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

noodler

Notorious wrote: »

That's what I thought, but one of my friends was convinced it was included in the Resurgance pack. I don't know if I want to see a re-worked ending after what they've already given us.

Have you watched the indoctrination video yet?

Keep an open mind until then would be my advice!

Eggy Baby!

So will I have to play through all of the final mission again just to see the new DLC when it is released? Because I don't fancy hours of game play just to get some slightly meatier epilogues.

Go into load game. It will allow you to restart the mission where you are on the Citadel at the end, so you only have to play for 10 mins or so rather than the admittedly repetitive stretch of the London mission. Then you get to watch the (hopefully) augmented ending.

I picked the synthesis ending and walked into the beam of light. After thinking about it, that was probably one of the worst endings to a game I've ever played.

Welcome to the resistance

ixoy

Eggy Baby! wrote: »

Go into load game. It will allow you to restart the mission where you are on the Citadel at the end, so you only have to play for 10 mins or so rather than the admittedly repetitive stretch of the London mission. Then you get to watch the (hopefully) augmented ending.

Oh yeah but if I play any mission after returning to the Normandy, the "Restart Mission" will be whatever mission I begin next. I wouldn't go back to the RGB ending.

Mal-Adjusted

just finished it last night.
first of all, I thought the trek through London was far too long.

for the actual ending itself, how could Bioware go so much against the whole thesis of the game? I'm sure it's been discussed to death but come on! did none of the writing team stick their hand up and say that this was a bad idea?

the whole game is based on choice but what's the point of going back and doing things differently if it's always going to bring you back to the same 3 options?

It feels like they wanted to emulate the Deus Ex ending without understanding that that kind of storytelling isn't really applicable to Mass Effect.

Monty - the one and only

There's 4 options actually, the 3 normal endings have multipul variations but are the same for the most part....assuming you got the free ending dlc changer that is.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Did they fix/tweak/extend it?

After I heard about the ending being lackluster, it kinda put me off it until it was sorted out. I heard it was being worked on but I can't find any sources saying that it was fixed.

Was it?

Thanks in advance

Icyseanfitz

They made a free extended cut dlc, but the saying you cant polish a turd rings very true with me3's ending

Mal-Adjusted

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

They made a free extended cut dlc, but the saying you cant polish a turd rings very true with me3's ending

true. the extended cut really just includes some more cut-scenes to tie up one or two of the continuity issues but just make things more confusing.

Sheppard is a few feet away from the conduit beam but stops and wastes time to call in an evac, all the while with Harbinger just sitting there watching and not shooting.

They also include a "do nothing" fourth ending, which comes off like a big "f*&k you!" from bioware/EA because we dared not to like the sh!tty pretentious endings they threw at us.

in short, no OP they didn't fix the ending and sadly, probably never will.

degrassinoel

gamercfc wrote: »

Did they fix/tweak/extend it?

After I heard about the ending being lackluster, it kinda put me off it until it was sorted out. I heard it was being worked on but I can't find any sources saying that it was fixed.

Was it?

Thanks in advance

That's no excuse not to play the best RPG that was released this year
If you've played ME and ME2, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. Even the multiplayer is topnotch

Mr E

ME3 ending threads merged.

Gamer Bhoy 89

degrassinoel wrote: »

That's no excuse not to play the best RPG that was released this year
If you've played ME and ME2, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. Even the multiplayer is topnotch

Ahhh in all honesty I didn't read much into it. I did buy it I've always had it since it's release lol.

All I spotted was that the ending was allegedly messed up and it apparently "needed fixed". I just read that much and I assumed it was going to get "fixed" so I took a break from it and played other games and I eventually forgot all about it.

I've started playing it again anyway, I never downloaded the extended cut yet.

After finding out more info on what the ending comprised of (I had to spoil it for myself, but then again I'm a bit lost in the story at the moment) I just decided it's not even a big deal I'll just continue where I left off. Playing it now

nyarlothothep

Can't believe you have to download it to install it, offputting, I presume it's something to do with forcing people to register with origins which is EA's answer to Steam? What's the point of buying the disc if you can't install from it quickly.

Kiith

If you have the disc, you can install it. Iirc, it says download but it actually install from the disc. The extended ending/dlc will need to be downloaded though.

nyarlothothep

Synthesis was the best ending but I couldn't have it because I don't download dlc, in this case though I wish I had because Synthesis rocked. Control is what I picked because 1. the crucible is a new factor in the situation meaning the star-child isn't necessarily lying to you 2. post physical godhood, 3. EDI lives 4. less destruction 5. Given that you're god of the reapers you could just order them to remain stationary while space fleets destroy them at a later date (I could be wrong on this I played this game over a long time period and didn't pay much attention to the fine details of the plot). 6. People say destroying the Reapers is the main objective of the series, I disagree. It's not about destroying the Reapers, it's about saving advanced civilisations in the galaxy, destroying the Reapers is highly important but not intrinsic to that objective. However watching the extended cut, the sinister music that accompanies the control ending really messes it up as you know it's implied as the bad ending, absolute power etc. However if the original Shepard's personality sets axiomatic rules for god-Shepard then god-Shepard is beholden to them unless he transgresses his programming which is possible but again he has the option of just self destructing the reapers. Also Control can conceivably lead to Synthesis or even better than Synthesis, Shepard may be able to formulate the means of making all advanced civs post physical which is cool. Destroy is unenlightened. Synthesis is the best ending by far though.

I was really prepped for thinking the endings would be crap, deus ex Peter F Hamilton endings, all wrapped up too quickly, and well synthesis might fall into that category but the moral implications affixed to them mean that they're more symbolic reflections on your own ethical thinking process and they have significant disadvantages. With control you walk unerringly close to being a meglomaniacal god and it has disturbing implications of dictatorial rule, which is compounded when Shepard states that he will act (bad) not serve(good) as a guardian (good) of all life in the galaxy. That's not a cookie cutter superman saves the day type ending. Synthesis imposes a transformation on all living things, again dictatorial but not so bad as everyone is now stronger, better, faster, so this is why Synthesis has the least downsides. Destroy is like an extension of Ashley's racism, my least favourite character in the ME universe, destroy results in mass genocide, galactic wide annihilation, a new technological dark age and a ethno-centrist conception of organics over synthetic, it leads to no new understanding among races (Synthesis) or the preservation of life/opportunity to discover new knowledge (Control). Of course you get the patriotic music in the extended cut with that admiral dude saying well done etc coming out with war euphemisms/patriotic gibberish but essentially you've just regressed to the dark ages of war, feudalism and nation states.

Calhoun

I don't believe everyone agreed that destroying the reapers was the main objective, it was in the very first game but as they extended the plot in the 2nd game you could see it was something else.

I believe i read originally they were going to make it about dark matter or something like that but they changed direction in the third game.

The extended ending was pretty good all in all as the original was a bit meh.

Randall Floyd

Does the synthesis ending not fly in the face of all the choices you made throughout the course of all the games, getting diverse races to cooperate for mutual benefit etc?

Mal-Adjusted

Randall Floyd wrote: »

Does the synthesis ending not fly in the face of all the choices you made throughout the course of all the games, getting diverse races to cooperate for mutual benefit etc?

No more than the destroy ending does, both in relation to Joker and E.D.I and

assuming you got the Geth and the Quarian to make peace and co-inhabit their world.

Kiith

Control actually causes the least damage of all the choices, and is probably makes the most sense. No one dies (bar Shepard), and super advanced Shepard influenced robots fix everything. Peace everywhere and all that.

Maybe he'd just end up going all Reaper in the end though, and starting it all again.

nyarlothothep

I don't think he would, even if he becomes completely disassociated from his human memories over 50,000 years I would think it unlikely that he would hit upon the same solution which has been rendered obsolete in the current cycle. Allowing civilisations to advance beyond this point would mean that they would be able to beat any future reaper invasion with more advanced technology.

All that said, for a game I think this had a plot that rivals any sci fi novel, for me, in my experience this is a first, while the dialogue might be mostly cliched and boring the actual narrative is high science fiction and that's very unique these days. Also Edi was a great character, lots of character development and actually affected my decision to take the blue path. In my opinion it demonstrates that classic games are still being made and that they are actually getting better in terms of narrative, charaterisation etc. As for choices impacting upon the galaxy, each path has major ramifications. I don't think Bioware had the time or even the technology (although correct me if I'm wrong on that) to implement the outcomes of multitudes of combinations of numerous choices across a whole game or even 3 games.

Mickeroo

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I don't think he would, even if he becomes completely disassociated from his human memories over 50,000 years I would think it unlikely that he would hit upon the same solution which has been rendered obsolete in the current cycle. Allowing civilisations to advance beyond this point would mean that they would be able to beat any future reaper invasion with more advanced technology.

All that said, for a game I think this had a plot that rivals any sci fi novel, for me, in my experience this is a first, while the dialogue might be mostly cliched and boring the actual narrative is high science fiction and that's very unique these days. Also Edi was a great character, lots of character development and actually affected my decision to take the blue path. In my opinion it demonstrates that classic games are still being made and that they are actually getting better in terms of narrative, charaterisation etc. As for choices impacting upon the galaxy, each path has major ramifications. I don't think Bioware had the time or even the technology (although correct me if I'm wrong on that) to implement the outcomes of multitudes of combinations of numerous choices across a whole game or even 3 games.

I would think they did considering the way many events play out over the course of the three games. For instance the only way for Mordin to live afaik is if you kill Wrex way back in the first game, indeed if you haven't played the first game Wrex doesn't even feature in the other two unless you get the DLC for ME2 which allows you to run through the choices of ME1. That's only speculation on my part though.

You should give Dragon Age a go after this, its a fantasy setting but the way the story is played out depending on the choices you've made is much the same as ME. Apparently the sequel isn't very good though, but I haven't played it yet.

pixelburp

Mickeroo wrote: »

I would think they did considering the way many events play out over the course of the three games. For instance the only way for Mordin to live afaik is if you kill Wrex way back in the first game, [...]

I'm pretty sure you can't save Mordin at all, no matter what path you take. His plot revolves around the lingering guilt he feels about being part of the genophage, so it always culminates in his decision to try and reverse / atone for his actions. I could be wrong, but I'm fairly positive there's no outcome where he doesn't decide to sacrifice himself; it would certainly cheapen's the characters arc if there was a situation where he lives...

Oh and this thread gaining a new lease of life has opened up the sense of disappointment over that blasted ending of ME3 The Extended Ending DLC went some way to make up for things, but I'm still fairly annoyed to this day such a rich, character-driven mythology was given such a short, underwhelming climax...

Mickeroo

pixelburp wrote: »

I'm pretty sure you can't save Mordin at all, no matter what path you take. His plot revolves around the lingering guilt he feels about being part of the genophage, so it always culminates in his decision to try and reverse / atone for his actions. I could be wrong, but I'm fairly positive there's no outcome where he doesn't decide to sacrifice himself; it would certainly cheapen's the characters arc if there was a situation where he lives...

No afaik, if you kill wrex in ME1, destroy Maelons data in ME2 and don't tell anyone on the mission in ME3 you've sabotaged the genophage cure then you can persuade him to not sacrifice himself. Think you have to be playing renegade for it to work.

It does indeed cheapen his character arch, but that's the great thing about mass effect, you can influence those things and the story doesn't necessarily play out in as crowd pleasing a way as you might like.

Unless I've been duped and all the videos on youtube of him deciding to not go through with the suicide are fake of course!

nyarlothothep

Mickeroo wrote: »

I would think they did considering the way many events play out over the course of the three games. For instance the only way for Mordin to live afaik is if you kill Wrex way back in the first game, indeed if you haven't played the first game Wrex doesn't even feature in the other two unless you get the DLC for ME2 which allows you to run through the choices of ME1. That's only speculation on my part though.

You should give Dragon Age a go after this, its a fantasy setting but the way the story is played out depending on the choices you've made is much the same as ME. Apparently the sequel isn't very good though, but I haven't played it yet.

I played Dragonage, great game, probably my favourite after ME although I thought the ending, even though it was upbeat etc didn't have the same thought provoking aspect to ME3, I avoided DA2 because you can't import your character, they abandoned the Baldur's Gate style of gameplay and the plot was a bit meh.

Pixelburp wrote: »

Oh and this thread gaining a new lease of life has opened up the sense of disappointment over that blasted ending of ME3 The Extended Ending DLC went some way to make up for things, but I'm still fairly annoyed to this day such a rich, character-driven mythology was given such a short, underwhelming climax...

The way I interpreted the ending was that it was setting up loose threads to be explained in ME4, sort of like a to be continued ending.

Mal-Adjusted

Kirby

pixelburp wrote: »

I'm pretty sure you can't save Mordin at all, no matter what path you take. His plot revolves around the lingering guilt he feels about being part of the genophage, so it always culminates in his decision to try and reverse / atone for his actions. I could be wrong, but I'm fairly positive there's no outcome where he doesn't decide to sacrifice himself; it would certainly cheapen's the characters arc if there was a situation where he lives...

Oh and this thread gaining a new lease of life has opened up the sense of disappointment over that blasted ending of ME3 The Extended Ending DLC went some way to make up for things, but I'm still fairly annoyed to this day such a rich, character-driven mythology was given such a short, underwhelming climax...

Mickeroo wrote: »

No afaik, if you kill wrex in ME1, destroy Maelons data in ME2 and don't tell anyone on the mission in ME3 you've sabotaged the genophage cure then you can persuade him to not sacrifice himself. Think you have to be playing renegade for it to work.

It does indeed cheapen his character arch, but that's the great thing about mass effect, you can influence those things and the story doesn't necessarily play out in as crowd pleasing a way as you might like.

Unless I've been duped and all the videos on youtube of him deciding to not go through with the suicide are fake of course!

Wrex doesn't have to die in ME1 to make it happen. He can live through the first game and you can still convince Mordin not to sacrifice himself. It's a renegade option though.

Of course, Wrex finds out your deception afterwards and comes gunning for you on the Citadel and you have to take him down. One of them always ends up dead through the 3 games. No way to save them both.

nyarlothothep

I was just wondering are they any games that are similar to ME and as good? I have the EA humble bundle, any games in there that are like it? I think ME is probably the best game I have ever played from a narrative perspective.

degrassinoel

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I was just wondering are they any games that are similar to ME and as good? I have the EA humble bundle, any games in there that are like it? I think ME is probably the best game I have ever played from a narrative perspective.

if ye havent already, try the dragonage games, the first one especially DragonAge Origins. Really enjoyed that one myself

Retr0gamer

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I was just wondering are they any games that are similar to ME and as good? I have the EA humble bundle, any games in there that are like it? I think ME is probably the best game I have ever played from a narrative perspective.

Go old school. Planescape Torment and the Baldur's Gate games are far better than Dragon Age or Mass Effect.

Kiith

Huh, didn't realise there was any way to keep him alive.

No way i could go with that option though. Kill Wrex? Pft, not a chance. And Mordin's sacrifice was probably the best scene in the game. Brilliantly done.

Captain Chaos

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I was just wondering are they any games that are similar to ME and as good? I have the EA humble bundle, any games in there that are like it? I think ME is probably the best game I have ever played from a narrative perspective.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, the game mechanics of Mass Effect are copy and pasted from it almost.