Mass Effect 3 ending thoughts
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Agreed, the only logical one is for you to control the reapers. That way, synthetics (including EDI) would be spared, and you wouldn't be sealing everyone to their own little systems.
But what does it matter? All mass effect is, is an old man telling a fairy tale to his grandson.
ME1+2 were pretty darn good, but the endings for ME3 are a huge disappointment. I still enjoyed the game though. Thank god i didn't buy it, and I just rented it xD
But what does it matter? All mass effect is, is an old man telling a fairy tale to his grandson.
ME1+2 were pretty darn good, but the endings for ME3 are a huge disappointment. I still enjoyed the game though. Thank god i didn't buy it, and I just rented it xD
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personally i thought the synthesis ending made the most sense. Because organics and synthetics are one, the cycle truly ends. But in the end it doesn't matter, same outcome regardless of what you pick.
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i never got to the ending so i couldnt tell u my thoughts of it
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I am going to assume that since this thread is titled ending thoughts, everyone knows there could be spoilers within, so, yea, SPOILERS!!
The main issue with the endings for me was that they took all real choice out of it. Sure you get to choose between the 3 endings, but the choices you made all through the game, and the other two dont seem to make any direct difference on the endings, which is... well... lame. Otherwise, taken at face value, I was happy enough with the endings and felt that they provided a satisfactory conclusion.
That was until I read this link: http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mas...Was-the-ending-a-hallucination-9727423-1.html
And it blew my mind. For those who dont want to read that link (it is a bit long) It basically states that Shepherd hallucinated the whole ending, after the beam to the citadel. Its all about indoctrination. Shepherd, and be extension, you the player have been indoctrinated (or are in the process of being indoctrinated), and the choices are all about succumbing to indoctrination or fighting it... and the only real option that fights it is to blow up the reapers. In fact, there is a link to a youtube video within that link that shows all three endings, and if your EMS is high enough, blowing up the reapers is the only option where Shepherd survives as shown with a small clip of shepherd waking up in the rubble. Whether this is Shepherd surviving, or simply waking up from indoctrination, not sure.
And if this is the case (and for the time being I am going to assume it is) I think the ending is one of the most amazing endings of probably any video game I have ever played.
The main issue with the endings for me was that they took all real choice out of it. Sure you get to choose between the 3 endings, but the choices you made all through the game, and the other two dont seem to make any direct difference on the endings, which is... well... lame. Otherwise, taken at face value, I was happy enough with the endings and felt that they provided a satisfactory conclusion.
That was until I read this link: http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mas...Was-the-ending-a-hallucination-9727423-1.html
And it blew my mind. For those who dont want to read that link (it is a bit long) It basically states that Shepherd hallucinated the whole ending, after the beam to the citadel. Its all about indoctrination. Shepherd, and be extension, you the player have been indoctrinated (or are in the process of being indoctrinated), and the choices are all about succumbing to indoctrination or fighting it... and the only real option that fights it is to blow up the reapers. In fact, there is a link to a youtube video within that link that shows all three endings, and if your EMS is high enough, blowing up the reapers is the only option where Shepherd survives as shown with a small clip of shepherd waking up in the rubble. Whether this is Shepherd surviving, or simply waking up from indoctrination, not sure.
And if this is the case (and for the time being I am going to assume it is) I think the ending is one of the most amazing endings of probably any video game I have ever played.
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No the reason why the endings make no sense and completely ignore any choices you may have made throughout the game was because some russian hackers made off with an early script. So Bioware had to change the endings so that it wasnt like this. And in true EA fashion, the three choices now only show you what color the explosions were in the ending sequence.
I dont buy they she was indoctrinated. I simply think it was because EA forced them to release the game too fast and all they could do was that.
I dont buy they she was indoctrinated. I simply think it was because EA forced them to release the game too fast and all they could do was that.
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That...that actually makes sense. I mean Anderson's presence on the Citadel and even the Illusive Man's does not really make a lick of sense. Now if Shepard was hallucinating than than those two characters would merely be manifestations of Shepard's fight against indoctrination or willingness to submit to it. Glad I chose the destroy ending then.
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Guys, think about it. It's an EA game, Of course they are going to cliff hang us all, that's the whole reason to get a bigger wallet! through DLC...
In my ending, Shep woke up in a rubble in his armor on and N7 tag dangling. That whole end sequence, I didn't have any armor on and my gun magically did't go dry. The way I see it is this is an opportunity for EA/Bio to introduce a new main character through DLC. Perhaps down the road in their spin off series, Shep makes a cameo as a squad mate or something based off this ending, who knows.
I'm trying to look at this in ways that I think would give these guys more money, since we all know that's what they want. EA is a money hungry crap-tactic company that loves to play us all.
In other news, Multiplayer got boring after the third hour...
In my ending, Shep woke up in a rubble in his armor on and N7 tag dangling. That whole end sequence, I didn't have any armor on and my gun magically did't go dry. The way I see it is this is an opportunity for EA/Bio to introduce a new main character through DLC. Perhaps down the road in their spin off series, Shep makes a cameo as a squad mate or something based off this ending, who knows.
I'm trying to look at this in ways that I think would give these guys more money, since we all know that's what they want. EA is a money hungry crap-tactic company that loves to play us all.
In other news, Multiplayer got boring after the third hour...
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Yea I mean there are certainly valid complaints about the ending, in fact I just read a long article that was well written about why the endings sucked...
But details like fps pointed out about waking up in the rubble with armor, vs being on the citadel with a gun with infinite bullets and no armor. Or the fact that the reaper supposedly killed everyone on the ground, yet somehow after you managed to limp your way up, Anderson also somehow made it?
Then you have little details such as the choices at the end representing the paragon/renegade option (with a third neutral option) and in fact, if you were to lay it flat, it would pretty much lay out in that way, with control being the paragon option, and conveniently also colored blue, and destroy being renegade also colored red. Then on top of that, when the AI child is explaining the options, we see a clip of anderson blowing them up and a clip of the illusive man trying to control them, again posted in the same color scheme. Its interesting because the illusive man is portrayed as the paragon option and anderson as the renegade, in complete opposition to their characters throughout the series. It sounds like that could be some sort of indoctrination process trying to convince you that the right choice of action, blowing the reapers up, is renegade, or bad... seems a bit like coercion to me.
There are other little details in that last scene too, such as shepherd all of a sudden going against everything he fought for throughout the whole trilogy, and just suddenly agreeing that the illusive man was right. Very odd.
This theory and I of course could be wrong, and it could just be a sloppy rushed ending, but after emotionally investing so much into the story I would like to believe that there is more to the ending than a sloppy rush job like it appears now... even though bioware had in the past promised more.
But details like fps pointed out about waking up in the rubble with armor, vs being on the citadel with a gun with infinite bullets and no armor. Or the fact that the reaper supposedly killed everyone on the ground, yet somehow after you managed to limp your way up, Anderson also somehow made it?
Then you have little details such as the choices at the end representing the paragon/renegade option (with a third neutral option) and in fact, if you were to lay it flat, it would pretty much lay out in that way, with control being the paragon option, and conveniently also colored blue, and destroy being renegade also colored red. Then on top of that, when the AI child is explaining the options, we see a clip of anderson blowing them up and a clip of the illusive man trying to control them, again posted in the same color scheme. Its interesting because the illusive man is portrayed as the paragon option and anderson as the renegade, in complete opposition to their characters throughout the series. It sounds like that could be some sort of indoctrination process trying to convince you that the right choice of action, blowing the reapers up, is renegade, or bad... seems a bit like coercion to me.
There are other little details in that last scene too, such as shepherd all of a sudden going against everything he fought for throughout the whole trilogy, and just suddenly agreeing that the illusive man was right. Very odd.
This theory and I of course could be wrong, and it could just be a sloppy rushed ending, but after emotionally investing so much into the story I would like to believe that there is more to the ending than a sloppy rush job like it appears now... even though bioware had in the past promised more.
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I'm barely playing through 2, but all these articles whose titles involves the phrase "best ending," makes me not want to play it.
There's a "best ending?" So, there's a worst one too? It all makes it sound like I can't actually play the way I want to anymore and that there is a very specific way to enjoy it thoroughly.
There's a "best ending?" So, there's a worst one too? It all makes it sound like I can't actually play the way I want to anymore and that there is a very specific way to enjoy it thoroughly.
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I agree, it lends credence to the hallucination/indoctrination ending. Essentially the AI child...who could be anyone...probably Harbinger since he was the one who was lazering everyone on the run to the beam...at least that what some Wiki says, telling Shepard that "hey you're the first organic to make it this far we'll stop this whole slaughter thing and oh you get to decide the fate of the Galaxy. But don't try to blow us up cus that would be bad." I mean Bioware tells us like three or four times in the story that people had been indoctrinated to believe that they could control the Reapers. Hell, the Prothean construct stated that a group of indoctrinated Protheans sabotaged their crucible in an attempt to control the Reapers.
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I found it weird that the AI child didn't object to using the control option but did to the destroy option. The AI's whole logic is that the reapers harvest organics to "preserve" them so synthetics don't destroy the organics and cause chaos. Well lets think about it here. for control the synthetics live and the AI doesn't say that is bad. In destroy the AI complains that the synthetics will come back and cause chaos again. The only difference are that:
1.) The current synthetics will stay active with control instead of new synthetics (possibly) being made in the future by selecting destroy.
2.) Shepard will die using control whereas he might live using destroy.
Fishy huh? Tbh I'll be surprised if some kind of endgame dlc isn't eventually released which will reveal that Shepard was indoctrinated. If your Shepard chose destroy and survives, you get some bonus missions after breaking indoctrination to get the true ending. But if you Chose one of the other two options, you get a lengthy cutscene or two to show what actually happens. I would like to think that control would basically mean the races of the current cycle would be doomed since Shepard took himself out of the picture, whereas synergy would actually do what you see in the current cut scene, where all life becomes both synthetic and organic in one.
Oh and there is one other small fact that in a way implements Shepard was indoctrinated at the end or at least knocked out. After you choose destroy, if your Shepard lives, you see him/her take a breath in a pile of what looks to be concrete,building rubble... Obviously not something that would be on the citadel, and of course there would be no way he somehow went back do to Earth after activating the destroy beam, there are no other people known in the area that are alive and if shep were to "fall" down to Earth, then he/she would probably get disintegrated reentering Earth's atmosphere lol.
*edit* It is kind of like talking to the Illusive man at the end (I didn't know this, because I picked all paragon options with him and he committed suicide similar to Saren in ME1), If you don't talk him down properly, he will pull out a gun and if you don't choose the renegade pop-up, he will kill Anderson... Then he will put the gun on you and you will get another renegade option, but if you don't chose this one you die. game over. So you are forced to take a "renegade" option that in no way should be renegade... lol
*edit #2* I personally didn't mind the ending...I found it lacking, but it fulfilled it's role for me, also made me feel a bit sad. The only thing that aggravated me about the end was that you have no clue as to what happened too all your surviving members at the end that you met from ME1,ME2,and ME3... You just see Joker and two of them hop out of the Normandy at the end. Like what the heck? What happens to lets say... Jack, Grunt and Wrex, Zaeed, heck, even James and Tali who were usable team mates in ME3...
1.) The current synthetics will stay active with control instead of new synthetics (possibly) being made in the future by selecting destroy.
2.) Shepard will die using control whereas he might live using destroy.
Fishy huh? Tbh I'll be surprised if some kind of endgame dlc isn't eventually released which will reveal that Shepard was indoctrinated. If your Shepard chose destroy and survives, you get some bonus missions after breaking indoctrination to get the true ending. But if you Chose one of the other two options, you get a lengthy cutscene or two to show what actually happens. I would like to think that control would basically mean the races of the current cycle would be doomed since Shepard took himself out of the picture, whereas synergy would actually do what you see in the current cut scene, where all life becomes both synthetic and organic in one.
Oh and there is one other small fact that in a way implements Shepard was indoctrinated at the end or at least knocked out. After you choose destroy, if your Shepard lives, you see him/her take a breath in a pile of what looks to be concrete,building rubble... Obviously not something that would be on the citadel, and of course there would be no way he somehow went back do to Earth after activating the destroy beam, there are no other people known in the area that are alive and if shep were to "fall" down to Earth, then he/she would probably get disintegrated reentering Earth's atmosphere lol.
*edit* It is kind of like talking to the Illusive man at the end (I didn't know this, because I picked all paragon options with him and he committed suicide similar to Saren in ME1), If you don't talk him down properly, he will pull out a gun and if you don't choose the renegade pop-up, he will kill Anderson... Then he will put the gun on you and you will get another renegade option, but if you don't chose this one you die. game over. So you are forced to take a "renegade" option that in no way should be renegade... lol
*edit #2* I personally didn't mind the ending...I found it lacking, but it fulfilled it's role for me, also made me feel a bit sad. The only thing that aggravated me about the end was that you have no clue as to what happened too all your surviving members at the end that you met from ME1,ME2,and ME3... You just see Joker and two of them hop out of the Normandy at the end. Like what the heck? What happens to lets say... Jack, Grunt and Wrex, Zaeed, heck, even James and Tali who were usable team mates in ME3...
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Like I said, they have something up their sleeves. With respects to Bioware and Mr. Hudson, I really don't think they would end a trilogy like this. I'm fairly confident they will release all of our answers soon. What makes me mad is the fact that they are being forced to do this by EA. I can promise you they are pulling the strings.
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Doubtful that EA forced them to do this. I mean EA forces a lot of crap, but Bioware is one of the main bread winners so it's pretty hard to believe that they would have had a hand in this ending.
Frankly it reminds me of the ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The whole series builds up to a climactic ending and in the final two episodes the audience is treated to a hallucinatory metaphorical interpretation of the ending. It is just a giant what the hell? Then a couple years down the line a more literal ending is released. Which sort of explains what happens.
No, EA probably is forcing them to release the true ending as DLC. That isn't a Bioware thing, it's an EA thing. Look at all of the EA branded games, past and upcoming, and find all the ones that have DLC. It's quite a lot. Even the upcoming CnC game will have DLC... Battlefield 3 even has an "expansion packs" constantly being made that were most likely formed by removing content from the original draft for "later use".
It's a common trend nowadays to release 80-90% of the content and offer the rest for a separate price. Look at how big movies are starting to split their movies into part 1 and part 2, yet they film it all at the same time. They are being rushed by production companies to get their product out, so quality generally lacks. I believe it's part of the reason why so many sequels "suck", both games and movies. These companies need the money fast so they can burn it on the next one.
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The three ending choices really had me disappointed. If there is a better ending coming for DLC, then I will rejoice. Also, a lot of people blame BioWare for the day 1 DLC, but it was really all EA and their money-hungryness. That lost them a lot of money.
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the one thing about ME3 that did annoy me is the fact that they made the multiplayer equipment packs purchasable with Bioware points... It would be a lot more broken if muiltiplayer was pvp based but come on... Why make a game I spent $60 on a (somewhat) pay to win. Just means people can unlock the classes,races,weapons they want without really trying.
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Blame the iPhone for that one. Ever since micro transactions have been allowed in apps, it seems to be the hottest new thing that developers like to do, put these micro transactions in place so that those who don't want to spend the time actually playing or grinding can get better stuff without having to work for it.
In this particular case, I don't mind, because its Co-op and there is nothing that is only available to those who pay.
Anyways, back to the ending... I do agree with mdgrim, taken as is, I found the ending to be satisfactory as from a strictly story point of view, it seemed to wrap up the shepherd story pretty nicely. However, the more I analyze it and think it over, the more faults I see. One of those faults that really still stands out to me is how during your conversation with the illusive man, you struggle trying to convince him that control is a bad option and you actually continue to fight for the goal you have been fighting for throughout all three games, yet less than a minute later, after talking to some AI (who is clearly either built by the reapers, or by the same being that built the reapers) shepherd all of a sudden changes his/her mind. Looking back, it just seems so out of character for shepherd, regardless of whether you played as a paragon or a renegade.
So as I analyze why shepherd seemed so out of character, I keep coming back to two options... either it really was a sloppy ending, or there is more going on (again with the hallucination/indoctrination thing). And because I enjoyed the three games so much and found the story telling throughout the rest to be so engaging, I choose for now to follow the latter, that there is more going on, and hope that there will be more closure or explanation later (even though it should have been released with the game)
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Okay, so I just finished the game and chose the control ending, which I assume meant that Shephard effectively "told" the Reapers to leave and never come back, but died in the process. I felt like it would've been a waste to just kill off all synthetics considering I allowed the Quarians and the Geth to live in harmony and showed EDI true humanity. What really got to me from this bittersweet ending was the huge amount of questions that came up after the post-credits scene. So the whole trilogy was some fairy-tale? Earth was forced back into a "primitive state"? Couldn't the mass relays just rebuilt? What about all the other aliens trapped in the Sol system? How will they manage to survive? Are the Reapers still going to come back if we decide to control them? And was anybody else pissed they couldn't use the last moral options at the end there? The two choices were gray for me despite having very high paragon points.
The whole indoctrination theory would make sense in a matter of speaking but IMO, and forgive me for the crude remark, that would just be a major middle-finger to the fans. So the whole time, Shephard was being controlled by the enemy? Seems like it's leering towards a Bioshock ending or something. And if they're expecting us to pay for a TRUE ending, then that's just unfair to the fans (but it is EA). Indoctrination makes sense though.
And the whole "hallucination"-theory? That just sounds out-of-place. So the ENTIRE ending was just Shephard's mind playing tricks on him/her or something? Since when did Mass Effect turn from Sci-fi action to Sci-fi psychological thriller. I wouldn't mind if it was a hallucination. Just feels a bit out-of-this-world.
I felt that the ending was bittersweet despite killing everything we've done in ME 1 and 2. I liked my Shephard and even saluted her sacrifice. But to wrap everything up in this manner is just awful.
And if Bioware sells the true ending as DLC, then all i can say is Bioware is being indoctrinated by EA
The whole indoctrination theory would make sense in a matter of speaking but IMO, and forgive me for the crude remark, that would just be a major middle-finger to the fans. So the whole time, Shephard was being controlled by the enemy? Seems like it's leering towards a Bioshock ending or something. And if they're expecting us to pay for a TRUE ending, then that's just unfair to the fans (but it is EA). Indoctrination makes sense though.
And the whole "hallucination"-theory? That just sounds out-of-place. So the ENTIRE ending was just Shephard's mind playing tricks on him/her or something? Since when did Mass Effect turn from Sci-fi action to Sci-fi psychological thriller. I wouldn't mind if it was a hallucination. Just feels a bit out-of-this-world.
I felt that the ending was bittersweet despite killing everything we've done in ME 1 and 2. I liked my Shephard and even saluted her sacrifice. But to wrap everything up in this manner is just awful.
And if Bioware sells the true ending as DLC, then all i can say is Bioware is being indoctrinated by EA
