TYOA: 8 Great Video Games RUINED By Their Final Level
2. Priority: Earth - Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 3 held the enormous responsibility of concluding the beloved sci-fi RPG trilogy in satisfying fashion, but its final mission, "Priority: Earth," saw the enterprise sputter to one of the most lackluster, complained-about endings in the medium's history.
The trilogy-capping mission is a rather generic, forgettable battle through the war-torn streets of London as Shepard attempts to reach the Citadel beam - one that can't hold a candle to the masterful Suicide Mission closer from Mass Effect 2.
The threequel's finale needed to be bigger than anything else that had come before it, and so ultimately few were surprised by subsequent reports of the game's rushed development cycle.
And of course this doesn't even touch the fact that the very end of the game boils down to picking one of three colours for your ending - a far cry from the bespoke conclusion, encompassing three games' worth of choice, which BioWare initially promised players.
Almost a full 15 years on, Mass Effect 3 remains perhaps the example of a great game that tripped over itself in the eleventh hour to reputation-destroying ends.