23455 réponses à ce sujet

[Stygian1]

did I mention the ending was really really bad?

[JmyRoman]

 First off BW thank you for an amazing series.
I really want to play through ME3 again i just dont see the point given how alike all the endings are.
It just feels like nothing mattered. 

I would really like to know which particular forum is best to post ideas and thoughts for single player dlc and multiplayer dlc. 

I really hope BW does offer the oppurtunity for more endings that explain exactly what happened.

I will say that if BW does really care about its fans and how we feel about the series and they do offer different ending dlc or any dlc in particular that makes the game worth playing again how awesome would they be for doing that?. 

Common Bioware give me some DLC that makes me pass out from awesomeness! 
i really want to be playing this game for some time to come.

[DOsquareZER]

Hey they wanted us to use our IMAGINATION for an ending seeing they left their promised CONCLUSIVE ending to open interpretation (not words i associate with conclusive but ok..) - our imagination led us to the indoctrination theory to fill in the massive holes that bioware so nicely left for our IMAGINATIONs to play around with. Holes that sparked suspicion and creativity (and anger and betrayal...) And now for using our IMAGINATION - we're getting criticized?? ^.o Wasn't that the whole purpose of this cookie cutter original sci-fi plot hole ridden ending to a series that deserved something so much greater? To make us think? Still that theory doesn't leave us with much of an ending either - just a better way of approaching one. ? *shrugs*

[Xannerz]

eternalnightmare13 wrote...

Wikkr wrote...



this guy says it best. 134k views, 172 dislikes, 9.7k likes

That guy in the video is a ****.

I actually think he's cool, lol. You can't say his Garrus impression sucks. xD

[gundam94]

This has probably been posted 1000 times, but its the best video explaining the Indoctrination Theory that I have seen. Just thought Id share.

edit: Oops forgot the link:

Modifié par gundam94, 16 mars 2012 - 06:45 .

[LexusInfernus]

Alright, good to know people are listening. Anyways, here are some of the issues I personally had with the ending.

First of all, Ive come to identify strongly with Shepard. Its safe to say that Commander Shepard is my favorite fictional character ever. Mass Effect 3 only solidified that opinion, and for that, great job Bioware. The combination of making meaningful choices in a rich and well written story set in a unique and well fleshed out universe was very compelling for me. Anyways, Ive come to care about my Commander Shepard, and that makes this ending so....hard. I mean, its one thing to know that this was the last game with my favorite character, but its something else to know that well...the story didnt really end well for her. She dies, either sacrificing herself for the greater good, or she survives, after you just murdered all synthetic life forms in the galaxy.

In itself, those things didnt have to be that bad. I mean, killing all synthetic life forms is not such a hard choice if you have allowed the Quarians to destroy the Geth already. But if you didnt, well the choice is a rather crappy choice. And heroicly sacrificing yourself wouldnt be so bad either if the positives following that choice far outweigh the negatives. But they dont. I mean, sure you get rid of the Reapers, maybe even jumpstart the next phase in evolution. But the Mass Relays remain destroyed, you dont know what happened to earth, or galactic society. Did it manage to rebuild? Or did it remain cut off from each other. The stargazer ending I got to see seemed to imply that they didnt rebuild and that they were cut of from space. Anyways, what Im trying to say is that the feedback I got on my choices are kind of a let down. I never really had the feeling I saved the galaxy. In fact, I felt that I had just destroyed more then I saved.

Second, what bothers me is that ghost kid AI thing. It claims that synthetics are doomed to fight and kill organics, thus it created an army of super synthetics to harvest all advanced organic life. How the hell does that make sense? The strongest part of the first Mass Effect was the idea that Reapers are Lovecraftian horrors that defy understanding. Then you explain it away with this? And this makes absolutely no sense since you spend a whole game chatting up with synthetic lifeforms that explained that they werent interested at all in killing or enslaving all organic life. It even goes as far as to put the blame of the Geth-Quarian war on the Quarians who overreacted while the Geth only acted in self defense. In short, for two whole games, the story is disproving the ultimate reason Reapers exist. This also ruins the whole meaning of the end. Instead of fighting Lovecraftian horrors from outer space, you are fighting monsters created on a flawed assumption.

Thirdly, I really miss a happy ending. Or in this case, a relatively happy ending. But all the endings arent even remotely close to being somewhat happy. And that really feels as a shame, considdering the fact that I survived suicide missions with no scratch, cured the genophage, made an alliance between Turians and Krogans, brokered a peace between Geth and Quarians, and pretty much did a whole bunch of stuff that can be considered as implausible at best. If you manage to do that, then why not include an option of an implausible but somewhat happy ending. An ending where Shepard clearly doesnt die, doesnt have to kill the Geth, or at least doesnt scatter her team on some remote location and clearly states the Galaxy will rebuild. Give the possibility that if you play the game right, I dont know, have a readiness of 100% and get 90% of all the possible war assets, you end up with a happy ending. Id say that if you achieve that, Shepard deserves it.


Anyways, these were just my personal thoughts and opinions.

Modifié par LexusInfernus, 16 mars 2012 - 06:48 .

[Tony Redgrave]

TheRealMithril wrote...

Who cares about the FTL..? This is about the ending and the memorabilia.

And how ludicrously bad the endings where put together. Even for a copy and past operation.

[1EasyGamer]

I guess I would like to know WHAT HAPPENED? Was it a case of real life hallucination or indoctrination, money making plot, writers block, ...? Regardless, the end result for me as a player is way off the perfect mark that had been set by the previous 2 games. You were only 10 minutes away from perfection, but then dropped the whole thing down, crashing down into a million pieces. WHY?

If it helps I would have been very happy with these 3 endings:

1) Everything is destroyed. Shepard, the Reapers, the Relays. Everybody stranded on Earth space with an Earth destroyed, no way to get back to their home planets. A 2012 disaster movie ending. That was close to the Destroy option only in the game the ramifications of destroying the Relays and having a destroyed Earth are not contemplated at all. What would happen to all the Quarians no being able to get back to their planet they had just taken back from the Geth. For the Krogans losing their leader that was keeping them from becoming a menace again. To this huge fleet representing the greatest and brightest not being able to go back home, not having any provision or planning for this outcome. What the hell do they do with their lives. I mean who wants this ending really after fighting so hard. But if you want it there you have it.

2) An ending where the wrong parties being the Illusive Man, the Reapers or the misguided Catalyst have their way. Shepard dies but Synthesis or Control are the resulting conditions. With Synthesis you end up doing what Saren had chosen, so you could say maybe Shepard was under indoctrination. With Control you end up doing the Illusive Man way and that could have been simply to let someone else take responsibility for the fate of the whole galaxy and the future, for the sake of control or power; in any case then the Illusive Man should live and take Control. No need to destroy the Relays on this version, just take control, let TIM do it.

3) The most obvious and desired result. You and some other people survive or not depending on your readiness factor. The Emperor is dead (Reapers) and a New Republic of planets can be established. The Relays stay functional and serve the common good of a Galactic Republic. The Prothean technologies are continued to be studied to gain more insight. The Geth, Rachni are either exterminated or not but whichever solution was chosen by the player is acknowledged. This and that lived happily ever after. I feel good about having completed this trilogy. I am not an insignificant human who has gone through all kinds of hard decision making and struggles to arrive at the opposite of what I was striving for. I sacrifice to different levels but in the end I win.

Sincerely expecting a sincere explanation,

Shepard Paragon

Modifié par 1EasyGamer, 16 mars 2012 - 06:57 .

[TheRealMithril]

To me there is only one ending. Shepard dies before he reaches the beam.

[TopcatPlayer]

Nightsider2169 wrote...

I LOVED the ending, tell your writers that they did a fantastic job as always. There was not a single moment in this game where I was not in total and utter awe. Masterfully written AND delivered. You've truly out done yourselves yet again.

As far as the nay-sayers not there, ignore them. If they cant be bothered to pay attention to ALL the clues and hints thru out the trilogy and see whats clearly right in front of their faces, then let them be mad

Obviously the ending was intended to be a TO BE CONTINUED and set the stage perfectly for future releases, whether it be DLC, Expansions, or hell even ME4.

I mean come on guys, think about it...
In ME2 you can continue to explore the galaxy after the credits roll and do DLC and what not. This CLEARLY can't be done with ME3. Bioware had to come up with a way to continue the story post battle so that they could add DLC and possibly even an expansion or two like Dragon Age Origins did.

Play thru the whole trilogy again, pay CLOSE attention to the hints and clues scattered thru out... And when it finally hits, you'll feel really stupid that you complained about something so ovbiously amazing.

Major Kudos Bioware, keep up the good work.

Your die hard hardcore fans are 100% loyal and 100% behind you.

Thank you for ALL the amazing work.

i wouldn't complains so much if the ending had been like DAOrigins or if it had ended the way it did and been the 1st or even the 2nd game in the series.... but this is the final part of a Trilogy. I got all the clues, i got that it's a trick of the Reapers and that things aren't what they seem. Now i want the actual ending that i paid over a hundred dollars for! Its like having a TV show and not recieving the final disc.

[Hkun2007]

Loved the entire trilogy, but have never been so let down by an ending...
I just can't see how all our choices didn't make a bit of difference, how was this a good idea at all?

[Meshulik]

My favorite moment - when Shepard splits into a molecule. I especially liked when he was covering fire from the explosion. I laughed all three times, because becoming a reaper to you guys, too, failed by 10 points! I am by profession a maniac killer. I killed my parents and ate them. I have no heart. And I liked all three had very ending of the mass effect. Every day I look at them before going to bed, because it makes me happy. Keep it up guys! (excuse my bad English. I'm from Russia. Destruction of buildings in London in general gives rise to the hope and joy to the world domination of Russia).

[Archonsg]

Is Bioware really listening? I mean, seriously if you think about it, this thread itself was a good way to defuse some of the tension, and also one can listen to dogs barking. Its just noise.

Listening and DOING something are two very different things.

Just like the ending. Which made the entire ME series a "The cake is a lie!" joke.

Bioware needs to come clean and just say if they messed up they messed up and either, "nope sorry, the ending stays." and we'll go away angry but with closure on this or "Sorry, ya, that ending...somehow we put blinders on and didn't see fundamental logic errors and we didn't make your choices count. We are now working on a fix."

In which case we are all still scarred but will heal in time.

[TopcatPlayer]

gundam94 wrote...

This has probably been posted 1000 times, but its the best video explaining the Indoctrination Theory that I have seen. Just thought Id share.

edit: Oops forgot the link: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Tbghjn7_Byc

yes yes and more yes, this one and this other one
actualy calmed me down, check them both out people and twiddle your thumbs till the bloody ending DLC comes out which will hopefully encorporate the decisions made in the actual games.

[Nette]

StripedStocking wrote...

bwFex wrote...

I really have been trying to let myself get over this nightmare, but since you guys promise you're listening here, I'll try to just say it all, get it all out.

I have invested more of myself into this series than almost any other video game franchise in my life. I loved this game. I believed in it. For five years, it delivered. I must have played ME1 and ME2 a dozen times each.

I remember the end of Mass Effect 2. Never before, in any video game I had ever played, did I feel like my actions really mattered. Knowing that the decisions I made and the hard work I put into ME2 had a very real, clear, obvious impact on who lived and who died was one of the most astounding feelings in the world to me. I remember when that laser hit the Normandy and Joker made a comment about how he was happy we upgraded the shields. That was amazing. Cause and effect. Work and reward.

The first time I went through, I lost Mordin, and it was gut-wrenching: watching him die because I made a bad decision was damning, heartbreaking. But it wasn't hopeless, because I knew I could go back, do better, and save him. I knew that I was in control, that my actions mattered. So that's exactly what I did. I reviewed my decisions, found my mistakes, and did everything right. I put together a plan, I worked hard to follow that plan, and I got the reward I had worked so hard for. And then, it was all for nothing.

When I started playing Mass Effect 3, I was blown away. It was perfect. Everything was perfect. It was incredible to see all of my decisions playing out in front of me, building up to new and outrageous outcomes. I was so sure that this was it, this was going to be the masterpiece that crowned an already near-perfect trilogy. With every war asset I gathered, and with every multiplayer game I won, I knew that my work would pay off, that I would be truly satisfied with the outcome of my hard work and smart decisions. Every time I acquired a new WA bonus, I couldn't wait to see how it would play out in the final battle. And then, it was all for nothing.

I wasn't expecting a perfect, happy ending with rainbows and butterflies. In fact, I think I may have been insulted if everyone made it through just fine. The Reapers are an enormous threat (although obviously not as invincible as they would like us to believe), and we should be right to anticipate heavy losses. But I never lost hope. I built alliances, I made the impossible happen to rally the galaxy together. I cured the genophage. I saved the Turians. I united the geth and the quarians. And then, it was all for nothing.

When Mordin died, it was heartwrenching, but I knew it was the right thing. His sacrifice was... perfect. It made sense. It was congruent with the dramatic themes that had been present since I very first met Wrex in ME1. It was not a cheap trick, a deus ex machina, an easy out. It was beautiful, meaningful, significant, relevant, and satisfying. It was an amazing way for an amazing character to sacrifice themself for an amazing thing. And then it was all for nothing.

When Thane died, it was tearjerking. I knew from the moment he explained his illness that one day, I'd have to deal with his death. I knew he was never going to survive the trilogy, and I knew it wouldn't be fun to watch him go. But when his son started reading the prayer, I lost it. His death was beautiful. It was significant. It was relevant. It was satisfying. It was meaningful. He died to protect Shepard, to protect the entire Citadel. He took a life he thought was unredeemable and used it to make the world a brighter place. And then it was all for nothing.

When Wrex and Eve thanked me for saving their species, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Tali set foot on her homeworld, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Javik gave his inspiring speech, I felt that I had inspired something truly great. When I activated the Citadel's arms, sat down to reminisce with Anderson one final time, I felt that I had truly accomplished something amazing. I felt that my sacrifice was meaningful. Significant. Relevant. And while still a completely unexplained deus ex machina, at least it was a little bit satisfying.

And then, just like everything else in this trilogy, it was all for nothing.

If we pretend like the indoctrination theory is false, and we're really supposed to take the ending at face value, this entire game is a lost cause. The krogans will never repopulate. The quarians will never rebuild their home world. The geth will never know what it means to be alive and independent. The salarians will never see how people can change for the better.

Instead, the quarians and turians will endure a quick, torturous extinction as they slowly starve to death, trapped in a system with no support for them. Everyone else will squabble over the scraps of Earth that haven't been completely obliterated, until the krogans drive them all to extinction and then die off without any women present. And this is all assuming that the relays didn't cause supernova-scaled extinction events simply by being destroyed, like we saw in Arrival.

And perhaps the worst part is that we don't even know. We don't know what happened to our squadmates. We didn't get any sort of catharsis, conclusion. We got five years of literary foreplay followed by a kick to the groin and a note telling us that in a couple months, we can pay Bioware $15 for them to do it to us all over again.

It's not just the abysmally depressing/sacrificial nature of the ending, either. As I've already made perfectly clear, I came into this game expecting sacrifice. When Mordin did it, it was beautiful. When Thane did it, it was beautiful. Even Verner. Stupid, misguided, idiotic Verner. Even his ridiculous sacrifice had meaning, relevance, coherence, and offered satisfaction.

No, it's not the sacrifice I have a problem with. It's the utter lack of coherence and respect for the five years of literary gold that have already been established in this franchise. We spent three games preparing to fight these reapers. I spent hours upon hours doing every side quest, picking up every war asset, maxing out my galactic readiness so that when the time came, the army I had built could make a stand, and show these Reapers that we won't go down without a fight.

In ME1, we did the impossible when we killed Sovereign. In ME2, we began to see that the Reapers aren't as immortal as they claim to be: that even they have basic needs, exploitable weaknesses. In ME3, we saw the Reapers die. We saw one get taken down by an overgrown worm. We saw one die with a few coordinated orbital bombardments. We saw several ripped apart by standard space combat. In ME1, it took three alliance fleets to kill the "invincible" Sovereign. By the end of ME3, I had assembled a galactic armada fifty times more powerful than that, and a thousand times more prepared. I never expected the fight to be easy, but I proved that we wouldn't go down without a fight, that there is always hope in unity. That's the theme we've been given for the past five years: there is hope and strength through unity. That if we work together, we can achieve the impossible.

And then we're supposed to believe that the fate of the galaxy comes down to some completely unexplained starchild asking Shepard what his favorite color is? That the army we built was all for nothing? That the squad whose loyalty we fought so hard for was all for nothing? That in the end, none of it mattered at all?

It's a poetic notion, but this isn't the place for poetry. It's one thing to rattle prose nihilistic over the course of a movie or ballad, where the audience is a passive observer, learning a lesson from the suffering and futility of a character, but that's not what Mass Effect is. Mass Effect has always been about making the player the true hero. If you really want us to all feel like we spent the past five years dumping time, energy, and emotional investment into this game just to tell us that nothing really matters, you have signed your own death certificate. Nobody pays hundreds of dollars and hours to be reminded how bleak, empty, and depressing the world can be, to be told that nothing we do matters, to be told that all of our greatest accomplishments, all of our faith, all of our work, all of our unity is for nothing.

No. It simply cannot be this bleak. I refuse to believe Bioware is really doing this. The ending of ME1 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won. The ending of ME2 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won.

Taken at face value, the end of ME3 throws every single thing we've done in the past five years into the wind, and makes the player watch from a distance as the entire galaxy is thrown into a technological dark age and a stellar extinction. Why would we care about a universe that no longer exists? We should we invest any more time or money into a world that will never be what we came to know and love?

Even if the ending is retconned, it doesn't make things better. Just knowing that the starchild was our real foe the entire time is so utterly mindless, contrived, and irrelevant to what we experienced in ME1 and ME2 that it cannot be forgiven. If that really is the truth, then Mass Effect simply isn't what we thought it was. And frankly, if this is what Mass Effect was supposed to be all along, I want no part of it. It's a useless, trite, overplayed cliche, so far beneath the praise I once gave this franchise that it hurts to think about.

No. There is no way to save this franchise without giving us the only explanation that makes sense. You know what it is. It was the plan all along. Too much evidence to not be true. Too many people reaching the same conclusions independently.

The indoctrination theory doesn't just save this franchise: it elevates it to one of the most powerful and compelling storytelling experiences I've ever had in my life. The fact that you managed to do more than indoctrinate Shepard - you managed to indoctrinate the players themselves - is astonishing. If that really was the end game, here, then you have won my gaming soul. But if that's true, then I'm still waiting for the rest of this story, the final chapter of Shepard's heroic journey. I paid to finish the fight, and if the indoctrination theory is true, it's not over yet.

And if it's not, then I just don't even care. I have been betrayed, and it's time for me to let go of the denial, the anger, the bargaining, and start working through the depression and emptiness until I can just move on. You can't keep teasing us like this. This must have seemed like a great plan at the time, but it has cost too much. These people believed in you. I believed in you.

Just make it right. 

^This is absolutely perfect.

I agree. You just summed up all my feelings about this. Please, please, PLEASE Bioware, make it right! Don't leave us in this horrible place of darkness and despair....*whispers* please... 

[Qel_]

Well I really love the Mass Effect universe, and most bioware games too, they always have a character or two that I grow to like or find funny in ways that happen rarely with other games. Kotor was/is a favourite but with Mass Effect they created an interesting, exciting and new universe to set adventures in with great characters. Where in Kotor or Dragon Age there were one or two I really loved as characters such as HK-47 or Canderous, Mass Effect had Tali, Garrus, Wrex all brilliant characters with their own stories, alien cultures, strengths and faults. Mass Effect 2 added more great characters, my favourites being Thane, EDI and Mordin.

I felt each game improved upon the previous edition, and Mass Effect 3 was continuing this trend until the final 10 minutes. Honestly the ending has just killed Mass Effect for me. Once I'd finished my playthrough I was planning on doing another one with femshep starting with ME1 and working through, but now I just don't have any desire to play ME again because frankly, what is the point?

Having heard so much over the course of the first two games hearing so much about the Krogan and genophage and the Quarian/Geth conflict I was really glad to see both resolved in this even if Mordin, one of my favourite characters, had to die as a result. The scenes with Tali on Rannoch are amongst my favourites of any Bioware game. 
But it all feels so pointless with the ending we got. Destroying the reapers wipes out the Geth, so what was the point in treating Legion like a living being, why did I bother to end the war between the Geth and Quarians and let them share Rannoch in peace. It also seems no matter what ending you pick the Mass Relays get destroyed so all of the fleets are stuck at earth where species who cannot eat earth food will die and the others are just stranded. More to the point, without Mass Relays just how are they going to make future games in the universe, the citadel and most of the important people in the galaxy are all dead or stuck at earth, the Mass Effect universe now has no future.

Lastly, the characters we loved or hated through 3 games and over several years are all dead or stuck on an unknown world where they will likely die. I wasn't expecting my Shepherd to survive, or even for all of my crew to survive, but I was at least expecting the galaxy to have a future, for some of the crew to be able to live out their lives. Instead we get an ending so bad the reapers may as well have just won and annihilated everything because whilst excluding the ending of ME3 these are 3 great games, having reached that ending I have no desire to play any of them again or any future ME content, if indeed they can come up with a credible continuation, which I seriously doubt. After such a great story and gaming experience, it just makes me sad really.

[Rubmifer]

eternalnightmare13 wrote...

Wikkr wrote...



this guy says it best. 134k views, 172 dislikes, 9.7k likes

That guy in the video is a ****.

Why is that? I've only seen two vids of him (this one and the ME3 review) and he seems to have valid points. Especialy the review about the ending was spot on. 

[Xannerz]

Archonsg wrote...

Is Bioware really listening? I mean, seriously if you think about it, this thread itself was a good way to defuse some of the tension, and also one can listen to dogs barking. Its just noise.

Listening and DOING something are two very different things.

Just like the ending. Which made the entire ME series a "The cake is a lie!" joke.

Bioware needs to come clean and just say if they messed up they messed up and either, "nope sorry, the ending stays." and we'll go away angry but with closure on this or "Sorry, ya, that ending...somehow we put blinders on and didn't see fundamental logic errors and we didn't make your choices count. We are now working on a fix."

In which case we are all still scarred but will heal in time.

This is what scares me, as well, but they said on FB that they're waiting for more people to beat the game to see. Still concerned, though.

[Riddic]

This is from another thread and should be acknowledged here. I am not the OP


Whether or not you enjoyed the conclusion to Mass Effect 3 (personally I feel
it tarnished an otherwise masterful series) please take a look at the
pre-release quotes below from websites and interviews with the game's
developers, writers and producers.

Does all that talk of meaningful player choice, multiple significantly
different endings and closure for the characters and series not seem,
at the very least, strange?

I believe Bioware can be legitimately accused of, at best, fudging the
truth if not outright deceit given the inconsistency between notions
of choice, closure etc. expressed before the game was released and
the ending as it currently stands.

In my opinion Bioware produced a badly written, ill-conceived shambles
of an ending riddled with plot holes and logical inconsistencies but
even if you loved the final moments of this great game do you really
think what was stated in the interviews below has been proved true?

Maybe Walters, Gamble, Hudson et al will be proved right when a decent
ending is released via (presumably free) DLC that explains the
original ending was just some sort of hallucination/indoctrination.
I'm not holding my breath waiting for that though.


Official Mass Effect Website
http://masseffect.com/about/story/

“Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any
other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience
and outcome.”

Interview with Mac Walters (Lead Writer)
http://popwatch.ew.c...-3-mac-walters/

“[The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in Mass
Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers.”

Interview with Mac Walters (Lead Writer)
http://business.fina...-all-audiences/

“I’m always leery of saying there are 'optimal' endings, because I think
one of the things we do try to do is make different endings that are
optimal for different people “

Interview with Mike Gamble (Associate Producer)
http://www.computera...missing-in-me2/

“And, to be honest, you [the fans] are crafting your Mass Effect story as
much as we are anyway.”

Interview with Mike Gamble (Associate Producer)
http://www.360magazi...ferent-endings/

“There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How
could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and
then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can’t
say any more than that…”

Interview with Mike Gamble (Associate Producer)
http://www.eurogamer...me-people-angry

“Every decision you've made will impact how things go. The player's also the
architect of what happens."

“You'll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless
of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide
some answers to these people.”

“Because a lot of these plot threads are concluding and because it's being
brought to a finale, since you were a part of architecting how they
got to how they were, you will definitely sense how they close was
because of the decisions you made and because of the decisions you
didn't make”

Interview with Casey Hudson (Director)
http://www.gameinfor...s-effect-3.aspx

“For people who are invested in these characters and the back-story of the
universe and everything, all of these things come to a resolution in
Mass Effect 3. And they are resolved in a way that's very different
based on what you would do in those situations.”

Interview with Casey Hudson (Director)
http://venturebeat.c...fans-interview/

“Fans want to make sure that they see things resolved, they want to get
some closure, a great ending. I think they’re going to get that.”

“Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the
lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers,
being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an
end.”

Interviewer: “So are you guys the creators or the stewards of the franchise?”
Hudson: “Um… You know, at this point, I think we’re co-creators with
the fans. We use a lot of feedback.”

Interview with Casey Hudson (Director)
http://www.gameinfor...PostPageIndex=2

Interviewer: [Regarding the numerous possible endings of Mass Effect 2] “Is that
same type of complexity built into the ending of Mass Effect 3?”
Hudson: “Yeah, and I’d say much more so, because we have the ability to
build the endings out in a way that we don’t have to worry about
eventually tying them back together somewhere. This story arc is
coming to an end with this game. That means the endings can be a lot
more different. At this point we’re taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.”

“We have a rule in our franchise that there is no canon. You as a player
decide what your story is.”

Deliver what you promise.

[B1PPER]

Have to echo virtually everthing Synthauti said Here and bwFex said Here.  If Bioware only reads two posts on this subject, those should be the two (even if they don't read mine).  

Loved everything up until the point where Shepherd gets fried in the reaper beam.  At that point I knew the story wasn't going to end well.  This was after I had already been responsible for the extinction of the Quarians by botching the order of their homeworld missions.  I found that sequence heart wrenching enough (especially didn't like losing Legion)... then I get to the end only to find I get to choose from three non-choices which were really just different shades of the same ending.

I think you can separate an audience of epic/dramatic storytelling into two basic camps.  On one hand you have those who "enjoy" a melancholy ending.  Protagonist dies saving everyone... or just plain everyone dies.  These are usually the same people who find the "happily ever after" endings annoying and unrealistic.  For them, the only way to properly end things is to kill everyone off (that kinda seems like the audience Bioware was playing to).  On the other side, you have people who enjoy the uplifting feeling that comes from a good old happy ending.  It's pretty hard to please both camps with a single ending but you would think multiple endings should fix this.

All that said, the ending was a serious WTF moment for me.  I fount the synthesis ending interesting... but not satisfying.  The other two seemed like they were rip-offs from the first Deus Ex.  Blow up everything and send civilization back to the stone age (but at least the protagonist lives), or merge man and machine and cut off all races from each other? I mean, it was almost like they should have included a fourth option where Shepherd just shoots himself in the head (after being given these 3 ridiculous choices) and lets the reaper cycle continue...  Then at least there could have been Mass Effect 4: A Better Ending.

I suppose DLC provides the potential opportunity to fix this... but that shouldn't be necessary.  Get it right the first time.  It's not like Bioware doesn't know how to write a story... they did a fabulous job right up until the last 5 minutes.  That really makes me wonder about their selection of story/play testers.  Did they use SO many geeks/nerds that they thought the synthesis ending would have a much wider appeal and the other endings would catch the remainer?  If so, the hopefully have learned that they need to poll a much wider audience as their games are appealing to a much wider audience.

Now, apart from the ending.  The running around collecting assets for seemingly no purpose was pretty annoying. Furthermore the Citadel missions were largely pretty lame.  The "I overheard that you needed this..." motif was dumb.  It was much better in ME1 or ME2 where people actively engaged you for help.  The weapon customization was a step up, but it still felt too dumbed down.

In closing, my wife is 10x more invested in this series than I am.  She's played through ME1 at least 3 to 6 times, ME2, at least 3 times and is playing through ME2 a fourth time just to make sure everything is "just right" for her entry into ME3.  I really am not looking forward to how she's going to feel about the ending... because I know she's going to hate it.  I REALLY hope a better optional ending comes about by DLC before she gets to the ending.

[Bladeofarfalla]

I just feel that after ten years of loving the product you produce, Mass Effect 3 was such a huge divergence. It was polished in some areas, but lacked in others. Combat was a very nice improvement, but the added "rpg" elements felt forced, and well lacking. Nothing as expansive and deep as ME1. The ambient conversations feel paltry, and a lot of squad mates and characters got the total shaft.

There's also a myriad of texture issues and glitching I encountered, more so than I ever experienced in ME2 and ME1 respectively. I wouldn't have expected the long awaited, final game to feel so incomplete in the graphics department. But my main qualms are with how the already existing lore is disregarded, and the swiss cheese inspire plot holes.

Maybe my kind is just a dying breed, and I understand change is inevitable but the reality for me is: I played Mass Effect 3, and it felt like a really good third person shooter.

Except I didn't buy my Xbox360 years ago for another third person shooter, I bought it because of Mass Effect specifically. My love of Baldurs, KOTOR, Jade Empire supported my decision to buy a very thought provoking Sci-Fi game written by my favorite developers. I even bought Dragon Age, and Dragon Age 2 (even though at first I rolled my eyes at the prospect of a spiritual successor to Baldurs) and I did not regret my decision.

To me, it just feels like bioware is tired of this IP and wants to move on. Even though its a giant money maker, I get the sense that you're tired of dealing with this caustic fan base. So you let Mass Effect 3 jump the shark to make us angry enough to prove our love of you? Lol, I'm grasping at straws there but, every time I think about the ending I think back to Mass Effect 2; Samara's loyalty mission specifically:
"At last, I am free. I am a ruined vessel of sorrow and regret, but I am free."

Respectfully, I wish everyone the best of luck and success on future endeavors and upcoming IP's. I personally do not like the direction in which the method of producing, and releasing games has headed so as an informed consumer I will no longer be investing in product that is incomplete.

Thanks for hearing us out, for what its worth.

[TheRealMithril]

I have created a skip-bwfex-macro Got to love macro keyboards.

[billida]

One thing that bothered me a lot (if we don't speak of the 10 seconds breath scene) is that whatever you have done, Shepard sacrifices himself, and by the way, commits suicide. I had 3 suicides around me these last months, and even if Shepard makes it to save everyone, I just can't take it, and can't find it "arty", or "poetic", or "metaphysical". And as I identidied myself a lot to MY Shepard these last 5 years, it doesn't fit at all to what he would have done. He would have told the child to go to hell himself.

[NotCras]

Riddic wrote...

This is from another thread and should be acknowledged here. I am not the OP


Whether or not you enjoyed the conclusion to Mass Effect 3 (personally I feel
it tarnished an otherwise masterful series) please take a look at the
pre-release quotes below from websites and interviews with the game's
developers, writers and producers.

Does all that talk of meaningful player choice, multiple significantly
different endings and closure for the characters and series not seem,
at the very least, strange?

I believe Bioware can be legitimately accused of, at best, fudging the
truth if not outright deceit given the inconsistency between notions
of choice, closure etc. expressed before the game was released and
the ending as it currently stands.

In my opinion Bioware produced a badly written, ill-conceived shambles
of an ending riddled with plot holes and logical inconsistencies but
even if you loved the final moments of this great game do you really
think what was stated in the interviews below has been proved true?

Maybe Walters, Gamble, Hudson et al will be proved right when a decent
ending is released via (presumably free) DLC that explains the
original ending was just some sort of hallucination/indoctrination.
I'm not holding my breath waiting for that though.


Official Mass Effect Website
http://masseffect.com/about/story/

“Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any
other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience
and outcome.”

Interview with Mac Walters (Lead Writer)
http://popwatch.ew.c...-3-mac-walters/

“[The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in Mass
Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers.”

Interview with Mac Walters (Lead Writer)
http://business.fina...-all-audiences/

“I’m always leery of saying there are 'optimal' endings, because I think
one of the things we do try to do is make different endings that are
optimal for different people “

Interview with Mike Gamble (Associate Producer)
http://www.computera...missing-in-me2/

“And, to be honest, you [the fans] are crafting your Mass Effect story as
much as we are anyway.”

Interview with Mike Gamble (Associate Producer)
http://www.360magazi...ferent-endings/

“There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How
could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and
then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can’t
say any more than that…”

Interview with Mike Gamble (Associate Producer)
http://www.eurogamer...me-people-angry

“Every decision you've made will impact how things go. The player's also the
architect of what happens."

“You'll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless
of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide
some answers to these people.”

“Because a lot of these plot threads are concluding and because it's being
brought to a finale, since you were a part of architecting how they
got to how they were, you will definitely sense how they close was
because of the decisions you made and because of the decisions you
didn't make”

Interview with Casey Hudson (Director)
http://www.gameinfor...s-effect-3.aspx

“For people who are invested in these characters and the back-story of the
universe and everything, all of these things come to a resolution in
Mass Effect 3. And they are resolved in a way that's very different
based on what you would do in those situations.”

Interview with Casey Hudson (Director)
http://venturebeat.c...fans-interview/

“Fans want to make sure that they see things resolved, they want to get
some closure, a great ending. I think they’re going to get that.”

“Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the
lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers,
being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an
end.”

Interviewer: “So are you guys the creators or the stewards of the franchise?”
Hudson: “Um… You know, at this point, I think we’re co-creators with
the fans. We use a lot of feedback.”

Interview with Casey Hudson (Director)
http://www.gameinfor...PostPageIndex=2

Interviewer: [Regarding the numerous possible endings of Mass Effect 2] “Is that
same type of complexity built into the ending of Mass Effect 3?”
Hudson: “Yeah, and I’d say much more so, because we have the ability to
build the endings out in a way that we don’t have to worry about
eventually tying them back together somewhere. This story arc is
coming to an end with this game. That means the endings can be a lot
more different. At this point we’re taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.”

“We have a rule in our franchise that there is no canon. You as a player
decide what your story is.”

Deliver what you promise.

Yeah they keep saying this, even some official game reviews say how the ending was amazing... maybe they got advanced copies with everything?? I really really think that Bioware is up to something, and I even feel they're going out of their way to make us know that without actually telling us outright.

[jsimonye]

 I have a lot of great moments in the Mass Effect universe, so many so I can't even begin to write them. But the 3rd game was so much more depressing. Whenever a good thing happen, it always seemed something bad happen to counter it. Weird thing about that, is that's how war should be. It was a struggle till the end (and lets not start on that). I loved the game very much though, the 2nd and 3rd game are my favorite. Thanks Bioware for giving us Commander Shepard. He makes Master Chief look like Mario.