Mass Effect 3 Thoughts
So people want to know how I felt about the ME3 ending! I finished on Sunday night and then proceeded to call my brother and gush/cry about it for two hours. For some background info, I played the Leviathan and Cidatel DLC packs and before I finished I had no idea that there was any controversy whatsoever about it.
So the citadel DLC pack was some of the most fun I've had in a video game. I laughed so much it woke Gunnar up in the wee hours while I was playing. The fancy dress ball, the fish tank exploding under my feet, having my whole squad help me chase down the clone, the party, everyone making fun of Shepard's dancing, it was awesome. I will probably go back and play that again just because it was so hilarious. The Leviathan DLC was interesting, and it was cool to know more about the Reaper lore.
Then we come to "the end." I thought...it was confusing. From the buildup of gathering all those assets, I was under the impression that the ending was going to involve some risk-like battle strategy portion and based on what assets I had--like I would be able to send in the quarian fleet to South America and choose the Turians to take back London etc and then have a final mission (ME2style) with my whole squad and I was sure that I would have to sacrifice people and I was prepared to do so--even sacrifice my Shepard if that's what it took.
So then I get past the crying jag that was saying goodbye to everyone, ("There is no Shepard without Vakarian" OMG) and I get up to the citadel and meet the AI that Leviathan had talked about and...I wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to do. I desperately wanted to be able to have that kid AI thing explain one more time what each of those choices meant before I had to decide, and I also really wanted to know for sure if I was sacrificing Shepard or not on each option. So I was like, "maybe if I go up to the front and investigate these objects I'll get a better idea of...oh shit wait what's happening?" and all of a sudden Shepard was throwing herself at the beam and I accidentally picked Synthesis. And it was sooooo cheesy and totally not what my Shepard would have done. Everyone living in peace with the Reapers? FUCK THAT. THOSE REAPER BASTARDS NEED TO PAY! AND Shepard dies? And I was really unsatisfied.
So I went back and redid the ending to pick the "Destroy" option...and it was the same thing. But at least the Reapers were dead. But Shepard was also dead. The Normandy was...somewhere crashed on Earth? Garrus put her name up on the memorial wall and was like "why isn't he saying anything like "thank the spirits for you sacrifice Shepard, I'll see you in heaven" or something or curling up in a ball of sadness at my death? So everyone lived but Shepard--alone on the citadel and no one will really know about her hard choice. Sad, sad day. If I was going to Sacrifice Shepard, I would have rather her died in Garrus' arms or something. But I was resigned that that's what happened.
Then I talked to John and explained why I picked the Destroy option (he picked Synthesis). 1. Shepard went there to destroy the reapers and by golly that's what she was going to do no matter what other choices came up along the way. I played my Shepard as a reaper hating marine who was against the Illusive Man's idea of control from the beginning and pretty much always valued organic life over synthetic when it came down to it, though I respected both as much as I could. 2. If she was going to die, it was going to be a soldier's death like Anderson's and Ashley's and all her comrades before her, not losing her body to become some disembodied machine/spirit thing forever. She had to get up to heaven and wait for Garrus, after all. Disembodied spirits can't do that. 3. I didn't think Synthesis was fair because while it's the ideal, I always fought for the natural course of things--against the genophage, against Cerberus' technological "improvements," against the reapers, etc. If organics and synthetics were going to live in peace, it would have to be OUR doing, not some random all powerful AI. We would either get there or we wouldn't, but it would be in our own time and our own doing.
THEN John told me how when ME3 first came out everyone was SO PISSED. I was surprised, but then I thought about how it would feel playing without the Leviathan or Citadel DLC packs and the extended cut and I could understand more. I was disappointing with the ending (I wanted Turain/human babies!) but not really angry or anything. The next day I did a little research into why everyone was so mad and...yeah. I get it. (Where was Joker going? Where did they land?) I guess I just lucked out that I didn't have time to build up an epic conclusion in my mind for years while waiting for ME3 to come out, or to theorize about what was going to happen. I played all three games in a matter of a few months, almost as if it were one big long game, so while the ending was less than perfect, it didn't "ruin the games" for me either.
How about my other ME loving friends? If you played it as soon as it came out, what was that like? Who did you romance? What did you think?