Mass Effect 3

[Chaos he/him]

I finally finished Mass Effect 3, and luckily for me, I delayed so long that I got the Extended Cut endings. And I must say, I really liked the end.

I don't think the end was a Deus ex Machina. That would imply that it was not foreshadowed, and it was very clearly foreshadowed that 1. The Crucible can focus its energy in different ways, and Hackett isn't quite sure which one it will be, and 2. The existence of something controlling the Reaper. So both the Catalyst and the need to make a decision are all there.

Besides, the Crucible was worked on for many, many cycles. I can believe that it is very advanced--beyond what Shepard could possibly know, so it didn't feel space magicy to me at all.

Ny one quibble. I personally think that having the Catalyst--something that controls all the Reapers and sets the cycle into motion--manifest as a child was something of a mistake. I mean, I get why they did it, because of the continual dream sequences with the young boy. Still, I expect beings like that to be... more impressive, I guess. Like a Vorlon from Babylon 5, or something. The voice of a small child doesn't instill the importance of this all.

I still prefer the original ending that involved dark energy. I would've liked to see how Drew Karpyshyn wrote it.

Its especially bitter because the writers changed the ending from what was originally envisioned when they started the series. Remember all that talk about dark energy from the Mass Effect 2? That was foreshadowing about what the original reason for the reapers actions. For whatever reason after Karpyshin left the team the new head writers decided to change it. I'm not sure why. Being bitter about the whole thing I have unkind opinions about the why.

I haven't heard of this at all. Tell me about it?

Wait what? What original ending? What talk of dark energy? I'm not all up to speed on the internal workings of BioWare, so educate me.

It's been a while since I've played Mass Effect 2, but I didn't think there was much there that foreshadowed the true motive of the Reapers. I think the ending thematically fit with the series. The conflict with the quarians and the geth, which become an increasing forcus for everything. You'll also note that the Protheans dealt with this same conflict with synthetics. I felt it had a very nice theme, and was very thought-provoking.

[Lady_Yasha she/her]

I finally finished Mass Effect 3, and luckily for me, I delayed so long that I got the Extended Cut endings. And I must say, I really liked the end.

I don't think the end was a Deus ex Machina. That would imply that it was not foreshadowed, and it was very clearly foreshadowed that 1. The Crucible can focus its energy in different ways, and Hackett isn't quite sure which one it will be, and 2. The existence of something controlling the Reaper. So both the Catalyst and the need to make a decision are all there.

Besides, the Crucible was worked on for many, many cycles. I can believe that it is very advanced--beyond what Shepard could possibly know, so it didn't feel space magicy to me at all.

Ny one quibble. I personally think that having the Catalyst--something that controls all the Reapers and sets the cycle into motion--manifest as a child was something of a mistake. I mean, I get why they did it, because of the continual dream sequences with the young boy. Still, I expect beings like that to be... more impressive, I guess. Like a Vorlon from Babylon 5, or something. The voice of a small child doesn't instill the importance of this all.

Wait what? What original ending? What talk of dark energy? I'm not all up to speed on the internal workings of BioWare, so educate me.

It's been a while since I've played Mass Effect 2, but I didn't think there was much there that foreshadowed the true motive of the Reapers. I think the ending thematically fit with the series. The conflict with the quarians and the geth, which become an increasing forcus for everything. You'll also note that the Protheans dealt with this same conflict with synthetics. I felt it had a very nice theme, and was very thought-provoking.

During the course of Mass Effect 2 there was a lot of mention about dark energy by in-game characters, the profound interest of powerful corporations, and Haestrom's sun going totally wacky because of dark energy (Tali's recruit mission).

Originally it was planned that dark energy would play a central role in the development of the story. It gave the human-Reaper at the end of ME2 a reason other than the crappy explanation ME3 dished out.

You can read it here: http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/17086/mass-effect-writer-drew-karpyshyn-reveals-original-mass-effect-3-endings

Karpyshyn left the Mass Effect project to work on KotOR, so it was up to Mac Walters to write the ending and he threw in the deus ex machina (the Crucible) because [bioware] built the Reapers up to be so powerful that conventional war with them would seem futile. Humans needed an edge, and somehow Walters completely forgot about the dark energy crisis.

Even if the organic-synthetic conflict was the main focus of the games, it wasn't delivered very well in my opinion. The Reapers always spewing, "you cannot comprehend us", was both terrifying and mystical in the first game that when it was explained in ME3 I was disappointed: "huh? So I could actually understand their motive all along and the Reapers were just being dicks and trolling us."

When it was explained so simply, when the Starchild appeared and said he controlled the Reapers, the Reapers as an antagonist were diminished from their original role as malevolent super-race that no-one could defeat, to someone's pet dog he'd forgotten to put on the leash.

There was tons of theories floating around before the release of ME3 about the origins of the Reapers, and the best one that caught my eye and I still believe is canon (despite what ME3 tells us, because I refuse to believe the Starbrat actually happened):

The Reapers were built by a highly advanced organic race billions of years ago to solve a problem they had with another synthetic life-form. Because they were losing the war, the organics created a more powerful synthetic that they, arrogantly, thought they could control.

In analysing all the possibilities this new synthetic race, the Reapers, deemed the only way to allow other organic life to prosper and survive the destructive onslaught of advanced civilizations, was to wipe out the advanced organics. Ergo, primitive life could evolve and have a chance to survive.

That theory only made the Reapers appear even more sinister than ME1 made them; ME3 just turned them into the Pussycat Dolls.

Edited July 4, 2012 by Lyrebon

[Tazren he/him]

Yeah, the dark energy stuff would've been neat. That was one of the things I was really looking forward to seeing more of, after Haestrom in ME2.

[Arondell]

I have to admit I still feel a bit disappointed about the ending even after the Extended Cut. I got the feeling that we didn't so much defeat the reapers at the end as we were handed a victory. Hmm...Not sure if it quite catches the feeling.

To put it a different way. If you play a sports game and you know the only way you won was because the other side let you win does it still feel like a victory? Especially when its more or less spelled out that your being handed your "victory" on the other teams terms?

I've actually retreated to some of the fanfics out there as a consolation prize. Several of them I think are better writing then the actual Bioware team. (At least for Mass Effect 3)

Edit : I still think the Tali picture was inexcusable lazyness.

Edited July 22, 2012 by Arondell