into wasting years of my life and a lot of money. But you know, time heals all wounds. But I'll never trust Bioware again.

 

[DEAD34345]

To this day, whenever I complain about an ending in any context I have to qualify my statements with "It's not Mass Effect 3 bad, but..."

It's shockingly bad in so many major ways, I still just don't understand how it happened. The extended cut fixed slightly improved one of the many glaring ways in which it was awful, but that's it. Now I'm mostly just sad about the whole situation.

After Mass Effect 1, my first instinct was to immediately play the entire game over yet again, and I did several times. After Mass Effect 2, my first instincts was to immediately play both the first games over again, and I've done that several times too. After Mass Effect 3 I just haven't been able to get back the will to play any of them. I didn't think it was possible, but Bioware created an ending so shockingly bad it didn't just ruin the one game, it retroactively ruined two of my other favourite games as well.

I suspect the whole thing has been terrible for Bioware economically too. That company used to inspire a huge amount of loyalty in its fans, and it just vanished after Mass Effect 3. Like I said, sad.

 

[sanquin]

I would have greatly preferred it if they went with the dark energy idea. It was hinted at already, but they never used it for some reason.

Dark energy is slowly starting to rip the galaxy apart. The first species, those squid things, turned themselves into reapers to become a 'collective intelligence' to solve the problem. But they couldn't find a solution. So more species' intelligence were added in the form of reapers. And more and more... And the human reaper would have been the last piece of puzzle. So the dillema would have been "do we let the reapers 'reap' intelligent life one more time, or do we destroy them and take our chances with solving the dark energy problem ourselves?" Sounds like it would have been a far better ending... Still not nearly perfect, but far better than what we got.

I also agree with the poster above. The ending was so bad that it kinda ruined all three games for me. Whenever I think of playing mass effect I immediately get that bad taste in my mouth the ending left me with. And I just...lose the motivation to play again.

 

[shrekfan246]

Oh yay, this again.

Guess I'll be the odd man out and say I didn't mind it at all. How the story ended didn't matter to me nearly as much as what I did along the way, and I felt pretty satisfied with it when it was all over (bearing in mind that I also thought the end of Deus Ex: Human Revolution was cool). In fact, with the "Leviathan" and "Extended Cut" DLCs I'm rather pleased with the overall product, though it still has a few things that disappoint me in comparison to the previous games in the franchise (dialogue trees, y u no quite as involved?!?!).

I thought two other games released that year had far worse endings (Assassin's Creed III and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron) that were completely overshadowed because people were too intently focused on Mass Effect.

 

[MetalDooley]

It's still shit and time hasn't changed that.The EC improved it slightly but it was the equivalent of spraying perfume on a turd.It's still a turd but it just doesn't smell quite as bad.Then again ME3 was a deeply flawed game from start to finish so the shittiness of the ending shouldn't have been so surprising

 

[Rattja]

My beef with the ending was never the part with the starchild or anything like that. The main problem I had with it all was that I never got to fight with all my allies by my side. Once you get on the ground you see a few turians and maybe the odd krogan and the rest are humans. It just feels so pointless to gather an army when you don't even see them in the final fight.
It's something that had so much potential and they did nothing with it.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I never saw the original. I thought the EC was badly written but not bad enough to really bother me. In a way it was kind of what I expected. You get a bunch of exposition about the reapers then Shepard sacrifices her or himself to save the galaxy. I could actually buy the backstory of the reapers despite some faulty logic if it wasn't delivered in such a stupid way (the star child). Maybe a conversation with an actual reaper, perhaps the first reaper, and have Shepard's dialogue choices create a bit of back and forth rather than just being buttons for more exposition.

The "choices don't matter" part didn't bother me since I'd enjoyed the journey regardless. Plus right from the start of ME3 I was having a hard time seeing how my choices would matter since the entire galaxy was at war and facing extinction.

The "choose a colour" bit was totally pointless since all I did after watching the first one was reload my save and watch the other ones. And despite the fact that this was a life altering choice on a galactic scale, the way the endings were presented they all felt so inconsequential.

I think the game could've benefited from a Fallout style slideshow where it goes over what happened to various people/factions/locales and tells you what happened to them based on your actions.

All in all I'd say it was pretty crappy but not bad enough to ruin the games for me. I have played through the trilogy a few times and will continue to do so.

Oh yeah, and the stargazer epilogue was total bollocks.

 

[RJ 17]

Guess I'll be the odd man out and say I didn't mind it at all.

Damnit, and here I was hoping I'd be the first one in this topic to say "You know, I actually didn't have a problem with it..."

My only issue with the ending was - as Zhukov pointed out - the lack of closure. That said, however, I'm an imaginative person and - in looking at all that happened - was able to "predict" the endings supplied by the EC 6 days after the game came out which was long before the EC was even being considered.

Paragon Ending: Enslave the Reapers. Many people think this is the Renegade ending because it was the Illusive Man's plan, but in truth it is the Paragon ending. For starters, like with everything in the ME universe, it's color-coordinated: Blue light on the ramp and a blue beam/shockwave released by the Citadel, and as we all know: blue = Paragon. But furthermore, think about what the outcome would be. Yes, the relays are destroyed, but the Reapers still exist. Now, though, they are controlled by Paragon Shepard's benevolent will. As such, it really isn't that far of a stretch to believe that Shepard will turn the Reapers from being the terrifying destroyers of the galaxy to being instrumental in its construction. Given that the Reapers were the ones that built the relays in the first place, they could just as easily do so again.

Renegade Ending: Destorying All Synthetics. Again, contrary to popular belief, this is the Renegade ending (red light, red beam/shockwave, etc). This offers the bleakest outlook for the future as Shepard wipes out an entire race (the Geth) and a close, personal friend (EDI) in order to assure the absolute destruction of the Reapers. With the Reapers destroyed, the secrets to building the relays will be lost. However, the Protheans managed to build the conduit, so it is possible that society could still rebuild the relays, it'll just take a much longer time.

They Lived Happily Ever After Ending: Synthesis. I'd imagine this is the "and the galaxy became a utopian ideal "world" filled with peace from then on out" ending. All life - synthetic and organic - now share the same DNA. I can only imagine that this would lead to advances in technology and the possibility to rebuild society, coexisting with the now pacified Reapers.

Taken from the topic I made on 3/12/12:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.353986-I-Have-Obtained-ME-3-Ending-Enlightenment-A-MUST-READ-FOR-ANYONE-QUESTIONING-THE-ME-3-ENDINGS?page=1

Yeah, yeah, I know...it's a pretentious and silly title. But I was excited, damnit!

Anyways, with the release of the EC that essentially confirmed my extrapolations, I was actually quite satisfied with the ending by the time the EC came around.

and the annoying kid spouting pseudo-philosophy, that a high school student could reasonably engage and pick apart,

Just purely touching on your issue with Star Child's philosophy: that's kinda the entire point. They went with the "AI takes it's programming to a deadly extreme" angle. Star Child was created by the Leviathan to solve a problem: prevent organic life from destroying itself by giving birth to synthetic life. Why? The Leviathan were tended to by the lesser species and the Leviathan didn't want to lose their servants. After looking at the situation - and how the evolution and progression of organic life is hard to determine/control - Star Child came up with a solution: "preserve" all organic life in Reaper form. He straight-up tells you that if there was another alternative he would have gone with it. But to him, this was the best solution available to fulfill his programming. It's like if mankind created an AI that was programmed to "stop pollution", the AI could look at the situation and determine "Well humans are the cause of pollution, so I just need to kill off all the humans to fulfill my programming." Yes, it would "technically" be completing its assigned task, but in a manner that we would strongly disagree with.

So yes, Star Child's philosophy is meant to be flawed from our perspective because we'd prefer to not be preserved by having our civilization melted down and turned into a collective consciousness known as a Reaper. But from his perspective he's just doing what he was programmed to do.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I have the Mass Effect Happy Ending Mod (PC Master Race, ftw). In it, after The Illusive Man kills himself, Shepard activates the Citadel (all of Glowbrat's scenes and dialogue are cut), Joker launches a daring rescue that sees Shepard (still alive) extracted, they then jump out in time for the Red Beam of Death to kill only the Reapers. Shepard and Love Interest live happily ever after. Booya.

And the best part? Mass effect 4 won't factor in the ending of Mass Effect 3 at all!

 

[Amaror]

Oh yay, this again.

I thought two other games released that year had far worse endings (Assassin's Creed III and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron) that were completely overshadowed because people were too intently focused on Mass Effect.

The reason those endings were not as controversial was because nobody gives a f*ck about Assassin's Creeds Story. Especially not about the future timeline of the games. People play the game because of their gameplay and often much better historical storylines.
But people cared about ME 3's story and an ending that sucks pisses them of way more.

 

[tippy2k2]

What kind of space voodoo is this?!?! TWO people who have liked (or at least didn't hate with the burning passion of a thousand suns) in the thread? I'm....I'm so used to being alone that I don't know how to act human anymore....

Well chalk another one up for "I liked the ending" here (I haven't even played the Extended Cut). I thought that the themes and how the ending went down played perfectly with what I felt about the entire series. I've NEVER felt that the game was about your choice; the game is about fulfilling ones destiny. The game "railroading" you into the three choices fits perfectly with the theme of destiny.

This is one of those things where I hear there were a ton of plot holes and whatnot but I never noticed them while playing. Would I notice them if I played through the three games again (I don't really replay games ever)? Possibly. Would that make me join the "Mass Effect 3 is the worst thing since Hitler!!!" crowd? Possibly. But for the time being, I'm perfectly happy with what I got. Maybe one day all that Mass Effect DLC will go on sale and I'll replay everything but until that day, I'm happy with what I saw.

 

[Ariseishirou]

Honestly? I found it so profoundly disappointing that it's negatively affected my desire to play any future Mass Effect games, even if they're completely unrelated to the original story.

It's also complete scuttled any desire I might have had to go back and play through the trilogy again now that ME1 is finally out on the PS3. Just... ugh. Why bother when you know you'll just have to play the Endingtron 3000 and that nothing you do up to that point actually matters.

I lived in denial about it and pretended it Indoctrination Theory was going to turn out to be true, but I can't anymore. That ending may have killed the whole franchise for me. It was as awful as Dexter's.

The terrible thing is that I love dark, bleak endings. The Mist is one of my favourite films of all time. But that ending wasn't dark, it was just... stupid.