Xion66 wrote...
So, after spending a few moments clearing my head of the whole ending/DLC debacle i've finally decided to tackle something that transcends the Mass Effect 3 ending, in fact this is something that while playing the game broke the intense and emotional rollercoaster provided by the story and gameplay, the moments I felt were a bit off but to which I suspended my disbelief putting my trust in the game's writers, ultimately being disappointed.
To me the biggest problem with Mass Effect 3 is not only the ending, it's the whole little obelisks that feel forced, that seemed to try and force you to build connections or are treated with much more input/fleshed out than the average reader/player would ever really want to know or know about.
These writer's pets, or creator's favourites are ultimately ME3's downfall, because they are present at the most glaring moments where the game is at fault, they are elements that feel alien to a highly global variable and interactive experience, and in a character-driven storyline, they are translated into characters, which I'll procceed to point out.
Nº1 Kai Leng, the antagonist of the books and what-not, Kai Leng is highly alien to anyone with less than a passing interest in anything but the games, his sudden importance in the game without any in-game foreshadowing is just a total faux pas, and yet here he is, awkwardly introduced and injected into highly climatic moments of the storyline, when he should have been nothing more than a cameo, in the most emotionally charged moments, and revelation/confrontation situations he is a placeholder for actual villains that the player would want to face in those determined moments.
They try to make you care via established well-liked characters like Anderson, that he is a big deal and relevant, when the player has no emotional invesment in you, they kill off an established well liked-character just to try and give him an actual role, the problem is coming to the closing chapters of a story a.k.a ME3, leaves little room for the introduction of new antagonists that have to compete with well-established threats, even more so, if the only reason they exist is to try and take the spotlight, Kai Leng fails at any of those and players love to hate him not because he's just that kind of character like Loghain in DA, but because he is a poor attempt at trying to pull heartstrings from a guy we're told we should care about.
Add to that he feels awfully misplaced design-wise in the game, and even in the universe's logic. A cyber-ninja fits Ninja Gaiden, it fits Metal Gear Solid, but Mass Effect? Jesus even Kasumi was eh at first, but ninja's?
Nº2 Liara T'soni Liara is the definition of a writer's pet. She was incredibly awkward/blank slated personality wise in ME1, her reedeming qualites as a character were her plot-device needs and the fact she is easily the most upfront LI, however in ME2 we see this clear attempt at trying to inject some relevance into her character, so we witness a contrived twist to make her likeable, in a semi-renegade vigilante type of model that completely dismisses what little personality she has, while tying her once again to the plot for no other reason but to make her relevant.
But I can deal, I mean only one more character to like right? Well then comes ME3, where she suddenly takes another sidestep in personality, and loses the whole vigilante/pseudo-renegade personality and becomes a much more prevalent plot device, as well as the most important confident for Shepard, not your LI's not even your best squadmates, it's Liara who gets all the importat introspective and confessions from Shepard, no matter what, you are forced into acting like you share the deepest connection to Liara, when you may even not like her, adding to this you share with her some of the most intimate/emotionally moving moments of the game when in some cases you barely can have a chit-chat with your LI's (poor ME2 romancers)
Liara serves as a plot device and as Shepard's main pillar of strength wether you like it or not, you will get thrown into moving speeches, heartfelt moments, and even almost romantic scenes when you might not even romance her, if Bioware thinks about a cannon LI you can sure as hell be certain it's Liara, I mean even if I threw the black box at her face she'd still want me to put all my memories inside.
Nº3 The Illusive Man/Cerberus Remember in ME1 who Cerberus was? A bunch of colour-swapped mooks that you ran over for quick XP, then remember when ME2 rolled in and all of a sudden they were this big shadow corp, with an anti-Shepard leader, and apparently a big ****ing deal even though they just seemed like amateur mad scientists?
I enjoy TIM, I really do, I think he invokes the best and worse of mankind in one character, as well as being the perfect counter-point to Shepard, and retaining an antagonist, mysterious facade. Well, I guess Bioware thought the same because the game that should have been about the Reapers sounded more like TIM & the other guys who show up at the end.
Not only was the already Cerberus has extensive funding and are totally badass plot kind of thin back in the end of ME2, ME3 comes around and stretches and procceeds to break the fine line between suspension of disbelief for narrative purposes to just throw logic out of the airlock.
Not only does TIM's never ending amount of resources expand, it's also passed on that they can apparently be a shadow organization that cares for only one race, but still fight off all galactic civilizations, with an elite army while every project they conduct blows in their faces time after time, and still can find a way to have tactical strikes, and be one step ahead of you, I know the man is loaded but please don't try and convince me it's not ridiculous that he can afford and get that many mooks specially after losing so many assets.
Lastly, TIM completely overshadows the series main antagonist, just because he is needed to fill in and add content between all of the major plot points diminishing his uniqueness as a character, and reaching the point of being a free-narrative-flow-maintainer card. His and Cerberus role in ME3 should have been smaller but on the large scale of things bigger, people wanted more TIM, but this way he ended up being banalized, and with that much of his mystique.
He's also responsible for introducing Kai Leng to ME3, so -1 point.
Nº4 Earth Kid/Catalawsgeuywrgz Even before the game came out there was a big issue that people took with the leaks of the ME3's plot, there was this kid that acted as a plot device that for the first time made Shepard doubt himself/herself, and apparently traumatizing her/him. This after being a war hero watching team members die, people he cared for getting shafted, and dying. It's this one kid that we are spoon fed through an entire game to try and justify Shepard's introspective self-doubt.
Not possibly killing your comrade on Virmire, sacrificing another one, not even seeing what the Collectors did, we are shoved various times during ME3 that it's this kid that made Shepard snap, now this is just ridiculous.
The whole introduction of the character before the twist was already awkward and alien, the dream sequences feel dettached from the narrative-style and the dimensions of the story and Shepard as a character, plus the writing feels really subpar in those moments as well as way too much leaning towards the melodromatic.
There's this scene that was cut from ME3 where Shepard while awaiting trials deals with his own mortality and what it meant to be revived, and how he felt about who he/she was, this was great writing this could flesh out the main character while allowing for a dialogue between the character (avatar with specific personality traits) and his conscious (the morality/personality of the character a.k.a) the player, this could have provided all the justification for self-doubt that Shepard feels upon failure, and could have worked in so many ways for scenes with LI's or even Joker after Thessia, but the writer's wanted the kid so they shoved him in, no matter how tacked on he felt, no matter how counter-flow he was.
Nº5 The Ending Oh What a Twist, I went there. No matter how much I harp on the different characters above, there's a bigger culprit in all of this mess, the true definition of a writer's pet something that only someone who wrote it and a few others can relate to, that break all narrative and theme logic of a trilogy and a story and decide at the last end that the ending for everyone's journey is something overrated, an ending to their story and a personal take on a very global moment of the game takes a whole personal and 'I want this ending to say: I own this story, I own you' route.
No matter it's redeeming values as writing (if it has any) the fact is, this ending is not the logical end to the story, it's not even the logical continuity of the 30 seconds prior, it isn't relatable, it's consequences are unforseeable and speculative, it's not open-ended it's speculation through omission and continuity/plot flaws, it is something highly cerebral and personal when it should have been something highly relatable and emotional, and that kind of ending is something only someone set on having it because it's how they want can like, something only people that want a twist with a dark and gritty atmosphere, this is the vision of forced bittersweetness, you clearly see the writer's intentions it breaks immersion to have these many things happening just because, and that's why it fails, it overrides player input and makes it an entity outside of the reader's journey.
Thank you for your time.
I havn't got any real problems with Liara, sure she wasn't like I expected in ME2, but then again all the killing and danger and crazy things she had gone through.. It's only natural that she looses her innosence. I can't see how anyone can remain a shy uncertain kid after all that. Least she didn't loose her mind completely.
Kai Lang.... I didn't mind, he was TIM's replacement for Shepard, yet he doesn't seem entirerly convinced hes a better fighter than Shepard, all he had to say when Kai Lang was trying to play though about his chances was, we will see. and didn't look like he belived that.
As for TIM and his resources and manpower... In the game you can see that they got a fast way of taking controll over people, called integration, a kind of indoctrination. If they need money and resources they indoctrinate a wealthy bussiness owner, Human, Volus, Asari, who ever has what they need.. Nearly unlimited resources. As for troops they attack colonies and turns civilions into shocktroops, guardians, engineers what ever they need, imprinting fighting skills into people who has never held a gun before. Very disturbing but efficient. Not unlike how the reapers create husks, they just don't go quite as far in the conversion. In the cerberus base you can see one of their doctors/scientists beign concerned about the possibility of the Reapers taking controll of their troops.
Eventualy TIM goes through a procedure like that just before you attack his base, beliving it will allow him to control the reapers, the end result is that the Reapers control over him just got even stronger with the new implants.
TIM makes sense, I can accept it, Liara is acceptable, I actualy liked Liara. Kai Lang... I didnt mind about Kai Lang one way or another, Thanes death was fair and a good ending, remember Thane was supposed to be dead already according to the doctors.. I do think Team Shepard should have done more to help out though. Could be that they were too busy guarding the councilor ensuring that the assassin didn't jump him in the turmoil. They probably belived Thane stood a better chance than he did considering he was dying and told you he was having problems running due to his condition.
The kid on earth was ok, however the dreams I must admit were a little less interesting, even with the back chatter and remembering past events from whispers.
I can see what the writers want to accomplish and I think the idea is good but I coudl have done with out those dream sequences imo. Shepard in his bed with dreamlike nightmare voices would have been enough for people to get it.
Running in slowmotion wasn't realy entertaining, especialy on a replay.
The end mission on earth seemed like it needed more, or maybe a distraction mission before the final assault to lure the reapers forces away from london, go in stealthed cause some problems else where to clear a path, maybe sabotage reaper positions... Or maybe make the rest of the crew more active in the push for the beam like with the collector base, and seeing your war assets at work, maybe a few decisions along the way or a word in the overall planning. More over head air battles maybe since this is the biggest battles of all time, maybe some fighters and reaper flyers crashing into buildings.
I know it would take time and resources but it feelt like soemtihng was missing from the big end battle that everyone was waiting for since ME1..
After the magic elevator in the citadel where you get transported where the citadel and the crucible has conected.. The conversation with the reaper leader is what hurts the most of all... I know Shepard cant shoot a hologram... But my shepard should have a few more words with that evil reaper leader, it's like hitler, stalin and all other mass genocidal massmurdering leaders multiplied infinately.... And despite it's deceptive nature Shepard treats it like a helpful trusted friend with few objections... Bloodloss/indoctrination? or just poor writing and rushed conversation options? also the ending gave a minimal of closure and explaining of the end for the end of a trilogy and saga that's actualy pretty complex... The end scene creates more questions than it answers imo... Is this an endign to a trilogy or a cliffhanger tellign people : Stay tuned for all the answers as Shepard tries to bring clarity to this mess once s/he has recived medical attention....
These are my honest thoughts on the topic. There was a lot I liked in this game but the endign wasn't one of them, sure I didn't like the idea that you had to kill the geth and that option was the only action that created a save game for export. Though yet again I don't know if the geth are truly destroyed sicne the catalyst sugests shepard could die from the destroy option. If the geth are obliterated then I find it sad for the future of the ME universe, it will be a much emptier place, the geth and rachni were two of the more unique lifeforms of this universe.
Retour en haut
Maybe 
'' even if you were completely rude with him in the first game.
