Arse-bot’s Experience With The Ending of Mass Effect 3
Friday, March 23rd, 2012 at 10:35 am Category: Editorial, Top, Video GamesThis article contains spoilers regarding the ending of Mass Effect 3.
You have been warned.
Last night around 9pm and after over 80 hours of gameplay, I completed the Mass Effect trilogy. Over the last few weeks I’ve been hearing rumblings regarding the ending of Mass Effect 3 and the fan outcry for it not being a fitting end to an otherwise epic trilogy. Needless to say, I have been avoiding these articles and discussions. Until now. I will follow this article later today with some thoughts and theories regarding the ending, and of course the controversy surrounding it, but first I’d like to share my experience with the ending. My thoughts, my questions, and ultimately my disappointment.
If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you have also completed Mass Effect 3 and are familiar with these final moments after regaining consciousness. To be frank, as I experienced the ending I didn’t know what to make of it, here are my thoughts as I experienced it, just as nonsensical as when I initially had them:
As my Commander Shepard battled his way through wave after wave of Reaper forces I was full of excitement. This is it, this is the climax. The final push to destroy the Reapers and save the entire galaxy. My Shepard had lost close friends, millions if not billions of people have died holding off the Reaper forces to buy time for me Shepard to unite the races of the galaxy into one unified force to take these bastards down. All of the sacrifice, all of the hard decisions had come down to this. The plan to board the Reaper-controlled Citadel had crumbled around our forces despite our best efforts, and before I knew it I had Shepard in a dead sprint towards the only access point to the Citadel as the Reaper known as Harbinger decimated the men around me. Then, the unthinkable. Shepard doesn’t make it. He is nailed by a blast from Harbinger and all goes dark…
But wait. After all he’s been through, it’s going to take more than a single grazing blast from a Reaper to take Shepard down. Out of the darkness, he comes to with the bodies of fallen soldiers all around him. This is where things begin to make less sense and follow a narrative very out of line with the previous 79 hours and 55 minutes I had spent in the Mass Effect universe, and this is where the frustration for myself and other Mass Effect fans begins.
Reports coming in over my radio are of the Alliance reporting that all soldiers running for the conduit have been wiped out – do they not see the single man limping his way towards it? The Reapers just through everything they had at us to stop us from reaching the conduit, would they not be thorough and make sure this one man, Shepard, who they are personally familiar with is dead? I dispatch of three Husks and the noble Maurader Shields with a pistol that has an endless clip and board the Citadel. But, I’m not alone, Admiral Anderson also made it on board. Communications from him make next to no sense; one moment it seems as if he made it onto the Citadel before me, the next it seems he was behind me. I limp my way to the control room where Anderson has already arrived. There is a weird affect on the screen, am I fighting indoctrination? The Illusive Man shows up. I argue with him, tell him he’s crazy, he forces me to shoot Anderson, I even the score by shooting him. I collapse next to Anderson, as he dies Shepard looks down at a bullet wound on himself in the exact same spot he had just shot Anderson only moments earlier. Shepard begins to fade away, but Admiral Hackett comes in over the radio.
“The Crucible isn’t working, nothing is happening.” he tells me. How does he know I made it to the Citadel? Wasn’t the Alliance just reporting that all forces trying to board were wiped out? Shepard clamors for a control console, collapses just in front, and is lifted into another room. The ghostly image of a child appears before me, begins to talk about the Reapers, what they are “actually for”, that he controls them. The Reapers wipe out all advanced organic life every “cycle” to prevent them from creating sentient synthetic races thought could wipe out all organic life if left unchecked. What the hell? The Reapers who are Synthetics themselves, controlled by this ghost child wipe out advanced organic life to prevent them from creating synthetic races that could potentially wipe out all organic life? What kind of logic is that? After more vague and contradicting explanations, the ghost child presents me with three options:
1. I become one with the Reapers and take control of them, obviously allowing me to call of their decimation of the galaxy.
2. I can jump into some green ray thing. Doing this will “synthesize” the entire galaxy, merging all organics and synthetics into a single type of “DNA”.
3. I can use the Crucible as I originally intended and destroy all current synthetic life, including the Reapers and my Geth allies. But this comes with a warning that the peace that I have brokered between all races to fight against the Reaper threat will not last and there is still the possibility of synthetic life once again being created that could wipe out all organic life.
I paused the game and thought for a moment. The first two options seem fishy, and really don’t make a lot of sense. Fuck this, and fuck the Reapers. I blow them all to hell. It’s what I’ve been working towards, it was my mission. I don’t want to control the Reapers, I don’t want to merge synthetic and organic DNA (however the hell that’s supposed to work). I want the Reapers dead.
I make my choice. Red space magic envelops the planet, destroying all of the Reapers. The red mist then shoots into the local Mass Relay and the red space magic mist stuff shoots off to all other Relays across the galaxy, destroying them in their wake. I’m also presented with a scene of Joker piloting the Normandy to God-knows-where, with my entire crew on board some how. They crash on some planet, get out, smile. The final scene is that of rubble in London where the final battle took place. Here lays the body of Commander Shepard, he takes a gasping breath, credits roll.
I sat staring at my television. What the hell just happened? I’m not angry, I’m frustrated and disappointed. Up until these final moments BioWare had threaded a story and a universe together that was enthralling, epic, and emotional – did they really drop the ball with a bookend to their story full of nonsensical space magic conclusions? Are none of the major decisions I’ve made during the course of the story going to be addressed in some sort of epilogue?
At this point I began frantically texting Senador Kooch about the ending who had just finished the day prior. I spent the next several hours texting with him discussing the ending and scouring the internet on others’ thoughts, theories, and the possibility that this was not truly the end, but instead just an event that will lead to a more logical conclusion in future DLC. Would BioWare actually do this? Would they withhold the end of a game and release it as DLC?
I’ll be back later today to discuss the theories out there, and share my thoughts on whether or not I believe BioWare just fumbled the ball at the one yard line, or if this “ending” was some sort of hallucination and battle that took place in Shepard’s head and the real ending has yet to come.
In the mean time, feel free to share your own experiences with the ending of Mass Effect 3 in the comments below!
UPDATE: I have posted the article discussing the controversy with my own thoughts and opinions on the matter. You can check that out here.
Responses to “Arse-bot’s Experience With The Ending of Mass Effect 3”
Took the words right out of my mouth…WTH was exactly my thoughts of the ending. I think EA really need to make a DLC for a different ending, but highly doubt that will happen, unless EA can make an extra 10 bucks…
I knew the endings were poorly received, and I really wanted to see for myself, but I got a few hours in and quit; I just find Mass Effect too tedious. It sounds like people are mad that they have to die at the end. I hope Shakespeare has DLC because Hamlet’s ending is a super let down.
@Arse-bot, when Shep gets up and hears the radio call that no one was left, there was a dude in front of you also getting up that you walk past, and since Anderson “followed you in” he had to have been around too. That’s at least 3 people they should have seen. Shephard is like their superhero, they wouldn’t just discount him as being gone, nor would they his squad.
@rorbot, its not like that at all. I don’t mean to call you out, but I am getting annoyed at outsiders commenting on the situation. Had you finished the game you too would understand. Did you read this article? It does a great job explaining why it blows without having played it. There is also quite a few videos and articles out there explaining it. Its not that you die, Arse-bot’s ending shows him living, its that its full of fucktard inconsistencies and plotholes, no real choice as the endings are all the same save for color and a few other minor things, and that your choices throughout all 3 games basically don’t matter in these final scenes which was the whole premise of the games.
I played Mass Effect the day it came out, and I played most of the way through 2 and a little bit through 3. Do I feel less connected to the protagonist and story than you? Absolutely. Where I differ is that I never liked the Mass Effect Story all that much, and I stand by the integrity of game producers to tell their story unaltered because of criticism. I did read the article; I’m a jerk, but not a troll.
@rorbot, based on you not wanting to finish 3 and you not liking the ME story all that much, then yes you are definitely not as connected as others. That seems like an obvious thing to me here.
I don’t what else to say to you. There is so much controversy surrounding the ending from being intentional for DLC, trying to be artistic, not enough time, bad writing, internal struggles, etc, that its not looking like its a matter of just letting them tell their story, because its bad on so many levels despite opinions.
@rorbot, I just realized you did say you were less connected than I. I misunderstood, my bad. I don’t think you are a jerk, I just don’t think you understand the situation.
I think I’m a little grump because I usually don’t like video game endings – I’m a little spoiled because I played all of the Black Isle titles as a kid, but I would never go as far as to demand a change to the story to be downloaded later or to contact the Better Business Bureau and push lawsuits for money back and damages because of a bad ending to a video game. It’s all kind of silly.
Agreed! Neither would I nor would Arse-bot I don’t think. I don’t agree with the people doing those things, but I do sympathize with the angry ones, and I do think it sends a message. This is a new thing for games, so I don’t think its something to be taken lightly.
I’m not demanding an ending change, but I expected something along the lines even before getting the game, as DLC has mostly likely always been in the cards even if they don’t admit it. The last thing you see at the end of the game is a screen that says something like “Now continue to learn about the story with additional playing and future downloadable content”. So, its all just fishy.
http://angryjoeshow.com/2012/03/top-10-reasons-we-hate-mass-effect-3s-ending/
helpful to understand….
Spoilers.
rorbot, I think what you are missing is that you are assuming that people just didn’t like the ending. This is not the case.
One of the major problems is that the endings just don’t make sense. Characters that are supposed to have died on the battlefield with Shepard are miraculously alive and well on the Normandy minutes later. Did they abandon Shepard? Did everyone on the Normady just decide “screw this, let’s leave”?
Additionally, the various endings are functionally identical despite the different descriptions. Just a palette-swap. You can destroy the galaxy with a red, blue, or green explosion. That’s the difference.
I’m all for integrity of the artist’s vision, but it’s clear that Bioware chopped and chopped the ending in order to make the release date. There’s no integrity in 3 color shifts and nonsensical plot developments.
The ENTIRE premise of MassEffect is that your decisions matter. Even the little ones.
In this case, they really don’t. You get a nihilistic ending, just in a different color palate. *lame*
I would also maybe credit BioWare for poaching some of their story talent and moving them over to SW:TOR. Given the complexity of that story, I think they maybe just robbed Peter to pay Paul, or robbed Shepard to pay Revan, if that’s more to your liking.