[It should go without saying: spoilers, spoilers, spoilers...]
Huh. Well that was a hell of a thing.
Depending on who you ask, last week Bioware, the creators of Mass Effect 3, either ‘caved to fan pressure’, ‘corrected their ham-fisted, hurried storytelling’, or ‘wanted to provide closure for those who appreciated their vision’ by releasing an Extended Cut of the concluding game of their trilogy. From whichever angle it was viewed, this free downloadable addition to the current game was a direct response to months of criticism directed at the game’s plot holes, inconsistencies and sloppy design – all elements that even the creators themselves came to admit needed clarification lest the confusion continue.
Many have found these revised and expanded endings to be satisfactory (if not outright brilliant) additions to the Mass Effect lore, which is no doubt a good thing. I however will have to admit right out of the gates – before the tenor of my response drifts into inevitable sorrow – that I was not one of those people. So if you are (quite understandably) sick of hearing people whine about these endings, it might be a good idea to pass on by right now…
Many (myself included), had criticised the game’s original ending for its thematic, character and logical inconsistencies, and although a great deal of effort was exerted to justify these problems in the new cut, it is odd to note that so many narrative absurdities still litter the work – this time arguably even more pronounced as they work overtime to clear up the jarring details left hanging the first time around.
Now, crewmates that were once somehow mysteriously transported onto the Normandy are shown in the process of being bundled onboard – despite the fact that this involves the ship parking itself right directly front of a giant Reaper, a creature that was spewing a volley of devastating lasers that were only moments before annihilating objects as small as scampering humans with surgical precision. The Reaper, Harbinger, seems to take a mystifying coffee break while Shepard evacuates her team: ‘No, you guys have your conversation. I’m just gonna fill in this crossword for a minute and – Oh? You’re done? Well: Laser! Laser! BLAM! Mmwoah Ha Haaaa…‘
Similarly the ship’s pilot Joker no longer runs off during the battle and abandons you without a reason; he is shown being ordered to do so by Admiral Hackett because – well, because… Just because. You know what Admirals are like. And although Joker looks momentarily conflicted, fan-favourite character Garrus leans over the console to agree with the call and tell him to scram. So now you are no longer abandoned by the guy who earlier in the game promised never to leave you, you’re also abandoned by the guy who promised that he’d walk into hell with you and order a beer. So that’s two people off the Christmas list.
Perhaps the most extraordinary addition to the work, however, is the further elucidation of the Catalyst character. Previously your standard deus ex machina (literally a God from a Machine) through expanded conversational choices he is now revealed to be a sociopathic Artificial Intelligence, designed several eons ago to solve the ‘inevitable’ problem of synthetics and organics eventually slaughtering one another. Having watched The Matrix and Terminator 2: Judgement Day one too many times, the Catalyst used his dispassionate machine logic and decided that the best way to stop the bloodshed was to just kill all advanced species himself and save them all the time. He therefore rolled out a swarm of killer space-locust who turned everyone to goo, and to make ever more machines of slaughter out of their remains. You know, as you do.
Click “next” below to read part 2…
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27 Comments
One of the best articles I have yet read on why the endings are so problematic.
I’m still conflicted about the endings because I can appreciate what they tried to do (and see how the extended cut fleshes it out), but am disappointed by the cack-handedness of the approach. I think the key problems that remain are:
Not showing us how the forces we amassed (or failed to amass) during the game had an impact on the final battle.
Explaining away the reapers motivations (on which the whole trilogy hinges) in a few short lines of dialogue.
Woolly thinking that leaves many loose ends (e.g. Why does the catalyst give Shepard a choice at all? How does ‘synthesis’ work? Why does Harbinger try to kill you but then leave you alive?)
I like the refusal result, all the way through we had been told that we could not deffeat the reapers through conventional means, even before the attack from Haket, so i liked the idea that the dammage that Shep and her allies did or would contiue to do to reapers as well as the knowledge Li left behind aided the next cycle to fight and deffeat the reapers on their own terms, our sacrefices making it possible, giving them “hope”.
I also like how the catalyst was just a deranged AI created by a long lost civilisation, nothing more.
Well voiced article! People are upset because we know how much more the ending could have been and that is the bottom line. It is not wishful thinking as we have been treated to some of the best and most consistent story telling in video gameing to that point from the epic ending of ME2, the fate of the genophage and Mordin’s death (if that is the route you took) and the heartbreaking loss of either Tali or Legion on Rannoch if you could not ally the two sides. We know what Bioware is capable of and that is what is so disappointing for the fans. I am grateful they went to the trouble of spending the time and resources to do this for the fans, but the empty feeling in my chest still lingers by the time the credits roll. Games that focus on story telling as good as Mass Effect does it don’t come along too often in this day and age and that is why the people like myself who appreciate good single player stories over Call of Duty esque eye candy shooters are not letting go so easily. Who knows if we will ever get another original story driven game/trilogy like Mass Effect in the not so distant future.
I think I vomited, swallowed my vomit and and vomited it a second time. No I do not have more than one stomach, but reality is hard to bear sometimes.
Well written article. /nosarcasm
Thank you. Just, thank you.
I have no problems with the endings as is, frankly everyone is getting wrapped up in “it’s my story” when ultimately everyone experienced the same story.
*slow claps*
Wow. Excellent depiction of what was wrong with the endings, although I wish you would have mentioned how an explanation for the reapers was NEVER NEEDED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Again, bravo!
Cheers to you sir. You’ve given voice to something that troubled me beyond the problems with narrative (plot holes, deus ex machina, etc.).
I imagine that the authors thought presenting this nihilistic outcome was clever. “See? We make you question the meaning of existence and the struggle of life itself! Deep thoughts and art – buy DLC!” However, I think there are few writers that can present the end of the universe in a palatable way – where something is earned or gained from that loss.
Science fiction is an implicitly hopeful medium – presenting futures in which humanity (possibly) still participates in, and unique settings to project a reflection of ourselves. Mass Effect presented such a future, with humanity striving and vibrant. We (as Shepard) could define our principles and act on them – righting wrongs or ignoring them, but always emphasizing self-determination.
Then at the climax of game, we’re asked to become that which we’ve struggled against, and punished when we don’t play ball (red, green or blue).
This irritated many people, not because they’re “entitled whiners”, but rather due to how our brains work. Playing an RPG (or most any game) is to project ourselves into someone else – and our mirror neurons make this more tangible. The experiences and feelings of our avatars actually “happen” to us – and inform our physiology and psyche.
The strength of these experiences and how they are valued is unique to each person, but everyone does this. The arc of Shepard in Mass Effect _really is_ “my” story. When Shepard is forced to betray his/herself and everyone in the galaxy, I felt the betrayal myself. This experience elicited the same feelings of shame, guilt and frustration I would enjoy in my normal life – and that is no joke.
This is why it hurts (it’s not about the “sad vs. happy” ending). This is my primary motivation to avoid buying any more products from EA/Bioware, as well as content from the principle authors (Mac Walters, Casey Hudson). They just can’t be trusted to tell the story right.
Apologies to all if this rambled too long.
Absolutely no need to apologise! Great post.
On Raanoc, you have the choice of saving a general, or honoring his wishes that you save his men first. Doing what I thought was right, saving his men, leads to a bad outcome. But that outcome is logically consistent with everything else that is going on (ie the general carries influence for you). It’s not “my” outcome, but it was “my” choice and the outcome followed from that choice. It’s the same with the ending, I got to make my choice and tell the god child to piss off. But Bioware chooses the outcome, as they always have. If I got to dictate what the outcomes were, it would cease to be a game.
Brilliant article, you summed up my thoughts perfectly. Thank you!
you are truly the voice of the people thank you for what i can agree is whats mostly on our minds….thank you
“Firstly, you can Destroy the Reapers, but by doing so also wipe out all sentient life forms…”
Umm… I think you mean synthetic there. Not sentient.
But, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for writing this. It is such a passionate and heart-felt summative of our feelings, the feelings of Mass Effect’s and thereby BioWare’s most passionate and adoring fans.
I finished the EC only hours ago… And the pain of the entire experience still burns in my heart…
Whoops. Good catch. Thanks.
I had meant to write ‘sentient synthetic life forms’ and must’ve gotten a little sloppy on the proofread.
Here’s hoping the Crucible is a bit more specific than I was…
Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you! You write what was entirely in my heart.
Agree completely. Thank you for expressing this!
All the consequences of our decisions in the ME series were of course written by Bioware. None of it was truly something unique that each player could determine. But for most of the series, I was happy with that – in fact I felt I could rely on Bioware to give me a morally sound way out of every situation, even if there were some sacrifices to be made along the way and the decisions were not always easy.
That’s why it’s so upsetting not to have the option to do the right thing here – and even more upsetting that Bioware seem to consider Synthesis to be the best option. Did theynot truly understand the values upheld in their own games? Or did the ending consciously show those values to be mistaken and irrelevant?
Thank you, thank you, a million time thank you! You wrote what was entirely in my heart.
Very well thought out and spot on blog Colin, kudos! I’ve not bothered with the extended cut as the endings left such a bitter taste in my mouth that I sold my 360, switched to PC gaming and have sworn off all future BioWare releases. Fool me once and all that jazz.
I’ve read a couple of descriptions and it all sounds worse for being extended not better so I don’t regret my decision to cut my losses but as you said you can’t grieve for something without loving it first and Mass Effect is the only series I’ve ever felt that way about in my 20+ years of gaming.
Since seeing those endings I’ve played nothing but racing games because I know there’s nothing at the end but the finish line and even if I lose it won’t break my f–kin’ heart!
Finally! Someone said it…
Thank you. Just big fat great thank you.
Pretty much all of my thoughts about endings. Catalyst is wrong and and we didn’t even give a chance to prove it. I’m just switching game off and refuse to accept his point of view.
Thank you for this. I am actually upset that in the special ending explanation everyone seems to have made it home with very little effort. The mass relays are broken. It takes months or even years to travel between systems without mass relays “see dialog from Arrival,” so in all three happy-happy recounts no one had to struggle to make it home. In the Hacket ending he talks about the time it will take to rebuild, but you don’t really feel it. After the first ending, before the DLC, I spent several hours talking to my husband agonizing about how Wrex was trapped on earth without a Mass Relay and was going to miss the first few years of his first born’s life. I was really torn up about little Mordin not having a Dad when his Dad worked so hard to make sure he could be born. But that’s the kind of stuff that happens during war. Heart-ache – both loss and salvation type of stuff. But except for losing Shepard, I really didn’t get any sense of loss – and that bothers me a bit. I guess I did lose EDI when I destroyed the Reapers, but Joker wasn’t too broken up about it, so neither was I. YOu’d think he’d hit his knees in sobs if he just lost EDI and failed Shepard again. But no, just a sad smile at the pretty landscape instead of a happy smile… Ultimately I am OK with the endings, but I know they could have been better and that’s the truly sad part about the whole thing.
Thank you…just….Thank you. I’m saying goodbye to my shepard now, I don’t think i can play it much more. It’s like a writer handing his publisher a draft of his greatest story only to be told that that’s not how they wanted the story to be told, because it doesn’t conform with their vision. bioware has given us the tools to write our own story/adventure and given all of us a sense of individual ownership of the trilogy and sadly reminded us that it wasn’t ours to begin with. Hope is lost.
I totally agree with you, on everything. But there is more: The EC was supposed to add closure. Welle it did, but in such a ridiculous amount that it was infuriating. I mean OK, we know the fate of the galaxy overall but Mass Effect has mostly be about characters and apart from some slideshow without any explanations, we get nothing. We see Jacob with some kids, but is it supposed to mean? Has he become a teacher? Does he take care of youg biotics? None of these two? Worse, some of the main characters like Liara, we had nothing at all (at least I didn’t have a word). And the senseless “Breathing Scene” is still there and still leads to nothing.
Sorry for the (probably) laughable english, I’m french and Google Chrome decided that all I just wrote was an error, thus I can’t see my true mistakes :D
I do not know how I am just now finding this article.
I agree one hundred percent with everything you have said. That is the first time I can honestly say that after reading someone else’s opinion on this subject.
Thank you very much! It was such a pleasure to read.
Actually I think the themes WAS the influence an individual has (on the galaxy, on others, etc) and seeing the outcome of that influence. But then with war assets the only thing you had to see was a number instead of a cinematic. That design scheme is what is the problem of ME3, and also the intentions that forumulated the scheme: To make the game easier to make so they could pump out something impressive enough that it should get high scores with as minimal work possible and make a butload of cash on the results. Bioware of Dragon Age origins didn’t care if they spent butloads of time on their game, they wanted you to be able to choose from 9 different 2 hour character intros so you had a personalized experience. Oh but they missed cell shading on some trees so people exploded in a hissy fit about how awful of a job they did on the game. No lets give Skyrim a 10 because the trees are pretty and who cares if the ending is extremly underwhelming and the main plot is such a mess you can finish it in 2 hours, no lets give Dragon Age Origins that put 18 additional hours into their game so everyone could feel their character had a unique background an 8.7 for those horrible ugly trees. So thanks guys, Bioware stopped focusing on the things critics would just blatently ignore in scoring the game (score usually means more influence to buyers) and focused on the things that would. That’s why ME3 got a 10 and Dragon Age Origins got a 8.7′s despite there being so much more love put into Dragon Age Origins (ok game-play is still slow, but all game-play was still slow then). Because critics don’t care if you put so much incredible effort into creating an incredible game full of nuance and lore, no they rush through your game and pump out a score as fast as possible so they only look for things like graphics.
Then the reporters will leak scripts that makes bioware change their story, like how they went from Dark Energy to Dues Ex in the ending. Dark Energy that stuck with the theme of the impact one has (the impact of life on the galaxy)–no lets freak out and make bioware question their vision so they decide to slap on a synthetic vs. organic terminator 2 theme on the last part of a trilogy. I mean Bioware was just SURVEYING people about Dragon Age 3 and freaking game reviewers were saying “Oh Dragon age is going to have this and this and this” so Bioware either has to dissapoint fans or they have to give in and have absolutely everything even if it is a horrible idea. But thanks to the way game critics approach reviewing a game, Bioware knows what they have to polish and what they don’t to make a game critics happy who will then call anyone entitled who disagrees with their almighty opinions. Welll they can just cut everything else out even if that means cutting out the core essence of their games. In fact they can change the core design of the game and make it all about filling up a meter to open up different colored endings (oh, but not you get some still images and also a monologue). No you won’t SEE how these individuals you have interacted with across 2 games will impact your fight with the reapers, you’ll just see how many war assets their worth in your meter! And hell lets force people to play multi-player in the third installment of an rpg series to fill that meter even more. Just in case they hadn’t noticed we decided to change everything about the game design of the series in the last installment, now if they want Shepard to survive they will have to recognize it. Rachni queen from ME1? That you can save or destroy? That sent an asari to tell you she’s fine? No she doesn’t have a big role to play, she just has 100 war assets to give and we pretend she has a big role to play. Oh Eden Prime colonists that were indoctrinated by the Thorian? The ones that you talked to Shiala about in ME2 again? They didn’t have some greater influence on your insight to reaper indoctrination. Nope they just have war assets. Oh and the Quarian/Geth conflict? The only 2 species researching Dark Energy? Oh no resolving their conflict has no influence on the outcome of the war, no it just gives you more 400 more war assets. Oh I think now you can pick Synthesis. Hey! Look at your impact! It’s green! Oh and now your Liara is narrating the monologue! That’s better than red right with Admiral Hackett right? Wow your decisions really are influencing this story aren’t they!
Then, they hide from criticism calling it their artistic integrity, and then they say you shouldn’t get so upset because it’s only a game (and therefore not important like art). Now anyone who was an RPG bioware fan can wipe the spit off their face that bioware and game critics sent at them for hoping their favorite franchise would be rescued from it’s heart breaking state. Because it’s just so entitle of us, donating to charities and sending cupcakes.
In the end it wasn’t about money or artistic integrity. It was about ensuring we stay the easily influenced consumer, rather than the consumer that has an influence.
The theme of the game is community and influence. They go hand in hand really. An individual influences a community, a group organizes other communities and so one. It’s why humanity is fighting for it’s place in the galaxy in ME1 and shepard is gathering a team for her mission in ME2. The reason I think influence was one major theme and not just something that comes from being an RPG was how much influence everyone had including Shepard. Joker for example, he pulled off a maneuver to drop Shepard off in chasing Saren at end of ME1, she shoots Sovereign, he stubbornly refuses to leave crashing normandy (gets shepard killed), he unshackles EDI, he manages to pick Shepard up in the nick of time numerous times. That’s just one person. The Asari as a species had a major impact, they dominated the galaxy and directly influenced it’s culture. They were chosen to continue the fight against the reapers by the Protheans and they chose to ignore this and instead dominate the galaxies economy. Like Aethyta said, they should have spent less time reading poetry or dancing and more time preparing for war. And the people with influence came from diverse backgrounds: a krogan mercenary, a turian c-sec officer, a young quarian on her pilgrimage, a corrupt politician, a tormented felon, a well to do archeologist, and so much more. Dark Energy fit that theme, it was forshadowed on Halestorm and even before that. Hell the illusive man looked like his base was at a star that was undergoing something very similar to Halestorm’s star. It would mean that advanced organic life had an influence on the galaxy just by being–resulting in eezo—resulting in dark energy. I mean the space powers were given the name BIOTICS. Biotics which means “a living component of a community”. They could have call it mutanics or something else but they chose the word biotics because it served the theme. ME3 just abandons that on so many levels. Even if there is more community, there is less influence. The catalyst telling you “I had to stop the spread of Dark Energy” is a lot more convincing than “I had to destroy civilization to then save civilization.”
The problem of Dark Energy is something the galactic community would have to face after defeating the reapers. It would have been so much better all around.
I see you are as irked as i was by ME3′s Ending but if you are willing to credit the idea that Shepard has been indoctrinated pls see this excellent (+free) comic series detailing Shepards fate and the Dark Secret regarding the lone Marauder (reaper) who confronts him before his ascent to the catalyst.http://koobismo.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d4t2yke
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