Postby Neane » Sun Apr 08, 2012 11:36 pm
Finished Mass Effect 3.
Well. I should start off saying that I love all the Mass Effect games. The story and the general theme of unity (not uniformity, like in the Singularity ending) have captured me since the first game. And even though they dropped many role-playing elements in ME2, it was still a great game, with great combat mechanics. They even improved on that in the third game.
99% of Mass Effect 3 was as close to perfect as I've seen in a game since Baldurs Gate (of course, different kind of game, but I'm talking about fun I had with a game-series).
But, to get to the point, the last 15 minutes of the game kind of ruined it for me. [spoiler]From the moment Harbingers beam hits Shepard, it feels like a different story. Every logic seems to have been thrown out of the window. Anderson somehow reached the beam before you, even though the whole ground team has supposedly been obliterated, and he looks rather unharmed, compared to Shepards charred, ruined armor. But I could live with that. But then this AI god-child shows up out of nowhere, tells you, it controlled the Reapers all along, and they were its solution. To prevent synthetics from destroying organic life, it made some super-synthetics to return every 50.000 years to kill all evolved civilizations? After Shepard just united the Geth and the rest of the universe, proving, that synthetics are NOT bound to destroy organic life. Meh.
And Shepard, who has always found a way to deal with hopeless situations, not accepting it, when someone told him/her something is impossible, but finding his/her own way. And now, suddenly, Shepard just nods, not even asking the burning questions about all the holes in the Catalysts story? I don't buy it.
Then you get to choose between the 3 endings. Control, shown by the example of none other than the Illusive Man, in Paragon-Blue? And the Destroy-ending (Shepards goal since meeting Sovereign) is Renegade-Red, shown by Anderson? Oh, and, of course, the Green one. Turning the strenght of all the different races, their differences (which were referenced by Javik, the prothean, as this cycles' greatest strenght), completly away by making EVERY SINGLE being some synthetic-organic hybrid... That one was probably the worst ending for me.
But hey, it gets worse... After that crappy choice, you choose what color the wave that destroys the Mass Relays is, thereby stranding ALL THE FLEETS OF THE GALAXY in the Sol-System, at Earth, practically saying "hey, there you are, not enough resources for everybody and no way to go home". And the Normandy apparently left the battle on Earth, miraculously having the crew members that were with you, when starting toward the beam on board, instead of with Shepard, to flee through a Mass Relay, right before they blow up. Just to strand somewhere in the galaxy. Why would Joker, of all people, abandon the battle? How did my squadmates I took with me to the last push get on the Normandy? I don't know. There is no epilogue or semething of that kind to explain anything. No idea what happened to Garrus, Ashley, or my LI, Liara after defeating the reaper threat (at least that much we know after the "ending").
Oh, and don't forget Buzz Aldrins 30 seconds of voice acting, where Bioware practically tells you "Oh yeah, and don't forget to buy some DLC".[/spoiler]
Well. there you have it. My little rant on the Ending of one of the most enjoyable games ever.