Poll: What is the biggest problem with the Mass Effect 3 ending? (spoilers!)
- Thread starter feeqmatic
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The biggest problem is people can't understand why some people like it or dislike it. That is less a problem with Mass Effect and more a problem with people in general.
There wasn't a happy choice. Yea, most of my crew survived and Shephard survived somehow, but other than that it was about as unhappy an ending as you could have, barring the Reapers actually winning.
The ghost child made no sense whatsoever. Hated it.
I don't understand why one of the endings couldn't have just been "You completed the Crucible, activated it successfully, and killed the Reapers outright." Granted that might be TOO happy an ending, but it would have made me feel a lot better about the game as a whole.
The ghost child made no sense whatsoever. Hated it.
I don't understand why one of the endings couldn't have just been "You completed the Crucible, activated it successfully, and killed the Reapers outright." Granted that might be TOO happy an ending, but it would have made me feel a lot better about the game as a whole.
It seemed like none of my choices mattered, and regardless of what you do the galaxy is screwed.
That's pretending that the final snow-covered old man and boy scene after the credits never happened, and the "A WINNAR IS U! SHEAPARD IS NOW A LEGEND! NOW, GO OFF AND HAVE MORE ADVENTURES!" title card stopped being so very, very dumb.
That's pretending that the final snow-covered old man and boy scene after the credits never happened, and the "A WINNAR IS U! SHEAPARD IS NOW A LEGEND! NOW, GO OFF AND HAVE MORE ADVENTURES!" title card stopped being so very, very dumb.
synobal said:
Well they can always try to make sense of things with adding few more vids on whats going on... you know to patch the biggest plot holes - i.e. Normandy using relay, crew back on Normandy, Illusive Mans transportational services (how did he end up on the citadel ... well I guess he was there before the reapers moved it and since he could control them... while being controlled by them - > whoa what?
), why wasn't there a single reaper on the Citadel).And when you want to end your Magnus Opus at least do it properly by tying all the ends and not leaving escape routes for when the company needs more "credits". What happened to your crew, how did those aliens now trapped around the Earth get home, what happened to the lady that was supposed to look over Illusive man after he underwent his transformation into half mechanical jerk instead of just a jerk and sooooo many more >_<
Yes? I don't know how about you but I sure as hell don't care about the ideal gaming mechanics and withing the boundaries of the game I try to go as "I'd do it". (Thus ending up half paragon half renegade - and god is it annoying since it killed Jack in ME2, thx for that).Nimcha said:
And it would be reasonable. It's been proven that Reapers are not that hot about upgrades (Thresher Maw can kill them) and there have been quiet a few cycles of purging before, or, to keep things single, it took them forever to wipe out protheans, how likely is it that nobody developed some really big gun that would just blow few more holes into the big reapers?
Choice is: Use the reapers to subdue other races / send them into the nearest sun
Choice is not: die / die in even more stupid fashion
Mass Effect has always been about choice, and about achieving victory through impossible odds. Cliche, sure, but the endings of the previous two games reflect it. What made Shepard exceptional was that he would never accept the path that was given to him; he fought, beat the odds, and emerged triumphant (with varying degrees of success in ME2). At the end of Mass Effect 3, for the first time in Shepard's life (that we see), he apparently gives up. He accepts the choices that the Catalyst gives him, and this goes against every single aspect of his character that we've seen.Nimcha said:
AS for "destroying the core of the franchise," I realize now that I worded that wrong. What I was intending to say was that it destroys the core of the in-game universe. Mass Relays destroyed, galactic society in complete collapse, that kind of stuff. I was never expecting a happy ending here, but I was expecting something a little less grimdark and with more closure. And really, lack of closure is the biggest fault of the endings. Open-ended or not, we are given such a bleak look at the future of the Mass Effect universe that it's aggravating that we don't know anything that happens after Shepard's sacrifice beyond Joker/EDI ending up on some random planet for some unexplained reason. Of all the series to end in an open-ended fashion, Mass Effect is not the one to do it.
Someone else likened it to Lord of the Rings, saying (paraphrased): "The ending of Mass Effect 3 is as if in The Return of the King the movie ended with Frodo and Gollum falling into the fires of Mt. Doom while the battle at the Black Gate raged on." Sure, we'd be able to say that the ring was probably destroyed and the good guys won, but we want to see what happened to the people we've come to care about through our long journey.
Even the conversation between the man and boy at the very end doesn't help; the phrasing used implies that the current state of the galaxy is COMPLETELY UNKNOWN beyond what we know now, there MAY be diverse life out there. So life may go on, but the civilization you fought to defend is lost never to be rebuilt.
The problem for me is that there is no conclusion to the emotional arc, something Bioware is usually very good at. It builds you up to a big ending then gives you a conversation with a new character who is not adequately explained, and then a meaningless choice where all three have basically the same effect. I would have been satisfied if it had cut from Shepard and Anderson bleeding out to the Device firing and then skipped the stuff with the Normandy, but the version we do get short-circuits the emotion of the ending and feels like a kick in the gut.
It also doesn't feel like the choices you make through the game have any real impact. Made peace between the Quarians and Geth? Too bad, most of both races were wiped out in the battle for Earth and the survivors have no resources to rebuild on their mutual homeworld that they can't survive on without a full encounter suit. Rescued the Rakni from extinction? Too bad, the queen died when the Device self-destructed after firing. Cured the Genophage and helped the Krogan re-earn their place in galactic society? To bad, Wrex is dead or trapped on Earth and Tuchanka is both isolated from other worlds and too ecologically damaged to support their reborn society. All those refugees on the Citadel, as well as Bailey and all the other characters based there? Died off-screen when the Reapers took the Citadel, or if they were still resisting Shepard killed them himself when he blew it up. Whether you were Paragon or Renegade, no matter who you helped or who you betrayed, nothing you did mattered.
You know what would have been nice? Being able to use the evidence of the Geth and EDI to prove that the entire logic of the cycle is built on a false premise (Synthetics inevitably destroying organics) and have the Catalyst voluntarily back down or kill itself. It's how Shepard solves 90% of his non-shooting problems through the games and a possible way to defeat every other major villain, so it's not like it wouldn't fit the tone.
The problem for me is that there is no conclusion to the emotional arc, something Bioware is usually very good at. It builds you up to a big ending then gives you a conversation with a new character who is not adequately explained, and then a meaningless choice where all three have basically the same effect. I would have been satisfied if it had cut from Shepard and Anderson bleeding out to the Device firing and then skipped the stuff with the Normandy, but the version we do get short-circuits the emotion of the ending and feels like a kick in the gut.
It also doesn't feel like the choices you make through the game have any real impact. Made peace between the Quarians and Geth? Too bad, most of both races were wiped out in the battle for Earth and the survivors have no resources to rebuild on their mutual homeworld that they can't survive on without a full encounter suit. Rescued the Rakni from extinction? Too bad, the queen died when the Device self-destructed after firing. Cured the Genophage and helped the Krogan re-earn their place in galactic society? To bad, Wrex is dead or trapped on Earth and Tuchanka is both isolated from other worlds and too ecologically damaged to support their reborn society. All those refugees on the Citadel, as well as Bailey and all the other characters based there? Died off-screen when the Reapers took the Citadel, or if they were still resisting Shepard killed them himself when he blew it up. Whether you were Paragon or Renegade, no matter who you helped or who you betrayed, nothing you did mattered.
You know what would have been nice? Being able to use the evidence of the Geth and EDI to prove that the entire logic of the cycle is built on a false premise (Synthetics inevitably destroying organics) and have the Catalyst voluntarily back down or kill itself. It's how Shepard solves 90% of his non-shooting problems through the games and a possible way to defeat every other major villain, so it's not like it wouldn't fit the tone.
Even if they got it up and running, where would they go? It has been established that the travel range of ships are limited by their fuel supply, chances of there being anything at all within reachable distance are slim.synobal said:
And if this was shown, it would have added even more extreme plot convenience in an ending already bugged down by leaps and bounds of contrivance, but nothing in the cut-scene itself indicates anything in that direction. Going from what there is actually seen, they are alone.
The ending felt so empty. I just united a whole galaxy and then find out it was all for nothing? All we had to do was press one of three magical buttons?
All my choices that I had made during the series feel worthless.
I saved the Destiny Ascension in the first game... But now I see the ending, I think: Why bother? I was hoping that my choice in saving that bad girl would allow me to see it rip apart at least ONE reaper.
Can we get an ending where we shoot that stupid 'god-kid'?
All my choices that I had made during the series feel worthless.
I saved the Destiny Ascension in the first game... But now I see the ending, I think: Why bother? I was hoping that my choice in saving that bad girl would allow me to see it rip apart at least ONE reaper.
Can we get an ending where we shoot that stupid 'god-kid'?
I wouldn't call freeing the civilizations of the galaxy from continued technological and societal enslavement via the mass relay system nothing.iseeyouthere said:
I was pretty content with the ending. Or the ending I saw anyway.
As far as I can see, with a multiple ending system as vast as mass effect 3's, if you don't like the ending, you played it wrong. Play it again, get a different ending. See if you like that one.
But yeah, the one I got was fine, it rounded everything off very nicely, and was suitably moving and epic. My only gripe is that I couldn't save everyone. Sigh...
As far as I can see, with a multiple ending system as vast as mass effect 3's, if you don't like the ending, you played it wrong. Play it again, get a different ending. See if you like that one.
But yeah, the one I got was fine, it rounded everything off very nicely, and was suitably moving and epic. My only gripe is that I couldn't save everyone. Sigh...
You also have to think about resources, how many people were there in that battle? Now they all have to live in our solar system because there isn't really anywhere for them to go with limited fuel for their FTL drives. I mean its going to be very difficult for that many people to be supported on just a couple of habitable planets that have been effectively razed. Where will the food come from? I mean sure there were the Quarian ships there that could support themselves but they could only support the flotilla if the Quarians were careful with their supplies.
You save the galaxy and your crew makes it out alive(still doing the other two atm, chose the middle one first time, so not sure if it changes) that's hardly 'just bitter.'ChrisRedfield92 said:
The explanation made perfect sense for being a villain's motivation, because the villain is/was a MACHINE. Plenty of closure for the main characters, in mine I sacrificed myself for the greater good and all my surviving bros that were on my ship are chilling on a beach somewhere. No idea what continuity errors you're talking about, because I certainly didn't see any.
This would have been nice though, as it makes sense too.mgs16925 said:
If I can convince THE ILLUSIVE MAN who is possibly the strongest willed human next to Shepard him/her-self to shoot himself, I can bloody well do the same for some old piece of machinery.
the thing is though the Catalyst is a machine, it thinks like a machine, it doesn't care about emotions and whatnot only facts, and the only facts it has are that organics will be killed by Synthetics.PinochetIsMyBro said:
It really doesn't make sense that you could talk it down.