Mass Effect 3

[Maniacal]

If any of these endings are even half true, I don't know how they could do any games that take place afterwards.

EDIT: Hell, a quote from Casey Hudson (Bioware lead dev of some kind, I forget exactly what his title is).

At this point we’re taking into account so many decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings, where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got ending A, B, or C.

http://gamerant.com/mass-effect-3-different-every-player-dyce-124489/

Lies, all of it.

EDIT: An actually deep story with the Asari commando in the hospital on the citadel who has PTSD:

Spoiler :

I compared her story to that of Joker's family, and I think it matches up. The family she was billeted with was possibly his. Mentioned in the wikia article on her.

 

[Dreadnought]

Come back when you've finished it and then I'll listen.




The journey, as Akka and others have already mentioned, was more or less fine and a lot of fun. The problem with the ending isn't that it is abstract (although taking it literally doesn't make a lot, if any, sense at all either) but how badly implemented it is. It also fails to provide any sort of epilogue and then ends with a screen telling you that they will let you continue shep's legend in future DLC.

There are so many ways to interpret what happened but none of them are really an answer and nobody except Bioware actually knows what the real ending is.


There isn't much in the player mechanics that is triumphant, the use of biotic/tech powers is cool but the rest of it is standard 3rd person cover-based shooting and talking to NPCs standing around.

Besides the way dialogue choices and major decisions could affect what happens when you import your save through the rest of the games (which is probably its best feature next to most of the dialogue and interaction with various characters and companions) there isn't much that is really that could be called a triumph.

I like the game as much as everyone else here and I have put in probably over 300 hours into all three of them, but no matter how much I've enjoyed it I'm not going blind myself to its flaws, especially when it is a top selling game coming from a "AAA" studio backed by EA's deep pockets. Indeed, most of my complaints about the ME games are because I really like them and I wish they could be magically made even better. Even after ME3's ending I still want MOAR!!! I realize they have budgets and deadlines and I thought that the missions in ME3 were well done and fairly large/long but there is still so much we didn't get to explore

EDIT: Also while Akka can certainly get obnoxiously 'nitpicky' (or whatever you want to call it) sometimes he really wasn't being too harsh with his ME3 mini-review-thing.

I totally agree with you. The ending did lack a certain bit of finesse relative to your background as paragon or renegade; I also agree that a company should always strive to be better than what is expected of them.

So I just finished it. I thought the ending wasn't that bad.
Then I tried another option and thought about it some more...

Spoiler :

I chose Synthesis btw, then I reloaded the lates save (on the citadel) and chose Destruction of all synthetic life. I'm now pretty convinced it was indoctrination/halucination.
So the real ending of the Mass Effect trilogy after 100+ hours of playing is that Shepard get's indoctrinated or killed right before he can succeed. Yeah, that's pretty bad.
What's even worse is that there'll probably be a DLC to give us some real closure, or possibly a sequel. Bioware has said that ME 3 will be the end of Shepard's story. They didn't explicitly say that there won't be a Mass Effect 4.

I'm fairly certain there will be a DLC with a new ending involving the secret cutscene if you gain 5000 war score.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I also agree that a company should always strive to be better than what is expected of them.

Sadly for us, this industry benefits from a portion of apologist pseudo-connaisseur clients.

 

[RD-BH]

Gamefront:
... 5 reasons the fans are right
www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred

THIS.

 

[Maniacal]

That is a pretty good article on the ending's problems.

Spoiler :

I forgot about the fact that the Mass Relays explode into a supernova that wipes out entire systems when destroyed. And every ending in ME3 includes them blowing up, BYE BYE EARTH!

 

[RD-BH]

EDIT: An actually deep story with the Asari commando in the hospital on the citadel who has PTSD:

Spoiler :

I compared her story to that of Joker's family, and I think it matches up. The family she was billeted with was possibly his. Mentioned in the wikia article on her.

Did you not understand ...

Spoiler :

... the girl she killed was Joker's sister.

 

[LightSpectra]

Gamefront:
... 5 reasons the fans are right
www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred

THIS.

Major spoilers:

Spoiler :

I just died laughing. This sums up everything, really.

 

[RD-BH]

CONSPIRACY THEORY

EA Games == Reapers
BioWare == TIM
Gamers == Shepard

Choice is an illusion ...
... you can't control them,
... because they already control you.

Spoiler :

EA Games wants to corner the gaming market so that their business model is the only one.
They intentionally force BioWare to lie then betray their values with this ending.
EA Games does NOT want players to be loyal to a title,
... they want you hungry and buying constantly.
... They want to feed you crap at nickel and dime prices because you have no choice.

What? Too over the top? 8)

 

[Aroddo]

As far as I can tell all 3 endings are basically the same with only minor differences.
The same as in

Spoiler :

all mass relays getting destroyed
isolation of all races to their home systems
ships of all races stranded in the solar system.

Clearly Bioware intends to relaunch the franchise as an MMO hundreds or thousands of years later, with the rediscovery of some form of interstellar space travel.
You always start on earth, can choose any of the known allied races and you can explore the galaxy to rediscover old colonies of all different races and see how well they did survive the aftermath.

Oh, and your choices in ME3 wouldn't mean a thing anyway, since it's been a long time ago and Bioware would have settled for one canon ending.

Good strategy but man ... they could really have put some effort into getting the end done right.

 

[PhroX]

As far as I can tell all 3 endings are basically the same with only minor differences.
The same as in
all mass relays getting destroyed
isolation of all races to their home systems
ships of all races stranded in the solar system.

Clearly Bioware intends to relaunch the franchise as an MMO hundreds or thousands of years later, with the rediscovery of some form of interstellar space travel.
You always start on earth, can choose any of the known allied races and you can explore the galaxy to rediscover old colonies of all different races and see how well they did survive the aftermath.

Oh, and your choices in ME3 wouldn't mean a thing anyway, since it's been a long time ago and Bioware would have settled for one canon ending.

Good strategy but man ... they could really have put some effort into getting the end done right.

Well, there already is another form of interstellar travel - all ships have mass effect based FTL drives (you use it while traveling around sectors for example). They won't get you across the galaxy in a couple of days like the relays, but they'd certainly prevent people being stuck in on system.

 

[Maniacal]

There are so many problems with that though:

Spoiler :

Major problems being many of the ships are likely damaged from the battle, FTLing back to their home systems will take years if not decades, they might not have enough fuel to even do that, they have no equipment for colonizing other nearby worlds, Earth has been raped by the Reapers and will be unable to help the fleets in any way for many years, Turians and Quarians cannot eat the same food as the other species (or any of Earth's food), and there are numerous species now stranded together in a system and it is only inevitable that tensions will run high and lead to armed conflict. Not too mention that the relays themselves form supernovas that take out entire systems when destroyed.

EDIT:

Spoiler :

Not too mention if you don't have enough EMS score everyone on earth is vaporized in the explosion of light.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

If any of these endings are even half true, I don't know how they could do any games that take place afterwards.

There's always prequels, sequels very far in the future or just some new technology that suddenly pops up and solves everything.

I'm fairly certain there will be a DLC with a new ending involving the secret cutscene if you gain 5000 war score.

I think that's likely, and if they really do it I'm done with Bioware.
I dislike their fondness for DLC, I was really pissed about the day-one Prothean, but if they withhold the real good ending from the core game and sell it as DLC I'm not giving them any more of my money.

While I'm complaining: No sex scene with Miranda. The screen just goes black for a few seconds.

Major spoilers:

Spoiler :

I just died laughing. This sums up everything, really.

Actually the reasoning does make sense if you look at the big picture, though it's not in line with human morality.

Spoiler :

The catalyst says/thinks without the cycle all organic life would eventually be wiped out by synthetic life. The Reapers only harvest advanced species who have the technology to create synthetics. They leave cavemen and pre-spaceflight civilizations alone.
They also prevent that one species colonises the whole galaxy and destroys or subjugates all others.
I think that's actually a pretty good reasoning for the cycle.
Every possible sentient species get's their 50.000 years to flourish before they have to make room for another generation.

Sovereign was wrong. I can comprehend it.

As far as I can tell all 3 endings are basically the same with only minor differences.

Spoiler :

The same as in
all mass relays getting destroyed
isolation of all races to their home systems
ships of all races stranded in the solar system.

Spoiler :

Yeah, ME3 has three bad endings and they make a lot of Shepards accomplishments pointless.
Examples:
Wrex lives and the Krogan have a leader who genuinely wants and probably can rebuild their civilization. He's stranded on earth and the Krogan will likely dissolve into warring clans once again.
The Quarians made peace with the Geth and regained their homeworld. They get wiped out anyway, either by the shockwave from the crucible or by starvation. Even if they survive, it's unlikely that any of them see their homeworld again.
In one of the endings the Geth are also wiped out.

And please put it in spoilers, the game isn't even a week old many people haven't beaten it yet.
I just finished it yesterday and you narrowly avoided my wrath.

 

[rkade8583]

My wife and I just saw that gamefront article and we both agree wholeheartedly. The fact that the game was, until the last five minutes, amazing, made the ending even worse.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Talk about RUINED FOREVER.
I planned to replay Mass Effect2 full renegade with minimum survivors later this year and import it into ME 3 for a bad ending.
Now I don't see the point.

I honestly think it might have been a better ending if

Spoiler :

the Reapers just won. At least Liara has recorded and hidden warnings about the Reapers all over the Galaxy and the species of the next cycle will have a better chance at taking out the Reapers without losing the relays.

 

[Kozmos]

I planned to replay Mass Effect2 full renegade with minimum survivors later this year and import it into ME 3 for a bad ending.
Now I don't see the point.

Exactly. I had the same idea. Choices smhoices.

 

[PhroX]

There are so many problems with that though:

Spoiler :

Major problems being many of the ships are likely damaged from the battle, FTLing back to their home systems will take years if not decades, they might not have enough fuel to even do that, they have no equipment for colonizing other nearby worlds, Earth has been raped by the Reapers and will be unable to help the fleets in any way for many years, Turians and Quarians cannot eat the same food as the other species (or any of Earth's food), and there are numerous species now stranded together in a system and it is only inevitable that tensions will run high and lead to armed conflict. Not too mention that the relays themselves form supernovas that take out entire systems when destroyed.

Spoiler :

Oh, I agree with this, I was just correcting on the idea that without the relays there is no FTL interstellar travel. Those stuck in Sol, or other war ravaged/exploding relay areas (actually, if the relays went boom the way they did in Arrival, there is no Sol system any more, so it's all rather irrelevant...) are in trouble, and it will take time to rebuild, but it's not going to be the end of civilisation or anything.

 

[Dreadnought]

To be fair, casualties in the final battle were so high that there may not be a problem with overpopulation.

 

[Maniacal]

While I am sure there were heavy casualties (depending on your EMS, I had over 5k) there isn't anything to indicate how much of the fleet was actually destroyed. With my ending I assume most of it didn't get destroyed.

Spoiler :

It is still going to be pretty bad. I think the Quarrians brought their live ships (outfitted with guns) (and offloaded the majority of their people and ships back at the homeworld) so they could possibly keep going with most of the Turians (those three ships fed 17 million Quarians) but the others are pretty much screwed.

Also I'm pretty sure at least two of the endings do result in the reapers winning, to some degree anyway. Controlling them is an obvious trap, and synthesis doesn't seem much more promising.

 

[RD-BH]

Spoiler :

Oh, I agree with this, I was just correcting on the idea that without the relays there is no FTL interstellar travel. Those stuck in Sol, or other war ravaged/exploding relay areas (actually, if the relays went boom the way they did in Arrival, there is no Sol system any more, so it's all rather irrelevant...) are in trouble, and it will take time to rebuild, but it's not going to be the end of civilisation or anything.

Confusion:

Spoiler :

It is implied that all eezo based tech is destroyed.
Plus, the game clearly indicated building the crucible consumed more eezo than the human's had available.
So, when the Citadel/Crucible went boom, the local supply of fuel went with it.

 

[Maniacal]

Confusion:

Spoiler :

Where the hell is that implied?