Mass Effect 3 Gets An Ending

[Luciella]

Its not like fans-myself included- want a series of perspectives of closure of wth happened to the rest of the crew. But a real logical ending. Yahtzee...you mention a complete wipe out in the case the cycle is unscapeable and i would be fine with it, hell i was thinking that was going to be the ending: everyone is dead no one can escape the reapers, thak you very much for participating, best of luck for the next advanced idiot who try it. But i think your missing the point of the whole: reapers killing advanced races cuz...well they would kill themselves, cuz of their creations!! . Its solving a problem with a bigger one and running it in parallel. Like shamus young said in his blog: because you burn dinner, ill torch the entire city to avoid kitchen fire. Which makes no damn sense. On the side the theme of a real gallaxy being united no matter species or machines all together for a goal its killed by the affirmation that -its impossible- even if the point of the story is that it really isnt. Again its like saying, white ppl will always slave black ppl, so today even if its been proved wrong for a many years, some neohitler comes and just kills all white women and men sparing the kids, so they dont enslave black ppl or other races.......does that make sense to you?

 

[mupchu777]

Point. Missing it. Thanks for not understanding, Yahtzee.

Holding the Line.

I'm surprised that Yahtzee is both missing the point and isn't up in arms over the ending. For someone that has emphasized in the past how games should have good writing and that BioWare was one of the few developers that understood this, he really seems to not get it.

You guys are sure it's Yahtzee (and MovieBob, and Devin Faraci, and Ben Kuchera from PA Report and every other journalist that has said similar things recently) that's missing the point, and not yourselves?

Saying that games should have good writing doesn't mean we should pressure a company to change a game's ending that is perceived as bad. Even excellent writers do write bad books sometimes. But there's a certain level of respect for what the author has done, even if it's bad, that no one starts demanding they change something. Demanding changes is not respecting the writing, good or bad.

I think other people have already responded but yes the point has been missed. This isn't the first time this has happened either. Sherlock Holmes was resurrected due to fan pressure as well, so not the first time nor the last time that an author changed a story based on fan reactions. If anything this is actually a good thing for video games.

Video games have long been regarded as an inferior medium. ME3 has brought the medium up to a level where we actually do care about the story and plot (not just shooting bad guys), so much so that we call it out when it's well... stupid. I would further say that for most if BW doesn't fix the ending, we just won't be buying any more BW products... Just like if you saw a bad end on a trilogy, say Matrix Revolutions... How do you think Matrix 4 would be received today given it's ending (and it was still far better than the ME ending).

Artistic integrity has become a scapegoat to hide behind because the ending was inferior. It was poorly written and executed in an otherwise great title. It's disappointing but don't try to hide behind the artistic integrity to excuse the ending... It sucks and if you want to continue cranking out ME titles (or BW titles for that mater), it needs to be fixed. I think they've already gone on record and said that it will likely not change the current ending, but give closure to it. While it's still a little disappointing it's better than what we have right now... at least bring some closure to the game.

The big thing here I thing for yatzee & movie bob, and gaming journalists in general is this isn't about being entitled, or wanting a happy ending. It's about a poorly crafted ending on top of an excellent game. It's horrible and it sucks and yeah people want it changed. I would say some fans are going overboard (FTC... really), but let's not use artistic integrity to hide over the fact it was a poor ending. Should they fix it... yes if they want to continue writing adventures in the ME universe sure. I know between this and DA2 I no longer have BW games on my auto-preorder list.

All that said is it really a surprise that Yahtzee doesn't think they should change anything. He's whole stick is merciously slaughtering game reviews in general.. re-watch his video and come back here... crap game, crap ending... no surprise and in fact if I felt that way, he would be correct. If ME3 wasn't so good up til the ending, no one would be near this upset. The fact that it's great until the last 5 minutes... yeah thats a huge deal because we expect more...

 

[superbowlbound]

I see no mention of the ridiculous reason for the reapers existence. Or how about how many games/movies have changed their ending (see Fallout 3, Dodgeball etc). Honestly I don't care anymore. Bioware is dead to me, I will never buy another one of their games.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Mass Effect 3's ending is architecture.

Indeed.

 

[scw55]

Welcome to the internet where the vocal minority get heard.
I have been safe from the IMMENSE RAGE because I've been discussing this topic maturely on some forums about a certain Canadian Comedy Troupe. Reading some comments in this thread makes me ashamed of being grouped with them under 'gamer'.

I will still buy from Bioware. I enjoyed Mass Effect 3 (except for that last bit).
I don't want a completely reworked ending, I want closure. I want things to make sense. I want Paragon Shepard to be that very annoying and horrible blindly optimistic twat that drives the plot. I don't want Shepard to go /fuck it and listen to surprise god-kid.

There are some good blog posts out there that explains from a technical point of view why the ending was bad. No fanboy crying. Hard, academic philosophy.

I wish both sides would just shut the fuck up. Yes the ending was shit. Yes the fanboys are making a lot of fuss and think it's the right thing to do to emotionally blackmail Bioware by donating money to charity to change it. Is a mature discussion hard?
Yes, because it's the internet.

 

[Valok]

Respect is a two way street. If you want respect for your work, respect my intelligence. I don't think I have a -right- to change the gamings end, I would -like- to. Bioware has every right to ignore the shit out of me and complainers like me and more power to them as a business and an artist. I have every right not to purchase their products in the future out of disatisfaction, seek a refund (as many did in the initial 2 weeks, and recieved them I might add, even from Origin), and to pressure my friends and peers not to buy their games. Yet when I exercise my rights, I'm "immature" and "spiteful" whereas Bioware is "artistic" when they exercise theirs.

And we have a winner. I'm fowarding this to The Escapist as post of the month.

 

[Erttheking]

So, according to Yahtzee, EA and Bioware, despite the Day one DLC, rather pathetic marketing, managing to piss people off every step of the way, and may have created an ending without the approval of the Bioware writing team which is full of potholes, WE'RE the ones with cocks for heads and THEY all know better than us...yeah, not buying it. Apparently Yahtzee thinks that EA knows better than the general public. So tell me Yahtzee does that mean that the ending for Human Revolution was actually good because no matter what you do the first Dues Ex happens? Also has he ever heard of Broken Steel?

Ah well, I get the vibe that Yahtzee only played reach game once and never bothered with much of the side quests, I think I can live without his seal of approval.

 

[The.Bard]

Thank you, Yahtzee, for actually taking the time to think about the game's ending and what it could mean.

For an ending that is so clearly BEGGING to be analyzed, I'm shocked people like Shamus and co. are so quick to just call it dumb without even taking five minutes to ponder the philosophical ramifications.

Numerous Ending spoilers, FYI:

I really don't understand how so many can call it poorly thought out, atrociously written, and badly executed, while REFUSING to stop and think about whether it is that way intentionally.

There are a SLEW of clues implying - to the point of beating you over the head - that the entire ending is a case of Shepard fighting against Reaper indoctrination. It's enough to make your head spin.

I beat the game at 1am last night, and even as I was playing it, the clues pointing to it being a dream/indoctrination nightmare were frequent.

Shepard shoots Anderson but then Shepard is the one bleeding??? You really think Bioware just "accidentally" had the wrong guy take the bullet??? REALLY!? Is ANYBODY paying attention at home? Why does James CONSTANTLY say he hears a hum when you're around, when the indoctrination signal is CONSTANTLY mentioned through the entire series as starting out as a hum? Why in the last dream does an evil Shepard clone grab the kid and go up in flames with him?

This is not lazy writing or last minute hackjobs; I posit these are all obvious and not-so-obvious signs pointing to a VERY effectively laid out ending. And 99.9% of the internet seems to have missed it.

We always say we want to move away from the stupid Call of Duty shooters, but when presented with an ending that says "HEY PAL, YOU GOTTA DO SOME OF THE HEAVY LIFTING HERE"!, what do we do? We complain that it makes no sense and demand a shooteresque linear ending that vomits our decisions back at us.

I say the entire ending leans heavily away from poor writing and far more heavily into the intentionally misleading categories. I would rather have fewer awesomely brilliant endings than many shallow regurgitational endings.

If you want a full spoilerific listing supporting indoctrination theory, check this out and hold on to your hats:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUepvrU1pfv_B95oQj0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true

In conclusion, I maintain the ongoing theory that the endings are BRILLIANT, and this is a case of nobody wanting to actually give them the proper amount of consideration/contemplation/observation.

But the evidence is all there, people. Ya just gotta look for it! XD

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

And most of them suck. Or come across as whining. Or are poorly supported. Or are just infuriatingly arrogant. The thing is, people who don't like the ending have been so damn vocal about it for so many damn days that it's impossible to not hear their reasons for being upset. That doesn't mean I have to agree with them 100%.

So you call people out for not having reasons, then say most reasons are dumb, then say that through the massive number of posts, you've seen everyone's reasons and just plain disagree with them ._.

Could'a finished that a lot quicker without backtracking on your reasoning.

Besides, look at the number of people who just post, "Point? Missing it," or something similarly snarky and then fucking off to do whatever it is they do. Am I supposed to take them seriously? Am I supposed to believe that they really have some kind of lucid, intelligent argument if I just opened my mind up to their brattiness and saw the tormented soul within?

Maybe if they were taken seriously when they first posted their three paragraph long reasons and the writers of these kind of articles had realised that we'd rather they address our counter arguments rather than collectively agreeing with each other, reiterating the same points that don't directly address people's problems with the ending and then pretty much telling everyone to 'Suck it up', then they wouldn't have become bored of it and resorted to simply pointing out when yet another writer falls into the category of 'Games are art, your arguments are invalid'.

 

[Ixcaliber]

I'd like to say that I don't object to the ending itself so much as the incredibly stupid way in which it was presented; the sudden appearance of a ghost child who argues in a very badly explained manner for the existence of the Reapers (lots of people are saying his reasoning is cyclical and dumb but i would disagree. It makes sense it just is really badly explained).

And I would argue that the theme of the mass effect series is not hopelessness but hope. If you do everything right you'll have Wrex in charge of the Krogan and he'll stop them from getting out of hand again. The Krogan Wars are not inevitable and the reptition of the cycle of the Reapers is not inevitable.

The kids logic while not inherantly stupid is shown to be faulty by the cooperation you can forge with the geth, and so it just doesn't make sense to force you into making a dumb decision based on this illogic.

There is a certain element of people moaning just because they wanted to see their Shepard and Liara living happily ever after or whatever, but I think there are some legitimate concerns with the ending.

But not so much that the game should be changed for them.

If Bioware adopts the 'Indoctrination Theory' then I will lose all respect for them, no matter how plausible the theory itself might be.

 

[Rangerboy87]

Oh thank God, someone finally mentioned it.

I though I was the only person who saw the ending and thought (besides What?): "Wait, if the relays are destroyed, aren't all the species trapped in Earth's solar system? That's kind of a glaring plot hole"

I am so happy someone else noticed that.

That's not a plot hole, that's just plain old unfortunate.

I'd say it's both. A possible consequence that's not addressed is a plot hole, which is quite unfortunate.

 

[tautologico]

How long has Mass Effect been help up as a series that shows amazing story, difficult choices and actual repercussions for those choices?

Then they piss it all away in the last 10 minutes, I think I'm just as annoyed that they did this to the franchise as I am that they did it to the fans.

Mass Effect could've been something really special, but now at it's best, it's a great series will a pretty disappointing ending, at it's worst it's a series killer.

But maybe I'm rambling...

I get the disappointment and how the ending not being so good affects the overall quality of the experience, but I still think Mass Effect is something special as a series, and ME3 in particular. So what I'm saying is that I don't think the ending ruins the whole series. Actually, ME3 has the most difficult choices to make, with more far-reaching consequences than anything on the series before.

It's also the first time a game trilogy tells a single story sticking to a continuity based on the player's character, instead of a general canon continuity that is fixed. I still think that's pretty good.

 

[tehweave]

He's right you know. This is the ending they wanted, it's the ending we got. Deal with it.

I expected Shepherd to die and lo and behold, he did. The relays were destroyed. Alright. What's the problem? I don't see one. It's the inevitable ending that was going to happen. It concluded. I'm actually pretty okay with it. It isn't perfect but it's at least finished. Done. Concluded. Is that the big problem?

 

[Erttheking]

He's right you know. This is the ending they wanted, it's the ending we got. Deal with it.

I expected Shepherd to die and lo and behold, he did. The relays were destroyed. Alright. What's the problem? I don't see one. It's the inevitable ending that was going to happen. It concluded. I'm actually pretty okay with it. It isn't perfect but it's at least finished. Done. Concluded. Is that the big problem?

Funny, I don't recall ever asking for Shepard to die at the end.

 

[Stalydan]

"Curing the Krogan Genophage implies that the Krogan Rebellions would start again"

No, they wouldn't because Wrex and Eve survived on my playthrough and they were determined to guide the krogan along a different path. Similarly, the geth and quarians started to get along and help each other, undermining the point that synthetics will inevitably fight organics.

But I guess paying attention to differences between playthroughs would require you to spend more than half a week thinking about it. And that requires way more effort than I've come to expect from you.

Oooo snap! I like you

And yeah, I agree. The themes of cycles are present in the game but they are in no way implied that everything will be repeated over and over again. The fact that the story is telling you on multiple occasions "Things can change if they're given a chance" tells that brilliantly. The species that everyone fears is given a second chance because they won't learn from their mistakes otherwise. A race of Synthetic beings finally gets to express its reasons for rebelling against its creators and possibly work towards a better future for the two of them. The species that have for so long been separated from one another, in a time that could possibly tear them apart like it has in the other cycles, has grouped together to protect one another.

None of those bits ever said to me "The fate of the Galaxy is inevitable" but more "We're all responsible for our actions and all choices have consequences, good or bad". That's what Mass Effect has always been about, how our actions shape the worlds around us. Being forced to sit through those last five minutes or so where I was completely taken out of my Shepard and put into somebody else who didn't act them same... it felt wrong. Without any explanation or even the option to say "No", that ending did not feel like the game I had just been playing before.

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/5695/article/mass-effect-3-writer-allegedly-slams-controversial-ending/

Here, have a look at this. If it's true, it explains a lot and even breaks the argument of "artistic integrity".

 

[Rocktel]

I agree with Yahtzee's point about the bigger picture, I just don't want to buy anything from BioWare again.