To anyone has has already played Mass Effect 3, you probably know what I'm talking about when I say the game left much to be desired.

First of all, it is a great game. So far possibly the best in the trilogy.
The gameplay is more intense than before, weapons, upgrades and powers all feel much more "real" when you use them. It's a great game.

Then however, I got to the ending. Well... I'll leave the rest up to you.

I am going to resurrect this thread as I recently finished the game.
Hated the fact that the ending was monotonous and wasn't dependent on choice at all. The same ending played for all three choices with a minor change in the explosion color. They could've just asked - What is your favorite color??

Also, at the ending the explanation for the reapers' existence was not feasible at all.

Don't get me started on the loose ending and not tying up the loose knots in the end.
Damn you BIOWARE for rushing the ending of an otherwise perfect game.

Yes, that's my reaction to the ending as well. I guess it was just to hard for BioWare not to screw the ending up...

I do not understand what all the fuss is about. If you look at Mass Effect 2 the choices you made in ME1 did not have that much of an impact either. The story has always been rather linear.
The Mass Effect series is still one of my favourite franchises.
I do get the feeling most gamers cannot look past the rather similar ending cut-scenes, but from a sociological and moral perspective the endings are as different as night and day.

All the fuss was about:

- Completely abandoning the main story (Shephard's journey from unknown commander to Spectre agent and citadel savior to galaxy uniter) by substituting a shameful gimmick instead of the ending the series deserved. They essentially changed one of the principle game design elements of the entire series in the last 15 minutes of the third game. Rather than an ending that would have left the player with a feeling of accomplishment or closure (especially after 150+ hours of play), we got what amounted to an admission that either you'd have to get the real ending via DLC (which we will, and it'll be free), or the developer just threw in the towel and called it a day (lazy f#$%s). That ending (there was essentially only one, and even as a story element, it sucked) didn't accomplish/explain/clarify/justify/close anything. Let’s be real, there wasn’t any reason to play though the entire game when all we had in the end was a bad story ending with 3 outcomes, none of which had anything to do with the journey along the way.

- Plot holes do not a good story make. There were so many huge, glaring plot holes introduced by that ending that my ferret could have written a better one in his own smeared droppings. They didn’t appear as a RESULT of the ending, they were introduced BECAUSE OF the ending.

- Breaking story continuity for no good reason at all. Shephard just united the Geth and Quarians (synthetics and organics), yet the star-child gimmick plot device claims that such an act is impossible. Hey a$$h0L3, SHEPHARD JUST DID THAT THING YOU CLAIM IS NOT POSSIBLE. Story continuity is completely lost to hasten the ending. It literally feels like the devs just got sick of the whole project and decided to call it quits in a hurry. Even more insulting is the fact that you can’t talk to the gimmick plot device about anything that differs from his own viewpoint (as you could during the genophage cure sequence). The gimmick plot device apparently is God.

- Writing the player's choices completely out of the story (your choices really only added up to how many war assets you accumulated in the endgame, which gave you one of 7 possible endings, even if most were exactly the same except for the color of the energy wave). Gives the player a huge FU and 'we don't care how much you've gone through to get here, we're going to end the story for you. Our way. Screw what you think.'

- Pretending that the significant amount of time that the player spent on cultivating relationships meant absolutely zero (don't lie, you spent a lot of time talking to the rest of the crew just to see how they'd react and if they’d sleep with you). We wanted to know what happened to our friends/love interests after the main event, even if it meant Shephard had to die. Instead we got a cheap, nonsensical cinematic that made Joker look like the main character. WTF???

- Insulting the player’s intelligence by tacking on a cheap gimmick (star-child), removing all choice in the matter (essentially breaking the game structure) and calling it done. It's a failure on both the writer's and QA's parts and is so disrespectful that I may never support another BioWare title. Ever.

- The largest sin is lying to the community in written and spoken word that what we got in the end would not happen. Yes, BioWare devs talked, blogged, tweeted, and generally informed the community that exactly this type of ending WOULD NOT HAPPEN. They had the audacity to claim that they didn't like this very thing and then speculate on how all your choices through the series might play out in the end. They said it. They lied. I don't like being lied to, do you?

It's a failure of Hindenburg-like proportions in the eyes of the community, ME fans and regular gamers alike. BW promised the moon and gave us a slap in the face. Even Forbes magazine has done several articles on the future of BioWare considering that fan service is the way software companies stay in business and the insulting disservice they’ve done with Dragon Age 2 and now ME3 doesn’t bode well for their future. I'm pretty sure BioWare is going through a staffing shakedown right about now.

I could go on if you like.

Things I'd like to add---
Shepard is a guy/girl that made decisions that were considered to be unorthodox. Listening to others and trying to solve problems by saving everything and everyone. Here, he listens to this StarChild and doesn't tell him to shut the f{}< up; coz he does bring together the Geth and Quarians, how doesn't that logic apply to the other species' of the universe? I don't get it.
He accepts whatever the StarChild is saying and listens to him. No paragon or renegade options during that convo. Everything Shepard did upto this point was pointless. No reason for him to have war assets or alliances or taking down cerberus.
I loved the Gameplay. Only problem I have is with the RPG element(not much choices) and ending of the game.

LMAO!!!!!


I should break it down like that to the people I talk to. Well, for me I jumped in on the ME universe on the second game so there's already plot holes for me. I just went with it but it does kinda suck that it seems like your options are limited on the ending.


What really sucks is that I have to play through the game a THIRD time to get the Insanity achievements. Apparently on my second play through, I changed the difficulty too late and it didn't take. Ugh. I'm just gonna run through the missions.