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Now, let me set this up; Mass Effect is, despite my own reservations about the ending, my favorite videogame series. I love it for the story, for the characters, for my part in shaping these characters and having them evolve from the conversations given. I love it for the massive amount of diversity in locations, scenarios, and possibilities.
Throughout the Mass Effect series, I was shown many different characters, the most notable generally being the ones who were squadmates that served aboard the Normandy. I was allowed to speak constantly to these characters, learn their backgrounds, learn their hopes and dreams, learn about them. Despite them just being video game characters, they still felt alive. I grew to care about these characters, and ME2 was where it shown through the most; I was damn near obsessive throughout my first playthrough because I did not want anyone to die. And I achieved it. This was obviously impossible in ME3, and it broke my heart each time.
I watched Mordin sacrifice himself in order to correct what he grew to believe was wrong because of my conversations with him. Mordin was a brilliantly written character, my favorite in the game. His end, and every moment leading up to it, was perfectly Mordin. I am not someone that gets emotional easily, especially over games, videos, or books, and yet this moment choked me up. The subsequent dream sequences and hearing 'Someone else might have gotten it wrong' repeatedly was like a knife being twisted in my chest. And yet, that is one of my top 5 moments in Mass Effect 3.
Watching Tali give in to despair because the Geth were annihilating her people and the Quarians refused to listen and back off, then throw herself off a cliff because of it made me feel as if I needed to be running to stop her just as Shepard was. The Paragon icon gave me hope, and I had to close my eyes and take a moment upon seeing that Shepard had not caught her.
In the 'best' scenario for that moment, hearing Legion refer to itself as 'I' and ask if he had a soul before dying due to the upload was another emotional moment, because I cared.
When Thane died, the moment was a good one, but upon hearing that the final prayer was not for him, but for Shepard, I had to again take a moment to collect myself.
In the caverns with the captured Rachni queen, knowing that I had just asked Grunt to leave his own squad to die in order to save one of the Krogan's enemies was bad. Shortly after, Grunt was willing to give up his own life in order to get Shepard out alive, and it was my fault. Seeing him stumble out of those caves bloodied and beaten, but still alive, made me smile and say 'Goddamn right'.
I could go on, but I believe my point has gotten across. Bioware, you did a phenomenal job in getting me to care about this game, this world you created, and the characters within in. So one would think, after all that, the culmination of all of these elements and the finale of the series would easily land in the top 5 moments across the series, as it should have. Instead, I was met with 3 choices that barely mattered to the ending, and upon choosing, met with a cutscene that barely lasted a minute. And the worst thing I can say for it is simple.
I didn't care. I felt nothing.
After this roller coaster of emotions your series put me on, the finale was not met with sadness, or happiness, or anger. It was met with a blank stare and a 'Really?' as the credits started rolling. I was actually glad, at this moment, that some of these characters had died during the game, because it gave me a resolution with them. But the rest of these characters that I had built up and fought with, that I cared for, were not given an ending. I got a very slight cutscene with a fraction of them given seconds of screen time stumbling onto an unknown planet (let's not even get into how they got there, despite 1 of them being on my ground team during the fight. I truly hope the hallucination speculation is not how it is supposed to end, because that will be an entirely other kind of disappointment.)
I was not shown what the thousands and thousands of military personel did upon finding out the relays were destroyed, and they were likely stranded in the Sol System. I was not shown the fate of all these individuals now separated by vast quantities of space, with no way of getting back to their families, or likely even able to communicate with them. I was shown almost nothing, and in return, I felt nothing. That is my greatest disappointment.
I said that the ending to a trilogy should likely end up within the top 5 moments of a series, due to it being the grand finale. And yet this would not even land in a top 50 list, and I am sure I could expand that list quite a bit more if I went back and got fresh memories of ME1 and 2.
I did not write this in an attempt to bash Bioware, or the writers responsible. I wrote this in order to, hopefully, give them some perspective and some ideas on what to do in future situations. Thank you to those of you who read all the way through, and thank you to anyone who finds this worth discussion.
So, I leave with one parting request.
Bioware, you should make Jade Empire 2.
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