ME 3 - My Thoughts
So I need to rant and post my Mass Effect 3 review here. Ignore it if you don't care for spoilers or frankly don't care. XD
Let me start off by listing off the GOOD things about the game. The graphics are a step up from ME2 and for the most part, everything is so smooth and just pops. I really had no trouble immersing myself and really feeling like I was Commander Shepard again. The writing (up until the ending) is supremely top-notch. The missions didn't feel overly long and I loved the minor touches and nods from ME1 and ME2 that they incorporated. I thought the Citadel in particular was really well done. I was kind of annoyed in ME2 that the Citadel had become a bit stripped down, dark pit-stop so that was nice. I would have given the game a 10/10 but that ending really was jarring.
Why was that ending even chosen as the ending? And there was really one ending. I can admire what they were attempting to do with that ending - sort of. It just changed the entire tone of the story literally 10 minutes before the end. I wasn't expecting a happy ending, or even a 'good' ending - I was expecting some sort of resolution. That ending brought more questions than answers and it was so nonsensical to me. Let me bring out the really big plot holes the ending brought:
1) In 10 seconds, that ending changed Joker from being a badass pilot to a fleeing coward. Where was Joker during the Battle for the Citadel at the end of ME1? He was right there along with the rest of the alliance and citadel forces attacking Sovereign. Where was Joker during the attack on the Collector base? He swooped in to grab Shepard and the crew as they bolted out of the base after beating the reaper. It's totally out of character for Joker to leave Shepard on Earth. And not only did he leave Shepard, but also managed to grab some of the crew too? Why would the crew even leave Shepard? They knew if the fight was lost at the Earth/Citadel, there's no point in fleeing - the war is lost. So why flee at all?
2) How in the world did Anderson reach that control panel before Shep? How did he even know Shepard was even alive? How did Hackett know he was alive? With his armor nearly torn to shreds, how is there even radio communication?
Let's compare that the endings of ME1 to show how the ending was logically laid out:
How did Saren reach the Citadel? The Ilos conduit - which is discovered to be a backdoor into the Citadel and this is established in-depth and simply. What happens after Saren dies? Sovereign's control over Saren relinquishes, its shields are dropped and that gives the crucial moment that the alliance and citadel forces need to defeat Sovereign. A piece of rubble hits the portion of the citadel where Shep and her teammates are and there's a dramatic moment where his/her fate is uncertain. However, the cut scene shows the retrieval of the teammates and the revelation that Shep is alive and okay. Then there's a cutscene where Shep decides ,along with the fate of the council, her recommendation for earth councilor and then the game ends with a short cut scene and the swelling music. There's not really a question of what happens to everyone - it's cut and dry. The council was saved or they weren't, the reaper was destroyed, the citadel remained intact and the Normandy was intact. I didn't have a single question about that ending. VICTORIOUS AND UPLIFTING
How about ME2?
Why were the collectors harvesting humans? To make a reaper. How do they get out of that collector base? They outlined a detailed plan before engaging in the final mission about routes, strategies and goals. They made it a point that you had to select people for various strike teams and specialist roles and these roles had a genuine impact on whether your team survived. What happened to your crew on the Normany (Chambers, Chakwas, etc)? Well, your choices affected that - they either died because you took too long or didn't give them an escort or they were saved. And they made it a point to tell you what happened to them. What happened to your team? Depending on your choices and the loyalty you achieved, there were clear cut-scenes to let you know the fate of your team. What happened to the Normandy? It sped off using their FTL drives away from the collector base explosion. Then there's another cutscene showing either a somber funeral scene or your team mates/crew hard at work repairing the ship and prepping themselves for whatever. The music swells and the the player is treated to a preview of the incoming threat - the Reapers. TEMPORARILY VICTORIOUS AND UPLIFTING
Now Mass Effect 3 -
They had a plan - the Hammer team just needed a small team to get into the citadel beam to activate whatever it was the Crucible does. What DOES the Crucible do? That is very unclear. What happened to Earth? Putting aside whatever fate synthetics and the Reapers had, what the fuck happened to Earth? To the forces sitting out in Sol system now that all the mass relays are bombed out? What the heck happened to anyone? I would have been happy with Dragon Age style text endings, I felt more confused than anything else. Was the population of Earth so decimated that the only future civilization to even speak of 'the Shepard' was on that random planet with two moons/suns that Joker ran off to?
3) God/Star-Child. Why does he take the form of the child Shep saw earlier in the game? Does that kid even exist because no one even saw him. To me, the Mass Effect universe has these themes: Friendship/Loyalty, overcoming the impossible/predestination, and humanity's role in galactic civilization. And choice. The appearance of this god child completely negates a lot of the overarching themes and puts a wrench in our understanding of the universe. The Reapers no longer carry over this air of impregnable terror and evil - they become unquestioning puppets of this omnipotent being. And even what the god-child says contradicts a lot of what was already established in game.
Sovereign in ME1: "Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything."
God Kid: (paraphrasing) "There is another choice. Synthesis. This is the apex of evolution, combining organic and synthetic into one DNA".
Aren't the Reapers the end of the evolution chain or is Sovereign just full of it?
Sovereign: "My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence. "
God Kid: (paraphrasing) "Reapers are my bitches. They're like roombas that clean the room at 5:00 every day. I explained that in two sentences, it's really simple."
So where do I go from there? I have to grasp at straws and believe that Bioware has an ace up their sleeve. They left us with an incredibly open-ended ending (with a breathing scene that only appears if you pick the destroy option). If that was it, that was an intellectually lazy and incoherent ending. I can get it, they were aiming for a philosophically powerful ending - what I actually got from it was an unemotional, muddled mess for an ending. You can like the ending, I won't say it's horrible because it wasn't. It was just an unsatisfying and inconclusive ending compared to the previous games. I didn't want a good ending - the entire game was prepping us for what would be an eventual sad ending. I was prepared for that - I expected Shepard to give the ultimate sacrifice and for the forces of all the races and species of the galaxy to stand united for one moment in time and have a bittersweet victory, or a pyrrhic victory or an ending tinged with so much dripping sadness that you can't help but cry hours after the game ends but it would be CATHARSIS. That was what I was expecting and that was not what I got.
I highly recommend this video because it gives me a glimmer of hope that Bioware is the craftiest company to ever exist but that's looking less and less likely as time goes on. But, if it was true it would be the most groundbreaking and inspirational sort of ending that would be amazing in any medium no less a video game. It would accomplish what the Matrix sequels failed (let's not speak of those) and actually elevate the story into something with so many interesting layers it would make my English teachers tear up. We would still need an *actual* ending(s) but, well...
8/10
Let me start off by listing off the GOOD things about the game. The graphics are a step up from ME2 and for the most part, everything is so smooth and just pops. I really had no trouble immersing myself and really feeling like I was Commander Shepard again. The writing (up until the ending) is supremely top-notch. The missions didn't feel overly long and I loved the minor touches and nods from ME1 and ME2 that they incorporated. I thought the Citadel in particular was really well done. I was kind of annoyed in ME2 that the Citadel had become a bit stripped down, dark pit-stop so that was nice. I would have given the game a 10/10 but that ending really was jarring.
Why was that ending even chosen as the ending? And there was really one ending. I can admire what they were attempting to do with that ending - sort of. It just changed the entire tone of the story literally 10 minutes before the end. I wasn't expecting a happy ending, or even a 'good' ending - I was expecting some sort of resolution. That ending brought more questions than answers and it was so nonsensical to me. Let me bring out the really big plot holes the ending brought:
1) In 10 seconds, that ending changed Joker from being a badass pilot to a fleeing coward. Where was Joker during the Battle for the Citadel at the end of ME1? He was right there along with the rest of the alliance and citadel forces attacking Sovereign. Where was Joker during the attack on the Collector base? He swooped in to grab Shepard and the crew as they bolted out of the base after beating the reaper. It's totally out of character for Joker to leave Shepard on Earth. And not only did he leave Shepard, but also managed to grab some of the crew too? Why would the crew even leave Shepard? They knew if the fight was lost at the Earth/Citadel, there's no point in fleeing - the war is lost. So why flee at all?
2) How in the world did Anderson reach that control panel before Shep? How did he even know Shepard was even alive? How did Hackett know he was alive? With his armor nearly torn to shreds, how is there even radio communication?
Let's compare that the endings of ME1 to show how the ending was logically laid out:
How did Saren reach the Citadel? The Ilos conduit - which is discovered to be a backdoor into the Citadel and this is established in-depth and simply. What happens after Saren dies? Sovereign's control over Saren relinquishes, its shields are dropped and that gives the crucial moment that the alliance and citadel forces need to defeat Sovereign. A piece of rubble hits the portion of the citadel where Shep and her teammates are and there's a dramatic moment where his/her fate is uncertain. However, the cut scene shows the retrieval of the teammates and the revelation that Shep is alive and okay. Then there's a cutscene where Shep decides ,along with the fate of the council, her recommendation for earth councilor and then the game ends with a short cut scene and the swelling music. There's not really a question of what happens to everyone - it's cut and dry. The council was saved or they weren't, the reaper was destroyed, the citadel remained intact and the Normandy was intact. I didn't have a single question about that ending. VICTORIOUS AND UPLIFTING
How about ME2?
Why were the collectors harvesting humans? To make a reaper. How do they get out of that collector base? They outlined a detailed plan before engaging in the final mission about routes, strategies and goals. They made it a point that you had to select people for various strike teams and specialist roles and these roles had a genuine impact on whether your team survived. What happened to your crew on the Normany (Chambers, Chakwas, etc)? Well, your choices affected that - they either died because you took too long or didn't give them an escort or they were saved. And they made it a point to tell you what happened to them. What happened to your team? Depending on your choices and the loyalty you achieved, there were clear cut-scenes to let you know the fate of your team. What happened to the Normandy? It sped off using their FTL drives away from the collector base explosion. Then there's another cutscene showing either a somber funeral scene or your team mates/crew hard at work repairing the ship and prepping themselves for whatever. The music swells and the the player is treated to a preview of the incoming threat - the Reapers. TEMPORARILY VICTORIOUS AND UPLIFTING
Now Mass Effect 3 -
They had a plan - the Hammer team just needed a small team to get into the citadel beam to activate whatever it was the Crucible does. What DOES the Crucible do? That is very unclear. What happened to Earth? Putting aside whatever fate synthetics and the Reapers had, what the fuck happened to Earth? To the forces sitting out in Sol system now that all the mass relays are bombed out? What the heck happened to anyone? I would have been happy with Dragon Age style text endings, I felt more confused than anything else. Was the population of Earth so decimated that the only future civilization to even speak of 'the Shepard' was on that random planet with two moons/suns that Joker ran off to?
3) God/Star-Child. Why does he take the form of the child Shep saw earlier in the game? Does that kid even exist because no one even saw him. To me, the Mass Effect universe has these themes: Friendship/Loyalty, overcoming the impossible/predestination, and humanity's role in galactic civilization. And choice. The appearance of this god child completely negates a lot of the overarching themes and puts a wrench in our understanding of the universe. The Reapers no longer carry over this air of impregnable terror and evil - they become unquestioning puppets of this omnipotent being. And even what the god-child says contradicts a lot of what was already established in game.
Sovereign in ME1: "Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything."
God Kid: (paraphrasing) "There is another choice. Synthesis. This is the apex of evolution, combining organic and synthetic into one DNA".
Aren't the Reapers the end of the evolution chain or is Sovereign just full of it?
Sovereign: "My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence. "
God Kid: (paraphrasing) "Reapers are my bitches. They're like roombas that clean the room at 5:00 every day. I explained that in two sentences, it's really simple."
So where do I go from there? I have to grasp at straws and believe that Bioware has an ace up their sleeve. They left us with an incredibly open-ended ending (with a breathing scene that only appears if you pick the destroy option). If that was it, that was an intellectually lazy and incoherent ending. I can get it, they were aiming for a philosophically powerful ending - what I actually got from it was an unemotional, muddled mess for an ending. You can like the ending, I won't say it's horrible because it wasn't. It was just an unsatisfying and inconclusive ending compared to the previous games. I didn't want a good ending - the entire game was prepping us for what would be an eventual sad ending. I was prepared for that - I expected Shepard to give the ultimate sacrifice and for the forces of all the races and species of the galaxy to stand united for one moment in time and have a bittersweet victory, or a pyrrhic victory or an ending tinged with so much dripping sadness that you can't help but cry hours after the game ends but it would be CATHARSIS. That was what I was expecting and that was not what I got.
I highly recommend this video because it gives me a glimmer of hope that Bioware is the craftiest company to ever exist but that's looking less and less likely as time goes on. But, if it was true it would be the most groundbreaking and inspirational sort of ending that would be amazing in any medium no less a video game. It would accomplish what the Matrix sequels failed (let's not speak of those) and actually elevate the story into something with so many interesting layers it would make my English teachers tear up. We would still need an *actual* ending(s) but, well...
8/10
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