I give
Mass Effect 3 a score of 100/100.
I am as big a fan as
Mass Effect can have. I drove 950 miles to Las Vegas on the off chance of getting a space-edition copy (which I did) and I would do it again if there were another entry.
(some of the following I edited from previous posts in other threads)
Mass
Effect 3 is simply everything I ever imagined it to be. I have to say it is not only the best videogame I have ever played--it is one of the finest works of art I have ever experienced.
Mass Effect 3 is simply what video games can and should be. Games have the ability to create a level of interaction--a height of involvement and empathy for its setting and characters--that no other medium can claim. Until now that potential has not been adequately tapped.
Mass Effect 3 leverages this fact with a vision far above and beyond what has been done before, and it has given me an experience that will likely haunt me to my grave. It is the absolute pinnacle of what has been accomplished in the medium and I hope it serves as proof that video games have every bit of the potential of any great work of art. They can move, educate and inspire alongside the best that fiction has to offer.
I would have simply left off there but, in light of recent events, I would like to give my impression of the ending, since it is overwhelmingly positive. I feel that some of the comments made have created a
massive injustice, and so I feel it necessary to give it credit it deserves. I apologize for the length, but this game deserves justice.
I felt that the ending was an intensely personal, moving, breathtaking conclusion. Shepard was facing the end of her life. In the background, as we were to make our choice, you could see the scale of the conflict. As you decided the fate of the galaxy, you were surrounded by context--thousands of ships shattered, reapers floating menacingly in orbit. I felt the weight of this decision tremendously, but not simply in an intellectual way. I saw the devastation, and reflected on the events that led to that moment. All the chaos, all the sacrifice. The fact that I was separated from my companions only seemed to heighten the sense of responsibility. They weren't there in person, but I was thinking of them the whole time.
The entire series, it seemed to me, had led to this moment. It didn't feel "larger than life" to me. It felt like all those personal stories, relationships, trials and sacrifices, were spent in order to purchase this choice. It was an incredibly moving, weighty moment for me (almost traumatic lol). I can't imagine a more personal experience. "We all die alone" as the saying goes, and as you have the option to tell a squad member earlier in the game. The lonely "detached" feeling I felt on the Crucible wasn't removed from personal, emotional considerations, as some have claimed. I felt exactly the opposite.
I should note what choice I made, the reasons I made it, and the fact that I did not go back right away to see the other possible endings. I felt that I should live with my choice.
I destroyed the reapers because I disagreed with the catalyst. I rejected what this self-appointed god-thing believed was good for the galaxy, and acted accordingly. This was also, specifically, the reason I didn't pick "synthesis". I thought his logic was wrong, and his method flawed. Many are claiming that, after all that Shepard went through, she had to simply "accept" the choices given by this god-entity, and that this was unfair. They seemed to think it was an anti-climactic choice out of character for the series.
But for me, the supremely heroic vision of Shepard was not lost in those last moments. She accomplished exactly what she set out to do. The reaper cycle of extinction was ended. Organic life was to have the chance to write its own future. She went out as the greatest hero the galaxy will ever know. The fact that the
mass relays were destroyed is poetic as well. We no longer require the "guidance" of this catalyst. We will do it ourselves. Absolute independence from the reapers and their creators. I think it is a beautiful thing, and is a fitting, heroic culmination of everything the series stands for. The
mass relays were given to us to keep us in line, to control our development along certain paths, to create "order". We were never more than children before, playing with the toys our overseers allowed us. Now, our destiny will be written by us, and never again will we be directed by a gods who believe they know best--that they have the right to impose a solution such as this. Firing on that conduit was my Shepard's declaration of independence, enacted to give organics the chance they were never allowed before.
Chances are that most of you had a different experience in these moments--that it had inspired different ideas within the context of your own story--but this is one of the things that makes
Mass Effect amazing. The ending I chose seemed perfect. It was a fitting end, drawing on concepts reoccurring throughout the series.
I have heard it said that the story suddenly became too "intellectual" or "deep" at the end; it has been likened to complex, philosophical Japanese anime and the sort. It seems we have all been playing very different games.
Mass Effect has always dealt with some of the biggest, most complex, and important issues of science (and of civilization). Concepts involving free will, "order", tolerance, the nature of consciousness, political rights, existentialism etc. etc. Granted much of this was wrapped up in a very action-packed, dramatic, stylish science-fiction space opera, but this doesn't change the fact. These themes have always laid at the heart of the fiction.
And more than that, the heavy ideas of the conclusion were warranted and demanded by the nature of the threat that Shepard was facing. I think any other way of ending it wouldn't have made sense in the scheme of things, and it couldn't have provided a meaningful resolution to what had been established. The reapers (and catalyst) were a truly god-like
existential threat. Their nature involved issues far, far bigger than the future of the current alien civilizations. The resolution had to be equally
massive in scope--it had to be equally existential. I think the choices offered could never have been influenced by our "petty" decisions made thus far. Those consequences clearly belonged in the world of combat, tactics, personalities, relationships, ect. In other words, stuff on a simpler level of thinking.
And we did see these consequences throughout the entire game. When the scale inevitably became something fitting to machine-gods, our choices become something else accordingly.
Shepard, after a series of events that left her beaten and drained beyond endurance, was forced to grapple with a humbling, heartbreaking, and impossibly deep reality. These issues are the exclusive realm of god-entities, spanning millions of years and the fates of every civilization that has ever lived and will ever live. This is science fiction drama as its very best.
For these reasons, and for many more, such as the rest of the excellent narrative, the action-packed gunplay, the wonderful sound design, and the absolutely
incredible soundtrack, I had to give it a perfect score. No random bugs, texture pop-ins, or odd bits of stilted dialogue could matter enough to take a single point away from this masterpiece
Bravo Bioware, bravo.
Modifié par krthomps1, 13 mars 2012 - 06:11 .
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Fell from orbit and ecaped death...again.), it would be perfectly fine with me, so long as there is a 
