Vault101 said:
Mass Effect 3 broke me worse than any real person ever could
Fuck you mass Effect 3....I LOVED YOU DAMMIT!
I refuse to download the Extended Cut because unlike most ME fans I got the ending. I was a soldier, I told everybody from game 1 I would do anything to stop the Reapers, and in the end I did. NOW, before you say "CHOICES WERE DISMISSED" or "You know what was Deus Ex Machina", no they weren't. Here's why:
HUGE SPOILERS ARE BELOW, Sorry don't know how to do the spoiler tag.
While choices seemed to boil down to numbers, they really did effect the ending you got. Think about it, you have to choose either Krogan or Salarian over the other (unless you do a very specific ME1 and 2 playthrough), Explore random planets, Attempt to save both Geth and Quarians etc. Depending on what you did in these scenarios effected how much oomph you have for your army. Screw up too much, and everything is gonna die. Do okay, All machines are going down, but organic life will live. Do good, you have the option to kill the Synthetics, or control the Reapers. Do better than expected, same options as before, PLUS the option to change the entire universe from the atom. These are quite different when you use your imagination and look to the future and see how the ending wasn't all the same. The developers left some ambiguity to allow players to imagine the possibilities.
Ok, now on to the Crucible. Firstly, it is NOT a Deus Ex Machina. From the begining of ME3 we are told of the Crucible and how the Protheans (and previous cycles) believed that it would somehow stop the Reapers. Since we know of the Crucible of the begining of the game, AND the fact that we know it will "somehow stop" the Reapers (emphasis on stop), it is not a Deus Ex Machina. DEM's come from nowhere at the end of the story and have a magical "end all problems button" without them, or the power they use to stop whatever it is EVER being mentioned. Also, saying that Destroy and Control are DEM's is also stupid because Shepard has proven that Reapers can be destroyed, and Illusive Man has always wanted to controlthe machines, and seeing how the Reapers ARE machines, it can be reasoned that they can be re-programmed. And what was a big theme of ME3? Unison of all species to face a threat. The Synthesis ending is literally unifying EVERYTHING in the galaxy. So lets look back. Crucible introduction: begining of game. Method to stop enemy: Shepard shows in the first game that Reapers are killable (Destroy is the first option the god child gives you). Second game Illusive Man believed that the Reapers could be controlled (Control being the second option given). And in the third game Shepard can unify Krogan and Turians (Pretty much enemies), Quarian and Geth (Organic and Synthetic) and everyone else whom have a common enemy (Synthesis, unifiying the whole universe, introduced in game 3). ME3's ending is basically a huge summary of the entire series and focuses on the idea of fear and time.
What do I mean by fear and time? When you first meet the Reapers they are practically imcomprehendable. Organics fear what they do not understand, and through fear we hate and want to destroy. In the second game, we've killed one Reaper and halted their invasion, we also begin to learn more about them and those such as Illusive Man begin to think they can be reasoned with or even tamed. The third game, we know even more, they are no longer the big bad hidden dark monster, they are a thing, they can be understood.
Want an easier example to follow? ok, remember how Vampires use to be scary way back in our history. Then we started to understand what a vampire was, and that we could beat them. We learnt to control them in some way. And now, people are starting to want to be Vampires. THAT is basically the ending.
Basically, while choices did not effect HOW you got to the end, they effected your options on how to deal with the Reapers IN the end. While we did not get the Casey Hudson "16 different endings" we did get different options at the end, and if you were able to understand that the ending was ambiguous, you would realise that that is the biggest choice of all. The devs were giving you the option to imagine how your choice would effect the future. Also, the Crucible was not a Deus Ex Machina as it actually summed up the entire trilogy beautifully. 1st game/ending DESTROY(admiting you fear the beast), 2nd - Control (Understanding the enemy and controlling their outcome), 3rd - Synthesis (unifiying enemies in a time of horror).
THIS^ is why I will defend EA and Bioware. THIS is why I loved and still do love ME3. I understood the ending and because I do I refuse to accept the Extended Cut as it takes away everything pure from the ending and the games theme of choice and says "This is what happens in the future". And it's because of this, that I find the thousands of people spitting in the direction of Bioware and EA disgusting, immature and stupid.