Mass Effect 3 Is a Good Game.

[FFHAuthor]

Because the ending pushes fatalism so far down your throat and so suddenly that you start to retch. In a nutshell, the ending did a spectacular job of robbing your choices of the impact the rest of the series promised they would have. No matter what you do: Villains dictate that you end the story on their terms, Mass Relays are destroyed, Victory Fleet trapped around a devestated planet, Normandy crashes on some unknown planet which they'll likely never get off of. Galactic Civilization dies with your final decision, and so too does the meat of your decisions...actually, I think I've made this argument somewhere before...ah, here it is.

I rather thought of it as the decision of an ending that suited a certain playthrough, one of loss, sacrifice and inevitable death. Since the 'stop trying to get the ending changed' is arguing that the people who didn't like the endings merely wanted a happy ending, I've asked around about why they liked it.

Most players who approve of the ending have had that tone in their games, continual loss of companions, not just scripted losses (Kaiden/Ashley or Mordin/Thane/Legion), but things like losing Wrex, losing a large number on the Suicide mission in ME2, losing companions in ME3 and minor characters. Things that you can avoid and overcome in the game through choices. Those actions led to a fatalistic ending, Shepard dies no matter what, but he 'triumphs' over the Reapers.

Wheras most players who enjoyed the ending saved people, continually. They saved everyone, didn't lose people on the suicide mission, didn't lose Wrex, overcame adversity in innovative ways, talking down Saren at the climax of ME1, reasoning the Illusive Man into killing himself in ME3, solving the Geth/Quarian War, Curing the Genophage AND creating a more 'galactic friendly Krogan' by saving Wrex AND Eve. But then there is no ending that embodies the theme of triumph in the face of overwhelming odds that say YOU MUST DO IT THIS WAY, rather the choices of the player can lead you to a different conclusion, that every action in the galaxy has more than one way of approaching it, and in very unconventional ways as well.

The Mechanics of the game allow for, and in many cases encourage players to resolve things positively, but the ending doesn't allow for players to continue that theme. It only allowed for players who lost and sacrificed to win, not those who overcame and altered to win.

 

[Wierdguy]

I love the entire Mass Effect series and frankly in my oppinion deserves a shot at best game(s) ever (I know it would fail but still being considdered would be enough). Its just that from the moment Hacket ssais the Crucible isnt firing things just go down... plotholes that makes no sense, reasoning that makes no sense, Shepards reaction that makes no sense... theyre contradicting everything previously established and leaves us with an ending completly devoid of any form of closure. We know nothing about what happened after you make your choise other than that the mass relays blow up and that the Normandy crashes on a planet far away from the battle it was supposed to be a part of.

So yes - ME3 is an absolutley fantastic game and deserves a helluva lot of praise... but the ending just... just... ugh...

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I suppose my real question is... how? What exactly makes the games unplayable now? I've seen the ending, I hate it...but the first thing I did was go back to mass effect 1 and start a brand new playthrough... I guess I just don't understand the reasoning here...

Because what's the point of playing the game again if you're going to get the same ending as someone who picked radically different choices.

So was that really all it was about? The choices, and by extension the arcs of all the characters as you go through them, had no value and produced no emotional response in and of themselves before? Were they all just a meaningless combination of sums and you spent all that money and time going through the three games expecting all the value to come right at the end?

I'm currently on my second playthrough (about to get to Tuchanka), and I know that I'm going to cure the Genophage, even though I know it all means squat at the end, just because I want to cure the Genophage, and so does my Shepard, and I know that it's going to be a fucking beautiful moment.

Not to say that the ending doesn't matter, I just don't think it comes anywhere near to ruining the game, let alone the whole Trilogy.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I suppose my real question is... how? What exactly makes the games unplayable now? I've seen the ending, I hate it...but the first thing I did was go back to mass effect 1 and start a brand new playthrough... I guess I just don't understand the reasoning here...

Because what's the point of playing the game again if you're going to get the same ending as someone who picked radically different choices.

Because what's the point of living the life if you're going to get the same ending as someone who picked radically different choices.
Death.

It's not the destination that matters, it's the journey. If you don't agree with this, you have to take a deep breath and question your priorities. Else you will feel misery trough your whole life.

P.S.
Captcha sometimes reads my mood. And by sometimes I mean almost always. *looking paranoid around my self*

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

then the idiocy around the from ashes DLC (really, major parts ARE on the disc)

Yeah about that. They said how they had to release the character as DLC because they didn't have the time to add him to the game. OK, fair enough. But why the fuck did you charge for something you wanted to put in the game? Shouldn't that DLC be free for everyone? But no, it's $10! A fuckin' prothean is a major part of the game.

 

[Matt King]

i completley agree, mass effect (bar the last like 2 minutes) is my favourite game every made everything was flawless

also i'm not sure if i need a flame shield or not

 

[Evan Lichty]

@FFHAuthor
I think you're heading in the right direction there. Disappointment with the ending must come from one's play style. It's a valid line of reasoning. For example, the sacrifice of Mordin at the Shroud is rendered all the more poignant if he made it through ME2 and you liked him as a character.
I worked hard to save my squadmates but farmed up those Renegade points elsewhere. Mass Effect 3 developed fewer characters with greater depth and that entered significantly into a satisfying narrative world. Remember this all takes place with the Reapers destroying everything, so let us not ignore the biggest symbols. Eternal, uncompromising machines executing their programming are resisted by the organics with the technology and knowledge capable of understanding them. So it is revealed that this galactic cleansing process is meant to lower the level of entropy present, thus by metagaming extension that any and all of your choices up to this point proved the ghostly starchild is right. I think it's evidence of a game's overall quality to pull you down a path (what we might call the player's subjective world) then yank the carpet out from under; especially in a sci-fi setting that device works well. Ever read Philip K. Dick stories? I digress.
The choices you made up to this point are as important as ever because you as the player can use this moment (before selecting the endgame light colour) to reflect on those dozens of ours that brought you here. Feel me? The choice to break the cycle asks the player to do something rarely achieved in video games. One would have to look all the way back to Planescape Torment to find an ending with such profound implications (also, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream).
After the Normandy crash lands and we see the remnants of the team emerge, they look upon a new dawn. There's this little tickle inside me that knows the series is giving you a nod of thanks. After all, you're an organism hooked up to a machine playing this game. Rinse then repeat.

 

[anthony87]

Oh yeah, it's a fantastic game. In fact I'm pretty sure everyone has said that it's great.

Shame about that ending though....

 

[Agayek]

I think that it's a good game too, I just think that the ending is horrible and taints the rest of the game

Pretty much this.

The general consensus is that the game is amazing, but tarred by one of the worst examples of storytelling in recent memory. No one with half a brain would call ME3 a bad game, but any game with a piece as fundamentally broken as ME3's ending is is going to catch flak for it.

 

[Korten12]

I suppose my real question is... how? What exactly makes the games unplayable now? I've seen the ending, I hate it...but the first thing I did was go back to mass effect 1 and start a brand new playthrough... I guess I just don't understand the reasoning here...

Because what's the point of playing the game again if you're going to get the same ending as someone who picked radically different choices.

So was that really all it was about? The choices, and by extension the arcs of all the characters as you go through them, had no value and produced no emotional response in and of themselves before? Were they all just a meaningless combination of sums and you spent all that money and time going through the three games expecting all the value to come right at the end?

I'm currently on my second playthrough (about to get to Tuchanka), and I know that I'm going to cure the Genophage, even though I know it all means squat at the end, just because I want to cure the Genophage, and so does my Shepard, and I know that it's going to be a fucking beautiful moment.

Not to say that the ending doesn't matter, I just don't think it comes anywhere near to ruining the game, let alone the whole Trilogy.

Yes they had no value, ME 1 effected 2, 2 effected 3, 3 didn't effect the ending. So yeah, what's the freaking point? THE WHOLE IDEA WAS TO SEE HOW YOUR CHOICES EFFECTED THE OUTCOME WHICH THEY MEAN JACK SHIT. What's the point of the third game, if the end basically says: "All those choices you made..? Pfft... They don't change ANYTHING. Everything ends the same." None of your choices in ME3 matter because they didn't effect anything!

I suppose my real question is... how? What exactly makes the games unplayable now? I've seen the ending, I hate it...but the first thing I did was go back to mass effect 1 and start a brand new playthrough... I guess I just don't understand the reasoning here...

Because what's the point of playing the game again if you're going to get the same ending as someone who picked radically different choices.

Because what's the point of living the life if you're going to get the same ending as someone who picked radically different choices.
Death.

It's not the destination that matters, it's the journey. If you don't agree with this, you have to take a deep breath and question your priorities. Else you will feel misery trough your whole life.

P.S.
Captcha sometimes reads my mood. And by sometimes I mean almost always. *looking paranoid around my self*

Video Games Choices =/= Life.

This isn't Real life, this is a video game, one that promised radically different endings based on the choices from 1 to 3, but in the end, the ending is almost the exact same.

In this case, the Journey was ruined by the ending, there can be a sucky ending that still has the journey to make up for this, but in this case, the journey was supposed to lead into the end and make all the difference! But it doesn't!

It would be like if in a game, you saved all these people, and then in the last 10 minutes, a villian pops out and blows up the world killing everyone. Thus making the journey pointless, this is what they did in ME3. They disregarded all the choices, so you don't even get to see how they play out.

What's the point of Saving the genophage? Choosing Geth, Quarian, or both? Or even destroying Cerberus? In the end, you got 3 choices, Destroy, Synthesis, and control, and they don't take anything into consideration. So yeah there was no point, because the galaxy is fucked any way thus voiding out all choices.

 

[devotedsniper]

I never said it was a bad game, it's good but the ending(s) was a complete let down for me (didn't ruin the whole game though), when i heard the only real difference in the endings were colour changes it kind of made me think i can't be bothered to replay, at least with previous ME's there were real difference (e.g. council dying or not)

 

[370999]

As a general rule if a large amount of people prefer "It was all a dream" instead of your ending, something has gone very very wrong.

the ending of a story is perhaps one of the most important things in the narrative, it's where the climatic conflict occurs, the villian is defeated, the plot resolved, etc. Mass Effects ending was such a failure it invites the question of "What's the point?". Mass Effect sold itself on the narrative and by being so unsatisfactory it stops me from wanting to play it again. It's a shame.

 

[thememan]

It's a good game, sure. The problem is, Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 are incredible games. ME3 is just good. It's a 7/10 at most no matter what idiotic reviews say. It wasn't just the ending that sucked. Everything was dumbed down. No exploration, less characters, dumber characters, less dialogue, worse visuals with amazingly dumbed down animations, narrow FOV, bad ending. Some "improvements" like new system for managing weapons is too shallow. All you had to do is have enough money to buy the upgraded version of your favorite gun. And how do you get money? You scan a system with one button to find an artifact that you overheard someone talk about on the Citadel. That's just laziness. And there aren't that many weapon mods to make the whole modification thing fun. If they had more time to make the game they could have made some planet exploration and use exploration as means to find upgrades and mods for weapons. More fun mods, not just shitty stat changing mods.
Then there's the new roll system that's mapped at the same button used for cover. Which makes things retarded especially on Insane where the tiniest mistake can cost you your life. And mistakes happen a lot with such a stupid control scheme. If you don't have enough buttons to do something then don't fuckin' do it. And of course, no holster function. Which kills the immersion completely for me. I'm running around a secure area pointing my gun at everything. It's kind of a big deal if both previous games allowed you to holster your weapon. Sounds like a minor thing, but it isn't. So don't pretend it is.

Although on the good side there's a shitload of very different guns this time around and the new weight system that let's you choose if you're going to play it more like a shooter or like a power/biotic user. That is a good system.

This is my viewpoint towards the game. Frankly, I find it baffling that many consider it "Amazing until the final 10 minutes", when really there are glaring flaws throughout. It's not bad at all, but it's hardly was an amazing experience, and I found myself getting quite bored and disinterested throughout quite a bit of the game itself. It's not bad at all, but it hardly is deserving of such lofty praise even without the ending issue.

Of course, the common argument talks about how amazing the story is and that's what makes it a great game. Which it doesn't. It makes it a good story put on a relatively above average game. From a purely gameplay standpoint, there are far to many issues I have with it to really call it a "great" game. Good perhaps, above average at the least. But great is a far-cry away from the reality of what it is, and how lazily the damn thing was developed and put together.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I suppose my real question is... how? What exactly makes the games unplayable now? I've seen the ending, I hate it...but the first thing I did was go back to mass effect 1 and start a brand new playthrough... I guess I just don't understand the reasoning here...

Because what's the point of playing the game again if you're going to get the same ending as someone who picked radically different choices.

Because what's the point of living the life if you're going to get the same ending as someone who picked radically different choices.
Death.

It's not the destination that matters, it's the journey. If you don't agree with this, you have to take a deep breath and question your priorities. Else you will feel misery trough your whole life.

P.S.
Captcha sometimes reads my mood. And by sometimes I mean almost always. *looking paranoid around my self*

Video Games Choices =/= Life.

This isn't Real life, this is a video game, one that promised radically different endings based on the choices from 1 to 3, but in the end, the ending is almost the exact same.

In this case, the Journey was ruined by the ending, there can be a sucky ending that still has the journey to make up for this, but in this case, the journey was supposed to lead into the end and make all the difference! But it doesn't!

It would be like if in a game, you saved all these people, and then in the last 10 minutes, a villian pops out and blows up the world killing everyone. Thus making the journey pointless, this is what they did in ME3. They disregarded all the choices, so you don't even get to see how they play out.

What's the point of Saving the genophage? Choosing Geth, Quarian, or both? Or even destroying Cerberus? In the end, you got 3 choices, Destroy, Synthesis, and control, and they don't take anything into consideration. So yeah there was no point, because the galaxy is fucked any way thus voiding out all choices.

The ending didn't show it, but you did cure the genophage. Or you didn't.
You did save both the Quarians and the Geth, or you didn't.
You did save all your crew member in ME2, or you didn't.

You don't need an ending to give you satisfaction for saving the Krogan. Did you even listen to the female Krogan? Did you hear Wrex saying that she's already pregnant? That was enough for me. I knew my choice did matter. I knew I saved a whole race from destruction.

When the Geth Prime came to me and offered their assistance to the Quarians, that feeling... I felt happy, no. Happy is to weak to describe it... I knew I did something good. I knew my choice was a good one. I almost cried because of happiness.

I don't care if the ending showed me if my choices mattered. I know, I felt, I saw that my choices mattered. I don't need a 3 minute long cut scene confirm that. I have 100+ hours of gameplay that confirm that and will always do.

Life=/=Game, but the game you play is part of your life. I don't just play the game. I live it. I enjoy it, I feel it. That's why an ending like the ME3 will never be able to leave scratch on my ME universe. Because I've seen my actions making the difference. Maybe not at the end, but surely during my gameplay.

And this isn't about what the game promised. It's about what it delivered and how the delivered part can ruin something that you already enjoyed.

And no, the whole idea wasn't to see how your choices make the difference.
The whole idea was to enjoy your choices.

 

[Kahunaburger]

The choices you made up to this point are as important as ever because you as the player can use this moment (before selecting the endgame light colour) to reflect on those dozens of ours that brought you here. Feel me? The choice to break the cycle asks the player to do something rarely achieved in video games. One would have to look all the way back to Planescape Torment to find an ending with such profound implications (also, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream).

Comparing Bioware to Harlan Ellison?

 

[Phlakes]

Hell yeah it is. Best game I've played this year and it might be my favorite in the series. Hopefully once this all blows over more people will be able to see it.

 

[Risingblade]

Yup good game with a poorly executed ending.

 

[Rheinmetall]

I have a stronger reason to boycott Bioware; I'm not interested about the ending of ME 3, and I doubt if I will play the game anyway. Their games, judging from my experience with Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect are boring and extremely overrated obviously with the help of their publisher EA, which controls the media. And I don't like at all the aesthetic of their games, maybe because I don't approve of gay relationships with aliens.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

If it was a bad game then their wouldn't be a big rumble about the end. It's an issue because we who are mad about the end really loved the game till that dump of an end came.

 

[gideonkain]

I think that it's a good game too, I just think that the ending is horrible and taints the rest of the game

Second poster nailed it. It was a good game. I enjoyed it all the way until the end. Which was so bad it's stink echos back across time sullying the game and even it's previous iterations.