finished it tonight, I'm happy with the ending, great game.

 

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i've never played gears of war so it didn't ;D also, i don't need to be invested in it before i know if i would like it; storytelling in a game doesn't affect that for moi, only gameplay

 

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Your loss!

Glad to hear someone say something good about the ending, for a change.

 

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Ok, just beat this. Took just shy of 40 hours. Had 5000+ resources and almost 90% GR. Completed every side mission, but I did not scan every sector.

Long story short, this is a fantastic game and definitely ranks on my favorite games list. I cannot wait to go back through the entire series on my Bizzaroshep (Switching from paragon maleshep to renegade femshep). I didn't have any of the previous dlc for the old games so I'm gonna get the complete experience on this next playthrough.

The multiplayer is pretty rad too. Someone look me up on xbox if you wanna play.

Further thoughts in SPOILERVISIOOOOOOON.

I chose the synthesis ending based on this logic: Fusing organic and synthetic life was the only true way to break the cycle. Shepard would have died no matter my choice. Killing all synthetics would have destroyed the geth and EDI, which was a price I was not willing to pay. Trying to control the reapers would have only granted a temporary reprieve as Shepard would eventually die and no longer be able to control them. Will have to try out the other two later to see if they actually play out much differently.

So I understand why people on the internet are probably complaining: Shepard dying and not really getting to see how the lives of your squad end up is somewhat disappointing. It's also a deus ex machina, but whatever, the entire series deals with god machines so I cannot be disappointed when the god machines have a god machine of their own.

By showing Joker and EDI emerging from the wreckage as this new hybrid form of life and embracing on this new world, followed by the rest of the crew (Tali was one of my squadmates on the final mission and if she stepped off the Normandy, then dammit everyone else lived too), it implies that life will go on and everyone will forge the future of civilization on this new world. Not to mention Buzz Aldrin's speech at the end has some serious implications. With the mass relays destroyed, it's impossible to visit new worlds until a new culture develops this technology. This speech must have happened far, FAR into the future. Much longer than 50,000 years, implying that the cycle is truly broken. They also know Shepard's legend, and speak of him as more than a hero. He's brought permanent peace to the galaxy. His death was worth it.

It makes me sad that Tali will never get to go back to Rannoch, or that Wrex and Eve are separated and he'll never see his children (assuming he survived on Earth), but knowing that Shepard really did save the galaxy makes up for it. Honestly those are the only two loose ends in the story that I wish could have been resolved.

Favorite things in the game:
1. Mordin's sacrifice to cure the Genophage. Mordin was probably my favorite character from 2 and I felt like they did an amazing job finishing his story. I actually cried a little bit here. Seriously powerful scene, one of the best in any game.
2. The blasto poster on the Citadel near the apartments. I laughed so hard at this.
3. The way the ambient side conversations when walking around made everything feel so active and alive. Being able to walk in on the crew interacting with each other mid conversation and just observing them without directly intervening or joining the conversation was a really cool touch.
4. Vanguard: still ridiculously satisfying to play.
5. EMERGENCY INDUCTION PORT.
6. Grunt emerging covered in blood from the rachni lair. "Anybody got something to eat?"
7. Basically every single surviving character, whether major or minor, made an appearance in this game.

The things i didn't care for (these are all really minor):
1. Kai Leng. Apparently he was some character from the novels? I feel like it would have been better to have someone from the actual games end up as The Illusive Man's right hand. Instead we got Asshole Cerberus Batman.
2. Apparently I didn't talk to Kelly Chambers enough and so I didn't get to see her cameo even though I freed her from the liquification tube in 2? Come on, I didn't want to screw up my romance in ME2! UGH.
3. Banshees.
4. There's a bug with Conrad Verner's appearance and it didn't let me see the first half of the conversation.
5. Sometimes biotic charge doesn't work right so I fail to make contact with my target and don't regenerate shields.

SPOILERS.

I chose the destruction of the reapers. I felt that control was too vague. When I was handed the choices, I saw control as an extension of what 'Starchild' was doing, and in effect my Shep would become the same, and eventually succumb to the need to let the cycle continue. Who knows what kind of mental changes a human would go through when trying to control such a vastly superior force, the pinnacle of synthetic evolution?

Synthesis was also a no go. The ramifications are just too widespread; who was my Shep to dictate the evolutionary path of countless civilizations and lower lifeforms on a galactic scale?

And so, the choice was made, the lesser of all the evils. Destroy the Geth, whom my friend Legion had sacrificed himself to grant 'life', destroy EDI, who had taken such great strides in her path to become as close to human as possible, and even had become a close friend. And most of all, annihilate the Reapers, who had wrought destruction on a galactic scale. You are even told that, thanks to Cerberus, you are part Synthetic yourself, and you will not survive the process.

And yet, with over 6000 resources and a GR of 100%, I was granted half a second of rubble covered Femshep, taking in a breath. One of the reasons I feel the endings are garbage, and may not be the true endings as we see them. Many hints about online, including stuff from Bioware people on places like Twitter and their official forums, that this story is not over.

Another thing. Say these are the true endings, and the Mass Relays are destroyed. This absolutely massive fleet, comprised of the full military power of all the council races combined, even including the Quarians, Volus, Elcor, and Krogan, are now for all intents and purposes stuck on Earth. We may as well have let the Reapers wipe it out, because sure as hell our now completely wasted planet (thanks to the Reapers) can't support all of these people.

And, why was Joker and the Normandy in the middle of a jump, anyway? What sense does it make that my crew, who stuck by my paragon femshep for better or worse through three games and countless battles, is running from the fight? And why is someone I saw on Earth just minutes before I went into the Citadel to make my choice, my LI, walking out of the Normandy on a distant planet? What the hell are they doing there, how did they get there, and why?

Most of all, why does a series like this, that is predicated on the idea that 'your choice matters', end without closure and with 16 endings that are basically the same? The only difference is the color of the explosions. It makes no sense, and really just makes me think that we're being led into paid DLC with a further continuance of the story. In which case, Bioware, STFU and take my money. You earned it for this.

Regardless, I played through ME1-3 twice, both games four times each. 2 Playthrough in each game for my paragon femshep, and 2 playthroughs in each for my renegade femshep. I've just now started playing ME1 as a paragon male shep, and now I remember why I shied away from playing the male. His voice actor is robotic and awful, and pales in comparison to Jennifer Hale.

That is all.

Edit: I forgot one point I wanted to make. Whether these endings are the true and complete endings or not, I agree that the destruction of the Mass Relays and Citadels are necessary and don't think it's stupid at all. The Reapers used the Mass Relays and the Citadel as a basis for control, to limit the technological prowess of the galactic community. Such travel is never duplicated by any of the civilizations, simply because it's there already. It leaves the civilizations that use the Mass Relays to base their technology off of these systems left in place by the Reapers, and leaves them open to the inevitable confrontation. While the Reaper threat has been eliminated (as long as these endings hold up and are the only endings we'll ever see), it still makes sense that the Masss Relays be wiped out because they are Reaper machinations. This will leave the galactic civilizations to strive toward making their own technology to fill the void, making everyone stronger and more self-reliant than ever before.

 

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In short, I definitely disagree that the endings were terrible, I definitely agree that bioware is gonna release an epilogue dlc, and I kinda love that there's so much discussion about these things.

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/03/16

this thread is pretty entertaining if you scroll up and down quickly while looking at rhylith's quote of dums' spoiler text

 

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fixed

 

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