(It is another ending thread, so beware if you don't want to read those
. This is about the ending and what most irked me most about it. It’s kind of long and has buildup, so if you don’t want to read it all then don’t 
. Also, this is all my opinion, and I don’t mean to state it as the only valid one, so please don’t get mad if my view differs. Post your thoughts, but please keep it civil ).To me, the Mass Effect series has always been about choices and their consequences. Protecting the council changed not only the governing body of the galaxy, but shaped how the races viewed humanity. Saving Wrex or not determined who led Clan Urdnot, and the choices could not be more different. Hell, even the small things had some consequence – Gianna Parasini finally bought me that beer she promised from the first game. Seeing the consequences of these choices, whether they be good or bad, was immensely satisfying. Even better was when I sat down to my second playthrough and realized just how much could be changed by my actions.
This is what Mass Effect is.
Yet, this is not how the trilogy ended. We were offered three choices, at most. What were the consequences? As far as we were allowed to see, our choices determined the color of our ruin, plus a handful of extra clips, each a few seconds long. Sure, the different solutions were relatively distinct in how the reapers were handled – whether we control, destroy or synthesize with them. This might have been satisfying had we been shown how this choice affected the future of the galaxy. There was a choice, but we never saw the consequences in any satisfying way.
Worse than that is how our other choices throughout are rendered more or less moot by the destruction of the relays. Let’s assume that the destruction of the relays did not destroy the surrounding area – something that was not made clear by any part of the ending. The destruction of the relays is the destruction of much that my Shephard worked towards.
Through blood and tears I brought the Quarians and Geth to peace, gave the Quarians their homeland and freed the Geth from Reaper control. I was expecting some clips showing them rebuilding the Quarian world – the dawn of a new era for both of them. They’re not shown or mentioned after the relays are gone, none of the races are. All that’s left is what we can assume. Well, that’s not satisfying either. After all that work the main body of the Quarian government, military and population is stranded half a galaxy away from the homeworld they just reclaimed. Even with FTL, which is stated as covering distances of multiple light years in a day, the journey back would take thirty years non-stop. This is also assuming they have the fuel for it and that they can survive that long with the available resources. Moreover – if the Normandy was rendered useless or nearly destroyed by the energy blasts, wouldn’t the same happen to all the fleets near Earth? In the end, all my efforts to help them meant little to nothing.
Worse is what might happen to the Krogan. Personally, I liked Wrex and worked to cure the genophage. My gift to his people was a chance at galactic redemption, should they survive the Reapers. Yet, this could only work with Wrex as a leader. But, just as with the Quarians, he is stranded near Earth with no means of returning to Tuchanka within any reasonable time limit. What happens then? We aren’t told. My assumption is that other Krogans will assume control and leave the Krogan race as they already are – bloodthirsty mercs. In the end, they’ll probably go to war with themselves over control of their clans. Not only does this invalidate all the choices made to help them but it is also the only way things can turn out: Tuchanka without a leader, and in a state of isolation that makes any chance at Galactic redemption irrelevant. The consequences were the same, regardless of our choices. Worse still, Mordin died in vain…
I could go on with the other races, but I feel that my point is made.
Some people are outraged because the ending wasn’t happy. It’s more than that. There should have been endings that covered the spectrum of our choices – to fully show the consequences of Shephard’s life whether the results are happy, sad or in between. It’s not like this would have been too difficult. A series of different clips at the end, showing each of the surviving races and squadmates as your choices shaped them to be, would have done the job. Instead, we get to make one of three overarching decisions and everything gets reduced to the same state regardless. A thousand choices, three decisions, one ending.
Then there’s the Normandy and our squadmates. Let’s ignore the already well established complaints that they apparently abandoned Shephard at the last minute, got to the ship from a Reaper hot zone, fled from the battle and that none of this was explained or shown. Ignoring all this, it was still unsatisfying. Not only did it not show what happened to them after the war – did Liara get her little blue children? – but it was entirely impersonal and unemotional (or had the wrong emotions). What of our love interests? Did Tali (for me) mourn Shephard? Does she move on, can she move on? How would Joker survive such a place? What is that planet, anyway?
What happens to all the fleets near Earth? Do they fight each other for nearby resources? Do they start the long journey home? Would they even be able to make it back?
This is another large complaint – there is no closure. The game doesn’t even show us the full consequences of the ending they forced onto us.
Few of the consequences from our own choices seem to matter by the end, this is insulting. But to not even show us the consequences of the war at all is plain cruel.
A thousand choices, three decisions, one ending. No consequences.
(There are a multitude of other things about the ending that are, to say the least ,disappointing. Especially some of the inconsistencies with the series’ tone and logic (case and point: the god-child). This post is about the one thing I found completely unforgiveable: the lack of consequences and meaning in our choices. Had this been fixed I could have begrudgingly accepted the ending and would be importing my next playthrough to see what the galaxy becomes from my differing choices.)
(Personally, I vote for the hallucination/indoctrination idea. It seems like grasping at straws, but I’ll take it. With any luck, it will be expanded on and maybe new endings could be made as DLC).
(Also, there really should be endings where you fail and the next cycle finds Liara’s time capsule. Even better would be to have the degree of failure reflect how much the next cycle can do with the time capsule – that certain degrees of success, even if you fail in the end, allows the next cycle to win.)
Modifié par Aduro, 13 mars 2012 - 02:45 .
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