boardnfool86 wrote...
1. Your Choices Matter - you affect the future of Earth, Krogans, Quarians, Rachni, and Geth DIRECTLY. You shouldn't need reassurance in the final cinematic to learn what you already know... their fates. In many case you have multiple opportunities to doom various species. Also, various crew and former crew's fates are in your hands. Your ability to unite them also plays a role in your final outcome (which I will get to).
I disagree. Without the mass relays, the dextro-allies are doomed to total or partial starvation (if you brought the quarians in and saved the liveships). This happens no matter what you do.
The choice with Wrex and the genophage seems meaningful... Until you realize that without him there (since he's on Earth y'know), the krogan will dissolve into warring clans just like they did before. Again, this happens no matter what you do.
2. The Illusive Man - Shepard's final speech check... can you get the most stubborn, often times vile being int he galaxy to see the error in his ways?
This was pretty cool. Or it would have been if my game actually let me take the paragon option even when I had a maxed out reputation.
3. Admiral Anderson - Your father figure, and longtime backer, save his life (however briefly) and get a touching moment that had to have a profound impact on Shep and I found my heart aching as I watched (leaving the full dialog would prob help mroe people feel its gravity - but playing through the entire series recently made it a powerful moment for me)
Yeah. That part was pretty cool.
4a. The Final Choice is Epic (Destroy) - Is your Shep so overcome with grief, and driven by a hatred for the Reapers that they wipe out all synthetic life including the Geth which Legion sacrificed himself for and whom EDI has recently discovered her humanity? Or maybe those are non factors cause you dont care for EDI and wiped out the Geth... maybe Legion was sold to Cerberus so you never even knew the other side to the Geth... all of that is based on your choice.
The final choice is bogus in every way. So we're to either believe this star child and assume that somehow the crucible will eradicate all AI everywhere. If the kid is telling the truth, it means that Legion's sacrifice is meaningless since the geth will die. It means teaching EDI to respect life and enjoy life herself is meaningless since she won't even get to enjoy it.
If the kid isn't telling the truth (golden end - kid says Shepard will probably die since he's part synthetic yet Shepard clearly doesn't) then it doesn't mean anything because we have no way of what really happens anyway.
There's also some plausibility issues. All AI everywhere being destroyed? Huh? It'd have been a lot better if they said it releases a virus that targets reaper code or something, since EDI is based on reaper code and the Geth have assimilated reaper code into themselves. That would've been a lot better. Same result, but not as boneheaded.
4b. The Final Choice is Epic (Control) - Do you finally see what the Illusive Man was after? Or maybe you can't let all synthetic life die so you can (maybe) live. Maybe you think you can do better... whatever the reason you take CONTROL of the Reapers and replace the Catalyst as the driving force behind the Reapers... then again maybe you offer organics (and synthetics alike) only a brief reprieve.
"I'm going to argue at length against you, TIM. You're wrong. Mankind isn't ready for this power." *Two minutes later.* "You say I can control reapers? Sign me up, ghostly space child!"
4c. The Final Choice is Epic (Synthesis) - Or maybe you just want peace, and have come to see the other side of the synthetic coin. Maybe you realize that EVERYONE has been wrong... or that the Reapers/Catalyst/Saren/IM had some valid points but were going about it the wrong way. You realize that organics want to live, but that synthetic is not the next step to evolution but a peripheral one. So you sacrifice yourself, your essence, maybe your soul? (not religious but I am not the God of this fiction) to bring peace and prosperity to the Galaxy.
Trouble is, this one makes no sense and has had no foreshadowing up till this point.
I mean, space magic to somehow turn every organic lifeform in the galaxy into cyborgs? Huh? And then you're going to do that against everyone's will? That rather urinates on the series' themes of tolerance from a great height.
Conceptually, all three of the endings have things to recommend them. With the proper distinction and love, they could've been acceptable. With the right execution, they wouldn't have generated this much hate. But these endings really should've been woven in and foreshadowed throughout the game. Instead, with control it's basically "TIM is wrong" for all of the game, and then you can turn around and say he's right all along.
With Synthesis it really comes out of nowhere, with the only references being vague allusions to EDI learning about humanity and the geth uploading to quarian suits. To be a credible ending, synthesis really needs more foreshadowing and exploration of it as a concept. Because as it stands, the only notable cyborgs in the game besides Shepard himself (where his cyborg nature almost never comes up) are husks.
5. Relays Had to Go - The Mass Relays are part of the architecture meant to wipe out advanced organic life, a framework set up by those you are out to supplant... and they are the delivery system of your retribution, YOUR solution.
I'm not seeing much reason here. Relays are vital for interstellar commerce. Take away relays and you've got no interstellar commerce outside your cluster. This alone means that most of Shepard's peacemaking and alliance building is worthless, since none of it is permanent.
6. Sacrifice - The end brings about the meaning of the word. Your hard work was not for naught, you can save Earth and preserve entire species, but in the end you have to give something up to set things right. You can try and spare your own life by wiping out all synthetics, or you can sacrifice yourself for (possibly) a better galatic outcome.
Sacrifice is not inherently virtuous. Again, this could have been handled much better. But as it stands now, it seems incredible, in the sense that it is not credible at all. There's no real clear rationale why Shepard must die, and the collection of EMS is too abstract in its influence on the outcome. Getting three thousand EMS or whatever opens the synthesis end... Why? The only excuse I can come up with is having more resources to work on the crucible, but that seems like reaching.
7. Criticism - I find most criticism to be nitpicking, who really cares that you don't have to reload the pistol in the final moments? The story has gotten so much bigger than that gameplay is taking a back seat to narrative now... but I digress. The one stirking criticism is the fate of the Normandy - it makes absolutely no sense, I can swallow my version to a small degree cause neither of my squadmates came out but somehow Ash and EDI got on the ship and they made a FTL jump? No. The logical way to do it was have it crash on Earth (so if you dont save Earth they're dead) and they can still achieve a similar ending without losing much of the very obvious allegory - but I can understand why they decided to create a plothole since the allegory is more obvious on a new uninhabited world than on a smoldering Earth (or maybe they crash in the Amazon where the Reapers haven't been) But again, digression. If you can't get past the Normandy's fate I don't blame you, I can, I appreciate why they went that direction, but I can appreciate why it bothers people. I hope they leave it as is and that brings me to my conclusion.
The stuff about the pistol of bottomless ammo or the magically changing armor is all part of fans grasping at straws with the indoctrination theory. Which is a pretty elegant theory, IMO, but it's really secondary to the fact that the endings were terrible.
The real plot holes come from the star child and everything that happens after. We're to assume that Joker fled the battle? We're to assume that somehow this green energy beam can magically turn everyone into cyborgs? That this blue beam automagically controls reapers? And that it then goes on to blow up Normandy and cause it to crash land?
We're to believe that the reapers are harvesting all life because organics and synthetics are doomed to be at each others' throats even though we've already proven that logic is bogus with EDI and potentially Legion/the Geth? And worse, that Shepard, the man who argued with everyone from Sovereign to the Illusive Man
isn't going to call the star child on its circular reasoning?
The problem with the ending basically being exactly the same visuall except for a color filter is valid too.
8. In Conclusion - Its BioWare's story to tell, we play but a role, a role that should not be diminished by the somber end of the series. Yes BioWare says its our tale, and it is, we play the largest role in it and our decisions decide the fate of a galaxy. Anyone who says our choices dont matter is speaking with incredible hyperbole or they've lost sight of what they've accomplished - which I don't blame them... afterall its tough saying goodbye to Shep & Co, especially on such a somber note. As I've stated above there are numerous changes to the galaxy at the end, so many that there is no way they create anything post Shepard without having to ret con things.
All in all I think the series is a landmark in gaming, and one of the most engaging experiences of any medium. I think was incredibly brave and also artistic to break with game expectations and end the experience in a somber manner - yet the higher your GR the more hope you see in the end (and if its low possibly wiping out Earth and giving you fewer final choices). And they also achieved their objective, the end is very memorable and has even sparked intriguing theories on whether or not Shep was indoctrinated and how honest the catalyst is about your final choices.
I am sure I have changed nobody's mind, but with all the negative attention the end got, I wanted to share my approval of the ending. It was powerful, it was emotional, it did this ground breaking series justice. So much that I wish they would leave the IP alone maybe bringing back the trilogy revamped on next generation systems as nothing could possibly take place in that universe of significance that would not diminish Shepard.
I disagree on pretty much all of this, to be honest. GR is meaningless except for unlocking one of the three endings. The endings that are all varying shades of meaningless.
It's not like we saw all those war assets we collected or anything. No elcor living tanks. No krogan dinosaur cavalry. No volus dreadnought with thanix everything.
Modifié par Cpl_Facehugger, 16 mars 2012 - 11:28 .
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