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[Spartanburger]

Aside from the endings, literally the entire game is pure gold.

Part of me thinks this could be part of the backlash. I could see endings like this on a multitude of smaller games, movies, books, or what have you without much of a backlash at all.

But the Mass Effect games have continued to blow the previous games out of the water. ME1 was a fantastic first game in a trilogy. It still is.
Mass Effect 2 improved upon nearly everything ME1 had to offer.
Mass Effect 3 once again repeats this with the best gameplay, the best character writing, the best... everything... until the ending.

If the ending is sub-par, lets say bronze level, while the rest of the game is absolute gold (which in my opinion it is), then the sudden change in quality level is so sudden and out of nowhere, that it feels like a direct betrayal.
And in a way it was. I do not like the endings. But the rest of the game? Pure. Awesome.

[log1x_dr4g0n]

The whole game was my favorite...up until the ending...

[Darkwingduck]

PDesign wrote...

Chris Priestly wrote...

What was your favorite moment?

youtube.com/watch

I KNEW IT.

[Capeo]

Best moments? Shooting bottles with Garrus and talking to him before the last fight. Liara's gift and her whole romance were fantastic.

Then the end comes and all that is washed away. Five minutes and suddenly nothing makes sense, people are all over the universe, and we are left with no clue as to what has happened to all the characters we've spent the last five years with.

[piehl]

Not to be rude I know you worked hard but I don't want a healthy discussion. There are several lists concerning this topic. We want action not words.

[Synthauti]

 Well, the opportunity to provide feedback is here. A lot of my feedback is probably going to overlap with what other people have said, but I'm going to try to articulate my opinion to the best of my abilities anyway.

To be absolutely clear, virtually everything leading up to the end was spectacularly executed and consistent with what I have come to expect from a Mass Effect title. There were a few technical issues here and there, mostly related to animation during dialogue sequences, which involved Shepard either looking at the floor while he spoke or off to the side of the character as though he was suddenly very shy. The rock that he handed to Tali in one scene didn't render, so he bent down, picked up nothing, handed that nothing over to Tali, and was subsequently thanked for that very special nothing. One of Hackett's lines cuts out halfway through the last word. These are all little things that I can gladly ignore for the sake of enjoying the story, but it's all still noticable and gives the sense that everything was rushed through QA. That near-constant sense of the product being rushed compounds the issues that I have with the bigger problem: the ending.

Before getting to the ending itself, I feel it's important to include some context on what I feel that I had been led to expect. The first thing that helped set my expectations was the Suicide Mission from Mass Effect 2. It set the bar exceptionally high, and provided one of the single-most memorable experiences I have ever encountered in gaming. Everything you had done throughout the game mattered. The loyalty missions mattered. The ship upgrades mattered. Your ability to assess your team's skills and personality mattered. If you screwed something up, there was a very good chance that there would be a consequence for it, and that was reflected quite clearly in the ending cutscene.

Many months later, we began to hear details of Mass Effect 3. The Galaxy at War system. The number of variables taken into account. How you couldn't possibly label the endings "A, B or C" because so many things could be different. On top of that, Mass Effect 3 would also be a terrific entry point into this franchise based around choices and consequence. Everything sounded downright glorious, even though I kind've figured that the last claim was a bit silly (akin to reading Return of the King without reading The Fellowship of the Ring or The Two Towers).

It was because of that last claim (in combination with the other claims; no media coverage exists in a vacuum) that I got a bit presumptuous. Mass Effect was a series about choice and long-term consequence. Players entering the series with Mass Effect 3 have made zero choices. Sure, they get the chance to tweak a few things here and there in a menu, but what exactly does "numerous" mean to a player who has never met any of the characters that he would be condemning by selecting that option? Surely, thought I, the choices you make throughout Mass Effect 3 will impact the ending of the game itself in order to give new players a sense of what long-time fans had been experiencing over the course of two games. Surely, thought I, everything you chose would contribute to the end of the game itself in a meaningful way.

And then those choices didn't.

I'll start with the least significant variables: the war assets that you found while scanning the galaxy. After the Suicide Mission, I figured that these would probably be as significant as the Normandy upgrades in ME2. Did I expect a unique cutscene for every Volus bomber wing or Asari cruiser I found? Well... I had hoped for them, sure, but I didn't expect that. Maybe some radio chatter talking about the state-of-the-art Volus dreadnaught kicking ass and taking names. Maybe hearing something about how the Hanar and Drell fleet I had acquired had helped screen the Destiny Ascension from taking heavier fire. Maybe hear a bit of Elcor comm chatter as they helped protect a convoy of tanks off in the distance during one of the Hammer sequences. Maybe the Javelin missiles installed on the Crucible would prevent a few frigates from sacrificing themselves to keep it safe. Failing all of that, I would have settled for somebody going "I'm sure glad we had all these little assets handy; we'd be in far worse shape without them." Instead, no matter who or what we have, everything seems to go *just* wrong enough to make the Hammer sequence seem equally grim no matter the circumstance. I'm not saying it should have become a breeze, but some kind of acknowledgement would have been nice. If memory serves, the Hanar fleet doesn't even get a "reporting in" line from Joker.

Next, there were the less-significant variables: the war assets you find through actual side-missions. Aralakh team. The rachni. The mercenary fleet and their ground forces. Major Kirrahe. Most of your surviving squad mates from ME2. These were the assets that I had expected to make more of a visible impact, but didn't. Sure, you could talk to most of Shepard's ME2 squadmates, and they all had perfectly reasonable excuses to be elsewhere. But where did my platoon of Geth Primes go? Did they just decide to kick it back on Rannoch for some Quarian's Bar Mitzvah? Did they even make it to Earth? I didn't see any Geth dropships mixed in with the Kodiaks dropping out of the sky. And granted, the Rachni were mostly kept to the Crucible, but after fighting a bunch of Brood Warriors back in ME1, I was kind've expecting to see a couple crop up again. Maybe have them pop up and help do some damage against those Brutes and Banshees around the Thanix missiles (which in and of themselves don't make all that much sense to me. Thanix weaponry accellerates liquid metal to some percentage of light speed in a straight line. What does a Thanix warhead even do? And why didn't any of the ships in Sword use that sort of weapon? I didn't expect all the ships to be retrofitted, but surely there was one Turian ship that had it equipped by that point.)

But let's ignore those two categories of variables. It's a lot to animate and to even take into account, and they aren't as significant as the major decisions Shepard has made throughout the game. To be fair, these major decisions are largely represented well in the cutscenes, though the lack of Geth dreadnaughts is a very conspicuous absence when you saved the Quarians and Geth from each other, and a quick cut to a Geth sitting down at a control panel that is identical to the inside of the hovercraft that Legion piloted earlier isn't all that impressive. Still, it's a fairly respectable level of detail to include, and the space battle itself is a phenominal spectacle in spite of its inconsistencies.

London itself is a very well-designed level. It wasn't as involved as the Suicide Mission, sure, but I enjoyed it either way. The tension was always there, and getting to each objective was not only tense and harrowing, it was also fun (even though some of those objectives themselves didn't make much sense to me, such as the aforementioned Thanix missiles.) The rush to the Citadel Beam was another incredible moment. You had made Shepard seem invincible to the artillery strikes that had rained down on him when storming a Cerberus position on Tuchanka, so suddenly getting hit by Harbinger's attack before waking up, seeing Vega bleeding out and presuming Javik to be dead was a very harsh moment. I honestly didn't know if Shepard would make it to the beam or not the first time.

But he does, and we make it to the Citadel. I immediately remember all the side-missions I had done to improve the Citadel's defence rating, and decide that the effort there had panned out just spectacularly if the surroundings were any indication. Whatever, it's not like I should expect everything to go according to plan, and it all helps underscore how powerful the Reapers are. (Sidenote: why not have a multiplayer coop survival mode where your characters are holed up in a building on the Citadel after the Reapers arrive and the extraction shuttle never comes?) So I make it over to Anderson's position and the confrontation with The Illusive Man occurs. I enjoy everything about it, the acting is top-notch, and the option to make him shoot himself creates a very nice sense of symmetry between him and another Turian idealist. I think you might've copied the "put gun against head" animation, but it's a satisfying conclusion to a tense moment, so I don't care.

The following moment between Shepard and Anderson is the sixth time that a video game has ever stirred that much emotion from me. The first two moments were from Bastion. The third, fourth and fifth were from Mordin's, Thane's and Grunt's respective final appearances (even though Grunt wound up surviving his, which made the moment shockingly triumphant rather than sad). It is because of this moment that I am staunchly against the vast majority of indoctrination theories that fans are putting forth. To retcon that moment into a hallucination would cheapen it immensely. It'd be like Thane getting up out of his hospital bed and going "gotcha!"

What comes after this point is where the biggest problems start cropping up.

As that platform started lifting Shepard into the ceiling, I immediately thought of Harbinger. He'd had a ten second cameo earlier, but he hadn't said a single word through the entire game. He had been built up for two games as the big bad, the oldest, largest and most powerful Reaper that we know of. Heck, he has a title. All Reapers had names so far as I could tell, but only Harbinger and Sovereign had titles. Surely we would confront him soon, preferably in some way that would leave him helpless to do anything but watch as Shepard activates the Crucible.

Then I saw the child. How Harbinger had read into Shepard's dreams, I didn't know. Maybe the destroyer-class Reaper that destroyed the shuttle that the kid was on had recorded it and sent the image of Shepard's dismay to Harbinger or to Reapers' Funniest Home Videos. But no, it wasn't Harbinger. It wasn't even a Reaper. It was just a random AI that we had never heard about who happened to control everything that the Reapers did. I'm not a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, but I liked The Sixth Sense, so maybe this twist would be one of the rare sorts that I enjoy.

It wasn't.

Ignoring the fact that I had expected something to come from all the Dark Energy foreshadowing in ME2 and assorted Cerberus Daily News posts, I figured that whatever it was, it wouldn't be "synthetics will always kill off their creators." That'd be silly and cliche.

But it was exactly that.

Fine, I can deal with that. Shepard has united the Geth and the Quarians, and learned that the only reason the Geth rebelled was to survive on their own. The only reason they killed any organic that had previously come into contact with them was because in every instance, they attacked the Geth. Legion was the Geth's active attempt at peacefully contacting an organic lifeform, and depending on Shepard's actions, it was clear that to me that they didn't want that sort of hostility by that point in the story. Furthermore, EDI had been unsheckled back in ME2, but she used her newfound power and freedom to save the life of Joker and to kill off as many Collectors as she could. In fact, the only AI throughout the entire series who actively engaged in hostilities with organics were the Heretic Geth (who only started their attacks at a Reaper's instruction) and a money-siphoning AI who knew that it would be killed if it were discovered. The Krogan and Rachni (and eventually the Yahg if they gain mass effect technology) were a bigger threat to the galaxy, but all the synthetics we run into seem to have motivations that would be suited to co-existence if they were given the option.

All of that is ignored. The Catalyst AI has watched the Terminator movies and feels he is an expert, and Shepard doesn't bother arguing.

So we have three options ahead of us. Let's explore the principles of each ending before discussing their outcomes.

First, we have Control. The Catalyst convinces Shepard that it's right about the nature of synthetics and organics, so Shepard takes command of them and decides to observe for a while, leaving him with the option of resuming the cycle if he realizes that he's wrong. Javik will be pissed, but oh well. I'm alright with the ideas behind this ending, as some people might agree with the Catalyst's views (even though I'm not one of them).

Then, we have Destroy. The Catalyst fails to convince Shepard that it's right. Or maybe Shepard is convinced, but wants to destroy them out of spite and besides, all the synthetics will be killed anyway, so they won't need the Reapers' "protection" anymore provided that they crack down really hard on AI research. If you saved the Geth you get the added bonus of knowing that they will all have died within days of finally gaining individual personalities even though they did nothing wrong. "Oh look, you're all sapient now. Congratulations! Die." To me, this is another passable ending philosophy, albeit a frustrating one.

Finally, we have Synthesis. Where, oh where, to begin with Synthesis.

So let me get this straight. Organics and synthetics will never get along. Going from what we've seen so far, you're wrong, kid, but I follow. You want to prevent one group from eradicating the other to prevent "chaos," presumably because it annoys you and you're a control freak. So one of your solutions to this chaos problem is to combine both sides into a single type of lifeform. Why? Will it brainwash everybody into tolerating one another and shatter a key point of their free will, or do you assume that all hybrids will like all other hybrids in the same way that all white people like all other white people? Because that last bit is also very wrong. If it doesn't brainwash them, what's going to keep the Heretic Geth (or some other faction) from trying to wipe everybody else out? The regular Geth were already fundamentally similar to the Heretics, but they were about to try eradicating them anyway. So basically, no potential genocides are averted, they just lose the distinction of "organic victory" or "synthetic victory" to "hybrid victory." If that's acceptable, then why did those distinctions even matter in the first place? Synthetic life killing organic life has now become "life killing some other life," which would have been an equally valid assessment to make if synthetics had actually killed off organics.

Secondly, how exactly does this all work? What does the AI know about genetic code? It probably refers to the information collected by the Reapers. What do the Reapers know about the genetic codes of the current cycle? Well, for a long time, they gathered their information through the Collectors. The Collectors themselves did not encounter every form of life present in the current cycle. They had no apparent interest in house cats or beluga whales, and they were (probably) destroyed before they had a chance to encounter the Raloi. So they don't know anything about those species. And even when they did know about a species, they didn't always get everything right. Y'know. Unless that gigantic pile of fused-together bodies we stumble across on the Collector Cruiser in ME2 was an intentional side effect of one of their experiments. Basically, the Catalyst wants to rewrite the DNA of everybody in the galaxy and it doesn't know what the heck it's doing with 99% of the organisms out there.

TERRIBLE. IDEA. SHEPARD, PLEASE STOP THIS CRAZY AI. NO, DON'T TAKE THAT PATH. YOU ARE ABOUT TO GIVE EVERYBODY HIDEOUS DEFECTS AND DEFORMITIES HITHERTO UNKNOWN TO SCIENCE.

Fortunately, this doesn't happen because the AI is infallible and can harness the power of magic to make everybody have a circuitboard overlay on their skin. Kind've makes me wonder why the Collectors bothered experimenting when their boss knew everytheing there is to know about biology already. I know that Mass Effect was never the hardest science-fiction setting out there, but at least there had always been a consistent effort to make everything believable. Javik's ability to read rooms and minds pushed my ability to suspend my disbelief, but Synthesis flat-out broke it.

Don't get me wrong. It's the sort of ending that I'd want to like. I'm one of those crazy transhumanist advocates, I like the idea of cyborgs, the Deus Ex series, cyberpunk stuff and all that. And as a bonus, nobody suffers an inconsiderate genocide. But none of it makes sense. None of the technology used matches what we have seen the Reapers utilize. The conversion process from a regular organism into a husk is achieved through the crude application of nano-machines, but suddenly we find out that they always had the technology to convert them into anything they wanted with almost no effort? They never thought to adopt this sort of technology before? And why does Shepard even need to sacrifice himself for this? Why not say "hold on, there's a husk downstairs in the corridor. It is also a cyborg, I'll toss it into the beam instead. Actually, why don't you do that? You can make them do whatever you want, right?" I like the idea of Shepard sacrificing himself, but sacrifice for no real reason is more than a little silly.

Let's bring the scope of this examination back out to the endings in general now. First, there's the problems I have with all the endings being based around the same cutscenes with a different colour filter on them. I know you've been hearing about that, I've seen the flak that the @masseffect twitter account has been getting,  so I'll spare you the paragraph I would have written otherwise.

There's also the plot hole of Joker picking up your squad mates (including the dead ones, depending on who you ask) getting from the Earth to the Charon relay, which only leads to Arcturus so far as I can tell, which is a system that has no planets, which means that he then had time to plot another relay jump before Shepard made his decision. And then they crash land and Garrus and Tali starve to death on a planet that doesn't have dextro-amino food sources. Or maybe they shoot themselves before they start to wither. Or maybe the Stargazer wasn't an aged Joker, and there actually isn't any levo-amino based food, in which case everybody else onboard starves and leaves them alone for the rest of their lives, and whoever lives the longest gets to die unmourned and unloved a trillion miles from home.

Great.

To be honest, I'm not disappointed by the lack of a happy ending. I just don't like how everything about the ending seems artificially directed to give us a "bittersweet" impression that doesn't really come across all that well. It's clunky, and the holes make it a lot worse.

So what would I do? Well, it's presumptuous to assume that you'd care. Everybody's got one of these opinions, and mine won't be as popular, so I'll keep it brief.

Assuming I couldn't restructure the whole ending to be more like the Suicide Mission (and I'm reasonably convinced that you folks aren't going to have the resources to do that) I'd replace the Synthesis ending with an ending where Shepard pretends to go along with the idea of controlling the Reapers, then has them all kill one another or fly into a nearby star. His consciousness is preserved as a lone AI in control of the Citadel that can never experience life with his friends as he once would have. He'd be present, able to talk to people, but unable to hold his love interest again or even simply adventure forth in a body that could feel or taste anything. His sacrifice is meaningful, he doesn't technically die, he saves everybody including synthetics, but it's still sad in its own way. Seems like a fair compromise.

The Normandy would still be somewhere around Earth. Joker doesn't turn into a coward, and Shepard's squad mates don't immediately abandon him (or spontaneously come back to life).

If the Relays being destroyed must happen, we'd get a scene where the engineers from the Crucible wordlessly open a data file recieved via a QEC. The contents of the file contain an image of a Mass Relay, and the word "Conduit" appears over top (because somebody somewhere must have tried to reverse engineer the thing after realizing that it was a real relay). The engineers have just created the most ambitious piece of technology in the galaxy; surely they must feel that they can take a crack at building a new relay network, and they can direct the survivors of other systems with QECs to help speed the process along.

And of course, an epilogue would help. Are the Krogan forces ransacking the place, or are they helping salvage Turian wreckage? Will the Migrant Fleet repurpose one of their liveships to help grow levo-amino food while Earth recovers? Are the Rachni helping make repairs, or is Aralakh team getting Grunt drunk on what ryncol they brought with them? Will we see Han'Gerrel shaking hands with a Geth platform with Zaal'Koris laughing at the sight, or will those two be arguing with one another over something else? I'm beyond convinced that little wordless snippets like these that can change depending on the actions you take would have resulted in dramatically improved fan reactions, especially after what was promised and expected. Dialogue would be nice, too, but the images would be better than nothing.

And that's about it. Hopefully you guys are still reading these posts by the time I finish writing (EDIT: and editing) this. Maybe everything I just said was completely asinine, or perhaps I'm just crazy and expected more than I should have. Still, you asked for feedback, and considering the ~700 hours of enjoyment I've gotten out of this series, posting feedback is the least I could do.

Also, multiplayer is awesome. Kudos to the Montreal team.

EDIT: I'm starting to realize how dependant I am on spellcheck, but Chrome's default one doesn't seem to work here. Apologies for the typos and misspellings that I missed.

Addendum: As an alternative to those changes to the ending, I'd also prefer the final choice and the conversation we had with the Catalyst to get cut. The Crucible just "works," and the Reapers remain enigmatic as they all die. It's not the best option and the Galaxy at War mechanic becomes marginally less useful (though it's not a big loss seeing as it's all pretty much just flavor text) but at least the story ends on a note that actually has some weight to it and isn't riddled with plot and logic holes... assuming that Joker et. al. aren't suddenly travelling along the relay network again.

Modifié par Synthauti, 16 mars 2012 - 03:51 .

[petipas4141]

Favorite moment? Easy. The button on Sur'Kesh (I guess I'm easily entertained)

Onto my thoughts about the ending:

I hope to god the indoc theory is true. That's the only way I'll be able to pull myself together and 'finish' the game. I dropped a ton of cash for N7 ed and the collectors guide, the quality of the series thusfar gave me the confidence to say to myself "yes this is a good purchase".

Now, that stuff is sitting on my shelf collecting dust. I'll play multi player, but like I said- I can't play single player. To see the relays destroyed no matter what leaves the galaxy in a state of disrepair. We should have just let the next cycle have a shot at it if this was the case.

That, and I know people didn't expect a super happy ending, but damn man, I would have at least liked to see my Shepard settle down with his LI. He's given up so much for the galaxy, it would be nice see him keep his life and love.

[TMA LIVE]

I'm actually one of the few who actually liked the endings. They're kind of out there, and it feels like a throwback to 2001. I thought it brought a new mystery to the series, and one that'll never be answered. Like who made the Catalyst? Why and how did it comes to the conclusions it made? How did it originally make the Reapers? Is it insane, or simply taking data from billions of examples over the years? How long has it been Reaping? Did the Catalyst create the instructions for the Crucible, and gave it to organics to give them a chance to break the cycle if they proved their worth? Was the plans simply made my the original designers of the Catalyst and Reapers as a backup plan? Was it in control since ME1, or only activated after the Crucible became attached (I hope it's the latter, since ME1 depended on a Reaper or Saren to control the Citadel)? Did it warp Shepard's mind, and created abstract choices? Was Shepard being indoctrinated?

Some of those questions I like not having an answer (while some do for plot reasons). Stuff like "Why didn't the Reapers capture the Citadel earlier, since it locks Relays?" is another I'd like a real answer on.

But the parts of it I don't like is what's not explained or shown that should have been explained and shown. Like did we really kill the Geth and EDI? I don't know. It's not shown. And from what I've heard, EDI can show up anyways at the end, despite that she should be dead. Hell, Shepard should have died too since he's a cyborg, but apparently we got an easter egg that says otherwise.

Did I just blow up the entire galaxy? Because when those Relay's blew up, the first thing I thought of was Arrival, and questioning if I nuked the entire Milky Way. There's nothing to tell me otherwise, to make me not think this. Like maybe the other planets getting hit by the blast, and showing to me that they're all ok, and didn't blow up.

Or depending on the ending, show other races as cyborgs. Show other planets where the Reapers have stopped their attack. Just show us something that shows what happened with the rest of the galaxy.

Then there's Joker. Why is he away from the battle? Was he just running away from the blast out of fear of what it was? Was he already abandoning the fight before the blast? Did he go through a Relay, or was flying FTL? How did he pickup the crew? Something like this should have been shown.

Then we got the choice scene. What exactly is that place? Is it in Shepard's head? Because it seems very abstract.

Because if it wasn't, my problem is how those final choices are made.

Like seriously, in order to merge organics, some cyborg must jump into a beam in order to do it?

In order to destroy the Reapers, some guy must shoot a piece of glass, and survive an explosion?

In order to control the Reapers, some dude must electrocute himself while holding handles, until he dies, and somehow this uploads his commands to the Reapers?

And oh yeah, we split there things apart, instead of putting all these things on control panel, so you won't accidentally make the wrong choice. As well as not making a simple off switch for the Reapers. Yep, you can control them or destroy them, but turning them off? Ain't possible.

Like who the hell built this? Jigsaw? Because whoever did was clearly insane, and wanted to find sadistic ways to kill someone, just to make anything happen. Like what's the method of leaving the room? Do a space jump?

Like did the AI arrange the entire room to be that abstract? Or was it in his head? And if it was, did it actually happen?

Because I wouldn't mind if the AI was in your head, and you made the choice in a 2001 sense, where you were making an abstract choice in your mind, and the AI made it happen for real, in the real world. That would make sense to me, and be kind of cool.

But then we got this indoctrination theory, with everything being a dream as the ending, as in Merge, Control, and Destruction never happened, and Shepard just wakes up with the Reapers still attacking. And if that's what happened, then I think that's a stupid way to end a series. Which is why I hope that theory is wrong.

I don't like the idea that those endings never happened. I don't like the idea of only one of them is the "real" ending, and the others are just Reaper tricks. It destroys my choices as a player, where I'm told "Hehe, you stupid for making that choice. That was just a Reaper trick! You clearly should have picked the destroy choice".

And as much as I don't like the easter egg of Shepard being alive, the fact of the matter is, if they did that, then I want some closure between him and his friends. Not a tease. It just feels like a big letdown not seeing them all together again. Or worse, if he's forever separated from his team, or LI. It's something that again needs closure.

And last but not least, what's going to happen to those flees that are stuck on Earth? Are they going to starve? Did the war assets assured some of their survival? What exactly was left standing?

And that's all I can think of. I just think more should have been shown or explained. I like the choices and concept. Just not how so much isn't shown or explained. Or both.

As for the Merge ending, I have zero problem with how impossible it sounds. I shrug it as Sci-fi. The way I see it, since Reapers are so ahead of us, and because we had no idea of what the Crucible would actually do, it's so advanced, it's beyond us. Like Clarke's third law: A sufficiently advanced technology is always going to look like magic. Besides, Evolution already added to the lore of beams of energy that turn organics into Cyborgs.

And that's it.

[highcastle]

I personally enjoyed the endings. I'm also an English Lit major who's used to putting a lot of thought and analysis into everything I read, watch, play, etc. I love some of the theories coming out about the endings and I really hope they're correct. The game was wonderfully written up to that point, so I'm finding it hard to believe the surface level of the ending is really the only true interpretation.

Leaving the endings aside for a moment, I really did love this game. Mordin's death on Tuchanka got me a little misty eyed, as did Legion's when Shepard was forced to choose between the quarians and the geth (not enough peace points my first time through to get that option; and honestly, I think I liked it better that way; it made the decision even harder).

I loved how human Shepard felt in this game. More so than any previous Mass Effect title, Shepard felt like an actual person. We were witnessing him breaking down, wracked with guilt, overcome with stress. Hearing him lash out at Joker after Thessia was a moment that had me riveted to the screen. It felt so real and natural. It had to be a huge reminder of what it was like to lose Earth and walk away. I have a friend who's a psych major and we were discussing how Shepard really comes across as a textbook case for PTSD. Seeing that kind of vulnerability in Shepard was meaningful. He wasn't this unbreakable hero. He had emotions, weak moments, and flaws. That's awesome.

I was also ecstatic about the inclusion of more same sex romances. BioWare's player base is so much bigger than just straight men these days. Having these options makes the game so much better for those of us who want an added human connection for Shepard but don't want to be forced into one orientation. My lonely, celibate gay Shepard finally got to have a meaningful relationship...right at what was potentially the end of both their existences. It adds such depth to the story.

On a lighter note, moments like Tali getting drunk or Javik's entire existence really helped balance out some of the grimness of the tone. There was just the right amount of levity to make the losses that much sadder in comparison.

[Flapperrr]

I am disappointed and I regret that was spent for this game, expecting possibility to finish history well.
Game is good, but the end simply crosses out all. Very much it would be desirable to swear obscene expressions.

[paynesgrey]

"We want to allow more people the chance to experience the endings" sounds like "We're praying to God that for some reason people who buy later won't hate the endings as much as the dedicated fanbase that preordered or bought in the first couple days and we'll be able to use that as positive spin."

[TumblingBumblebee]

Everytime an old squadmate or character showed up and a little piece of story about him/her was shown. It made me feel all I did mattered, it was awesome!

Too bad about the ending. I was expecting my Shepard (and maybe other squadmates) to die in the end but not like this...

[Denora]

Tali and Ashley getting drunk was hilarious, Mordin/Thane/(Almost Grunt) made me nearly cry.... Honestly, I could go on for hours with all the moments of laughter and tears as well as everything in-between, but I hate long posts so I'll just keep it simple.

The game was amazing a filled with memorable moments. It's games like Mass Effect that make Video Games an art form.

[Valk72]

Someon should make a thread to calm down the fans, it's really beginning to get out hand!!

[majinbuu1307]

Shepard deserves a HAPPY ENDING depending on your choices! COME ON

[BattleMageMarian]

I see what your doing Chris but I'll bite...I sure wouldn't want your job right now
Anyway, I Ioved nearly everything about the game with the exception of the ending which I really dislike...nothing more I can add that hasn't already been said. Here are some highlights for me:
Curing the genophage...yeah Wrex and Eve!
Thresher Maw versus Reaper
Shooting the bottles with Garus...loved that scene
Resolving Quarian/Geth conflict...YES!
Being back with the Alliance
The character deaths were very sad but I thought very well handled
Killing Kai Leng...hated him!

these are just a few off the top of my head. I love, love this series and sincerly hope Bioware will consider more ending options. Respectfully, a long time fan

[majinbuu1307]

Thank you for a 95 percent AMAZING GAME. Just...dat ending....gawd...NO lol

[Engared]

Mass Effect 2 is the best game I have ever played (excluding Multiplayer games such as MMOs and Mplayer focused titles like Battlefield and Soul Calibur). Mass Effect 1 is in my top ten, around the 7th spot; surrounded by HL2 EP2, Freespace 2 and Morrowind.

Up until the ending of Mass Effect 3, it was the no.3 game on the list, right after Chrono Trigger and before Metal Gear Solid 3. That is some very esteemed company the game was keeping.

Then the ending happened and ruined it all. If i were to place Mass Effect 3 in the list now, it would be in my Top 50 but no.1 on my most disappointing games list alongside The Burning Crusade.

[majinbuu1307]

Please don't leave this sour taste of an ending to ruin my mass effect experience:(

Normandy stays on earth, fleets aren't stranded, I WANT BABEZ WITH ASHLEY!

[paynesgrey]

See, the problem I have picking a favorite, epic moment is that the ending shattered the 4th Wall and Suspension of Disbelief so badly that it blots out all the things that struck me as magnificent when I experienced them. Kind of like the ending of BSG, but if they'ed added Lava Men and the director and producers joined the surviving crew for a singalong.

[Plasma Prestige]

paynesgrey wrote...

"We want to allow more people the chance to experience the endings" sounds like "We're praying to God that for some reason people who buy later won't hate the endings as much as the dedicated fanbase that preordered or bought in the first couple days and we'll be able to use that as positive spin."

No, it simply means that they don't want to officially comment with specifics on the endings until more people have finished it, including those who have already got the game. I hate the ending too, but let's be fair and objective where possible.

[stasiux]

Mass Effect as a series is great, but the last 15 minutes I felt as if someone has switched discs in my console. Sad endings are okay with me but not when they put gaping holes in an otherwise solid story...

[wesr]

Sadly the longer you guys wait the more folks jump ship. I really don't have any favorite moments as this entire thing has left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Mr Indivisible]

Please don't make us buy tie in merchandise (comics, books, toys) just to get the full ending (like why the Normandy is running).

[Dartack]

BattleMageMarian wrote...

I see what your doing Chris but I'll bite...I sure wouldn't want your job right now
Anyway, I Ioved nearly everything about the game with the exception of the ending which I really dislike...nothing more I can add that hasn't already been said. Here are some highlights for me:
Curing the genophage...yeah Wrex and Eve!
Thresher Maw versus Reaper
Shooting the bottles with Garus...loved that scene
Resolving Quarian/Geth conflict...YES!
Being back with the Alliance
The character deaths were very sad but I thought very well handled
Killing Kai Leng...hated him!

these are just a few off the top of my head. I love, love this series and sincerly hope Bioware will consider more ending options. Respectfully, a long time fan

agreed