Mass Effect Ending Spoiler Thread

[viper37]

I wouldn't know, I gave up on that series after first one.

then why are you constantly playing ME3?

[katmai]

I wouldn't know, I gave up on that series after first one.

then why are you constantly playing ME3?

[grumbler]

I wouldn't know, I gave up on that series after first one.

then why are you constantly playing ME3?

  I think he missed your point.

I agree with you, though.  I couldn't finish the second one, and had zero desire to try the third.

Kinda like ME and me, in fact.

[Tamas]

BTW how come nobody mentioned the Hyperion series? It has much the same ending.

[grumbler]

BTW how come nobody mentioned the Hyperion series? It has much the same ending.

Because no one ever finished that series?  No one knows (or cares) how it ends. 

[viper37]

I wouldn't know, I gave up on that series after first one.

then why are you constantly playing ME3?

I thought you said you gave up on Mass Effect after the first game, but you were talking about the Matrix   Sorry

[Legbiter]

[Tamas]

 

My latest speculation is that they came up with the 2 (or 3) choice ending is to ease the intake of the endings. What do I mean? When I watched the blue ending, first thing was to go back to the latest possible save and see the red ending.

Now, if the endings were tied to paragon or renegade scores, ie non-selectable, and I would have done an other game from sracth to see the one I haven't, just to see that the mass effect gates get blown up and civilization as I know it destroyed in both cases, now that would have been a letdown.

Despite of course, that it makes sense. Just think through the 3rd game's story - it is in complete lack of hope, and your making decisions between two bad things usually. It makes perfect sense to only let you choose between varying degrees of destruction.

Still of course, the ending sucks and they should have figured out something better, particularly I could have lived without the "level above the Reapers" god-kid.

But when I think about what I really miss - it is a take on how the universe will look after the ending. But, that's pretty much a given except you don't get cutscenes about it. If you let the krogans have babies again, they will multiply and in the newfound isolation rebuild their once thriving civilization, etc.

So to summarize, I still wish they have done it better but I am not as bitter as I was initially, and I certainly can't sympathize with this huge nerdrage on the Internet.

[viper37]

So, ME2: average game with great ending.  ME3: excellent game with weak ending.  I don't know what to choose...

[Queequeg]

ME2 was at least as good as 3.  Probably better.  The "cinematic" quality of ME3 will severely limit replay value. 

I'm pretty goddamned pissed.  #2 on that article really hit me.  I'm pretty pissed.

[Queequeg]

So one of the three endings-and the only one where Shepherd survives-entails wiping out *all* synthetic life.  Including the Geth.  This actually makes you worse than the reapers. 

[viper37]

ME2 was at least as good as 3.  Probably better.  The "cinematic" quality of ME3 will severely limit replay value. 

I'm pretty goddamned pissed.  #2 on that article really hit me.  I'm pretty pissed.

On release, ME2 was a very simplistic and short game.  Only when you add all the DLCs, including the Shadow broker does the game truly shine.

The emphasis was made on quick combat action, get in one place, shoot the ennemy, get out.  With ME3, it's like there's a story being told, and I'm part of it.
In ME2, the scanning mini game was boring and silly.  The hacking mini game was silly.
With ME3, only the galaxy scanning "let's not alert the Reapers" gets tedious the second time the Reapers come in the star system.

[viper37]

So one of the three endings-and the only one where Shepherd survives-entails wiping out *all* synthetic life.  Including the Geth.  This actually makes you worse than the reapers. 

does EDI survive when you make that choice?

[Legbiter]

So one of the three endings-and the only one where Shepherd survives-entails wiping out *all* synthetic life.  Including the Geth.  This actually makes you worse than the reapers.

Control ending = TIM.

Synthesis/space hippy ending = Saren.

Destroy Ending = Anderson.

Destroy is the still a horrible ending. You fail as Shepard to preserve galactic civilization and it shits all over your choices thus far, paragon or renegade.

This review sums up the game pretty well.

http://calitreview.com/24673

Without giving anything away, (directly, as all subsequent links will contain some spoilers) the ending, by which I mean the final five to ten minutes, of Mass Effect 3 is easily the worst finale I've seen compared to the preceding quality that came before it – in any medium. At literally every level, it's objectively terrible.

Sloppy execution that reuses art assets reveals that it's a hurried inclusion. The under thought and over pretentious dialogue does nothing but create bizarre, confusing plot holes. It even commits the same sin The Devil Inside did earlier this year, and has the gall to add an advertisement by the producers at the end of the credits, which is frankly insulting.

Far more importantly though, it betrays key themes and values well established by the series thus far. Past player choice impacting the shape of events is negated in favor of an arbitrary and poorly explained "pick your favorite color" moment. Science fiction justification in an otherwise material world is abandoned for magical deism, since quite literally, a god in a machine appears. Unification through altruism and sacrifice is thrown out for pure nihilism: each of the choices you're forced to make results in Shepard committing some level of genocide or another, with the benefits removed from any relatable emotional touchstone to the intangible space of far flung statistics. It even manages to make The Reapers, one of the more imposing forces of antagonism in recent memory, come across as foolish pawns.

[Kleves]

That was the worst ending I've seen since Neon Genesis Evangelion - which it actually is somewhat similar to. It makes me wonder not only why, but how it could have happened; how could a series with such a rich background and such generally excellent writing been allowed to have such a horrible ending?