Mass Effect 3 endings [SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY]

[deano2099]

Would it not have made more sense for the "entity" to appear as whoever died on Virmire?

I'm convinced that that was the original intent, that was rendered impossible by the late changes to the ending, after the voice-overs for Ash and Kaiden had been done.

It's not mind control it's more like mind conditioning. They are influencing people's thoughts until they think the thoughts are their own. I suppose that is a form of mind control, but there is nothing I remember canonically about them being able to read minds.

It's in one of the books, for what it's worth.

There was essentially going to be a hard choice at the end. Sacrifice humanity and go with the reapers plan to save the rest of the galaxy, or reject the idea and attempt with the other races to find a way to defeat the imminent dark energy threat.

I think that the second option there is a bigger cop-out than any of the endings we got. It's basically the magic shiny pony happy ending. We reject the reapers and that might cause problems in the future, but fuck it, we never have to see the results or deal with the fallout as it's the end of the trilogy. It's the same stunt they pulled with DA:O, you have to make a tough choice about who to sacrifice, unless you don't and choose another option that might be a bad idea in the future - but at least there we knew we'd be importing that save into future games.

ME3's three ending choices may have been a bit naff, but at least we all chose different things. Would anyone, faced with the dark energy dilemma, choose to side with the reapers? One is hope, the other is giving up.

I like dark energy as a motivation for the Reapers (I see why they changed it though - they wanted something that fitted the themes of the games more, it just didn't make sense) but I'm still not sure the Reapers needed explaining in the first place. Hell, the ending as is works fine/better if you just carve that bit of information out. Given that you can't argue or discuss it with the catalyst anyway.

[Kadayi]

I think that the second option there is a bigger cop-out than any of the endings we got. It's basically the magic shiny pony happy ending. We reject the reapers and that might cause problems in the future, but fuck it, we never have to see the results or deal with the fallout as it's the end of the trilogy. It's the same stunt they pulled with DA:O, you have to make a tough choice about who to sacrifice, unless you don't and choose another option that might be a bad idea in the future - but at least there we knew we'd be importing that save into future games.

No different that the destroy reapers ending tbh and certainly less 'space magic' than simultaneously destroying every AI in the galaxy with a wave of a wand. Plus we really don't get to see the results of any of the current endings either ('lots of speculation!!!!').

ME3's three ending choices may have been a bit naff, but at least we all chose different things. Would anyone, faced with the dark energy dilemma, choose to side with the reapers? One is hope, the other is giving up.

Given all we have it the outline to work on who can truly say? Judging by the trailer for Jack, I thought she was going to be the worst characters ever, but in reality she turned out to be one of my favourites. Maybe everyone would still choose the go it alone route. Maybe it's not necessary to sacrifice all of humanity, but just those on Earth?. However with the present endings, there's nothing more 'magic shiny pony' than the abortion known as 'synthesis'.

[SanguineAngel]

I couldn't bring myself to choose synthesis, it seemed like they were pushing it as the ultimate choice what with the shining pillar of great white light in the "Middle way" but the description was vague and useless, sounded like we were going to end up with every synthetic and biologic smooshed together into a person soup. Basically looking like the husks, contrary the the salvation option it seemed to be. I chose to control the reapers as it seemed pretty win win to me. which is actually another shame - another example of a tough choice circumvented.

As to who would chose the reapers in the dark energy scenario? I probably would consider it. But Deano raises a good point, Bioware don't have a great track record in offering mercilessly tough choices at the end game. It would be far more interesting and worthwhile if the choice boiled down to merge all advanced species/humanity with the reapers or don't sacrifice your identity and ultimately doom the galaxy. The problem with the core concept is that even choosing doom the galaxy is meaningless since we're talking about a time scale that is almost beyond imagining. You'd have to be a reaper to actually really fear the threat.

Speaking of which, I do still have a problem with the Reapers taking what, 2 years to travel from the depths of dark space into the galaxy? Given that they actually killed you off and introduced a whole new cast of characters in ME2 it would have made more sense to make it take hundreds or thousands of years. Something appreciably lengthy even for the reapers. Something that might really explain ME 1's plot properly.

And finally, does anyone know what was up with the prothean/asari plotline? Where was that heading?

[deano2099]

Basically looking like the husks, contrary the the salvation option it seemed to be.

Now that would have been an ending.

[Hensler]

I finally finished the game today. I don't even understand what happened (Picked the ending to destroy the reapers).

[Thomas45]

Anyone know when the EC is coming out?

[westyfield]

Anyone know when the EC is coming out?

No, they haven't said anything about a release date other than 'summer'.

[c-Row]

So, has anybody checked out this mod yet?

[The JG Man]

I don't think I necessarily agree with the mod, but the path it takes is one I can't argue with.

Also, and this still falls on BioWare's shoulder, but why in god's name does Harbinger not shoot the hell out of the Normandy? IT'S RIGHT THERE. (Also also, something about the fact the Normandy V2 had too large a mass to land on planets. That bugged me at the start of ME3.)

[Nalano]

Also, and this still falls on BioWare's shoulder, but why in god's name does Harbinger not shoot the hell out of the Normandy? IT'S RIGHT THERE. (Also also, something about the fact the Normandy V2 had too large a mass to land on planets. That bugged me at the start of ME3.)

It was my understanding that Normandy was sitting out of range until called in to rescue, then swooped in as a desperate measure.

As for "too large a mass," we have mass effect engines for a reason. The only reason I'd suspect one would limit the size of a ship hovering within a planet's atmosphere is that it'd be too much power to do so that's not going towards things like "deflecting incoming fire."

As to why the Normandy v2a (since every iteration's been torn apart and rebuilt between games) keeps saying "fuck it, I'm going in," I'm guessing the answer is "because there are literally no other ships available."

[Granath]

So, has anybody checked out this mod yet?

Yes. I just finished an play-through of the entire ME series with MEHEM. ME1 > ME2 (with DLC) > ME3 (with MEHEM).

That wouldn't have happened if MEHEM wasn't around. I found the "real" ending to be nonsensical and unsatisfying for many reasons including Space Boy, the whole readiness attribute and the contradictory/impossibilities found during the ending cut-scenes. The extended DLC didn't improve things much. As such, I couldn't face playing the ME series with that giant steaming pile waiting for me at the end of 100+ hours of gaming.

I found the MEHEM mod to be consistent with the entire series and provided a good mix of bitter and sweet in the ending. It's nothing earth-shaking or thought-provoking, but it is satisfying. The production values in MEHEM are wildly inconsistent (it's only version 0.3 right now), but it worked fine and provided proper closure to the series.

My 13 year old son also played through 2 and 3 recently with MEHEM and said he greatly preferred the MEHEM ending to the Bioware/EA one.

Long story short is if you want to play through ME again but dread the original ending, then MEHEM is the fix. If you liked the original ending, then stick with it.

[Zephro]

I think the problem with the 3 endings was that they didn't really match my expectation of the character, in the way they were presented as paragon, rebel or neutral.

The paragon and neutral ones both seemed to involve a) removing everybody in the galaxies right to choose for themselves or b) meant my Sheppard was arrogant enough to think they could choose for everyone else or un-corruptible enough to wield that power herself. Which both seemed to rub up against my idea of them being "good" endings or anything like the character I was just playing as. As yknow lots of the Paragon options in the game are about helping everyone or respecting everyone's opinion etc.

[c-Row]

Yes. I just finished an play-through of the entire ME series with MEHEM. ME1 > ME2 (with DLC) > ME3 (with MEHEM). [...] Long story short is if you want to play through ME again but dread the original ending, then MEHEM is the fix. If you liked the original ending, then stick with it.

Thanks for your opinion. :) My first FemShep is currently closing onto Saren's base in ME1, so I guess some of the inconsistencies will be ironed out once I finally reach the end of ME3.

[TechnicalBen]

The best mod would have Sheppard (spell?) dying on the citidel looking out over earth. As literally, a "well, you tried, but you failed" wakeup to reality. Or the opposite of just blowing the reapers up with some massive capitol ships and a "what, you believed them when they said they though themselves invincible?"

Both would be better endings than what was given. :P

[db1331]

I couldn't face playing the ME series with that giant steaming pile waiting for me at the end of 100+ hours of gaming.

This is exactly how I felt. The really enjoyed the first 95% of 3. The whole time I was playing it, all I could think about was how I couldn't wait to start over from ME1 with a new character and make completely different choices to see how they all panned out. Then the absolutely abysmal ending killed the whole series for me in one fell swoop. Before that I had beaten the first game three times, and ME2 twice. I have not gone back to any of the games since. There's literally been no point. Maybe I'll give this mod a shot one day.

[Nalano]

I think the problem with the 3 endings was that they didn't really match my expectation of the character, in the way they were presented as paragon, rebel or neutral.

I didn't interpret it that way, and I don't suspect they ultimately meant for it to be interpreted that way either.

[deano2099]

I think the problem with the 3 endings was that they didn't really match my expectation of the character, in the way they were presented as paragon, rebel or neutral.

The paragon and neutral ones both seemed to involve a) removing everybody in the galaxies right to choose for themselves or b) meant my Sheppard was arrogant enough to think they could choose for everyone else or un-corruptible enough to wield that power herself. Which both seemed to rub up against my idea of them being "good" endings or anything like the character I was just playing as. As yknow lots of the Paragon options in the game are about helping everyone or respecting everyone's opinion etc.

So you only really had one option for the ending, based on how your Shepard acting during the game?

The same happened to me. Sure, the game gives you a choice, but if you're invested in Shepard at all as a character, I can't really see how you could contemplate more than two at most.

The ending would have got less flak had it gone that route: look at the choices you made in the game and assign you an ending. But for a game all about choice, that would have kinda sucked.

[Wednesday]

My real problem was that I ended up feeling forced down the stupid cyber-utopia path. Getting both the Geth and the Quarians to the final fight is the only point in the whole game worth talking about(except perhaps Thane's death.)

I did not want, or feel it necessary to give everyone bad case of green eye, but I wasn't going to screw the Geth at the final hurdle.

[Nalano]

Getting both the Geth and the Quarians to the final fight is the only point in the whole game worth talking about(except perhaps Thane's death.)

I hate you because you hate Mordin.

[Granath]

This is exactly how I felt. The really enjoyed the first 95% of 3. The whole time I was playing it, all I could think about was how I couldn't wait to start over from ME1 with a new character and make completely different choices to see how they all panned out. Then the absolutely abysmal ending killed the whole series for me in one fell swoop. Before that I had beaten the first game three times, and ME2 twice. I have not gone back to any of the games since. There's literally been no point. Maybe I'll give this mod a shot one day.

Then I highly recommend the MEHEM mod. I really enjoyed the ME series. I played ME1 twice and ME2 three times prior to this final run-through. But the ending of ME3 sucked the life out of the series for me. It made everything - all the decisions, the romances, the action, the compromises - absolutely meaningless. MEHEM changed that for me. I was able to fully enjoy the series again with that mod and finally feel that I've "completed" the ME series.

This time I was able to entirely replay the game as mainly a renegade infiltrator MaleShep (rather than my Paragon Soldier FemShep) and it was a very different experience. Not to spoil anything, but the Mordin and Wrex scenes in ME3 were worth the time invested...if a little disturbing.