They promised closure.
And closure they brought. And a very fine job they did. The big issues in ME3 felt so incredibly personal because they overlapped with your erstwhile squadmates' personal issues.
So many strong moments: Mordin sacrificing himself to cure the genophage, not trying to rationalize his deeds anymore; Thane dying while protecting someone; Legion destroying itself for the good of its people right after gaining sentience...
Well, either that or Mordin trying and failing to repent with a bullet in his stomach; Kirrahe holding the line once again; Tali tossing herself off a cliff. Right until the end I had the feeling that every decision I made mattered.
It was not absolutely perfect, dark energy wasn't mentioned at all, afaik the only difference between renegade and paragon choice @ME2 ending and I personally could have done very well without Kai Leng because I felt that he wasn't the sake of the story but more for the player to have yet another antagonist they can fight (to put it differently: I felt he was there because ME is a video game. D:), but those things didn't faze me much.
The dreams I took in stride; before the end I thought they were to make it absolutely clear that Shephard is breaking down after years of stress, dying once, having to deal with a possibly LI being a total **** (Kaidan/Ashley, I'm looking at you), saving the universe twice and seeing earth falling to the reapers.
Since it was clear how the whole situation was taking its toll on Shephard even without those Nightmares I rather they let them out, but they were by far not reaching Navi@OoT levels of annoying. No, everything was mostly fine. What I liked very much was this personal impression I had: Even though the whole reaper situation was so goddamn bleak, there was a promise of a better future. A future without the genophage for the krogans, a future on their homeworld for the quarians, a peaceful future for the geth, a future protected by a competent human Spectre even after Shephard's demise, a future with Vegas joining the N7 and presumably kicking ass. Only one thing left to do and Shephard'd finally have some well-deserved rest, be it in retirement or be it in death: Take back earth.
And right until Harbinger struck earth was awesome. However, after Shephard picked her/himself up, the first thing I noticed was my missing squad. FFS, they were right behind me, so they couldn't just have been disintegrated. And neither Garrus nor Tali can use SPACE MAGIC to teleport. a cutscene death would have been nice.
No, really: That would have been a player punch, but it would've been the good kind. It would have made the conflict with the reapers even more personal, it would have driven home that anyone can die, and that death is often messy, and that it can't always be expected, and that there's not always time for some last words. You know what you could have done? Let the Harbinger doom laser shatter Tali's mask. Exposing her face that way would have been a twist noone could have seen coming (Though I must admit: I did not see it coming that you'd be so lazy as to never even bother to think about how quarians, a race you've created look like under their suits and just... bleh, we all know about that Tali pic, don't we?).
But no, we can't have that. Possibly displeasing the fanbase might be very stupid. No crewmates. No cutscene. No bodies. Alright. They just... disappeared.
Fine. No, I don't want anyone to scream INDOCTRINATION, and I'll tell you why. Later. Okay, so Shephard is a dead badass walking, that's awesome, you shoot some husks, you shoot mister Marauder Shields, that's swell, then you get beamed up to the slaughterhouse that is the citadel, right, and Anderson is there and TIM as well and uhm, that scene is rather weird.
I loved the dialogue, I didn't quite like whatever TIM did to hijack the bodies of both Shephard and Anderson. I felt everything was moving faster than I could keep up, but I still understood what was important: My squadmates were dead, I was on the verge of destroying the reapers and the only thing left to do was getting rid of TIM.
I was not paragon enough for Saren 2.0, but comparing the outcomes I prefer shooting the Illusive Man myself so he can see earth one last time. Anyway, Shephard's free to... activate the catalyst, I guess, and then you have this perfect scene with those two tired veterans just sitting down and talking and Anderson dies and really, that scene shows what Bioware can do.
And you know what? That could've been that. Anderson dead, Shephard dying, the Crucible destroys the reapers. Shephard smiling one last time, remembering the LI, or maybe everyone, maybe putting her/his arm around Anderson, and then - credits.
I would have liked that. There would still be unresolved issues - dark energy, reaper history + motives, power behind the reapers, the cycles of extinction... That wouldn't have mattered. The reapers spent all three games explaining how they could not be understood - so let them be right about that. They are gone for good, the cycle is gone for good, they don't matter anymore.
That ending would have been lacking some final choice, but think about it: The big thing in ME3 is GET RID OF THE REAPERS. The choices Shephard makes do matter - they shape the future of the universe.
But there can be no choice about the reapers; there is to be no choice to be had about the reapers, no compromise, no alternative. They can't be understood, and they do not want to be understood, and they don't want to negotiate or to compromise. Every choice was important, but there would have been this one moment where the paths of every Shephard would've crossed.
Kill the reapers, rest in peace, and let life continue, shaped by Shephard's decisions more than by the reaper's touch. Of course, some kind of epilogue describing the impact of Shephard's actions would have been essential. Not a complete novel, just... dunno, what are the Krogans up to? Does everyone hate the Asari because of that whole beacon stuff on Thessia? Do Geth and Quarians get along? Did any of the Normandy crew survive? Meh.
But no, we can't have that. Shephard's not finished yet.
The catalyst is not working and then you are in space and there's this... whatever and it looks like the manifestation of Shephard's guilt over not being able to save everyone and it's the entity behind the cycle and the reapers and everything and the catalyst as well and synthetic life always destroys organic life which can't be proven because if that had already happened then there shouldn't be anymore organic life and furthermore I JUST PLAYED PEACEMAKER AND REUNITED GETH AND QUARIANS and obviously in the ME3 universe sufficently advanced AIs do develop something akin to a soul, whatever a soul is and therefore are to be seen as equals to organics and furthermore I don't see why the reapers can't just play peacekeeper and curbstomp synthetics if necessary and I want to talk back to that little dip**** but I can't and there's choices.
Oh, and let's not forget: Mister dip**** explained the reaper's purpose in like ten seconds flat.
"Yeah see, you guys always build some robots who would surely wipe you out because sure why not so I need to make sure to bomb you back into the stone ages for your own safety".
That's a stupid reason, but it's neither complicated nor something a human couldn't grasp, yet the reapers, Old God Alien Hivemind Nation beings that they are, can't even try to explain that over the course of three games? No, they spend minutes telling you that they can't tell you that. But of course, the little dip**** could be lying...
Well, yeah. He could. He has reason to, because he's your enemy. Yet he's telling you "dude here's your choice trust me" and you are like "yeah well why not".
At least one choice is "****ing destroy those reapers which is why you came here for and well, the geth are ****ed or maybe not and so is EDI and every other AI and so are you" so that counts for something.
Let's just assume that you decide to do that, and boom, the reapers are destroyed, every AI is destroyed, Shephard is destroyed, cue credits + epilogue.
I could live with that. I would not like it, however, because there's no explanation to what the catalyst is, or why it's lying to me, and even though Shephard is broken down physically and mentally it's goddamn Shephard and Shephard doesn't take no **** from any ****ty brats.
No, had ME3 ended like that, there would have been closure, but Shephard already died beside Anderson. I don't know who talked with the brat, but it was not my Shephard.
Sadly, there had to be a choice.
Alright, why not. There's this two guys, the one who looks like Shephard but is not Shephard and that thing that looks like Shephard's guilt trip and they decide how the save the galaxy.
Destruction looks save, control is obviously the "yeah bro remember when Morinth told you you were special and wouldn't die when joining with her? Idiot" decision where not-quite-Shephard is indoctrinated and then you have I don't know some kind of cyborg ending?
I don't quite like the idea, but that's something I'm willing to call personal distaste. Right. So, let's see what happens if I try to take over the reapers... it's gonna be the bad end, right?
Oh, it's working. The reapers are leaving and I guess Shephard is some kind of reaper hive mind now which is pretty neat and WHAT THE **** MASS RELAYS ARE COLLAPSING.
No, really. Now I'm not even saying that this should destroy everything because I don't remember Arrival that well and maybe that happened just because of the way that particular mass relay was deactivated.
No, I'm just wondering what everyone on earth is gonna do. Depending on War Assets you have like idk maybe have of the galactic population in Sol, and they are stranded.
That's just needlessly bleak: All those guys are doomed. Humanity is doomed. This is not story-driven, for not once is it even assumed that firing the Crucible could do that.
It's not even explained why or how it happens... it just does. Right, epilogue is going to take care of that, moving on. Oh, cool. Normandy.
collapsing mass relay. Right. Normandy. You might remember that there's a ****ing war going on. There's no known reason for the Normandy to be fleeing the scene of battle, and there is no explanation given. And there's nothing you could base any assumptions on.
Anyway, Normandy, explosions, some planet somewhere and... wait.
Tali? EDI? You know, Edi who should be on earth and Tali who sould be on earth and dead because Harbinger lasored her? Cue credits.
At this point there's no chance for redemption:
Even if the epilogue explains everything that happened, that was just a ****load of wtf moments. ME3 should have been about closure.
You could say that there is indeed closure, for the reaper threat is gone, but then I could say: **** that, and I would be right, because everyone hates jedi truths.
Anyway... there is an epilogue. Really, what more is there to say apart from the fact that it feels like Tali's face again and NO I DON'T WANT TO BUY YOUR ****ING DLCs?
Now see, one could argue that even though the over decisions are practically the same that's not that bad because I don't know Shephard doesn't know that or something. Right. The big problem here is, again, closure. The endings are exactly the same because there is no closure. You make your decision. Right. Something happens, all three decisions follow virtually the same path for a time before there comes divergence.
The problem is: ME3 is cut off before there are any noteworthy signs of this diversion. There are plotholes, and there are questions, and while the reapers are gone there is no closure because we are not told what is going to happen, apart from the fact that at some point in the future and some point in space one guy will tell the other guy about Shephard. There is no closure, and there is but the illusion of choice. Yet they promised closure, and yet Mass Effect stands for choices that matter. Bioware wanted to have an ending with closure and choice, yet they delivered an ending that lacks both, and, maybe most importantly of all, is not subtle about its shortcomings.
Maybe everything makes sense if you assume that Shephard is indoctrinated. Well, let's. Somehow being hit by Harbinger's doom laser instantly and completely indoctrinated Shephard. Or maybe TIM did, whatever. So the whole meeting with the catalyst stuff didn't really happen. This would mean two things: One, Shephard is alive, for were he dead, he could most likely not continue having this indoctrination trip. Two, the last thing that really happened was either the Harbinger doom beam or meeting TIM. Either way, time passes, time during which events occur of which we as players know nothing of because we see the world through Shephard's eyes and Shephard's not reliable. Therefore there is no closure because we don't know what is really happening, and there are no real choices because... well d'uh, indoctrination. Maybe the indoctrination theory would make sense if assuming that the ending was planned to bring no closure.
Assuming this, however, means assuming that Bioware lied in your face, because THEY PROMISED CLOSURE. Personally I rather the devs unintentionally completeley failed to deliver than they planned their failure and intend to deliver closure with a dlc. Don't get me wrong. I like dlcs. But a product must feel complete without dlc. A dlc that completes a product ist not a dlc, but a lie: For I was not told that I spent my money on an incomplete product that will remain incomplete without further investment. And right now, Mass Effect 3 is incomplete, for they promised closure yet delivered a sequel hook.
This is, for me, not about not getting the ending I wanted, for I want Shephard to live and be happy and Tali to live and be happy and them to live happily ever after and I am aware of the fact that would be a happy, but not a good ending. This is about getting the ending that was promised.
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