I shall take the OP at face value, for the moment, and respond in kind. Hopefully, we can all maintain a civil and constructive dialog until a mutually satisfying conclusion can be reached.
The GoodThe vast majority of Mass Effect 3 was great. It wasn't perfect; nothing ever is, but it was genuinely a great game. Among the things I was particularly impressed with:
+ Dramatic and sensitive handling of the fates of squadmates from ME2. As many have noted, the death scenes of Mordin and Thane were particularly well done. The deaths were sad, but it was made clear that the dying characters were at peace with their fates, and each death accomplished something real and positive (unless you shoot Mordin, of course, and even then he keeps trying). These scenes did a good job of embodying "bittersweet," and even managed to avoid coming off as overly melodramatic.
+ The war is bigger than the Normandy. The conversations taking place between strangers on the Citadel as you walk past were very effective in giving the impression of a galaxy at war; even characters who had no direct interaction with Sheppard are clearly aware of the war, and are trying to deal with it in their own ways. This was one of the things that was genuinely "new" in ME3 (relative to ME1&2) which stuck out to me as being very effective at conveying an appropriate atmosphere. It really helped the tone of the game.
+ Squadmates had more things to do on their own. The fact that squadmates moved around, and you could have conversations with them in more than one location helped this. The fact that they had interactions with each other that didn't involve Sheppard directly also helped. I was particularly gratified at the relationship between Garrus and Tali (who wound up in a romance in my game); I've always thought it odd that Sheppard was the only person on the Normandy who developed relationships (romantic or platonic) with the crew.
+ Decisions from previous games had an obvious (and significant) impact on the state of the galaxy. With the massive exception of the ending (we'll come to that), I found most of the effects of major decisions from previous games to be satisfying. While some were more contrived than others (e.g. there being a living Rachni queen regardless of whether you let her live in ME1), on the whole the outcomes of decisions in ME1 were well represented. This was somewhat less true for ME2; the only thing from ME2 that seemed to a significant difference was who lived/died during the suicide mission. It would have been nice to see some effects of our interactions with Cerberus (e.g. how did we behave towards TIM, did we destroy the Collector base, etc.).
+ Resolution of longstanding conflicts. Again, with the exception of the ending, many longstanding conflicts had good resolutions, which the player had significant input into. The Krogan Genophage and the Geth vs. Quarians were both satisfying, both reflecting choices from prior games and allowing multiple *very different* resolutions depending on the player's actions.
+ Gameplay and equipment selection. This was a major step up from ME2, in which the player's ability to customize their character's equipment was sorely lacking. The variety of weapons was good; the fact that they weren't just better or worse versions was better. The ability to decide how many weapons to bring was also a welcome addition; it never made sense that a member of N7 wouldn't be trained in the use of assault rifles, and the weight/cooldown tradeoff still rewards carrying fewer weapons for non-soldier classes. I still would have liked to see the ability to carry two weapons of the same type, and the ability to decide how much spare ammo to bring, but it was a big step in the right direction.
The Not So Good
Despite this, there were a few things which I though didn't really work well (again, we'll come to the ending). Some of them were very minor, and didn't detract from the game in a noticable way, but I'll mention a few that were more noticable here.
- The dream sequences. I like the *idea* of the dream sequences; the idea that Sheppard is having nightmares, and not sleeping well. I like the idea that this is too much strain for any human to bear, and Sheppard is starting to show cracks around the edges. Unfortunately, I found that the execution not only failed to convey this, but actively hindered it. The dreams whole "slow motion horror" thing only works if there's some horror. The fact that was that for the most part, nothing really happened. It was just slow-motion jogging, which had relatively little emotional impact. The backgrounds failed to produce the sense of dread that I assume they were going for, and I agree with others that the child really didn't add anything here. I think the dream sequences would have been more effective (and affective, as well) if they were much shorter, non-interactive, and involved characters who the player was more likely to care about. Dead squadates, and a different one in each dream, for preference. Have them accusing Sheppard, rather than just being passive. And overall, just try to make the dreams more nightmare like.
- Kai Leng and his Magical Plot Armor. Of all the combat encounters in the game, the ones with Kai Leng were the least effective for me. Practically every time he was on the screen, I just sat there wondering why my Infiltrator Sheppard didn't just snipe him in the head with the Black Widdow she was carying (like she did to every other enemy). Sheppard just stands there and watches Thane get stabbed, and then watches while the bad guy runs away? And then on Thessia, I finally get to attack him, and after a single shot he turns invulnerable. Really? My first shot took out 1/4 of his shields, and the next three shots did absolutely nothing? Oh, and now there's a gunship, and that's invulnerable too? And then he gloats about how he "beat me." Really? Even though you never managed to take more than two steps towards me before having to retreat and turn invulnerable again? The final encounter with him on TIM's base was alright, though I still found it a bit odd that he had significantly stronger shields than an Atlas. If magical shields like that exist, why don't Geth Primes have them? Heck, why don't *I* get one? All in all, every time Kai Lang and his Magical Plot Armor showed up, I found it pulled me out of the experience. The problem wasn't that he was a capable villain, it was that everyone treated him as such even though he never really showed any signs of being one. The only reason he succeeded at anything was his Magical Plot Armor; if you have to ignore the previously established rules of the world for your plot point to work, it's a sign of a weak plot point.
The EndingI'm sure that all my thoughts on the ending have been expressed before, and probably more eloquently, by others. But most of them are probably impossible to find now, and hey, you asked, so I'll go through them again. I'll also give an example of the kind of ending I was expecting, as a contrast.
The short version is that the ending was unsatisfying. It didn't feel bittersweet, it didn't make sense, and it didn't feel like it resolved things. Basically, it didn't feel like an ending.
The longer version mostly deals with why the ending produced these feelings. There's a pretty decent article (
www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/) that covers it fairly well, but I'll go through the issues that I personally consider to be the most important.
- The ending is extremely ambiguous. There are two basic reasons for this. The first is that it was designed to be ambiguous (the result was supposed to be "lots of speculation"); the Catalyst gives us almost no information about what the actual outcome of the three choices will be, and the tri-colored cutscenes don't really add much more.
The second reason the ending was ambiguous is that it is full of plot holes. The most prominent is the scene with Joker and the Normandy; issues like "how did my squadmates recover from Harbingers beam, fail to follow me to the Citadel, and get back on the Normandy," "why is the Normandy in the middle of a jump," "how did the Normandy make it to a garden world after dropping out of a jump someplace random," and "how does this produce a society that can tell stories hundreds of years later when the Normandy doesn't have enough diversity for a long-term viable breeding population of any species." These issues are so severe that many people have concluded that the only way to rationalize the ending is to declare the whole thing a dream sequence; the Indoctrination Theory is the result of this.
There are plenty of works of fiction in which an ambiguous ending is fine. But a conventional epic is not one of them. Neither is a conventional Space Opera, or a conventional war story. It is pretty much never acceptable at the end of any narrative that spans more than one volume; a trilogy (or any long running series) should not have an ambiguous ending. I have frequently seen Lost and the new Battlestar Gallactica given an examples of how
not to end a series.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again; the ending of 2001: A Space Oddessy was fine. A little wierd (it makes a lot more sense if you read Clark's book first), but the entire movie was strange and philosophical, so a strange philosophical ending works (though I'll note that even there it was somewhat polarizing). If you replaced the ending of Return of the Jedi with the ending of 2001, however, it would not have worked. The original Star Wars trilogy needed an ending which resolved the plot threads of all three films, and fit the narrative themes that had been in play. It did so; Vader dies and is redeemed, the evil Emperor is destroyed, and the love triangle between Luke, Leia, and Han is resolved ammicably.
- The ending of Mass Effect 3 ran counter to the main narrative themes of the series. Much like Star Wars, the story told through Mass Effect games is one of hope in the face of seemingly impossible odds. It's a story about building alliances, and (at least for a mostly Paragon Sheppard) the principle that a live ally is better than a dead enemy. The themes of coexistence and mutual respect run through all the games, but are particularly prevalent in Mass Effect 3. From the Krogan and Salarians to the Geth and Quarians, from the Rachni to humanity's place in the galaxy, the emphasis is always on the fact that cooperation leads to the best outcomes for everyone.
The ending completely turns this theme on its head. The Catalyst appears out of nowhere in the last 5 minutes of the game, and simply informs us that coexistance is impossible. Sheppard is unable to argue with him, despite the (possible) existence of lots of evidence to the contrary. All three ending choices violate the idea that all species should have the right to exist and determine their own fate, as well; either we destroy the EDI and the Geth, or we take away the free will of the Reapers, or we...make everything green. Clearly the synthesis choice forces the process of synthesis on all life, but that process is so ill-defined that it's not clear what that actually means for things like self-determination. Maybe individual organisms retain free will in this ending; it's not at all clear.
The fact that Sheppard dies also probably fits in this category. Throughout the trilogy, Sheppard & Co. constantly defy impossible odds, and win. Heck, the entire second game consists of people telling you "it's a suicide mission," only to have Sheppard and some (potentially all) of her crew come back, alive and victorious. Sacrifices are made, true, and I certainly don't want a pure "happy ending." That said, I'd like it if the ending respected the themes of the narrative, and part of doing that would mean having at the very least a bittersweet ending.
It would also mean that the previous actions of the player should have an impact, which brings us to the next point.
- Prior decisions don't impact the ending. The only thing that has any impact at all on the ending is the Military Readiness score, and even there the impact is pretty minimal. But the actual choices made by the player have utterly no bearing on either the final choices which are available to the player, or the outcomes of those choices. As I noted earlier, one of the things that most of Mass Effect 3 did very well was to make sure that the player's prior decisions had a clear and noticable impact. The ending entirely fails to do this. This means that, regardless of what kind of a story has been told before the end, the ending is the same. So if the Geth and Quarians learned to live together, the ending is the same as if one of them was exterminated by the other. This makes the ending feel narratively disconnected from the rest of the story. This is particularly eggregious in a game which has been consistently markeded with the slogan "choice and consequence."
The Ending I Wolud Like To SeeHaving said all that, I will describe the type of ending which would make me the most satisfied with the overall narrative of the trilogy. Events in game are fine up until the final push in London to reach the beam to the Citadel. The following would replace the events from that point onwards.
As Sheppard, her squadmates, Anderson, and all the nameless others charge towards the teleport beam, Harbinger begins to descend to attack them. At this point, Anderson radios Hackett, and asks for backup. Hackett sends some ships to intercept Harbinger, with the goal of distracting it enough to allow the ground forces to make it to the beam.
Depending on Military Readiness level, there are three possible outcomes: {
High Readiness: Harbinger is distracted and it's aim is thrown off. Sheppard still takes damage from a near miss, but her squadmates survive with superficial (i.e. clearly non-lethal) damage, and help her up. Anderson also survives, and the three of them help Sheppard limp over to the teleport beam. There may be a handful of other, nameless people who make it to the beam in this scenario
Medium Readiness: Harbinger is only distracted a bit, and makes enough good hits to kill off almost everyone. One of Sheppards squadmates is killed (if LI is present, he/she would be the survivor), the other is badly injured. Sheppard and this squadmate limp towards the teleport beam together. Anderson is also injured, but also makes it to the beam.
Low Readiness: The distraction forces are quickly shot down, and Harbinger is able to do enough damage to cause a scene much like what is in the game now. Both squademates are killed, and Sheppard (after possibly having a brief goodbye scene) limps towards the teleport beam alone.
}
From here, we go back to the original script; Sheppard, Anderson and (if they survived) squadmates all wind up in different places. Anderson makes it to the platform first, followed by Sheppard and TIM. After the conversation with TIM, Sheppard activates the Crucible, and sits down next to Anderson.
At this point, Hackett radios in saying that deploying the Crucible seems to have caused the kinnetic barriers on all ships in the system to malfunction. It doesn't hurt the allied ships that much, since they were getting one-shotted anyway, but it levels the playing field with the Reapers substantially. Now the numeric advantage of allied fleet should count for something, since a major force multiplier for the Reapers has been taken away.
If Sheppard's squadmates are dead, Sheppard sits back and watches the battle unfold (with many explosions on both sides) as she bleeds to death. If one squadmate is alive, that squadmate shows up in time to exchange a few poigniant words before Sheppard dies. If both squadmates are alive, they are able to manually apply medi-gel (since Sheppard's armor is too badly damaged to apply it automatically) and stabalize her. In this ending Sheppard, will survive.
We then see scenes of all the various war assets that Sheppard gathered in action, both in space and on the ground. In particular, the fate of Sheppards other team members should depend on the existence of particular war assets; for example, if Tali is on the ground, her group can be saved by the Geth Primes, but if they aren't present, she will die heroically. There might be more than one asset capable of saving some squadmembers. Note that this would be based on particular assets, not overall "readiness."
The survival of Joker and the Normandy would depend on the overall "readiness" score, as would the total casualties taken by the allied fleet. If the overall readiness is too low, then the Reapers may win here, but otherwise the question will be how many casualties the allies took before they were defeated. After the Battle of Earth, the allied fleet will have to travel around the galaxy (Crucible in tow) to take on the rest of the Reapers It will take weeks or months before the war is finally finished, but the Battle of Earth will have been the turning point, as the Epilog will reveal.
The Epilog will discus the fates of various characters known to the player, as well as the fates of the various races of the galaxy. There will also be a tabulation of the total number of lives lost in the Reaper War; higher Readiness should decrease this tally, but it will always be a staggaring figure. Length of time taken to complete the game might also factor in here (after all, millions die with each additional day).
The choices of the player throughout the series should impact the Epilog; things like the continued existence and/or coexistence of the various galactic races and factions should be mentioned, as well as a broad sketch of what Sheppard's surviving squadmates go on to do. It should also discuss the fate of Sheppard (with LI, if both survived).
This epilog would work in the same basic way the epilogs in games like the Baldur's Gate games, the Fallout games, or Dragon Age: Origins. They don't need to be long, they don't need to involve lots of cutscenes, they just need to tell the player what the mid to long-term consequences of the choices they made during the games are, and explain the fates of characters who the player has grown to know and like (or dislike).
TL;DRI thought most of the game was great, but the ending needs serious work.
Retour en haut
, then more 
the the Red wave dosn't actually destroy all Synthetic life since EDI can appear on the Normandy afterward and Shepard can survive despite being dependent on synthetics.
