This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
Mass Effect 3 Thread.
Post Reply
Return to board index
Post by
Interest
How to ruin the Mass Effect ending in one easy step by Thror.
LOL.
This was also covered in vent last night. You should pay more attention to us.
I don't moderate everything. If I did that I would go insane.
o_O weren't you already insane?
No, that's just a cover.
Post by
Rankkor
How to ruin the Mass Effect ending in one easy step by Thror.
LOL.
This was also covered in vent last night. You should pay more attention to us.
I don't moderate everything. If I did that I would go insane.
o_O weren't you already insane?
No, that's just a cover.
Or maybe that's what you want us to think........ >_>
on an interesting note, after watching a review of the DLC, I am actually searching for it now.
My main gripe with the ending of ME3 is that in my particular case, no matter what I do, my shepard dies. Since my ME3 is illegitimate, I can't do the multiplayer, thus my EMS will always be below 4000 regardless of what I do (I even did a new "master playthrough" across all 3 games, picking the options that give the most war assets, even the ones that go against what I'd normally pick............ it didn't worked, I ended up with 3750 EMS).
Because of that, my shep is doomed to the coffin no matter what I try, and that alone put me off any extended endings. BUT a reviewer pointed out a very nice feature of that DLC............ IT FIXES THIS INCREDIBLY UNJUST ERROR!
Now, as long as you have 3100 EMS you can get the ending where shepard lives..................... ya know, that 0.5 sec cutscene of someone in N7 armor taking a single gap of breath...............
Ohh well, beggars can't be choosers. I'm currently downloading this DLC (And praying to god its compatible with my illegitimate copy of ME3)
I know I could just see the 3 endings on Youtube, but come on, its not the same if its not MY shepard. Specially since this DLC asides from adding extra cutscenes, it adds an extra goodbye-scene for your love interest if you bring him or her to the final charge. I wanna see that Liara Goodbye with MY shepard, not someone else's.
But asides from the little gripe of shep always getting iced, I hear the DLC actually fixes several of the plot holes. I did noticed something I didn't liked.
They added a "Fourth ending", but this ending isn't really an ending so much as it is a "screw you". You can choose to actually SHOOT THE FRIKKING GOD CHILD but..............
Not only it does nothing, it pretty much fcks up the rest of the universe, because the reapers defeat everyone, and everybody dies. Cue a fast forward to a cute garden-planet where "someone" finds one of Liara's Recordings (Ya know the ones she spread across the galaxy in case we were defeated) and in it, this liara recording talks about how they fought, but eventually lost against the reapers, and goes to show the blueprints of the crucible and all that
To me, this would had been better left outside of the game. A lot of folks (myself included) wanted to tell this godchild to basically F-off and take destiny into our own hands, win this battle for ourselves, rather than be the play pieces of some cosmic entity. Bioware granted this wish, but at the same time, made it so that this choice dooms everyone. >=(
Still, credits where they are due, I congratulate bioware for this DLC. They had absolutely no reason at all to make this DLC, or to even distribute it free. Ok ME3 had a crappy ending, so what? other games in the past have had horrible endings too, did those companies made a DLC to improve the ending and then distributed it for free? HELL NO. They either left those endings untouched (playerbase be damned) or fixed the ending with a PAID solution. A paid DLC or an expansion pack or a sequel.
Bioware not only took the time and effort to improve their crappy ending, they did it for free, and that's something I applaud no matter what.
/bravo bioware
bravo.
I'll give an actual review with my impression of the 3 new enhanced editions of the red/blue/green endings once the DLC finishes downloading (and hopefully runs)
Post by
ElhonnaDS
I really liked them Rank. I'm now 100% happy with the game (minus the rather cheesy writing for Thane).
Post by
Rankkor
I really liked them Rank. I'm now 100% happy with the game (minus the rather cheesy writing for Thane).
I'll wait till I see them before I give my veredict. I'll not be 100% satisfied if my shepard gets iced no matter what.
I did not spent 5 years of character development and friendship with liara just to be iced off in this unglorious way.
Thus this made me very upset that no matter what, I'd never get the ending where shep lives due to not being able to play the multiplayer (Nevermind the fact that they promised the multiplayer would be entirely optional).
Pre-DLC: You need an EMS of 4000 or higher to get the "shep lives" cutscene (Which was a 0.5 sec long cutscene of someone in N7 armor taking a single gap of breath). The highest possible EMS you can get without touching the multiplayer was 3750.
That right there is a big big dissapointment for loyal fans who either don't have internet, or otherwise can't play the multiplayer for X or Y reason.
Post-DLC: now you just need 3100 EMS, making the multiplayer entirely optional. I'll admit, they won over a lot of my respect just by doing this alone.
Now I'm hoping they expanded the "shepard lives" cutscene, because frankly, all this effort, just to see 0.5 secs of someone breathing, feels very............... empty.
Of course, one thing this DLC didn't fixed (and this is something I know even without seeing them) is that neither your choices through the entire trilogy, nor your war assets play any role whatsoever in what endings you get. Doesn't matter if you do a full paragon, full renegade, or anything in between run, you still get the same outcome. While this has been the case for all their other games, they played up a lot in the ads for THIS game that it would be different.
That for THIS game, everything you did in the trilogy would affect what endings you get. Ya know, like on The Witcher.
Thus imagine my disappointment when all of that was just hot air. 3 static endings that don't change regardless of choice at all.
Post by
Rankkor
10 more min for the download to be over.
Fingers crossed. (both so that the DLC works on my version, and that I find some closure and satisfaction on the revised endings)
I truly LOOOOOOVE this game, and hold this franchise as a whole, as the best one in the videogame market. ME3 as it is deserves a solid 8 out of 10 on my book, those 2 points missing being the 2 broken promises ("Choices matter to decide the ending" "Multiplayer is entirely optional, we swear") and the completely anti-climatic endings.
If this DLC can fix at least one of those two (and it does, at the very least it lowers the EMS for the best endings) that's a victory in and on itself.
Post by
557473
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Interest
I'll wait till I see them before I give my veredict. I'll not be 100% satisfied if my shepard gets iced no matter what.
I do believe that this is main concern with majority of endings. I will say this he is clearly getting iced only in 2 out of 4. One is ambiguos. And last one is debatable.
Also, I cannot decide on Synthesis. Is it bad or good? (as in for galaxy)
I've looked at them all and they seem...somewhat confusing...
Post by
557473
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Rankkor
Well, here we are. I've downloaded and seen the DLC "Extended Cut" for ME3, and here's my review of it, both of the module as a whole, and of each individual ending.
Before I start, this is gonna be a LOOOOOOOOONG-ASS review, so if you wanna see my review of a specific ending, I'll highlight each segment so you can skip ahead if you want.
This DLC changes exactly 4 things.
A: it adds a new cutscene during the Final Charge (That final desperate dash towards the conduit, while dodging Harbinger's attacks) that explains why your 2 companions who were with you minutes ago, suddenly show up in joker's ship later on. If one of your companions happens to be your love interest, you also get a final goodbye scene with them.
B: It removes the EMS needed for the hardest ending to get (The one where shep lives) from 4000 to 3100. Thus finally making the Multiplayer ENTIRELY optional as it should had been from the start. (big thanks to bioware for this one)
C: It expands the conversation you have with the godchild, now adding a hell of a lot more explanation and clarification. Kudos to the writing team who wrote the new dialog, because they managed to take the original explanation which was STUPID with a capital S, and turned it into something more palatable without actually changing anything, just explaining better and using a much better wording.
D: It extends the ending cutscenes after you make your final choice, they're now 11 minutes long, and are actually DIFFERENT from each other, rather than that lazy and stupid color swap.
Also contrary to their previous statement of "we are not changing the ending, just expanding on it" they DID changed the endings. Not a full change, but removed 2 very pesky elements from them that effectively changes 40% of the ending into something easier to digest. I'll elaborate later on.
With that clarified, lets dive into it shall we?
Here is a list of what I originally hated of the vanilla endings, and then a break down of how the new endings fixed (or not) these issues. Followed by my opinion of each ending (Something I wanted to do with the originals but refrained from doing so till this DLC was out)
THE 12 ELEMENTS OF THE ORIGINAL ENDING I HATED.
All Mass Relays destroyed (FYI this pretty much ruins your entire victory and turns it into defeat no matter what) this leads us to
Victory Fleet Stranded
Joker leaving Earth with no explanation whatsoever.
Your companions, last seen on earth with you, suddenly on the normandy for no reason
Acceptance of this crap with no option to deny it.
Identical Cutscenes (this one was a major offender)
Ending felt like a cliffhanger rather than a closing ending.
No Closure
Explanation of why the reapers exist. (it was plain stupid)
Plothole that nullifies the entire plot of ME1
War Assets that are never seen in use
Shepard's Fate
uff, that's a long one, sadly the DLC doesn't really fixes all of them, but it did fixed enough of these elements to make the ending digestible for me, and at the very least I feel like they are endings now (yes I can finally use plural because this time we actually get more than a boring color swap)
Now, did I got everything I wanted out of it? Nope, I mean, the world is a compromise, I'm not gonna get everything I wanted out of it, but I can say I got enough. After finishing the game I was willing to play this game again. I hadn't played ME3 again since I beat it last time, I was like "what's the point? to have all these characters I love, all these moments that truly bring me to tears, only to have an ending that basically gave me
this
?"
This has changed, which goes to show what a drastically improved ending can do to salvage a great game.
So, lets dive in, and see what has this DLC done to address the issues I listed.
1:)
All Mass Relays destroyed:
STATUS
: Fixed.
Despite their insistence that they would not change the ending, they changed this, and now in all 3 endings, the relays are NOT destroyed, and since we're on that, neither is the citadel, these relays are simply damaged, but can be repaired, and rebuilt, which means our victory is now an actual victory, rather than a defeat presented as a victory. Not only they removed the line from the godchild about the Catalyst destroying the relays, they changed the cutscene so that only the swirling rings of the relays are destroyed, and those can be fixed without much problem, the frame itself is intact.
This right here, was the biggest reason I hated the ending, ya know, asides from the fate of shepard but I'll get into that later on. This here was the main reason the endings sucked for me, what's the point of the entire victory, if we've doomed the galaxy to obscurity no matter what? if all galactic civilization is forever doomed to remain where they are, every ship in the galaxy (including the normandy) is marooned where they happened to be, then that's no victory at all, that's a mass scale genocide.
Remember that there are worlds destroyed, people in need of galactic aid, and without said aid, they die, the economic fallout alone of such a mass scale change would cripple the galaxy. This leads us to.........
Ok now lets get to the next one...
2:)
Victory fleet Stranded.
STATUS
: Fixed.
This one goes hand to hand with the above. What was the point of this victory, if all it does is strand such a large galactic force on our system with no way for them to get back? Ohh gratz, you cured the genophage, thanks for stranding grunt and wrex on earth you jerk. Gratz on freeing Rannoch, gratz on leaving ALL the quarians and geth on earth though. And good luck trying to feed all those turians and quarians who can't even eat earth-based food.
No, as I said on the previous point, this nullifies the victory COMPLETELY. It turns what should had been a moment of glory into an offscreen holocaust. While we're at it, the Normandy had also got marooned on a planet with no way to get back, so gratz, 5 years of character development, creating a REAL attachment to your crew (I honest-to-god cried like a sissy when Mordin, Legion, and Thane died), now lets maroon them on a planet and have them never to be seen again.
yay!
I don't know WHAT were they thinking (or if there was any thinking at all) when this one was added.
Now, Since the relays are not destroyed, the victory fleet is not stranded on earth, which means not only the fleet can leave to help their respective worlds rebuild, but that other civilian ships can come to earht to help us with the rebuilding, also, while the normandy still lands on that planet, later on you can see either the ship being repaired, or the ship taking off altogether (it depends on your EMS, get it high enough and they will leave the planet)
So there you have it, these 2 reasons alone, had turned our ending into a steaming pile of crap, and with 2 easy fixes, they went from horrible, to great. see how easy that was? Just correct your stance and move on. They had said they weren't changing the endings, that wasn't true, they changed them big time, because now, we can actually see the consequences of our big choice due to the galaxy still being open.
3:)
Joker leaving Earth with no explanation whatsoever.
STATUS
: Fixed.
Yep, this one bugged me, because its both out of character for joker to just abandon shepard (After he has said many times that he'd follow shepard into hell and back again) and makes absolutely no sense, he was last seen on the space battle above.
Now, they added an extra cutscene when you activate the catalyst, showing that apparently, it was part of the plan all along to get ALL of the victory fleet away from our system the moment the Catalyst activated itself. You know, this kinda makes sense, they know its a weapon but don't know what it will do, maybe it will kill the reapers or maybe it will vaporize everything near it, it makes sense that the plan was all along to bring it, protect it, activate it, and get the hell out of there.
Now if only they had the foresight of
TELLING US THAT BEFORE
. We're not psychics. At least I'm not. So there it is, we get a cutscene of admiral hackett telling everyone to get out of the sol system (which again means no victory fleet stranded) and explains why the normandy was leaving, and joker actually hated leaving, and very painfully, very reluctantly, turned the ship around and left. A small, short cutscene that fixes a huge plot hole.
That wasn't so hard, which makes me wonder all the more why wasn't this in the vanilla game from the start....... Did they honestly believed we would guess all of this? I don't mean to say that all game companies should treat us like morons and over explain everything, but the other extreme which is to explain nothing and letting speculation write the plot is much much worse.
4:)
Your companions, last seen on earth with you, suddenly on the normandy for no reason.
STATUS
: Fixed.
As said above, there is now a cutscene during the final charge to the conduict, showing your companions getting hit by Harbinger. If your EMS is too low, they'll get incinerated and die, if your EMS is high enough to get any of the good endings, they instead are wounded by the blast and need to be evacuated, so shepard calls the normandy............... which was conveniently 12 seconds away.
Wasn't the plan that joker dropped us off and then rejoined the space battle above? This also doesn't explains why the other crewmates like Cortez (who also crashed in london) and your party members you don't bring with you are also on the ship. But at least this small inconsistency, makes sense. I believe it fully in character for joker to refuse to join the space battle and remain on earth to provide aerial support to the battle. As for why your other crewmates are on the normandy....... no reason is given, but meh, I'll let it slide, its a very small inconsistency.
It wasn't a very elegant fix, because as I said, some inconsistencies remained, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, this is better than NO explanation at all.
5:)
Acceptance of this crap with no option to deny it.
STATUS
: Fixed..........ish.
It always bugged me that after talking to someone who very clearly identifies himself as the leader of the reapers, (And thus someone you have no reason to trust) shepard at no point has the option to tell him to F--K off. Its a "you must choose" yes or yes. It goes against the flexibility this saga (and bioware itself) has given us in the past.
They somewhat fixed this by allowing us to indeed tell him where to shove his choices, but there is one problem............ this leads to the reapers winning, exterminating everyone, and well, the cycle continuing. We get treated to a cutscene on a small garden-world (Lore-Note: This is how planets capable of bearing life are called on this game's lore) where one of Liara's time capsules is activated by someone. In this scene we see Liara stating that we did everything we could to fight the reapers, but in the end it was not enough and we died.
Its a downer ending, and I was sad that there was absolutely no option but to use the catalyst (with all that it implied) if we wanted to survive. This ending was a bit of a "Fridge Brilliance" moment for me due to my lovely wife.
She told me "well, what the hell else did you expected?" and she's absolutely right. Lets assume for a moment that the reapers could be defeated through conventional warfare (Something that through the whole game was stated as ridiculously hard, due to the many advantages they have such as turning our dead into shock troops, indoctrinating our living so they can act as sleeper agents, having no need for supplies, or provisions, being eternal and a long ect.) But lets assume for a moment that they could be defeated through military strength.
This was not how we planned the battle. The entire battle, the whole plan was leaning on us using our super-weapon to win the day. That's where all the money, all the manpower, all the resources of the galaxy were invested.
Everything we had all our hopes and all our effort went into the construction of the Crucible, and by refusing to use this weapon, we pretty much are screwed. No, we hinged on using this weapon, and only by using it do we stand a chance. Maybe we should had focused on building a larger fleet, but that's in the past, what's done is done, we're committed to the crucible, so we can't just back down.
So this made this new ending suck a lot less, and I actually like the fact that it is there, that obedience is no longer demanded, that rebellion (regardless of how foolish it may be to take your own plan and shred it) is still an option. Not the best option, but still on the table.
Plus that ending has a pretty awesome moment for shepard:
Catalyst: Your time is at an end. You must decide
Shepard: No. I'm going to end this war on my terms.
Catalyst: Then you are going to die knowing that you failed to save everything you fought for.
Shepard: I fight for freedom, mine and everybody's. I fight for the right to choose our own fate. And if I die, I'll die knowing that I did everything I could to stop you. And I'll die free.
Catalyst: (Dropping the kid voice) SO BE IT!
Pure awesomeness. And while this ending spells a sour note for the rest of the known races, it does flings a light into the future, because in a future generation, an unknown species discovers Liara's recordings, and with this information, they managed to actually defeat the reapers and end the cycle of extinction for good. That last cutscene with the old man and the boy? yeah its replaced if you choose this Defiance ending, and it shows a woman and a child of an unknown humanoid alien specie, telling how this little light to the future ended up saving them.
So there it is, a little crude, but damned effective. Plus even if it was a little sour, it felt VERY cathartic to tell that damned godchild to STFU. (By gunpoint)
/shrugs.
To each their own I guess.
(Continues on the next post)
Post by
Rankkor
6:)
Identical Cutscenes (this one was a major offender)
STATUS
: Fixed.
I'll not accept excuses from bioware on this one. The Vanilla cutscenes showed pure unadulterated LAZINESS. Their production values for their games have always been top notch, and even on their most crude games they've never EVER resorted to this cheap tactic of using the exact same cutscene for different outcomes just tweaking the color a little bit.
This was something that royally pissed me off in the vanilla game. Regardless of what you choose, you get the same cutscene. Couple this with the points 1 and 2, and you get an ending that its entirely irrelevant of your choices.
It doesn't matter what you pick because the outcome is the same (with the galaxy isolated forever, it makes no difference if synthetics are destroyed, or if we're combined, or if the reapers are controlled) and if the cutscene showing this is the same as well.
Now, they changed it, and boy did they changed it. The original cutscene showed a bunch of soldiers fighting the reapers when suddenly there's a massive lightwave (color depends on your ending) that either disables the reapers (red) or makes the take off (blue and green), this is followed by the citadel exploding as it shoots a beam (color dependent) onto the mass relays (while the fleet was still fighting the reapers, showing they would be stranded) which are destroyed in the process.
This is then seen being sent across the whole galaxy like a domino-effect. Next thing we know, joker is outrunning a fireball (color dep----- you get the point) frantically piloting his ship while looking back (as if looking back had any effect...... you're on a ship joker, not a car, there's no rear window to be looking at here.)
Next normandy is on a planet, crew gets out, stare at the rising sun. Fade to black. The end.
BOOO
>=(
Here's the revised ending:
Starts different than before, with that cutscene that explains why joker was leaving, as the whole fleet quickly flees the battlefield as the catalyst is activating, and slowly covering earht with the big light wave.
We then get treated of that cutscene we saw originally of those soldiers fighting reapers, wave of light, reapers either take off (blue and green) or fall down (Red), and this is then followed by a new scene, of 2 soldiers fighting husks, one of these jumps on a soldier and starts scratching his face when the wave light hits them both.
Depending on the ending several things happen next.
If the control ending was chosen, the husks simply flee (Likely commanded by shepard to do so), if the synth ending is chosen, they both (soldiers and husks) stop fighting and stare at each other scared and confused over what the hell just happened, and if the destroy ending was chosen, the husks are vaporized by the wave.
Then the citadel shoots a light beam to the relay, and while it shows some explosions the citadel itself isn't destroyed, just damaged. Ditto for the relay which shows damage but its not destroyed either. We get that Domino-effect cutscene, as the beam of light spreads across all relays, and then we get new scenes.
If the control ending was chosen, we see asaris on Thessia fighting reapers when they too get hit by the blue wave, and flee. Cue lots of asari cheering and celebrating (Sadly no hugging or kissing...... what? >_>). Cue scene on Tuchanka, where again, reapers get hit by the blue light, they flee, Krogans cheer and celebrate (sadly no bro'fists or chest-bumps U_U)
If the Destroy ending was chosen, then the scene described above is almost identical. Again, shot of Thessia and asaris fighting when the reapers are hit by the red wave, they fall over and die, asari celebrate, shot of tuchanka, reapers hit by red light, they fall over and die exploding, krogans celebrate. I'd like to note however that while these 2 scenes are similar at least they are somewhat different, its not just a color swap, in one the reapers flee, in another the reapers die. That's a difference.
If the Synth ending was chosen, a similar cutscene is seen. This time Turians on Palaven fighting reapers when they suddenly all get hit by the green wave, reapers flee, but the turians instead of celebrating, look at each other a little puzzled over what the hell just happened. Cue the same shot from tuchanka, except the Krogan also look at each other slightly puzzled over what happened.
And then a revised scene of the normandy fleeing, this time with the whole crew doing stuff and looking busy (pfft, as if EDI couldn't run the whole ship by herself with joker as demonstrated in ME2 xD) With Joker flying the ship like a pro' and outrunning the wave. This time thank the heavens they removed that stupid scene of him looking back, ITS A SPACE SHIP not a car, there's no rear window to be looking at here. keep your eyes on the control board. (yes I'm a detail nutjob like that, small touches like that one can get on my nerves if they become excessive)
And lastly, that scene on the unknown jungle world, we've seen this one before, and it has almost no changes, pan of the normandy landing (but in much better shape than the original cutscene, showing she can take off again) door opens, joker gets out followed by your romance interest, and your most used squadmate (or alternatively if the synth ending was chosen, Joker gets out, followed by EDI and just your romance interest). Cue the clichéd staring off at the sunrise, and fade-to-back. The end.
Just kidding xD there's more.
What follows, is a slideshow, with someone providing a narration. Admiral Hackett for the destroy ending, EDI for the synth ending, and Reaper!Shepard for the Control ending. (Curiously, Admiral Hackett sounds A LOT like Optimus Prime on this scene). Now, I don't particularly like slideshows, but hey, its totally understandable this time, I mean, the time constraints, and budget of a free DLC wont leave room for that much, so even if I don't particularly like slideshows, I'll let this one slide (hehehe puns =D).
The last scene is inside the normandy, where all your squadmates gather on the memorial wall. Admiral Anderson's name has been added to it (T_T) and one of your crewmates (either your love interest, or if you had none, your most used squadmate) will place your name plaque on the center of the memorial wall. However, should you choose the destroy ending, and have a sufficient EMS, your love interest/friend will refuse to place the plaque on the wall, signifying that they still believe you are alive.
Last scene is of the normandy TAKING OFF from that jungle planet (yay!)
And should that destroy ending with high EMS was chosen, you get that lame 3-second cutscene of someone in N7 armor, lying on a pile of rubble taking a single gap of breath.
All in all, the new cutscenes look fantastic, and are WILDLY DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER, no more palette swap, so yes they fixed this one BIG TIME.
I'll keep the next 2 short, since they're so related to each other.
7 and 8:)
Ending felt like a cliffhanger rather than a closing ending and No Closure.
STATUS
: Fixed.
On the slideshow, the narrating voice explains (and shows) the outcome of your choices, so we get actual closure on the events on the game. While its not as character-specific as "Garrus became a cop again" or "Jacob became an ambassador" it did added closure to the events on the game. Cured the genophage? good for you, here's an image of krogan society rebuilding, this time they have kids, and their planet looks gorgeous instead of a wasteland. Unified the Quarians and Geth? Great for you, here's this image of Rannoch rebuilt, with Quarians and Geth living together as friends.
You also get pictures of your individual squad members from all games past and present (sadly not all of them get one, from my memory alone, there was none for Liara, Tali, Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus, Javik, or Grunt) showing how they moved on with their lives, and pictures of each race, rebuilding, we see pictures of earth, of palaven, of thesia, of tuchanka, ect.
We get CLOSURE, the ending feels like it wrapped things up instead of leaving us with more questions as cliffhangers tend to do.
9:)
Explanation of why the reapers exist. (it was plain stupid)
STATUS
: Mended, though not fully.
I gotta hand it to the writing team for this one, because the original explanation for the reapers and the cycle of extinction were plain STUPID, reliant on circular logic, and felt empty. They managed to make that very same explanation suddenly not seem so stupid by using a better wording, and adding more dialog without actually changing anything. That's not easy to do. When a writer screws up, the easy way out is simply retcon the mistake and fix it with something new. They instead chose to stick to their version, but did a much better job into making it something we can digest.
In as few words as I can manage: The Godchild is crazy, and its a genocidal maniac.
The original race that created the reapers had their own Organic vs Synthetic war. They made the Catalyst as a way to mediate peace between the 2 factions, a middle ground so to speak, the Catalyst responded by taking full control of their synthetics, and fusing them together into those amalgamations called reapers, he then used these as tools to cull every race that became too advanced because it simply knew no better.
That's all there is to it. It was a flawed AI that turned against its masters, and that's all there is to it.
Simple, I like it.
Sadly this is where the good news ends, and its where my grievances with the DLC beging. Because the last 3 issues I had with the vanilla endings were in fact not fixed.
10:)
Plothole that nullifies the entire plot of ME1.
STATUS
: Not Fixed.
The simple fact that the catalyst is the leader of the reapers, and that he was in the citadel all this time, nullifies the entire plot of ME1. Think about how the reapers do their cycle of extinction.
They arrive, they kill everyone, put them on a blender, make reapers out of them, erase all evidence of their actions, flee to darkspace, leave behind a single scout, who will monitor the state of galactic civilizations, and when the time for the next culling arrives, this scout will wake up the dormant reaper army on darkspace and summon them back by sending a signal to the Keepers in the citadel, and making them activate its giant relay.
Very nice, very neat, very effective. This was thwarted by the protheans though, because they modified the citadel's keepers to ignore the scout's voice (Sovereign). So when the time for the next culling arrived, nothing happened, sovereign couldn't get the keepers to open the citadel and activate the relay so, there was no way to activate the dormant army.
k, that's cool, there's only one problem.......
THE DAMNED LEADER OF THE REAPERS WAS IN THE CITADEL THE WHOLE TIME!
And not only this leader wanted the cycles to continue, IT HAD CONTROL OVER THE CITADEL, remember that the protheans permanently modified the keepers to ignore reaper commands, so how exactly did the citadel managed to close its arms? how did it got to earth? =O that's right, the godchild did all that.
So, if the godchild was in the citadel the whole time, if the godchild could control the citadel, if the godchild wanted the cycles to continue
WHY THE HELL WAS SOVEREIGN NEEDED AT ALL?
why didn't he monitored the state of galactic civilization? why didn't he opened the giant portal? he had no problems shutting the citadel (again that was not the keepers, those were permanently made immune to the reaper signals) or moving it. This plot hole goes unexplained, and its a hole big enough to make the first game pointless
SO there it is, a plot hole still open, and sadly its likely to remain open, because they've said they have no more plans for DLCs that change the ending. Man that really sucks. I guess I'll have to apply the
MST3K Mantra
here.
11:)
War Assets that are never seen in use
. This one I don't consider it a spoiler because rather than being something happening, its something NOT happening. So its undisclosed.
STATUS
: Not Fixed.
What was the point of getting all those assets if we're not gonna see them? one of the cardinal rules of storytelling is
SHOW, DON'T TELL.
Krogans riding Dinosaurs into battle? yeah we make it happen but wont see it. Elcor carrying anti-tank weaponry on their backs? made it happen, never saw it. Elcor Bombers? they're there, but we wont see them. Salarian Fleet? there but unseen. Drell&Hanar special forces? there but unseen. Rachni forces? same deal. To make the list short, during the battle for earth all we see is exclusively the human fleet, and human soldiers.
During the entire big badass war sequence we only get a grand total of 1 scene where we see non-humans fighting and its just Turians Asaris, and Krogans. That's it, the other races are implied to be there but never shown. MALO MALO MALO MALISIMO!.
We spent a great deal of time building the largest army the galaxy had ever seen (excepting the reapers of course) and we don't see them fight? da'hell? Come on, a few cutscenes of at least 1 minute each showing all the races I collected fighting together would had been awesome, seeing the Geth and Quarian fleets unleash hell on the reapers, seeng an elcor ramming up a Brute, watching a combined team of Salarians Rachni and Batarians take down a pack of Cannibals and a Harvester. Seeing the Hanar&Drell Special forces take out those Marauders. See the famed Elcor Bombers in action.
Come on bioware, what happened? You didn't spared any details elsewhere in this game, on tuchanka we saw plenty of action with other krogans fighting, on Rannoch same thing happened with the quarians. Now on earth, after getting the most badass army ever, we only see humans fighting? da'hell? seriously, what the hell?
No, I'm most displeased with this. When I first read the concept of the war assets back when the game was in development, I believed we would actually see this army fight, even if it was a small bunch of 30seconds-to-1min cutscenes, but no such luck. Greatest battle ever, and its offscreen. Tsk tsk tsk.
And finally, last one, I saved this one for last because its the one thing that upset me the most about the ending, and its something the DLC STILL DID NOT FIXED. And its grave enough to warrant its own separate post.
Shepard's Fate.
Post by
Rankkor
12:)
Shepard's Fate
STATUS
: VERY MUCH SO NOT FIXED!.
Let me make it clear as succinct as possible: I hate stories where the hero dies. I hated it on the matrix, I hated it on Braveheart (Though there it was to be expected for anyone who actually knows history), I hated it on The Book of Eli. And those are movies, the one medium where this trope of "The Hero Dies" could actually somewhat work.
On videogames? where I invest myself on the character I'm playing? I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE AND LOATHE THIS TROPE TO HELL!
I COMPLETELY HATED IT on Persona 3, hated it in Dragon Age (thank god it was avoidable) hated it on Chrono Trigger (again, avoidable) hated it on Bioshock 2, hated it on how several times it happened on Modern Warfare (yes I've played that game >_> get off my back) hated it on LA Noire, hated it on Fallout 3 ect ect.
I create a hero, and I intend to LIVE as that hero, having to die, is just not kosher for me. SPECIALLY when the death is completely stupid, inglorious and pointless, and this is the case in 3 out of 4 endings. The one ending where it does makes sense for shepard to die is the control one, in the rest, shepard dies just for the hell of killing off commander shepard, nothing more, and that pissed me off more than anything else. It is what I wanted the most to be fixed, and its what was left intact ¬_¬
Defiance ending
: yeah you die, pointlessly so, but as stated on point 5, after you've committed so many resources on a single weapon, not using it is pretty much a death sentence.
Control Ending
: yep, this is the one ending where it does makes sense that you die, You are after all cotrolling all reapers, and that can't just be done with your organic brain, you need to upload yourself into them, become software, like skynet, omnipresent, capable of issuing commands at lightspeed, across solar systems, across the galaxy, this is not something that a mere human body can achieve, so its completely reasonable that you need to leave your body behind and upload yourself to the reapers to achieve this ending. While I don't like this ending, its the only one where it does makes sense for you to die. I dislike it for other reasons, but I admit that shepard dieing here makes complete sense and fits the story.
Synthesis ending
: Another pointless death. This is space magic, no matter how you look at it, suddenly giving circuits and mechanical parts to all organic life (including plants and insects) and organic parts to all synthetics requires more than a simple energy source (which is what the crucible is, the godchild says so himself, its just a big energy sphere that allows you to apparently bend the laws of physics)
So, if we're gonna roll with "A Wizard did it" and use space magic to achieve unity, I'm not gonna have a problem with that. What I will have a problem with is why must shepard be disintegrated for this to happen.
ITS SPACE MAGIC, JUST AS YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN BY DISSEMINATING HIM/HER IT CAN ALSO HAPPEN BY JUST SCANNING HER
. Or disintegrating her and reintegrating her back once the whole thing is over if you have a high enough EMS. Is that so much to ask? apparently it is.
Destruction ending
: The most pointless death of them all.
YOU GOT A GOD-DAMNED GUN! WHY ARE YOU RUNNING TOWARDS THE COMPONENT YOU WANNA DESTROY?
Didn't you got the memo?
GUNS CAN BE USED FROM A SAFE DISTANCE.
This is a very cheap way to kill off shepard, by making him or her walk off pointlessly towards the control panel, so that the resulting explosion can conveniently kill you off. Guns have an effective range of over 80 meters, and with proper aiming can still hit a target large enough at 150 meters, that's as far as THE ENTRANCE TO THE ENDING ROOM, so why must you be at point blank? why, to get a lame, cheap, stupid, pointless death, after 5 years of adventures.
Thank you so much >_>
/rubs temples.
this right here sours what would otherwise be pretty solid, pretty good endings. They wanted to give shepard a "messiah" angle and sacrifice his/her life, and didn't bothered to give
ACTUAL REASONABLE EXCUSES FOR DOING SO
. Its cheap, its stupid, and I expected better from them. I mean really, at least on Dragon Age they bothered to give an actual reason for you to die, I may not have liked my character dying, but doing so has a purpose, and makes sense rather than "
Drop a bridge
" on you just for the sake of creating cheap drama. Can we say the same here? with the exception of the control ending, the answer is a solid
NO
Ohh I almost forgot, on the destruction ending,if your EMS is high enough, you apparently survive your brief moment of "plot-induced" stupidity. The problem? Same as I said with the war assets, SHOW, DON'T TELL. All we get is a 3 second cutscene of someone in an N7 armor lying on a pile of rubble, taking a single gap of breath, and your love interest refusing to place your plaque on the memorial wall.
That's it, enjoy.
/facepalm.
I wanted to SEE my shepard alive, not be told that she lived (yes casey hudson confirmed that the person breathing was in fact shepard, and that you in fact reunite with your crew and love interest. Would had been nice to SEE ALL OF THIS Mister Hudson, but whatever)
I mean really, the last cutscene is a slideshow, making a slideshow of shepard (who's face can be conveniently hidden by something) sipping martinis with Garrus on a beach enjoying the royalties from the movie, pan back to see that behind us Liara and my little blue children are playing on the beach, pan the camera further backwards to show that this beach is actually on Rannoch, and that Liara, the kids and I were visiting Tali's home, and hang out with her and Garrus them since they married and all that.
That is not a lot to ask, I wanted to SEE my happy ending, not have it be implied, that is the cardinal rule of storytelling, Show, don't tell. And they broke it with someone who has got to be the greatest videogame character ever.
SHAME ON YOU!
/sighs.
Well, there you have it, my review of the DLC "Extended Cut", Final Veredict: 8 out of 10. While my biggest issue with the ending (Shepard's fate) wasn't fixed, almost everything else was, and took what were horrible anti-climatic endings, and turned them into great endings (Which would had been perfect
HAD SHEPARD LIVED! DAMMIT!
>_>) and I still maintain my stance that Bioware is a damn good company that appreciates and loves their gamers.
They had no reason to do this DLC or to distribute it for free, they could had easily do what other companies have done when their games have crappy endings (Looking at you Kojima and your MGS2 ending) and simply not give a damn, but instead they chose to take the high-road, apologized to the fans, and mended the fence.
That alone earned back all my respect, and all my admiration to them as a company, and am looking forward to the future of their games.
Post by
Interest
So I found the egoraptor version of the ME ending...
Lolwut.
Post by
557473
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Rankkor
Well, rank I agree on most of it. Especially on war assets, I want to see to elcor in battle :P
Don't we all? Expanded Universe paints them as organic tanks more or less, with a bodymass and weight capable of crushing steel walls as if they were tissue paper. I have always wanted to see one in action, but no, not one as an enemy, and now that we recruit them for the final battle, they go ahead and fight offscreen.
LAME.
Sometimes killing off hero is the best way to end the series as we know, but still leave room for some sort of followup. The current Mass Effect is based on Shepard and s/he is the icon of the game, by killing off Shepard they show that Galaxy is now changed it will face new threats that will raise new heroes to battle them. Close up with no need to lose such wonderful setting.
Except this time, that does not applies. After all there is one ending where you live. Nope, this was a cheap attempt at drama, and in a completely pointless way. Again I use Dragon Age as an example of "The hero dies" done right.
I still didn't liked it (Simply because I don't like my protagonist dying, period) but admitted it was a fitting end, and made a lot of sense to the plot, and the lore.
Can't say the same here, SPECIALLY with the extra-stupid way it happens on the red ending.
As I said, I expected better off them on this regard. Alas, we can't have everything, so I'll have to settle with what we got.
Post by
557473
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Rankkor
At least we did not go Harry Potter way. Die, come back, win, live happily every after....
aye, there's so many ways this could had gone wrong. Its just that this is BIOWARE we're talking about here. The kings of RPGs, the masters of plot, this is their first honest-to-god screwup in the writing department I've ever seen. Even Dragon Age 2, which had a ton of flaws, at the very least sported a very solid, very nice writing, and a good plot, if a little disconnected.
Post by
Interest
At least we did not go Harry Potter way. Die, come back, win, live happily every after....
aye, there's so many ways this could had gone wrong. Its just that this is BIOWARE we're talking about here. The kings of RPGs, the masters of plot, this is their first honest-to-god screwup in the writing department I've ever seen. Even Dragon Age 2, which had a ton of flaws, at the very least sported a very solid, very nice writing, and a good plot, if a little disconnected.
NWN2 (MOTB) *coughhhhhh*
Post by
Rankkor
At least we did not go Harry Potter way. Die, come back, win, live happily every after....
aye, there's so many ways this could had gone wrong. Its just that this is BIOWARE we're talking about here. The kings of RPGs, the masters of plot, this is their first honest-to-god screwup in the writing department I've ever seen. Even Dragon Age 2, which had a ton of flaws, at the very least sported a very solid, very nice writing, and a good plot, if a little disconnected.
NWN2 (MOTB) *coughhhhhh*
wasn't that made by Obsidian? Just sayin.
I know Bioware did NWN1 and its expansions, just as they did KOTOR, but KOTOR 2 and NWN2 (along with its expansions) weren't made by them, so any writing screw-ups on them aren't bioware's fault
Post by
Interest
At least we did not go Harry Potter way. Die, come back, win, live happily every after....
aye, there's so many ways this could had gone wrong. Its just that this is BIOWARE we're talking about here. The kings of RPGs, the masters of plot, this is their first honest-to-god screwup in the writing department I've ever seen. Even Dragon Age 2, which had a ton of flaws, at the very least sported a very solid, very nice writing, and a good plot, if a little disconnected.
NWN2 (MOTB) *coughhhhhh*
wasn't that made by Obsidian? Just sayin.
I know Bioware did NWN1 and its expansions, just as they did KOTOR, but KOTOR 2 and NWN2 (along with its expansions) weren't made by them, so any writing screw-ups on them aren't bioware's fault
I think Bioware had a hand in it.
I might be wrong.
Post by
Rankkor
At least we did not go Harry Potter way. Die, come back, win, live happily every after....
aye, there's so many ways this could had gone wrong. Its just that this is BIOWARE we're talking about here. The kings of RPGs, the masters of plot, this is their first honest-to-god screwup in the writing department I've ever seen. Even Dragon Age 2, which had a ton of flaws, at the very least sported a very solid, very nice writing, and a good plot, if a little disconnected.
NWN2 (MOTB) *coughhhhhh*
wasn't that made by Obsidian? Just sayin.
I know Bioware did NWN1 and its expansions, just as they did KOTOR, but KOTOR 2 and NWN2 (along with its expansions) weren't made by them, so any writing screw-ups on them aren't bioware's fault
I think Bioware had a hand in it.
I might be wrong.
You are =P Bioware had zero input on both NWN2 and KOTOR2.
For reasons I've yet to understand, these sequels were removed from their hands and given to Obsidian. It seems bioware can only do sequels of the IPs they themselves created. At least that's what I think. It may explain why they've focused on Mass Effect and Dragon Age lately.
Post Reply
You are not logged in. Please
log in
to post a reply or
register
if you don't already have an account.