[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Nerraw]

Actually, in hindsight, it is surprising that the endings caused so big of an outcry. And not surprising at all to see it unexpected for Bioware.

I mean ME1 and ME2 were pretty well received and look at the endings.

In ME1, none of your choices matter and you only get 2 different endings with very slightly different cinematics which you decide at the very end. Save the council or let them die.

In ME2, it's the same, 2 endings, destroy the base or irradiate it, same cinematics, none of your choices really matter.

ME3 had 3 endings, so more than previous games, the divercity was pretty much on par with the previous games. Only thing different is that you can no longer export the save for ME4 because it is the end of the series.

I honestly couldn't agree more. Sure, the ending may have had a few weak points, but nothing unprecedented in either the series or gaming in general. Plus it makes it easier for Bioware to make future games in the series. With wildly different endings it would be nigh impossible for them to continue the universe in a way that would make sense for every combination available.

[Deleted]

I honestly couldn't agree more. Sure, the ending may have had a few weak points, but nothing unprecedented in either the series or gaming in general. Plus it makes it easier for Bioware to make future games in the series. With wildly different endings it would be nigh impossible for them to continue the universe in a way that would make sense for every combination available.

No matter, they already built themselves to a corner when we decided on ME3 which race lives or dies. My galaxy is completely different from some else's galaxys.

[OlSom]

From the Codex ingame (don´t read if you want no spoilers)

The Fall of Earth
-snip-

Thanks, that explains it.

Completely unrelated, would be interesting to see a Stardestroyer in the ME universe, helping humans against the reapers.

[Nerraw]

And people are still fu-... freaking complaining about getting this stuff for FREE.

[OrcsRLame]

Interesting, so Jessica Merizan either confirmed that the fleets aren't trapped in Sol in any ending, or she didn't understand what the question was implying about lack of dextro-amino food for Turians and Quarians.

[Clockwork Pinkie]

And people are still fu-... freaking complaining about getting this stuff for FREE.

Just because it's free, does not mean we have to praise it. It is something they could of just released on YouTube, plus it's not needed. I'm sure they'd rather spend their time creating actual DLC.

[Shinzai]

ME1 does answer to our choices in the game, what happens if we save the Council or not, based to our Paragon or Renegade reputation and whom he choose as Councilor.

ME2 it's more the mid step of the story, it left it open because we knew the Reapers were coming.

ME3, where all ends and we do galactic importance changes, we are left short. For example (based on the on-game choices), what effects will have Genophage-cured Krogan on the Relay-less galaxy? How will Geth deal with the death of their creators and "upgrade"? How will the Asari deal with the fact that their civilization is built upon a Prothean Beacon?

These are just examples, not counting the present-crewmates and former-crewmates of the Normandy. Being ME3 the ending, than we expect to know where our journey lead to. But this is just me.

Heck, Bioware did the epilogues with Dragon Age: Origins, with less choices in game.

The difference is: Mass Effect 1's ending brought closure to that part of the story, you knew what had happened and why. You defeated the main antagonist of that entire game.

Mass Effect 2 set up a *LOT* of choices that would ripple and be concluded in the future and it's not so much an ending as a gateway to what will follow.

Mass Effect 3 is the end of Commander Shepard's (and as far as we can tell, most of his crew's) story and potentially life. We expected closure, a final scene that would bring everything that so far occured to a satisfactory end. Instead we get more questions than answers, some out right stupid nonsense that should never have taken place in such a well written series, a practical loss of freedom and control for the last 20 minutes of the game and some utter nonsense exposition. The starchild basically relegates all that had happened previously to a worthless joke.

It's not about entitlement or wanting a 'happy' ending. It's the simple desire to see a great trilogy end as well as it has been told during the previous ~90~ hours worth of interaction.

[Vyce223]

Just because it's free, does not mean we have to praise it. It is something they could of just released on YouTube, plus it's not needed. I'm sure they'd rather spend their time creating actual DLC.

That is true you don't have to praise it. However you are right they would rather spend there time creating DLC that would make them money. However they decided to do what a vast majority of the community wanted AND made it free.

[Notos]

***SPOILERS*** IF YOU HAVENT FINISHED THE GAME YET


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck


This theory seems very plausible imo. After all when you do choose destruction you notice sheppard waking up. And the rubble arround him looks more like earth than the citadel.

Everything gets weird after you get shot by harbinger.
1. Your pistol has infinite ammo.
2. After you get shot by harbinger and stand up you can see trees and bushes that you couldnt see before. EXACTLY the same as those in your dreams chasing the kid.
3. Captain anderson did not notice the kid at the start of the game. And he suddenly vanishes. Indoctrination illusion ?
4. When the kid goes on board of the ship. Nobody pays attention to him. Nobody tries to help him get up on the shuttle.
5. When you face captain anderson and the illusive man. You should notice blurry dark shadows surrounding the enviroment.
6. Also you should notice that they both never talk to eachother. BUt ONLY TO YOU. Captain anderson litterly looks at you when he says. "LISTEN TO YOURSELF YOU ARE INDOCTRINATED".
7. Every renegade option seems to be what i would call a paragon option and every paragond option seems to be a renegade option. Why add renegade options in the game at this point in the first place ? Its all a trap preventing you from doing the right thing.
8. After captain anderson dies. You notice that infact you are bleeding where captain anderson got shot.
9. If you choose to destroy the reapers. You have rejected the indoctrination. You see a video of sheppard laying in rubble(Looks like the place where you got shot by harbinger) and catching breath.

Those are some of the main points of this video. If this is true bioware is pure genius. If they planned all this from the start they could add a new part after sheppard wakes up and continue the game towards the ACTUAL ending.

Jesus christ this again.

1. You also get infinite ammo when you take out Dr. Eva on Mars. And your pistol appears even if you didn't have one. Whoa, spooky. It might just be that BW is taking liberties with game mechanics for the sake of their storytelling.
2. He is close to death at that point, and the forest in his dreams is the place where his dead friends rest.
3. He went through the door, kid peeks out to see what's going on, talks to Shep, then crawls off.
4. He could be a vision, or maybe everyone was just busy.
5. That was part of the effect that indicated TIM was controlling you.
6. Anderson looks at you and not TIM because he can't move his body.
7. Paragon options never involve shooting anyone, so no, the options are renegade options. You add them because they're...options...and this is a pivotal point in the game. If anything, they didn't have enough of them.
8. Or he could be bleeding from his own injuries.
9. You can't just reject indoctrination; once you're indoctrinated it's a permanent, terminal condition. There can be no later level or even a happy ending. The best Saren, Benezia, and TIM could do against it was to die, and you expect Shepard to just snap out of it?

If Bioware were to write a not-so-obvious part of the story, they would still have to follow the in-universe rules, and this includes the indoctrination process. Now, look at the time Shepard may have been vulnerable to indoctrination. He spent two days unconscious close to Object Rho, and he spent a bit of time around the Reapers themselves. If you combine the time he spent with Sovereign, Harbinger, and inside the Derelict Reaper, they all add up to maybe 24 hours of exposure. Now add the time around Object Rho and you have around 3 days total exposure. Now, what does the codex say about indoctrination? Oh yeah, it takes a long time to pull it off. If you try to do it in days, the subject's mind is destroyed. Seeing how Shepard acts completely normal for the entirety of the game, I think it's safe to say that his mind is fine, except for all the stress you might expect from the potential extinction of everything.

Now let's pretend Shepard is actually indoctrinated at the end and look at what that would mean about the endings. Basically, it means the Reapers win. I would prefer the endings we have now by far, compared to BW telling me "it doesn't matter, the Reapers won." Even if Shepard survives and realizes that it was just a dream, the best he can do is shoot himself. Also, people would have major, major issues if only one ending allowed you to play past that point in the game. It basically means that you have to pick red to keep playing the game, which takes all the "choice" out of the ending. All this says to me is that it's not something Bioware would do, not by a longshot.

tldr: the theory relies on baseless assumptions and is contrary to the mechanics of indoctrination as explained in the game

[Egga]

Still love the final part of ME2 where you see the Reaper armada.

i was ecstatic, almost felt as good as when i saw the Human, Quarian, Turian, Asari, Geth fleets coming through the Sol Relay, when i saw that scene my heart was pumping so hard:>

[Oerba Yun Fang]

Actually, in hindsight, it is surprising that the endings caused so big of an outcry. And not surprising at all to see it unexpected for Bioware.

I mean ME1 and ME2 were pretty well received and look at the endings.

In ME1, none of your choices matter and you only get 2 different endings with very slightly different cinematics which you decide at the very end. Save the council or let them die.

In ME2, it's the same, 2 endings, destroy the base or irradiate it, same cinematics, none of your choices really matter.

ME3 had 3 endings, so more than previous games, the divercity was pretty much on par with the previous games. Only thing different is that you can no longer export the save for ME4 because it is the end of the series.

ME1 and ME2 were not the final game of the trilogy. ME1 and ME2 didn't turn the plot on its head in the last 15 minutes of the game. It (ME3) introduced the god child and suddenly presented you with two extra options for the antagonists of the series that have either never been mentioned before or were continuously argued against the entire game (synthesis and control, respectively). Doing that at the end of the story does not work. Sure, you were presented with the salvaging of the Collector base at the end of ME2, but that's an option that actually has some merit to it. The synthesis option just came out of nowhere. It was a "Ohai by the way you can do this if you like. I'm not going to explain how it'll happen, why it should happen, or how it will affect anyone, but you should try it anyway!"

[Teasy]

Jesus christ this again.

1. You also get infinite ammo when you take out Dr. Eva on Mars. And your pistol appears even if you didn't have one. Whoa, spooky. It might just be that BW is taking liberties with game mechanics for the sake of their storytelling.
2. He is close to death at that point, and the forest in his dreams is the place where his dead friends rest.
3. He went through the door, kid peeks out to see what's going on, talks to Shep, then crawls off.
4. He could be a vision, or maybe everyone was just busy.
5. That was part of the effect that indicated TIM was controlling you.
6. Anderson looks at you and not TIM because he can't move his body.
7. Paragon options never involve shooting anyone, so no, the options are renegade options. You add them because they're...options...and this is a pivotal point in the game. If anything, they didn't have enough of them.
8. Or he could be bleeding from his own injuries.
9. You can't just reject indoctrination; once you're indoctrinated it's a permanent, terminal condition. There can be no later level or even a happy ending. The best Saren, Benezia, and TIM could do against it was to die, and you expect Shepard to just snap out of it?

If Bioware were to write a not-so-obvious part of the story, they would still have to follow the in-universe rules, and this includes the indoctrination process. Now, look at the time Shepard may have been vulnerable to indoctrination. He spent two days unconscious close to Object Rho, and he spent a bit of time around the Reapers themselves. If you combine the time he spent with Sovereign, Harbinger, and inside the Derelict Reaper, they all add up to maybe 24 hours of exposure. Now add the time around Object Rho and you have around 3 days total exposure. Now, what does the codex say about indoctrination? Oh yeah, it takes a long time to pull it off. If you try to do it in days, the subject's mind is destroyed. Seeing how Shepard acts completely normal for the entirety of the game, I think it's safe to say that his mind is fine, except for all the stress you might expect from the potential extinction of everything.

Now let's pretend Shepard is actually indoctrinated at the end and look at what that would mean about the endings. Basically, it means the Reapers win. I would prefer the endings we have now by far, compared to BW telling me "it doesn't matter, the Reapers won." Even if Shepard survives and realizes that it was just a dream, the best he can do is shoot himself. Also, people would have major, major issues if only one ending allowed you to play past that point in the game. It basically means that you have to pick red to keep playing the game, which takes all the "choice" out of the ending. All this says to me is that it's not something Bioware would do, not by a longshot.

tldr: the theory relies on baseless assumptions and is contrary to the mechanics of indoctrination as explained in the game

So you've finally met, the hoping guy and the crushing hopes guy!
I mean... it's a theory, with the data we currently have, we can only assume, nothing else.
And I suppose it's not contrary to the whole indoctrination mechanics, there are parts of the game when it's not entirely clear what's going on, well, especially the part where Shep is supposed to wake up in that pile of rubble, presuming, on earth. The question is actually one:
WHY they added that? I understand that controling the reapers = you die. Synthesis = you die of space magic, but... why don't you just die while you destroy them? Why this scene is there?
I would be sceptical about that theory, if it wasn't for that cutscene, it kinda makes me think.

Also:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17626125
Summer. WHY U SO FAR AWAY?!

[Deleted]

i was ecstatic, almost felt as good as when i saw the Human, Quarian, Turian, Krogan, Geth fleets coming through the Sol Relay, when i saw that scene my heart was pumping so hard:>

Krogan have no fleets, you dont get to see geth/terminus/batarian fleets, and only asari, alliance and turian ships are fighting.
I really hope they touch up the space battle cinematic.

[Collegeguy]

I am actually very happy with what they have announced. Although I would have wanted more like an expansion and to pay for the content because they deserve my money, I am happy with full closure and extended cut of what happens.


As far as I am concerned, that is precisely a new ending.

Bioware doesn't admit that, but it is a new ending because the unknown and completely vague will be answered and only the ending will be changed. The ending philosophy before was speculation for everyone, and this changes that completely. Either way, let's wait and see what it is.


Cutting out the star kid is five minutes before the ending and doesn't real count. You might as well ask them to cut out the Illusive man.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

Cutting out the star kid is five minutes before the ending and doesn't real count. You might as well ask them to cut out the Illusive man.

Except TIM is someone we've been working with or against since ME2. The god child got thrown in in the last five minutes.

[Nerraw]

Except TIM is someone we've been working with or against since ME2. The god child got thrown in in the last five minutes.

One could argue that the Catalyst has been working with or against the galaxy as a whole for more than a billion years, from a certain point of view.

[Collegeguy]

Except TIM is someone we've been working with or against since ME2. The god child got thrown in in the last five minutes.

I mean the Illusive man from the catalyst. Let's be realistic. Asking them to completely remove things or remove characters from a scene is not going to happen. It was never going to happen. Adding things is definitely a possibility.

Maybe one day they will decide to make more content that adds more endings or more possibilities that avoid or go around the star kid-red, green, and blue, but they will never remove them from the original ending. It will always be an option.

---------- Post added 2012-04-05 at 09:47 PM ----------

extra:

However, my trust in their pre-release statements has completely dissolved. I am hoping they will learn from their mistakes, and I will wait. I would want to see Liara and Shepard together again enough to believe the unbelievable.

[Teasy]

However, my trust in their pre-release statements has completely dissolved. I am hoping they will learn from their mistakes, and I will wait. I would want to see Liara and Shepard together again enough to believe the unbelievable.

I'm signing under this! And when we'll get enough of crap from EAware, we'll create our own ending! It takes just some calibrations.

[Deleted]

However, my trust in their pre-release statements has completely dissolved. I am hoping they will learn from their mistakes, and I will wait. I would want to see Liara and Shepard together again enough to believe the unbelievable.

I want to be pouring down some drinks with Garrus in an awesome bar. And adopt a krogan baby with him, since that was hinted. Yes please! Pretty please...?

[Teasy]

I want to be pouring down some drinks with Garrus in an awesome bar. And adopt a krogan baby with him, since that was hinted. Yes please! Pretty please...?

I think I need to play a little more with Garrus in my party... It's been always Liara + Wrex in ME1 , Miranda + Samara in ME2 and Liara + Javik/EDI in ME3. Damn I'm boring.