I am pleased to read all the well-thought-out responses here to describe how folks felt about the ME3 ending. I can’t hope to be as eloquent as some of you.
The ending ruined the game for me too, for many of the reasons already cited. I don’t think this can be illustrated any clearer than my experience three nights ago. I loaded up a new game, wanting to see some scenes I’d apparently missed because my ME2 imported character didn’t allow these interactions. (I’d replayed games previously, with ME1 and ME2, several times – and enjoyed doing so.) I made it through the first cutscenes and began playing the first few combat sequences, then quit. It wasn’t fun any longer, and I asked myself, “Why bother? None of this effort matters.”
To illustrate how much this story meant to me before, is easy. On my previous (first and only) play-through, I goofed following the Reaper boss fight, and selected the wrong conversation choice with Legion. I ended up exterminating the Quarian fleet, and Tali, so distraught with the news and in an extremely poignant moment, removed her mask and jumped off a cliff! I was so upset with this that I had to go back to a previous save, way, way back, and play for over an hour to set things right!
I’ve read some comments comparing ME3 to good books, and I concur with this. What I’d like to say about this is the writer’s responsibility to fans. If there is only one book involved, then the writer can do pretty much what he darn well pleases. (I submit, however, that if he wants to write a commercially-successful book, it has to conform to certain rules, both literary and emotional.) All this changes when a series is written. No longer can the writer write exactly what he wants to – especially if his ideas are vastly different than his fans. Because, to write a series means, by its very definition, to give fans more of what they purchased and enjoyed previously. If the writer changes the rules, then he violates their trust, which can be likened to a breach of contract, albeit an unspoken one. Fans vote with their wallets, and if the writer wants continued success, he has to remember this.
I’ve dabbled a bit with Hollywood scripts, a few years ago. One of the things I learned while doing so, is that in fiction, you NEVER take excessive leaps in logic with plot ideas. These are too contrived, take the “easy way out” on a poorly-written story, and your audience will see right through them and be angry that you tried insulting their intelligence.
This is how I view ME3’s “Casper the unfriendly ghost” ending. I think the writers took on too much with this idea, trying to explain the mysteries of the cosmos, as well as the Reaper story, in one fell swoop. As far as the metaphysical part of this attempt goes, ME3’s ending strays too far from accepted thought on the Universe (across all the world’s religions), even for science fiction, and comes across as ridiculous. Secondly, and others have spent much more time on this than I will, the Reaper explanation offers only a brief, unsatisfactory, and confusing culmination of the ME story, with basically no difference in choice for Shepard. (The red pill, the blue pill, or the green one…?)
The “Catalyst” tells Shepard that the reason for the Reapers is to fix what’s broken with creation, and eliminate chaos. What?!!! Eliminate chaos with more chaos? That makes no sense! Intelligent life becomes more efficient and orderly as it progresses, not less so. Recycling DNA to make huge synthetic monsters that destroy life? Too much to swallow…
More likely, the Catalyst/Reaper ending attempts to “fix” the chaos of a poorly-executed fictional climax, with cutscenes that eliminate choice, and end the story as quickly as possible.
Movie producers test their films before release with select audiences, and I know some game publishers do this as well. Had BioWare done this on a limited scale with a few, trusted fans, they certainly could have saved themselves a whole boatload of grief, ended up with a better game, and probably sold a few hundred thousand more copies to boot.
IMO, I think ME3 began getting too long in development, and the EA accountants and associated “bean counters” took over and told the BioWare team to wrap things up quickly. If this is the case, and knowing how mega corporations work, I have little faith that I’ll ever see a happy resolution to this.
I think there are two types of folks who purchased ME3. There is the classic “gamer”, who has shelves and shelves lined with games, and hops from one to the other as they suit him. No deep involvement in any one title. This type of player is probably satisfied with the ending, been there, done that…and moves on to the next game. Then there is the “fan”, who owns fewer games, but delves more deeply into each one, and the elements of the story/mythology. He either inserts himself into the persona of one of the characters, or forms pseudo-relationships with others, or both. He is moved by elements of the story, that stir deep emotional feelings. I count myself with this second group, as I believe are most others who have posted in this thread.
For those of you who are happy the way ME3 ended, I envy you…
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ಠ_ಠ BULL Yes you can.. A part of me will always Love Mass Effect but the Ending makes me never want to touch the game again..
