Dirk's Epic Spoilerific Mass Effect 3 Post

[inanedirk]

So. Mass Effect 3 then.
I've made a few notes on what I intended to write about, but I'm not entirely sure where to start.

Well then, let's start with something positive. I love the Mass Effect series. The games aren't perfect, but they're pretty damn good. And this is mostly thanks to the writers in my opinion. Graphics are okay, not high end, and they're clearly made to work on PC as well as consoles. Game mechanics in general and combat in particular work pretty well too. No complaints here, but then, those things are basics for a computer game. What sets the Mass Effects apart from most other games is that they dare to tell a real and proper story. How many games do you know that do that? You know, other than your unoriginal "hero saves the world / universe" kinda stuff.

The Dragon Age series has been quite successful (hey look, another BioWare franchise), but then in my mind the Dragon Ages and Mass Effects are basically the same game anyway, just with different settings.
Fallout has tried, but it's been kinda hit and miss with them (hit: Fallout 3, miss: New Vegas).
Only other game I can think of is my all time favourite Planescape: Torment. I had tears in my eyes several times when I played that, and it was basically just text. (Not to dissuade anyone from giving PS:T a try - it's not a plain text game, it's 2D isometric. Just be prepared to read, a lot, when playing)

So when it comes to story, Mass Effect does everything right. It's a little cheesy in places but that's okay. You have characters that interact with each other, they're not shallow, they evolve, they change. You can influence your own character (a lot of which is actually an illusion of course, but it's hidden well enough that you don't notice). Actually the entire story is made that way. It's successful in creating the illusion of choice and freedom, something that most other games fail at (sometimes spectacularly so, aren't I right, Splinter Cell: Conviction?). Having the choices you've made influence later games is brilliance. The result is a well-written narrative that lives up to what you'd expect of a good movie or book, with the added benefit of interaction. Well done, we can only hope for more of such games.

All that, of course, is true until the ending of Mass Effect 3. It actually took me an hour or two to understand why people were so upset with the ending. I decided to go with one ending, and then later decided to check the other possible endings on Youtube. And even then I didn't quite get what all the fuzz is about, until I read an article that pointed out that they're all the freaking same. That's not entirely true of course, there are subtle variations, but it all feels like they were just finished with one ending and then found out that the title was going to go gold the next day.
I agree with a lot of the criticism I read in the past few hours. Saying the ending leaves a lot of room for interpretation is euphemistic: It doesn't make any sense, it creates plot holes, it breaks the ideas, concepts, and game mechanics that made the series successful.
That's more like it.
Instead of reiterating what others have written, let me instead point you in their words' direction:
Mass Effect 3 Ending-Hatred: 5 Reasons The Fans Are Right - Well written factual article on the issue. Pity they've spread it across 6 pages and their site is slow.
Mass Effect 3 Endings ReceptionKnow Your Meme is a good place to find out what's it all about, and then have a good laugh at how other people deal with it.
Retake Mass Effect - Child's Play - I really really like this idea. As a show of support for a better ending, they're collecting money to Child's Play. Of course Mass Effect and Child's Play are in no way related. By donating money, you just show that you're serious about wanting a decent ending to the series. And the money goes to Child's Play Charity, who collect it to help sick children.

There's another article I would like to comment on, because I strongly disagree - Why BioWare Shouldn't Change Mass Effect 3's Ending:
The author here claims that the game is a piece of art, and you can't expect the creator (i.e. an artist) to change his work just because you don't like it. To quote,

Imagine Monet repainting Water Lilies in black and white because people objected to color. Imagine Salman Rushdie trashing The Satanic Verses because people objected to its implications.

I admit that I'm not familiar with those works mentioned, but I don't think that's relevant. According to the author, Mass Effect 3 is both an "art object and a consumer product". I'm sorry, but this is just not true. Artistic aspects are present (some creative person came up with the story, wrote it, people created objects, characters, locations, etc), but the game is "just" a consumer product. It was created with the sole intention of generating revenue.
I believe the intention behind a creation is very important. In the above example, what were Monet's intentions when he painted Water Lilies? If his primary concern was selling it for a good price, then does it really constitute art? If it was just about generating revenue, would it then not make sense for him to change it in whatever way neccessary to maximise revenue? Now, if he painted Water Lilies just for the sake of it? I'm not an artist myself of course, so I can't really tell what drives an artist to creating art. They might want to express themselves, create something beautiful and lasting, something like that. But once you do it for the money, you're just a product or service provider, and your creation is just a that. A product or service. It's not art. (Later generations might declare your product as art, but that's something else entirely).

With that out of my system, there's another quick points I wanted to say about Mass Effect 3.

When I first read about all those people whining and complaining about the ending, I started expecting the worst, and getting ideas of what "the worst" might actually be. Most horrible endings I could think of can be summarised as:
- It was all just a dream. Preferably dreamed by the little boy.
- OMGWTF Shepard is a reaper?!
Yeah, apparently I'm better at coming up with endings than BioWare. I also fully expected one of my companions to be a Cerberus spy.

There was this discussion recently on whether or not it should be possible to "skip combat" in games (article here: Skipping Combat and Bioware Drama among other places). Now I get how avid players of In the Glorious Company Of Bands Of Heroic Men, Who Are Also Brothers might dislike the concept, but it actually made sense. Me, I played Mass Effect 3 on casual. Why? Because getting defeated during combat quickly frustrates me, and I lose interest in the game if it happens too often. Set to casual, I only died once or twice, later in the game. To me, the combat was mostly a bridge between one piece of story to the next, and a tool to increase tension in the narrative.
And just look at how they did it in Planescape: Torment. As far as I recall, you could not skip, but avoid all but one fights in the entire game. And it was more rewarding too (sure, you can beat the sh*t out of the final boss, but it's a lot more fun to defeat him by convincing him he doesn't exist).
In fact I wish more games were like that.

I've written a few lines on the topic of games and art above. Now I'm very sure I've also mentioned the "game" The Path in the past. Go get it if you want to play a real art game.
Anyway, parts of Mass Effect 3 have clearly been inspired by The Path. You have these three dream sequences with Shepard running around the woods trying to find the boy. Those levels look just like the forest in The Path. You even get a child dressed in white running around (though in The Path it's a girl wearing a white dress). I still liked those short passages though, especially the red light, combined with this deep throbbing Reaper sound when you got close to the boy sent shivers down my spine.
The last of those sequences had the boy running from armoured-you into the arms of casual-clothes-you, and then both catching on fire. Maybe leaving Earth to gather allies was the better option than to go after the boy to "save" him, eh?
Oh, but that's not the only idea they borrowed from The Path, in my opinion. The entire passage where Shepard was injured and couldn't run anymore and just walked very slowly, thus taking minutes instead of seconds to get anywhere. The exact same thing happens after you encouter the wolf in The Path. In both cases it increases tension of course. Even the posture is quite similar.

On the issue of Origin, I've been wondering about why BiowEAre introduced that for part 3 of the series. A lot of people, me included, had complained about Origin, because of its EULA, and because of its lack of usefulness. Really, what the hell good is it anyway?? I've come to the conclusion that it's actually a really good idea to force it upon games with part 3 of a successful series. If they'd bundled it with a new product or franchise, it probably would've failed, plain and simple. Bundling it with a title certain to be successful, they got a lot of hypocrites, again, me included, to cave in and just live with it. Well done, guys. I still don't see what it's good for though.

So, what exactly is the point with the readiness / playing online thing? Wasn't playing online meant to increase something or other, and result in a potentially better ending? And if so, how come I haven't really seen any other ending than the one I experienced? Anyone care to explain this to me?

I'm not sure, I might be the first, or the last person to notice this ... But did anyone else realise that your squad mates' appearance choice is not merely an aesthetical one? In case you haven't noticed cycle through appearances and after each one hit the info button to read about bonuses.
Oh, and about the squad selection screen: Nice job, BioWare. With the earlier games you could always tell whether or not you'd "collected" all your potential squad mates. Now you can't.

While playing I didn't really notice any bugs or anything, other than the game being unable to import my Shepard's appearance from the ME2 savegame. But reading up on masseffect.wikia.com/ I noticed Thane and Samara being mentioned. Now I'm certain everyone survived my suicide mission in ME2, so how come I never get to meet Thane and Samara? How did that happen?

As to squad mates in general. Tali <3 ! I finally found out what she looks like. I went online and asked the google to show me higher quality pictures of her. I was instantly spoilered of course, and not in a good way either. The first picture I found was labelled "Picture of Tali, after she committed suicide". I was all like omgwtfsadface and stuff. Fortunately I now know that doesn't neccessarily happen, in my playthrough she survives (aww, and she mourns Legion). Also, emergency induction port!! That was one of my favourite funny things in the entire game.
Other notable funny moments?
- Edi joking about possibly forgetting to recycle the oxygen on the Normandy, and my Shepard's face when he heard that.
- "Everyone knows you can't dance"
Legion was probably my favourite PC in ME2, so I was real happy when I found him/it in ME3. Less happy when I realised he wouldn't be a selectable squad mate this time around. And really sad when he died ):

It's interesting to see other people's comments, screen caps, etc. Now that I'm done playing I read through falling_home's entries on ME3 and found screen caps of things that never happened to me. That's interesting, but also makes me feel like I missed something. Of course, with a game like this, it takes a lot of time to experience all of it. Because you have to play through three games, a lot of times.
I'm also surprised to read about certain things I didn't catch. For example, people have written that it's Harbinger shooting at you towards the end of the game. I never realised it was a specific Reaper. I just thought, "Hey, a Reaper". How did people know it was Harbinger?

Also, once again I failed to collect all the ships for my quarters. Maybe I can still do that, since the game let me continue after defeating the Reapers?
Also also, I want a Reaper model. Normandy SR2 too please. Or plushies.

This is what PA has to say on the topic of Mass Effect 3:
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/03/12
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/03/16 Let's see how much you'll have to pay extra to get your happy ending.

Latest VG Cats is also pretty funny:
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=312

I think that's it for now.

Comments

[falling-home.livejournal.com]

L'art pour l'art is actually a rather modern concept. Da Vinci was paid to sculpt/paint. Does that make him any less of an artist than, let's say, van Gogh?

Anyway, this is a discussion that can be drawn out indefinitely so I'd rather not go there, especially since I largely agree with everything you wrote. I didn't grasp the extent of my disappointment, either, until I took a look at the other endings. ME is a wonderful series that collapses under its own weight during the last 20 or so minutes. However, I wouldn't want them to change the ending. Instead, I'd like additionally DLC to explain wtf just happened. If this doesn't happen, I'll just go with the indoctrination theory.

[inane.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I guess I have yet to read up on the indoctrination theory ...

[inane.livejournal.com]

Ok, I think I like that theory.
Means I fucked up the ending though.
Gotta replay that d;

[falling-home.livejournal.com]

Because you didn't get the extra ten second scene at the end? Yeah, you won't get that anyway unless your Effective Military Strength is >4000. :|

[inane.livejournal.com]

That doesn't take much. A few online games and I've got it. Unfortunately now my final savegame is gone |:

[falling-home.livejournal.com]

There is no final savegame, the last one is before Chronos Station, I think. :|

[inane.livejournal.com]

When I re-played the ending earlier today I had a savegame that got me right to the beacon, after being hit by Harbinger. Possibly an autosave, but it's gone now |:

[inane.livejournal.com]

And it seems you can't just jump into the London mission either, once you've managed to get that much. Gotta go back to at least the beginning of the Chronos mission I guess. I just re-did half of London and revisited the Citadel once again. Didn't get my extra 10 second cutscene. ):

[falling-home.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't even get why they handled the autosave like that. You can't even save manually? They really don't want people to see their ending. :|

[inane.livejournal.com]

L'art pour l'art is actually a rather modern concept. Da Vinci was paid to sculpt/paint. Does that make him any less of an artist than, let's say, van Gogh?

Yes it does, in my opinion. He's working on commission, getting paid etc. Later generations looking at his creations and deciding that it's "art" is something different entirely.