To start, I felt that the game’s last mission on Earth was one of the best of the entire series. Fighting through the streets of London provided a distinct setting for some of the most harrowing combat segments of the game, and I thought the dialogue sections when saying your last goodbye’s to squad-mates and confronting the
Illusive Man were very well-portrayed.
Of course, the scenes that most of us can agree were less than spectacular lie just after Shepard is raised up to the top of the Citadel. While the most common complaints I’ve seen about the ending come from the “A, B, or C” ending decision and a general lack of clarity and closure on events such as the destruction of the Mass Relays, neither of these issues resonated with me in any significant way, and I’ll explain why in the next two paragraphs.
For a trilogy that was continually punctuated with tough decisions and player choices, I found it to be a bold and fitting move by Bioware to rest the fate of an entire galaxy upon a singular choice. Also, from a design perspective, the length of time it took Shepard to walk across each bridge before making the final decision caused me to keep second guessing in my head whether I was making the right decision or not for my character, so it definitely drew me in the experience.
As far as the lack of closure goes in the final scenes, I kind of liked the open-endedness of the story at the game’s conclusion because I feel like the search to discover the consequences of Shepard’s decisions on
the fate of the different species in the galaxy would have made for a great starting point in a new adventure in the Mass Effect universe, if not for Bioware already stating that the next game won’t be a direct sequel to the
events of this trilogy. The apparent similarities between the three possible ending choices suggest this to me as well.
What I did find quite disappointing, however, is how Bioware chose to characterize a random young boy as the Catalyst of the Reaper cycle. In a series that has so many recurring characters and themes, with a prime example being Conrad Verner’s story arc, the big reveal about the Reapers’ origins and purpose comes from a
poorly-acted minor character who only takes up around 10 minutes of total screen time in the game, with half of that coming from a few repetitive and uneventful dream sequences. (On a side note, I really liked the idea and placement of the dreams but found them underwhelming due to the lack of tie-in to locations and characters from the main story.)
To be honest, I feel that the child was a superfluous addition to the story, especially when you consider that his role could have been filled in a far more menacing fashion by the Harbinger itself, who was notably underutilized as the face of the Reapers in this game. Think about it, the dream sequences could have been portrayed as Shepard trying to fight Reaper indoctrination, and a face-to-face conversation at the top of the Citadel with Harbinger would have tied the ending in very well with numerous other events from the trilogy, from the first Reaper hologram encountered on Virmire in ME1 to the possessed Collectors in ME2 and even the finale of ME2’s Arrival DLC.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! Whether you agree or disagree with what I’ve posted, feel free to reply and let me know your thoughts on what I have to say. I’ll be sure to update this post once I have a chance to play the Extended Cut ending and see if any of the issues I brought up were adjusted.
Modifié par sTkrZX5, 14 janvier 2014 - 12:21 .
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