http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...mass-effect-3-ending-go-over-everyones-heads/ spoiler alert now im ready to play thru a second time
Note that the date on the article : 3/21/2012 Now for a second date that is relevant to this discussion: June 26, 2012 The date that Bioware released the Extended Cut for free to fix up the ending*. That Bioware released the new ending for free blows the conspiracy theory out of the water. *I haven't seen the new ending yet. But I'm currently playing through the entire trilogy in one go, so I will see it soon.
It was just as meh as the original ending. The problem is is that most of the real talent at Bioware started to trickle out as soon as they where bought by EA by the time ME3 came around they where mostly gone. Most of the truly talented Devs. want nothing to do with the big publishers because the big publishers want lowest common denominator games and they just are not that interesting to make. That's why the industry isn't doing as well any more the talent doesn't want to work with the money and the money doesn't want to take chances on the talent and players are getting bored with the same game with a new skin all time. They need to find some kind of balance or the games industry is headed for another bubble burst.
Maybe Im just smarter than the average gamer, but I always thought the ending sequence was more in Shepard's mind than anything else, and yes I also thought there were hints of indoctrination starting to creep into the main character throughout the 3rd game. Right from the beginning when you see the child in the vents and he disappears I though that Shepard was starting to snap. The ending was still retarded though, as most endings to a great series are. I see the problem is that we invent our own ideas of how things should be and by the time the ending actually comes around it will never live up to what we created for ourselves and thus are disappointed in the ending.
While it is a nice thought, the ending is the result of pushed production and issues within the multi writer team. Nothing more, nothing less. The current ending is okay, but when your trying to find closure on three wonderful games(more or less) okay doesn't cut it. Pretty good summary.
The problem with indoctrination theory, or anything else in Sheppard's head, is that it's a dream sequence. Meaning that nothing you do in it matters, and thus nothing you have done in any of the games matters. You lose to the Reapers despite your efforts, and Bioware doesn't even have the decency to show you losing. At least if it actually happens it means you have pulled off something that does end the cycle. The problem with the ending is that its reveal of why the reapers keep killing off life doesn't make sense: Synthetics always come into conflict with organics, one will always kill the other. To stop that happening, lets kill organic life with synthetics. Then there are the unfortunate implications of the initial ending. Like if you managed to keep Garrus and/or Tali alive till the end of ME3, the ending with the Normandy crashing on some random world means that either they, or the rest of your crew, are doomed to die of starvation since Turrians and Quarrians can't eat the same food as everyone else and nobody is coming to rescue the survivors of the crash with the relays destroyed. A very grim ending that either means Bioware didn't think things through*, or they did and again they don't have the decency to show us how bad things are. *The rumor I heard that the red/blue/green ending was a last minute change. The ending that was originally planned had something to do with use of Mass Effect technology causing dark energy, which threatened to destroy all life (remember Tali's recruitment mission in ME 2 ?). The Reapers spent their time outside the galaxy reducing the buildup, stopping only to harvest life to make new Reapers and destroy existing civilizations to stop them creating dark energy.
The reason the ending was pretty lame to me, was that EVERYTHING YOU HAD DONE UP UNTIL THEN was completely irrelevant to the outcome of the game. None of the choices you made during your game affected the ending much at all. I don't like the whole "choices matter" gimmick developers and publishers keep trying to sell us, when most of these choices end up having absolutely no impact on the game as a whole. I completely understand there can be both immediate and long-term effcts, and accept that not all choices should cause a ripple in the water that changes the entire rest of the game. Mostly because it wouldn't make sense, but also because it would be nearly impossible from a development point of view. However, I simply cannot accept it when they put in a ton of choices, be it moral or otherwise, when it turns out NONE of them play any part in the actual ending. /rant
The dark matter ending was in Drew Karpyshyn's original plan for the series, but unfortunately EA/Casey Hudson put him on kotor 3 (that's what SW:TOR really was) so we never got to see it. My thoughts on the 'ending' we got are basically summarized in three words: what the fuck. The rest of the game's writing was pure genius. How could the people who wrote the touching scenes like Mordin's death, and Legion's ascension give us three colors and a pat on the back? It just seems like poor planning on the part of the producers. That's basically what I was thinking on the 8th when I finished, but given what's happened in the last year i'm pretty sure it was just EA sticking their giant cock in my favorite franchise and waving it all around until they ruined it sufficiently.
I just finished playing through the entire trilogy. With the extended cut and Leviathan, the ending has been improved a bit. The three big complaints against the original ending were its unfortunate implications, that it made player choices irrelevant and the stupidity of the reasoning behind the cycle. The unfortunate implications are fixed by showing quick shots showing what happens afterwards. For example, showing the relays being repaired. Those scenes also show the effects of choices that happen after the ending, so the choices you had made while playing still matter. As for the stupidity of the justification for the cycle, it's still given. But the context has changed - Sheppard argues with the catalyst more. So instead of shoving the stupid down our throats, Bioware is acknowledging that the catalyst could be lying/wrong. - Leviathan left me thinking that the cycle wasn't the reapers solution. Instead, the reapers are still looking for a solution and the cycle is them resetting the galaxy after each failed attempt and producing new reapers while they look for a solution. Which is reinforced when the catalyst mentions that it had tried synthesis before. So now the justification for the cycle feels a lot more like the catalyst is lying in order to get Sheppard to back down, or at least to give it time to analyze the crucible and factor this new variable into its plans. Now there are still some problems with the ending, like Sheppard not even mentioning the peace between the Quarrians and Geth or there being no mention of what happens with the Rachni afterwards, but it has been improved quite a bit. I'd say that with the Extended Cut and Leviathan, the ending is of comparable quality to the rest of the writing in Mass Effect.
I beg to disagree. The writing started to take a nosedive in ME2 when the original author was only partially writing the scenario. Hence some parts made sense, and others were utterly taking you for a retard. Then the author was nowhere to be found in ME3, just the guy they forced on him in ME2 was responsible for all of it. I stopped playing in the middle of ME2 and it felt like a liberation from all the bullshit contained in it.