@Dreznin

1 year ago

The biggest problem that ME3 had on launch was the hype and expectation of many of the fans. BioWare told fans that the choices from the previous games would affect the ending of Mass Effect and the truth is that they did, but not in the way that a large portion of the audience was expecting. In addition to the war assets, the choices affect what can happen in the playthrough of ME3 - having your surviving crew members gives you the best story outcomes in the scenarios where they'd be replaced by similar characters, sometimes even being required for certain scenarios to be an option (like the best possible Ranoch outcome). For the choices you made that appear to be overwritten, they do give explanations - if the council died in ME1, the council in ME3 are different characters of the same races, Udina becomes councilor after Anderson steps down to return to the military, etc. Mass Effect 3, as a whole, is the ending and that is what many people didn't really consider back in 2012... they heard that all their choices would matter for the ending and expected that to mean there would be dozens of final cinematics to account for every possible combination of choices, which would have been impossible with the storage limitations of physical copies. The Citadel and Extended Cut DLCs were definitely both massive improvements to ME3, granting more closure to the series and offering further differentiation in the final choice, but there are still many people upset that they don't get to have Shepherd as a triumphant hero that sails off into the sunset. In truth, I agree with you - having Shepherd's final act be one of heroic sacrifice to save the galaxy fits perfectly and creates a definitive closure to the trilogy. My only disappointment with the extended cut lies with the 4th ending that was added - it was added in response to the popular Indoctrination Theory, which used in-lore explanations and evidence to argue that even Shepherd was becoming corrupted by the Reapers due to repeated contact with them and postured that the Synthesis and Control options are things the Reapers actually wanted him to choose, which is why only the Destroy option can lead to the cutscene that has the hint that Shepherd may have survived after all. The entire Indoctrination Theory is incredibly well thought out and documented with many in-lore examples, so it's a shame that the only way to unlock the 4th ending is by being pig-headed and then having the future Stargazer reveal that our cycle actually did everything perfectly to stop the Reapers and just didn't follow through, making it a narrative, "you thought you were clever, but you're actually stupid and let the whole galaxy die." Other than the narrative, "fuck you," I rather like the idea of the story coming full circle - it started with a beacon from a doomed civilization, it ends with our civilization leaving behind the key to survival in our own beacon, and really wish it would have been presented better.

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