Mass Effect 3 and why the ending was upsetting

**Warning** this will contain spoilers for some movies, books, and games. When you see one of those you have not beat or read through or watched through you are more than welcome to stop.


       This is not an easy thing for me to do, to tear apart something that i did at one point genuinely love. I will start by saying i will be very basic with this post but still explain my point as much as i can. 

Now Mass Effect was an amazing piece of gaming history with what might be one of the greatest games ever. Its RPG elements where so deep and enriching that it felt groundbreaking  to have a RPG be so deep, but tell the most enriching story. The ending of this game with the attack on sovereign while your fighting Saren was one of the most aw moments in gaming history, or at last up to that point. The choice of choosing the lives of the council or the lives of your fleet, and then at the end the choice between anderson and udina seemed like it would have great brevity on the story, which it will not i assure you.

Then Mass Effect 2 came out, quite possibly one of the greatest games made in every way possible. The game play was kind of dumbed down for new entry gamers, which is a good business model for those who have never played the game so they would be more enticed to spend countless hours as Shepard. I thought the gun play was more fun being made this way but i miss the more RPG elements that they all but cut out. As far as the story goes, it is simply amazing. The story from the opening of where Shepard is killed on the Normandy was almost a way to end the game and they start with it, wow just wow that blew me away. Then coming from a rouge again to becoming the biggest name in the galaxy, then the suicide mission. I also forgot to mention the soundtrack to both games is mind blowing to say the least.

Why am i telling you all of these things well mostly to just convince you the reader that i am not a hater of the series, i have put close to 100 hours between the 3 games i believe that it is one of my favorite series of any form of media, but then came along the ending to Mass Effect 3

My complaints in no particular order written as they come to me:

1. The just utter confuse.
I am trying to understand it still, it is hard to fathom that all of the crew made it to the Normandy before the crucible blew up, and why was it running from the battle and in front of the beam that was flying away. Why not have the Normandy fighting in the skies above earth and show it get hit by the wave and just fall to earth instead of that odd ending. Why did the ship run from earth but land on a earth like planet? Where did they land? What was next for them? Like i read in one other article backing my opinion, if all these races where at earth still because of the relays getting destroyed (why where they destroyed) most of them would die due to the fact earth is not sustainable for their livelihood. I am not making this up its in the lore bioware wrote for Mass Effect.

2. Why the child as the voice of the reapers?
I could understand more if the child/VI/AI thing said simply that i chose this form to make you feel most comfortable around me. Even that would have made that whole thing more sense. It came out of nowhere and didn't fit. I know they needed dialogue to make the ending more capable to understand which choice you have to make.

3. Why was Anderson and the illusive man there?
Im trying to wrap my head around why Anderson and you only made it after Harbinger attacked you on your rush down the hill. What was the illusive man doing there how did he get there they never explain this its just he is there its a muddled ending to the illusive man's story. He was so vital to the main story and the whole ending part was odd, was he on your side and indoctrinated to do what the reapers want, or was he just evil the whole time. A moment before you shoot him he shows remorse for what he has done that's another plot hole that doesn't make sense. Anderson i feel like he was there for no reason but to create controversy between you and the illusive man.

4. Choices bottled down to nothing
Here are two quotes direct from Bioware about Mass Effect 3

“EXPERIENCE THE BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END OF AN EMOTIONAL STORY UNLIKE ANY OTHER, WHERE THE DECISIONS YOU MAKE COMPLETELY SHAPE YOUR EXPERIENCE AND OUTCOME.”

 “This story arc is coming to an end with this game. That means the endings can be a lot more different. At this point we’re taking into account so many decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that stuff.”

Now i will tell you that the ending is ONE ENDING I REPEAT ONE ENDING depending on your readiness is how much of the ending you see for instance on my first play through my ending stopped right when the door opened to the Normandy but if i had 300 more readiness points i would have seen who walked out of the Normandy, not like it matters i know it is your one love interest and one person who was on the last mission with you, and there are subtle changes of that ending and i mean subtle. For Bioware to proclaim that are choices mattered was an outright lie. the way the last game played ended the way Bioware wanted it to. Lets re-visit Mass Effect one when you get to choose between Anderson and Udina for the human councilmen, well i thought it would have huge implications on the game well it doesn't matter who you picked because in 3 they make Anderson step down and Udina steps in and he turns corrupt, what they should have done would be to make it where if you picked Anderson then that never happened he never got corrupt but instead Bioware made it to where we played the most linear story in the HISTORY of Bioware. The path there may have been different but the endings where the same just different colors. It is most disheartening just the way that Bioware stated our choices mattered but ultimately they did not.

I will state though it was fun to play the game. The game play was the best in the series. The game was slightly more glitchy than Mass Effect 2. It had a few frame-rate issues, nothing major, but looking back it just makes the whole game feel rushed, and incomplete.

Metal Gear Solid figured out a way to end a long series. Yes it took hours of cut scenes, but they left no stone unturned explained it all, and for those who didn't watch the cut scene after the credits thinks that snake killed himself to save all of humanity. Just the lead up and Otacon saying to sunny that snake has had a hard life and needs time to rest, even though you can tell that Otacon knows snake is going to kill himself, just brings so much emotion to his possible death. When Shepard dies it seems like all life dies or no one really cared about Shepard. I just wish for a little more around his passing and how he alone has saved the galaxy 3 times, and needs some respect shown. Even if there is another DLC about the ending of Mass Effect 3 i will still shake my head because how could you release a product and not have an end. Imagine if Lord of The Rings writer Tolkein just left out the part where the ring was thrown into the fire. Then a couple months later said o ya i forgot here is the ending that i owe you. Transformers is not a great movie in story telling history, but even that series found a way to have a arc of 3 movies and be able to end the main story on a note of killing the BIGGEST enemy Megatron. The new Batman movie (i do not know the ending just an assumption) i believe Batman will die and his identity will be revealed but people will still honor him as Batman instead of Bruce and it will be an emotional and moving end to the series. The assassins creed games have some really compelling story. The way they ended Ezio's story was really well done. He realized he wasn't the chosen one that he was a vessel for the real chosen one. He sent out a  message to Desmond to help him with the war the Templars/Abstergo.


I don't have an answer only time will tell, there are rumors of a DLC called "The Truth" which is supposed to deal with the ending some way, it is rumored for an  April release. We will just have to hold our breaths and wait in the meantime.