Yeah, I'm fully aware I'm late joining in the Mass Effect 3 Ending Rant bandwagon. I'm also aware that Bioware (hey that rhymes) decided to release an Extended Cut DLC to improve the endings with additional scenes.
Anyway, so I got around finishing it. Bear in mind, the major factor that stopped me from finishing it earlier was the countless of other rants about the ending. And I ignored good ol' Marauder Shield's warning too (bless his reaper corrupted soul). I'm sorry, dude. I had to waste my thermal ammo on you just to see all of the god-forsaken endings on my own.
For those who haven't played any of the ME games or have not finished ME3 yet, this will be a spoilerific post. Proceed with extreme caution, Shepard.
Here's my Marauder Shield moment. Click below at your own risk. My thoughts on Mass Effect 3 and it's endings.
Mass Effect 3 threw players in a grand opening scenario. Earth suddenly attacked by an advanced gigantic synthetic beings called Reapers. Whatever was built by humanity's efforts were being destroyed rapidly. Helpless yet optimistic, they sent Shepard to unite all of the galaxy's races to fight back against the Reapers. I've never felt like saving Earth like this before.
That's another thing about Mass Effect that I liked. It spanned for 3 games and has built quite the lore for itself with the multiple alien civilizations , their histories, the memorable characters and most importantly, how it pulled in it's players to become Shepard him/herself. Your decisions and actions are vital to how the game's story progresses and this carries forward to both of it's sequels.
So there you are, the legendary Commander Shepard, experiencing so much and saving the entire galaxy more than once. The build-up was so enormous and great, even while fictional, you do feel the burden of the whole galaxy on your shoulders. In the third game, you're tasked to unite the galaxy, save earth and destroy the Reapers whom threatens all sentient
Depending on how you play the previous games, you'll even get the Arachnids to join your force and the unity between the Quarians and Geth. If you got the From Ashes DLC, you even get the chance to recruit the last surviving member of the Prothean race to join your squad. A Prothean with a 50 thousand year old grudge fighting alongside you, thats fucking badass. After completing missions and various sub-missions, you united the galaxy at it's full force and a super weapon called The Crucible which could destroy the Reapers once and for all. Or does it?
So with galaxy behind your back, you knock down Martin Sheen's door to get some question's answered. Then you find out that the power source for The Crucible is The Citadel itself. From that moment, players went "OH FUCK! IT WAS THERE ALL ALONG!" and who knew the intergalactic sanctuary was actually an oversized AA Duracell battery.
The problem is, Martin Sheen told the damn Reapers about it first and then joined Charlie to take Reaper-made cocaine. So the Reapers took the whole citadel for themselves and placed it above Earth and taunted the galaxy to go get it. I swore I heard Charlie Sheen go "Heh.. Winning!".
Back to Earth, now looking like a James Cameron movie. Shepard fights hard to get past Reaper forces in London to take over a stronghold which has a teleporter that links Earth to the Citadel. Wounded and battered, Shepard struggles to reach the teleporter. Three good natured Husks and good friend, Marauder Shields tried to stop Shepard from experiencing Bioware's lazy ending but they were shot down.
Shepard teleported onto the Citadel, killed a reaper-stoned Martin Sheen and successfully combined the Citadel with the Crucible. Instead of a Voltron transformation scene, Shepard encounters The Catalyst who's more of a terrible tv game show host and gave Shepard 3 choices on how Mass Effect 3 should end.
a) Sacrifice yourself to control the Reapers so they will leave all organic life alone
b) Destroy all synthetic life and technology (this includes EDI, Geth and other advanced tech).
c) Merge both organic and synthetic life together (I call this Joker's happy ending)
Just for the record, I don't care if Shepard lived or died. Hell, dying brings the impression of a great sacrifice to save all life and what more to close Shepard's chapter in Mass Effect?
The problem about this ending is the lack closure. I mean, we went through hell and high water just to get THE END! slapped to our faces.
All three endings had all of the Mass Relays destroyed. So goodbye intergalactic space travel. Remember, Shepard brought all of the galaxy's military force to our Solar System. With the Mass Relays destroyed, Sol's going to be overpopulated and also leaving other homeworlds defenseless. The intergalactic 9gag website will be filled with Scumbag Shepard memes.
Requests Military Aid. Never returns them.
And what happened to the systems which was attacked by Reapers? Did they rebuild? Were they entirely destroyed? What happened to the Geth and Quarians? How are the cured Krogans doing now? What about Aria - Did she die on the Citadel or did she retake Omega?
What planet did the Normandy teleported to during the Mass Relay's destruction? Why was the Normandy going through hyperspace during the game's ending anyway?
Aside from the anti-climax, so many questions are left unanswered yet even more questions came to existence. This is why I think, regardless of choice, ME3's ending is just a lazy pile of rubbish instead of a "What do you think?" ending.
So yeah, I hope you've put a lot of thought and effort to "fix" the ending in your will-be-released DLC, Bioware.
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