I will keep my fingers crossed over this extended Cut DLC. I am amazed by how detail oriented some of my fellow fans are and how thoroughly they've analyzed every aspect of the Mass Effect universe. They know it better than the developers, which is probably why the ending really felt like a huge betrayal to these so called "passionate" fans. But I respect and I admire them. And I respect and admire and support their continued discontent that the ending won't be changed but simply "explained" or "clarified." Below is a link to a great article that explains why the ending is so dissatisfying to the most dedicated Mass Effect fans. It explains our feelings and thoughts better than I could:
http://kotaku.com/58...nvested-playersLet me just say that Mass Effect 3 is an excellent game. I loved it. Except for the ending. So, yes, it's understandable that most critics loved the game. Most are probably casual fans of the series, or they may not be fans at all, so they don't know the ins and outs of the universe as these dedicated fans do. So the ending was easier for them to stomach and get over. But not for those who knew this universe like the back of their hands. The ending didn't make sense to them, and because of that, the game, though, excellent, just isn't right. As for me, I consider myself a passionate fan, but probably not to the same devoted extent as some of the posters here who have impressively analyzed every detail and science of the game. So, from a personal stanpoint, I would be happy with this extended cut dlc even if it didn't change the ending as long as a couple of things are met:
1) Not every decision Shepard made was trivialized, reversed, or rendered irrelevant: for example, what good is giving the quarians back their home world if their fleet is stuck in the Sol System because the Mass Relays are destroyed? What good is brokering peace between the Geth and Quarians if all the Geth are killed by my destroy option? I understand I don't have to choose destroy, I could choose control or synthesize, but then the whole peace thing wouldn't matter on any of those choices if I either control synthetitics or make everyone some kind of organic-synthetic hybrid. What good is curing the genophage when most male Krogans are fighting wars in different systems and their females are in Tuchanka? They still can't mate. So, in the end, nothing Shepard did, no decisions he made, no victories he accomplished, mattered because the Mass Relays are destroyed. And that is the major issue I have of this ending. Most of the plotholes I can live with or ignore or rationalize. I'm fine with that. But the reason I currently don't have the heart to replay this game or even ME1 and ME2 is because I now know none of what I accomplished would matter much in the end. If Bioware can extend their ending with a cutscene giving us some kind of hope...like, oh, the mass relays aren't really ALL destroyed or there are some other means of transportation we didn't know about, I might be OK with the addended ending.
2) The Normandy crash landing on some random planet is explained. This scene to me really came out of nowhere. I still don't even know how to ignore or rationalize this one. And it bothers me. Never mind that it bothers me that Javik pops out of the Normandy for me in the end along with Shepard's LI. I mean, this was a character I got in a DLC who wasn't with Shepard since the beginning. And I got the DLC because I bought the Collector's Edition. I really did not care for this character much and barely used him in my game, and he pops out in the end. Not Garrus. Not Liara. Not Tali. Those peeps were Shepard's true friends. I'm supposed to be reassured this dude survived? I don't understand. And he's the guy who wants to go back to where his fellow Protheans were buried and end his life. Now he can't even get that because he's stuck on some random planet. I guess this is my other big issue with the current ending: there is no closure provided because each of the character's wishes can't even be fulfilled any more. I understand if Shepard had to die, but again, his sacrifice seems so trivial when all the people he cared about can't get happiness or closure. They should, through his death or sacrifice, at least get some happines or reassurance from it. Otherwise what good is Shepard dying for his friends and the galaxy accomplishing? Nothing. You want to get back to your home world Tali? Nope. I don't even know where you are at the end of the game. On earth, dead, also in the jungle planet? You want to help refugees from Thessia, Liara? Don't know where you are either. Garrus, did you forget to die, are you waiting for Shepard in that bar in heaven, did you get back to Palaven, maybe? Nope, don't know. Maybe you're still trying to calibrate stuff in the broken crashlanded Normandy and didn't come out yet by the time the credits started rolling? Don't know. Sorry, Wrex, either you're dead or stuck on earth and your baby Krogan will be named Mordin whether you like it or not. Ashley, your sister Sarah is probably dead in the Citadel and your whole family is God knows where, and you won't know, because you're stuck in a jungle planet now. And it's all coz your boyfriend decided to blow up the Reapers. But hey, at least he didn't try to turn you into an organic-synthetic hybrid. Hey, Vega, you can never be N7 now. You're in a jungle planet. Or maybe you're dead. Who knows. Only Joker can be happy with EDI if we chose synthesize. But then he's still kinda limpy even as an organic-synthetic hybrid. What's up with that? It's not enough that Shepard died and none of his choices or accomplishments mattered. Now all his friends have to be unhappy with unfulfilled wishes. And it doesn't matter whether you chose control, synthesize, or destroy. Your friends will never be happy or get any bittersweet closure from your death. They might not even know you're dead, coz they're busy running away abandoning you. So yeah, those jerks maybe deserved to be unhappy. Please, Bioware, explain this Normandy blasting away from the action then getting stranded on a jungle planet thing.
3) If my Shepard survived (mine did), explain how he survived and for God's sake, just give the man or woman a happy ending of some kind. Make him or her reunite with his or her LI somehow. And if you are adamant that they have to die, and that breath was their last breath, just have the LI present somehow to give them their final poignant farewell. Bury the charred body. Or char it some more by burning it a la Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi. Something.
4) Voluses dancing in celebration -- okay, to quote EDI: "That was a joke." But it would be a plus to see that.
If those things are addressed appropriately, I think I can finally replay this game again and enjoy the ride, as I did prior to experiencing the soul-shattering ending. I have no problems with Shepard dying. I hope I am not out of place for saying that I think a majority of the fans also don't have a problem with Shepard dying or sacrificing himself. Yes, it was rather a poor way of getting Shepard to die in that it felt forced because all the choices presented to him will lead to his demise, and yes, the whole god-child, star-child, whatever that little ghost-runt thing is called, came out of nowhere and we were forced to accept its weird, messed up logic, but we could overlook all that if what we did, if the choices we made in the three games, MATTERED. But they didn't because of what I explained above. And that is what killed this game for me.
And it's too bad, because really, Bioware did not need to do that kind of ending. The game was amazing and incredible until the end. An average, cookie-cutter ending, happy or sad, would have sufficed. Instead, for reasons I cannot comprehend, Bioware tried to suddenly be "artsy" with the end to make the game memorable. But it would have been memorable despite a straightforward, predictable ending. And now, it's memorable for all the wrong reasons--for a highly controversial, highly debated, highly polarizing ending. Which is unfortunate, because it really should have been memorable as a game that invoked player emotion, that got players highly invested in their Shepards, that successfully balanced--I think--the action-RPG components to the game. Now it's just this game with this ending that people think are either terrible or a highly misunderstood work of art.
I am a supporter of art. I even kept an open-mind about that guy who splattered poop on a canvas and called it art and displayed it in a museum. Fine. I support Bioware's art. I want them to maintain their artistic integrity. An art should invoke emotion. It can inspire, it can sadden, it can shock people. Perhaps I had misinterpreted their art all this time. I had thought the artistic message was to inspire, to invoke hope (didnt' Shepard keep talking about hope in ME3? He even told the ghost-runt thing "Without hope, what else is there? I thought that was the whole theme). The past 2 games and most of ME 3 were all about hope and inspiring hope in the midst of all the sadness. And Bioware colored it with choice. That as long as you can choose, you can hope, and yes, there's sadness, but you choose your destiny and if you make the right choices, there is hope for victory, for success, for beating the impossible. And then, in the end, all of a sudden, there was no choice and, as described above when all of Shepard's accomplishments were rendered irrelevant and his friends all unhappy, there was no hope. Just massive chaos. So...did I just misinterpret Bioware's art? Or did they betray their own "artistic integrity" that they now keep talking about as their defense for their ending? People have brought up Red Dead Redemption as another ending that was sad and polarizing. But the whole game was presented as a bleak Western, as Marston unable to escape his fate. You knew his happiness would be fleeting because the entire game the world was against him. He kept trying to redeem himself but his past would always come back to haunt him, as it did many times in that game. And no choice was involved in that game. You didn't create Marston. Rockstar did. And they presented him as a character who cannot escape his past. Who could never be happy. So the ending was no shocker. It was consistent with the "art" being conveyed through the whole game. Not so with Mass Effect, which presented itself as a Star Wars, Star Trek like epic genre that had choice and hope for salvation as its theme. So I don't think Bioware should be worried about keeping the "artistic integrity" of the game--as far as I'm concerned, an extended ending with closure and hope would be going along with the artistic integrity of the series. It was the ending that was out of place. It's still art, but to make the game memorable, the end was made to be shocking instead of a straightforward, but expertly presented inspiring one. I expected a conventional, but beautifully rendered artwork, like Mona Lisa, with that sad expression mixed with a mysterious--perhaps hopeful--smile. But then Bioware shocked us by splattering poop all over its canvas. Yes, it's still art...but now it's harder for most people to swallow because it was a Mona Lisa once...and now there's poop on it.
So, please, Bioware, I still support you, and I am still trying to come to grips with your art...but please, I implore you, do a good job explaining the poop on the canvas, since you chose to explain it and keep it as it is instead of just cleaning it all up and finishing up your Mona Lisa as it should have been...pristine, memorable, invoking sadness while inspiring hope. It can still do all that even with poopage, if you can explain why that was necessary to complete your art. I'm really rooting for you and hoping that you can do that.
P.S: I have no idea if this has already been broug ht up before in other message boards or in the internet, but when the Normandy is escaping earth in the intro, right before the giant Mass Effect 3 sign comes up, there's a burning wreckage of a dreadnought in the left lower corner of the screen. And I could swear that etched on that burning piece of that dreadnought is "EA." Subliminal message? Hidden opinion about EA? Am I imagining things? Do any of you see this too?
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