I have many things to say about the third ME, but I've not really gathered all my thoughts together yet. Looks like you pretty much had no thoughts either.
The Mass Effect trilogy is in my opinion one of the best RPG series ever made, i did enjoy the second game the most though, I'm soon done with the 3rd game in the series, dreading the ending a bit since there have been so much whining about it, i cant believe bioware have messed it up that badly, so i am hoping people are just overreacting.
--------EDIT----------
I just finished the game, i was dreading the ending since there have been so much complaining about about it, i thought the ending was awesome, i have no idea why so many people hated it.
Its sad that Bioware would even consider changing the ending of one of the best story driven game series in the last 20 years.
I'm glad the game didn't get the typical hollywood ending people expected, where the hero survives and everything is good, i picked the kill synthetics ending and i loved the outcome, starting a new game now to see the other outcome.
I have mixed feelings about the ending. I wasn't expecting a really happy ending or anything. That's not what upset me. But there really were some things that made no sense. Also, I didn't even know which ending I was choosing. I walked up to one of the pathways and just sort of went with it. Plus, they say all the endings are almost identical anyway. I've only experienced one though.
My biggest beef though wasn't with the ending but with the From Ashes DLC. I've never seen a DLC such as that available on the same day of the game's release. And I thought that since the Protheans were such a huge part of the story, they should've been in the full game and not as some DLC afterthought. Everyone seemed very underwhelmed at the presence of the Prothean too. It was just sad when he was standing there in the Citadel and like two or three people came up to him and were like, "Oh, gosh, wow, you're really a Prothean? No way!" And that was it.
There were a lot of moments that just felt really flat storywise. Like characters and their motivations were kind of hard to understand, especially the Illusive Man's. I also thought whether I destroyed or just irradiated the Collector base in ME2 would have the biggest repercussions of any decision I'd ever made in the game. There was one like from a character that was like, "Didn't you just irradiated the base though?" And I was like, "Yep." And then the Illusive Man seemed to be using the technology to create husks? Or to enhance his soldiers with? But storywise I didn't understand what the effect was cause his motivations throughout the game were so confusing anyway.
I think it was supposed to be part of the game's mystery that you didn't quite know what the IM was up to, but I couldn't tell HOW important his plans were compared to the sheer might of the Reapers. I kept wondering when I'm gonna have a confrontation with Harbinger, but unfortunately Harbinger was just a pawn. I think that was actually the part of the story that disappointed me the most was that the Reapers were just the tools of someone else as a way of resolving the "inevitable" conflict between organics and synthetics.
I thought what would be more interesting of an idea is that the Reapers really were masters of their own destiny and no one controlled them, yet they seemed to have reach the zenith of their own evolution and so they began creating this cycle every 50k years try to assimilate something into themselves that would finally allow them to escape the evolutionary dead end they were in. I didn't see why synthetic life and organic life had to necessarily be at odds especially since the breakthrough you have in the game with the Geth.
Now I did like the idea that the Crucible was conceived not by the Protheans but by a race that preceded them. I just didn't like that the Reapers were controlled by some other intelligence that unfortunately took on the avatar of that stupid kid. For me it kind of removed the mystique and threatening presence of the Reapers. And the fact that Harbinger never taunts you or comes back for his sweet revenge for what you did to his Collectors was all kind of disappointing to me. Mostly because Sovereign was such a great antagonist in the first game. And his motives kind of made sense too. But now I didn't quite understand the Reapers' motives anymore cause they were basically destroying civilization for the sake of saving civilization. As if they know without a doubt that synthetics and organics will inevitably wipe each other out every cycle. How can they know that if they're the ones killing everyone and basically contriving the cycle themselves?
And maybe synthetics and organics will go to war inevitably. But how do the Reapers know that the cycle they bring is any less destructive than what a synthetic/organic war would bring. It was just strange how in a few lines of dialogue this ghost/machine kid basically (for me anyway) removed all logical motivation for the Reaper's actions. I mean, that's the direction they wanted to go with the story, and I guess I gotta respect that. I'm just not convinced that was their story all along with the Reapers and it felt made up on the spot to me.
Yea i've been taking my time through Mass Effect 3 due to all of the negative feedback I am getting about the ending. I just want to cherish it before the the end >< I know there a few groups out there already spamming Bioware with "change the ending" emails, but I doubt they will relly be able to do that. I hear however that they may be making a DLC which gives the players a this-is-what-happend-to-so-and-so, but again I cannot fully say if thatll change anything since I have yet to finish it.
So in the meantime I shall bide my time with multiplayer :]
Some people regarded as an affront to their entire experience of playing through all three games. I didn't think the ending was THAT bad. I just thought it was kind of illogical and it felt really contrived. But I wouldn't say I was livid over it or offended in any way. I think for the most part, it made me just conclude that the first Mass Effect is my favorite of the series.
Hmmm I seee. I can see why the original Mass Effect would be favored, but I like the gameplay overall in Mass Effect 2. However, I am glad that they removed the probing for minerals in the third one, because I am sure people had spent hours doing it (like me ><). Well I guess eventually I will have to finish the third one since people keep spamming forums with spoilers (thats how Walking Dead 2 Finale got ruined for me :[) and just make my own judgment on it.
On another note, is there anything about the multiplayer you guys would change?
I haven't done much with the multiplayer. My Gold account is actually expired now I think. It might have been fun if I knew anyone else personally that actually played ME3.
Yeah I know ME1 is really slow compared to 2. And I do love the combat way more in 2. But ME1 was just so special and warm and cozy. It was the perfect winter game for me when I first played it.
I have mixed feelings about the ending. I wasn't expecting a really happy ending or anything. That's not what upset me. But there really were some things that made no sense. Also, I didn't even know which ending I was choosing. I walked up to one of the pathways and just sort of went with it. Plus, they say all the endings are almost identical anyway. I've only experienced one though.
My biggest beef though wasn't with the ending but with the From Ashes DLC. I've never seen a DLC such as that available on the same day of the game's release. And I thought that since the Protheans were such a huge part of the story, they should've been in the full game and not as some DLC afterthought. Everyone seemed very underwhelmed at the presence of the Prothean too. It was just sad when he was standing there in the Citadel and like two or three people came up to him and were like, "Oh, gosh, wow, you're really a Prothean? No way!" And that was it.
There were a lot of moments that just felt really flat storywise. Like characters and their motivations were kind of hard to understand, especially the Illusive Man's. I also thought whether I destroyed or just irradiated the Collector base in ME2 would have the biggest repercussions of any decision I'd ever made in the game. There was one like from a character that was like, "Didn't you just irradiated the base though?" And I was like, "Yep." And then the Illusive Man seemed to be using the technology to create husks? Or to enhance his soldiers with? But storywise I didn't understand what the effect was cause his motivations throughout the game were so confusing anyway.
I think it was supposed to be part of the game's mystery that you didn't quite know what the IM was up to, but I couldn't tell HOW important his plans were compared to the sheer might of the Reapers. I kept wondering when I'm gonna have a confrontation with Harbinger, but unfortunately Harbinger was just a pawn. I think that was actually the part of the story that disappointed me the most was that the Reapers were just the tools of someone else as a way of resolving the "inevitable" conflict between organics and synthetics.
I thought what would be more interesting of an idea is that the Reapers really were masters of their own destiny and no one controlled them, yet they seemed to have reach the zenith of their own evolution and so they began creating this cycle every 50k years try to assimilate something into themselves that would finally allow them to escape the evolutionary dead end they were in. I didn't see why synthetic life and organic life had to necessarily be at odds especially since the breakthrough you have in the game with the Geth.
Now I did like the idea that the Crucible was conceived not by the Protheans but by a race that preceded them. I just didn't like that the Reapers were controlled by some other intelligence that unfortunately took on the avatar of that stupid kid. For me it kind of removed the mystique and threatening presence of the Reapers. And the fact that Harbinger never taunts you or comes back for his sweet revenge for what you did to his Collectors was all kind of disappointing to me. Mostly because Sovereign was such a great antagonist in the first game. And his motives kind of made sense too. But now I didn't quite understand the Reapers' motives anymore cause they were basically destroying civilization for the sake of saving civilization. As if they know without a doubt that synthetics and organics will inevitably wipe each other out every cycle. How can they know that if they're the ones killing everyone and basically contriving the cycle themselves?
And maybe synthetics and organics will go to war inevitably. But how do the Reapers know that the cycle they bring is any less destructive than what a synthetic/organic war would bring. It was just strange how in a few lines of dialogue this ghost/machine kid basically (for me anyway) removed all logical motivation for the Reaper's actions. I mean, that's the direction they wanted to go with the story, and I guess I gotta respect that. I'm just not convinced that was their story all along with the Reapers and it felt made up on the spot to me.
Pretty much what I thought, only written properly. It seems as though they thought about the ending before the rest of the game, and just pasted it there after they completed the rest. It didn't make much sense.
My biggest disappointment was with the Illusive Man. He was such a badass character before the end, saving mankind in the harshest way possible. The fact that he was indoctrinated didn't make much sense either. Why did the Reapers fight him at Sanctuary if he was just obeying them?
It wasn't as gamebreaking as many people claim, but I did expect a better ending. Personally, I wanted the Reapers to win, no matter what you did.
I wanted to run through the games again. I ran through ME1 again: saw the potential. Then I played ME2 a bit and it hit me:
This series is a failure. Its epic in its non-interesting, shallow, non-replayable kind of way. I admit, hearing about ME3's didn't quite help. I'm not even bothering. Bioware is a laughing stock now.
It wasn't as gamebreaking as many people claim, but I did expect a better ending. Personally, I wanted the Reapers to win, no matter what you did.
I thought of that too. Or maybe at least, have them win, but then contrive some sort of exodus into another galaxy. Like the plot device, the Crucible. Could've been more interesting if it was actually a sort of intergalactic mass effect relay that self-destructed after its use. I don't know. Lots of story elements definitely were disappointing to me. It just had this feeling like the writers approached the game having never played the previous two games.
I really enjoyed the game, beat it the first time and felt sort of okay with it. Then I went and beat it with the other ending choices and I felt really cheated.
There were a LOT of good parts in the story where you had to make tough choices or some bad stuff happened. It really pulled on my heartstrings.
Things like Tali killing herself, Legion dying, Mordin dying, Miranda being killed if you didn't warn her, breaking it off with Miranda, Thane dying, a lot of it could be avoided. I accidentally let the bomb go off on Tuchanka and Wrex sent me a email about how Eve died and it was sad then he guilt tripped me later about it too. Then there were a couple things that FELT like it should have mattered more like Grunt should have died if you chose the Rachni Queen, but he doesn't it's the same outcome if you take the Rachni or not.
Then the ending it just narrowed it down quite a bit, the choices FELT meaningful the first time, mainly because I heard the options wrong I guess, but to see that they were all the same essentially just different colors was terrible. I want to know what happened to my crew. That's another thing, why the hell was my crew not with me when that squad got blown up? Also they are suddenly out of orbit and flying away through a mass relay not even 15 minutes after they THINK I died? MY crew wouldn't have done that. That's sort of beside the point though. I really just wanted to see what happened to everyone. I planned on playing again just to get as many death scenes as possible because some parts of the game were tough for me, the ending just cheapened all that though.
That's a big thing that bothered me about the ending too. The Normandy all trying to outrun that shockwave. Like what they fuck? And Joker is bad enough. Does he have to be in the ending so much and ruin it for me? I actually liked the kid and the old man talking. That part way okay. It was just the overall story is what disappointed me at the end. I still think if they imposed an exodus on themselves with all of the fleet going in and create a new beginning in another galaxy, that could've made for interesting Mass Effect games down the road. It's hard to say where they're go from here with the franchise.
Here's a good question, the relay blows up, so everyone is basically stranded on Earth? Like nearly every military fleet in the galaxy in my game is just stranded on Earth now? Why?
I don't understand why they had to blow the relays up.
There was also a choice at the end while talking to the Illusive man, I couldnt chose the final paragon option, I think it was bugged, so I had to go with like a default white option and he goes to shoot Anderson and I can save him with a renegade QTE, then after he shoots Anderson if you don't save him he shoots you unless you do a renegade QTE. So I HAVE to be a renegade? It's making me take a renegade choice to continue? Also how is saving yourself and Anderson renegade when there is no other choice? Oh yeah then Anderson dies anyways.
The whole thing at the end felt rushed in my opinion, but it also felt like they have EXACTLY in mind what they want to do with DLC already which is disappointing.
That part I didn't have the renegade or paragon choice either. You only get one of them if you're very paragon or very renegade.
I think the whole purpose of destroying the relays as the avatar kid stated, was to end the 50k year cycle. But it didn't really make any sense to me. In fact, his entire stated purpose of the Reapers didn't make sense.
It made more sense when you thought the Reapers were in control of the cycle and the only reason they did it was to harvest and assimilate new technology and organic matter in order to push their evolution further.
But the avatar kid says it was actually to prevent the inevitable conflict between organics and synthetics so they don't destroy each other. I mean, just think about that. The Reapers come, enslave or kill everything so organics and synthetics don't do it to themselves later on the off chance that they will destroy all life in the galaxy. It's kinda lame. It's just convoluted. It made way more sense when the Reapers were in charge of themselves (or so you thought) and they just did the whole cycle thing merely to consume new materials. It was simple, but it made sense.
It wasn't as gamebreaking as many people claim, but I did expect a better ending. Personally, I wanted the Reapers to win, no matter what you did.
I thought of that too. Or maybe at least, have them win, but then contrive some sort of exodus into another galaxy. Like the plot device, the Crucible. Could've been more interesting if it was actually a sort of intergalactic mass effect relay that self-destructed after its use. I don't know. Lots of story elements definitely were disappointing to me. It just had this feeling like the writers approached the game having never played the previous two games.
One of the giant bomb podcasts talked about that, and they make a good case for that being somewhat central to the flaws in ME3. At some point, Bioware began trumpeting this game as "a good time to get into the series" and that you "didn't need to play the other games to understand this one." Both of those statements are patently false, unless you're just playing the game like a generic FPS, and you don't care about story (in which case, ME3 would be a terrible game). It just seems like they were so in love with the idea that people can jump in blind to ME3 that they didn't bother with including lore from the rest of the trilogy.
Oh, and personally, I didn't want a traditional happy ending. I mean, it was bad enough that we can already defend ourselves against a FLEET of Reapers, but to make some super happy ending would have just destroyed all the Reaper street cred they tried to build up as them being so super powerful.
I disagree. Dr. Ray says they are improving "context," with additional custscenes and epilogues. The context that I, and many others, are upset about, is the Catalyst. I very much doubt that some custscenes can clear that up. My guess is it will be an Animal House style ending. Will see how the major characters did, who died and who didn't, and maybe some context on why Joker and the rest of the Normandy are suddenly a bunch of deserters.
While it would be nice to see what happened to all my teammates, I'd much prefer something that actually makes the Catalyst fit into the story.
[spoilers]
Like, say:
Why is the VI taking the form of the little kid?
Why does it feel that war between synthetic and organical life is envitable?
Why does Shep just stand there and take it, with no options to argue (uh, if the Qurians and Geth can get along, and it turns out the Geth never actually wanted to kill us, and the only true Synthetics were either confused, as EDI was when she was the malfunctioning luna base VI, or defending themselves, as the Geth and that one computer in the first game)?
Why does destroying the reapers (and organic/synthetic hybrid) destroy the Geth (a pure synthetic race)?
Why does destroying the reapers kill me?
Who else does destroying the reapers kill? Any one with Cybernetics? Anything with computer intellegence (AI/VI)?
What kind of insane space magic is the synthesis option, and how does it actually help anything?
If the Crucible is several cycles old, how was the Citadel added to it, if the first thing the Reapers always captured was the Citadel?
How could any race put together enough resistance to build even part of the Crucible if they did not have access to Relays?
If the Catalyst is controling the Reapers, it predates the Reapers. And if the Catalyst is required to activate the Crucible, does that mean the Catalyst created the Crucible? If so, why? If not, then why would it allow itself to work at odds to it's own goals?
If the Catalyst controls the reapers, it presumably controls the citadel and the keepers. If so, how come it couldn't fix the Citadel, allowing the Reapers to use it as a Relay?
If the goal is to prevent Synthetic/Organic war, then why wait 50k years? Just wipe out any race advanced enough to gain ME tech.
Why is the real simple goal of preventing organic life from creating synthetic life under the idea that synthetic life will always try and kill organic life so amazingly complex that the Reapers wouldn't even tell us that?
If the reapers goals are to prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, why would they work with the Geth at all?
[/spoilers]
Sorry for the rant. Endings that ask more questions then they answer, especially when those questions are a result of poor writing, really bug me. Especially in a series that was supposedly about the writing by a company that is supposedly known for its writing. It also bugs me that so many people are focusing on what I feel are either very minor flaws (why don't we know what happened to the rest of our squad) or are not flaws at all (why can't we have a super happy ending)?
One of the giant bomb podcasts talked about that, and they make a good case for that being somewhat central to the flaws in ME3. At some point, Bioware began trumpeting this game as "a good time to get into the series" and that you "didn't need to play the other games to understand this one." Both of those statements are patently false, unless you're just playing the game like a generic FPS, and you don't care about story (in which case, ME3 would be a terrible game). It just seems like they were so in love with the idea that people can jump in blind to ME3 that they didn't bother with including lore from the rest of the trilogy.
Well considering it was the final game of the trilogy, I can understand why they would market it as a good as game as any to start playing it. I mean heck, the beginning of the game you can actually choose an option that just makes all your choices for you so it's less of an RPG. And for those who did play ME3 and it was their first time playing any ME game, it's unlikely they did play it for the story so all along the confusing plot wouldn't have made sense but maybe they wouldn't have cared.
Oh, and personally, I didn't want a traditional happy ending. I mean, it was bad enough that we can already defend ourselves against a FLEET of Reapers, but to make some super happy ending would have just destroyed all the Reaper street cred they tried to build up as them being so super powerful.
I felt the same way. I didn't need a happy ending at all. Maybe at least just a hopeful ending. I mean, the ending was hopeful but it felt so hamfistedly written. I think I would've been happy if for the most part the Reapers did destory or assimilate everything but only a few thousand survivors escaped them on a ship such as the Ascension. And this could be like a glimmer of hope because they start their own exodus and later turn it into a genesis in perhaps another galaxy. So therefore, unlike the previous cycles, there were just a few survivors that in the next 50,000 years might reappear in the Milky Way and truly defeat the Reapers. I think that could've been far more interesting.
I disagree. Dr. Ray says they are improving "context," with additional custscenes and epilogues. The context that I, and many others, are upset about, is the Catalyst. I very much doubt that some custscenes can clear that up. My guess is it will be an Animal House style ending. Will see how the major characters did, who died and who didn't, and maybe some context on why Joker and the rest of the Normandy are suddenly a bunch of deserters.
Here's why it feels like an apology to me. The content will be free. Just think about that. The day of the game's release there was the From Ashes DLC which was like 10 bucks. And now later they want to give us a bunch of content for free. Seems rather uncharacteristic of them at this point to do that unless it really is just an apology.
My interpretation of that is it was some kind of lame Contact like thing where the computer thing just scanned Shepherd's mind and found the image of the child there and took that form in order to more easily relate to Shephered.
Why does it feel that war between synthetic and organical life is envitable?
More importantly, why do the Reapers actually be the ones who are making it inevitable? I mean just think about it. This is the thing that drives crazy about the whole kid AI explanation. The Reapers come and start everything over by wiping everything out or assimilating it, and this is what prevents organics and synthetics from eventually destroying each other? As if they know that a possible war between organics and synthetics will somehow be more destructive than the actual destruction wrought by the Reapers. This makes...NO...sense! It made far, far more sense when the Reapers just did what they did because they were trying to contrive their own evolution. They reached the limits of their own natural evolution it seemed. So in an attempt to move further ahead the evolutionary flowchart, they let the galaxy flourish for 50k years at a time so they could come in and absorb whatever they could to make themselves stronger and to advance more. This, this actually makes sense. And this also, was the explanation of the Reaper's motives as early as the first game and I really liked it. Then in one fell swoop, they ruined all logic of the Reaper's by having that kid AI say that he's killing all of you so you don't kill yourselves. It's stupid, man.
Why does Shep just stand there and take it, with no options to argue (uh, if the Qurians and Geth can get along, and it turns out the Geth never actually wanted to kill us, and the only true Synthetics were either confused, as EDI was when she was the malfunctioning luna base VI, or defending themselves, as the Geth and that one computer in the first game)?
I honestly think it's because the writers here got lazy. All those who played all three games were wondering all this too. It seemed there were tons of ways to defeat the kid AI with logic just as all these exceptional things you cited there had occurred. But the writers just didn't feel like taking it all into account. They just created a blanket solution to all the game's pragmatic philosophies and possibilities.
Why does destroying the reapers (and organic/synthetic hybrid) destroy the Geth (a pure synthetic race)?
Why does destroying the reapers kill me?
Who else does destroying the reapers kill? Any one with Cybernetics? Anything with computer intellegence (AI/VI)?
What kind of insane space magic is the synthesis option, and how does it actually help anything?
I thought the ending was supposed just be all technology being wiped out. I guess I misunderstood what was happening. Although I didn't even know which option I was choosing anyway even though I heard all three options pretty much end the same. Yeah and the whole synthesis thing was stupid too. If the synthesis was an option all along, they didn't the kid AI just force that in the beginning instead of repeating this cycle of destruction and assimilation every 50k years?
If the Crucible is several cycles old, how was the Citadel added to it, if the first thing the Reapers always captured was the Citadel?
How could any race put together enough resistance to build even part of the Crucible if they did not have access to Relays?
A few things I guess. For one, it does actually take time for the Reapers to conquer the galaxy as you saw in ME3. And remember the difference in this cycle was that the Reapers didn't come through the Citadel relay otherwise the galaxy would've been conquered much faster. Shepherd stopped that part of the plan and it bought everyone some time. And also, the Crucible never got close to being finished in previous cycles because the Reapers did come through the Citadel relay. Maybe in previous cycles they thought they could capture the Citadel long enough to use it with the Crucible which is why it failed in previous cycles.
If the Catalyst is controling the Reapers, it predates the Reapers. And if the Catalyst is required to activate the Crucible, does that mean the Catalyst created the Crucible? If so, why? If not, then why would it allow itself to work at odds to it's own goals?
If the Catalyst controls the reapers, it presumably controls the citadel and the keepers. If so, how come it couldn't fix the Citadel, allowing the Reapers to use it as a Relay?
I seriously doubt the writers themselves have the faintest clue.
If the goal is to prevent Synthetic/Organic war, then why wait 50k years? Just wipe out any race advanced enough to gain ME tech.
Why is the real simple goal of preventing organic life from creating synthetic life under the idea that synthetic life will always try and kill organic life so amazingly complex that the Reapers wouldn't even tell us that?
If the reapers goals are to prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, why would they work with the Geth at all?
Again, it's because this motive doesn't make sense and it wasn't created as their motive until ME3. I was saddened by it, really. The Reapers seemed totally in control of what they did. They were in control of their own destinies. But then you just find out they're pawns of a great power which I thought was depressing. Suddenly the Reapers lost all their presence, all their threat.
It also bugs me that so many people are focusing on what I feel are either very minor flaws (why don't we know what happened to the rest of our squad) or are not flaws at all (why can't we have a super happy ending)?
Yeah it wasn't that necessary to know what happened to the rest of the crew. I certainly was pissed to keep seeing Joker so much in the final cutscene. I was like, "Go on git! Git outta here!" I fucking hate Joker though. To be fair, I fucking hate Seth Green.
Please feel free to post about anything Mass Effect related!
I will start first,
Possible Mass Effect 3 multiplayer DLC?
http://www.gamezone.com/products/mass-effect-3/news/leaked-image-suggests-future-mass-effect-3-multiplayer-dlc
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
--------EDIT----------
I just finished the game, i was dreading the ending since there have been so much complaining about about it, i thought the ending was awesome, i have no idea why so many people hated it.
Its sad that Bioware would even consider changing the ending of one of the best story driven game series in the last 20 years.
I'm glad the game didn't get the typical hollywood ending people expected, where the hero survives and everything is good, i picked the kill synthetics ending and i loved the outcome, starting a new game now to see the other outcome.
My biggest beef though wasn't with the ending but with the From Ashes DLC. I've never seen a DLC such as that available on the same day of the game's release. And I thought that since the Protheans were such a huge part of the story, they should've been in the full game and not as some DLC afterthought. Everyone seemed very underwhelmed at the presence of the Prothean too. It was just sad when he was standing there in the Citadel and like two or three people came up to him and were like, "Oh, gosh, wow, you're really a Prothean? No way!" And that was it.
There were a lot of moments that just felt really flat storywise. Like characters and their motivations were kind of hard to understand, especially the Illusive Man's. I also thought whether I destroyed or just irradiated the Collector base in ME2 would have the biggest repercussions of any decision I'd ever made in the game. There was one like from a character that was like, "Didn't you just irradiated the base though?" And I was like, "Yep." And then the Illusive Man seemed to be using the technology to create husks? Or to enhance his soldiers with? But storywise I didn't understand what the effect was cause his motivations throughout the game were so confusing anyway.
I think it was supposed to be part of the game's mystery that you didn't quite know what the IM was up to, but I couldn't tell HOW important his plans were compared to the sheer might of the Reapers. I kept wondering when I'm gonna have a confrontation with Harbinger, but unfortunately Harbinger was just a pawn. I think that was actually the part of the story that disappointed me the most was that the Reapers were just the tools of someone else as a way of resolving the "inevitable" conflict between organics and synthetics.
I thought what would be more interesting of an idea is that the Reapers really were masters of their own destiny and no one controlled them, yet they seemed to have reach the zenith of their own evolution and so they began creating this cycle every 50k years try to assimilate something into themselves that would finally allow them to escape the evolutionary dead end they were in. I didn't see why synthetic life and organic life had to necessarily be at odds especially since the breakthrough you have in the game with the Geth.
Now I did like the idea that the Crucible was conceived not by the Protheans but by a race that preceded them. I just didn't like that the Reapers were controlled by some other intelligence that unfortunately took on the avatar of that stupid kid. For me it kind of removed the mystique and threatening presence of the Reapers. And the fact that Harbinger never taunts you or comes back for his sweet revenge for what you did to his Collectors was all kind of disappointing to me. Mostly because Sovereign was such a great antagonist in the first game. And his motives kind of made sense too. But now I didn't quite understand the Reapers' motives anymore cause they were basically destroying civilization for the sake of saving civilization. As if they know without a doubt that synthetics and organics will inevitably wipe each other out every cycle. How can they know that if they're the ones killing everyone and basically contriving the cycle themselves?
And maybe synthetics and organics will go to war inevitably. But how do the Reapers know that the cycle they bring is any less destructive than what a synthetic/organic war would bring. It was just strange how in a few lines of dialogue this ghost/machine kid basically (for me anyway) removed all logical motivation for the Reaper's actions. I mean, that's the direction they wanted to go with the story, and I guess I gotta respect that. I'm just not convinced that was their story all along with the Reapers and it felt made up on the spot to me.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
So in the meantime I shall bide my time with multiplayer :]
-Raven
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
On another note, is there anything about the multiplayer you guys would change?
-Raven
Yeah I know ME1 is really slow compared to 2. And I do love the combat way more in 2. But ME1 was just so special and warm and cozy. It was the perfect winter game for me when I first played it.
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Ha. Bagstone.
Pretty much what I thought, only written properly. It seems as though they thought about the ending before the rest of the game, and just pasted it there after they completed the rest. It didn't make much sense.
My biggest disappointment was with the Illusive Man. He was such a badass character before the end, saving mankind in the harshest way possible. The fact that he was indoctrinated didn't make much sense either. Why did the Reapers fight him at Sanctuary if he was just obeying them?
It wasn't as gamebreaking as many people claim, but I did expect a better ending. Personally, I wanted the Reapers to win, no matter what you did.
I wanted to run through the games again. I ran through ME1 again: saw the potential. Then I played ME2 a bit and it hit me:
This series is a failure. Its epic in its non-interesting, shallow, non-replayable kind of way. I admit, hearing about ME3's didn't quite help. I'm not even bothering. Bioware is a laughing stock now.
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There were a LOT of good parts in the story where you had to make tough choices or some bad stuff happened. It really pulled on my heartstrings.
Then the ending it just narrowed it down quite a bit, the choices FELT meaningful the first time, mainly because I heard the options wrong I guess, but to see that they were all the same essentially just different colors was terrible. I want to know what happened to my crew. That's another thing, why the hell was my crew not with me when that squad got blown up? Also they are suddenly out of orbit and flying away through a mass relay not even 15 minutes after they THINK I died? MY crew wouldn't have done that. That's sort of beside the point though. I really just wanted to see what happened to everyone. I planned on playing again just to get as many death scenes as possible because some parts of the game were tough for me, the ending just cheapened all that though.
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I don't understand why they had to blow the relays up.
There was also a choice at the end while talking to the Illusive man, I couldnt chose the final paragon option, I think it was bugged, so I had to go with like a default white option and he goes to shoot Anderson and I can save him with a renegade QTE, then after he shoots Anderson if you don't save him he shoots you unless you do a renegade QTE. So I HAVE to be a renegade? It's making me take a renegade choice to continue? Also how is saving yourself and Anderson renegade when there is no other choice? Oh yeah then Anderson dies anyways.
The whole thing at the end felt rushed in my opinion, but it also felt like they have EXACTLY in mind what they want to do with DLC already which is disappointing.
I think the whole purpose of destroying the relays as the avatar kid stated, was to end the 50k year cycle. But it didn't really make any sense to me. In fact, his entire stated purpose of the Reapers didn't make sense.
It made more sense when you thought the Reapers were in control of the cycle and the only reason they did it was to harvest and assimilate new technology and organic matter in order to push their evolution further.
But the avatar kid says it was actually to prevent the inevitable conflict between organics and synthetics so they don't destroy each other. I mean, just think about that. The Reapers come, enslave or kill everything so organics and synthetics don't do it to themselves later on the off chance that they will destroy all life in the galaxy. It's kinda lame. It's just convoluted. It made way more sense when the Reapers were in charge of themselves (or so you thought) and they just did the whole cycle thing merely to consume new materials. It was simple, but it made sense.
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http://www.giantbomb.com/news/mass-effect-3-extended-cut-dlc-coming-this-summer/4072/
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
One of the giant bomb podcasts talked about that, and they make a good case for that being somewhat central to the flaws in ME3. At some point, Bioware began trumpeting this game as "a good time to get into the series" and that you "didn't need to play the other games to understand this one." Both of those statements are patently false, unless you're just playing the game like a generic FPS, and you don't care about story (in which case, ME3 would be a terrible game). It just seems like they were so in love with the idea that people can jump in blind to ME3 that they didn't bother with including lore from the rest of the trilogy.
Oh, and personally, I didn't want a traditional happy ending. I mean, it was bad enough that we can already defend ourselves against a FLEET of Reapers, but to make some super happy ending would have just destroyed all the Reaper street cred they tried to build up as them being so super powerful.
I disagree. Dr. Ray says they are improving "context," with additional custscenes and epilogues. The context that I, and many others, are upset about, is the Catalyst. I very much doubt that some custscenes can clear that up. My guess is it will be an Animal House style ending. Will see how the major characters did, who died and who didn't, and maybe some context on why Joker and the rest of the Normandy are suddenly a bunch of deserters.
While it would be nice to see what happened to all my teammates, I'd much prefer something that actually makes the Catalyst fit into the story.
[spoilers]
Like, say:
Why is the VI taking the form of the little kid?
Why does it feel that war between synthetic and organical life is envitable?
Why does Shep just stand there and take it, with no options to argue (uh, if the Qurians and Geth can get along, and it turns out the Geth never actually wanted to kill us, and the only true Synthetics were either confused, as EDI was when she was the malfunctioning luna base VI, or defending themselves, as the Geth and that one computer in the first game)?
Why does destroying the reapers (and organic/synthetic hybrid) destroy the Geth (a pure synthetic race)?
Why does destroying the reapers kill me?
Who else does destroying the reapers kill? Any one with Cybernetics? Anything with computer intellegence (AI/VI)?
What kind of insane space magic is the synthesis option, and how does it actually help anything?
If the Crucible is several cycles old, how was the Citadel added to it, if the first thing the Reapers always captured was the Citadel?
How could any race put together enough resistance to build even part of the Crucible if they did not have access to Relays?
If the Catalyst is controling the Reapers, it predates the Reapers. And if the Catalyst is required to activate the Crucible, does that mean the Catalyst created the Crucible? If so, why? If not, then why would it allow itself to work at odds to it's own goals?
If the Catalyst controls the reapers, it presumably controls the citadel and the keepers. If so, how come it couldn't fix the Citadel, allowing the Reapers to use it as a Relay?
If the goal is to prevent Synthetic/Organic war, then why wait 50k years? Just wipe out any race advanced enough to gain ME tech.
Why is the real simple goal of preventing organic life from creating synthetic life under the idea that synthetic life will always try and kill organic life so amazingly complex that the Reapers wouldn't even tell us that?
If the reapers goals are to prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, why would they work with the Geth at all?
[/spoilers]
Sorry for the rant. Endings that ask more questions then they answer, especially when those questions are a result of poor writing, really bug me. Especially in a series that was supposedly about the writing by a company that is supposedly known for its writing. It also bugs me that so many people are focusing on what I feel are either very minor flaws (why don't we know what happened to the rest of our squad) or are not flaws at all (why can't we have a super happy ending)?
I felt the same way. I didn't need a happy ending at all. Maybe at least just a hopeful ending. I mean, the ending was hopeful but it felt so hamfistedly written. I think I would've been happy if for the most part the Reapers did destory or assimilate everything but only a few thousand survivors escaped them on a ship such as the Ascension. And this could be like a glimmer of hope because they start their own exodus and later turn it into a genesis in perhaps another galaxy. So therefore, unlike the previous cycles, there were just a few survivors that in the next 50,000 years might reappear in the Milky Way and truly defeat the Reapers. I think that could've been far more interesting.
Here's why it feels like an apology to me. The content will be free. Just think about that. The day of the game's release there was the From Ashes DLC which was like 10 bucks. And now later they want to give us a bunch of content for free. Seems rather uncharacteristic of them at this point to do that unless it really is just an apology.
My interpretation of that is it was some kind of lame Contact like thing where the computer thing just scanned Shepherd's mind and found the image of the child there and took that form in order to more easily relate to Shephered.
More importantly, why do the Reapers actually be the ones who are making it inevitable? I mean just think about it. This is the thing that drives crazy about the whole kid AI explanation. The Reapers come and start everything over by wiping everything out or assimilating it, and this is what prevents organics and synthetics from eventually destroying each other? As if they know that a possible war between organics and synthetics will somehow be more destructive than the actual destruction wrought by the Reapers. This makes...NO...sense! It made far, far more sense when the Reapers just did what they did because they were trying to contrive their own evolution. They reached the limits of their own natural evolution it seemed. So in an attempt to move further ahead the evolutionary flowchart, they let the galaxy flourish for 50k years at a time so they could come in and absorb whatever they could to make themselves stronger and to advance more. This, this actually makes sense. And this also, was the explanation of the Reaper's motives as early as the first game and I really liked it. Then in one fell swoop, they ruined all logic of the Reaper's by having that kid AI say that he's killing all of you so you don't kill yourselves. It's stupid, man.
I honestly think it's because the writers here got lazy. All those who played all three games were wondering all this too. It seemed there were tons of ways to defeat the kid AI with logic just as all these exceptional things you cited there had occurred. But the writers just didn't feel like taking it all into account. They just created a blanket solution to all the game's pragmatic philosophies and possibilities.
I thought the ending was supposed just be all technology being wiped out. I guess I misunderstood what was happening. Although I didn't even know which option I was choosing anyway even though I heard all three options pretty much end the same. Yeah and the whole synthesis thing was stupid too. If the synthesis was an option all along, they didn't the kid AI just force that in the beginning instead of repeating this cycle of destruction and assimilation every 50k years?
A few things I guess. For one, it does actually take time for the Reapers to conquer the galaxy as you saw in ME3. And remember the difference in this cycle was that the Reapers didn't come through the Citadel relay otherwise the galaxy would've been conquered much faster. Shepherd stopped that part of the plan and it bought everyone some time. And also, the Crucible never got close to being finished in previous cycles because the Reapers did come through the Citadel relay. Maybe in previous cycles they thought they could capture the Citadel long enough to use it with the Crucible which is why it failed in previous cycles.
I seriously doubt the writers themselves have the faintest clue.
Again, it's because this motive doesn't make sense and it wasn't created as their motive until ME3. I was saddened by it, really. The Reapers seemed totally in control of what they did. They were in control of their own destinies. But then you just find out they're pawns of a great power which I thought was depressing. Suddenly the Reapers lost all their presence, all their threat.
Yeah it wasn't that necessary to know what happened to the rest of the crew. I certainly was pissed to keep seeing Joker so much in the final cutscene. I was like, "Go on git! Git outta here!" I fucking hate Joker though. To be fair, I fucking hate Seth Green.
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