Mass Effect 3: Thinky thoughts

[froda_baggins]

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.

Comments

[gabhriel]

I can't read anything you've posted because I haven't played it yet and it's killing me! All the beautiful Mass Effect all over and I have none!

I accidentally ordered the PS3 version when all my gf's previous save files are on the 360. :[ I'm kicking myself repeatedly, waaah.

[froda_baggins]

Oh dear. I hope you can get your hands on it soon! It really is fantastic, aside from the issues with the endings.

[agrivex]

I did the same mental prep and was just astonished that I never accounted for this.

I kept myself spoiler-free, too, but there was no way to not hear how upset people were about the ending from way back. So I spent a lot of time thinking about how the ending could be upsetting and getting used to all those ideas. I used Dragon Age a lot as my model for what could happen. But then this came so out of nowhere.

And there was no way to save the galaxy I loved. If BioWare meant to have any hope left at the end of the game, it was just not conveyed to me until I started making stuff up on my own.

[froda_baggins]

Yeah, I think a lot of this was predicated on the assumption that no matter how many sacrifices we had to make, no matter how many gut-wrenching deaths and heartbreaking tragedies we went through, eventually the galaxy would be saved, but while I guess you kinda save it, there really isn't much hope for the survivors. And hope is such a big thematic aspect of these games. It's like they forcibly ripped it away from us in the last ten minutes.

Self-determination? What's that? Surely you jest!

[contrariwise]

I really can't wrap my head around what they were thinking. I'd heard people were upset about the ending, back when spoilers were getting leaked and whatnot, but I just figured it was the usual neckbeardy rabble rabble. *edit* I'd peeked at a couple of spoilers and didn't see anything that freaked me out too much. Plus, I thought, we'll have MANY ENDINGS that reflect our choices, so try for the one you want, right? Playing the game, I loved every danged second of it and thought my biggest quibble was going to be the confusing quest log. "There's no ending possible that would detract from how great this game is!" I thought. Right up until the space elevator.

*sighs*

[froda_baggins]

MTE, my friend. MTE.

[reddwarfer]

WORD LIKE A MOFO. When people were bitching...at first I was all, lulz, because they always do. Then I finished the game and was all wut. Then I restarted the final bit and tried a different ending...and was even more wut. I can't help but understand the rage. I'm not so much ragey as disappointed. I wouldn't even have minded if Shepard just...lost. Like...she didn't choose something and the war was lost...but at least she tried ending would have been neat. Even if it was depressing. But, no, we have 17 variants of the same thing. And it's super lame. And Even if this end is the end...I wouldn't have been that upset if we got the whole "And this is what happened to your squaddies past and present" and some sort of synopsis of what's gonna happen now. I wanted more closure, I guess.

[froda_baggins]

Yeah, I might've been able to accept it if they'd done a better job contextualizing it and filling in the plot holes. But there's really nothing there you can do that with. It's utterly incomprehensible.

[mallvip]

In short. The ending hurts feelings of anyone who truly involved themselves in the universe. On one hand I'm glad to have played it....on the other hand not sure it is worth playing again. Replay value is kind of...dead.