I've been playing the Mass Effect games since Mass Effect 1 was released. Knights of the Old Republic is still my favorite game of all time, and when Bioware released a sci-fi RPG that wasn't a Knights of the Old Republic squeal, I was very disappointed. But I felt I had to give it a try anyway.
From the start, you could see the same KotOR game play and mechanics in Mass Effect, only it was evolving and maturing. Same with the story telling. Mass Effect was the next generation of what I've come to recognize as the Bioware way. You can see it in all their games (Dragon Age, The Old Republic, and the Mass Effect series). Each new game is a refinement of the style, and Bioware's style is the best in gaming.
Anyway, back to the point. I loved Mass Effect. KotOR was still my first love, but Mass Effect was my new obsession. I have no idea how many times I played through it. I nearly cried when my computer hard drive crashed and I lost all my save games.
Mass Effect 2 was a continued refinement of Bioware's game making mastery. I think the walking conversation between Liara and Shepard on the balcony in the Shadow Broker DLC is one of the greatest storytelling sequences in the history of gaming. I've played through ME2 again and again.
I couldn't wait for Mass Effect 3. I envisioned myself playing ME1, ME2, and ME3 back to back to back like watching a movie trilogy over and over again. Then, Mass Effect 3 came out, and I started playing.
It was continued refinement of the Bioware style. The multiplayer part worried me. I didn't want to have to play multiplayer to get the best ending. Multiplayer wasn't a part of the story. It wasn't in ME1 or ME2. It was an unwelcome visitor in the game franchise that I loved. But I put aside my misgivings and just played the single player.
The whole time I played, I played with trepidation. I was afraid to play the game too fast, because once it was over, it was over. There's only ever one first time, and no matter how good the ending was, there would never be another new Mass Effect game with Commander Shepard. I was kind of afraid to play because I didn't want it to end, but I played on.
The entire time I played, the emotion of the past several years kept building and building and building. Then the end was in sight. All those years waiting. All those hours playing. That time wondering and daydreaming about what would happen. What would my ending be like? I had been told I was crafting my story through my choices, after all. Not to mention all the money spent. I bought every game (twice...I actually lost my ME1 and ME2 discs in a move, so I repurchased them for a second time off Steam), every DLC, every book, every comic. I even bought a ME2 t-shirt. All that emotional build up was about to come to a climax at the end.
And then I got...that. That utter let down that was the realization that no matter what I did, how hard I tried to find everything, do everything, make all the right choices...that nothing I did was going to affect the end of the game. After ME1 and ME2, I felt great. I was the conquering hero who'd just pulled off the impossible and came out alive. And here...the climax of all those years and all that emotion...and it's a depressing, “Sorry, no happy ending for you, and you can't do anything about it!” The bottom of my stomach just dropped out. I wanted to vomit.
Now, 24 hours later, I still can't look at the Mass Effect logo and not feel like I want to vomit. Instead of coming out of the game feeling sky high happy and excited with all the built up emotion of years, screaming about how great the ME franchise is, all the emotion just turned into dark, negative feelings about the game franchise I once loved. Why would I want to play a game and spend all that time and money to feel like that?
I'm sorry I didn't like the endings. I wanted to love this game. I wanted it to be great. But I feel like I've wasted so much time now on this franchise. If I'd known it was going to end this way, I would have never even started playing. I feel like it was all for nothing. Maybe someday I can play the game again, but right now, just thinking about it makes me sick.
Anyway, as I said in the beginning, I just wanted somewhere at Bioware to know how I felt, and this was the only place I knew to come and pass along my experience with the Mass Effect franchise and what I thought of it's ending. If this isn't the right place, I apologize for wasting everyone's time.
I think I'll go play through KotOR again.
Edited in an attempt to fix the formatting.
Modifié par Creylin, 05 avril 2012 - 04:14 .
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