Mass Effect 3 ::sniffles::
Between trips to the bathroom, I managed to complete Mass Effect 3 this weekend. (I typed "4" there by accident at first. Alas, never to be.)
There's been a real hew and cry about the endings, but I don't subscribe to that. I liked how Gabe at Penny Arcade defended it:
"I guess this comes down to when you think the ending starts. Like Tycho, I consider Mass Effect 3 to be “the ending”...I’d argue that if you like ME3 then you liked the ending."
There are plenty of times where that isn't true--where the last five minutes of a thing do ruin your enjoyment of what had come before enough to nullify the whole process. However, whatever the accusations that there is no choice in the endings available (which I have yet to see since I haven't played it through more than once), the ending was bittersweet and lovely, far as I'm concerned. I was under no illusions that, say, the Krogan were going to bake me a cake. (Although the thought of Wrex and Grunt trying to work out how make squishy human food fills me with squishy human laughter.) It was, perhaps, a little strange but not unsatisfying. My actual reaction to the last scenes of the ending were a sort of mushy melting in the center of my chest--bittersweet, a little bit in love, a little bit sad, but a lot hopeful, which is something, playing as Paragon Shepard, I needed to see come into this universe.
There's been some rumbling, too, about choices being nullified by the endings supposedly being virtually the same. (I wouldn't know. I've only played it once and I haven't seen spoilers or vids of the endings.) Being fully honest, though, much as I love this series, the games have only the illusion of choice--enough to create a thousand different Shepards that barely resemble one another, in look or deed, but not to change the overall direction of the story (because no one can write video game code to cover all the directions those many Shepards could take the universe, not really). So I find it hard to take as credible complaints that lack of choice, or an ending that came close to being the same regardless of your readiness or Paragon/Renegade status, made the game bad. You had choices that had consequences in the sequels. But there are no more sequels in which to explore those consequences. What choices, therefore, would be interesting beyond this game?
I am more upset that the franchise is over. I suppose it isn't, really. If I want to try and get different endings, apparently I have to play multiplayer. Or one of two iOS games, which, yes, I've already bought and will put to use with my Renegade Shepard to see if it does diddly or squat. There's always something more you can do, given the way the game has been marketed--more you can buy to get at the cheap thrill version of the fun you had actually playing the game. I've never subscribed to that, which is why I'm annoyed that you can alter your results with things that feel completely extraneous to the game. Multiplayer? Come on now. Are you going to give out codes for reading the comics as well? Might as well, seeing as multiplayer is going to get fuck-all attention from me.
I don't like the necessity of having to pull on more and other media or different genres of video gaming within the same universe in order to achieve within the game you love. If you want more from the game, by all means, have at the comics and the extra missions, but, call me old-fashioned, I believe, for all the choosing of my own adventure within Mass Effect, there was a core story and very little extra was needed or improved it where it was added. It's nice that they are something else I can have if I get too depressed that the story is over. I'm a little depressed, not gonna lie, but it feels cheap to go for those tie-in stories as if they'll satisfy in the same way. I'd almost love to see a trilogy of games that takes place centuries after the ending of Mass Effect 3. Where will the universe be then? That, to me, is more interesting than all the stories of what various folk are doing while Shepard is saving the goddamned galaxy.
There's been a real hew and cry about the endings, but I don't subscribe to that. I liked how Gabe at Penny Arcade defended it:
"I guess this comes down to when you think the ending starts. Like Tycho, I consider Mass Effect 3 to be “the ending”...I’d argue that if you like ME3 then you liked the ending."
There are plenty of times where that isn't true--where the last five minutes of a thing do ruin your enjoyment of what had come before enough to nullify the whole process. However, whatever the accusations that there is no choice in the endings available (which I have yet to see since I haven't played it through more than once), the ending was bittersweet and lovely, far as I'm concerned. I was under no illusions that, say, the Krogan were going to bake me a cake. (Although the thought of Wrex and Grunt trying to work out how make squishy human food fills me with squishy human laughter.) It was, perhaps, a little strange but not unsatisfying. My actual reaction to the last scenes of the ending were a sort of mushy melting in the center of my chest--bittersweet, a little bit in love, a little bit sad, but a lot hopeful, which is something, playing as Paragon Shepard, I needed to see come into this universe.
There's been some rumbling, too, about choices being nullified by the endings supposedly being virtually the same. (I wouldn't know. I've only played it once and I haven't seen spoilers or vids of the endings.) Being fully honest, though, much as I love this series, the games have only the illusion of choice--enough to create a thousand different Shepards that barely resemble one another, in look or deed, but not to change the overall direction of the story (because no one can write video game code to cover all the directions those many Shepards could take the universe, not really). So I find it hard to take as credible complaints that lack of choice, or an ending that came close to being the same regardless of your readiness or Paragon/Renegade status, made the game bad. You had choices that had consequences in the sequels. But there are no more sequels in which to explore those consequences. What choices, therefore, would be interesting beyond this game?
I am more upset that the franchise is over. I suppose it isn't, really. If I want to try and get different endings, apparently I have to play multiplayer. Or one of two iOS games, which, yes, I've already bought and will put to use with my Renegade Shepard to see if it does diddly or squat. There's always something more you can do, given the way the game has been marketed--more you can buy to get at the cheap thrill version of the fun you had actually playing the game. I've never subscribed to that, which is why I'm annoyed that you can alter your results with things that feel completely extraneous to the game. Multiplayer? Come on now. Are you going to give out codes for reading the comics as well? Might as well, seeing as multiplayer is going to get fuck-all attention from me.
I don't like the necessity of having to pull on more and other media or different genres of video gaming within the same universe in order to achieve within the game you love. If you want more from the game, by all means, have at the comics and the extra missions, but, call me old-fashioned, I believe, for all the choosing of my own adventure within Mass Effect, there was a core story and very little extra was needed or improved it where it was added. It's nice that they are something else I can have if I get too depressed that the story is over. I'm a little depressed, not gonna lie, but it feels cheap to go for those tie-in stories as if they'll satisfy in the same way. I'd almost love to see a trilogy of games that takes place centuries after the ending of Mass Effect 3. Where will the universe be then? That, to me, is more interesting than all the stories of what various folk are doing while Shepard is saving the goddamned galaxy.