Mass Effect 3 endings discussion (spoilers)

[Soda Jones]

I was not happy with the endings.

What are your thoughts?




I was thinking about what endings it should have had.

One outcome should have been that you can't defeat the reapers. You must fight to give the next 50k cycle the best possible chance of defeating the reapers by importing your memories and info onto the prothean memory chip that Javick (the Prothean) has the option of giving you before you land on Earth and then maybe finding a place to hide the crucible and it ends with you and your team dying to hide and preserve the info or ends with you and your team on the run as the galaxy falls.

Another possible ending, you open the citadel and the crucible docks with the citadel. A button pops up at the control screen, shepard hits the button and it cuts to black. The post-credits scene ends with the child asking the old man "what happened?" and the old man answers "that's a story for another time"

[Variation-XBA]

I didn't mind the ending to be honest. I chose to sacrifice myself to save everyone, which is very fitting

[Fargoth]

I didn't think it was the worst ending possible, but I definitely think it could have been better. I was excited when I heard 16 possible endings, but yeah.....

I definitely would have just liked to see reapers die, and the aftermath of the races starting to rebuild and the crew just chilling.

[Soda Jones]

I was absolutely in love with the game and the story/character development right up until Shepard is pulled up to the choices room. I think the endings fall flat and are completely forgettable.

I'm fine with shepard having to sacrifice himself or some of his crew or with the option of them living.

I'm not ok with portraying the option of killing the Reapers as the renegade option. The reapers were not performing euthanasia, they are evil and have done terrible things to countless beings. Destroying them is the paragon choice that means saving the galaxy. Does destroying them mean destroying the citadel and the mass effect relays? Fine, I can buy that, but why is Joker and the Normandy peacing out when this happens instead of trying to help the alliance defeat the reapers? It doesn't make sense.

I'm not ok with taking control of the reapers being portrayed as the paragon option. I don't think controlling them should be an option to begin with. I don't think they should be controllable. And if you do have that option it should be portrayed as evil. It should give a different prologue video with the galaxy under your control and the various races lamenting the fact that they have a new and evil dictator who is now in control. You haven't given the galaxy life and freedom, you've become an evil master.

What's most unsatisfying is that all three options end the same way. The reapers are dead or gone, the relays are destroyed, and the team is marooned or dead because for some unknown reason they were flying away from the flight.

What about the team members that are with you until you reach the base of the citadel? They just disappear with no explanation.

Stupid. This was supposed to answer my questions not insult my intelligence with the same ambiguous answer to all 16 "options" for end game.

There's no choice, there's just one stupid ending for the countless decisions and actions made through three games spanning five years.

[Symmetric-XBA]

I was absolutely in love with the game and the story/character development right up until Shepard is pulled up to the choices room. I think the endings fall flat and are completely forgettable.

I'm fine with shepard having to sacrifice himself or some of his crew or with the option of them living.

I'm not ok with portraying the option of killing the Reapers as the renegade option. The reapers were not performing euthanasia, they are evil and have done terrible things to countless beings. Destroying them is the paragon choice that means saving the galaxy. Does destroying them mean destroying the citadel and the mass effect relays? Fine, I can buy that, but why is Joker and the Normandy peacing out when this happens instead of trying to help the alliance defeat the reapers? It doesn't make sense.

I'm not ok with taking control of the reapers being portrayed as the paragon option. I don't think controlling them should be an option to begin with. I don't think they should be controllable. And if you do have that option it should be portrayed as evil. It should give a different prologue video with the galaxy under your control and the various races lamenting the fact that they have a new and evil dictator who is now in control. You haven't given the galaxy life and freedom, you've become an evil master.

What's most unsatisfying is that all three options end the same way. The reapers are dead or gone, the relays are destroyed, and the team is marooned or dead because for some unknown reason they were flying away from the flight.

What about the team members that are with you until you reach the base of the citadel? They just disappear with no explanation.

Stupid. This was supposed to answer my questions not insult my intelligence with the same ambiguous answer to all 16 "options" for end game.

There's no choice, there's just one stupid ending for the countless decisions and actions made through three games spanning five years.

You have to take into account the fact that the entire Mass Effect series is a story told by father to son. Given the last vid at the end, you come to realize that the story you have been playing and making choices throughout is ultimately in the end, a recollection of events in a story.

In the end though are the Mass Effect relays destroyed? I don't think so as the father tells the son that he can travel the stars soon. Is this the end of Shepard? Well if you get the "perfect" ending then there is evidence besides the final ending vid to show that there could be one more Shepard Mass Effect, but bioware has publicly come out and said that this is the end of Shepard, but if that turns out to be true or just some corp. b.s. to hide the truth, only time will tell.

[Variation-XBA]

http://i.imgur.com/qDe7y.png

[Soda Jones]

You have to take into account the fact that the entire Mass Effect series is a story told by father to son. Given the last vid at the end, you come to realize that the story you have been playing and making choices throughout is ultimately in the end, a recollection of events in a story.


I understand what they were going for I just think it was a poor decision. They could have done better than a sub-ten minute prologue to flesh out each choice and the resulting repercussions. Simply giving each end choice a significance and then fleshing out how they play out with the people rebuilding, or under tyrannical rule, etc. would have been a fitting end.

The ending they left us with is full of conflicting info and doesn't add up. I appreciate the foreshadowing that the dreams give you of your choices to come but this whole "father telling a story to his son" came out of left field and is incongruent with the game as a whole. The ending just doesn't match up with the quality and voice of the rest of the game.

[thAshAdyOne]

Soda, I feel you bruh.

I'm a little more than perturbed about how some things/people just ended/died suddenly. I did not think that as a paragon choice that I could have easily sat by while

All of the quarians were being destroyed and Tali, my team member/friend commits suicide.

The choices should have had more monumental impact being that we've made some over the process of 3 games.

[Soda Jones]

Yeah, I was expecting the choices to have a greater impact than simply changing colors.

[Fargoth]

Got an hour and a half? Need some background noise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caAqFFhBn2U

[Soda Jones]

Got an hour and a half? Need some background noise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caAqFFhBn2U

Watching the whole thing right now.

[Yannie Boy]

Got an hour and a half? Need some background noise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caAqFFhBn2U

WHOA...........MIND BLOWN. That was amazing. I laughed at the initial wave of Indoctrination Theories and let it go. But decided to give your link a shot....and honestly. If it all comes out true, then the ending was the best ending of all time.............

[Fargoth]

WHOA...........MIND BLOWN. That was amazing. I laughed at the initial wave of Indoctrination Theories and let it go. But decided to give your link a shot....and honestly. If it all comes out true, then the ending was the best ending of all time.............

The eyes thing for me was the best. Brings a new perspective doesn't it?

[Soda Jones]

Pretty cool if they had actually capitalized on it properly.

[Symmetric-XBA]

One thing to take into consideration is how much this game is still being talked about. I tip my hat to Bioware's writing team for creating a story that had lit the net on fire with confrontation. I watched that link from start to finish and a lot of what was presented made sense, esp. with the integration of parts from ME1 and 2. Think about it, when was the last time a story like this has sparked such conversation, controversy, and more?

[Variation-XBA]

Think about it, when was the last time a story like this has sparked such conversation, controversy, and more?

Halo 2's 'ending' :rofl:

[Fargoth]

Halo 2's 'ending' :rofl:

I don't remember it... >.>

[Soda Jones]

Mass Effect 3 is a fantastic game with engaging character development and a memorable story. They still screwed the pooch with the ending. It's not a deal breaker for giving a thumbs up to the game but it is a glaring shortcoming. The fact that they are adding content this summer to the ending is a statement in itself that they acknowledge that they ending fell short.

[thAshAdyOne]

All I know is that the video posted above amped me up to play the game again for my evil Shepard...I'm going to have a good mindset toward this end. They couldn't have wanted it to end so foolishly.

In this day & age, they probably were waiting til we forgot about the series to try and pick it up next generation...No sir, we demand it NAOW!

[Symmetric-XBA]

Mass Effect 3 is a fantastic game with engaging character development and a memorable story. They still screwed the pooch with the ending. It's not a deal breaker for giving a thumbs up to the game but it is a glaring shortcoming. The fact that they are adding content this summer to the ending is a statement in itself that they acknowledge that they ending fell short.

I'm sort of on a fence with this part. I view the ending of ME3 like a movie where we don't get to see what happens to the hero and we draw up our own conclusions. There have been failures along the way but there are some classic movies that follow this principle. Does the community complain and whine to the director to release an "add on" to the movie where the conclusion is drawn out for us? Or do we enjoy writing our own endings? I understand how ME was supposed to be developed between all 3 games, but this is where I side with Bioware because they attempted to create one of these instances where we draw our own conclusions, but siding with the gamers, they screwed their attempt up.

One thing is for sure and that is that the gaming public has a voice, and when it wants to be heard, it's impossible to ignore. Do I think it was the right choice to release DLC to make these people happy? In the long term I think it will be a good thing, but I can easily see both sides of the coin and both present a good front.

[Ainokeatoo]

I feel like gamers these days are like those annoying people who sit next to you in Movie theaters asking questions every time something moves on the screen. "Why did he just take that breath?" "Why are they doing that?" "Why didn't you turn on the light?". Personally I enjoyed the ending, I felt that my Shepard should have died, and in my own personal opinion on what I considered Canonical, he did.

[Fargoth]

I like conspiracy theories I felt like Bioware had extended DLC Planned the whole time, but EA pressured them to release it early so they had to put it out as is. They have done something similar to this before.

[Soda Jones]

Symmetric, I'm cool with the whole "artistic expression" thing, my problem is that there is only one ambiguous ending and it shows that for all the "choices" we had, it all amounts to nothing because there is only one forced outcome.

[Variation-XBA]

Symmetric, I'm cool with the whole "artistic expression" thing, my problem is that there is only one ambiguous ending and it shows that for all the "choices" we had, it all amounts to nothing because there is only one forced outcome.

http://www.virtualshackles.com/img/endings.jpg