Mass Effect 3 Ending Potentially Most Impressive in Gaming History

I, like many fans, was initially upset over the Mass Effect 3 ending. One of the major selling points of Mass Effect was how your decisions impact the game; that your choices will significantly impact the narrative. Players carried their Mass Effect save file across all three games, building alliances, saving races, and fostering relationships. With the controversial ending to Mass Effect 3, BioWare seemingly negated all of this effort in one fell swoop.

In the wake of outrage, several theories have begun to emerge that strongly refute the accusation that BioWare failed their audience. The following article eloquently articulates one such theory. If the following proves correct, then BioWare has far surpassed anything ever accomplished in video game storytelling before, transcending into the realm of what would be expected from David Lynch or Christopher Nolan.

[Wigriff]

Agree or disagree; the only thing that I ask is please read the article before commenting. Thanks. :)

[DeadlyFire]

Interesting theory.

I question a few things. That are not shown.

One being synthesis. Does it only effect humanity or every living organic?

Two being does Shepard waking up take place before or after going to the Citadel.

[badz149]

Sensational title to garner hits! If anybody ever thinking like this, they either haven't been playing many games if at all or just started gaming this gen or only have played certain shooters or just simply dumb!

An ending like ME3 where you have to make your own theories of why it happened so you would make your mind think that it's actually good is NEVER WAS GOOD TO BEGIN WITH!...let alone the most impressive in gaming history! Neither u nor Bioware is fooling anybody with any kind of excuses over the lazy path they've taken with the ending! Make any theory you want but please explain why none, I mean almost NOTHING of your decided action matters when it comes to the ending?

Some people played the 1st 2 games multiple times with different approaches and decisions, being promised all along that their decisions bare consequences to the progression of the trilogy only to be given a choice of red or blue in the end no matter what they've decided along the way! Try telling them in a straight face that the ending was even good!

Bioware dropped the ball and took the lazy path, PERIOD! The lazyness is clear when 90% of the 2 endings are copy and paste of each other just different color! They over promised but can't deliver till the end! They knew that gamers make many different choices throughout the whole trilogy thus the game needed several different endings! Instead of doing what they should've done when they promised, they took the easy way...lets destroy everything...end of story! That's a slap in the face for fans of the game! Replay value my ass! There's no point of playing through the whole story again, making different, choices because no matter what you do, the end is the same! The combat is not even THAT good either for a game trying to be a TPS!

For a huge company like Bioware and mega publisher EA, this is unacceptable to the highest degree. It's even more unacceptible when there's smaller dev house like QuanticDreams which truly delivers with game having different endings based on your actions in the game like Heavy Rain! You knew the culprit after the 1st time playing but doing things differently the next time gives you a different ending and you have every reason to play through it again and again for the many endings promised by the dev! That a true replay value right there! That's true dedication for the game and the fans but Bioware? Those guys are just plain lazy!

[M83_]

That's quite a bold statement to make considering EA is coming under fire for it. If you like it fine, perfect, but don't claim that it's one of the best when I doubt it very much.

[Hisiru]

So... it's not the best just because some fanboys are angry?

I can't say I am happy, because it doesn't have a happy end, but it's a beautiful and very well made ending.

[Tr10wn]

I bet they aren't even fans of the serie i know 4 people who started playing Mass Effect with me since launch and all 4 are happy with the ending, we sit and debate every night about it and in the end we like it alot, still we all come to the conclusion that this isn't over which is pretty obvious.

[PersonaCat]

What's sad is that this could be true, OR the ending is so bad that people are creating theories to help them get through the denial. People seem to like this theory though, so maybe Bioware should just say that this is what they were intending and maybe people will believe them.

[Braid]

Don't worry mate, you're not alone. I wholeheartedly agree. That's what I've been trying to say to my friends recently but they seem to ignore the fact that the whole game was as cinematic as it could get. Like it or not, this is a piece of art and you can not demand the creator of this art to change it the way you want. Imagine saying "You better change the resolution part of your book The Brothers Karamazov" to Dostoyevski. I really hope people could realise how ironically funny this whole "change the ending" campaign is. Their title, their art, their creative vision thus they actually owe 'nothing' to us.

[WolfLeBlack]

Just to point out that the petition created clearly states that they're not claiming that they're "entitled" to a changed ending nor that Bioware owe them anything.

[Braid]

Then what are they up to? Bioware won't change the ending at all, as there is nothing that needs to be changed. They sure can provide some additional explanations with a future DLC and fill the gaps, but some little nitpickings aside, no explanation that they offered to us gamers with the ending was unignorably unreasonable. They bonded the story elements quite well and answered the key questions, and ended it with a proper and definitive resolution. You may or may not like it and yes, they could have added more ending options but eventually that's what we get.

Moaning about it won't change anything now. DLCs will be about events happening before or after the ending, and it will not alter or change the ending in any way. Besides changing the ending with a DLC is not a classy move and people then will start crying about how Bioware cut the real ending and tried to rob us with a proper ending. It would be naive to think that the DLC could make it better for Bioware or gamers as it would only create more contraversy. You see, there's no going back now. There will always be discontent, and that's fine, but I'm rally having hard time understanding what this petition aims to achieve.

[WolfLeBlack]

Very enjoyable article that raises some interesting questions and poses its argument very well.

Whether it's true or not is, of course, the big question, and one that is tough to answer, and yet the clues are there to support it. In particuilar, Shepards eyes cought my attention the most and the way they changed seemed to be a massive indicator that something strange was going on.

Should this turn out to be true, then Bioware could have pulled of something rather amazing. Not something fans might actually be happy about, but amazing all the same.

[shammgod]

Lehigh beats Duke in the 1st round of the NCAA tournament!!!

[Noticeably_FAT]

An ending that creates this much controversy is never a bad thing. It kind of reminds me of the ending to that show Lost that was on a couple of years ago.

Some people loved the ending, some hated it, but everyone was talking about it.

[AusRogo]

I actually didnt mind it.

[Megaton]

Potentially. If the indoctrination theory is true and the real ending is sitting on deck, ready to patch in a month or two.

If we're to take it at face value, it's one of the worst in gaming history.

[Hicken]

I'm sorry, but I can't agree.

As someone who's not played the game, I can only base it on the fans' reactions. And, it seems, far too many fans are NOT impressed. For a game's final moments to garner the distaste that ME3 has, "impressive" is probably not the word I'd use.

[m23]

Play the game then.

[FutureTechnologies]

"Most Impressive in Gaming History" well I think the credits could go to Deux EX HR because ME3 ending was just a very poorly executed ripoff from DEUS EX HR's ending.

[Disccordia]

It was a rip off of Dues Ex not DEHR

[vlazed]

Rationalization is endemic to contemporary society.

[TheGOODKyle]

Indoctrination!

http://social.bioware.com/f...

[HISHAM_PWNS]

I took a similar stance that the writer took, but I only thought of the possible indoctrination after I beat it. I looked at all the solutions and seriously only destroy leaves you with a viable solution that can guarantee an end to the problem. This is why I went with destroy and afterwards I came across some threads about the ending involving indoctrination and if this was the point of the writers then this is simply one of the best endings of a game I have played.The fact that the child's speech was full of contradictions and what ifs only solidify as to why one should question what he says. In the end as Andrew Ryan from Bioshock once said, "a man chooses, a slave obeys". It is up to you to believe every word that god-child spits out or to consider it complete bullshit.

[SkolarVisari]

Oh this is ridiculous. It still doesn't erase the idiocy of the reason the Reapers even do anything at all. The Catalyst makes an argument for eradicating everything that exists since that would be far simpler than this plan they came up with. Furthermore indoctrinating Shepard by the end of the game only exposes the stupidity of the indoctrination plot device, especially if rapid indoctrination is possible. The reapers could just indoctrinate all of the military forces and then mop up the rest, Shepard and the entire crew could have had their brains fried before the end of the first game and save us all the trouble of this flaccid twist ending. If it's true its not impressive at all because it is rather predictable since they decided to include the dream sequence. They made it so blatantly obvious a possibility that it would be stupid to have it be the default ending we are currently stuck with.

Of course this theory collapses when you read that they did in fact have indoctrination planned as an ending but then decided to scrap it because of difficulties with getting the mechanics right. But it would still expose the indoctrination plot device as idiotic.

What might be brilliant would be leaving everything the same in the final sequence including the idiotic explanation for the Reapers' actions and being able to simply point out the stupidity of the logic used by the reapers and have the reapers go away. In the end it is not force that ends the threat but simply pointing out the contradictory logic employed by the enemy. Much like the day the Earth stood still remake where the alien is "beaten" not with violence, but with a simple debate that pointed out the flaws in the logic used by the aliens to justify the extermination of the human race.