So I finally finished the game. I ignored all posts about the ending so that my views wouldn't be altered and I have to say the ending really was over the top crap for me. It just ends so quickly and there's so many questions.
I watched all the videos like 10 reasons we hate the ending, the 35 minute explanation of why it sucks and the indoctrination theory and I have to say, they express my feelings exactly. The videos quote what the devs said and the final outcome contradicts everything they said. Like one of them said something about there not being ending A,B or C and guess what, we got that very choice.
The overall game was great but I think I liked 2 better. I felt like 2 had more variety in enemies, locations and the end battle felt more personal as it only involved you and your crew against insane odds. I was also expecting the end battle in 3 to flip between Shepherd and your friends. I'm thinking of MGS4 when the cutscenes showed the struggles of the other characters while Snake pressed on.
I wanted to see Jack and her students fighting and then one of them kills a Reaper and she's like HELL YEAH but then one of the students gets shot and dies. I wanted to see Wrex bashing Reapers and fighting alongside Rachni which I saved. I wanted my choices to reflect in the end battle, I didn't want a colour light show.
Green is my favourite colour so I guess that's what led me to choose Synthesis.
Just wondering if anyone else is enjoying the multiplayer aspect. I think it's one of the most solid features in the game. With the resurgence pack that was released, I got my hands on a Krogan Vanguard. I have to say I'm in love.
Just wondering if anyone else is enjoying the multiplayer aspect. I think it's one of the most solid features in the game. With the resurgence pack that was released, I got my hands on a Krogan Vanguard. I have to say I'm in love.
Yeah... the multiplayer is a lot of fun. I play it, and it really does allow you to try different powers and new tactics. It's a lot of fun to have a good team that works together to take down bigger and tougher enemies from the silver and gold tier. We should play sometime, if you have it on PC.
I know I'm way late to the party, but I just finished the game. Throw me into the group that just doesn't get the ending. Maybe I'm just stupid(very strong possibility) but there were just so many things that didn't add up, and yes, I have seen all the Indoctrination theory info. I don't know what to think really. Indoctrination theory or not that was one confusing series of events. Really wasn't what I was expecting, and didn't seem to fit, at all, with the pacing and mood of the entire rest of the game. Now I am extremely interested in this DLC.
Maybe it's the easy way out, but I just want someone to tell me what the hell happened. Despite all that, absolutely incredible game all around.
Well the DLC supposedly just adds some extra cutscenes that show what happens to the characters and planets. So we'll probably see Joker living his life on the Eden planet, most of the aliens stuck on Earth eating pizza with the humans and the Quarians heading for home without the relays.
And yeah the ending went too artistic for my liking.
I just don't get it. IF the Indoctrination theory is true, then from the moment the reaper beam hits near shepard, it's all fake. So if it's fake, how do the relays blow up? I chose destruction, and all I see is shepard taking a breath in a pile of rubble, which I assume to be the same spot he was after the reaper beam hit him, meaning he never made it to the citadel, and the choice of control, synthesis, or destroy was all in my head.
What I'm trying to say, is if the entire conclusion to the game was fake, what the hell really happened? Where is your squad in the real world? How did the Crucible get activated if you are presumably in the same spot you were when you got hit by the reaper beam?
I don't believe for a second that Joker would turn tail and run. Hell, he was supposed to be up in space fighting, but he must have had time to fly down to earth and pick up all your teammates if the crash landing scenario is going to make any amount of sense.
There's just too many loose ends, even for the Indoctrination theory to clean up. Sadly, I think Bioware just aimed too high with the ending, tried making it, like you said Habboi, too artistic. I'm actually more accepting of just a flat out poor ending, as opposed to a confusing as hell on purpose ending, ultimately leading to DLC, hence the ridiculous prompt after the credits roll.
aparently there is dialog recorded for the normandy being in the atmosphere and picking folks up. it was just cut for some reason.
personally i think the indoctrination idea is totally bullshit. It's just an overcomplicated patch people are applying to the plot holes. There are some aspects of the end that could have been indoctrination, but indoctrinating shepard would be totally pointless at the end. There is nothing shepard could do to help the reapers at this point other than die.
It would at least solve the mystery of how I managed to unsuit from my fully enclosed suit of power armour and somehow wind up in a regular uniform whilst unconcious.
It would at least solve the mystery of how I managed to unsuit from my fully enclosed suit of power armour and somehow wind up in a regular uniform whilst unconcious.
shepard wakes up in a partially melted suit of armor.
Yeah, it's a standard N7 armor with an entire arm completely ripped off and most of the other parts melted away. That's why it appears to be just a uniform in the dark lighting.
Gets even more confusing if your Shepard wasn't wearing N7 armor but something else like the Blood Dragon suit or the Cerberus assault armor or you've customized the colors to something radically different.
Makes you wonder how tough Shepard has to be to resist whatever force was capable of ruining that armor so completely.
I felt the same way about the Indoctrination theory. It does explain some things, but there's other huge plot points that aren't explained at all. My fear is that Bioware is going to come out and say that the IT was on purpose, but not because they designed it that way. I think the community just gave them a secret exit, and they'd be stupid not to take it. Why explain it when you could just take all the theories on Indoctrination the community has come up with and say, "Yep, that's what we meant. We're super smart."
I think the IT came about because many people, me included, saw the entirety of the game unfold so incredibly and it was so well done, that to believe that Bioware would drop the ball right at the most important part just can't be true.
It would at least solve the mystery of how I managed to unsuit from my fully enclosed suit of power armour and somehow wind up in a regular uniform whilst unconcious.
There are a ton of variations to armors in the game, no company is going to make an end-game damaged version of every version, hence the one overly burnt version so that it will be harder to identify it.
And again on the indoctrination ending, it's from the people who defend the ending but ironically want it to not be true.
There are a ton of variations to armors in the game, no company is going to make an end-game damaged version of every version, hence the one overly burnt version so that it will be harder to identify it.
I'd have been happy if they just slapped a load of noise in the texture and stuck with the animset (the obvious thing to do). It really threw me when it suddenly changed; it's not like I didn't immediately notice that my big, silver suit of armour has suddenly gone missing.
Well...she/he did technically survive atmosphere re-entry temps' and colliding with a planet at terminal velocity. I was hoping they would reveal Shepard to be just an image of what the original was y'know memory imprints and all that crap.
Should be interesting. I'd love to hear the ending song used in ME1. It'd be like a full circle and I'd actually increase my personal rating of the game for just that song XD
It came out on 360 first and Europe isn't getting it for another few hours. In my honest opinion you are better off watching the videos I linked above. It's not worth replaying over and over cause it autosaves.
It's not worth replaying over and over cause it autosaves.
When you get to the part when you have to make a choice, you can just exit to win (if you're playing on a PC), duplicate autosave and rename it to an normal save. Then just load that point and you won't have to play through the whole Citadel part.
I feel like all these endings have that generic "closure" feel I was afraid Bioware would do originally with ME3 (with the obvious exception of this refusal ending)
I kind of liked the ambiguity of the original endings. Even before I saw the Indoctrination theory vids, I always felt like the ending had a dream like feel after the blast from Harbinger.
One question I have. Has anyone found out if there is a difference when you have the highest possible galactic readiness?
My issue with ME3 is the fact that they had time to make a day one DLC, but they seem to hint in some of their statements after the hoopla over the endings, that they didn't have enough time to do exactly they wanted with the actual main game itself.
So, they rubbed me the wrong way in that sense, and that is why I never had to be upset because I never bothered to buy the third even though I bought the first two.
A game like this where their potential to monetize was almost limitless (a slight exaggeration), should have had at least 20 endings. And they should have never attempted to pre-render these endings they should have all been real time. The endings themselves should have even been interactive.
Same as before with the destroy ending, nothing extra added to that.
That's a bummer. I think that question of where Shepard is and what really happened is the most fascinating thing of all the endings and would continue having people talk about it for a very long time. Kind of a shame they couldn't execute that.
So how is this refusal ending any better then the other 3 endings?
IMO, it's one of the worst ones because you go through all 3 games fighting the reapers only to not do anything at the end and continue the cycle. For people that complained that the ending didn't represent all the previous decisions you made, this new ending pretty much says, "shut the hell up, everything you did was a waste of time, and your past decisions still don't matter so HA HA!"
::waiting for new list of complaints about ME3 ending::
One thing I've been pondering is why, in the refusal ending, is harbinger's voice emulated through the catalyst? Obv this might be a nod to indcotrination theory but the rest of it doesn't support that.
We know what, they should have just have the end scene be Shepard step into a white light and the screen fades to black, with then a voice over of one line.
Refusal Ending - Fade to Black; "So the Cycle shall continue?"
Bam, done, same with the other scenes. Let the people speculate as they see fit all they want at that point. Make everyone happy.
One thing I've been pondering is why, in the refusal ending, is harbinger's voice emulated through the catalyst? Obv this might be a nod to indcotrination theory but the rest of it doesn't support that.
Because shepard answers to no ultimatum, and he does not pick between three endings, he'll make his own or die trying.
It's more tragic than any of the endings before, but as the point needed to be made: People never wanted a happy ending, they wanted their choices to matter.
I am disapointed by this patch, I was trully expecting it to be a confirmation of the indoctrination theory, there are still so many plot holes in this new endings.
Meh, I'm happy. It was described what they would add - more talk and explanation with the catalyst and a few scenes after the Normandy crash land thing. They even fixed the annoying end of the song where the Normandy is escaping the blast. I'm not sure if there's things added that I missed, I started again at the Restart Mission point where you get sucked into the citadel. Seemed quite a large file size for it all, but it was fine.
The game was kinda ruined because I'd heard everyone complaining before I played it, but the problems I had was that you get to the catalyst and you basically had to choose without much description, it all ended abruptly, and didn't explain much about what happened regarding your choice. These were all fixed.
I still disliked the Stargazer scene, sorry Buzz. My sweet? I'm guessing the "one more story" bit means there's going to be more missions or maybe even another game in the ME universe.
I liked the original ending but that was when I believed in the whole Indoctrination Theory. There was a full length movie where a guy talked about the last 20 minutes of ME3 and why this theory made sense to me and I was mind blown. The new endings are awesome and all have something to feel good about (unless you refuse action at all - seriously that "SO BE IT" freaked me the fuck out) but I enjoyed the ending more believing this theory. So at the end I jumped into the beam and though it had creepy green glowing eyes of everyone being merged into a new DNA, I felt somewhat proud to help everyone reach the next step of evolution. Still not sure if I regret doing that instead of choosing the Destroy ending though, but even the Control the reapers ending didn't seem like the obvious evil answer anymore.
I recommend anyone who has gotten this far in the game to watch all the extended endings. Just don't shoot the star child.
We know what, they should have just have the end scene be Shepard step into a white light and the screen fades to black, with then a voice over of one line.
Refusal Ending - Fade to Black; "So the Cycle shall continue?"
Bam, done, same with the other scenes. Let the people speculate as they see fit all they want at that point. Make everyone happy.
hahaha. That would have made them even angrier. It is impossible to satisfy gamers nowadays. I like the previous endings better because they didn't explain every single thing to me.
On the other hand. I am happy that the worst company in the US put the time, money and effort to listen to the fans and try to please them.
I'm not sure if this was in the original ending but when Sheppard asks the catalyst about who the makers were, it said that there wasn't enough time to explain at that moment. Has Bioware confirmed any more games in the mass effect universe? If so, perhaps we'll find out more about the reapers' origin and what not in future games.
havent played thru the ending yet, is there anything worth playing for? as in new material.. or is the download just a few videos i can watch on youtube. (wish i didnt have to raise my fecking galaxy rating again )
I would say watch the videos. there is not much extra content during the playthrough. Look for the extended endings and also there is a video on what other cutscenes where added.
havent played thru the ending yet, is there anything worth playing for? as in new material.. or is the download just a few videos i can watch on youtube. (wish i didnt have to raise my fecking galaxy rating again )
There are a lot of little changes that lead up to the Catalyst not shown in the popular Youtube videos. Hackett acknowledges to a colleague that someone made it up to the Citadel (it wasn't just in Shepard's mind). More space footage, more Keepers in the Citadel room with the human remains (and they get hurt if you shoot them this time), a Keeper holds a helmet... Garrus or whomever telling Joker before the Crucible shoots that they have to get out of there.
One thing I thought was odd was that they changed the people Shepard reflects on as she/he dies. Previously it was Anderson, Joker, Liara for me. Now it's Anderson, Thane (whom I barely even used in my games) and Garrus (squee<3).
Also after the Crucible fires, Joker was in warp drive and wasn't scared about the ring catching up to him before the Normandy crashed onto the jungle planet. He's just herpderping like it's every day work. I'm not sure why they changed this, watching Joker fight to keep everyone alive in the previous cutscene I thought was very heartwrenching.
And everyone leaves the jungle planet fine.
Most of these don't happen though if you go for the new FUUUUU ending. Honestly, the new ending is what I expected all along when Liara presented the gadget to Shepard that recited all of the cycle's known history and warning about the Reapers.
I finished the game later than most people (cause I wanted to import MY Shepard, dammit, remember the launch day bug?) but I assumed this is why so many people hated the ending. Everything old would die to make room for the new, Shepard becomes a Reaper, Liara's machine goes off. Someone owes me five bucks for that one.
The more I think about it, the more it seems like Bioware missed an opportunity to do something great. It's nice for the people who just wanted some explanations as to what exactly happened in the ending scenes, but I think an open ended ending would have been nice too. Not only that but it be a fantastic epitaph for the theme of choice.
That individual player can decide what they think happened to their own Shepard. Bioware can't please everyone with a few sequences, but a choice that allows for a player's own interpretation would have been a step in the right direction in a lot of ways.
Replies
I watched all the videos like 10 reasons we hate the ending, the 35 minute explanation of why it sucks and the indoctrination theory and I have to say, they express my feelings exactly. The videos quote what the devs said and the final outcome contradicts everything they said. Like one of them said something about there not being ending A,B or C and guess what, we got that very choice.
The overall game was great but I think I liked 2 better. I felt like 2 had more variety in enemies, locations and the end battle felt more personal as it only involved you and your crew against insane odds. I was also expecting the end battle in 3 to flip between Shepherd and your friends. I'm thinking of MGS4 when the cutscenes showed the struggles of the other characters while Snake pressed on.
I wanted to see Jack and her students fighting and then one of them kills a Reaper and she's like HELL YEAH but then one of the students gets shot and dies. I wanted to see Wrex bashing Reapers and fighting alongside Rachni which I saved. I wanted my choices to reflect in the end battle, I didn't want a colour light show.
Green is my favourite colour so I guess that's what led me to choose Synthesis.
Yeah... the multiplayer is a lot of fun. I play it, and it really does allow you to try different powers and new tactics. It's a lot of fun to have a good team that works together to take down bigger and tougher enemies from the silver and gold tier. We should play sometime, if you have it on PC.
Maybe it's the easy way out, but I just want someone to tell me what the hell happened. Despite all that, absolutely incredible game all around.
And yeah the ending went too artistic for my liking.
SPOILERS:
I just don't get it. IF the Indoctrination theory is true, then from the moment the reaper beam hits near shepard, it's all fake. So if it's fake, how do the relays blow up? I chose destruction, and all I see is shepard taking a breath in a pile of rubble, which I assume to be the same spot he was after the reaper beam hit him, meaning he never made it to the citadel, and the choice of control, synthesis, or destroy was all in my head.
What I'm trying to say, is if the entire conclusion to the game was fake, what the hell really happened? Where is your squad in the real world? How did the Crucible get activated if you are presumably in the same spot you were when you got hit by the reaper beam?
I don't believe for a second that Joker would turn tail and run. Hell, he was supposed to be up in space fighting, but he must have had time to fly down to earth and pick up all your teammates if the crash landing scenario is going to make any amount of sense.
There's just too many loose ends, even for the Indoctrination theory to clean up. Sadly, I think Bioware just aimed too high with the ending, tried making it, like you said Habboi, too artistic. I'm actually more accepting of just a flat out poor ending, as opposed to a confusing as hell on purpose ending, ultimately leading to DLC, hence the ridiculous prompt after the credits roll.
personally i think the indoctrination idea is totally bullshit. It's just an overcomplicated patch people are applying to the plot holes. There are some aspects of the end that could have been indoctrination, but indoctrinating shepard would be totally pointless at the end. There is nothing shepard could do to help the reapers at this point other than die.
shepard wakes up in a partially melted suit of armor.
Gets even more confusing if your Shepard wasn't wearing N7 armor but something else like the Blood Dragon suit or the Cerberus assault armor or you've customized the colors to something radically different.
Makes you wonder how tough Shepard has to be to resist whatever force was capable of ruining that armor so completely.
I think the IT came about because many people, me included, saw the entirety of the game unfold so incredibly and it was so well done, that to believe that Bioware would drop the ball right at the most important part just can't be true.
There are a ton of variations to armors in the game, no company is going to make an end-game damaged version of every version, hence the one overly burnt version so that it will be harder to identify it.
And again on the indoctrination ending, it's from the people who defend the ending but ironically want it to not be true.
I'd have been happy if they just slapped a load of noise in the texture and stuck with the animset (the obvious thing to do). It really threw me when it suddenly changed; it's not like I didn't immediately notice that my big, silver suit of armour has suddenly gone missing.
the same force that was shooting down alliance dreadnoughts
they should have plated them with n7 armor
dont forget that nasty limp!
I was under the impression she was recovered from space, brain dead.
New ending DLC coming out next week.
[ame="
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/escapist-comics/9758-Blue-Rose-of-Illium
Check his channel for the rest. He's missing the refuse one.
[ame="
Much, much better.
When you get to the part when you have to make a choice, you can just exit to win (if you're playing on a PC), duplicate autosave and rename it to an normal save. Then just load that point and you won't have to play through the whole Citadel part.
I lol'd.
I feel like all these endings have that generic "closure" feel I was afraid Bioware would do originally with ME3 (with the obvious exception of this refusal ending)
I kind of liked the ambiguity of the original endings. Even before I saw the Indoctrination theory vids, I always felt like the ending had a dream like feel after the blast from Harbinger.
One question I have. Has anyone found out if there is a difference when you have the highest possible galactic readiness?
Same as before with the destroy ending, nothing extra added to that.
So, they rubbed me the wrong way in that sense, and that is why I never had to be upset because I never bothered to buy the third even though I bought the first two.
A game like this where their potential to monetize was almost limitless (a slight exaggeration), should have had at least 20 endings. And they should have never attempted to pre-render these endings they should have all been real time. The endings themselves should have even been interactive.
That's a bummer. I think that question of where Shepard is and what really happened is the most fascinating thing of all the endings and would continue having people talk about it for a very long time. Kind of a shame they couldn't execute that.
IMO, it's one of the worst ones because you go through all 3 games fighting the reapers only to not do anything at the end and continue the cycle. For people that complained that the ending didn't represent all the previous decisions you made, this new ending pretty much says, "shut the hell up, everything you did was a waste of time, and your past decisions still don't matter so HA HA!"
::waiting for new list of complaints about ME3 ending::
The theoretical indoctrination ending is the one I choose to accept. It's the most nuanced, and leaves the fate of Shepard up to my imagination.
Refusal Ending - Fade to Black; "So the Cycle shall continue?"
Bam, done, same with the other scenes. Let the people speculate as they see fit all they want at that point. Make everyone happy.
Because shepard answers to no ultimatum, and he does not pick between three endings, he'll make his own or die trying.
It's more tragic than any of the endings before, but as the point needed to be made: People never wanted a happy ending, they wanted their choices to matter.
The game was kinda ruined because I'd heard everyone complaining before I played it, but the problems I had was that you get to the catalyst and you basically had to choose without much description, it all ended abruptly, and didn't explain much about what happened regarding your choice. These were all fixed.
I still disliked the Stargazer scene, sorry Buzz. My sweet? I'm guessing the "one more story" bit means there's going to be more missions or maybe even another game in the ME universe.
I recommend anyone who has gotten this far in the game to watch all the extended endings. Just don't shoot the star child.
hahaha. That would have made them even angrier. It is impossible to satisfy gamers nowadays. I like the previous endings better because they didn't explain every single thing to me.
On the other hand. I am happy that the worst company in the US put the time, money and effort to listen to the fans and try to please them.
There are a lot of little changes that lead up to the Catalyst not shown in the popular Youtube videos. Hackett acknowledges to a colleague that someone made it up to the Citadel (it wasn't just in Shepard's mind). More space footage, more Keepers in the Citadel room with the human remains (and they get hurt if you shoot them this time), a Keeper holds a helmet... Garrus or whomever telling Joker before the Crucible shoots that they have to get out of there.
One thing I thought was odd was that they changed the people Shepard reflects on as she/he dies. Previously it was Anderson, Joker, Liara for me. Now it's Anderson, Thane (whom I barely even used in my games) and Garrus (squee<3).
Also after the Crucible fires, Joker was in warp drive and wasn't scared about the ring catching up to him before the Normandy crashed onto the jungle planet. He's just herpderping like it's every day work. I'm not sure why they changed this, watching Joker fight to keep everyone alive in the previous cutscene I thought was very heartwrenching.
And everyone leaves the jungle planet fine.
Most of these don't happen though if you go for the new FUUUUU ending. Honestly, the new ending is what I expected all along when Liara presented the gadget to Shepard that recited all of the cycle's known history and warning about the Reapers.
I finished the game later than most people (cause I wanted to import MY Shepard, dammit, remember the launch day bug?) but I assumed this is why so many people hated the ending. Everything old would die to make room for the new, Shepard becomes a Reaper, Liara's machine goes off. Someone owes me five bucks for that one.
That individual player can decide what they think happened to their own Shepard. Bioware can't please everyone with a few sequences, but a choice that allows for a player's own interpretation would have been a step in the right direction in a lot of ways.