Mass Effect 3 (SPOILERS!)

[Argyle King]

Because nobody else is doing anything about the Reaper threat. So you can sit on your hands and fret about it, or you can ally with your enemy against the greater threat. Without Cerberus, Shepard is just a really pissed off ex-soldier. He has no rank, no privilege, no resources, no crew, no team-mates no Normandy. What would you have him do? Throw rocks at the Reapers?

Steal the ship and materials that Cerberus gave me; give them a galactic sized middle finger and recruit my old team.

 

[Kzach]

Steal the ship and materials that Cerberus gave me; give them a galactic sized middle finger and recruit my old team.

You realise the ship is crewed by Cerberus personal, right?

 

[Argyle King]

You realise the ship is crewed by Cerberus personal, right?

Nothing a few thermal clips can't handle. That's a little bit of a joke, but not entirely one. My first instinct about Miranda was to shoot her; my gut instinct about the Illusive Man is even worse. The plot seems more forced than it does natural.

Another issue I'm having right now is feeling as though the second game doesn't really connect very well to the first game. Most of the characters I found interesting or had a connection with have little or no part in the second game; a lot of things are left unresolved. A few plot holes bug me a little too.

In a way, I feel as though the game would make more sense to me if I knew nothing about the first game than it does going into it with knowledge of previous events. Maybe it'll get better as I go.

Knowing what I know of the first game; knowing what I now know of the second while playing it, and knowing a little of the 3rd game via my friends, I'm struggling a little to see the big picture in a way that is satisfying. It's most assuredly not the quality I expected based upon the reviews. I would by no means call the game nor the story bad; I just don't see what everyone else sees.

To get things back on topic. I think the ending of the third game should have been something gamers saw coming. Just from the few interactions I've had with the Illusive Man in my current play through of the second game, more than a few things seem pretty obvious.

For what it's worth, I do not believe the ending of the 3rd game should be changed. That's not because I feel it is a good ending, but because I fear that the 'indoctrination theory' will make it even worse. The main complain about the game is feeling as though choices along the way did not matter as much as they should have. If a new ending is made which uses the indoctrination theory, that's like saying you never actually made the choices to begin with.

 

[Remus Lupin]

There's a bit of a plot hammer element to working with Cerberus, but no moreso than with most games. Think of it this way -- You're biding your time so you can win the crew over and THEN go rogue!

 

[Kzach]

Nothing a few thermal clips can't handle. That's a little bit of a joke, but not entirely one. My first instinct about Miranda was to shoot her; my gut instinct about the Illusive Man is even worse. The plot seems more forced than it does natural.

I hated it too. But I also accepted that nobody else was going to do anything about the Reapers so I (thinking in character) made the enemy of my enemy, my temporary ally. Realistically, in that situation, Shepard is pretty much at the Illusive Man's beck and call IF Shepard wants to fight the Reaper threat. Shepard might be powerful, but he'd be no match for Miranda, Jacob and the rest of the Normandy crew.

Keep playing, though, as you DO eventually get the option to stick it to Cerberus and the Illusive Man.

Another issue I'm having right now is feeling as though the second game doesn't really connect very well to the first game. Most of the characters I found interesting or had a connection with have little or no part in the second game; a lot of things are left unresolved.

Just how far have you played into ME2?

I ask because you do connect with most of your old team. Garrus and Tali can be squad-mates and Wrex is just busy. And, well, Kaidan/Ashley are just uptight PITA anyway so good riddance. And Liara gets a whole DLC, which is highly recommended, devoted to her.

A few plot holes bug me a little too.

Like?

The main complain about the game is feeling as though choices along the way did not matter as much as they should have.

The funny thing about this complaint is that it's only valid if you view the series as a video-game and not as a series of events in the life of a living, breathing person. As a video-game they're right, his choices mean very little and have very little impact on the story before or after the final choice. And that final choice is virtually meaningless under that light.

But if you view it as something 'real', then the fact is that no other choices could've gotten him to that conclusion. All the character's choices up until the final choice are the only choices that could've resulted in success, because nobody and nothing else has been as successful as this character in fighting the Reapers. So the character's choices were vital; if the character had gone left instead of right, the character wouldn't have made it to the Star Child and the cycle would once again repeat.

But people can't see it that way because they ARE the meta-game. They exist outside of those choices and know that regardless of what path they took, it would end up the same. They want realism for the character without accepting the reality of the character.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

But people can't see it that way because they ARE the meta-game. They exist outside of those choices and know that regardless of what path they took, it would end up the same. They want realism for the character without accepting the reality of the character.

No, I have to disagree.

If you choose to destroy the Reapers, you supposedly kill every AI - that's what the starchild tells us. That means you kill the Geth, even if you fought for them or united them against the Quarian. That means you kill EDI, who you helped understanding her place in the world more.

My choices were undone. They were irrelevant. It's like "Hey, great, you saved this little kid from a car accident! Well done. Unfortunately, your later choices now mean it's suffering from cancer and will die in agony over the next 3 weeks. Well done, Hero."

The Synthesis Choice is similar:
"Hey, great, you found an inexhaustable and easily accessible food source for everyonee! Awesome achievement. But just so you know, if you press this button, starchild will make it so that noone ever needs to eat again."

And there is still the issue of the destruction of all Mass Relays. According to everything we knew so far, that's a big deal, as it seems a central component in interstellar travel (and could possibly destroy entire solar systems). Okay, the Devs now say "Whoa, we didn't mean that. Losing them is just an inconvienence, no habitable planets were burned when filming these sequences. And they'll just improve their regular FTL drives and everything is peachy again".

 

[Remus Lupin]

Is that the current ret-con? I hadn't heard. Of course, there's nothing internal to the game that would lead you to believe that. Clearly there is FTL drive for moving between nearby solar systems, but it was never established in-game that the Mass Relays were somehow not essential to moving between those far-flung corners of the Galaxy.

I actually liked that about the travel mechanics, because while you can hand wave FTL between solar systems a little bit, the Mass Relays seem to give a better picture of what I understand any likely scenario for intra-galactic travel to be: The creation of a sort of "worm hole" allowing instantaneous travel between the relays. At least, that was my understanding of it until the last half hour of the last game, where apparently it was just a suped up version of FTL that was capable of exploding behind you as you flew through it.

 

[Felon]

Nothing a few thermal clips can't handle. That's a little bit of a joke, but not entirely one. My first instinct about Miranda was to shoot her; my gut instinct about the Illusive Man is even worse. The plot seems more forced than it does natural.

The ship needs a crew to operate. On top of that, it has a shackled AI running it. I'm not sure how you could expect to eliminate the crew and AI and still somehow make off with it. Plot-wise, the bases seem to be covered here.

Another issue I'm having right now is feeling as though the second game doesn't really connect very well to the first game. Most of the characters I found interesting or had a connection with have little or no part in the second game; a lot of things are left unresolved. A few plot holes bug me a little too.

It's the second part of a trilogy. Typically, not a point for receiving closure. Having said that, and without knowing which characters you're referring to, I have to guess you're not too far into the game. The whereabouts and doings of the old team are thoroughly addressed. Keep at it.

 

[Aran Thule]

Ive finished it twice now, and had avoided spoilers apart from knowing that a lot of people were disappointed with the ending.

1st try:
Choosing mainly renegade options, romancing Liara throughout. finished on about 75% on the war assets bar.
The two best scenes for me were shooting Mordin in the back and his final crawl, very moving.
As a follow up Wrex going nuts when he finds out that i didnt cure the genaphage.
Given that i had killed the Queen in ME1 i thought it a bit cheap when they put a clone in there, as i had not opened the Grunt pod in ME2 he wasn't there but the npc replacement died heroically.

Morinth appeared on earth as a banshee, but they Shepard didnt respond at all to her.
Moving to the end i had EDI and Liara in my team for the final push and after waking from the beam i staggered past their bodies as they lay in pools of blood (but Shepard didnt respond or say anything even though his soul mate was lying there)
At the end i only got one option(i think), to control the reapers, there then followed the cut scenes which then went blank after the door of the normandy opened.

Given that i had not filled out the war assets i though this was the 'bad' ending so tried again with my other character.

2nd try:
Paragon Shepard who had romanced Tali in ME2
Followed the path but doing all the sub missions and trying to scan planets, plus a few multiplayer games got me to 100% war assets easily.
Mordin had died in ME2 and was replaced by the Salarian that you met upon arriving at the planet.
Cured the Genaphage and united the Geth and Quarians, freed the Rachni Queen who didnt do much apart from add a few war assets.
Expected that having full war assets would change how the final fight progressed, only thing that changed was that Morinth did not appear as a banshee on earth(as i saved Samara in ME2)
On the final push (took Tali and Javak)upon awakening i did not see the bodies of my party members so hoped they had got inside...
no such luck, a few minor changed to the script and i ended up near death talking to the god child.
This time i got three options and of these two:
Destroy AI's: after uniting the Geth and Quarian and raising Edi's humanity i did not want to wipe them out.
Synthersis: suddenly got deya vu that i was playing Deux ex again, but went for this option.
Cue same cut scenes with a differant colour.
This time i got a cut scene after the normandy crashed, with Joker and Edi exiting and comforting each other, which worked well... until Tali left the ship behind them.

My conclusion was that if you play ME3 once then the endings are ok, but playing a second time for me just revealed that your actions have very little input on the final outcome and that there are some shocking holes if you look closely.

Now after looking at some other peoples views i think im drifting towards the indoctinated mindset, for the simple reason of why do you only get the Shepard survives cut scene if you choose the destroy reaper option.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Ending was kinda "meh" for me. Bible-esque Eden thing, new start in innocence or something like that. Technology evil = mass relays always destroyed. I found ending highly "religious" and it kinda sucked. Mass effect has always been shades of greys kinda game and suddenly there is this.

I hated the kid in the end, mostly because of start in mars followed by nightmares that instead of being dreamy cutscenes force be to make boring slow-run twice. So that npc didn't have very positive image in my head what is good gamewise.

But honestly, it would have not been such a bad ending if there would have been more talking with "kiddie". More effects related to choices, at least in flashback of all relevant character or something. Well or that would been bonus. What killed it for me was destruction of mass relays. It kinda underlines religous overtunes.

And I don't have anything against religion or it's use in stories. I just don't think it served that well as epic finish. I think it tells much more about writer's personal preferances than it relates to game.

I don't think there is truth to any theories. Bioware/EA might throw something for content needy people to chew on for extra credit. If they claim that this is how they always intended story to go, I just think it's a lie.

However it's bad marketing to claim so many different end scenarions and then put out many which are almost the same. And all the major points are the same. It's kinda boring for replay value. I don't know what happened, some writer with way too much will over others? Game was rushed? Since it's last of chronicle there is no need to create similarity than when you intend to continue it. Except for budget reasons.

I think they thought people would be more interested in multiplayer than replay-value, that seems to be so prelevant. That's where some focus and money went. That's content they had demo out in the first place.

I have stopped expecting great stories from video games. I think bioware is drifting away from that to where money is. Or where they think it is. I think if there is going to be some additional content it will cost money. They already gave free content for multiplayer. Maybe they want to do Mass Effect the Stellar War MMO or something. But considering that mine writer went off to write books I think they just come up with something new.

I probably won't buy it, I don't like evolved gameplay so much. Heat clips, sissy bowing behind objects, movement stuck bugs, teleporting enemies, copy-paste maps. Bioware makes good stories, but their combat-control is second-rate. I compare it to games like wow and crysis.

Worst thing about ME3 for me was running around Citadel constanly to find missions. And only that. And some quests bugged for me and required leaving and re-entering for me to find quest npc to finish them. And there were 2 quests I got only after I've already done the area (which is no-return in ME3). ME3 has most annoying CItadel version of the games. And star systems opening before you can scan anything there. And then suddenly later they randomly spawn scannable things. And reaper attacks kinda got stupid after a while. And music releted to it tiresome and whole thing not so scary at all.

And use of Origin. Mrrr. It's buggy crap and I had to install additional content 3 days later because it woudn't work for me. At least it doesn't want to keep itself always active like stupid Steam. Their new way to fight "piratism" is so terrible annoying I soon wont be getting any new games.