1966 réponses à ce sujet

[ele25]

You guys gave a game wroth playing to the end. Then you punched me in the face then proceeded to beat my balls with a hammer with the ending.

Give me an ending worthy of my Sheppard!

[SprayLizzy]

Liked the game it was amazing.
Best game I ever played, mature and profound.
Dialogues improved, gameplay improved.
Some parts were so moving that I couldn't stop crying. Story intriguing.
I accept the endings, shepard said to garrus how many battle a warrior can bare?
Shepard in all endings saves the universe, saves most of her friends, preserves life.
Happy ending? Impossible in my opinion.
Game endend and I can't stop thinking about the effect of what happened in the galaxy.
No one can come back to their homeword because of the destructions of portals. It's a huge story with grate impact on the mass effect world.
The ending in my opinion was inspired and moving, Anderson dead Shepard injured but still willing to complete the mission.
Amazing work bioware, I experienced desperation, I Experienced happiness, I experienced relief when I saw my companions alive and the earth free.

There is only one negative, negative thing I have to say Grissom accademy bug made me kill Jack.

[DarthLaxian]

so you want a review bioware?

well:

Gameplay: 7,5/10 (all this rolling and stuff is cool, but having the same key being used for interaction?...no weapon holstering any more?...stuff from previous games (weapons, fish, armor, ship-modells) stolen/lost?...*shakes his head* - and worst: why does the crosshair "jump" when i use a weapon with a scope (it is off by centimeters after engaging the scope!)?...could find more, but that's about it ATM)

story: 5,5-6/10 - well that could have gone better could it?...i mean, we have a deus ex machina (crucible) instead of a more "real" solution (major fleet actions, covert ops etc.) which should IMHO work just as well, otherwise the reapers would not have bothered to shut the relays down every previous cycle (they compartentalise the galaxy by it, they never had to contend with a mighty armada from all over the galaxy and small fleets doing major hit and run attacks (they could not, with the relays down)) and then, we do not even get to visite the construction site, talk to hacket face to face, do some "air drops" on earth (resuplying the resistance) etc.? then we have cerberus going rogue (fighting against it's own principals - meaning: humanity first, so they normally avoid fighting humanity!)? TIM using indoctrination? the galaxy divided even when there is enough proof to show they will not manage to survive alone?....sorry bioware, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?...still you get more then 5 points, because the execution of the bad story was good - and that brings us to the next point:

endings: 1/10 - sorry, but again: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? (been doing drugs while writing? have you been ignoring fan wishes just because you could? have you gone OUT OF CHARACTER with ME3 just to attrackt the "in" crowd from BSG and maybe from other games, instead of staying loyal to us, your fanbase?...well back to the endings:

what is the problem with those (therefore only 1/10 points?): you make all choice meaningless (well sheppard could have died after retrieving the crucible data - because the alliance fleet can build it and some random SOB could use it and choose from 3 different kinds of "FUBAR / SNAFU"...sorry, but this ending is almost worse then the one New-BSG got...just that we had "god" play a part in that, that's the only thing that makes that worse then what you gave us with that - IMHO stupid - kid talking (if you had to do that, you could have had the Virmire Sacrifice talking, then morphing into other characters in order to try to influence us, but no you took that stupid kid...), which breaks the game for me...you could have left the reapers unexplained (maybe saying someone build them and lost control...but not even that, explaining them is unnecessary) and could have left it at that and have us controll the final battle like with the citadell-battle in ME1 one, but with more choice (maybe even some random choice based on the decisions in the games - like: the destiny ascention is under attack (yeah, again, but this time with no council on board) and you decide to commit some ships to protect it - as this ship is a major war asset (it has the firepower of a whole fleet!) etc....you could have such battles throughout the game (in smaller scale, but no, you had to disconnect us from our allies in major way (we do only interact with them sometimes - sending them of to hacket after doing some jobs for them, but not having them interact with us in any major way (like placing themselves under our command) and slap these endings on like a cheap coat of paint trying to hide that you bolixed it IMHO)...

well another comment to battles: you could have had us command ground troops (like the spacecombat i mentioned before), like on virmire (with us staying in contact with a larger force providing either distraction for the enemy, or fire support (calling in artillery etc.) etc.) just on a larger scale then virmire (like say us and a whole turian battalion assaulting a base, with us calling in close air support (like that nice attack on the reaper on tuchanka) but not only to take on bigger targets, but also to take down larger charging enemy forces or defense barricades...you could have had us defend strategic facilities that are threatened to being overrun (think: "the empire strikes back"!)...you could even had us send in two teams of companions with a POV-shift (like we say: garrus will lead the second-team and at a certain point, the POV will switch to us playing garrus (or tali etc.)...but now, we got a bad game (it is well presented, but it did not do what i expected...

so, over all: 14,5/30 - which is pretty damned bad for bioware IMHO - even DA2 is better then this! (18/30 if i had to rate it) and that is saying something, with ME1 being at 24/30, ME2 being at 26/30 and DA:O being at 27/30...so yeah, your worst game yet bioware, thank you for getting me to waste my money on this (should have waited till i could buy it at a sell out!)....*shakes his head in resignation and says: even i could have written a better ending and more engaging story in the third game (and i am no writer...i do not even write much fanfiction....can't seem to finish my pieces...writers block etc.)*

greetings LAX

Modifié par DarthLaxian, 13 mars 2012 - 01:08 .

[SogaBan]

Amratis wrote...

SciCurious wrote...

*snip*

It’s not the lack of a tidier or happier conclusion: it is the fact that none of the potential endings make sense in the world, as presented, and moreover resort to a bizarre deus ex machina in their execution. I can think of no example in which the introduction of a new character at the eleventh hour has been of service to a story, especially when central to the main conflict’s resolution. Regarded in conjunction with the arbitrary nature of the options given (in particular: the fact that the Catalyst is suddenly willing to simply throw over its millenia-compassing plan for ‘saving’ organics with the proviso that all current synthetics be destroyed along with the Reapers, and the concept that Shepard jumping back into the same light beam she just rode up will now trigger synthesis between machines and organics Because The Catalyst Says So)-- I follow why it is people feel the endings are a punishment, cobbled together less for the sake of resolving the story than for generating a negative emotional response. No, I don’t think it is part of a Machiavellian plot to spread despair, but it does look to me like there was panic on how to wrap up the series in an unpredictable way, and instead of taking a comfy route that has Shepard zapping the Reapers, throwing a big memorial parade for the fallen, and riding off into the stars on the Normandy, they threw everything they had at contriving a costly, emotional ending, without working backwards to justify it. The result is upsetting but also perplexing, failing signally to provide a sense of resolution to Shepard’s story. It doesn’t make enough sense. The conspiracy theories that spring up around the finale should not be better grounded in the lore than the story’s overt ending is. And following up such a big, beautiful, and often genuinely gut-wrenching story as Mass Effect 3 otherwise is, it’s an enormous disappointment, because there’s ample proof the team can write to earn and justify emotional responses, without tearing down everything they have built to do it on the cheap. And I do believe they tried, and I support the effort: it does not diminish their previous successes. But the bottom line for me is that this ending was ultimately a failure, and a failure at the end of a story is apt to affect perception of the whole.

Dude, this is IT, exactly it. Thankyou.

To summarise, you were reading a masterpiece novel... as you were nearing the climax, you were ALWAYS on your toe with anticipation and trepidation... and then you turn the last page - to see - "Dear Readers, the author of the story couldn't come up with an ending... better you pre-conceive your own imaginary endings..."

How would you feel?

I have always been stressing on a NEAT, LOGICAL and CONSISTENT ending.

I don't CARE if my Shepard dies... HELL... even if the whole Normandy is plunged into the Sun (with the crews in it), I won't have any grievances. BUT... those plots MUST be the logical, consistent and rational consequences of whatever decisions/events we (as Shepard) have faced before in the Mass Effect universe.

I have thoroughly gone through the "hallucination theory" but even then lots of plots are flawed and have penned in my feedback there... but sadly without any clarification from any of the "founders" of the theory!

[amslilac]

ME3 score: 95/100 UP TO THE LASER BEAM

ME3 score: 0/100 for the last 10 minutes.

Replayed ME1 (95/100 and ME2 (95/100) over 20 times each.

Have purchased all  DLC for both games (even appearance packs!)

The good points of ME3 have been covered in depth both here and elsewhere and I agree with most of them.

Completed ME3 yesterday.  Then spent nearly 5 hours on line, talking to friends and searching the net for some explanation of the truly appalling and completely non sensical endings.  Never expected all ...or possibly even any "happy" ending.  After ME2 it became apparent to me that Shep dying was probably the only way it could go. Prothean tech in head....plugged into Uber Reaper...huge explosion...I expected something along these lines.....years ago.  But there can be resolution, even satisfaction to be gained from sacrifice. (Mordin and Legion's deaths were a perfect example of this).

Whatever the artistic restraints, gaming is still a business.   I am finding it completely incomprehensible that anyone with any business sense could imagine that a customer dissatisfaction level of somewhere between 70 and 85% (check out all the polls and reviews) is a sound business plan.  I assume that  most of us pre ordered the game (CE edition of course) and started playing (12.01) the second it unlocked.  I have been playing alongside new friends acquired through SWTOR....my first MMO which was purchased SOLELY because it is a Bioware game....and a very good one.  They have not completed it yet and I wait with dread for their feedback when they do.  I know how invested they are in the whole ME universe.

In a current poll on this site 91% were either "dissatisfied with the endings" or had "spiralled into a deep dark depression".  (62% of respondents - me included!)

The cold hard fact is this.   The endings completely destroy any replayability.  There is simply no point.  Which means...and I can't believe that I actually have to spell this out...there is no point to any DLC.  

A simple fix.

Create new endings and release as free DLC. (Although I would happily pay £50 for same)

Weather the media storm....as Shep would.  Take it on the chin, admit to  your mistake and then fix it.

Benefits?    Re-engage with the fans.
                   Re-establish faith as a superior and ground breaking company and ....perhaps the most important...
                   Be able to sell lots and lots and lots of DLC....MORE MONEY.

as James would say...."Simple...no?" 

Modifié par amslilac, 13 mars 2012 - 12:41 .

[utdan]

My score:80/100 (would of been 95 with one half decent ending) For comparison ME1 gets 85 and ME2 gets 90.

What i loved:

Customisation- absolutely brilliant, a ton of stuff to chose from and genuine differences between them.

pre-ending writing- Thane, Legion and Mordin are three of my favourite characters and they were handled beautifully, the game felt as epic(original meaning) as it should but still felt very personal.

Combat mechanics- Fantastic, ME2 was probably my most enjoyable shooter and ME3 blows it out the water in every way.

Squad mate banter- 'Proper' dialogue would of been more personal, but if 'Zaeed dialogue' allows more overall interaction like it seems, then i'm all for it.

What im not sure about:

The sheer amount of stuff in the game- On one hand i love the fact that you guys obviously worked your arses off to cram an ungodly amount of stuff in to the game, but on the other it shows how stretched you guys must of been in how rushed certain things are. Tali's face being one example that seems like it was rushed, Jacob's lack of any romance continuation seems to be another (either that or a horrible and totally unneccesary character assasination). Also a fair few small. and not so small, bugs still in the game.

What i hated:

The 'Endings'- 

• No real choice in outcome
  
  
• No diversity in how it affects me as a player
  
  
• The normandy fate was just pointless, unneccesary and had no impact on me besides dissapointment in the writing.
  
  
• The epilogue is stupid, unrelated to anything in the story and so pointless i cant think of it as part of the game.
  
  
• Even most Silent Hill games have 1 relatively uplifting ending, would it of killed you guys to have one ending where Shep survives without commiting a war crime TIM would be proud of, and one line of dialogue where EDI/Adams state that the Normandy is repairable?

If the rest of the game wasn't so brilliant it wouldn't be so bad, i could toss it aside and move on, but it is FANTASTIC and you guys have obviously worked so hard on it, it makes the endings even harder to bear.

If you know the destination is death row, i can guarantee you wont enjoy the journey half as much, however incredible it is.


 

Modifié par whoISthatgirl, 13 mars 2012 - 01:11 .

[Edman1983]

  Editting my post after further analysis.

Modifié par Edman1983, 13 mars 2012 - 05:14 .

[DarthLaxian]

destination death row is a very good metaphor for how i feel when playing ATM (i know the character will die - meaning things look bleak (also the atmosphere in the game does not produce that much doom and gloom IMHO...hell there is even scenes i feel something besides impending doom (date with liara - or telling her that "friendship isn't enough anymore") just to have that tarnished by these endings...i mean what is the point of telling my LI that i want to "marry" (or whatever asari/quarians do instead ^^") and have a life with them, when you know that it does not matter anyway!)

hell, bioware, i defended you - thought that the "leak" (i now think you did that on purpose - and then failed to listen to the "****-storm" it started up - thus failing in getting a good game to us...hell, sometimes i think it is a waste to buy EA-Games...Activision-Blizzard (at least the blizzard part) would never throw such a game out!) was false, but no, it wasn't and - to say it with HARBINGER - YOU FAILED...WE(you!) WILL (have to, IMHO) FIND ANOTHER WAY...RELEASING CONTROL!

greetings LAX
ps: and you could at least dignify us with a response (it is your forum after all, so you should know the lay of the land!), because the game makes me just angry, but your silence really pisses me off completly - it is like you do not give a damn! (maybe you don't? - but then you could at least tell us...i feel cheated/betrayed/robbed/slapped in the face here by my - up to now - favourite game-maker...you just lost that spot to bethesda and your main competitor - Activision-Blizzard (hell, their Starcraft II is on my favourite game of all time short list (that's about 20 games - and SCII is in the top 5!))

Modifié par DarthLaxian, 13 mars 2012 - 01:34 .

[K_nthan]

I was told to put this in here... Even though I wouldn't necessarily label it a review... So... I will... 

Overall score? Ehm... 60/100? Maybe? I liked the story elements over the shooter elements so the ending was a slap in the face to me... But... yeah:

I was on the anti-campaign/petition group, I thought the fans were being whiny, moany and ungrateful.. Until I completed the game. I don’t know what happened there, I have no idea how Bioware approved such a convoluted and circular course of events. To me, a devoted 5 year Mass Effect enthusiast, it was painful to watch. To be fair, I love dark, tragic endings. After everything my Shepard has been through, I don’t think I could stomach him settling down with little crazy blue biotic babies and a pet varren. My Shepard will always die in the final battle, where I think he deserves to be. So will most of my crew, and 95% of civilians, plus maybe some races becoming extinct here or there. No way can there be anything less for an invasion of dark robotic super-gods. 

But…

I don’t like how all the ‘I want my happy ending’ contributors are treated like the little fangirls, and more importantly, the pinnacle motivation for the entire debate. The issue with the ending doesn’t centre around whether or not its happy. Far from it, in fact. I love dark endings filled with tragedy and in my opinion, the ME3 finale was trash. Sorry Bioware, I loved the game, I really did, but the ending killed it all for me. However, for the sake of others, there’s nothing wrong wanting a happy ending. I’m not endorsing it, nor demanding one but that was what separated Mass Effect from other series’, there was no linear story being spoon-fed to you. You grafted the story around the choices you make. Mass Effect 3 made all these choices hopelessly obsolete and took power away from the player in the last fifteen minutes. The fact that fans want a ‘happy ending’ doesn’t compromise the artistic integrity of the Mass Effect trilogy as a whole. Even more importantly, the fact its cliché shouldn’t matter if it’s done right. Originality and creativity are two entirely different things. A happy ending isn’t original, but it can be wonderfully creative if it’s done correctly.

Not everyone wanted the same ending, true say. I’ll also agree that there was no possible way for Bioware to please EVERY individual fan out there. But the simple way around that was to just give us our own decisions on how to end the trilogy. As things stand, to me, there’s one ending, just three different versions. There’s no epilogue or background given so what we see is what we get. The iconic ‘happy ending’ is the human ideal so why not make it at least an option? Maybe not flying off into the sunset with Liara (toeach their own) as cliché demands but I’m sure with the talent at Bioware, they could’ve made something great of a wholly positive outcome. Let me just reaffirm, I don’t want a happy ending. It wouldn’t fit with the character I made, I want my character to die somewhere all bloody and dirty with dozens of bullet wounds. Unlike some other people however, I’m not criticising those who quite justifiably want a happy ending after 5 years. 

Furthermore, to everyone who LIKED the endings, don’t take those DISLIKING it as an act of hatred, or as whining or as an attack on your sense of taste. The fact is, if the endings were as ideal as you believe them to be, they’d be more universally accepted. To anyone who’s seen the ending and likes it, congratulations for beating the game, and that’s not sarcasm at all. Honestly, nice one. But don’t attack the rest of us for disliking it, maybe try to understand our point of view. If you don’t agree, that’s your prerogative, but ignoring the games plotholes and flaws simply because you like it isn’t a justified defense. Criticism is just as important as praise and there is a valid point to be made about the ending of an otherwise spectacular trilogy. I’ve read some of the arguments of people trying to defend the game, and it seems that they’re all missing the key point… Or ignoring it, either way, it doesn’t qualify as a concrete argument.

This is where my rage builds.

My god, this needs to be said… The majority of us who want amendments to the ending are NOT whining. One thing
I will never understand is how a faceless reviewers’ opinion is more important than those who love the game/franchise. Endless websites are attacking the campaign as a bunch of fans griping about how emo the ending was. They’re wrong, simple as. Not all of us want the endings REMOVED. Maybe just add a few extra options for us fans to achieve the result and closure we want after 200+ hours of gameplay. Honestly, we’re all fans of Mass Effect here, that’s the important thing to remember. We’re ALL fans. We all LOVE the series. THAT’S why we want an amendment to the endings. Even if we can’t agree on the endings at all, the one thing we can agree on is that we love Mass Effect and Commander Shepard. All the infighting is ridiculous and unnecessary. 

One final thing, these game websites that are calling the campaign a gripefest and all the Devs sending coy little tweets… You’re fanning the flames of war here. I take personal offence to anyone who shuts down my opinion just because they think its not worth listening to. Critics don’t buy millions of copies of the game, fans do. Every fans opinion is important, regardless of what it is and what you think of it. Anyone who says otherwise, welcome to a world with freedom of speech and free will. Therefore, any critic labelling me a pointless moaner with an irrelevant opinion just because I'm not paid to say nice things even if I don't believe them can, pardon my language, **** themselves.

And I’m done. 

I love Bioware, I love Mass Effect, I love Commander Shepard, I think it’s a great trilogy. What I DON’T like is Bioware allowing ten minutes at the end to ruin an entire franchise that they’ve worked so hard on. I don’t think I could live with myself if I were the writer who made the entire project crash at the final hurdle. If Bioware does read this, which I doubt but meh, we’re not asking for much. 99.5% of the game is utmost brilliance, this is why we’re all so passionate about getting the finale we feel it deserves.

So THANK YOU, Bioware. You’re awesome. You’ve given us an incredible trilogy. I just hope you don’t end it like this. I have faith that they’ll do something to fix the end so I’ll be patient.

Now I will draw my curtains and tend to my emotional wounds with an unhealthy dose of Evanescence. Love you guys. 

Thanks for reading my endless rambling. 

#RetakeMassEffect3

Uh, yeah. If this is a review, then hooray! If not, why was I told to put it here... <_<

[Carmen_Willow]

SharlenaSharlena wrote...

KBomb wrote...

 
I would also like to add this to my review after thinking about it. The romance options for straight females are nearly non-existent.




Males--
You get Ashley and Liara. You can continue romances with Jack, Miranda and Tali if you romanced them in ME2.


Females--
You get Kaidan. You can continue the relationship with Garrus if you romanced him in ME2. You cannot continue a relationship with Jacob(as far as I know) or Thane.


Seems we get the shaft....or the lack thereof.

AGREEEEEEEED!!! Not to mention that the dialogue options you have for a romanced Garrus in the beginning are TERRIBLE! you would think after surviving a galaxy ending catastrophy would make you happy to see your lover but all I get is a kiss on the cheek with him and thats pretty much the only scene in 7 hrs! I have had more cute cut scenes with Liara than Garrus.  DISLIKE!

AGREEEEEEED!  If you start this game without a Mass Effect 2 Import, you don't even get to meet Thane, let alone romance him. While I thought that Kaidan's goodbye scene was extremely well written, I would have been nice to have other options, Bioware. 

[SogaBan]

Carmen_Willow wrote...

SharlenaSharlena wrote...

KBomb wrote...

 
I would also like to add this to my review after thinking about it. The romance options for straight females are nearly non-existent.




Males--
You get Ashley and Liara. You can continue romances with Jack, Miranda and Tali if you romanced them in ME2.


Females--
You get Kaidan. You can continue the relationship with Garrus if you romanced him in ME2. You cannot continue a relationship with Jacob(as far as I know) or Thane.


Seems we get the shaft....or the lack thereof.

AGREEEEEEEED!!! Not to mention that the dialogue options you have for a romanced Garrus in the beginning are TERRIBLE! you would think after surviving a galaxy ending catastrophy would make you happy to see your lover but all I get is a kiss on the cheek with him and thats pretty much the only scene in 7 hrs! I have had more cute cut scenes with Liara than Garrus.  DISLIKE!

AGREEEEEEED!  If you start this game without a Mass Effect 2 Import, you don't even get to meet Thane, let alone romance him. While I thought that Kaidan's goodbye scene was extremely well written, I would have been nice to have other options, Bioware. 

What's the point of playing Mass Effect 3 (just, I am curious) without importing saved games from ME2?

Nevertheless, if you are curious, for a new Shepard (i.e. without save import) -

[source: http://www.gamefront...port-from-me2/]

Default Choices
Mass Effect 1 Default Choices

• Characters Recruited: Garrus, Wrex
• No DLC or sidequests are counted.
• The Asari Shiala is killed by the Thorian.
• The Rachni Queen is killed.
• The colony on Feros is not saved.
• Wrex is killed on Virmire.
• Shepard does not enter into any romantic relationships.
• The Council is killed, with the ship the Destiny Ascension, during the attack on the Citadel.
• Udina is appointed Counselor.

Mass Effect 2 Default Choices

• No DLC, sidequests or Loyalty Missions are counted toward Mass
  Effect 3. This includes two DLC exclusive characters, Zaeed and Kasumi,
  who count as never being recruited.
• Tali is exiled from the Migrant Fleet.
• Shepard does not enter into any romantic relationships. Again.
• Grunt is not recruited.
• Legion is not recruited, and no choice is made for the Geth.
• Samara is never recruited. She is killed by Morinth trying to escape from Ilium.
• Suicide Mission Survivors: Mordin, Jacob, Garrus, Tali and Miranda.
• Suicide Mission Survivors (Normandy Crew): Joker and Chakwas. All other crew members are considered killed.
• Suicide Mission Deaths: Jack, and Thane.
• The Collector Base is destroyed.
• Although the DLC is not considered completed by Shepard, the events
  still occured. The Batarian System is destroyed, and Liara is the Shadow
  Broker.

Regarding romance, just for your info:

1. For male - another two - Cortez (gay) and Diana Allers (crappy romance)
2. For female - another two - Traynor (lesbi) and Diana Allers (crappy romance)

Regarding goodbye conversation, the best romance (in my opinion) were:

#1. Liara - THE SINGLE MOST EMOTIONAL MOMENT in the trilogy
#2. Garrus - Very emotional dialogues (a very rational reason of biological incompatibility and thereby suggestion to adopt Krogan baby by Garrus... lol... very touching)

Modifié par SogaBan, 13 mars 2012 - 02:46 .

[Carmen_Willow]

[With apologies to the poster - Edited for Space]

K_nthan wrote...

I was told to put this in here... Even though I wouldn't necessarily label it a review... So... I will... 

Overall score? Ehm... 60/100? 


 To be fair, I love dark, tragic endings. After everything my Shepard has been through, I don’t think I could stomach him settling down with little crazy blue biotic babies and a pet varren. My Shepard will always die in the final battle, where I think he deserves to be. So will most of my crew, and 95% of civilians, plus maybe some races becoming extinct here or there. No way can there be anything less for an invasion of dark robotic super-gods.  

Agreed.  I thought the Warden's ultimate sacrifice in DA:Origins was fine. It made sense. I cried, there was a funeral and I was okay. It made some sort of sad sense in the story.
This was just---depressing---really depressing.

But…

I don’t like how all the ‘I want my happy ending’ contributors are treated like the little fangirls, and more importantly, the pinnacle motivation for the entire debate. The issue with the ending doesn’t centre around whether or not its happy. Far from it, in fact. I love dark endings filled with tragedy and in my opinion, the ME3 finale was trash. Sorry Bioware, I loved the game, I really did, but the ending killed it all for me. However, for the sake of others, there’s nothing wrong wanting a happy ending. I’m not endorsing it, nor demanding one but that was what separated Mass Effect from other series’, there was no linear story being spoon-fed to you. You grafted the story around the choices you make. Mass Effect 3 made all these choices hopelessly obsolete and took power away from the player in the last fifteen minutes. The fact that fans want a ‘happy ending’ doesn’t compromise the artistic integrity of the Mass Effect trilogy as a whole. Even more importantly, the fact its cliché shouldn’t matter if it’s done right. Originality and creativity are two entirely different things. A happy ending isn’t original, but it can be wonderfully creative if it’s done correctly....

Yep! Could not have sad it better myself.

......Furthermore, to everyone who LIKED the endings, don’t take those DISLIKING it as an act of hatred, or as whining or as an attack on your sense of taste. The fact is, if the endings were as ideal as you believe them to be, they’d be more universally accepted. To anyone who’s seen the ending and likes it, congratulations for beating the game, and that’s not sarcasm at all. Honestly, nice one. But don’t attack the rest of us for disliking it, maybe try to understand our point of view. If you don’t agree, that’s your prerogative, but ignoring the games plotholes and flaws simply because you like it isn’t a justified defense. Criticism is just as important as praise and there is a valid point to be made about the ending of an otherwise spectacular trilogy. I’ve read some of the arguments of people trying to defend the game, and it seems that they’re all missing the key point… Or ignoring it, either way, it doesn’t qualify as a concrete argument.

Even a sad ending shouldn't feel hopeless. These endings felt hopeless.

....I will never understand is how a faceless reviewers’ opinion is more important than those who love the game/franchise. Endless websites are attacking the campaign as a bunch of fans griping about how emo the ending was. They’re wrong, simple as. Not all of us want the endings REMOVED. Maybe just add a few extra options for us fans to achieve the result and closure we want after 200+ hours of gameplay....

And faceless reviewers probably didn't pay for their copy of the game. You and I and millions like us did as you so reasonably point out below. Bioware, pay attention: This is the second ending (DA:2) that's has left us wanting. For the sake of all that's gone before, you may get a third shot to make it better, but don't count on a fourth.

.....One final thing, these game websites that are calling the campaign a gripefest and all the Devs sending coy little tweets… You’re fanning the flames of war here. I take personal offence to anyone who shuts down my opinion just because they think its not worth listening to. Critics don’t buy millions of copies of the game, fans do. Every fans opinion is important, regardless of what it is and what you think of it. Anyone who says otherwise, welcome to a world with freedom of speech and free will. Therefore, any critic labelling me a pointless moaner with an irrelevant opinion just because I'm not paid to say nice things even if I don't believe them can, pardon my language, **** themselves.

And I’m done.... 

Nicely said, poster.

[SogaBan]

[quote]Carmen_Willow wrote...

Agreed.  I thought the Warden's ultimate sacrifice in DA:Origins was fine. It made sense. I cried, there was a funeral and I was okay. It made some sort of sad sense in the story.
This was just---depressing---really depressing.

[quote]

Wonderful example   

YES... I was so depressed after my warden made the sacrifice (first play - lol) BUT never I have felt to get a "bolt from the blue"! It was quite neat, logical and consistent with the plot.

Mass Effect team should take some advice and suggestions from the DA team...

[SogaBan]

SogaBan wrote...

[quote]Carmen_Willow wrote...

Agreed.  I thought the Warden's ultimate sacrifice in DA:Origins was fine. It made sense. I cried, there was a funeral and I was okay. It made some sort of sad sense in the story.
This was just---depressing---really depressing.

[quote]

Wonderful example   

YES... I was so depressed after my warden made the sacrifice (first play - lol) BUT never I have felt to get a "bolt from the blue"! It was quite neat, logical and consistent with the plot.

Mass Effect team should take some advice and suggestions from the DA team...

[irishScott3]

*MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW*

As a long time fan, I take strong exception to the endings.  The rest of the game is, IMO a masterpiece.  As good as a game can be asked to get, but the endings have destroyed the game's replay value regardless.

I'd like to point out that my issues with the endings don't stem from their unorthodox nature or their grimness.  In theory I'm fine with both, if properly executed.  I actually fully expected to have to sacrifice multiple members of my crew.  What we got was simply of the lowest quality of writing IMO, the myriad issues are as follows.

1. The endings do not "end" anything.  In fact they open a ton of questions, not about the serious issues they were supposed to represent, but about the gaping plot holes the writers left open for us.  There is so much left unanswered that literally anything could happen, and much of that "anything" isn't just fanatical fan spit-balling, but it's emminently plausible based on basic Mass Effect canon.  Here's one example:

1. Reapers built mass relays.
2. Shepard gains control of reapers, and miraculously survives the process (in the best ending).
3. Shepard gets better and orders the reapers to re-build the mass relays, may take a generation or two but everything sans the citadel itself is eventually restored.
4. Shepard uses Reaper tech and Reapers to scour the nearby cluster (because Joker could only be going at mainstream FTL), finds the Normandy, rescues Ashley and makes his contribution to the Williams family line, later retiring to a tropical island with Garrus.

I'm not saying the above should be the ending, but the fact that it's emminently plausible (especially given what we know of Shepard) takes away much of the weight of the endings, which leads me to number 2.


2. The endings are not developed, at all.  A different color of explosion, maybe 3-5 lines of dialog and mildly different animation in the cinematics is not development.  I find it disgraceful that ME3 devoted hours of dialog and gameplay developing much lesser parts of the story, like the Quarian homeworld for instance.  Yet at the end, at the keystone of the series, with the biggest decision of all to make involving sweeping, galaxy-changing implications, what do we get?  A  <1 minute cinematic that explains next to nothing.  Seriously Bioware?


3. There is no player choice, and all prior choices are essentially meaningless.  Now I understand that it's not feasible to have 1000 different endings, but Shepard can, and has, argued serious ideas over comparatively trivial issues throughout the games.  I remember having multiple conversations with my crew about the philosophy behind their actions and past.  Yet when it comes to the galaxy-changing choice, he says nothing.  There are things, obvious things, that Shepard would say to each of these endings.  It would make sense for a renegade Shepard to reject all endings outright.  There should be advanced conversations that can moodify details of the endings, and this goes back to the lack of development mentioned in point 2.  Suffice it to say, we get no choice.  None.  We get one dialog option that might as well not be there, it literally leads us to an identical place.  And what do we get in return for surrendering the entire basis of the game?  A cheaply edited cinematic that doesn't take into account any charcter or plot development up to that point. 

I know that the options you get vary with readiness.  This is not choice, although I gather Bioware rationalized that it was. 


4. The God kid is dumb.  His reasoning, which should be incredibly advanced, is stupid.  He says it's inevitable that organics will create machines that will destroy them.  Uhh... care to justify that?  He's been around for millions of years, you'd think if there was a pattern he could show it rather than have us accept it at face value.  Life, even synthetic life, is by nature completely unpredictable.  Even if the pattern was true for thousands of civilizations, he has no way of knowing that a completely new set of a parameters couldn't change thing.  He has no way  of proving that his pattern would occur in any given cycle given that he never lets any of the options evolve to the point where they could try.  This is most illogical.  You're telling me all of Mass Effect is because some ancient AI construct had a glitch in it's logic programming?



The ramifications of all of the above are extremely damaging to the game as a whole.  For my part:
1. I will not buy DLC with the endings as they are, as I have little desire to reach these endings again.  Perhaps when Shepard is stumbling towards the console I'll hit my computer's reset button and imagine a better ending, but I doubt it.

2. My first playthrough was on hardcore.  Any future playthroughs will be on easy or normal.  The end of the game isn't worth the challenge or the time.  Likewise I will not play the game to its full potential if I do replay, and will use multiplayer to boost my readiness to the levels I need.  Why should I care about bolstering citadel defenses when it's going to get blown up anyway?  Why should I care about saving Kelly Chambers from Cerberus when she'll die anyway?  Why should I care about building up characters I care about, only to be deprived of any significant information as to their future post-ending?

I also was in the middle of a fresh ME1 playthrough I intended to carry through, no reason to do that anymore either.

3. Mass Effect 3 was my first EA/Bioware pre-order.  As of these endings, it will also be the last.

Bottom line, the Keystone of the series was flopped.  Horribly.  I hope that someone from Bioware reads this in full, reads most of this thread for that matter, and gives us a DLC ending, free or not, that lives up to the epic stature of Mass Effect 3.  Make it happy, make it grim, make it completely off the wall I don't care, but please, please make it quality.

Modifié par irishScott3, 13 mars 2012 - 03:44 .

[Petr0nella]

I was enjoying this til I got to the ending which just left me feeling confused and disappointed.

I don't have an issue with Shepard dying to end the war, but the "logic" behind the end options doesn't make any sense. Also as someone with minimal interest in multiplayer the whole "up your readiness rating through multiplayer to get a better ending" thing is just annoying.

Very little incentive to replay this game.

[Pelle6666]

I can in full honesty say that this is the greatest game I have ever played. Brilliant work! I have never before been sitting from 7:00 to 2:30 in 4 days playing a video game but I just couldn't stop. Always loved the previous titles in the series as well and I've imported my character from those games. When I finally got to the ending cut scene I could only say three words;
WHAT THE F*CK!!!!?
I have no complaints what so ever about the rest of the game but the last 5 minutes are terrible! I was expecting, or at least hoping for a triumphant victory over the reapers with Shepard resisting the indoctrination and proves that we can all overcome our differences regardless what they are. instead we get this? A choice between killing Shepard and destroying the mass relays which will result in that the Normandy's crew gets stranded on a deserted planet and the asari, quarians, salarians, turians, etc. gets scattered across the galaxy. or killing Shepard and... well pretty much the same thing except everyone's a half robot or you can kill ALL synthetic life, including allies and friends, Normandy is still stranded and Shepard lives to tell the tale.... but all his friends are gone....

No offense, because I still think 99.99999% of the game if absolutely brilliant, but the last 0.00001% is crap. And it is the worst kind of crap I have ever stepped in; I'm still feeling sick after trying to lick my shoes clean.
DLC with a new ending? That would make me love you again. I kinda forgave you for screwing up Dragon age II but I don't think I can forgive this... at least I cant keep quiet about my disappointment.

Seriously, consider remaking the endings, I don't want to remember the Mass Effect series like this.

[Aarkaan]

The game so far is great, haven't finish yet, but sadly I all ready now how it end...I really don't now how many hours I spend playing ME1 & ME2, cant say Ill do the same here. Feels like my desition did not count. If you want to fix it with DLC is your choice. Generally I am not a big fan of Final Fantasy endings...

[BubbleDncr]

Loved the game until the ending. It made me cry at least 3 times.

Combat was more fun and challenging.
Cutscenes were more lively and interesting.
Loved how your companions moved around the Normandy/Citadel and had little non-conversation dialogs that were entertaining.
I romanced Kaiden and was only interested in romancing Kaiden, but having now read that he was my only option as a straigth female, does make me a little perturbed. Add in the fact that Tali is now apparently a hot model, and I'm even more perturbed that male players get all pretty, human-looking romances, while (as much as I love them) the only aliens femShep ever got to romance were Lizard man and bird with exoskeleton. Bioware definitely needs to be more fair to their female players.
That said, the Kaiden romance scenes have made it my favorite romance of all bioware games. Very well done.
Felt like the game responded very well to everything that I did in the first 2 games (until the ending).


All in all, if you had asked me 10 minutes before I beat the game, I would have said it was the best game I ever played. But the ending kind of soured the whole experience for me. Originally I thought I'd replay it right away, now I don't think I will for a fair amount of time. Definitely won't be buying any DLC unless its one to change the ending.

[Sailears]

I doubt I'm going to finish this game until at least another week, so I just want to give a quick review of my thoughts on the whole opening up to being in control of the Normandy for the first time. So that is Vancouver, Mars, and the Citadel the first time.

I think in general it's easier and quicker to list the negative criticisms I have first (note, of course this is all opinion), and say everything I don't mention is absolutely great, even brilliant.


So, things which bothered me:


1. I like how the autodialogue maintains flow, but I feel they just went a little too far with it's implementation - would be better off with a neutral right option during those two choice moments, and need the dialogue wheel to show up a little more frequently than it does at the moment. Maybe every two/three lines on average?


2. Some of the dialogue (and narrative for that matter) is heavy handed and not as subtle/smooth as I'd like. So you've got a lot of "reapers are here; fight them; they'll kill everyone; it's a war; get the weapon; build a big weapon; huh my weapon can defeat your weapon..." you get the drift. I mean I know it's a war story (in the generic sea of war stories that every other game seems to want to do - honestly, I'm sick of war being the focus of everything all the time. If this wasn't Mass Effect, I'd ignore this game entirely, because of it's central premise being war... but I digress), but they really go over the top at bashing into the player's head that REAPERS = BAD, and you have to FIGHT them, and build a WEAPON to kill them...

  It just lacks elegance, for want of a better word.
Why is every solution a weapon? The whole Crucible thing just comes out of nowhere and everyone seems to immediately accept it. The council and loads of people/races are suddenly talking about reapers casually, as if they had known about them for decades.
  Also I can see where the team at BW must have streamlined the dialogue to not confuse new players and still give references for old players. Ok it just about works, but it still shows where you'd expect to see an extra word or phrase in someone's line of dialogue, and it isn't there, or it is streamlined to avoid confusion.

So to summarise - heavy handed and streamlined dialogue and narrative for the opening missions, which (for me) hurts the sophistication and elegance that I feel a game like this (especially set in space) should have.


3. The turning animation in non combat areas - this is very jarring. When Shepard is running forward and you turn either left or right (with the arrow keys on the keyboard) she snaps to position, and it just doesn't look smooth. A minor issue, but worth mentioning.


4. Character creator import issues aside (that was annoying trying to recreate the face), I think any future title ought to have a character creator separate from the game, so we can prepare our "Shepards" in advance, and not spend many hours faffing about with it once the game is released. This should also contain a small room area and perhaps one or two NPCs to check all the fance angles in dialogue scenes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everything else is brilliant - I especially loved the Mars mission - the landscape was very reminiscent of dusty ME1 uncharted worlds, absolutely beautiful, and the music was great.
Gameplay is super smooth - I think Id find it hard to go back to ME2, let alone ME1 after this.

Modifié par Curunen, 13 mars 2012 - 04:39 .

[fink0806]

www.change.org/petitions/bioware-corp-we-want-a-dlc-that-changes-the-last-minutes-of-the-game

[gamer_girl]

This seems a bit redundant since it's the most popukar opinion here, but the game was one of the best I've played except for the endings. My choices are supposed to matter, yet they don't once the spirit child thing that apparently was hiding inside my gigantic WMD and somehow rules everything (what the hell were the writers smoking here) said I was limited to 3 unfavourable choices simply because he's going through puberty or something and is taking it out on the galaxy. I'm not proposing that those endings vanish because some people really like them strangely enough, and that's good for them, but I want an ending that doesn't make me feel like I wasted upwards of 200 hours of my life. I want an ending where Shepard can survive AND still be with his friends. Rather than giving us a terrible dilemma, I want something that maintains the integrity of the series and preserves the always underlying theme of "hope". With those last 10 minutes of the game, it flipped from hope to nihilism. I dunno about everyone else, but I'd rather Shepard defeat the reapers with everyone else, and then settle down with his sweetheart Tali on Rannoch with his robotic dog and an apartment over the garage for Garrus (kind of joking, but seriously, I would like a happy ending - or at the very least one that doesn't destory my obsession with the series and its replay value)

[locowolfie]

i to support the bad ending thing that well everyone keept talking about. and no i dont want a rainbow and pony ending(tho it shouldnt have been ommitted) but it dont like the legion of plotholes (for there are many) things like how did the reapers capture the citadel. the whole normandy thing. and even the uniformity of the endings, they should have varied more.

seccorndy and most importantly you should ''own'' the fact you dropped the ball cuz while not the best of the series(imo me 1 for the fact that it was a new ip exp). its a good game, eventhough the fetch quests are not well implemented and the quest menu sucked.(no updates to inticate you have the items really????)

[SpartanChiva]

I will be brief, considering that many of the good and bad points of the game have been touched upon and I agree with most completely.

That said. I will write my personal feelings towards this game.

I'm a videogame entrepreneur. I first studied film in college, and up until I came across Mass Effect 5 years ago, I thought that film was the apex of artistic media in our culture.

Mass Effect was able to change my mind. The thought of videogames as an art form and culture had a fighting chance in the minds of critics and thinkers.

I changed my concentration and decided to study videogame art. Once that finished, I started my own indie company and am currently working on a small project.

The people I met during those five years, are a consequence to what Mass Effect meant to me. It inspired me to become part of the videogame industry. It gave me hope of one day achieving what you, Bioware, has achieved with the franchise.

Unfortunately. Once I finished the game, I felt crushed, alone, betrayed, and confused. I could not fathom why so much love and care was put into the bulk of this game and simply render it meaningless in the final stage.

Probably the cries of everyone here, that have been let down by your product, will not affect the outcome of any change what so ever. But I urge you, Bioware, to reconsider.

I for one feel disappointed. And with all sincerity, I don't think I will be investing any time in replaying the game or buying any other game from your company. It pains me to say it, and I never thought the day would come.

[TomY90]

 XBOX 360 RATING - 8.0

Plus Points

Combat - very well flowing with a good variety of weapons throughout and very good map designs that had variety to the design.

Shepard is HUMAN - shepard actually seems to have more emotions now and feels like he is actually more alive than ever

Acting - Top draw acting in all cases except for Diane Allers (Jessica Chobot shouldnt have been in such a role in ME3 she did not have the talent to get the lines across correctly)

Graphics - no real lack on the graphics with it feeling like an actual war thanks to all the fighting you see above you around the destruction around you.

Story - very well done and very few plot holes most of the time

Negative Points

The ending - you should know this one by now, no real variation in the ending really, huge plot holes throughout the ending, no real consequences for your decisions  as well as not giving any closure with the characters and Shepard in every single case.

Lack of Dialogue - the dialogue is extremely linear and often you have zero input when it comes to your characters

War Asset Mining - nice in theory making it less common but it is much more of a nuance on this because its so much harder to get what you need and actually takes longer than the ME2 style of mining because of it.

Lip Syncing - takes some getting used to it seems to have gone backwards on lip syncing

Galaxy at War - I support the decision of doing it because it does improve the shelf life, however you did say its possible to get the best possible ending without having to bolster which it is virtually impossible because you have to do every single minor decision absoultely perfect from ME1 all the way to ME3 to achieve this.

Loading times - the loading times during combat and the normandy at times are shocking just having to wait for a door to open which the longest I have had is like 30 seconds which is a long time when your on a combat map.

Overall

this game is brilliant in virtually every aspect except for minor bugs which are forgivable considering the scale of the game and the last section of the game. If the game had a much more acceptable ending I would give this a 9.5 out of 10 but because of the ending I have had to drop to 8.0 because the ending is what you will always remember from a franchise and no offence but that ending is confusing and made no sense.

I hope you do explain the ending to everyone because it is getting confusing with all the theories going around about the ending and if possible I would say improve the ending at least.

Modifié par TomY90, 13 mars 2012 - 05:31 .