Ok , I usually do not participate in forum discussions but I just feel the need to express myself this time.
Let me start by saying that I loved the game. Ever since I bought the original Mass Effect knew Bioware had something special. I played through ME and ME2 multiple times, clocking around 150 hours of gameplay on each of them. I waited so eagerly for ME3, replaying the first 2 games over and over making sure I made all the right choices so that my ME3 experience would really be mine. I wanted to see how it all ends. I preodered my collectors edition as soon as preorders became availible and waited. I did not cancel my preorder on the grounds of DLC controversy, I told myself, its Bioware and Mass Effect,´, its going to be amazing (because as far as I´m concerned, DA2 never happened), i´d buy From the Ashes anyway.
And then the time came. I was so happy that I can finally kick some reaper ass that I sat through it for 30 hours nonstop. And I loved it. Even though it did not deliver for me on the RPG side of things like the other 2 games (primarily the first one of course) did. I loved the gameplay, I loved the story (even though there were things that made very little sense to me), loved the characters, loved pretty much everythig. I was trully bent on proclaiming this to be the best game of the year and I would have sticked to that claim (even though its still only march, lol).
And then came the last 15 minutes. I thought fighting regular mob waves and then shooting some missles at the reaper was a nice way to start the ending. But shortly after I realized that that was it, no proper boss battle. ME1 had 2 phase fight with Saren, transforming into this ridiculous embodyment of Sovereign, I loved it, ME2 had a giant big-arse human-reaper hybrid, and some mob waves, ME3 only has the mob waves. I said to myself ok, surely after this there must be something epic coming, I mean its the end of the trilogy. A trilogy that is by far one of my favourite Sci-fi sagas ever. I am not kidding, I would place ME universe right up there with Star Wars or Star Trek (my 2 all time favourites). Then I ran to the beam. Not even mentioning the fact that the reaper fired it so slowly that had it not been for the apparent auto aim on my Shep, any one and their mother would have been able to avoid it, I went to the citadel.
One of the first things Anderson says to me is, hey, maybe they are rebuilding the human reaper again. I thought hey, wouldnt that be epic. Instead I got TIM, (dont get me wrond, I tohught the character was good). Was he good enough/or should I say bad enough to be the final antagonist of the trilogy? For me, deffinitely not. Especially when I saw what they stored for us in the 2 previous games. There was not even a single minute of proper combat against him, just a few lines of dialogue and a renegade option to insta kill him (could not get the last paragon option but I am assuming that will only make him kill himself). Ok so I saved Anderson, had a litthe chat with him as we watched the Earth burn bellow us. That was epic I thought. That particular scene was done masterfully. The only thing that was missing for me was a radio communication with my squadmates and my LI (Liara in my case).
At that point I was still hoping that the game will deliver on my expectations. It felt good to finally be at the end and stop the reapers. And then.......Deus Ex happened. Every single choice I made throughout the series was effectively for nothing and I got filled with emptiness. Is this really the end for the 5 year long journey of the epic story? Something that is effectively "press one of these 3 buttons and see what happens" deal? No closure, more questions raised than answered, stupid synthetic vs. organic thing that has been rehashed time and time again in god knows how many titles already (and dont get me wrong, I think that Deus Ex is THE best action RPG that exists) and the end of the galactic civilization as we know it. Wasn´t that the exact thing I as a Shep tried so hard to prevent? Mass relays offline or destroyed, my crew left to die on a remote planet, my LI among them, the biggest fleet in hystory stranded in the local cluster and countless people scattered across the galaxy without the slightest chance of ever seeing their loved ones ever again (and yes you can argue we still have the FTL drive, but do you actually realize how was the galaxy is and how long it would take for a ship to cross from one star cluster to another? Simply not possible without nothing less than the fabled Prothean stasis pod).
Let me just say it right here and right now, I would love a perfect happy ending yes. But I do not necessarily require it. What I do need is an ending that I would feel I had a part in. Not the "oh hi, you did all these cool things to save the civilization, united the geth with quarians, cured the genophage, destroyed the collector base, stopped the invasion twice and delayed it for 3 years, but you know what, nobody gives a ****, here, press ze bottan". And a closure for my Shep, Yes, kill of my squadmates, even kill me but let me feel it was not for nothing. Show me how galaxy rebuilds itself, how people are recovering how life is flourishing again (because thats what happens after a war right?), not some retarded scene where I get to know that, after all these years, it was all pretty much a story told by some completely unknown stranger to some completely unknown kid (and yes i know its just a game and nothing is real blah blah).
This could have been Biowares magnum opus, solidifying their position as by far the number one story teller in the business. Instead, it was a big dissapointment. At least for me anyway.
So to sum it all up, do I regret buying the game? I do not. The game itself is amazing. Do I feel this is the worst ending to any story ever? Damn right I do. People say get over it, look at things like the Game of Thrones, that had characters killed. Yes, but if you actually read the entire Song of Ice and fire series, you´d know you cannot really compare the two. Not to mention Martin didn´t even finish the story yet.
As it stands, Bioware killed any and every desire to relpay my beloved Mass Effect. All of them, not just the last one. I do hope they will fix it, bring a proper epilogue and more ending options in the DLC. I would be willing to pay for that. Yes I would be.
But untill then, Bioware in all its former glory if effectively dead to me.
PS: Sorry for the wall of text and for my bad english but then again, if you did not want to read it, then why did you.
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