I have a few points I'd like to adress in regards to the ending of Mass Effect 3.
Sooooo...... where to begin? Well, first of all, what happened to all of my military assets in ME? The Krogan, Turian, Geth, etc. at my command in the final battle? The whole 3. game practically revolved around scrounging up even the most insignificant forces from all over the galaxy and stick an assault rifle in their hand, paw, claw, tentacle, whatever, and send them off to fight Reapers in the final showdown.
You never see them in real action. Mass Effect 2 had a lot of that, the military assets being your squad. Develop the squad, earn their loyalty and deploy them correctly, and they survive the final encounter. I'd love to have seen the Geth fleet in action above Earth's atmosphere against Reapers. And based on the score, you'd get victories or fatalities in each faction. Hell, in ME2 tiny sidequests decided if particular crewmembers got shot in the stomach and survived or died, while running through a door in the Collector Base. Tiny insignificant choices throughout the whole story had the potential to have a massive impact in the final assault.
I wanted to see Wrex spearhead a platoon of raging Krogan on the ground with Grunt at his side, charging face-first into a batallion of Husks, Cannibals, whatever. I wanted to see Garrus running from ruin to ruin with a Turian taskforce, sniping everything in his path and using his special training in urban combat and guerrilla tactics to seize the day. I wanted to see Jack leading a group of biotics, shredding/lifting everything that was stupid enough to get in their way. I wanted to se Samara snuff out the life of anything in her path with biotics and her special kung-fu. I want Tali to lead a batallion of Geth Primes, where she's overwhelmed by the enemy, and her supremely defined and toned butt is saved by a Geth, who risks it's life to protect her, solidifying the fact that the Geth have finally made the transistion from mortal enemies of the galactic community to die-hard allies, willing to put their very existence on the line to save people whom they previously would have blown to chuncks without a second thought.
I want to see Hacketts flagship leading the Alliance fleet dive into the fray along with the Destiny Ascension and blast away at the Reaper fleet. I want to see the Turian fleet at their side, flanked by Asari, Batarian, Volus, etc. warships, giving the Reapers all the Hell they can.
And the list goes on and on. I accept that some of them die, but it should be a result of how well my forces are built and composed by ME, MYSELF throughout the story, not because of the "artistical freedom" of the writers. if I lose any members of my crew due to poor planning throughout the game, that's fine. If, say, Wrex and his forces aren't motivated because I didn't cure the Genophage and are all obliterated, that's acceptable. It's a result of my choices. I can accept that. But my crew has proven their mettle in the fires of Hell and back. They epitomise the best the races of the galaxy have to offer. If they have all the best assets at their disposal and have been properly motivated for the battle of the eons, they simply have to survive for me to see them celebrate their victory afterwards in the epilogue. And I want to see how they serve payback the best ways they can in the battle before.
And yes, I want my option for a happy ending, where Shepard survives and lives to fight another day. I want to see the galactic community truly unified in peace, without any destroyed relays.
In my mind this is the real flaw. You needed an option for Shepard to tell The Catalyst go jump in a lake and rot, and let the fleets make a stand against the Reapers. Of course, they risked being torn to shreds, but if the assets score was high enough, they would win. And sure, the opportunity to do that could be a 100% Paragon/Renegade-based option, which would seem logical enough, I suppose. You could gently explain The Catalyst that you respectfully decline his offer, or tell him to f**k off, depending on which path you've chosen.
And if The Catalyst turned out to be Harbinger in disguise, as someone suggested in an alternate fan-based and quite well-written ending I read, hey, even better. It's not the first time Shepard had a conversation with a Reaper. A Virmire-type conversation like the little encounter with Sovereign, where Shepard sees through The Catalyst's bluff and tells The Catalyst/Harbinger to roast in Hell along with it's posse.
To put it shortly, you built up an entire franchise, a trilogy on the concept that every action has a consequence, and then you took everything that concept stood for and threw it in the trash and replaced it with a high tech-version of a "What's behind door number 3?" with a kid as the host. That's why people are outraged. I don't care that there are 17 different endings. None of them bring the satisfaction and closure the entire series is building up to. Not a single one.
That's my grievance. I am utterly disappointed in the way the story is concluded. I spent God knows how long to prepare, with petty sidequests to ensure that all was in the ready for the final showdown, and that showdown consisted of limping around for 10 minutes and finally choosing between 3 doors, so to speak.
Hell, I would have settled with a happy ending consisting of a small cutscene of Shepard passing out on the platform, followed by a view of a busy Citadel Presidium 300 years later with a statue of Shepard besides the Krogan statue, if Shepard died but still saved the relays. Anything.
What happened to you, BioWare? You used to stand for the exact opposite of this travesty.
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