3 years later, does Mass Effect 3 ending still hunts you?

It amazes me that you still to this day can't handle people having a different opinion than you.

When exactly did that happen?

I had such an amazing time with the game, the ending couldn't possibly spoil it for me, even if it was pretty bland.

Wow, you are mumbling nonsense. Once again......How is the Catalyst "God"? How is the Crucible "God"? They are not, you weren't paying attention to the story.

On Chronos Station you learn the Citadel amplifies and directs energy throughout the galaxy, and the Crucible is hinted all throughout the game and confirmed by the Catalyst as a power source (for dark energy), nothing more. Control and Destroy involves Shepard interacting with the AI core, and in Synthesis, Shepard him or herself is the trigger. Nevermind the Catalyst is the McGuffin you were looking for the entire game before the twist is that it is the main antagonist. Face facts here, there is no deus ex machina. You just weren't paying attention.

If you refuse, the Catalyst has nothing to go on but the cycle so it continues one more time.

Two chances, at the Forward Operating Base and at the run to the beam.

Or is it that the opinion is poorly arrived at? Including yours, it seems you didn't play the Extended Cut.

Yes, was loving the series so much until the last 15 minutes

Mandatory in b4 texas and "if you didn't like the ending must be because you didn't understand it!!! it takes a genius to understand the mcguffin garbage ending it was!!!!"

Same here. It suck when the last 15 minutes of the third game made the story from the first two games and most of the third game meaningless and I am not just talking about the choices you made.

it made everything meaningless, choices, story, everything, it was the laziest solution the could come up with, a last minute magical character that gives sheppard choices because....reasons! You don't win because you united the galaxy, you don't win because of your effort or choices, you win because starbrat feels like it and bioware didn't know how to handle the ending.

@Minishdriveby: , "DROP EVERYTHING YOUR DOING AND COME TO EARTH! THE REAPERS ARE GOING TO INVADE! MY SPECIES IS THE MOST IMPORTANT"

Its just a game bro relax.

Too late.

BUT have you considered your opinion is poorly arrived at?

LOL TEXASGR

I literally laughed aloud when I read that response. I'd rather just ignore him than egg him on. He just cannot accept that other people can have opinions that might differ from his own.

@ariabed: I don't think I'm being that fanatical about it. I thought it was a mediocre 3rd act to fairly decent series, and I was responding to why I felt that way. It's funny how when someone says anything about a beloved series that doesn't fit the general consensus, they're told to calm down as if they're overreacting. I guess it's a good way to disregard someone's opinion by making them seem like they're the one who is out of line.

@Minishdriveby: , "DROP EVERYTHING YOUR DOING AND COME TO EARTH! THE REAPERS ARE GOING TO INVADE! MY SPECIES IS THE MOST IMPORTANT".

You are thinking too deeply into it, its only a game. If you are going to think this deeply into a games plot and then criticize it maybe you shouldnt play games.

@ariabed: That's such a nonsense argument. You're basically saying this medium is so shitty that it should be devoid of criticism because I mean they're just games right how good can it be, really? And why shouldn't I criticize Mass Effect's plot when that's touted over everything else the game does? The main feature of the game and why everyone was so upset with the ending of 3 was the dialogue tree choose-your-own-adventure story.

Criticism and calling out games on their failings is how games get better, giving a round of applause because they're games and what else did you expect is not helping.

@Minishdriveby: no I'm saying dont think so deeply into a games plot you're nit picking.

@ariabed: I don't think I'm nitpicking. It's a pretty big point of the plot (it's basically the whole plot; you're trying to recruit species for your cause).

@Minishdriveby: Damn! I accidently just deleted the post you replied to, anyway.

You seem to forget that shepard is the only one who can stop the reapers who are a threat to the whole universe.

I dont think the story is promoting the notion that "my species is more important" as you put it, its more let us all unite against this evil that is a threat to everyone.

I understand that BioWare has obligations to favor humans because, well, there is some bias to say the least, but it turns into a let us unite on my home world because I, the human, am the Shepard of the universe. It's just sort of eye-rolling and self-aggrandizing. I think the biggest improvement that Mass Effect 4 could do is add a species select.

idk, Earth is like ground zero of the attacks so of course they would have to unite there.

Also shepard has to earn the help he gets, its not given freely if i remember correctly.

Funny....you really don't get it do you.

Once again, foreshadowing, not only in Leviathan but in the main game as well, once again on Thessia.. You have chosen to ignore this. He is not a last minute magical character, he is the main antagonist of the entire series. Get some knowledge.

Second, THE REASON the Catalyst gives Shepard a choice is because Shepard made its cycle obsolete and no longer feasible by bringing the Crucible, showing that organics are now too resourceful at combating its cycle and thus will end it. In fact, if you refuse to fire the Crucible, the next cycle wins, proving its point that the cycle is no longer effective.

Third, the impact of the final choices impacts the impacts of choices you made all throughout the game and the series in the Extended Cut. that is a fact, not an opinion.

And lastly, you do win because of your efforts and choices. Face facts here, you do not get the Crucible to the Citadel, which required your efforts and choices, you do not win. But you aren't bright enough to even see this.

Humanity are the Reapers preferred species to harvest. Mordin in ME2 gives you a huge reason why humans are special....genetic diversity. Its in the narrative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR_Dq7VKBfQ

And Shepard isn't even recruiting the galaxy for Earth, once again, he is recruiting for the Crucible. The final battle takes place on Earth because the Citadel's moved there, which the Crucible needs to attach to. It was only about "take back Earth" in the first two hours of the game.

Also take into account that humans are also major villains in ME3 with Cerberus, the evil of humanity. They are both saviors and destroyers against the Reapers.

Sorry, it doesn't take a genius, but it does require thinking, which is common in science fiction, something you apparently do not want to do.

The ending could have been better; but I still enjoyed it. I did not find it to be awful in the slightest. I picked the 'red' ending; I figured that to be the best ending, Shepard lives (somehow), and if the indoctrination theory is ever proven true...well i still live and continue to fight.

LOL @ the folks saying the ending was not bad. You better not be talking about the original ending that was released before Bioware bandaged it. I never supported all the crying to Bioware to change the ending but there's no doubt in hell that the original ending was pure garbage. Truth be told, I have never played the new updated ending so the original is all I refer to as canon. Who the hell is the child holo? Why did he look like that kid in the beginning? How did my crew survive when we all got blasted together, not even a scratch Garrus? They never left my side! Did some die and some survived? Did everyone die afterwards because all relays destroyed? What planet was at the end? I made the synthetics and organics fight together with each other in harmony against the Reapers, why does this crap kid keep telling me harmony can't happen when it already did? Sum that up with that it didn't matter which Deus Ex Human Revolution.....er Mass Effect 3 choice we made, that the only difference was the color and add in the biggest offender--"buy our shit DLC" message after the credits and we have a garbage ending. There's no doubt in my mind, that if there wasn't a shitstorm by the fans, EA and Bioware would've made DLC as the ending. Dead Space 3 anyone?

well then play the extended cut. Yes, the original ending was indeed very underdeveloped. The extended cut however fixes almost every objective problem with the ending as well as made the ending vary a lot more. Yes the fanbase pushed successfully for an ending fix, however, the writers also wanted to do it as well. It was not just the fans.

But lets address this.....

" I made the synthetics and organics fight together with each other in harmony against the Reapers, why does this crap kid keep telling me harmony can't happen when it already did?"

No, you didn't. If you are using geth and quarians as proof, do not. In fact, peace didn't even come naturally, Shepard blackmails the quarians with the geth fleet upgrading to force this peace. Also, Tali mentions there is too much bad blood on either side to consider the geth as "friends", and Javik and Ashley are skeptical if the peace will last.

Nope because i didn't finish the game out of boredom :3

It being mentioned before doesn't change its being retarded at all! An uber-all-powerful-secret weapon conveniently designed by someone else and capable of destroying and/or altering everything in a galaxy in a second is HORRIBLE writing and infinitely lame. That isn't an ending, it's a cop-out.

lol texasglueeater strike again spamming and telling everyone they are wrong and he's right, did't see that coming xD

The level of stupidity is too high.

Wow, once again, failure to understand the story.

The Crucible is not even a weapon, its just an energy generator, a power source. Not only that, it uses the lore that was established in ME1 to even function, which is the Citadel, which we know to direct and amplify this energy and distribute it throughout the galaxy with the relays. The story explains this to you, well before the ending. Nevermind that the Crucible represented cycles upon cycles of resistance which is far from a "cop out" but part of the themes of the narrative, which was present in ME1.

This is the thing about people who hate the ME3 ending, or at least the now current version. They criticize a story that just cannot grasp or refuse to grasp. Its all in the narrative, it proves you wrong.

And you're not spamming with your moronic opinions? Wow

Face facts here, sci fi is just not for you, it requires actual thinking and paying attention to its stories, something you have shown to have no grasp of. Do yourself a favor, don't watch something like Snowpiercer, its ending will go over your head as well.

You keep saying that I don't comprehend this or that yet no matter how many times you are told something you fail to understand what is being conveyed to you: It doesn't matter to me if the Crucible and/or Catalyst were mentioned or alluded to 153 times in ME1, 298 times in ME2, and possibly 1,076 times in ME3. It's still dumb! Just as it would have been dumb if at the end of Star Wars E4 Luke and the other rebels hadn't blown up the Death Star the honest, ol' fashioned way but instead picked a color and every member of the Galactic Empire were instantly vaporized or all rebel fighters in the galaxy suddenly transformed into cyborgs. Foreshadowed or not, dumb is dumb.

It's sad to see someone who is nothing more than an idiot to everyone here arguing and spamming, so delusional and such denial. Well keep trying, as always everyone tells you you are a joke, you are wrong but you will continue to spam nonetheless. xD

What you talking about. Of couse Mordin wasn't coming back, I shot the bastard! No I didn't save Wrex's people, the cure was a fake, and I shot Wrex after he found out. I did shoot cans with Garrus mind. Wanted to shoot Liara but no option.

LOL. I've played that route too, but preferred the Paragon route that I took on my original playthrough.

News Flash!!!!! Mass Effect isn't Star Wars...its MASS EFFECT. They have very different themes and stories, so why does Mass Effect have to be like Star Wars?

Looks who is the idiot, always factually incorrect and shown to not have a grasp of what he is talking about. That will be you.

Everything you wrote is correct except for the bold IMO. The cycle is obsolete because Shepard got as far as he did. However, what Liara states is false. If Shepard refuses any of the three options the Reapers would effectively win. I suppose Bioware wanted to put in a 'refuse' option but it's unrealistic. Even with Liara's beacons, now that the Reapers know of the Crucible they would never allow it to be built in the next cycle. Especially knowing that it requires the Citadel to fire. The humans would be made into a Reaper and every other civilization of significant intelligence terminated. The next cycle wouldn't win, the process would just continue.

That is really the only true response to this. My problems with the ending (apart from choices not having mattered much, if at all) was that the original ending left so many unanswered questions. After the extended cut dlc was released, it was fine. It answered a majority of the questions many people (myself included) had.

I absolutely loved the Indoctrination Theory and wished that the developers had actually gone down that route.

I have been to the dark corners of the internet in which idiocy runs wild and I have read and seen many things that would make a person really lose faith in humanity's future. The indoctrination theory is easily the most mentally challenged thing I have ever had the misfortune to have read. Good thing the extended cut annihilated any chance of credibility.

DAMN DOUBLE POST!!!!

I think it was just mainly the nerdy fanboys that took it to heart. Was it the best ending ever? No. But it shouldn't mean that it's a completely shitty series because of it. I think it was just blown completely out of proportions. Just look at the reviews of the game on Amazon.

Actually, did you see the epilogue? You do get an alternate Stargazer scene, instead of Buzz Aldrin, you get a mother and son in the future where they implied thanks to Shepard and his cycle, they averted a terrible war, so in essence the next cycle does win.

It was a nice touch to end the Refuse ending with hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx28vv2_blI

Well to each their own and all that but that's an incredibly over-hyperbolic thing to say.

No he is right...much of the fanbase is pure idiocy. They simply do not pay attention to the story, whine about every little thing that doesn't go their way, and make false claims because they are ignorant of the story.

Then they get worse, run a corrupt charity drive, petition government regulators for false advertising, fail to understand that Drew Karpyshyn not only backs the ending, but the fact that he said the ending as close to what he originally planned is completely ignored, use and go by flawed statistical analysis to try and show that people who hate the ending are a majority, and much more. Hell, I blame them for why DAI's narrative is absolutely toothless and stale, with a boring take no risks plot and ending.

For Bioware, they should learn that you have to develop your ending and that details matter, with the EC, they learned that. But for the idiotbase, they need to learn that its not their story and that they need to pay attention to the entire story and judge it on what it is, not what they want it to be.

Yeah I'm not for those people who whined and wanted it changed, I didn't have a big problem with the ending myself, I simply thought that the concept of the Indoctrination Theory on it's own was pretty cool and had some clever points to it. Saying that it's the most mentally challenged thing that one has seen on the internet is pretty far out there in hyperbolic territory.

While I will give credit to Bioware for attempting to remedy the original ending, there really isn't much that could have been done to it without reworking the entire final mission and probably the entire plot overall. I was fortunate enough to begin playing when the extended cut had already been released, sparing me of the initial anger and disappointment, but I still felt that the trilogy ended on what I would call a whimper instead of a bang. There were things I enjoyed about the ending, and I do think the final cut fixes some issues that I've seen presented in regards to the original ending, but I still feel a bit dissatisfied with the ending overall and feel that it could have been much better

I love how you somehow think that your opinion is anything but a opinion and that anyone who doesn't see the light you assume to have seen, is just idiots.

And no he isn´t right one bit. Archangel makes a very good argument and it would have made sense to fit the whole indoctrination story into the me3 and made a much more compelling ending than the crap they called the first ending and even the crap they tried to pull with the extended ending, which was in its own a very bad ending.

For some reason, I forgot I made this thread to even come back to discuss this. Anyways, I think some of you guys forgot that Bioware had a lot of interviews when ME3 was still in development. Bioware had stated many times that the ending will was goimg to be awesome, we would understand when we played the next Mass Effect game. They also talk about many times that this is Shepard's last game appearance. When they said that, we were all prepared for Shepard's death cause Bioware gave that info away meaning he was gonna die in some way. I'm only saying that Bioware hype this game way to seriously and it look like they ran out of time before discussing on how the ending should be.

That said, I pick the original ending red (before the extended Cut) and I was disappointed but I was less upset that Shepard live and the MP is what kept the game from getting any worst.

Wrong, lets look at this.

If Shepard is indoctrinated, that would not only kill the theme and the conflict with the Illusive Man, but open up some plot holes, like if Shepard was indoctrinated, why does Vendetta not shut down for him like he does Kai Leng? Adding a forceful shoehorned concept that the fans like doesn't mean it will make it better. And what would the point of the conflict with TIM be if Shepard is indoctrinated as well? None.

The thing is, the Indoctrination Theory does not the fit the story.

The current ending fits the trilogy, whether you like it or not. Mass Effect was ALWAYS about the decisions that are made that affect the galaxy and that these decisions affect the destinies of others, meaning there is no free will. Difficult decisions and sacrifices have to be made to achieve goals, but its also how you do them and whether the goals are for good or for ill. That's why the ending choices work, it fits the theme. Mass Effect is not about coming together, or friendship, or overcoming odds, or even organics vs. synthetics. While these themes are present, they are not the MAIN theme. That's what ending bashers either refuse to accept or don't get.

The ending is crap and the dream sequences are a missed opportunity. I can get by it, though. The rest of the game is great and I enjoyed the multiplayer.

I quite enjoyed the endings, especially with the Extended Cut and Leviathan DLC. I felt like they all had some way of making you feel vindicated and that not all of your work had gone down the drain. Then again, my favourite ending seems to be the least chosen if forums are to be used as a comparison, so what do I know? =P