Fuck, how did Mass Effect 3's ending go so wrong?

Turkey | Mythic Inconceivable!
 
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I just finished Priority: Rannoch, so I'm about to wrap up the game for my second playthrough, and so far it really is a 10/10 game. Polished combat, unparalleled story and writing, a solid multiplayer experience, etc. There are so many amazing moments (or terrible ones, based on your choices) in the game, and after the suicide mission from ME2 it's fucking insane how badly they ended the series. I'm actually dreading finishing it because of the sour taste I'm sure it'll leave behind. All they needed to do was end it right after talking to Anderson, show a long cutscene showing how your fleet does and all the consequences of your choices, and then let you go right into the Citadel DLC, which is a perfect epilogue for the game.

Fuck. I just hope they improve in Andromeda.


big dog | Mythic Inconceivable!
 
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I don't have too much hope for Andromeda. The game's been delayed a few times, we haven't heard anything about it and a lot of key staff have left. I won't be surprised if it's a buggy mess.


Onion | Elite Four Invincible!
 
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I'm hopeful for the multiplayer in Andromeda. That was the only good thing about me3.

Could not give a shit about the base game.


 
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I'm hopeful for the multiplayer in Andromeda. That was the only good thing about me3.

Wat

It was good for about 10-20 games than it got repetitive


 
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Onion | Elite Four Invincible!
 
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I'm hopeful for the multiplayer in Andromeda. That was the only good thing about me3.

Wat

It was good for about 10-20 games than it got repetitive
I enjoyed it. Lots of different classes ad characters to play, builds and weapons to use. Also free DLC. The RNG was cancer, since it took a minimum 800 hours to max your manifest. Otherwise it was great tbh


 
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Goodness gracious, great balls of lightning!
The game ends after the Citadel DLC and nothing else happens after that.

NOTHING


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hey
I think I recall the original ending of ME3 being leaked or something, so they had to rush to change it, or something like that


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What year is this


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Who knows... Telling you now though. Andromeda will be very similar to Inquisition. I'm willing to bet there's a handful of semi-large explorable zones. You'll go through them collecting and such. Hopefully no power gated content. Combat should be fine if it's like the old ones. Hopefully the story is good. Lead writer of Halo 4 wrote the story for it. Now he's at Bungie. And for what it's worth. I think Halo 4 had the best story. Maybe not the most interesting. I enjoyed Halo 2's the most. But Halo 4 actually had story. People joke about Destiny, but Halo 1,2, and 3 were like it too. Though not near as bad. Not many cutscenes, or dialogue.


 
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I think I recall the original ending of ME3 being leaked or something, so they had to rush to change it, or something like that
Nah, the original plot (something about the Reapers existence being around to stop the spread of Dark Matter that'd destroy the galaxy, hence the sun randomly going supernova in ME2, along with subtle mentions of it in ME2) was scrapped and only a handful of writers got together to write the ending.

I don't mind it as much with the Extended Cut free DLC they released (the original was way too rushed), but the idea of Dark Matter being the central plot point is also interesting.
Last Edit: August 16, 2016, 10:50:33 PM by Luciana


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Who knows... Telling you now though. Andromeda will be very similar to Inquisition. I'm willing to bet there's a handful of semi-large explorable zones. You'll go through them collecting and such. Hopefully no power gated content. Combat should be fine if it's like the old ones. Hopefully the story is good. Lead writer of Halo 4 wrote the story for it. Now he's at Bungie. And for what it's worth. I think Halo 4 had the best story. Maybe not the most interesting. I enjoyed Halo 2's the most. But Halo 4 actually had story. People joke about Destiny, but Halo 1,2, and 3 were like it too. Though not near as bad. Not many cutscenes, or dialogue.

I hope it's not EXACTLY like Inquisition. Inquisition was fine (a VERY good improvement over DA2) and had a solid story for the first half...but after Corypheus appeared it just went downhill.  It had a few moments of improvement in the second half of the story, but otherwise it was just A) Grind until you have enough power points, B) Go to level. C)Cory appears, beat his ass.  Rinse and repeat.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed the Trespasser DLC and thought it was a wonderful send-off, Bioware needs to stop relying on its final DLC to give a satisfying end to the main game. I shouldn't have to pay $30 for "the real ending."


 
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i can't wait to get around playing the mass effect series, only to discover that ME3's ending wasn't all that bad


 
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Inquisition was just an MMO without the massive part of it. Grind central and collecting shit.


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i can't wait to get around playing the mass effect series, only to discover that ME3's ending wasn't all that bad

Some of the bitching is a bit of a stretch, but it's the honest truth to say that it's a letdown. It's not satan's flaming asshole levels of bad, but it's hard to walk away from without some kind of sour taste in your mouth.


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i can't wait to get around playing the mass effect series, only to discover that ME3's ending wasn't all that bad

Thematically, it's terrible. It's a very sudden (and very literal) deus ex machina that basically rewrites the story's lore and gives three options which (at release) were exactly the same cutscenes with different color filters (the files in the game actually label them as "blue", "green", or "red").

Definitely do play the series; everything up to the final encounter is basically perfect, as far as video games go.


 
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i can't wait to get around playing the mass effect series, only to discover that ME3's ending wasn't all that bad

how can you say that if you haven't played them?

i swear, you prime yourself to be a contrarian in situations like this lol


 
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i can't wait to get around playing the mass effect series, only to discover that ME3's ending wasn't all that bad
how can you say that if you haven't played them?

i swear, you prime yourself to be a contrarian in situations like this lol
because that's how things tend to work

if people think a game is 10/10 amazing, it's probably 8/10 at best

if people think something is godawful, it's probably not so bad and people just like to gang up on shit


 
Elai
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because that's how things tend to work

if people think a game is 10/10 amazing, it's probably 8/10 at best

if people think something is godawful, it's probably not so bad and people just like to gang up on shit

alright then


 
 
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<.<
There was nothing wrong with the original synthesis ending


FatherlyNick - fuck putin | Mythic Inconceivable!
 
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If you know, you know.
Not trolling, not being ironic - I didn't have any problems with the ending of ME3.


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There was nothing wrong with the original synthesis ending

It makes no sense in the established universe, and not even a strict renegade playthrough yields a Shepherd that would force such a huge evolution on the galaxy. None of the endings really make sense, though.


 
 
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<.<
There was nothing wrong with the original synthesis ending

It makes no sense in the established universe, and not even a strict renegade playthrough yields a Shepherd that would force such a huge evolution on the galaxy. None of the endings really make sense, though.
Storywise it's not a big deal for me, it creates a universe where organics no longer truly exist and only the purity of synthetics remain.


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i can't wait to get around playing the mass effect series, only to discover that ME3's ending wasn't all that bad
how can you say that if you haven't played them?

i swear, you prime yourself to be a contrarian in situations like this lol
because that's how things tend to work

if people think a game is 10/10 amazing, it's probably 8/10 at best

if people think something is godawful, it's probably not so bad and people just like to gang up on shit
The ending itself is bad; the response given-- bandaging the gutshot that was the end by giving a DLC epilogue-- definitely helps put into perspective both the severity of the negative reaction and Bioware's admittance that it could have been done better.

But it wasn't violently bad, just depressing. I won't buy Andromeda. Not as a message, but because ME3 killed my drive to revisit the universe.

The conclusion to the trilogy took several years to reach; I came into the series a little late, close to the release of ME2. Even then, that was four years before ME3. One the ME3 marketing began, the different choice combinations moving from ME and ME2 and seeing small changes were touted as a form of appetizer for ME3; the ending was supposed to take the aggregate of those decisions you've made overy the years to result in the ending.

And it didn't. As a series which holds player agency and repercussions for your actions as a core design philosophy, the ending removes the importance of previous choices-- beyond a series of "points" that you get for not totally destroying every encounter within ME3 itself-- and gives three options which initially appear different, but all immediately show you nearly identical results. Solely within the confines of a thematic closure to the game, it fails entirely. When applied to the series, it almost invokes a nihilistic statement about the effects of the actions you take ultimately having no real consequence; again, this entirely goes against the stated and developed point of the series.

Having said that, you most likely won't react as harshly. Sure, you might end up agreeing with its failure in storytelling, but you aren't experiencing it in the same environment of expectations, promises, and long awaited closure of a patient fanbase. In that respect you have a more objective position walking into it, but doesn't mean that the reaction that it provoked from pre-existing fans should be disregarded. It supports the idea of Bioware, as a company, failing to maintain an open dialogue with its fanbase (thereby losing touch with it), showing a culminating of organizational issues with the team headed by Casey Hudson and Mac Walters, and issues of changing writing staff failing to maintain cohesion in narrative, theme, and mood.


 
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The ending itself is bad; the response given-- bandaging the gutshot that was the end by giving a DLC epilogue-- definitely helps put into perspective both the severity of the negative reaction and Bioware's admittance that it could have been done better.

But it wasn't violently bad, just depressing. I won't buy Andromeda. Not as a message, but because ME3 killed my drive to revisit the universe.

The conclusion to the trilogy took several years to reach; I came into the series a little late, close to the release of ME2. Even then, that was four years before ME3. One the ME3 marketing began, the different choice combinations moving from ME and ME2 and seeing small changes were touted as a form of appetizer for ME3; the ending was supposed to take the aggregate of those decisions you've made overy the years to result in the ending.

And it didn't. As a series which holds player agency and repercussions for your actions as a core design philosophy, the ending removes the importance of previous choices-- beyond a series of "points" that you get for not totally destroying every encounter within ME3 itself-- and gives three options which initially appear different, but all immediately show you nearly identical results. Solely within the confines of a thematic closure to the game, it fails entirely. When applied to the series, it almost invokes a nihilistic statement about the effects of the actions you take ultimately having no real consequence; again, this entirely goes against the stated and developed point of the series.

Having said that, you most likely won't react as harshly. Sure, you might end up agreeing with its failure in storytelling, but you aren't experiencing it in the same environment of expectations, promises, and long awaited closure of a patient fanbase. In that respect you have a more objective position walking into it, but doesn't mean that the reaction that it provoked from pre-existing fans should be disregarded. It supports the idea of Bioware, as a company, failing to maintain an open dialogue with its fanbase (thereby losing touch with it), showing a culminating of organizational issues with the team headed by Casey Hudson and Mac Walters, and issues of changing writing staff failing to maintain cohesion in narrative, theme, and mood.
Well-reasoned. You're especially right about the expectations thing. I'm sure if I put myself within the perspective of a die-hard ME fan who was really anticipating how the series would conclude, I can easily imagine how someone would be disappointed if all the choices they made up until that point were basically nullified. So, part of what made the general reaction to the ending so alien to me was simply because I had never been aboard that hype train.

But even if I concede that, as an outsider, it's still very difficult to imagine myself being that upset over it. I just don't get salty over endings--period, no matter what. Never gotten angry at an ending. At worst, I'm mildly disappointed, because things may not have ended the way I hoped--but then I get over it pretty fast.

I don't really think in terms of "good" or "bad" endings, because "bad ending" to me just translates to "not how I personally would have ended it." When that doesn't matter, because it's not your story. I dunno.
Last Edit: August 17, 2016, 07:49:33 PM by Verbatim


 
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I honestly still enjoyed ME3 because the journey of the entire game outweighed the ending for me. The ending left me more so confused than mad. And then the awesome Indoctrination Theory held me off until they released the DLC for it, which also made it kinda cool on which might be the "canon" ending due to things such as the Leviathan DLC factoring into how synthetics operated.