8 Hugely Controversial Video Game Endings That Divided The Fans
6. Mass Effect 3
The one everybody and their granny knows about. Mass Effect 3's ending was so bad and phoned in, it got EA voted The Worst Company in America by an army of ardent fans weaponising their keyboards to make some dint at the money-grubbing behemoth. The cultural and critical reception was so poignant, Bioware released an 'Extended Cut' featuring motion stills telling additional story details, whilst also confirming hugely important DLC character Javik was supposed to be in the game all along. He sat alongside additional paid-for downloadable packs that contained information yougenuinely needed to understand the ending. A complete travesty no matter which way you look at it, ME 3's ending overshadows every conversation the series ever gets brought up in. In a nutshell: After building up a solid foundation of interwoven race-relations, love interests and devoted soldier-types, come the game's final moments all your preparation and trilogy-wide game time was for nothing. Instead, you had a one-sided conversation with a random A.I. that was controlling the Reapers, after which you literally chose your ending from what was essentially a menu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5ebN1dW9CA The case for: The Reaper invasion was always supposed to represent the inevitability of all life in the universe: expiration. By having an ancient program ensure the galaxy began anew ever few thousand years, it stimulated new life forms and technological advances, as well as nurturing every race's survival instinct to progress further in the next cycle. (Or something... it's very hard to defend this one. Sound off in the comments if you can make anything of a positive case for it). The case against: Everything. Absolutely everything. The final showdown against a Reaper tech-infused Illusive Man came out of nowhere, and the conversation you have against the Starchild A.I. is unbelievably one-sided considering every other exchange you have in the game. Your own crew who you've built up genuinely loving relationships with are shown randomly abandoning you, and the game's 'three endings' are the same cutscene edited with different coloured explosions to indicate your decision. It's lazy, was unfinished by Bioware's own admission, and the decision to let you pay additional money for the ending and information you needed is just disgusting.
