Bioware listens; plans to "extend" ME3's ending

[Renmiri]

Is sad because "everyone dies" can even work. A lot of important characters died at the end of FFX, Aeris dies in FF7 and still both games worked very well and we gladly paid money for sequels. But Aeris, Tidus, Auron, Jecht's deaths are mourned and Yuna / Cloud are visibly shaken as are their friends. No such thing on Thane's death. Was so gratuitous! And why should I care to try to save the galaxy if the Mass Effect relays are going to be destroyed and condemn trillions to hunger and death ?

Think they tried to do a mystic ending and failed miserably.

[Skyblade]

Think they tried to do a mystic ending and failed miserably.

In a way, you're right.

The ending is essentially Star Trek the Motion Picture. A complete genre swap from everything that came before, an abandonment of themes and even the basics of the series, to do an "artsy" finish. And, like STTMP, no one liked it.

This type of ending can work, sure, but it has its place. Mass Effect is not the place for it. It's not Blade Runner. It's not 2001 A Space Odyssey.

However, honestly, even on its own merits, taken entirely apart from the original game, the ending sucks. Not because it's "mystic" or "arty", but because it is horribly written. It is the best example in modern storytelling of how bad deus ex machina can be. It's nonsensical, forced, and inconsistent even with itself.

[Shiny]

Let me copypaste something I wrote earlier:

I can’t express how much I love this. I am of the firm belief that when you make something creative and then publish it— whether it is a book, movie, game, or whathaveyou— that thing then belongs to the people. To the fans. You make it for them and it stops being yours and becomes theirs. I was taught this when I went to university for Media/Theatre/Film and I still believe this strongly.

The fact that Bioware realizes this and listens to their fans is so neat to me. If I ever make it big as an author and I publish a book and a huge portion of my fans dislike a part of it and explain to me why they didn’t— I hope I have the humility to similarly listen to the people I wrote the book for and change it if I agree with them.

I partly disagree with this because while it is entertainment and meant to entertain the consumers, creativity doesn't imply that you have to cater to their every wishes. It ceases to be your property if you have too many outside people putting their own input in it. There has to be a line drawn between creating and appealing so that there can be a happy medium between the creators and the consumers.

The cynic in me thinks the reason they are appealing to the fans is not because they care about your opinion, it's because they still want people to play their stuff and buy their DLCs. They said that this might be the last Mass Effect, but with and ending like that they obviously intend on releasing a similar story, but the backlash has them back tracking.

[Fonzie]

When it comes down to it, the game's big "thing" was that it was influenced by multiple choices in-game. I have no clue why they would make an ending in which none of the choices matter that you've made in the previous three games. Feels like as others said, they were attempting for some sort of (half-assed) deep/magical ending to it.

This wouldn't be an issue if only a few members of their fanbase were angry, but it's more than a good amount that were let down.

[Slothy]

The cynic in me thinks the reason they are appealing to the fans is not because they care about your opinion, it's because they still want people to play their stuff and buy their DLCs.

That's pretty obvious honestly. And if you're going to release a game with such a monumentally terrible ending as that you better be prepared to either fix it or deal with the consequences. I'd imagine EA is a bit wary of the latter with their monumental losses of late.

[Renmiri]

Anyone thinks the free DLC fixed the ending problems ?

[Skyblade]

Anyone thinks the free DLC fixed the ending problems ?

Somewhat.

The ability to actually discuss what the hell is going on with the Catalyst, argue about what it means, and even outright disagree with it is a huge plus. Shepard as a character can now remain intact throughout the ending.

And the fourth option, to put a bullet in the Catalyst's head is great, even if it is too short of an ending (finally, there's a "Reaper's win" ending, but it sucks that it's only by choice, and never by failing to gather the right forces/team).


The extra look at the world afterward (and the retconning they did) does make the ending more bearable too. It probably salvages the series enough that I'll actually be willing to go back and play it again.

The only real remaining problems are that your War Assets are still really nothing but a number, and that the Catalyst is still just a massive, badly written deus ex machina.

But most of the plotholes are gone, and they did offer some closure, as well as retconning that galaxy to not be quite so frelled up afterward.

[Jowy]

i shot that little bastard after i regained control of shepard not knowing i was going to get the bad ending. and i really didn't feel like suffering through fighting six banshees again while laser-dodging so I just looked everything up on the internets.

anyone still play ME3 online?

[Hollycat]

I will be playing it online soon, I just finished me2 for the first time and started me3 yesterday. So maybe a week or two.