merlinofchaos (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
merlinofchaos) wrote2012-03-10 10:16 am
merlinofchaos) wrote2012-03-10 10:16 am
Mass Effect 3
Since we are leaving on a trip today, I blitzed through Mass Effect 3 knowing I wouldn't really get another chance to play it again for 2 weeks. This caused a very intense level of investment that I might not have had had I played it normally.
Spoiler free review: I feel betrayed and angry. And heartbroken.
Spoilers after the cut.
So basically, there's something like 17 different endings. There are 3 ending arcs and a bunch of really minor variations that multiply it to 17. The minor variations are trivial. They amount to bit flags: Earth is devastated or not, Anderson dies or not, Shepard dies or not.
No matter what you do (I think, I haven't confirmed the "control reaper" arc yet) the mass relays are destroyed and galactic civilization as it was presented to us is destroyed. This pretty much destroys civilization.
Somehow, the Normandy is travelling between relays (which makes no sense, as it had to be at the final battle at Earth) and somehow, people who were with you on the ground and should probably either be dead or with you at the end are on the Normandy.
In the 'good' ending where Shepard lives, any romance object you have is stranded on another planet. With no mass relays.
There basically is not an ending, as far as I can tell, where Shepard actually saves the galaxy. The very very best you can get is that Earth isn't *completely* devastated (but by my calculations is probably half depopulated) and, uh. Shepard can live, but that's actually a bad ending to me because everything Shepard worked for and was fighting for is gone. Everything Shepard believed to be true is apparently not true.
But worse than that, the ultimate Reaper story is nonsensical and is contradicted by the plot. Anything you do leading up to the ending is pointless. Did you cure the Krogans of the genophage? Good for them, but now they're trapped on a nuclear winter covered world without enough food supply (read: any) to support the population. Ooops. Cure the genophage, now they get to starve to death. And since they're krogan, they'll basically eat each other pretty soon.
Did you save Kelly Chambers from Cerberus? Well she was on the Citadel, which was taken by the Reapers and then probably destroyed (I think one ending doesn't destroy it). Yay you saved her for a couple of weeks.
The Mass Effect games have always been about the triumph of the strong, lone hero who is bigger than life. Better than the best and good at everything and manages to triumph despite all odds. The fact that there is no possible way to get reasonably happy ending (I mean, really, every major population center in the galaxy has been occupied by the reapers by the time you get to the end, so it can't be THAT happy) feels like a betrayal of the first two games. You pour time and energy and get emotionally invested in characters and after the big ending, NOTHING (except for Joker). They're then just thrown away.
All of the ones who died on the way to the end were the lucky ones; their stories get closure. Except even that...Mordin sacrificing himself for the Krogans? Hahaha. Sorry, sacrifice is useless!
I don't know if I can play myself to play the single player game again. Maybe I can go back and do the multiplayer, but it's going to have to be after I've had a chance to get over the heartbreak.
Spoiler free review: I feel betrayed and angry. And heartbroken.
Spoilers after the cut.
So basically, there's something like 17 different endings. There are 3 ending arcs and a bunch of really minor variations that multiply it to 17. The minor variations are trivial. They amount to bit flags: Earth is devastated or not, Anderson dies or not, Shepard dies or not.
No matter what you do (I think, I haven't confirmed the "control reaper" arc yet) the mass relays are destroyed and galactic civilization as it was presented to us is destroyed. This pretty much destroys civilization.
Somehow, the Normandy is travelling between relays (which makes no sense, as it had to be at the final battle at Earth) and somehow, people who were with you on the ground and should probably either be dead or with you at the end are on the Normandy.
In the 'good' ending where Shepard lives, any romance object you have is stranded on another planet. With no mass relays.
There basically is not an ending, as far as I can tell, where Shepard actually saves the galaxy. The very very best you can get is that Earth isn't *completely* devastated (but by my calculations is probably half depopulated) and, uh. Shepard can live, but that's actually a bad ending to me because everything Shepard worked for and was fighting for is gone. Everything Shepard believed to be true is apparently not true.
But worse than that, the ultimate Reaper story is nonsensical and is contradicted by the plot. Anything you do leading up to the ending is pointless. Did you cure the Krogans of the genophage? Good for them, but now they're trapped on a nuclear winter covered world without enough food supply (read: any) to support the population. Ooops. Cure the genophage, now they get to starve to death. And since they're krogan, they'll basically eat each other pretty soon.
Did you save Kelly Chambers from Cerberus? Well she was on the Citadel, which was taken by the Reapers and then probably destroyed (I think one ending doesn't destroy it). Yay you saved her for a couple of weeks.
The Mass Effect games have always been about the triumph of the strong, lone hero who is bigger than life. Better than the best and good at everything and manages to triumph despite all odds. The fact that there is no possible way to get reasonably happy ending (I mean, really, every major population center in the galaxy has been occupied by the reapers by the time you get to the end, so it can't be THAT happy) feels like a betrayal of the first two games. You pour time and energy and get emotionally invested in characters and after the big ending, NOTHING (except for Joker). They're then just thrown away.
All of the ones who died on the way to the end were the lucky ones; their stories get closure. Except even that...Mordin sacrificing himself for the Krogans? Hahaha. Sorry, sacrifice is useless!
I don't know if I can play myself to play the single player game again. Maybe I can go back and do the multiplayer, but it's going to have to be after I've had a chance to get over the heartbreak.
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