Let me get this out of the way first. I want to thank the team at Bioware responsible for this magnificent saga. They hit it out of the park and smashed all my expectations. This is one for the ages and I can't wait to see what you all have in store for new projects and your existing franchises.
Now I get to defend myself from the Internet.
Bioware's Mass Effect series has caused me a lot of heartbreak and joy and not because of a controversial ending. I think the best response to the broughhaha over the latter is found here so I won't say anything else about that. Reviews and impressions of the first two games came from writer Greg Rucka, found here and here, and a review from Adam Sessler of G4's X Play reflects a lot of my own thoughts of the final game.
What's amazing about this series in the five years it took to release the saga, Bioware evolved the game as they went along, almost as if Game 1 was a Beta Test and Game 3 was the final product. But the foundation laid in Game 1 was so strong that it was like making improvements on a mansion. Incredibly smart writing gave us thrilling action in a convincing universe and top notch voice acting cemented emotional connections to characters that by game three felt like old friends.
It made subsequent plot developments heartbreaking. Their greatest success is they made me care about the characters and by extension the consequences of my decisions. I wanted to do everything I could to help them. Even if in trying to help resulted in some very ugly situations.
The overall illusion this game series did best was making you feel responsible for the state of this corner of the universe. By the time this game ended I think it's safe to say that this Commander Shepherd was yours, regardless of how the avatar looks.
I didn't have a problem with the ending, either, as I felt my first decision made with the final problem was the right one as my version of Shepherd would do it. And I applaud Bioware for doing it the way they did.
Now, to justify this opinion I'm going to have to mildly spoil it. So, if you haven't finished the game don't read any further. If you don't care, read on.
Still here?
I part company with the outraged fans here because of something very simple. They misunderstood where this ending of the series actually took place. It's not in the last fifteen minutes. By my clock it's about twenty hours or so in to the third game itself where the ending really starts. For those of you keeping score each game takes about 40 hours max to complete, allowing variance for completionists to speed runners. So, all told it's about 120 hours to complete this saga give or take. So, at about hour 100 you get a sense that things are wrapping up--permanently.
The ending started not with combat but with a conversation. It occurs between you and Admiral Hackett who is coordinating earth's defenses while you rally galaxy forces to take back the planet. After priority missions that take you to the Far Rim you can ask why you got drafted into this and Hackett explains, including call backs to what you've done before and who you were before you took command of the Normandy back in game 1.
It's at this point even knowing how the plot is more or less going that I thought Shepherd wasn't going to make it out of this alive. And it made the connections already established even more endearing. If you pursued a romance (and I did) there's an air of melancholy about it. Your crew from the second game makes appearances with missions and other things and it felt like saying goodbye to them whenever they were around--sometimes in the most brutal way possible.
Every mission felt like a sense of closure. As if you knew you were going to die and wanted all your affairs in order before you pass. When the others in your crew get a chance to shine, especially the one you chose to romance, it's some of the best writing in the game. Later on you're given one final time to say goodbye during the multi-stage ending that results in some well wrought emotional catharsis.
Bioware pulled off an interesting trick with the ending because they had to find a way to make the ending logical even accounting for all the decisions the player made from game 1 onward. And they do this by bypassing it entirely and making half the internet mad.
But I maintain that this was probably the only way they could do it. I think people misunderstood where they wanted their closure to the story happen. The closure has been happening for hours at this point, not in the last fifteen minutes. The last decision falls to you to decide the state of the universe. Everyone else at this point has had their final moments, of sorts. Now it's time for yours.
We all know how this was going to end--in a confrontation with the reapers. And what's making people angry is the outcome is generally the same with each path you take. But there's something else going on here when you approach that platform. It's not about the action of dealing with the Crucible. It's how you feel as a player (and by extension how Shepherd feels).
I said earlier I was happy with my initial choice and I still am because it actually did reflect everything I was trying to do--being the ultimate diplomat. I base my feeling on how I felt after two key missions from this game and the overall sense of what happened in games 1 and 2. In those key missions one outcome resulted in a hopefully bright future for a race, the other resulted in the destruction of a race. The decision I made at the very end could be the result of how I was feeling about that as she walked to the platform for the final time. Namely, this has to end because one path clearly wouldn't work based on who I was and the other carried the risk of repeating what already happened.
I don't know what Bioware has planned next for their RPG franchises. But this one is closed for now. And if this is all we get I will be satisfied. They have created something special and have set the bar incredibly high not only for their future works but for other game studios working on RPGs. I am grateful for having the opportunity to play it.
PS
While I have the floor, PAX East, PAX Prime and E3 are coming up. Bioware would make my year if they would announce Jade Empire 2. Or Dragon Age 3.
Post Post Script
Well, I will be one of the ones who won't need this but it is interesting that there's some appeasement for those that absolutely hated the ending to this saga.
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