One of my most interesting moments in gaming was the moment I finished Mass Effect 3, I thought "well, they certainly stuck the landing." and boy did absolutely no one else agree
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Mass Effect 1, you can probably make do with a summary, but I would implore you to play ME2 before jumping straight to 3. Strongest in the trilogy, could stand entirely on its own.
ME2 has no plot, all of 4 story missions, is nothing but side quests to build a team, and literally has no impact on 3. It massively downgraded the actual rpg mechanics that were present in 1, completely ignored lore, introduced unneeded ammo.
Listen I still have issues with the overall direction of 3 and the way it jettisoned a lot of plot threads from the first two games (FUNNY HOW DARK MATTER COMES UP A LOT IN 2 HUH?) and I fucking HATE the leviathans but I still stand by that ending in emotional terms.
I will never forget the vitriol in the GameFAQs forums for being on the side of enjoying the conclusion of Mass Effect 3 and thinking the Indoctrination Theory was goofy.
it felt like people were mad that there wasn't like a fallout-style slideshow showcasing how the galaxy turned out or something. but your choices obviously mattered, there was different stuff happening the entire game based on them! the journey was important.
Holy shit you too? We might be the only ones. I never even played the expanded ending, and when I finally saw it I thought it was hackeneyed like the voice over at the end of Blade Runner.
Was this back when the game first released or later after all the DLC had dropped? I think I would have disliked the ending if it had been pre-DLC (I like the big speech a crewmember gives at the end of the game)
Yeah, I'm sorry, I still don't. The least satisfying ending, possibly ever. All those decisions leading up to...3 colors that all display ever so slightly different outcomes.
Honest question. What ending were you expecting to get with the species eradicating AI super machines that wasn't synthesis, destruction, control, or repeat the cycle?
Obviously we've all had a lot of time to go over this. I honestly don't know what I expected, but it wasn't the star child whittling EVERYTHING down to red, green, or blue...maube an epic battle, using the mcguffin to ultimately push the reapers back and save the universe. I don't know.
I truly don't know how people can still think the ending is just red, green, or blue. Each of those endings have vastly different implications for the universe at large along with the refusal ending choice as well
Except they really don't. Destruction should have been the answer but the star kid throws in that it ends all synthetic life so Edi & the Geth are toast and it just feels bad.
Blue and Green are the exact same ending except one version has green glowing leaves and people and the other doesn't.
Finally, the one they added after people had a fit, was even less satisfying because shooting the kid and/or just straight up refusing is such a lazy cop out & resolves nothing, like, what was ALL that build up for? Where was the satisfying ending that covers the choices you made along the way?
You're still conflating the Extended Cut with the original ending, which is what's actually being discussed here. Not only are the implications not "vastly different" based on what little you *do* see, there's no explanation - none at all - as to what any of what it means.
Honest answer: at no point in Mass Effect 3 does anyone other than the Illusive Man say "Hey, maybe we should try controlling the Reapers." Synthesis has even less space to establish itself as a possibility, let alone something the people of the galaxy should be striving for.
The only throughline, across the entire game, is that the Reapers have to be destroyed. So it's not inaccurate to say that at the very *least*, the ending suddenly posits new options that were either already debunked or were never even considered in the first place.
None of that answered the question. What ending were you expecting other than the 4 options we got when all 3 games set the stage that we cannot beat the reapers conventionally but we have to beat them or the galaxy gets wiped?
Because you're asking the wrong question. Again, there weren't four options, there were three; and of those three, you spend the entirety of ME3 building a superweapon that will destroy the Reapers. That's the stated goal, hence the expectation is set. When were other possibilities even considered?
I didnt play ME3 until many years later, like in 2018 or 19. I called my dad after and said "is this really what people were up in arms about?"
Reminded me of how people were enraged by Telltale's TWD ending. "Your choices dont matter!"
Yeah, bc its still a linear story??
For me I enjoyed it until the final two hours where a lot suddenly looked to be cut & decisions didn't make sense. I also wanted tougher choices but going full paragon could just talk you're way out of any scenario like with the geth or Quarians. By the end my decisions didn't feel that impactful.
I've said this for years. Idk what ending other people were expecting. The games were all very clear that either the reapers go or everyone else does, and that's what the choices gave us and then some
I thought the ending was solid and left a lot open for interpretation. Then we saw a fanbase tear itself apart with weird conspiracies about the ending and even the development.
The Reaper indoctrination theories were kinda interesting, but also completely bonkers.
That’s the thing that always killed me about folks going on about “why didn’t my choices matter” like yeah they did they kept putting them throughout the game. If you saved the rachni in mass effect 1 there’s a whole thing you do in mass effect 3. I don’t know why it would come back again.
I thought it was a good ending for a game series, but a bad end for the Mass Effect series. It just felt disappointing after all of the excitement and build up of imported decisions and your storyline and interactions changing based on previous choices
I was honestly shocked when everyone hated it. I played it right at launch, read no-ones responses while I was playing, and like... it landed really heavily emotionally. I thought it was great. Anything other than bittersweet at the end would have felt wrong.
I’ll agree that the tone was what it should have been, but my issue was that it was a simple trinary choice that factored in none of what I had done before.
Even then, there were other things that could have been done to liven up the ending and add some peril.
I finished it at like 4:30am too, utterly exhausted, running out of energy and kind of fried, so the distance between myself and the character was a smidge closer, and it was perfect.
They promised in the marketing for the game that every choice of every game would matter. On youtube you can find the original ending, they added a dlc that comes prepatched into the legendary edition after the backlash
Holy shit, someone else out there who didn't hate it with the rest of the masses? I didn't understand why anyone was negative about it until it was overexplained to me and I still think it was weenie mob mentality.
I was totally fine with the ending! I *did* appreciate the stuff the extended cut added. But boy oh boy was I perplexed by the overwhelmingly negative reaction to that ending.
I don’t want to piss in your punchbowl — if you liked it, you liked it. But I thought it felt a little hollow that all the choices you made just added to a score that walled off one of the endings.
Also, no explicitly renegade ending (grab Liara, load the Normandy with box wine and run away).
I did; I loved the entire series from opening to final ending. I got why ppl were upset maybe with the final like, TEN minutes but... gods, the way you can effect the stories of so many people and species and tie those loose ends up however you rolled by the end of part 3 was just such rare magic.
I couldn't imagine being so upset at the ending that it made the journey worthless. Mordin, Garrus, Grunt, Wrex, Legion, Tali, Liara, Jacob, Miranda, Kasumi, Zaeed, Jack, Samara, Thane, James, Edi, and Javik deserved far better than that slander! Ashley and Kaidan were there too somewhere, I guess.
When I finished Mass Effect 3 it was quite late and I had to go to bed straight after - work in the morning. I remember it so well because I couldn't sleep. I was laid in bed and I couldn't stop thinking about how much I hated the ending. I was awake for hours. Really vivid memory.
I was also incredibly shocked when I finished the game, and also thought the ending was perfect only to check the internet the next day to see how insanely upset people were about it. I still don’t get why they were so mad about it. It was emotionally impactful and just…perfect.
Oh I agree. And I feel like the collective tantrum and BioWare’s seeming folding (I know this is more complicated and there were things going on internally with the ending and release) was a terrible precedent to set for gaming as an art form.
The complaint that your choices didn’t matter in the end. Well yeah who you romance isn’t really going to affect a planet scourge. And what people wanted (and what BioWare kind of promised) an incredible number of meaningful endings influenced by your choices over 3 games was impossible in 2012
It’s close to impossible now. BG3 is the closest I’ve played to a game that tries to achieve that sort of open ended game. And it a) still funnels players to the climactic end b) mostly represents these endings with slid in clips c) has a bunch of places where the narrative snags if you misplay.
Can't tell, I got the game pretty late and played the patched version with all the DLCs and was fine with the ending. I had no idea what the original ending was like and did not care to research.
ME was phenomenal, and I played the original ending and cried so hard. I DID feel my choices mattered! You get emails from all the folks you saved in the previous games until that final choice.
It's like real life. In the end, do our choices matter? Only as much as we put in, I think.
I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't think it was good. That said, I still haven't gone back to play it after they "fixed" it, so I don't actually know which version I'd prefer.
Comments
I sat there in shock for a good hour after b/c I was overwhelmed with the emotional beats of it all.
The how and why of your Shepard’s sacrifice *IS* the ending.
It’s the worst of the franchise.
The final act of ME1 is absolutely incredible.
And ME2 is probably the best in the trilogy, and one of the best games ever made.
Blue and Green are the exact same ending except one version has green glowing leaves and people and the other doesn't.
1/2
2/3
https://youtu.be/rPelM2hwhJA?si=QF592x8ZYTM4S_LA
Reminded me of how people were enraged by Telltale's TWD ending. "Your choices dont matter!"
Yeah, bc its still a linear story??
The Reaper indoctrination theories were kinda interesting, but also completely bonkers.
And the music in ME3 was honestly the best in the entire series. Terrific game.
Even then, there were other things that could have been done to liven up the ending and add some peril.
Funny how it added what I was already thinking, but dimbulbs needed it spoon-fed to them because they can't think for themselves.
But can never be friends because there is obviously something seriously wrong with you.😝
Also, no explicitly renegade ending (grab Liara, load the Normandy with box wine and run away).
If you were a Star Wars guy, yeah, it'd be a letdown.
Then i started reading about it on the internet! I eventually decided argumentum ad populum and still see it as one of the most poignant moments.
Me2, your crew survived, one by one, based upon your decisions leading up to the end.
Other games often have a multiple epilogues to wrap up plot threads.
Me3 just let you pick 1 of 3, with barely any closure of other threads.
It's like real life. In the end, do our choices matter? Only as much as we put in, I think.