I personally have been very vocal about how I disliked the ending. In the interest of being reasonable and fair, I've outlined a detailed listed of critcisms and recognition of the good things in Mass Effect. I hope this can help clarify specifically why me and so many others are unhappy.
GOOD
* I know I and others say "everything but the ending" when this comes up, but I really mean it. I loved this game and every ME game before it. I'm a huge fan of the series. That's why I've reacted so strongly. But I will enumerate several things I loved just to show you I am sincere.
* Thank you for making Tali and Garrus squadmates! I know I asked for this many times before release and you did it. It was important to me for them to be squadmates so I appreciate you did this.
* I was afraid we wouldn't see much of TIM. I was happy to be wrong. We got to talk to him several times and he even had a great funny line, "You're in my chair." When people talk about how they hated the ending, the caveat needs to always be made of: "Oh yeah the part with The Illusive Man at the end was brilliant." Because it was. Huskified TIM was one of the most intense conversations I've seen in media ever. I got chills talking to him and his final line about Earth being so beautiful...I can't praise that writing highly enough. TIM's arc was legendary.
* I loved squad communication in this game - it was so cool you listened to us and made it so the crew talked to each other. It was neat seeing Garrus chat up Wrex and Liara.
* I spent so much time after each mission visiting everyone on board. They all had great dialog. The sheer amount was great, I loved having the option to immerse myself so deeply.
* I loved the Tali romance. It was done so great. As a fan I feel like you really listened and wanted to nail it out of the park, and you did! I have a few complaints about it but it was overall great. I liked her teasing on the ship and the gesture of the picture, that was really sweet.
* Speaking of Tali: my favorite mission will always be Rannoch, the one where you fight the Reaper. I felt like the biggest hero in the world and the dialog was so good. I don't remember it exactly but it was like, :"No I won't let the Reapers win and have come her for nothing, this war ends today! "I love you." [Reaper Engages You] It was so great and emotional, it felt so real like I was actually there on the battlefield, I got really lost in the game at this moment.
* I liked how the Reapers were generally killed, they weren't too powered down. Fighting the one Reaper with the missile launcher was incredible in my opinion and a great boss fight, way better than Saren (which I still liked). It doesn't have to be super long or intricate but a conflict with light combat is still good. Something like this to fight Harbinger would have been really appreciated.
* We didn't get enough Reaper convo, but the one we got with the Rannoch Reaper was good. That eye was creepy. Way cooler than the Catalyst ever was.
* Kalros was like the coolest thing ever. The fight of Reaper vs. Kalros was amazing, Godzilla Mass Effect. That whole genophage cure mission was so badass, I loved going into the ruins and seeing ancient Krogan architecture. Dodging those brutes was so hard at the end. I really felt like I accomplished something.
* The moment where Mordin dies and the Shroud erupts into that golden glow of cure and the Krogan are all cured, I teared up. It was so beautiful and moving. I loved it so much. What's amazing is that I was tempted to betray Mordin because the fight against the Reapers mattered so much and I needed Salarain aid. This was a great example of a hard choice to make and an amazing moment.
* Going to Earth was so full of chills and adreline because it meant you were going to kill the Reapers. The emotional weight was so heavy and it was so exciting, avoiding the dubstep noises and rays of the Reapers. The suicide mission was better though, Earth...I dunno, I wish there was some kind of major combat scene even if it ended in a dialog conversation, you know? When you get to the Human Reaper you go those platforms. Clearing that to TIM would have been a bit more interesting than running to the beam alone. (Which was cool, I did like the beam, just...ugh at the elevator.)
* Although I really missed Harbinger as a whole, when I saw him over the beam with the glowing eyes I went nuts and was like "ohmygodohmygodohmygod," that was a great lead in to him. I just wish there was more.
* One of my favorite moments in the game is the "Tron" like level with Legion with the Geth consensus. I had a blast and it was so neat to get to explore the consensus.
* Eve telling you her real name was a nice, sentimental touch. I liked her character and how it mattered.
* The addition of segmented health was great. It made use of medigel much more interesting and added moments of feeling really at risk.
* I've played ME always for the story first. ME1's combat was horrible, but ME2 had very good combat. ME3's combat is actually _great_, I love it
* You added just the right amount of RPG elements. I loved weight, in particular. It really factored into my decision making.
* I don't usually care about guns in games and just pick the best one that does the most DPS, but I actually really liked the variance in this game between the Scorpion, Carnifex and Chakram Launcher.
* Adding heavy weapons as a local mission thing was a cool idea. It was well done with Rachni mission, with the fire burning the webs. That was extra cool. I wish there was more of these opportunities.
* It's great you added gay romance options. I'm bi and had a hetero LI, but it was very cool and progressive of you to add gay options.
* Cortez in particular was a triumph, he was not a stereotype at all and a positive representation. Adding an official role of a shuttle pilot was a good idea, by the way.
* There's so many little moments I loved. Garrus being a better calibator than Legion, Tali being afraid of spiders. The individual characters are written so well. The inclusion of these is great.
* Getting to fight in the Cerberus base was neat. I liked fighting next to the corpse of the Human Reaper. The best of course was sitting in TIM's chair and fighting Kai Leng in the legendary "sun in the background room." That was a great moment.
* It was cool we got to so many homeworlds of the races. Visiting Rannoch, Thessia and Earth was great.
* I liked having to pick sides in arguments. A lot of the earlier ones were pretty easy but then they got really hard and it was interesting: like when I had to pick if I wanted to give the refugees housing or not. I ended up siding against the refugees, which made me feel bad, but it seemed like it would have really hurt the war effort so I made a sacrifice so they could be ultimately saved. Those were the good kind of decisions.
* The (originally planned, not the catalyst) key to defeating the Reapers was executed well. I had no idea how you would handle this but the idea of just, "Let's tell them about the Crucible at the very beginning" was the smartest thing you could have done. If it had came at the end it would have felt cheap. Spending the whole game getting assets and points to building it makes it feel real and like it will work. Finishing a weapon from past races working together was just great.
* Even though the actual ending is flawed horribly, the galaxy of war system was this insanely brilliant idea. How can we respent all your choices that change constantly? Cause A or B or C to happen? Too many variables. What about a point system that reflects mathematically statically what you've done and if it was ultimately good or bad? Genius - it finally made that decision to destroy the council make sense, since you kept the fleet which was blown up. (I didn't do this, but now that choice is harder in retrospect! Exactly what should happen.)
* The game is more morose than ME2 and ME2 has my favorite humor/tone, but that is to be expected due to plot. Thank you though for not turning it into a black hole of misery with no humor though.
* Liara making a time capsule for future generations in case we failed was such a briliant, emotional scene. I hadn't even thought of doing this but made totally sense to prepare for the future.
* I love, love, LOVE the reaper monster design in this game. The cannibal looks so cool and I didn't even know until yesterday about the human arm! So sick yet awesome.
* The Banshee is like the most "oh my god go away, horrifying" enemy in all of Mass Effect. Ever. That scream and that look? And teleporting on top of you? Aaaaargh! (In a good way.)
* Making Javik the Renegade's Renegade was a brilliant choice. He wouldn't have lived up to the hype if he was this saintly paragon of super wisdom. Great decision. I loved the look and accent too.
* Having Thane fight Kai Leng. I marked out so hard.
* I liked how most of the ME1/2 squadmates were integrated into the game. Putting them on the ship was brilliant - not having them in combat was a downer, but it is a nice and fair consolation to get to have individual missions and conversations with people like Wrex and Legion. The war room in general was brilliant.
* I liked that Thane died, personally: it made sense for his character to die and the scene with the prayer was touching. I feel somewhat bad for the ones who romance Thane since they couldn't cure him, but that never seemed likely to me.
* For all the moaning about how Vega would suck, he actually was really cool. He had a real personality and was a good addition.
* I liked chatting up the squadmates on the Citadel a lot. Vega playing poker was cool. Where was Tali though, she didn't have a permanent spot?
* Thank you Bioware for not trapping me in romances and making it more clear when to not hit the paragon dialog option. You listened obviously here.
* EDI and Joker was cute. Thank you for making it optional though.
* The multiplayer is actually good. I am amazed. I was so sure it would be terrible. I like playing for the unlocks. If I can get invested in Mass Effect again, I will be playing it.
* By the way, thanks for making the achievements unlockable even if you didn't play multiplayer.
* Thank you for not turning TIM into a reaper monster thing. I liked how he died much better this way. Even his reaper-slave appearance was done well, it really showed the signs of his madness. (God that was amazing voice over.)
* I liked the Reaper mini-game for scanning. It was actually engaging and I had to think, instead of just scan. When you do it originally too it actually scares you with those Reaper noises. I love collecting junk in games if the process is interesting and it was here. (ME1 and ME2's resource collecting was tedious for me, by comparison.)
* One of the cooler "ohhh, yeah" moments was the Asari having the beacon as an explanation for why they were so advanced.
* It was neat to see the novels actually matter in a small way: Kahlee Sanders, Kai Leng. I know I personally found Kai Leng more interesting because he's a murderous badass in the books. And going to Grissom Academy was neat, it was good interweaving the books and the games.
* The comics mattering in a small, interwoven way was nice too. Knowing TIM had been semi-indoctrinated in the past and resisting it for years is cool given the ultimate arc. Lots of comic callbacks actually, from Bailey to Omega's take over.
* I wasn't expecting to see some of the funnier callbacks, like the 15 credit refund. Was neat.
* That was nice fanservice Bioware, adding the Blasto dialog.
* I liked the option to paragon the oft-punched reporter. I liked the fanservice in general a lot, actually. It wasn't too obtrusive and it was great.
* Thank you for not inflicting Jacob on me by giving him a major role, he has as much personality as cardboard. Clearly, you listened to fan feedback. (I do feel bad for the seven people who romanced him though, cheating? Really Bioware? : P)
* Cryo Blast continues to be the funniest ability for me in the game, hitting so many husks with it.
* I liked that less enemies had shields/barrier and abilities were actually more useful.
* Taking medigel off cool down was a great idea, especially with segemented health. (Did I say I love segmented health?)
* I liked that if you took a bonus grenade ability, you could boost your grenade total to something stupid like 9. Fun.
* Bonus powers in general were neat, I liked how you unlocked them. And I also liked the respec system for Shepard and crew, paying for each rechoice. Makes it cost something to stop you from doing it every mission but lets you undo a mistake.
* It was neat going back to Mars, the point of galatic "ascension" for humanity.
* I liked the promotional guns that were "free" like the Chakram Launcher, the Indra, and Reckoner Armor. That's a win/win for both parties, advertising and no cost to consumer. My dad bought Kindoms of Amalur for himself because I played the demo and I told him he would like it.
* I like the import to 10 upgrade system, customizable guns, the mods, etc. Very cool.
* I like the Spectre guns, particularly the name of the Black Widow.
* I liked the Spectre center, where you could authorize stuff. Maybe more bad choices would have been good? I didn't give the gun to the PTSD soldier, for example. Harder ones instead of, "I will be a good person rewarded for checking my terminal?"
* I loved some of the "positive fridge logic," like Joker's family being killed by the PTSD soldier and the quarian dying on Rannoch being the dad to the kid who's mom died in ME2 in that comm message.
* I spent a ton of time just reading my war assets and having fun realizing how things I did mattered in raising the points, like getting the Destiny Ascenion.
* Loved the Codex updating me on how the war was going. Great touch! Codex in all three games, actually, I'm glad to have it. Thanks.
* I hate it retrospect now because the kid makes me want to vomit but when I first played, the kid scenes were emotional for me: seeing him die was heartbreaking.
* Again, the kid makes me dislike seeing it in retrospect but when I first played: the dreams chasing him were haunting and chilling. I was amazed to see a respectful adaption of PTSD (or indoctrination?). I loved the whispers, so chilling. Great.
* I didn't expect to see Conrad Verner, so that's a plus he actually showed up. Lol at random Jenna appearance, had to strain my mind to remember who they were.
* Less email spam, more actual conversations with the characters. That's a good change. (Don't get me wrong, I like emails, they're just not enough. Email++ is good.)
* Killing Emily Wong in a tweet was a pretty brilliant idea, as horrible as it sounds on paper. Good job. Maybe more stuff like this in the future?
* Cerberus enemy design was really good as well. I liked the engineer, he was a formindable enemy.
* The Atlas was so damn cool, and especially driving it. And the turret gun. These were great. I never really loved driving the Hammerhead (which was still fun, but not great) and Mako (oh god, the memory burns) and these were much better.
* The little touches are nice. Seeing the Mako was cute though on the battefield.
* Rolling was a great add to the series, it's fun to dodge all those grenades!
* Heavy melee was badass, gotta love those tech daggers.
* I liked Liara's character in this game, much improved from ME2's main game. Seemed like her again.
* I really hated Ashley in ME1, she seemed rude and confrontational and xenophobic, in this game I liked her a lot better. I can't my finger on it but her character is just better in this game.
* As a general thing, adding minor characters who were not squadmates but friends of Shepard was a great idea.
* The story was gripping, I felt totally engrossed and invested right until that end. I cared very much what would happen.
* There wasn't a lot of side missions in this game and it felt shorter to me, but I liked the side missions we got: they had more depth and story to them. ME2's side missions were really hit and miss, so thanks for improving upon that in everyway beyond quanity
* Thank you for all the men and women who worked so hard on the game to make it this good! As you can obviously tell, I liked the vast majority of it!
MINOR ISSUES
* Why can't I call up my LI to my cabin? I liked having the option, it was neat and showed their was personal interaction beyond just a singular scene or dialog.
* Why wasn't there a trial or people accusing Shepard of being a bad person because of Arrival? The court martial should have happened on screen. It actually might have made sense for ME2 instead of ME3, given the plot. There's just so much build up to the comeuppance of the people who were wrong about the Reapers and Shepard being in trouble for working with Cerberus and this seems to have just been left on the cutting room floor. Did becoming a Spectre in 2 again matter?
* I played on Hardcore and it wasn't as difficult as ME2. I've heard others say insanity isn't as bad as it was in ME2. I loved the challenge of ME2 on insanity, and would like to still see that here given the combat is so good. Maybe a "Insanity+" mode?
* Why use a stock image for Tali's face? It didn't ruin my enjoyment of it in game and I still liked the moment, but the fact you used a stock image at all is off-putting.
* I want to see my crew wear the different outfits on the Normandy and on the Citadel - you spend so much time in dialog in this game, it'd be nice to see them wearing the different outfits off the battlefield.
* It would be nice if I could buy and give gifts to people other than Ashley, even non-LIs.
* Why didn't Tali have a permanent spot on the Citadel? She was only there occasionally.
* I really wanted to see Quarian reapers. A lot. Elcor or hanar reapers would have been cool too, but...yeah, quarian. Wouldn't even be that hard to do, just make them zombies with ragged textures. DLC maybe?
* I feel like Kai Leng would have been much cooler and fitting in universe if his garb was a bit more serious and he ditched those weird goggle shades. I still liked to see him, I had read the books so I knew he was formidable.
* I wish the entire suits of armor broke down into pieces. A lot of the "piecemeal" stuff was kind of boring looking. I like dramatically different appearances. (Speaking of piecemeal, where was Kestral? I always thought that armor looked good.)
* EDI's face/hairstyle seemed really out of place to me originally, like Jetsonsesque. It grew on me ultimately but it...seemed weird in Mass Effect.
* The Cain one-shotting a Reaper is pretty silly, but it passes the "Rule of Cool." I was glad to see the Cain at least.
* The individual gun mods for armor-penetration made me think for a whole playthrough they capped the damage always, not just when firing through glass. That could have been more clear.
* I actually picked the wrong ending at the Crucible. I wanted destroy but picked control because the color reversal confused me. It could have been more clear.
* It's too bad we only got to go to a moon and not actually Palaven.
* I would have liked not having to state my sexuality as straight in turning down Cortez. I'm personally bisexual but didn't have any desire to romance Steve, just be his friend. Seemed weird to have to basically go, "No I like girl ass exclusively" to turn him down.
* Jack and Miranda I thought were the most likely ME2 characters to be squadmates. The fact that there are no unique new ME2 squadmates who became squadmembers is rather odd, but given my favorite two (Garrus/Tali) from ME1 made it, I can't say it upset me.
* Legion's death was touching but I didn't get exactly why it happened?
* Udina's reasons for betrayal could have been explained better after the fact. It makes sense given his character but there's not much why.
* There's a couple of random people who are loose ends: the prisoner who threatens your life from Jack's recruitment mission, why didn't Corporal Toombs come back to kick your ass? There's also why did Wilson betray you, who was Banes from ME1 but those are really not all that important, I wasn't expecting answers to those.
* I recruited Javik at the very end because I didn't want to have him spoil for me what the catalyst was. I thought he would have more answers I didn't want yet in the narrative. He didn't, oops, and I got him way too late in the game. Oh well.
* I thought the minerals I gathered from ME1 finally came into play with the Galaxy at War system. I was sad to see they didn't count and it was from ME2. This would have been a good touch for a few points, counting those data discs, writings, minerals, turian masks and medals for like 10 points each.
* I know it's stated in the books, but it's weird that the game never seems to explain why Anderson left the council.
* I thought in Deception it said the Grissom Academy shut down? Maybe I'm misremembering it. This is probably true since I can't find it in the Wiki.
* Where was that general dude from Mass Effect Comic: Omega Gets Screwed Over? And wait, where were those Reaper monsters in ME3?
* Although I like the system for the leveling, it is somewhat confusing at first: I thought I had to pick a path and stick with it. And the bars below, it seems to imply you can only hit a certain point of % increase, even if you can unlock more of an option?
* I kind of wish I could have picked up Tali earlier in the game to do the genophage arc, but I understand the plot demands things be a certain way.
* Zaeed was badass. I didn't expect him to make my squad but it would have been nice for him to have more dialog or be on the Normandy.
* Some of the dialog makes you think people will join you: Samara, in particular, I thought she was going on my crew. I didn't really care because Samara isn't a favorite character of mine but it was still surprising.
* Kasumi's box didn't really seem to be that ultimately important in the end. Oh well.
* Import bug caused me to use default Shepard's face. The default looks good so it didn't matter much, really. I could "connect" to it.
* I wish there was a PC exclusive achievement for importing a ME1 character in.
* I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition and I'm still missing the N7 Warfare Gear. I paid $80 for a game and pre-ordered it, shouldn't I get all the individual pre-order DLC for being a loyal customer? I hate not being able to get all the stuff, I like to collect. Maybe give them away as pick up-able items in future DLC, like the locust in ME2?
* Day One squadmate DLC is kinda lame. I pre-ordered the CE and got it, so thanks for that - I would have been aggravated with not getting the DLC while paying $80. If I had paid $10 for it, I would have probably felt slightly short changed due to the mission to wake Javik up is rather short. I liked that it exists though, the lore is cool, so meh.
* It's sort of hard to tell which guns are going to be worth upgrading without saving, upgrading and reloading. It's also a bit annoying picking up a new gun and it being level one when you pick it up - you can't use it on that mission, it's not upgraded, it'll be way worse than everything you have!
* I liked that we could buy back old suits of armor from ME2 but I would have liked new comprehensive suits of armor. I enjoyed stuff like playing in Blood Armor. A Dead Space outfit or something would have been badass. Reckoner Knight, I'm glad it exists but it...uh...looks a bit dorky and out of place instead of "badass even though unlore friendly."
* It's probably good for me and Tali but it is a bit odd no one finds out or bring up that whole "my dad is a war criminal" thing. Don't feel the need to change it. : P
* I wish the updates in the War Assets were in chronological order, sometimes reading them it's hard to see what's actually been updated.
* Galatic Readiness could be a lot clearer, I thought not doing N7 missions lowered it and doing them raised it. Didn't know I had to play multiplayer - if I had, I would have done that first to ensure I got the "good" (which is still very bad) ending, which I didn't get unfortunately.
* Please give me PC versions of Infiltrator and the Data Pad! I really want to the messages from data pad, that would really enrich my game. At least could we have them for Android? I don't have an IPad type device. : (
* That Collector Assault Rife for multiplayer is expensive to get. Damn, I should have pre-ordered the art book. I thought I _got_ the art book with my CE but it was a miniature version, that was saddening.
* The lack of a "Don't Fear the Reaper" reference is hard to forgive, guys. : P Would have been a good achievement and an anthem, had the ending been happy instead of sad...
* Didn't tell me anything about those Keepers. Hrm. Would have liked to see the vats and weird things they do in private.
BAD
* Lack of _opportunity_to change the outcome of the ending: there needs to be a spectrum of different endings. What we have now is about as grimdark as you can get, but I actually would also like an ending where the Reapers win. In addition to an ending where you survive and are reunited with your crew and LI. I always felt like playing these games that Shepard and my friends' ultimate destination was going to depend on my choices, which made them very important. Having it not be that way made me feel impotent and sad.
* Catalyst's existence: him coming out of nowhere is so out of place in the series. It doesn't help what he says consists of insane troll logic you can't even disagree with and consenting to his choices is agreeing with the idea synthetics and AI can't get along, which RUNS COUNTER TO EVERYTHING YOU KNOW about EDI and the Geth/Quarian alliance.
* Destroying the Mass Relays is not foreshadowed at all for such a universe sundering event. As others have pointed out, killing the relay system means lots of starvation for your dextro-DNA friends like Tali and Garrus, the probable ultimate demise of the volus and just undercuts the whole main part of the game. You spent the whole game uniting people and showing hope was viable: that genophage cure scene is one of the most inspirational things ever. That is followed up by that? It's so depressing. We're fans of the universe and the people in it, the races and societies, and while I wouldn't have minded major changes the killing of relays without a clear replacement or explanation of how travel or communication is possible is just too much, it kills the future of the survivors too much. I'd really like to see a way to save the relays or at least get another way of travel that is slower or something. I feel bad all the quarians who got their homeworld back end up on Earth starving without dextro food.
* The catalyst should have been Harbinger appealing to you about why to save the Reapers or something. Really, the lack of Harbinger was depressing. Everyone expected a confrontation with him. I was OK without their being a boss fight but some kind of "boss interaction" with Harbinger would have been cool, like the Rannoch Reaper. I would like to see Harbinger humbled and unable to process the fact the Reapers have been defeated, "This is...impossible" as he died or something, his AI brain rejecting reality even as he dies. Would have been a great moment.
* Tali's face not being modelled in game. After I got the picture I expected this to happen during the romance scene, and then when it didn't happen there at the epilogue. That it wasn't revealed was a let down.
* The romance scene with Liara was good, but not because "lol she had less clothes" but because it was more intimate. The other scenes (Tali's in ME3 is worse than in ME2 and feels like a step back, people showering in their underwear) could have been better.
* Mac Walters tweeted most of the people on the Citadel died. The Citadel was the only hub world in the game, I spent hours of time there trying to help people and taking care of problems. Then everyone there ends up dead? It feels like everything I did is ultimately pointless. The Reapers could have kept the people there alive to harvest them.
* The endings are ambigious as to their ultimate consequences: am I controlling the Reapers forever, or just telling them to move away for now? What does synthesis do to everyone and how can a machine even magically alter DNA? When I pick the destroy ending and live, where the hell am I? Why doesn't denoating the relays cause supernovas like in Arrival? Wouldn't the Citadel being blown up and dropping on Earth like it does in destroy ultimately kill everyone on Earth? Why did Joker seem to commit treason by leaving prematurely and how did my squad magically teleport to the Normandy, weren't they on Earth a moment ago? What happened to all the characters and races that were the focal point of the game? How will people and races live without access to exo-suits, anti-biotics, special food and medication? The only reasonable assumption I can make is the death of the quarians, turians, volus as well as general starvation. I won a "future" here but all I know about it is that it seems bleak as hell for not only the people but franchise itself, if it must be grimdark can't some of the unnecessary ultradoom be dispelled? Speculating on who is going to control the political pie of the future universe between the rachni, krogan, can geth/quarian peace last, etc. That kind of speculation would have been good, not "what way will people die?"
* In general, the ending is a thematic shift that violates the prior premises of "your choice matters, hope, overcoming the odds." We survived a suicide mission. We were all supposed to die. Why wasn't the ending more like ME2 on a grander, unbelievable scale? I cannot imagine the emotional rush that would have come from defeating the Reapers and seeing the humilation of Harbinger.
* When I had to pick between saving the Collector base or not, it was very hard. When I had to pick if to kill or rewrite the heretics, it was very hard because I knew it would affect ME3 and the fate of the quarians, who I care about. I was tempted to kill Mordin even because of the need to defeat the Reapers (I didn't) and I thought Mordin was awesome and sympathisize with the Krogan. But I was tempted! That was an accomplishment. When I go to the Catalyst, and he ranted off options the fact he existed disoriented me because it was so out of place. He began to run off options and they were all "you will die and the relays will be blown up in everyone." I was trying to process the information and instead of making a compelling choice, I was instead asked to pick the food coloring to my general failure to preserve civilization. It was supposed to be a moment of ultimate triumph but it felt like everything I did mattered not at all and there was nothing personally at stake in my decision. A real choice could have been amazing: you can live with your LI and crew, but you have to give the Reapers to TIM. Otherwise you must die to save us. I don't necessarily want that choice but it is an example of: if Shepard dies, his sacrifices means something (stops galatic dictator) instead of (die because you have to die). There was no weight to my decision at the end because I was resigned to pick between doom-a, doom-b, doom-c.
* I would have been fine with, by the way, if there was no choice at the ending at all. If choice must exist, it needs to be good. But if the ending is determined by your prior actions and EMS? I wouldn't be mad with not having a choice. My choice was all the actions from ME1, 2 and 3. Really having a static choice at the end seems to invalidate the idea the prior choices matter since you get the same options regardless of your actions. The horror of consequence would have been fine.
* Probably the worst part of all is how Shepard dies. Mordin's sacrifice was one of the most beautiful things in Mass Effect 3. Shepard doesn't choose to die, he is told he has to die because of arbitrary reasons that seem to have no connection to the prior plot or necessity. A sacrifice means less when he has to always make the sacrifice: he didn't even have the opportunity for selfishness. Mordin chooses to die even when you make a paragon interrupt. Usually interrupts are like, "get what you want" buttons (which is OK) and the fact Mordin overrode even your order was so powerful. His death had weight, when my Shepard died it felt out of nowhere and that I didn't ultimately choose to let go of the character.
* People ask you if you fight for individuals or for all people in ME. I always answered, "for individuals." Tali was my LI and at the end where you prep for the final fight, she says "I want more time." I was fighting for more time. I was stunned no matter what, I couldn't get "more time" for our future and with the crew. I expected to see them again after this was all over. The people, the crew have always been the focal point of ME. ME2 is a game dedicated entirely to your crew, every mission and the end is about you and your relation to the crew. Why leave that theme at the end, along with the themes of hope and beating the odds that show up in defeating Sovereign and ransacking the Collector Base?
* Even beyond an individual basis, I do care about people's general races because I care about the individuals. I care about the turians because I care about Garrus, the quarians because I care about Tali. Because it affects them negatively it matters to me what happens to these groups of people beyond the obvious "I don't want people to suffer." The universe itself has been a place of interest and wonder to me and to see everyone broken apart makes me feel like ME died, that all the stories are over. Couldn't the spoils of war waited for the next Mass Effect game? The ending of this trilogy shouldn't be impacted by the needs of the next. This its own arc and it needs to have its own conclusion, lest a vicious cycle be born of killing ends to preserve a future for the next game. I'm OK with saying goodbye to Shepard, I just want to see him in better health and spirits when I do.
* When the crew is stranded with Joker in the destroy ending, it feels like Joker stole my girl Bioware. That's not cool, guys. :V In all seriousness, if you were going to strand my crew? Why not at least strand Shepard with the Normandy? That puts an end to his adventures at least with his friends. (I am not suggesting I want a DLC where you just strand Shepard with the crew. That would be a good possible ending.)
* It seems mean to declare that the geth and quarians have a future where they can both live on Rannoch united, and even without needing suits, and that I can build that house with Tali...then give me choices where the only way I survive is to kill the geth (no suit fix) and to be caught on rubble on Earth far away from Tali and the crew, who are now permanently stranded on a planet without anti-biotics medication and without food for dextro people. Tali and the quarians will never see Rannoch again because of the death of the relays - doesn't that sound rather cruel given how uplifting that Rannoch scene was? I felt like all the great moments of the game were turned against me at the end, which is made it so bad because I and the crew had so much to live for to see it all fail. Ultimately, the lack of a suit fix is a minor aspect, the whole "you can build a house/here's your homeworld back" trolling is more annoying.
* It's lame that every cutscene at the end is pretty much the same, but it would be fine if at least something very different occurred after the static cutscene. In one ending, it fails and the Reapers win. In another Shepard died killing the Reapers, but the relays lived and civilization lived on. Here Shepard had to choose to kill the relays so he could live personally because he was selfish. Here Shepard got a happy paragon ending without compromise and rode off into the sunset, because he made good choices. Here Shepard fell into temptation of evil and decided to use the Reapers as his own thralls. These don't have to be the endings, I don't care really specifically to have a detailed 1 for 1 list of "endings must have." There just needs to be _represented_ ultimate divergance based on what came before.
* Marauder Shields, as much as I love him, is not enough as a final confrontation. TIM would have been fine actually if you had encountered Harbinger before. I had expectations of seeing Harbinger. Really, I guess, there isn't a moment of "oh wow, oh wow, YESSSS I'm triumphing, I did it!" that came when I killed Saren or escaped the base. I don't need Kai Leng 2.0, but maybe Rannoch Reaper 2.0: that brief boss fight was both tense and rewarding, and I would have been fine with that.
* I spent the whole game collecting war assets. Ultimately they didn't change much. It's hard to replay the game and make decisions know I know the assets change very little, undercuts the whole aspect of choice in the game.
* Where's my dark matter, dude? Every time I replay ME2 it's going to be weird to see these plot threads just evaporate into thin air. All those people died on Haestrom for nothing? This would be good comic material or DLC. (Or new ending fodder.)
* Seriously, I can't express enough how everything the Catalyst says is insane troll logic. Why not kill the synthetics if they get too powerful? Isn't the catalyst and reapers a synthetic presence themselves, so wait, doesn't it show synthetics can exist without obliterating people? Doesn't the theme of the whole game, unity, disprove the catalyst? Why the hell does Shepard listen to and accept this bad logic? It's coming from the master of the Reapers! Life would better if this was just indoctrination and it was undone. And I'd get crazy chills if the catalyst got the Harbinger eyes, that would turn something awful into the greatest swerve ever.
* The Reapers were cooler when they were individual nations, independant. The Catalyst's existence makes them less cool. It just wasn't necessary.
* The Rannoch Reaper was neat but there just wasn't enough interaction with the Reapers. I get you were being wise by adding "emotive" antagonists for most of the game but there needed to be more Reaper interaction. I know I was expecting to talk to Harbinger.
* The worst thing of all, period: beyond even ME3, ME1 and 2 are sunk to me. It is actually really sad and depressing to play those games now. I talk to characters and they speak of hope and it's like, "Awww, man. This means nothing." I feel like so much means nothing, so many choices I made that are hard now when I see them, I think "this means nothing" and I actually get depressed playing it. I can't really pick up any of the games and play them again, even though I used to love making different choices and importing. It's harsh, the whole lens you look over the series with is tainted and drags everything about Mass Effect down. So much you accomplished means nothing in the end, it changes nothing about your ultimate choices. I feel hopeless and helpless in these games and that's not good.
* If you have to keep the current ending, could you at least explain how the hell it works and what happens? Can Shepard talk to Tali via QTE, email? Can he get to Garrus and Joker? Like, what does this mean for galaxy other than complete doom? It seems to be written into a hell corner where all suffer, which is awful!
Speculation can be good, but not when I have to make three choices that seem awfully similar with disasterous results and I don't know enough information to make a clear choice. I shouldn't have to speculate, "Errr, which of these would I actually WANT to ever pick?"
CONCLUSION AND MAIN POINT
The game is really, really good. I loved this game. I loved this series. I hated this ending. A lot.
Please give us a spectrum of ending choices. Let us stop the stranding of everyone apart from one another. You can make getting the "perfect" ending hard, but I'd like it to exist. It would be so cool for Shepard and Tali building a house on Rannoch. That would be a good way to close Shepard's career. I'd just like the option, even if my Shepard failed and died several times trying. The canon for a future ME game can be whatever, just let me pick my modular end to my canon in this Shepard arc.
I believe in Bioware as a company and have no personal resentment towards anyone. You created my favorite game series, my favorite piece of fiction. You've listened to our concerns in the past and delievered us many cool things before. I only ask for a new ending because I have insane amounts of respect for this company's ability to create great things. That's why I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition to this game in October, the only game I have ever pre-ordered and the only CE I ever bought. I knew this game was a special event.
I believe the ending was a mistake, and mistakes happen. I would just like to see it be rectified and for everyone to be happy, both the fans AND the developers. I'd like Bioware to succeed and be prosperous as well as I'd like to see the same thing in game. Real life has happy endings sometimes too. I believe this will work out in the end for everyone.
COMPLETELY UNRELATED:
This is hilarious
https://twitter.com/#!/HarbyTheReaper Maybe Bioware should do stuff like this officially?
Modifié par PKchu, 17 mars 2012 - 07:54 .
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