Mass Effect 3 - Page 76

In one option, with low EMS, you destroy the reapers, Earth dies, Shep dies, Anderson dies. With a higher EMS, reapers die, Anderson can survive, Shep can survive, Earth will survive. The highest EMS only changes the destroy ending, the synergy ending (best one IMO) is available at a specific EMS and it doesn't change.

The premise of kinda resetting the universe and destroying mass relays etc. is not too bad I think... It would be interesting to see what all the different races which are stuck in the Sol system now are doing (since the mass relays are destroyed in all endings and they would have to travel years to even reach the next solar system with their conventional FTL drives). Also part of me is thinking that they did this to really finalize the series... to get to a point where they simply can't do a straight sequel anymore... in a way to keep themselves from fucking up the lore with whatever they do next with the ME franchise.

They will be fine I think, consider the fact that Shepard only takes a few ingame seconds to cruise from solar system to solar system inside a sector ^^

Anderson can survive? I had pretty much every war asset there was with like 96% readiness and he still died. And I also think Merge was the best ending.

Certain things I really liked. The development of characters was for the most part handled well, I think. One that particularly comes to mind is Garrus. I'll admit, when I first met him in ME1, I wasn't crazy about him. But as time went on, he grew on me. I started using him more in ME2, and by ME3, I was bringing him on almost every mission just because I felt like I should. Things like the shooting contest on the Citadel went a long way for painting the picture of Garrus as a friend, and not just a teammate. The conversation between Garrus and Shepard before the final charge on the Citadel beam was borderline tear-jerker status. It really made me realize that I actually cared about this character. I could feel the camaraderie between these two characters. It was a relationship that was literally built over 3 games and 5 years. He wasn't just some character that you were introduced to during the game and told "Sup, this guy's name is Garrus, and you care about him because we told you so."

Of course, that made the ending all the much more depressing...

I don't mind the bad ending. I really don't. I understand that Bioware is trying to pull on your heart strings, and they sure as hell succeeded, and I got what I deserved for going in without full readiness/military strength. However, the absence of a true perfect ending, where everyone survives, and you're treated to a nice epilogue, REALLY has me bothered. This isn't some movie I went to see on a Friday night. I spent 5 years of my life playing these games, and spent 3 releases getting attached to this universe and it's characters, and the fact that they think it's okay to cheat you out of the "happy" ending, even one thats super hard to get, honestly really bothers me. For example, I spent 3 games romancing Liara on this particular save file. I wanted more than anything to see a nice epilogue where they have their white picket fence and all that jazz. Seeing her dead on the ground at the Citadel beam broke my heart. And again, I can accept this kind of ending... If I knew there was a happier one out there.

Now, there were certain things about the plot I didn't like. One thing that rubbed me the wrong way was the entire crucible idea. Considering how hopeless they tried to make the game feel, the Crucible essentially takes that sense of tension and throws it out the window. Within half an hour I know theres a super weapon that can kill the reapers. I know thats how the game will end. And all I have to do is run around the galaxy until it is built. They try to bring up some tension with the whole "Oh no we need the Catalyst!" but it's hollow. It's obvious where the game is going at the point. You know you're going to eventually find it.

I also disliked the whole "Oh the crucible has been passed down by generations of those who have been exterminated by the reapers, but no one managed to finish it yet!" Really? Let's back track, shall we? No species knows the Reapers exist. The invasion is sudden. Right off the bat, they attack the Citadel, killing the galaxy's leaders, turning off the Mass Relays, and gaining all census data of the galaxy. You're telling me, that in all this chaos, some species manages to start plans for a weapon that can kill the reapers, despite being completely isolated from the rest of the galaxy. They then hide it away somewhere, where it avoids detection. The next cycle that gets exterminated just happens to find this exact same design while they are getting exterminated, and also add to it. So on and so forth. Oh, and then humans find it, right as the reapers start invading earth. I mean, really?

I would have much preferred a "galaxy uniting and sacrificing to save themselves" kind of deal. In the end, all those forces you built up? You didn't really see them DO anything. The Crucible did all the work. Not only would saving ourselves feel like more of an accomplishment, it would have allowed us to avoid that bullshit ending.

Also, was anyone super turned off about the whole "moving the Citadel to Earth" thing? Talk about a plot hole. If it was that simple to take control of the Citadel, not to mention MOVE it, why the fuck wouldn't they have done that in the first place? This was the whole basis of ME1. The Citadel houses the galaxy's leaders. The Citadel houses important census information to aid in the harvesting. This should have been target #1 for the reapers as soon as they entered the galaxy. Also, unless I forgot that tidbit of dialogue from ME1, the Citadel is also where the reapers turn off the Mass Relays for everyone but themselves. Which is, can you say... a giant advantage? As far as I know, the Protheans only prevented the keepers from activating the Citadel's Mass Relay, not change the Citadel's "control station for the relays" status. Regardless, the Citadel should have still been high on their hit list.

As a side note, I was really, really, really hoping for more insight to the reapers. Who built them? Why were they here? (the reason we are given is bullshit, imo) I was hoping for some kind of dialogue between Shepard and Harbinger. For anyone who didn't notice, not only did they mention Harbinger by name several times, but he's also the Reaper that decimates your team at the Citadel beam, you can tell by his glowing yellow eyes (like the collector general, and the reaper itself shown at the end of ME2.) But instead he just kills you and flys away. Oh... Let down.

The reason for the reapers existence is imo pretty lame, too. To prevent synthetics from taking over organics? Really? Not only were there already laws in place against AI, but the AI race that does exist, the Geth, is shown to be surprisingly benevolent. In fact, at the time of the Quarian invasion, the Geth were in the process of building a dyson sphere around the star where they could house all their programs and essentially live in peace. Yeah, galactic domination was sure on their minds. Not saying synthetics can't be malevolent, but you'd think that after millions of years of extermination some reaper somewhere would have said "hey... maybe we should just like, wait and see if machines actually take over the galaxy? And like.. THEN we'll move in and kill THEM instead? Or something? Right?"

Overall though I think the combat was very well done, though I was disappointed in the squad choices. All the important characters got their cameos, but I wish I could actually save the galaxy with my most trusted team mates. Vega just really came off to me as a meat head from Space Jersey Shore, and I didn't really like him at all. It also bothered me that despite the fact the game is all about uniting the galaxy's races to overcome the reaper threat, theres not a single salarian or krogan in my squad? Really? You treat us to Wrex and Grunt, two of the most bad ass mofos in the galaxy, and then give us... James "The Situation" Vega?

Was anyone else pissed at how they portrayed the Protheans? They didn't fucking look like collectors at all. They had squid like faces, and super long fingers/toes and such, from what we can garner in ME1.



The difference of look in the collectors (I didn't like the idea of them being Prothean husks anyway) was kind of explained by the fact that the genome went through extensive rewrite to fit the reapers' purpose, being little like the original protheans. It's like they just got lazy and didn't want ME2 fans getting confused. I thought the original design for the protheans was much more interesting and alien looking. Also, lolfarscape!

Really if all they did was rip off from TTGL's plotline (anime revolving around evolution of life forms) the ending would have made a hell of alot more sense. That way you wouldn't have had to pick absolutely retarded choices for endings. Really I don't even know how to explain how bad the writing was for the end. Any 15 year old could have made a better ending, seriously. Why would Reaper technology all of a sudden stop working after the Reapers have been destroyed? Why would this and this happen? Why the hell is there so many plotholes from the ending alone? LOL. There was absolutely no reason that the relays had to be destroyed plotwise. You're basically resetting your entire universe by doing this, and committing IP suicide. There could have been thousands of ways to get around not destroying the Relays (therefore disconnecting the entire galaxy and basically resetting everything in the galaxy).



Really even if it was just a simple "You win the war but lose Earth in process, You lose and lose Earth in process, or you win and save Earth" endings this would have satisfied the general public. But no, Bioware had to fuck up the only good thing left that they have (and really I was impressed up until the very end with ME 3) by going all retard derp derp mode regarding the ending. It's really that bad.


Like seriously, why couldn't one of the choices be NOT USE THE CATALYST and suffer massive casualties, but the galaxy is saved finally and is left to rebuild? My god. Most of the population across the galaxy has been lost, but for the oppertunity for life to continue without the Reapers. My fucking god. The ending really makes me rage this hard because if you've played through all 3 games and got 100%, it's like 0 of your decisions made any difference at all.