Mass Effect 3: Thinky thoughts
This is basically a post for me to organize my thoughts about the ending; I'm most likely just repeating what most people have already been saying for days ad nauseum, so no worries if you're not interested in reading it again.
There are so many fantastic things about this game, and certainly I (and so many others) wouldn't be bothering to waste so many words on something we didn't passionately care about, and weren't heavily emotionally invested in. I only recently came to the Mass Effect universe, after having fallen in love with the Dragon Age games. There is something really special about having a story like this with a protagonist that you can essentially make your own. Is it ZOMG THE MOST AMAZING AND ORIGINAL SCI-FI EPIC EVER? No, but it's customizable, and in its own way, has always felt very empowering because of it. I sure as hell don't expect to see a movie or TV franchise with a tough, flawed, kinda-funny-looking, female protagonist (much as that should be happening), but I was ecstatic to find a video game that could give me that. It's not perfect, but there are lots of things to love.
As for the game itself, Mass Effect 3 is enthralling from the start. The story is tight and compelling, the characters are quirky, interesting and easy to love (or hate). Gameplay is largely wonderful. There is an overwhelming sense of urgency to the game that I rarely see in RPGs. I loved all the conversations I could have with these characters I've grown to care about over the course of the games, I loved all of the little stories you could pick up on by listening to ambient dialogue going on around you, all of the tough, morally gray choices I had to make to try and bring all of these disparate races and species together. And some freaking epic space battles in the mix. What could be better?
Until the last ten minutes.
Now, personally, I'm really insulted by anyone who thinks the anger over the endings is because they're not "happy". Which may be a little hypocritical of me, because until I actually got to the end of the game myself, I assumed that's what was going on (I kept myself spoiler-free on that front). Because, in my experience, when a series like this ends? There's always a vocal contingent of fans who cry "betrayal". It's par for the course.
As far as I was concerned, the only ending that would disappoint me would be one full of plot holes or an "it was all a dream" cop-out. I was fully prepared for Shepard, her LI, all of her friends, the entire crew of the Normandy, Anderson et. al. to die. I would've been fine with that, as long as, you know, the Reapers got destroyed and there was hope for the galaxy.
What we got was, well. Full of plot holes big enough to fly Harbinger through. I get the strong feeling that the Normandy crash-landing like that with my LI and Joker and such was supposed to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it really just left me feeling confused. As did most of the rest of the ending.
There really aren't "endings". There is one ending, with minor variations depending on your EMS and/or which color skittle you choose. All of the emotional investment I (and other fans) have put into these games, all of the complex moral questions that serve as underlying themes of the series and which have made it so compelling, all of that got tossed out the window. It's all rendered utterly meaningless, and I didn't even have the option to rail against it or try to argue it down. I just had to accept the utter meaninglessness of everything I'd done until that point. That was the biggest let-down of all.
There are so many fantastic things about this game, and certainly I (and so many others) wouldn't be bothering to waste so many words on something we didn't passionately care about, and weren't heavily emotionally invested in. I only recently came to the Mass Effect universe, after having fallen in love with the Dragon Age games. There is something really special about having a story like this with a protagonist that you can essentially make your own. Is it ZOMG THE MOST AMAZING AND ORIGINAL SCI-FI EPIC EVER? No, but it's customizable, and in its own way, has always felt very empowering because of it. I sure as hell don't expect to see a movie or TV franchise with a tough, flawed, kinda-funny-looking, female protagonist (much as that should be happening), but I was ecstatic to find a video game that could give me that. It's not perfect, but there are lots of things to love.
As for the game itself, Mass Effect 3 is enthralling from the start. The story is tight and compelling, the characters are quirky, interesting and easy to love (or hate). Gameplay is largely wonderful. There is an overwhelming sense of urgency to the game that I rarely see in RPGs. I loved all the conversations I could have with these characters I've grown to care about over the course of the games, I loved all of the little stories you could pick up on by listening to ambient dialogue going on around you, all of the tough, morally gray choices I had to make to try and bring all of these disparate races and species together. And some freaking epic space battles in the mix. What could be better?
Until the last ten minutes.
Now, personally, I'm really insulted by anyone who thinks the anger over the endings is because they're not "happy". Which may be a little hypocritical of me, because until I actually got to the end of the game myself, I assumed that's what was going on (I kept myself spoiler-free on that front). Because, in my experience, when a series like this ends? There's always a vocal contingent of fans who cry "betrayal". It's par for the course.
As far as I was concerned, the only ending that would disappoint me would be one full of plot holes or an "it was all a dream" cop-out. I was fully prepared for Shepard, her LI, all of her friends, the entire crew of the Normandy, Anderson et. al. to die. I would've been fine with that, as long as, you know, the Reapers got destroyed and there was hope for the galaxy.
What we got was, well. Full of plot holes big enough to fly Harbinger through. I get the strong feeling that the Normandy crash-landing like that with my LI and Joker and such was supposed to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it really just left me feeling confused. As did most of the rest of the ending.
There really aren't "endings". There is one ending, with minor variations depending on your EMS and/or which color skittle you choose. All of the emotional investment I (and other fans) have put into these games, all of the complex moral questions that serve as underlying themes of the series and which have made it so compelling, all of that got tossed out the window. It's all rendered utterly meaningless, and I didn't even have the option to rail against it or try to argue it down. I just had to accept the utter meaninglessness of everything I'd done until that point. That was the biggest let-down of all.