Poll: What is the biggest problem with the Mass Effect 3 ending? (spoilers!)

[feeqmatic]

Simple question. What do you think is most wrong with the ME3 ending. For me its the fact that you do not have the choice to earn the ending you want. All of the endings are a variation of an ending that could be best described as "bitter sweet." I wanted what Bioware usually give us which is several endings based upon your decisions in the game. For all the endings to converge into the same problems (destruction of mass effect system and setting galactic civilization back 300 years minimum) is not varied enough for me.

Edit: not sure what happened with option 5 and it wont let me change it for some reason either. It is supposed to say "seems like my decisions didn't matter.

 

[Blachman201_v1legacy]

I answered "Seems like my decisions didn't matter."

But lazy writing, extreme plot contrivance, and outright plot holes is also a huge part of it for me.

 

[synobal]

Nothing was wrong with them. Nor do I think a poll is going to do anything at all. I can't imagine someone like Stephen King of George R. R. Martin having to deal with this sort of stuff. I kind of feel sorry for Bioware and this is after them pissing me off with Origin and the DLC (though I guess that was mostly EA)

 

[Blachman201_v1legacy]

I can't imagine someone like Stephen King of George R. R. Martin having to deal with this sort of stuff.

And that is because they write books, a medium know for not offering the reader any agency or other options than to move forward with the story. It is a fallacy to compare them to video games.

 

[synobal]

I can't imagine someone like Stephen King of George R. R. Martin having to deal with this sort of stuff.

And that is because they write books, a medium know for not offering the reader any agency or other options than to move forward with the story. It is a fallacy to compare them to video games.

Nope, it isn't a fallacy to compare them. Mass Effect is essentially a big choose your own adventure novel with well written stories. It's different from a novel but essentially the same at the core. You never have control over the endings and if you want to. I suggest you start writing fan fiction. I'm sure plenty of people will.

 

[wicket42]

Nothing was wrong with them. Nor do I think a poll is going to do anything at all. I can't imagine someone like Stephen King of George R. R. Martin having to deal with this sort of stuff. I kind of feel sorry for Bioware and this is after them pissing me off with Origin and the DLC (though I guess that was mostly EA)

You mean intelligent authors who know how to write an ending that makes sense don't have these problems?

I think we agree.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Nothing was wrong with them. Nor do I think a poll is going to do anything at all. I can't imagine someone like Stephen King of George R. R. Martin having to deal with this sort of stuff. I kind of feel sorry for Bioware and this is after them pissing me off with Origin and the DLC (though I guess that was mostly EA)

An ending that doesn't provide any sense of closure is a bad ending, and it always has been. Beyond that, it invalidates what we achieved over the course of trilogy.

So yeah, there's a lot wrong with the endings.

 

[Edward Qian]

The plot was great, until the last cut scene. We spend 3 games trying to save the galaxy,but they had to destroy it in the last 15 minutes. It's really frustrating.

 

[Sp3ratus]

Nothing was wrong with them. Nor do I think a poll is going to do anything at all. I can't imagine someone like Stephen King of George R. R. Martin having to deal with this sort of stuff. I kind of feel sorry for Bioware and this is after them pissing me off with Origin and the DLC (though I guess that was mostly EA)

You mean intelligent authors who know how to write an ending that makes sense don't have these problems?

I think we agree.

I agree as well. We were lucky to have intelligent writers, who gave us an amazing end as ME3 had.

OT: Nothing wrong with the ending. It gave Mass Effect as a series the ending it deserved and it fit perfectly for the game itself, as well. The goal was accomplished and it gave us hope for the future of the Mass Effect galaxy.

 

[Nimcha]

Nothing was wrong with them. Nor do I think a poll is going to do anything at all. I can't imagine someone like Stephen King of George R. R. Martin having to deal with this sort of stuff. I kind of feel sorry for Bioware and this is after them pissing me off with Origin and the DLC (though I guess that was mostly EA)

An ending that doesn't provide any sense of closure is a bad ending, and it always has been. Beyond that, it invalidates what we achieved over the course of trilogy.

You know, neither of those statements are actually true. An open ending isn't inherently bad. Never has been.

Besides that, there is some closure. The games have always been about Shepard's story. She/he is the one you follow and control. The ending of ME3 is the ending of that story. That's the closure. And you even see your crew survive the ordeal to live another day. If you need more closure it just means you haven't used your imagination yet. That's the point of an open ending.

Furthermore, alot of the things you did before the end will have impact on the galaxy after Shepard. Take the krogan, or the geth, or quarians. Or rachni. Whichever you prefer.

The galaxy will live on and probably rebuild. But that's another story, Shepard's story is over as soon as you make your final choice.

Oh and my problem with the ending is how it is not really explained why the Normandy is in a relay during the final cutscene. There's not really a reason for it to be there, as far as I can tell.

 

[Blachman201_v1legacy]

If you need more closure it just means you haven't used your imagination yet. That's the point of an open ending.

That really doesn't help when the framework your imagination is supposed to work in looks very, very bleak.

Millions if not billions of people are stranded without FTL travel, forever separated from their families and friends. And if they stuck on a planet that doesn't have food compatible with their biology, they will slowly starve to death. And the same thing goes for colonies dependent on food and medical supplies from the outside.

The stranded Normandy crew is in the same position. All indicates that they can't leave the planet they have crashed on. Joker, with his disease, probably won't last long, neither will Tail and Garrus, with their dependency on dextro food they are doomed to slowly starve to death. One could of course eat the other, but it would only delay the inevitable. And the size of the Normandy's crew doesn't allow for much genetic diversity. Even if the gay crew members are forced to procreate against their sexuality, it will still only take a few generations before they are forced to interbreed.

 

[JeanLuc761]

You know, neither of those statements are actually true. An open ending isn't inherently bad. Never has been.

Besides that, there is some closure. The games have always been about Shepard's story. She/he is the one you follow and control. The ending of ME3 is the ending of that story. That's the closure. And you even see your crew survive the ordeal to live another day. If you need more closure it just means you haven't used your imagination yet. That's the point of an open ending.

Furthermore, alot of the things you did before the end will have impact on the galaxy after Shepard. Take the krogan, or the geth, or quarians. Or rachni. Whichever you prefer.

The galaxy will live on and probably rebuild. But that's another story, Shepard's story is over as soon as you make your final choice.

Oh and my problem with the ending is how it is not really explained why the Normandy is in a relay during the final cutscene. There's not really a reason for it to be there, as far as I can tell.

Well the major issue here is that, open ending or no, the conclusion wasn't explained nearly well enough. Ignoring that the three choices given to you completely assassinate Shepard's character and destroy the core of the franchise, we aren't given much of anything to go on.

Normandy is stranded on some unknown planet, god only knows how many survived the crash. Tali/Garrus, if alive, wont' last long. Galactic Infrastructure is in total collapse due to the destruction of the relays, all homeworlds are cut off from each other leading to untold numbers of casualties thanks to interruption of supply chains...it's extremely dark.

 

[Acton Hank]

Simple question. What do you think is most wrong with the ME3 ending. For me its the fact that you do not have the choice to earn the ending you want. All of the endings are a variation of an ending that could be best described as "bitter sweet." I wanted what Bioware usually give us which is several endings based upon your decisions in the game. For all the endings to converge into the same problems (destruction of mass effect system and setting galactic civilization back 300 years minimum) is not varied enough for me.

Edit: not sure what happened with option 5 and it wont let me change it for some reason either. It is supposed to say "seems like my decisions didn't matter.

The ending isn't bitter sweet. It's just bitter.

And this has everything that's bad about an ending: flimsy insipid nonsensical explanation for the villain's motivation, lack of closure or resolution for the main characters, to things happening for no reason or explanation, to in your face continuity errors.

The only thing with merit is the music.

Even the lack of flashbacks for the ME2 or ME3 love interests and the tacked on windows desktop backdrop with narration smacks of just pure laziness and a Fuck You to the fans.

 

[Acton Hank]

You know, neither of those statements are actually true. An open ending isn't inherently bad. Never has been.

Besides that, there is some closure. The games have always been about Shepard's story. She/he is the one you follow and control. The ending of ME3 is the ending of that story. That's the closure. And you even see your crew survive the ordeal to live another day. If you need more closure it just means you haven't used your imagination yet. That's the point of an open ending.

Furthermore, alot of the things you did before the end will have impact on the galaxy after Shepard. Take the krogan, or the geth, or quarians. Or rachni. Whichever you prefer.

The galaxy will live on and probably rebuild. But that's another story, Shepard's story is over as soon as you make your final choice.

Oh and my problem with the ending is how it is not really explained why the Normandy is in a relay during the final cutscene. There's not really a reason for it to be there, as far as I can tell.

Well the major issue here is that, open ending or no, the conclusion wasn't explained nearly well enough. Ignoring that the three choices given to you completely assassinate Shepard's character and destroy the core of the franchise, we aren't given much of anything to go on.

Normandy is stranded on some unknown planet, god only knows how many survived the crash. Tali/Garrus, if alive, wont' last long. Galactic Infrastructure is in total collapse due to the destruction of the relays, all homeworlds are cut off from each other leading to untold numbers of casualties thanks to interruption of supply chains...it's extremely dark.

And it doesn't make any sense, Why do the relays explode? The game said so. Why is all synthetic life destroyed if you choose the destroy option? The game said so. Why is the Normandy affected by a schockwave that only seems to affect the reapers? The game said so. Why was Joker flying through the Relay in the middle of a battle? the game said so. Why did all the squadmates magically teleport aboard the Normandy within the ten minutes of you walking through the beam in London? The game said so.

I wouldn't be so angry if the endings made any sense. I wouldn't like a dark ending; but I wouldn't be angry either.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It wasn't bittersweet, it was a god damn tragedy. And it didn't make any logical sense. Best case scenario the entire galaxy is ruined. No more space travel. And what the hell is going to happen to all the people in those ships above Earth? What's gonna happen to their families? Are they all supposed to live on Earth after that? And what of people who lived on The Citadel? And what happened to your crew? Not to mention that the ending makes the entire journey pointless. Choices, heroic acts, sacrifices. All pointless. Mordin died for nothing. Legion too. And Kaiden in my ME. Countless others.

Not to mention that Reapers motivations have nothing to do with what Sovereign and Harbinger have been saying all along. Their motivation is basically a wrong opinion. Reapers: "We are incomprehensible. We have an opinion about something and we're gonna kill everyone because of it. It doesn't matter that Shepard proved our opinion is wrong when Joker started dating EDI and when the geth and quarians achieved peace. Not to mention that organics fight each other all the time so it really has nothing to do with organics vs. synthetics. We're not actually incomprehensible, we're just retarded."

Reaper motivations should never have been revealed. Once you describe something as incomprehensible, leave it at that because whatever you reveal will be disappointing. But Bioware didn't stop there. They did something far worse. They introduced the creator of Reapers. That presents another problem now. Who the fuck created the creator, and why? Just fuckin' leave it a mystery. I always thought that Reapers originated from another galaxy. Maybe they do the same to other galaxies and that's why it takes them 50,000 years to reach ours? It would be better to leave us with our own thoughts about their existence. Those were my thoughts. And now they're rendered useless as is the rest of Mass Effect. The most beautiful video game trilogy in the world was destroyed in 5 minutes.

 

[Nimcha]

If you need more closure it just means you haven't used your imagination yet. That's the point of an open ending.

That really doesn't help when the framework your imagination is supposed to work in looks very, very bleak.

Millions if not billions of people are stranded without FTL travel, forever separated from their families and friends. And if they stuck on a planet that doesn't have food compatible with their biology, they will slowly starve to death. And the same thing goes for colonies dependent on food and medical supplies from the outside.

The stranded Normandy crew is in the same position. All indicates that they can't leave the planet they have crashed on. Joker, with his disease, probably won't last long, neither will Tail and Garrus, with their dependency on dextro food they are doomed to slowly starve to death. One could of course eat the other, but it would only delay the inevitable. And the size of the Normandy's crew doesn't allow for much genetic diversity. Even if the gay crew members are forced to procreate against their sexuality, it will still only take a few generations before they are forced to interbreed.

Yes, that does indeed look rather bleak. But sad or bleak doesn't equal bad. I get that a lot of people have trouble with handling a rather bleak ending.

But it's not all woe. Yes the relays are destroyed, but the Protheans managed to crack that technology in their timeframe. There is no indication the Asari couldn't do the same. Furthermore, Earth is at least saved. The people that survived can start rebuilding. Everyone on a planet that is somewhat self-sustainable has a large chance of being able to survive and start again.

But this time, free from the controlling force that was the Reapers. This time, the galaxy can make its own path. You know, as sad as the Normandy's fate is, in the grand scheme of things that's rather hopeful.

 

[Nimcha]

Well the major issue here is that, open ending or no, the conclusion wasn't explained nearly well enough.

That's the point of an open ending. You are supposed to think about what happened. As you do in the next part of your post:

Normandy is stranded on some unknown planet, god only knows how many survived the crash. Tali/Garrus, if alive, wont' last long. Galactic Infrastructure is in total collapse due to the destruction of the relays, all homeworlds are cut off from each other leading to untold numbers of casualties thanks to interruption of supply chains...it's extremely dark.

And as for this:

Ignoring that the three choices given to you completely assassinate Shepard's character and destroy the core of the franchise, we aren't given much of anything to go on.

Is just complete rubbish. Please try to explain your opinion in stead of just spouting it in the most asinine fashion. Why does it assasinate Shepard's character? Why does it destroy the core of the franchise?

Even if you could argument those issues, you'd probably be wrong. The ending fit perfectly with the rest of the series. The general theme is sacrifice. You sacrify the mass relays in order to secure the future. And Shepard sacrifices herself too, at least in most endings. Just think about all the things you and others have sacrificed throughout the three games.

 

[synobal]

If you need more closure it just means you haven't used your imagination yet. That's the point of an open ending.

That really doesn't help when the framework your imagination is supposed to work in looks very, very bleak.

Millions if not billions of people are stranded without FTL travel, forever separated from their families and friends. And if they stuck on a planet that doesn't have food compatible with their biology, they will slowly starve to death. And the same thing goes for colonies dependent on food and medical supplies from the outside.

The stranded Normandy crew is in the same position. All indicates that they can't leave the planet they have crashed on. Joker, with his disease, probably won't last long, neither will Tail and Garrus, with their dependency on dextro food they are doomed to slowly starve to death. One could of course eat the other, but it would only delay the inevitable. And the size of the Normandy's crew doesn't allow for much genetic diversity. Even if the gay crew members are forced to procreate against their sexuality, it will still only take a few generations before they are forced to interbreed.

We don't know anything about the planet they crashed on and we don't know to what extent the Normandy was damaged, it obviously wasn't destroyed.

For all we know it is some colony of the Asari or some other race.

The ending with everyone getting off the Normandy is symbolic, Joker and EDI symbolize Adam and Eve, and the planet is suppose to be 'Eden' hell for all we know it is Eden Prime.

It's the start of a new cycle one that wasn't reaped by machines anything is possible it is a new era!

 

[feeqmatic]

There have been several tweets from a few people in Bioware that suggest that they are monitoring the vastly negative response to the ending. My guess is that they are waiting for the nerd rage to die down and then will figure out a way to pacify us while still maintaining something that they can live with.

So out of curiosity, what happened with the fall out 3 changes? I played fallout 3 and didnt have much of a care about the ending (then again i wasnt all that crazy about the game so i dont remember) can someone jog my memory about what happened with it and what was changed in the DLC?

 

[synobal]

There have been several tweets from a few people in Bioware that suggest that they are monitoring the vastly negative response to the ending. My guess is that they are waiting for the nerd rage to die down and then will figure out a way to pacify us while still maintaining something that they can live with.

So out of curiosity, what happened with the fall out 3 changes? I played fallout 3 and didnt have much of a care about the ending (then again i wasnt all that crazy about the game so i dont remember) can someone jog my memory about what happened with it and what was changed in the DLC?

I also had no issues with the ending of fallout 3 my only annoyance was that I couldn't keep adventuring afterwards, so all I did was load up a previous save and avoid the end of the game. Then they patched it and it was lame. I don't think Bioware should compromise what their Magnum Opus because people are upset with it. You might as well tell Michelangelo that he has to put a towel around Davids waist because his balls upset you.