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MadMackNT_os wrote...
Made a seperate thread with this, but it was already relegated to the 4th page almost immediately after posting. Figured I might as well leave it here, so that the people active in this thread can see that even the casual members of this site are with you...
Longtime member, first time poster.
The only reason I’m posting this is because someone made a thread saying “you’re a vocal minority” to the posters complaining about the endings. This is me disagreeing and throwing my support, for what its worth, behind those asking Bioware to do something to change the way this story ends.Seeing as this is my first, and likely last/only post, I might as well get it all out. I've never posted here before, but I certainly voted in the poll saying the endings are unacceptable, and I'll just post the following mini-paper for all those other folks who, like me, thinks the end of Mass Effect 3 is horrible but aren't posting about it.
I've been a member of this site for a lot longer than my join date implies, used it to stash the CD keys for all the NWN games and expansion packs over the years. I think I registered for this version of the site because it was needed to get 'points' or something to get DLC for the PC version of ME2.
I never bothered to read these forums until I finished ME3, because I just couldn't believe how freaking out of left field the endings seemed. I never got to take back earth, I never got to kill the reapers, I never got to fight and win, on my terms.
I work for a major retailer, I slowly converted everyone I worked with into fans of the Mass Effect franchise, so much so, that we had far more collector's edition pre-orders for our own employees than we did for customers. Everyone is super excited about the game and how great it is, they're talking about how awesome it's going to be to kick the reapers asses, see how it all ends, etc. Now I feel bad, like I introduced someone to an awesome restaurant, only to have it taken over a week later by someone who doesn't know the old recipes and screws up the soup.
I'm the only person that beat the game so far. I finished it with 50% Galactic readiness and somewhere around 7,000 war assets, high enough so that I get the option for the green ending. I also had high enough rep/paragon score to see the lovely Saren 2.0 event in the citadel.
I just don't get how we went from Soverign saying things like this:
"You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it"
" There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign. "
" My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence. "
To some glowing spirit-of-a-dead-kid / super-vi / Monty Hall saying something along the lines of:
“Yeah, those reapers, I made them. Every 50,000 years they come around, and harvest advanced organic cultures. Seeing as you built this thing you can now choose the kind of bread on the crap sandwich you’re about to serve the galaxy: that said, all I really did was add some dye to them, its gonna be essentially the same sandwich regardless, though you should note that ALL synthetics are allergic to red dye."
Now granted, that’s not the actual dialogue, but it’s a pretty close approximation. I just don’t understand how a franchise so well maintained, and a game so well written and designed, can end on such a half-assed note. I teared up when I thought Grunt died in killing the Ravagers so the Rachni queen could escape, I also cried a little when Mordin died. I thought it was awesome when Legion referred to himself as “I” and then gave all Geth the ability to be
true, unique synthetic intelligences capable of co-existing with their creators. I laughed my ass off when I chose the [miss on purpose] option to get Garrus’ “My name is Garrus Vakarian and this is my FAVORITE place on the citadel.”
So why is it that the game, and writing, seemed to lose the plot and the point in the last ten minutes. The talk-down with The Illusive Man was, literally, a flimsy copy of the dialogue with Saren, but without having to kill his crazy skeleton afterwards; but it still worked. The scene watching the battle rage above Earth with Anderson was great, especially his “I’m proud of you son. You did good” right before he dies; it all works, it was all building towards something my Paragon Soldier would’ve wanted. Then Hackett tells me that something isn’t working, so Shepard crawls towards a console, and suddenly the floor starts floating away.
Now I was –fully- expecting that the “catalyst” would end up being Shepard and that in order for the crucible to function it would require a synthesis kinda like the Emperor of Mankind from WarHammer 40k, sit down into a chair that essentially kills you, but allows your force of will to control the device: you use it to interface with the Reapers, understand their “unknowable” purpose and then decide what to do with them: destroy them, banish them,
repurpose them, ya know, SOMETHING.
The game kind of does this, albeit super ham handedly, and that’s just not acceptable at this point. But it’s almost
forgivable.
Rather than offer a glimpse into the mind of the monsters, we get a child offering up some played to death story about synthetics wiping out all organics and the only solution is to harvest, which isn’t completely explained either, the advanced cultures so the primitive ones get a chance, because “Hey, that’s the best I can do”. But hey, this cycle is different, this cycle made the giant-egg with legs, so you get to change the game! Except by change the game, it means hit reset button on all Reaper/Catalyst based technology, literally become the conscience of the “beings beyond your comprehension” or merge man and machine.
Somehow I went from the Citadel to Area 51. I’m on longer Mack Shepard, but I’m Mack Denton, deciding whether or not to destroy all advanced technology, take control of the illuminati, or merge with Helios and usher in a new era of man/machine prosperity. Except, unlike the original Deus Ex where you actually have to do things in Area 51 to cause your ending, you’re given the Human Revolution option of click this button for this ending, though a little less literal with the buttons than Human Revolution was. It’s like they plagiarized one of the greatest endings in a game, the original Deus Ex, fused it with a gimmicky mechanic from one of its sequels, and then shoe-horned it into the Mass Effect universe, where it just doesn’t fit the rest of the game, at all.
I picked the green dye for my crap sandwich, because I wasn’t about to kill the Geth, I do IT work and I’ve always liked those guys, kinda reminded me of a less bloodthirsty version of HK-47, writ large. I was also under the impression, based off Legion’s conversation about Nazara and what the catalyst said, that the reapers were basically the collective consciousness of entire species in cyborg over-lord form, and if I have an option of not eradicating countless cultures, why not take it? My Shepard had always been willing to give people a chance to be awesome to each other. Why not merge everyone into a fusion of organic and synthetic life, a basic uniformity, so long as it lets everyone live. Lets see what kind of great things are possible!
I jump into the light and I see Anderson, I get that, he’s pretty badass, kind of like a father figure and he’s nodding, almost like he’s telling me good job, again. Then I see Joker, why am I seeing him? My brother-from-another-mother has always been Garrus, always in my squad from ME1 and ME2, or Mordin. Then I see… Liara? What. The. Hell? Where’s Ashley, she was the love interest of this character throughout the ENTIRE franchise. I didn’t even let Kelly Chambers come up for dinner OR feed my fish in ME2. Ugh, weak, I was already HUGELY disappointed by the catalyst now this.
Suddenly a green light is illuminating everything, then the reapers fly away, the citadel fires a blast at the mass relay, which then shoots a big blast into the relay system before exploding and sending off more green light. I see this happen on the galaxy map, and I’m trying to be optimistic, I think things may actually turn out better than expected. Then for some reason Joker is flying the Normandy through the relays and my ship’s engines, for some inexplicable reason, explode. I don’t recall the mass effect technology driven reapers exploding when the green light caught them, I don’t remember the weapons or armor that the soldiers on earth wearing exploding when the green light touched them.
Now I see leaves, synthetic/organic leaves, I assume this is epilogue, nope. Crashed Normandy: joker and EDI get out, followed by Garrus, but wait Garrus died in London, than Ashley gets out… Wait, she died in London too, what the hell is this? Everyone is also shimmering, like someone mixed PCBs with their skin. I figure there’ll be epilogue, explaining the result of my actions and leaving space for DLC or maybe even full on expansions like there were with NWN…
Instead I get credits and some old dude telling a story about “The Shepard”.
The Reapers went from terrifying and unknowable monsters to a failed science project.
Commander Shepard went from a force to reckoned with and a catalyst for change to the lackey of a million year old program.
We all thought that we could write our own endings, instead we got a crap sandwich with three different choices of bread. The kicker, the most unacceptable part, the completely unforgivable aspect is this: we don’t even get find out how the sandwich tastes.
There’s no real resolution. I came up with my own ideas about what would happen if I choose the green route, and I injected that into what I wrote here. I wanted some form of confirmation from the game that I did the right thing, that the Galaxy lived up to my faith in it. Or the alternative, maybe it didn’t maybe everything went terribly wrong and things actually end up worse.
Instead I get nothing, no resolution, no confirmation, nothing. Just an old dude talking to a kid.
It’s not an ending.
It’s a cop out.
And the Franchise deserves better.The only saving grace I can see is that apparently there's a "secret ending" after beating it on New Game+, if there is, I'll let you know. Otherwise, my thoughts will stay the same.Apparently that's not the case at all. :
Thanks for taking the time to post this. It was useful.
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