Why I Still Hate Mass Effect 3's Ending

[Winter]

Even after all these years I still HATE this ending and, for me, it still holds the place for Worse ending I've ever seen to a series. There are very few bad endings that hit me as hard as this one and ever since ME3 I've always been worried if a series would let me down as badly as Mass Effect did.

While I still love this series as I per-ordered the Remastered Edition of the Trilogy last month and am looking forward to ME4 the ending still taints my enjoyment of the series as a whole. I can't watch the scenes with Saren and get angry when he says "I am a vision of the Future, Organic and Synthetic combined" because that ties into one of the endings of ME3 where the "Best" Ending (at least according to the framing of ME3) is Synthesis where you change everyone in the galaxy into what the Reapers want us all to be. I grit my teeth every time someone talks about how the Reapers can be controlled and see the game call them insane only for the Control ending to go "These people have got it right, let's do just that and ignore that this is one of the few points that Paragon and Renegade agree is a BAD Idea". And making peace between the Geth and Quarians, getting to know EDI and seeing her and Joker's relationship develop is all rendered meaningless when Destroy ending kills the Geth and EDI and thus proving that you agree with the Reapers that there can be no peace between Organics and Synthetics unless you Force Synthesis on everyone.

And then we have Refusal, gather the whole galaxy together and unite against the Reapers and refuse to take any offer and it all means NOTHING!!! All your hard work is thrown away because BioWare wants you to pick one of the three endings they made and how DARE you refuse Their vision. After all, it's not like the series itself has made a point that your choices matter, no! You're just here to bare witness to BioWare's story and you get the great privilege of witnessing their story.

And just to rub salt on the wound after you refuse you get a cutscene of Liara telling you that you made a mistake in not picking one of original three endings and that tells the next cycle to, quote, "avoid our mistakes".

GOD I HATE THIS ENDING!!!

And that makes this worse is that ME3 had TWO campaigns in the story that did what BioWare had promised and gave you several different endings for Tuchanka and Rannoch which all alter greatly depending on the choices you made throughout the Trilogy. Even the Citadel DLC which, I will remind/spoil you opens with Shepard fighting their evil clone and is a borderline comedy in an otherwise serious dramatic tragedy series did more with your choices throughout the Trilogy JUST by allowing us to spend time with our squad and crew mates.

And about 2 years after ME3 we got the Witcher 3 which gave us a game with THOUSANDS of endings for various side quests ALONG WITH 3 VERY different endings for the game's main story. Without going into spoilers here you can get a happy ending, a bitter sweet ending or a downer ending and all three are shaped by YOU!!! CD Projekt Red creates a situation where your given 3 VERY different outcomes and created a situation where you are the one shaping this story.

And a year after ME3 we got Dragon Age: Inquisition which had a story that was shaped by the player and while the original ending was just a simple boss fight the game would delver a TRULY great DLC in Trespasser that was the True ending of DAI where your choices throughout the game are put on full display.

Going into vague spoilers here the final conversation with DAI's main antagonist is the conversation done with the Catalyst in ME3 done RIGHT. Your given a full explanation and depending on your relationship with Solas this conversation with be different for each player. You even get a possible option to basically straight up insult this character and it's funny as hell.

I said in another post that ME3's ending ultimately hurt the series and the reason I said that is, well, LOOK at the series Right now. Because of ME3's ending BioWare moved the franchise to another galaxy in the hopes of never addressing it again and that resulted in ME3 which had to try and basically reboot the whole franchise but without all the lore that was built into Mass Effect from the start. Mass Effect Andromeda wasn't handed a blank canvas but rather were handed the Mona Lisa which had 3 buckets of paint thrown on it and had been cut up and were told not work AROUND that and hoped no one noticed.

Mass Effect 4 has a hard up hill battle as it has to create a follow up to the ME3, MEA AND try and prove that the series can recreate what made fans fall in love with it in the first place and all I can think of is, if BioWare had just given us a better ending we wouldn't BE in this situation to begin with.

I hope that BioWare can pull this off, I really do, because I want to go back to this galaxy at some point and just be able to move past an ending that hurt my enjoyment of the series. More power to anyone who enjoys the ending of ME3 but I still have issues enjoying the Trilogy without thinking about the ending.

[CharlesPhipps]

Its funny but the real hum dinger of it is that EA stood by its artist's artistic vision. They could have scored massive points by changing it and giving a happy ending.

They didn't.

[Philistine]

I'm pretty sure that's because the gaming industry press almost universally spun the story as "How dare these entitled gamers demand that the ending to a game's story make sense and be dramatically satisfying? The nerve! The outrage! The gall! These peons need to learn to take what they get and be happy with it!"

What makes it doubly funny is that the Three Colors of Destiny ending wasn't even the artist's original vision. That was discarded after a draft of the ME3 script was leaked, for "spoilers" - because confirmation that BioWare was indeed following through with the obvious Chekov's Gun that had been set up and left unresolved was perceived as somehow reducing player enjoyment and investment in the game.

[Winter]

I'm pretty sure that's because the gaming industry press almost universally spun the story as "How dare these entitled gamers demand that the ending to a game's story make sense and be dramatically satisfying? The nerve! The outrage! The gall! These peons need to learn to take what they get and be happy with it!"

What makes it doubly funny is that the Three Colors of Destiny ending wasn't even the artist's original vision. That was discarded after a draft of the ME3 script was leaked, for "spoilers" - because confirmation that BioWare was indeed following through with the obvious Chekov's Gun that had been set up and left unresolved was perceived as somehow reducing player enjoyment and investment in the game.

The problem with the original ending that BioWare had intended was that it STILL removed player choice over the course of the Trilogy and reduced it to pick one of three options that are disconnected from everything else in the series. So really the version of the ending we got was only surface level changes as be it dark matter buildup killing organics to protect organics from synthetics it still came down to the same point: Your choices don't matter in the end and we, BioWare, want to end the series on a bittersweet note and F anyone and everyone who wants something else.

Which leads me to point two.

Its funny but the real hum dinger of it is that EA stood by its artist's artistic vision. They could have scored massive points by changing it and giving a happy ending.

They didn't.

It not that we didn't get a happy ending it's that we didn't get any say in the ending at all. Let's look at W3 and DAI.

With W3 you shape the ending and it boils down happy, could be worse and well that could have gone better. While there is an argument that the first two can count as bittersweet the tone and the nature of the epilogue gives the players what they want.

DAI is largely bittersweet BUT the ending is still shaped by your choice. Who is with you, what is your relationship with the antagonist, and what is the fate of your organization is left up to you. You can even have someone betray you depending on your choices.

ME3 doesn't allow for any other choice then do what the VILLAINS thought were right in a moment that ends how BioWare and EA wanted, player choices be dammed. After Rannoch, aside from the Citadel DLC and Miranda's fate your choices do not matter and you are now on rails and what's worse you're not even strapped into those rails properly.

The game even flat out tells you that your choices and keeps beating that point into the ground because making it so our choices would shape the ending would mean BioWare wouldn't get the ending they wanted.

And I had to role my eyes at the articles criticizing fans for not enjoying ME3's ending which only made it worse. I honestly don't begrudge anyone who likes or even loves said endings but clearly that feeling wasn't mutual because of how hostel most news sites were. Mind you recent years many of those same sites have turned around and have now taken fans side or at the very least understand why the ending is so divisive. Even BioWare several people at BioWare have openly critiqued the ending and have admitted that they had made a mistake. Time will tell if ME4 manages to turn this around and I do hope that BioWare manages to make something out of this ending.

[CharlesPhipps]

It doesn't matter, happy or otherwise, the fact is they have made no attempt to change the endings that have been ridiculous unpopular.

It's rare a corporation would do that.

[Kinky Vorlon]

To change the ending would mean the entire team would have to go back to development stage. And they couldn't just change the ending, it would create ripples to other parts of the game. They would have to redo the game. No corporation is going to do that. That they did the lipstick on the pig with the "extended" ending was impressive in of itself. I don't blame EA for not wanting to redo an entire game based on fan reaction when the game was still selling well. It makes no sense unless you're an entitled fanboy who's still upset you got a shitty ending. Yeah, the ending's not great. But it's been almost ten years. It's well past time to move on.

[CharlesPhipps]

To change the ending would mean the entire team would have to go back to development stage. And they couldn't just change the ending, it would create ripples to other parts of the game. They would have to redo the game. No corporation is going to do that. That they did the lipstick on the pig with the "extended" ending was impressive in of itself. I don't blame EA for not wanting to redo an entire game based on fan reaction when the game was still selling well. It makes no sense unless you're an entitled fanboy who's still upset you got a shitty ending. Yeah, the ending's not great. But it's been almost ten years. It's well past time to move on.

I'd argue that all they had to do would be add "Refuse" and it NOT end in total genocide.