Mass Effect 3: The Ending(s) [ Spoilers ]

Eggy Baby! · 06-04-2012 8:28pm

Zillah wrote: »

Actually looks pretty cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BasebmHiqIo

Looks like I wasn't the only one to notice the Red, Green and Blue armours...:)

Gbear · 06-04-2012 9:22pm

Zillah wrote: »

Actually looks pretty cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BasebmHiqIo

So is that the same one with the extra cutscenes for the campaign aswell?

richymcdermott · 07-04-2012 11:17pm

Just beating it their , game was fantastic but few odd changes i didnt like , but i came here to ask did this happen to anyone , .. I went past the hospital nearly all the time and thane never showed up ...he was suppose to be their looking out the window sitting on the chair . I will have to play up that part again .. I need closure . Was upset never got to talk to thane , easily one of my fav characters of all time ..

Calhoun · 07-04-2012 11:43pm

I believe he needs to send you an email first to meet him and then he shows up.

DarkJager · 10-04-2012 12:31pm

Finished it last night and have to say it was an utterly enjoyable game, let down by an awfully poor ending. Probably a bit of a long post but its left more questions than answers for me.

I've had a read through this thread and the idea of indoctrination theory and I'm not quite sure I agree with it. After the Harbinger attacked, the armor was burnt off Shepard and he was badly injured. It made sense to me that he had barely survived it and I can't think of anything in that scene that would point to it "being in his head".
If it was what they were going for, it was very badly done (you're supposed to think you've finished the game but you actually didn't because you died 15 minutes before hand?).

The Normandy crashing didn't make sense as Garrus and Liara both stepped out despite being with me during the attack on Earth. What was the Normandy doing in FTL in the first place? And how did Liara and Garrus, after somehow surving the Harbinger attack, beam off Earth to the Normandy in that space of time?

I got the survival ending and while it's nice to think he's alive, it requires a complete suspension of belief, almost further than possible for the series.

1) He's on the Citadel in space.
2) He is not wearing any armor and is badly wounded....on the citadel.
3) He destroys the convienient red beacon and gets engulfed in the blast..not wearing any armor.
4) The citadel (with shepard still on it) blows up in space as the crucible is fired.

And then when all is said and done we get a view of some rubble (most likely London) and he's suddenly there, wearing an N7 chestplate (which he wasnt even wearing) and takes a breath. As I said it's a jarring supsension of belief for the sake of a "happy" ending and could have been done so much better if they just cut that starchild crap out of it and let us have a proper final battle with TIM and Harbinger.

Overall a great gaming experience, but the ending was atrocious and just baffles me the more I think about it. I don't know if any additonal scenes as they are promising could remove the sour taste it has left me for one of the best trilogys ever.

fundlebundle · 10-04-2012 12:43pm

richymcdermott wrote: »

Just beating it their , game was fantastic but few odd changes i didnt like , but i came here to ask did this happen to anyone , .. I went past the hospital nearly all the time and thane never showed up ...he was suppose to be their looking out the window sitting on the chair . I will have to play up that part again .. I need closure . Was upset never got to talk to thane , easily one of my fav characters of all time ..

Same thing happened on my first play through, both thane and Miranda said they were on the citadel and were not.
Also the entire ending fmv was all black and red, I thought it wasnt an error because of all the hate surrounding the ending :P

Azza · 10-04-2012 12:55pm

I didn't mind the whole child manifestation thing. It wasn't a child but just a creation that Shepard could relate too while he interacted with the crucible.

The whole Reapers purpose explination was just stupid. Why couldn't the Reapers simply use their overwhelming might to crush what ever synthetic race was rising up against their organic masters. A single race of machines isn't going be able to challenge the Reapers. Why not simply purge them when the time came.

Zillah · 10-04-2012 5:13pm

Azza wrote: »

I didn't mind the whole child manifestation thing. It wasn't a child but just a creation that Shepard could relate too while he interacted with the crucible.

The whole Reapers purpose explination was just stupid. Why couldn't the Reapers simply use their overwhelming might to crush what ever synthetic race was rising up against their organic masters. A single race of machines isn't going be able to challenge the Reapers. Why not simply purge them when the time came.

I don't think you understand: Mass Effect 3's ending is "art". Why do you hate art?

ronoc 1 · 10-04-2012 6:51pm

finished the game yesterday,ending is disappointing but overall the game was fantastic.

i had garrus and liara with me for the final battle and was sure both were killed but saw garrus coming out of the normandy at the end but didnt see liara,even though i was relieved to see garrus make it as another poster said it didnt make sense.im still annoyed with myself for letting talia die,i thought i was doing the honourable thing by siding with the geth but i didnt realise that meant destroying the quarian,should have paid attention.just a quick question,how come jack wasnt in the game,she surived the last game but there was no sign of her here.

not sure if im meant to use spoilers or not,said i would just in case.

Enkidu · 10-04-2012 6:54pm

Jack is in the game, she's at Grissom academy.

ronoc 1 · 10-04-2012 6:55pm

damn it forgot to highlight spoilers.sorry about that

ronoc 1 · 10-04-2012 7:02pm

i remember i had to do a mission at grissom academy but when i came around to do it was gone.must have gone too far ahead in other missions.

Shryke · 10-04-2012 7:15pm

That was it alright. I kept the Geth and Quarians on side. Made them kiss and everything.

Kiith · 10-04-2012 7:21pm

ronoc 1 wrote: »

damn it forgot to highlight spoilers.sorry about that

No need for spoilers, at least as long as it's related to the complete game rather then any future dlc that you hear rumours about.

Zillah · 10-04-2012 9:45pm

ronoc 1 wrote: »

i remember i had to do a mission at grissom academy but when i came around to do it was gone.must have gone too far ahead in other missions.

You met Jack.

Oh yes.

If you didn't go to Grissom Academy the students are killed and Cerberus get their nasty little fingers on Jack again. They turn her into a Phantom, and you fight her when you assault Cerberus HQ. It's named Jack and everything.

You let her die, ronoc. You let Cerberus get her again. You sent her back to that dark place.

Jester252 · 10-04-2012 9:54pm

You son of a bitch. What did she do to you? She buried her demons at last only for you to bring them back. I hope you sad now.

Shryke · 10-04-2012 10:21pm

Zillah wrote: »

You met Jack.

Oh yes.

If you didn't go to Grissom Academy the students are killed and Cerberus get their nasty little fingers on Jack again. They turn her into a Phantom, and you fight her when you assault Cerberus HQ. It's named Jack and everything.

You let her die, ronoc. You let Cerberus get her again. You sent her back to that dark place.

What the hell! I just checked this out. It's true. I'm pissed at you ronoc! What the hell man.

As an aside I just flicked through the following link. It's pictures of the voice cast beside their characters. I thought it was cool.
http://kotaku.com/5892977/the-faces-behind-the-voices-of-mass-effect-3/gallery/1

Meesared · 11-04-2012 8:17am

Zillah wrote: »

You met Jack.

Oh yes.

If you didn't go to Grissom Academy the students are killed and Cerberus get their nasty little fingers on Jack again. They turn her into a Phantom, and you fight her when you assault Cerberus HQ. It's named Jack and everything.

You let her die, ronoc. You let Cerberus get her again. You sent her back to that dark place.

Holy crap! I did not realise that was actually true!

Zillah · 11-04-2012 12:43pm

Apparently it is rather underwhelming. It is literally a normal Phantom with the name Jack on it.

As an aside I just flicked through the following link. It's pictures of the voice cast beside their characters. I thought it was cool.
http://kotaku.com/5892977/the-faces-behind-the-voices-of-mass-effect-3/gallery/1

This is cool. Did they get Manshep's face wrong? Ashley is black not latino, that's weird. Kaidan's VA looks as annoying as Kaidan. Biggest shock though: Aria is Carrie-Anne Moss (aka Trinity from the Matrix!).

Kiith · 11-04-2012 12:52pm

If you choose Morinth over Samara in the 2nd game, you fight a Morinth Banshee in the Asari Ardat-Yakshi school.

Michael Hogan (Col Tigh!) also looks like he's going to kill someone in that photo.

AnCapaillMor · 11-04-2012 1:03pm

Looks like he was after a col tigh binge session. Actually the jack and morinth bits are pretty cool ideas but done in a halfass way again.

Gbear · 11-04-2012 1:11pm

As much as fans might want Jack the Phantom and Morinth the Banshee to look different there isn't really any logical reason for them to do so.

Jack's just another biotic and is wearing full body armour and Morinth is just another asari.

AnCapaillMor · 11-04-2012 1:18pm

Thats biotic\asari racism there.

JohnMarston · 11-04-2012 2:50pm

Maybe i picked the most bland ending of the game.

In my game:

I picked the central path and dove into the beam of energy. By the time the kid stopped talking to me i had forgotten what the left and right paths would have resulted in

Zillah · 11-04-2012 2:51pm

Gbear wrote: »

As much as fans might want Jack the Phantom and Morinth the Banshee to look different there isn't really any logical reason for them to do so.

Jack's just another biotic and is wearing full body armour and Morinth is just another asari.

In an ideal world all the Phantoms and Banshees would have their own variations. A banshee would be recognisable as a twisted version of their former selves. But that's not economically feasible. Hence, we would hope that they at least achnowledge this for the captured party members.

Also Jack is apparently the most powerful human biotic in existence, you'd think she'd make a better than average Phantom.

Shiminay · 11-04-2012 6:26pm

Just finished it, I wend for the Scooby Doo ending - you pull the mask off the Illusive Man and discover he was old Man Withers all along...

Said as much to the @MassEffect twitter account and got this in response.

I enjoyed it, the ending was vague in the extreme, but I have a reasonable imagination, so I was ok with that. I won't object to seeing it fleshed out with the DLC, but I think I'd have like to have seen a comic or animated feature take care of all that tbh. Let all these "fans" show that they're not just consumers who are annoyed that it's not what they expected.

There now follows some thoughts on stuff in the game and the choices I was forced to make...

I was really shook at having to choose between the Geth and the Quarrians - so much so I played through it a couple of times to see if I could find a compromise. Picked the Quarrians in the end, but was really unhappy about having to do so.

Missed out on visiting Thane which disappointed me - hadn't realised I had until I saw his name on the wall in the Normandy.

Jack died in my ME2 game - only character who did and I was delighted cause I fking hate emos and I especially hated Jack. She cost me the ride with Miranda and that made me very cross. I had to go hook up with Garrus instead...

Felt really bad to see what happened to Mordin, I really liked him.

AlmightyCushion · 11-04-2012 6:40pm

Shiminay wrote: »

I was really shook at having to choose between the Geth and the Quarrians - so much so I played through it a couple of times to see if I could find a compromise. Picked the Quarrians in the end, but was really unhappy about having to do so.

There is a way to save both, you have to fulfil a specific set of events. Somehow I managed to do everything right to get them to make peace. It was a nice ending to that story arc but kinda shíts all over the whole synthetics and organics can't co-exist thing.

Shiminay wrote: »

Jack died in my ME2 game - only character who did and I was delighted cause I fking hate emos and I especially hated Jack. She cost me the ride with Miranda and that made me very cross. I had to go hook up with Garrus instead...

I hated Jack in ME2, she was a bit of a gimp but she's a lot more likeable in ME3. She had a small role but her character is great in it, makes it worth saving her if you ask me. Although, if she made it so that I had to fúck Garrus instead of Miranda I'd happily watch her die.

11-04-2012 11:51pm

Yeah, in my game I managed to get the Geth and the Quarians to co-exist. Really was quite a nice ending, but was sad to see Legion go.

Gbear · 12-04-2012 2:10am

To save the Quarians and the Geth I think you have to:
Do both Tali and Legion's loyalty missions in ME2 where
Tali is aquitted
The Geth heretics are rewritten
Both must surivive the suicide mission

In ME3
Do all the Rannoch missions (including saving Admiral Koris - he backs you up when you tell the fleet to stand down)
and have a high enough paragon score.
I think that covers it.

Does anyone know what difference saving the collector base in ME2 makes?
I think you get 100 war assets, you are always given the "control" option at the end and you see a bigger chunk of the human Reaper in TIM's base.
Anything else? For such a seemingly major decision there doesn't seem to be all that much of an impact.

BizzyC · 12-04-2012 7:54am

I didn't mind the ending of ME3 too much, although I didn't see the point in having all 3 options available to me. I played paragon the whole way through, but still had the renegade ending available to me....

I'm actually interested to go back and play ME1 & ME2 again to shape ME3 differently.

AnCapaillMor · 12-04-2012 8:47am

BizzyC wrote: »

I didn't mind the ending of ME3 too much, although I didn't see the point in having all 3 options available to me. I played paragon the whole way through, but still had the renegade ending available to me....

Yeah that annoys me too with bioware games, the possibly endings should be locked by your decisions throughout the game. DA:2 really bugged me as you could side with one faction for the whole game but side with the other faction in the final battle. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to throw something like that in.

Zero-Cool · 12-04-2012 10:36am

The Devs said the new ending will be more than just a few cinematic screens, they will be adding an ending showing peoples choices throughout the game and then gave this BS statement:

"Many people mentioned that some of the choices they made in the game are not necessarily reflected in the ending scenes. We're definitely going to focus on things like that. We want to make sure that when you see the ending of Mass Effect, you now have the information and context to be satisfied."
He added: "It wasn't in the game because we didn't know there was such a huge demand for it, to be honest with you."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/343452/mass-effect-3-ending-dlc-designed-to-better-reflect-player-choices-new-details/

hooradiation · 12-04-2012 12:04pm

Finally finished ME3 last night, still not sure what all the internet crying was about.

Kiith · 12-04-2012 12:08pm

hooradiation wrote: »

Finally finished ME3 last night, still not sure what all the internet crying was about.

Did you like the ending?

hooradiation · 12-04-2012 12:10pm

Kiith wrote: »

Did you like the ending?

Aside from one minor bit I can't quite figure out - which was where was the Normandy off to and how did they get everyone back on it - I was happy with the ending I got.

Kiith · 12-04-2012 12:14pm

Fair enough. Too many minor and major things about it for me to like, but to each his own and all that.

hooradiation · 12-04-2012 12:19pm

I was wondering what about the ME3 ending had got the Internet so upset that they'd decided that EA was the worst company in America.

I suspected it could have been a case of the old "it was all a dream" trope. Then I find out that's one of the leading 'fan theories'.

Jesus wept.

Kiith · 12-04-2012 12:23pm

Yeah, the Indoctrination theory was being pimped pretty hard by some fans. I think it was just because it was an easy way to look past some of the glaring mistakes/inconsistencies made in the ending. Some of it really doesn't make much sense, and i can understand why people were looking for a reason why it was so bad.

FindingMimo · 12-04-2012 1:24pm

Ok, So there was a scene at the very end that completely contradicts the scene before it... I dont get the ending.. I love this game as much as the next guy but have to say that it was so easy to have a perfect ending to this series and they went and bottled it... I was 20hours playing ME3 and the last 5minutes ruined those 20hours of pure amazement..! I was LIVVVIIIIDDDDD !!

Gbear · 12-04-2012 1:31pm

To me, it feels like rather than sticking to their guns and going with the same principles that ran throughout the series, they parachuted in some artsy gob****e to do the final 15 minutes.

FindingMimo · 12-04-2012 1:34pm

Gbear wrote: »

To me, it feels like rather than sticking to their guns and going with the same principles that ran throughout the series, they parachuted in some artsy gob****e to do the final 15 minutes.

Exactly, some artsy gob****e that said "hey, lets make it more cryptic and let people use their imagination to make up their own ending" F*** YOU **CKHEAD the reason why i'm playing games is because i have no imagination left !!!!

hooradiation · 12-04-2012 1:43pm

FindingMimo wrote: »

I dont get the ending..

Well in mine Shepard chose to end the cycle by killing the reapers (and as a side effect the geth and EDI) and destroying the technology that had always guided every race down the same paths of development.
Then she died because she was standing on one of those pieces of technology at the time.

It was pretty simple.

Gbear · 12-04-2012 1:50pm

FindingMimo wrote: »

Exactly, some artsy gob****e that said "hey, lets make it more cryptic and let people use their imagination to make up their own ending" F*** YOU **CKHEAD the reason why i'm playing games is because i have no imagination left !!!!

It's not even about imagination - it's about consistency of the story.

If they'd been throwing curve balls and general weirdness all throughout the series than it wouldn't have felt as much out of place.

johnny_ultimate · 12-04-2012 1:50pm

I have to admit that even though I thought the ending was poorly delivered I always shudder a little when the word 'artsy' is used as some sort of insult.

SeantheMan · 12-04-2012 1:51pm

hooradiation wrote: »

Well in mine Shepard chose to end the cycle by killing the reapers (and as a side effect the geth and EDI)

You chose the ending

:P

hooradiation wrote: »

and destroying the technology that had always guided every race down the same paths of development.

The Relays are destroyed regardless of what ending you choose. You can't save/maintain the technology.

Gbear · 12-04-2012 1:55pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I have to admit that even though I thought the ending was poorly delivered I always shudder a little when the word 'artsy' is used as some sort of insult.

I use the word when I refer to something that tries to be deep, thought-provoking or otherwise surprising in that sense but ultimately fails.

It's trying to look avant-garde and failing because you don't know what you're doing.

hooradiation · 12-04-2012 2:16pm

SeantheMan wrote: »

The Relays are destroyed regardless of what ending you choose. You can't save/maintain the technology.

That's the point though surely?
By getting the crucible to the citadel you demonstrate to the catalyst that the old method, the cycle, can't be maintained. Seeing as the relays and the citadel are the backbone of that system, they kind of have to go.

Shiminay · 12-04-2012 2:44pm

Incoming rant - not intended to hate on everyone who didn't enjoy the ending, but it's targeted at the bl33ters:

I refuse to accept that because you lack imagination that story tellers are somehow "wrong."

The whole thing is both highly insulting to anyone with a creative bone in their body and pathetic at the sense of entitlement that people seem to be displaying about this. The writers (and, lets not forget, Bioware, the people who pay them to tell the tale) thought it was the best way to end *THEIR* story. The utter nonsense I'm seeing about this galls me - it's akin to the retards who were OUTRAGED at the fact that Ned Stark was killed at the end of the first Game of Thrones tv show because they're too lazy to read the books and think that you're not allowed tell a story the way you want because people with no imagination who simply expect it to work out the way that every other "by the numbers" story they've been force fed got TV and Film will object ("the main character's not supposed to die waa waa waa". It's fking outrageous that this is even an issue.

You don't go and tell an artist that they've painted that picture wrong, they have to re-do it. You don't tell a musician that their song is wrong, they need to re-write it. Why the sense of entitlement of creative direction in this situation?

JohnMarston · 12-04-2012 3:07pm

After investing all the time playing Mass Effect games, is it really fair to present an ending with so much ambiguity?
Closure is important.

Imagine if a musician stopped abruptly during a song, played three more disjointed verses and asked which one do you want to end it on?

Gbear · 12-04-2012 3:12pm

Shiminay wrote: »

Incoming rant - not intended to hate on everyone who didn't enjoy the ending, but it's targeted at the bl33ters:

I refuse to accept that because you lack imagination that story tellers are somehow "wrong."

The whole thing is both highly insulting to anyone with a creative bone in their body and pathetic at the sense of entitlement that people seem to be displaying about this. The writers (and, lets not forget, Bioware, the people who pay them to tell the tale) thought it was the best way to end *THEIR* story. The utter nonsense I'm seeing about this galls me - it's akin to the retards who were OUTRAGED at the fact that Ned Stark was killed at the end of the first Game of Thrones tv show because they're too lazy to read the books and think that you're not allowed tell a story the way you want because people with no imagination who simply expect it to work out the way that every other "by the numbers" story they've been force fed got TV and Film will object ("the main character's not supposed to die waa waa waa". It's fking outrageous that this is even an issue.

You don't go and tell an artist that they've painted that picture wrong, they have to re-do it. You don't tell a musician that their song is wrong, they need to re-write it. Why the sense of entitlement of creative direction in this situation?

Artistic integrity is a bit of a weak argument. If Bioware/EA wanted to, they could've made the Catalyst turn all the Reapers into manatees. That's entirely their decision. That doesn't mean it's a good decision or that people aren't entitle to say it's rubbish.

Most of the people saying "Change the ending or I wont buy Bioware games again" are bluffing but ultimately, as consumers, it's their right to dictate to a certain degree what content they get.
Bioware can ignore them if they want and ultimately, even with a Reapers -> manatees ending, the rest of the game and the rest of all the other Bioware games would be good enough to keep most people interested in them. Even if they left the ending as it is I'd still happily fork over another €40 if another ME title were to be released.

And there's a very large gulf in the class of writing between GRR Martin and whoever wrote the story of Mass Effect. For me, a sign of a good writer isn't that they can stick plot twists in all over the place, it's that they can do that while maintaining the overall integrity of the story and while Martin does that, I don't see evidence of that with the ending of Mass Effect.

Mass Effect 3: The Ending(s) [** Spoilers **]

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Mass Effect 3: The Ending(s) [ Spoilers ]