10 Reasons You're Wrong About Mass Effect 3's Ending
10. Trilogy Syndrome
Setting aside the specifics of this particular franchise, there is a bit of history going against any game/movie/etc. tasked with closing out a great trilogy. There are numerous examples, many of them recent, of the following series of events:
a) First chapter comes along, raises the bar and generates a huge buzz for things to come.
b) Sequel comes along, expands on its predecessor to the point of near-perfection, franchise evolves into classic.
c) Expressly final instalment is released, must corral a massive story into a conclusion, deemed a disappointment for the franchise despite being a top effort by normal standards.
Whereas the bookends of the trilogy have constraints and obligations such as establishing worlds or wrapping up the story, ME2 had the benefit of simply letting the story run wild. It was a superlative experience; unfortunately it also set a tone no followup could match, at least not one tasked with ending the series.
Fair to the creators? Debatable. Either way, without even getting into the merits of the game, it's worth pointing out that the bias of high expectations probably helped exacerbate the backlash against the Dark Knight Rises of video games.
And while we're on the topic of expectations