My current fear is this: it's ALL a publicity stunt (not totally intentionally, but definitely in the "we need a controversial story/ending" sense, which really cheapens the overall experience). Bioware wanted this game to go down in history. I just hope Bioware doesn't go down in flames.
Right now I'm roughly of the opinion that, if they do, I'll happily volunteer to be the one who makes sure that they fall into an inflatable kiddie pool full of high-octane gasoline.
I've played through Mass Effect at least three times, Mass Effect 2 at least twice, and since I tend to be obsessive about completing every last possible thing, each play-through probably took around 50 hours, if not more. I enjoyed the series that much. I anticipated playing through the complete series another 2 or 3 times once I finished Mass Effect 3.
After the ending of ME 3, however, I haven't been able to motivate myself to even try one of the other endings (I chose synthesis when I had the opportunity). It's that bad.
It's not bad because Shephard almost always dies. It's not bad because no choice is perfect. The problem is that, even if you try to fanfic in some sort of indoctrination, the ending makes no sense whatsoever, and it is an ending that conforms to an extremely low standard of quality.
Consider the indoctrination theory - which is that Shephard was indoctrinated by the Reapers, and that everything from getting hit by the beam onwards is some sort of psychic dream attack. This might be plausible, except for the fact that we know that indoctrination takes longer than that. Heck, Cerberus researchers running around
inside of a Reaper managed to stay sane for probably a couple of weeks in ME 2. In the Arrival DLC, humans exposed to Reaper tech managed to resist control long enough to create an asteroid rocket of doom. Shepard hasn't been spending any concentrated amount of time around Reapers except when he is actively killing them, a situation that does not lend itself to indoctrination. Moreover, when someone is indoctrinated, they lose their free will and independent thought, which there is no evidence of Shepard doing whatsoever.
But let us suppose he is anyway. What then? Is he just sitting on the ground in front of the transport beam, adventuring in la-la land? If so, then why does Harbinger bother to offer him a choice at all? Why not, you know, just zap him again? Obviously, if Shepard is truly not on the Citadel, then there's no particular reason for Harbinger or any other Reaper to interact with Shepard besides killing him. After all, what is Shepard going to do from the ground? Think nasty thoughts at the Reapers? But if Shepard is on the Citadel, then the indoctrination theory is pretty much kaput. Incidentally, there are cement analogues on the citadel, remember ME 1's ending? So arguing that the scene of Shepard waking up must be on Earth due to the surrounding rubble is not entirely convincing.
But the rest of the ending doesn't make sense either. I took Garrus into the final battle with me, and I had a distinct feeling of "what the fuckity-fuck?!?" when Garrus stepped down off the Normandy. Which shouldn't have been in transit between gates, shouldn't have had any of my team on it (they were on the ground five minutes earlier!), and...why does synthesis make the gates explode, again? As well as the destroy option? And the control option? Does beaming an information pulse or a space magic beam really make gates explode in solar-system-annihilating fury?
Apparently.
And if Shepard was indoctrinated, why do I get the Normandy running at all, or the Reapers exploding? Is Harbinger simulating that, too? What would be the point of that? Indoctrinated or not, what happens to Tali, Liara, Garrus, EDI, or my other contacts/friends/allies? For that matter, if the whole Citadel thing is a hallucination, why do I end up confronting the Illusive man, how is it possible for him to kill me, and why am I with Anderson?
This whole thing reeks of Bioware either conducting a massive troll, developing sudden and extreme incompetence, or deciding that we really need a DLC ending or a Mass Effect 4. It's so good as a troll that if it were so, I'd almost admire - no, fuck it, I
would admire it - except for the fact that I paid sixty fucking dollars for this game and I want my money back. And I want the money I paid for Mass Effect 2 back, because Bioware has stained that, too.
I could and can take sad endings, or even not-fully-explained endings, and certainly I love happy endings and endings where my choices matter, as in Fallout 1,2,3, and New Vegas. What I really find to be a complete butt-munch is when someone promises me endings completely different from each other that depend on my choices over three games, and then gives me an ending where I get red, blue, and green, none of which have any relation to choices I've made save whether I completed enough side missions...and then, on top of that, can't even manage to make those endings consistent with in-game lore or the events that occurred inside the game
five minutes previously.
Now, this may seem like a lot of raging over a video game, but I would have spent that money on something else if I hadn't spent it on ME 1, 2, and 3, and I spent that money with the implicit assumption that Bioware would make a dedicated effort to avoid being incompetent or evil in their treatment of players. Worse, I've probably spent at least twenty hours playing ME 3 alone, which I could have spent working or playing Eve, or whatnot. If a supplier were to provide me with a chemical that cost me twenty hours of extra work and sixty dollars, you can bet I'd be complaining, and I don't think it's unreasonable to question the ethics of charging customers as much as Bioware does for a game that doesn't fulfill the claims made for it. Even if you like the options at the end of Mass Effect 3, the ending does not live up to the promises made pre-purchase, and it is objectively bad when considered from a standpoint of consistency, plot-coherency, and comprehensibility.
There. I'm done.
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Topic: Mass Effect 3 - SPOILERS INSIDE (Read 31705 times)