So I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one who kept going back back to Liara’s quarters to try to have more dialogue every chance I got. If there was one flaw in the otherwise very well written interactions with most of the characters, it’s the fact that there wasn’t as much as it seemed it should be. I also felt like it was a weird role reversal on Thessia. I expected Shepard to need to comfort Liara as a friend and lover while also having to show resolve as a leader in the face of failure. On the other hand, it makes me feel that Liara is a more than worthy partner for the galaxy’s greatest hero. She’s so strong.
Because my Shepard didn’t romance Liara in ME1, I’ve only seen stills of them kissing in the Shadow Broker’s base. In that context, it’s even more painful. The last conversation in London just about took the fight out of me. I wanted them to just run off together. Screw that galactic war nonsense. I was bracing for certain death and at the last moment, it seemed like they gave you a reason to believe that Shepard has so much to live for that it must be at least possible that she come back from the fight. There’s too much left for Shepard to do for the writers to simply cut the thread the way they did. Maybe, like you mention, there was some strange editing choices. It could be that the timeframe was just too narrow for them to do all that they planned. Evidence of that can be found all over the game. Maybe ambition met reality and reality won.
People think it’s Shepard’s death that gets us upset. We’re sci fi fans for God’s sake. Heroic deaths are as common as at it gets. This was just not heroic to me. It can’t be that the only choice left is to throw it all away for an inplausible conclusion to a story that causes more destruction than she tried to prevent. Part of me really wants the same thing you want in DLC. It’s a terrible thought, but it can completely retcon the end of ME3 if that’s what the writer’s have to do. I don’t know if I’d ever accept Indoctrination theory as the solution but maybe the tradeoff would be worth it.
You definitely weren’t the only one. I’ve always spent way more time talking to Liara than is really needed, even if I had to listen to the same things over and over again. She is my favorite and I"ve been very impressed with her character development since ME1. I do wish that she had more to say and I really do feel that the writers missed out on a chance to show the Shepard being strong for Liara after Thessia. We got to give Tali a hug during her loyalty mission on ME2 and if there was anyone who deserved a hug in this game it was Liara after Thessia. That scene in her room called for a lot more than we got, especially from a Shepard who is supposed to be in love with Liara. Not only would it have a been a more natural reaction for Shepard (at least one romancing her) to just hold Liara for a moment and let her cry and then give her the idea of helping the refugees but it also could be seen as making Shepard feel a bit better about getting her ass handed to her by Cerberus, b/c I know mine sure felt bad about that after telling Liara before the mission started that we would get the info on the Catalyst and save Thessia.
LotSB really does make the thought of there not being a future for Shepard and Liara after the Reapers heartbreaking because during their reunion Liara is actually in tears over Shepard’s death after ME1 and the thought that Shepard might not come back again. So many of us Shepard/Liara fans were going through LotSB talking about marriage, old age and lots of little blue children with Liara and then promising to come back to her after it was all over. So I expected to be able to work for a way for that to possibly happen (since you know Shepard has already died once), especially when I got to London and Liara is talking about little blue children again and calling Shepard her bondmate just before giving Shepard her gift. Imagine the horror when I got to the end of my first game and not only did Shepard die as of one of three really crappy choices but then I see that Liara had for some reason abandoned Shepard when they were just fighting side by side 10 minutes ago to flee on the Normandy and crash land on some random planet somewhere. I couldn’t make any sense out of what I had just seen because Liara didn’t give up Shepard when she knew Shepard was dead and now she’s fleeing the battle with Joker? Shepard manages to live on my games now but Liara is still running away from the battle on the Normandy and that scene is ruins any chance of the endings we have now making sense to me because Joker and Liara would never abandon Shepard. I could try to make some sense out of the choices because I can see where they came from in the trilogy but all of them destroying the Relays and Joker fleeing with Normandy and Liara still leave me confused along with the Starchild who seems far too much like a god in trilogy that was fairly devoid of religious themes.
I agree that it wasn’t really Shepard’s death that made the ending so bad, because Shepard has actually only died once for me. It’s everything else that happens in the ending that has fans scratching their heads and going huh? I can kind of see where they got the three different choices from Control is obviously from TIM, Destroy is obviously from Shepard, Anderson and Hackett and Synthesis seems to be based on what Saren wanted to accomplish in the first game so the choices themselves kind of make sense from the story they’ve told in the trilogy. The Starchild was out of left field and since most of the conversation was cut out it seems like Shepard just accepts what it’s saying at face value. But having the Relays destroyed and the Normandy flee and then get stranded on some random planet I still don’t understand why they did that, especially the Relays. They pretty much killed the ME universe right there since no one has figured out the relays work. I haven’t really figured out what I from this ending DLC. I don’t know if want them to completely change the ending, give us the stuff they cut out to explain what we got, or give us the stuff that was cut and an alternate ending. Part of me wants the Indoctrination theory to be true if only because I think it would be hilarious if Bioware had actually pulled off something like that just because of how nasty the forums over at BSN are getting. I won’t venture out of the Liara thread over there because some of the other characters fans are getting rather nasty about Liara over there and their ending threads have been horrible since they started. I kind of feel bad for the folks at Bioware over the whole thing because I’d bet money that a lot of the issues fans have complained about with Bioware’s last two games are because of choices EA has made on things like release dates.
In terms of the pacing of the gameplay, then yes, I did think the shift from battling out like crazy to a longish dialogue option cut scene was abrupt. But mostly I took the entire mission Priority: Earth 1 and 2 as one big finale finish, so I was good with that as the ending, because I already had my moments with the other characters prior to embarking on this last mission. But I definitely thought all the parts with the limping were anti-climactic and just sort of dragged that last bit on a bit longer than needed, when I might have liked a big boss battle or a longer peep into the lives of my peeps after the war in the final cutscene.
I also agree that it’s really lulzy to have randomly the two AIs you were with in battle to suddenly be on the Normandy instead, but the only real alternative for that was to have them die with Shepard, or die running with Shepard as she got to the Citadel, so it wasn’t something I was pissed at the game with. It didn’t affect how I thought about my love interest as I didn’t have Garrus on my team for the last mission (actually, partly because I was so sure shep would die - and probably my squadmates too - I didn’t pick him to be in my squad) So that Normandy part I was perfectly fine with, even though it’s lulzy.
As for the ending, I simply don’t agree that Shepard got out ‘so meekly’. She didn’t just save the galaxy. She managed to stop the cycle (with the merge ending) once and for all. She didn’t sacrifice the synthetics for the organics (the destroy option) or merely delayed another cycle to arise after this one (the control option, where the cycle permeates, with the additional weight of having just one person control the reapers, which is always a dangerous option, even if said person is Shepard herself). For me, this was a solution I was satisfied with, and one that makes sense with the arc of the story in the games themselves, especially with the geths and the war between them and the quarians, as well as EDI (and Joker’s relationship with her), that presented the notion that synthetics are no different than any other organic race. The reapers insisted that their existence - and their destroying every living thing every x number of years - is justified because organics and synthetics can never live together in harmony, this was the only way to check and balance the universe - merging them together to me proves that notion wrong, that no, it doesn’t have to be about this never ending cycle of bots vs. flesh, with reapers as a reset button. Now everyone can advance together and continue an entirely new chapter that never existed before. (The only other option is that neither the synthetics nor the organics are sacrificed, and one can destroy the reapers without merging the two, and Shepard dies but saves everyone and they will all live in harmony. Which would be the ideal, but perhaps too ideal, because just look at our own world where we still have issues with the same species having much more trivial differences like skin color, never mind different species. That actually would’ve been what I would assume to be the best ending, but one I might actually have more issues with because it would be a magic solution that just sweeps all the preexisting race issues under the rug. Merging is somewhat darker and much is sacrificed for it, but it leaves me with more hope for the galaxy’s future as a whole, because the point of organic vs. synthetic is rendered moot since everyone’s now a mix. Souls matter, not the unit/body they’re in.)
So yes, it truly blows the mass relays are destroyed. But trading the relays with ending a preconceived never ending cycle without sacrificing organics or synthetics? I thought it was a fair trade, especially since the mass relays by extension were power/knowledge no one really earned in the first place, sorta like what the TIM/Shep convo were about wrt controlling the reapers. And as this utterly new form of synthetic/organic lifeforms, I guess I hold hope it wouldn’t be long before they would be able to build a form of mass relay before long, one that they did earn from their own scientific prowess and understanding.
The control I felt were letting the reapers win, as it merely delays them. The cycle still remains, so it’s only a matter of time before the reapers overcome Shepard’s control or whatnot and the same thing would happen again. Destroying them is a similar thing, as it’s only a matter of time before organics make new sets of sentient synthetics and be at war with them in the future, and it doesn’t erase the notion that yes, organic life are superior to synthetic life, which was why I was so pissed at the quarians during that segment of the game. The synthesis option for me was the only choice that took everyone out of the cycles entirely. There were no cycles after that choice, because that choice never happened before. Ending the cycle >>>> destroying the reapers. Because the reapers were only a symptom, not the cause.
So IDK, I didn’t think the conclusion caused more destruction than Shepard tried to prevent.
But hey, maybe I just liked the ending because I was prepared for something way way worse after hearing all these bits about people being disappointed. So maybe it was as simple as that. I had such a low expectation going into the end, I was largely satisfied and happy with the ending I got.
This has been very cathartic for me. I preordered the game and finished it within a week, so I was a part of that first wave of confused and disappointed fans. It feels like it’s been months of having all these thoughts bouncing around in my head with no one who could understand there to listen. Now that I can feel get it out my head in at least a marginally coherent way.
I know what you’re saying, but I have too much trouble taking the end at face value. In order to do that, I have to reject that Shepard’s accomplishments irreparably undermine the Starchild’s entire argument. I have to reject what I know about the consequences of destroying a relay. Lastly, I have to accept that Space Baby Jesus is all that he says he is. None of which I can do, let alone the way Shepard behaves at the end. If more groundwork had been laid in the series, I could maybe see it, but I just don’t have enough info to accept the new rules that I think are suddenly introduced at the end of the entire trilogy. It came at me cold and my first decision was actually to turn around and walk away, but they made me drop dead and start over. And seriously, what was that “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” drum roll about while you choose?
All your points are very well made, however. In a vacuum and taken at face value, it’s very easy for me to see your side because the three choices are in fact very different by themselves. Each one can be argued for or against based on your personal beliefs and values. On a certain level, there is no wrong answer, which is what makes it so clever. I tried all three but if you ask me which I think is best, I would say “control”. Not because it provides the best chance in the long run, but because it solves the current crisis of the Reaper threat without taking anyone with Shepard or taking away control of everyone’s biological destiny. “Destroy” means I had to scrifice EDI and the Geth, which is too high a price for me personally. I feel like I have to betray so much and so many to satisfy what may mainly be Shepard’s more selfish desire to just kill the Reapers. “Synthesis”, as you prefer, left me feeling like I was imposing my will on all life without their knowledge and consent. Does Shepard have that right? Also, there is nothing to prevent this new merged life from still creating pure synthetic life yet again and start the first of a new kind of cycle. On the other hand, we could both be wrong and the “Destroy” option is the best way as it eliminates the Reaper threat once and for all. And while sacrificing EDI and the Geth may be a guilt that Shepard could never live down, the survival of the many billions or trillions outweigh that of the few million. Ultimately though, the results of every choice all appear to be the same and funnel you into a bizarre set of cutscenes.
Like I said, this has all been very helpful in pulling me out of the weeks long morass that I’ve been in since finishing ME3. I actually feel better and playing the game again doesn’t seem so unlikely as before. So even though we disagree, you’re still helpful, along with Ol_ Whatsername who shares my pain while handling it better than I can. I feel like I can now hand this thread back over people who can expound upon the many virtues of Mass Effect 3, such as going one on one with a Reaper and living to tell about it or the time you spent with Garrus on the Citadel.
I’m not so sure I buy into all the crap the Starchild was spouting at Shepard about the cycle (I still think creating the Reapers to harvest organic life in order to prevent them from being wiped out by the synthetic life they might create is a weird kind of circular logic). I know Javik probably would have agreed with much of what he said but Javik was in stasis for 50,000 years and obviously the Starchild didn’t actually pay much attention to what the species of each cycle were up to because in this cycle my Shepard was able to prove both of them wrong about organics and synthetics. It wasn’t the Geth who started the either war between the Quarians and the Geth and the Geth actually let the Quarians go after the first war instead of wiping them out when they had the chance. I’ve certainly seen no signs that EDI is on the verge of going ballistic and killing every one on the Normandy, in fact she does just the opposite and goes out of her way to protect the people on the Normandy and falls for Joker, at least she does in my game. So to me going with control or synthesis feels like I’m letting them Starchild get what he wants when he has no idea what the species now are truly capable of and it also feels very wrong to me for Shepard to make a unilateral decision that rewrites every one’s DNA. I don’t much like going with destroy because the Starchild says it will kill EDI and the Geth too, but it’s the only choice to me that feels like Shepard actually wins and gets rid of the Starchild and it’s influence on the galaxy. That thing has been calling the shot for millions of years and wiping out organic life on a whim just because it thinks that the threat of artificial intelligence is too great for organic life, honestly to me the Starchild seems like an AI that turned on its master and now gets some sort of perverse pleasure out of wiping out advanced organic life every 50,000 years or so. The Protheans made this group of species special with their meddling and I think they should get the chance to see what they could do without the Starchild’s solution hanging over their heads, or the Reapers still being around or having their DNA be rewritten and since we have no proof that the Geth and EDI actually die from destroy ending (I’ve chosen that ending for all 3 of my finished games and it never shows any scenes of them dying along with the Reapers) then who’s to say that the Starchild was telling us the truth about them? Maybe he was playing with Shepard’s emotions to try to get us to chose one of the other choices so his creations wouldn’t be destroyed. So I always pick that ending and then ignore the bizarre Normandy crash scene that takes Liara away to some unknown planet.
But then everyone has their own reasons for choosing the ending they chose, much like who they chose to romance and save on Virmire. To each their own. I am glad that there are people who are happy with the ending because while I’m upset about the ending of the game I’m not really upset at Bioware and it is bumming me out to see all the nastiness over on the BSN being directed at Bioware and some of the Bioware employees. They actually had to lock an entire forum one day because of how nasty it was. I can understand that many fans are upset about the ending, I am too, but it’s about 10 minutes in an otherwise amazing game and the level of nastiness over there is all kinds of uncalled for IMO. And the character bashing is just as bad if not worse. I know we all have our favorite characters but some of the character traits and actions I’ve seen being flung around is insane and way out of the context the writers obviously intended them to be taken. I know you can’t please every one but wow it can be kind of scary to see how some people’s minds work in those threads.
I saw that yesterday and was kinda upset that they made a joke out of Bioware trying to keep their loyal fans happy. I know fans are bummed about the endings but honestly, Bioware is going above and beyond what any other developer would do with giving us anything DLC-wise related to the ending. I doubt there are many other developers who would do the same in Bioware’s position.
I think you’re right. Their fanbase’s reaction was so sudden and so clear in dissatisfaction, that I figured a decision would be made pretty quickly about the ending. Bioware has been far too quiet, aggrivating the situation, but I also think that they’ve been very busy. That’s either with new work on the ending or finishing up something they’d had already planned that would settle all this. There will likely be an announcement this week on it one way or another.
You’re such a softie with Bioware. I hope they at the very least give you the chance at the end you want. It’s never a bad thing to please your most supportive fans. The best bet is Indoctrination. It’s literally the only way out. It won’t be pretty though because I think BW really was trying to create both something that could be seen as a real ending while also giving themselves an opening to come back to it if they had to. In doing that, they came up short on both. Indoc works, but not cleanly or perfectly. If this all happens in Shepard’s head, why would he/she believe that the energy realease could do all the AI says, including destroy the relays, while not considering what happens when you destroy a relay? No one should know better than Shepard. Why would Shep’s mind make a distinction based on war assets? If the energy does what is claimed, then the level of destruction it does will the be same no matter how big your army is or how “ready” it is. I think what the creators did was jumble up what the actual players would see with what the fictional hero, Shepard, would’ve envisioned.
Ultimately, if they do go with IT, it would be neat if all three choices were not the end of Indocrination. The destruction option would snap her out of it the fastest, which would very cleanly explain the “Breathe Scene” at the end. It’s clearly the most selfish option, which would explain why it’s Renegade Red. Sacrifing friends or allies would be the tradeoff. You get pulled right back to the battle though. Blue “Control” would take you further down the rabbit hole, and like many Paragon decision paths, take you longer to reach your goal but could be the most rewarding, such as no squad casualties. The green Synthesis path could require more time than destroy and more sacrifice than control. Those could be paths I could accept as options. Maybe the serious, hardcore fans could accept them too. The Normandy desertion sequence and Stargazer scene could jokingly be explained away as Shepard’s hitherto unknown abandonment issues and latent narcissism. In her own head she refers to herself as “The Shepard”.
The biggest problem left is that Shepard did in fact get partially blasted with the raygun from hell. His/her condition probably is what we saw before entering The Citadel. I have no idea how they address that bit in a short period of gameply. Like I said, it’s not pretty but it gets everyone closer to an ending that keeps what’s already there for those that are fine with it, while giving the rest of us a chance at a more believeable, if not likeable, ending. I won’t lie though. The fact that I paid for an incomplete game is not something that I’ll get past. Maybe the fan outrage will force them to give it away. I’m willing to pay something if it does require a lot of work for the developers. It would be a nice PR move, however, if those people who bought the Collector’s Edition were given it for free or discounted.
I’ll admit that I am giving Bioware the benefit of the doubt on this because I’ve seen exactly how much has been put in to/ and or done with the ME games that they hadn’t really intended to do because of how much support there was for it among their die hard fans. A lot of stuff that happened in and around the last 2 games were because of fan support. I’m counting on them to carry on their tradition of listening to the fans and since they’ve been collecting feedback directly from fans via their forums over at the BSN about what us fans want in the ending I’m hoping they’ll give us something to make sense of the endings.
I’m still not sure if they will go with the Indoctrination theory or not, but if they are going to give us a different ending I’m not sure where else they could go with what they gave us. I don’t really have a problem with them going with the Indoctrination theory because there truly is enough moments in the can be interpreted as supporting the IT, my obvious favorite is that no one helps the boy on to the shuttle before the Reaper blows it up. In fact, no adult in that scene acts like the is even there at all and he makes all that noise in the vent when Shepard first notices him but when he refuses Shepard’s help and disappears after Shep turns away for a moment and makes no sound at all.
I do know that I want that Normandy scene gone. That scene is stupid and pointless because neither Joker nor Shep’s LI (if it’s a squad member) and best buddy would just run away from the battle and leave Shepard behind. Nobody will ever be able to convince me that Joker and Liara could abandon my Shepard, in fact even if Shepard ordered them to do so they wouldn’t because the last time Shep gave that order she died and it didn’t turn out all that well for pretty much everyone involved.
I’ll be happy if I don’t have to continue to headcanon the ending every time I finish the game. Until then I’ll keep pretending that Liara pulls Shepard out that rubble and Miranda has to help Chakwas get Shep back into some sort of normal function so Shep and Liara can get lost among the stars like Liara mentioned in the game and start on those lots of little blue children.
Well, they blinked as they promised they would. As the annals of gaming go, this is unprecedented.
“Through additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes…” - you might interpret that as non-interactive. I do. I wish Bioware all the best but a significant portion of the whining is about the lack of a big game play battle finish, starring Shep and all his/her buds fighting the good fight. “What happens to my Shep non-interactively in the end” should be considered a different special interest group, also of substantial size. Can’t please both at the same time.
“We have reprioritized our post-launch development efforts” - uhoh multiplayer DLC will be delayed. Hopefully not too much. These multiplayer weekend events have proven extremely popular, so I guess those participating are currently too distracted by the reward swag to mind any wait.
This is definitely a forthcoming lesson in being careful what you wish for. I can’t wait to see how it all goes down.
It wasn’t so much that I bought everything the star child** said, but more throughout the entire game (and games), they have foreshadowed the final choices, so on the flipside, there was no reason to doubt what he was saying - it’s what the narrative had been saying all this time. And mostly I like that more because the Reapers weren’t some one note big bad that mankind had to defeat against, they’re simply part of the cogs of the cycle much like anyone else. That and countless other scifi stories I guess. Even BSG itself had a similar outcome - just with a more traditional way of synthesis/merge (with Athena/Helo’s baby being the Eve to the future generation). But the end idea is the same, that baby is the future to both the cylons and the humans, and thus fighting each other seems pretty moot. Which is how I interpreted synthesis. They’re a merged species by the end of the game, so they’re no longer in the same cycle again - if they made sentient AIs in the future, they would be treated equally, since everyone is part synthetic anyway. So synthesis does halt the cycle, whereas the other choices didn’t, because the same conflict remained in both - having the syns be destroyed to save humans only proved the hierarchy of life, and having shep control the reapers makes a similar point, that ultimately, it’s still a human controlling the syns. Conflicts remain unresolved.
I didn’t have an issue with Shepard deciding the ‘fate’ of everyone because no one changed, mentally. They’re all the same person as before, just in a different kind of body. Soul > the unit that carries it. And perhaps now everyone would finally understand that and not get so racist on the syns and other species.
Though I suppose that worked with how my game went, because in my game, I had to pick a side on geths/quarians, and I had to choose, there was no middle ground, because the conflicts between synthetics and organics simply couldn’t be resolved then even with the threat of the world ending, and thus that was what my Shepard went into the final battle thinking. So yeah, it worked for me. Perhaps if I played a game where my Shepard was able to get them to work together, then I’d be more pissed with the inability to have any shot at uniting them without merging them. For my game, it fitted the not so uplifting narrative.
But anyway, I know a lot of fans are disappointed with the endings that were given, but I don’t think that makes me less of a fan to say that I liked it either! I don’t think I’m reading it too simplistically, it’s just I’m reading it differently. But either way I give kudos to Bioware. Whether or not it’s necessary for them to pitch out a new epilogue, it’s obvious they care a lot about the franchise and its fans - and not just for money grubbing purposes - and that’s always good to see from game developers.
**huh, I never took the star child to mean that the kid who Shepard saw at the beginning of the game was doing some weird spying stuff, just that Shepard’s mind latched on to that child’s physical appearance from then on, and sort of projected that physicality into the voice she was talking to at the end (and the dreams she has of him).
Free DLC, I’m a little surprised, I thought they’d go for a cash grab. Hopefully it’ll be good. I’m going to hold judgement, but they could make things worse.
It isn’t so much the 3 choices themselves that made the ending bad for me because I can totally see where those came from, they have each been championed by major characters at points throughout the trilogy. The issue for me was that all the endings essentially left the galaxy in the same place and my biggest problems with the endings were the extremely bizarre scene with the Normandy running away and then crashing (for me always taking Liara which makes no sense that she would abandon Shepard at that point when she didn’t give up when Shepard was already dead) and that the ending didn’t really show us how our choices were impacting the finale like they kept telling us we were going to see. I wanted to see the army I gathered really fighting together for more than just the cut scene with “Sword” I wanted to see the Krogans, Turians, Salarians and Asari fighting side by side with the Alliance on the ground and for more than just a momentary glimpse at the beginning of the fight during cinematics.
The control and synthesis choices aren’t really bad choices they just weren’t choices that my Shepard could make. For one my Shepard did not trust that what the Starchild* told her about them would actually be the case. She didn’t believe that she would truly be able to control the Reapers and prevent them from ever harvesting advanced sentient species again and my Shepard would never make the choice to rewrite every one’s DNA so she couldn’t choose synthesis either. In my Shepard’s eyes, that would make her no better than Cerberus even if it seems like it would be the least painful choice to end to the threat of the Reapers. Even after having brokered peace between the Geth and Quarians the only choice my Shepard could make was destroy because despite being told it would also kill the Geth and EDI, it was the only choice she could live with herself for making because she wouldn’t believe the Starchild saying that she could actually control the Reapers and she wouldn’t be changing something as fundamental to what makes someone who they are as their DNA. But that’s my Shepard’s thinking and why I couldn’t pick either Control or Synthesis. I can also easily see the thought process behind how your Shepard came to the decision to go with synthesis.
Believe me I totally do not think anyone who likes the ending is less of fan, at times I feel like I’m one of the few people that is glad there are people who enjoyed the ending because I spend quite a bit of time over on the BSN and the Bioware/ME hate is rampant over there. Even though I did not like the endings, my opinion is that it’s only about 10 minutes of a brilliant game and an amazing trilogy that I’ve spent countless hours playing, I’m currently on my 5th game of ME3, it’s too small a part to let it ruin the entire experience for me. I’m perfectly content with the playing out the endings and creating my own headcanon ending. Bioware is getting ripped apart right now and I really dislike seeing that happen because Bioware pretty much gave me everything I ever wanted in ME3 except for the last 10 minutes and they’ve been doing it for years. So believe me the fact that you like the endings is something I don’t mind seeing at all because Bioware is still my favorite developer and a misstep like a bad ending isn’t going to change that for me.
*I don’t think the Starchild was spying or anything but I do find it odd that Shepard is the only adult on Earth who ever reacts to the kid, none of the other soldiers or adults make a move to help the kid get into the shuttle or even act like they see him. I’m not sure why that is but it certainly plays into many people’s theories, especially the Indoctrination Theory. I think it’s possible it might have just been simple oversight on the developers part but it’s a pretty weird thing to see because of how protective we are of children, especially in a time of crisis. Almost any adult would have helped a child in that situation so it’s noticeable that no adult helps him and makes people start theorizing.
This summer on Mass Effect 3! All your relays are still blowed up.
I concur with coco. People play through three games for a total of over one hundred hours where the overarching theme is sacrifice and somehow anticipate an uncharacteristic ending where no personal sacrifice is involved. Happy endings are not mandated by The Hero’s Journey unless it’s a Michael Bay movie.
On the other hand, the ending was rushed. It overwhelmingly feels that way. And the “final hours” account relates they were changing up the ending as late as November. So if anything, the stink forces EA to allow Bioware to spend more time on an ending they normally could never revisit post-release.
And they can explain the nonsensical escape of the Normandy while they’re at it.
There’s always been one free DLC for each ME game. As I posted earlier, Bioware tweeted they had no plans to unfreebie the traditional freebie. Potentially this newly announced cutscene DLC could remove freebie status from the originally planned free DLC. We’ll see.
It doesn’t really bother me that Shepard can die because hey this is sci-fi and pretty much all sci-fi fans are used to sacrifice from heroes in sci-fi. I’m most upset about things like the really stupid Normandy scene (I don’t think that scene will ever make sense to me) or the fact that every ending leads to the relays being destroyed because I know how to keep my Shepard alive and I know how I not to keep my Shepard alive if I’m RP’ing a Shep who is willing to believe the Starchild and choose one of the options that always kills Shepard. Although I do have to give Bioware some credit for making the 3 game long romance with Liara so awesome that it repeatedly talks about a future and elicits a promise from my Shepard to always come back that when Shepard doesn’t come back or when Shepard lives and Liara ends up crashed on planet who knows where that it actually makes me mad that they tormented us that way. Those cheeky writers just had to have Liara mention those blue children my Shepard was really looking forward to during their goodbye scene as way to make me feel like the galaxy’s biggest jerk because my Shepard couldn’t keep that promise when she died. It was a nice touch but damn tormenting for those of us that had been looking forward to the possibility of those little blue children since the first time we played Lair of the Shadow Broker.
Looks like there will be a possibility of Shep reunitung with her crew after all. I don’t see how this happens though, without completely retconning the idiotic Normandy escape scene.
I was bracing for certain death and at the last moment, it seemed like they gave you a reason to believe that Shepard has so much to live for that it must be at least possible that she come back from the fight. There’s too much left for Shepard to do for the writers to simply cut the thread the way they did. Maybe, like you mention, there was some strange editing choices. It could be that the timeframe was just too narrow for them to do all that they planned. Evidence of that can be found all over the game. Maybe ambition met reality and reality won.