I’m not demanding a “happy ending”
Some people think that fans are dissatisfied because the series isn’t
wrapped up like a fairy tale. That’s untrue for what seems to be most
of us, including myself. I don’t really care about the mood. Sadness can
be just as emotionally satisfying as fulfillment, if you can
effectively convey it. I don’t see a problem with all the endings being
somewhat bittersweet.
I’m not demanding “a million different endings”
Logically, the story won’t end a million different ways, even if
Bioware egged us into believing they were capable of that. I think we
all knew that going in. Some variation is expected, but not an absurd
amount. We were given pretty much the bare minimum of variation that one
can expect. It could have been a little less varied though, there could
have been 2 endings instead of 3.
I’m demanding a MASS EFFECT ending
Mass Effect has always been about choices and impact; Bioware made
sure everyone knew that at every turn. They talked endlessly about all
the thousands of variables that will be going into your ME3 playthrough.
Everything carries over, that’s more or less the theme of Mass Effect’s
gameplay. Three games, countless hours all leading up to the big
finale. Mass Effect is the definition of a game you become invested in,
because your choices follow you from game to game.
The problem becomes that ME3 has very, very few choices. Naturally,
at this point in a story, your earlier choices would be controlling the
story more than the choices you are making now, so player control should
be somewhat limited near the end. Basically the events of previous
games should be snowballing. But that’s not what’s happening. The player
is making very few choices, but your previous choices are making little
to no impact on your gameplay. So we are taking the necessary evil of
few choices, without the benefit of seeing our old choices play out.
It’s beside the point that the last quarter of the game is
emotionally unsatisfying, and that most of the deaths in that quarter
don’t phase the viewer as they were intended. It’s beside the point that
there are only 3 options rather than 15. The ending is unsatisfying
because players worked on Shepard for three games, and for
what? The exact same 3 endings? No resolution for countless plot
threads. No player input aside from a rock, paper, scissors match.
Everything we did, our love interest, our morality, our allegiances,
our actions, they become completely moot. It’s as if Bioware is trying
to teach us some elaborate existentialist life lesson that nothing we do
matters. That’s a great idea for a game, actually. Just not this game.
Not the game that you promised would be resolved. Not the game that
people spent all this time and invested all this emotion in. Bioware
ends up looking like they don’t even “get” their own game. And I end up playing the multiplayer, because it’s somehow less nihilistic than this mess of an adventure game.
Modifié par Dangerfoot, 11 mars 2012 - 04:54 .
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