The End of Mass Effect: The Good, the Bad and the Fix
I'm spoiled on BioWare. I'm used to getting not just good games but good stories when I buy a BioWare product.
That's why the last 15 minutes of Mass Effect 3 left me, well, stunned. The game was fantastic all the way through, in terms of both story and gameplay, until those last 15 minutes, when Commander Shepard's story came to an all-too-abrupt -- and all-too-inexplicable -- end.
THE GOOD
Mass Effect 3 sets a masterful tone, starting from the first few moments. The opening narrative gives you a few minutes' worth of exposition: just enough to introduce Commander Shepard (Mark Meer or Jennifer Hale), Admiral Anderson (Keith David) and the Reapers -- a race of sentient starships that wipes the galaxy of spacefaring civilizations every 50,000 years -- to players new to the Mass Effect series.
But before the exposition can bog things down, the Reapers drop in to give the player a sense of just how badly shit just hit the fan. Then you're off and running with Anderson, scrambling to escape the Reapers' devastation so you can rally the rest of the galaxy to kick some Reaper fanny.
The writers use a single child to symbolize the plight of everyone left behind on Earth, and it works, as Shepard's dreams flash back occasionally to remind him (or her) what's at stake.
The rest of the galaxy has its own problems, though. The Council, a ruling body comprising representatives from the galaxy's four most prominent species, declines to help: The asari, salarians and turians elect to bolster their own war efforts against the Reapers while Earth burns. The turian councilor offers an olive branch to Shepard, though, by promising turian support if Shepard can get the krogan to help the turians win their battle for their own homeworld. There's just one catch: The turians all but sterilized the krogan race a millennium ago, and the long-lived, warlike krogan still carry a grudge.
As if that's not enough, the nomadic quarians pick the worst possible time to try to reclaim their homeworld of Rannoch from the synthetic geth. And Cerberus -- a heretofore secret pro-human organization -- goes rogue, allying with the Reapers while researching a means to control them.
As much as the narrative sucks you into the Mass Effect universe, the characters -- including "top gun" Normandy pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau (Seth Green), the resourceful, sultry Dr. Liara T'Soni (Ali Hillis), the hyperactive and hyperintelligent Dr. Mordin Solus and the cute but enigmatic Tali'Zorah -- will keep you emotionally invested. This is especially true if, like me, you've adventured through the galaxy with them and returning characters since the first Mass Effect.
Not all of the companions who followed you into this game will make it to the end of the Reaper war with you, but that's OK, because their exits are masterfully written. In fact, the entire series is masterfully written ...
THE BAD
... until those last 15 minutes.
That's the point where the masterful writing goes out the window and Mass Effect 3 begins to resemble the literary train wreck that was "Mass Effect: Deception." Shepard's decisions, spanning three games and five years, culminate in one final choice: Should you control the Reapers, destroy them or seek an organic-synthetic "merger"?
The choices themselves have potential, but several circumstances surrounding the outcomes of those choices defy explanation. That's saying something when you consider that Shepard was outright killed and resurrected in the first few minutes of Mass Effect 2.
Here are the most egregious plot holes:
- The Illusive Man: Shepard's epic confrontation on the Citadel with Cerberus' leader, the Illusive Man, feels a lot like the confrontation between Shepard and Saren near the end of the first Mass Effect. Shepard can even talk the Illusive Man into realizing he's been indoctrinated and taking his own life, much like a possible outcome of the conversation with Saren in Mass Effect. But how did The Illusive Man get to the Citadel?
- The Citadel: The center of galactic government just kind of appears in Earth orbit in the last segment of the game. I'm OK with the why: The Reapers know that protecting the Citadel is crucial to their continued existence, so they move it to the one part of the galaxy where they can best protect it. But how did they gain control of it? And having gained control, how did they move the 7-billion-ton space station into Earth orbit?
- The Normandy: The ship that is central to the plot in all three Mass Effect games -- and for all intents and purposes becomes a character in its own right toward the end of Mass Effect 2 -- disappears in Mass Effect 3's final act. Where does it go? Why do we not see it screaming in, thanix cannons roaring, when the Reaper known as Harbinger touches down in London to stop Shepard from getting to the Citadel? Why do we see it fleeing the Sol System just as Shepard activates the Crucible?
- The Inexplicable: Depending on your ending, one or more squadmates will disembark from the Normandy after the ship crashes on a remote planet. These squadmates are with Shepard on Earth in the battle to reach the Citadel, so how do they suddenly appear on the Normandy?
- The Mass Relays: We're told, just before making the game's final decision, that any of the decisions we make will cause the mass relay network to collapse. But no foreshadowing leads up to this, so players are caught completely unprepared by the fact that any choice they make could lead to a galaxy-wide holocaust: The Arrival downloadable content in Mass Effect 2 apparently established that destroying a mass relay causes a supernova-like reaction, destroying the entire star system in which the relay resides. Does this mean Earth, Palaven, Khar'Shan, Thessia, Rannoch and so many other worlds are destroyed when the relays are destroyed?
- The Aftermath: After becoming deeply emotionally invested in the Mass Effect universe and the people in it, we're left with no idea of what actually happens to any of it. Are the quarians, turians, asari, krogan and other allies stranded in Earth space? Is Earth completely wiped out by the explosion of the Charon Relay?
If the recently released "Final Hours of Mass Effect" is to be believed, the anorexic ending was intentional. In point of fact, it's lazy and disrespectful, especially in light of previous remarks from BioWare that fans of the series would have closure. And in any event, the plot holes -- large enough to drive a Reaper through -- must be addressed if BioWare wants to keep the integrity of its brand intact.
THE FIX
Yes, Mass Effect can be considered art, but it is first and foremost a product -- one that failed to deliver on its creators' promises. Fans made it through the ending believing that their choices didn't really matter after all and that there was no closure to be had in the epic ending they were promised.
BioWare needs to own up to these failings via an apology to its fans, then needs to correct the ending to fix its flaws:
- Close the Plot Holes: One of the basic rules of writing fiction is, "Show, don't tell." If BioWare wants to have the Normandy fleeing through the mass relay network at the end of the game, it needs to show players both how the crew came to that decision, how characters who had been on Earth got onto the Normandy and how the Normandy escaped through the Charon Relay before Shepard activated the Crucible. BioWare should also show players how the Reapers took control of the Citadel and moved it into Earth orbit.
- Provide Closure: Players who are new to Mass Effect have spent at least 25-30 hours getting to know Tali'Zorah, Garrus, Liara, James Vega and others. What happens to them after Shepard activates the Crucible?
- Show Shepard's Legacy: For that matter, what happens to the quarians, asari, krogan, turians and other allies who accompanied the human fleets to retake Earth? What happens to Palaven, Thessia, Khar'shan and all the other worlds that had been invaded by Reaper forces? Shepard dies in all but one of the possible endings and only barely survives in that ending; that sacrifice is worth the cost, but only if we get to see that the galaxy's going to be OK.
Will this fix be expensive? That depends on how the developers choose to implement the fixes. But any expense involved will, like Shepard's sacrifice, be worth it, because the grim alternative is that publishing a great game with an inexcusably lame ending will forevermore be known as "pulling a BioWare," and that's something no gamer who's spoiled on BioWare wants to see happen.