FWIW, I restarted from the save just before you enter the beam to return to the Citadel and got the new ending.
Agree to some degree with some of the comments above - i.e. that they expanded on the original endings giving you a more complete picture of the universe post crucible activation. However, in doing so, I think they destroyed (or made more illogical) the one truly good interpretation available the first time around - that the whole starchild / citadel sequence wasn't really about Shepard making a choice between 3 options that played out as advertised, but a battle by Shepard against indoctrination with only 2 possible outcomes: Shepard refused to succomb to indoctrination and chose to destroy the reapers, resulting in a future that played out as advertised, or Shepard succumbing to indoctrination and not destroying the reapers under the deluded belief that they could be controlled or synthesized, resulting in a future where the reapers weren't stopped (closer to the no choice ending). It was always tenuous given the brief scenes after the latter two choices, but now the extended scenes seem to indicate that there is a reality to the reapers either being controlled or synthesized.
I like what they did with the extended cut. It really fills out the ending in a satisfying way. It explains almost everything I wanted answered. I'm glad they did this.
I went and had a looksee at the extended endings. Better, I think, they helped salvage some of their credibility though there are still some serious problems, but...
Spoiler!
The keynote thing that stands out for me is how horrible playing and replaying the endpiece is. This should have been a big glaring red warning sign for them. This is a game where you're a space marine who runs around with big guns and... in the ending, you restrict the character to limping along with a weak pistol. And you give him three choices, none of which involves anything more interesting than crawling to its terminus and activating the objective there.
Frustrating your players, I submit, is a good way to snap them out of the game and push the "I'm not having fun" button.
The dialogue tree is hardly anything to brag about either, it's basically linear, and your only options are to talk the Illusive Man into offing himself or shooting him before he can shoot you, via Renegade interrupt. Then you talk to the Starchild who explains the options.
So, you've lost gun, and you've lost chat. The only thing you have left to play for in ME3 is hoping that everything you've worked for will be saved in the ending... So when they showed three different colors of explosions and cut away after the Normandy crash-lands on some distant planet with no adequate explanation, It's no wonder that fans complained so vociferously about the unsatisfactory endings.
So, here's the hundred thousand dollar question: what would I have done instead?
Okay, I'd keep the endgame up to the point where you're trudging into the beam. That part was fine. A moment where you're staggering feels appropriately shocking.
But that's the point where I would have the player's squadmates come charging forward, rushing with him into the beam. They slap some medigel on him, he's back and ready for the final level. This is it, live or die.
The final level would be similar to the Collector base at the end of ME2, except here the Illusive Man got in ahead of you and is in control of its defenses, which he's using to churn out cyborg minions. He shows up to taunt you as you dismantle the defenses, and at each point you have the opportunity to rebut him in some way. If you fail, you get a brief fight where you have to take him down 25%, and you can observe his special moves and learn to react so you don't get killed in the final boss fight.
The Starchild appears throughout the level as well, giving you information you need to choose your final destination. It's an AI left by the originators who created the Reapers, to watch for and recognize when organics and synthetics can live in peace, when their solution can be halted... But the Reapers are more interested in perpetrating themselves, and want the Illusive Man in place, under their control. They want the cycle to go on forever, so they sabotaged the Citadel to prevent it from generating the galaxy-spanning energy pulse. Shepard and his crew, it seems, are the Starchild's last hope to ensure the Citadel is opened and the Crucible is docked.
The Crucible is in fact, a design of the Starchild's, released cycles ago in the hope that the Citadel could be restored and the cycles could be ended. (in my version-- in the actual extended ending, the Crucible is "doh, we thought we had destroyed that ages ago")
Heck, maybe more of Shepard's team get through, and like the Collector base, you choose which two you want to send on side missions. Who do you send to unjam the shutters so that the Citadel can be opened? Who do you use to sneak through the ventilation ducts to hack into the security system?
And finally your confrontation with the Illusive Man... Yeah, I'm thinking if you don't succeed in talking him into killing himself, there needs to be a blow-out final boss fight. And if you do succeed, I liked how the Reapers reanimated Sarevok in the first ME, and the Illusive Man certainly looks cyborg enough.
After that-- destroy, control, or synthesis? I'm thinking that should be a result of bonus objectives either you achieved during the final level or what you told your team mates to accomplish on their missions. With a low EMS, some points on the Citadel might be destroyed by Reapers (cut scenes showing your allies stopping them or failing to do so) making them inaccessible.
Once you make the endings available, you get to pick between them, of course, Skip making the player walk to the beams, just give the choice via the Starchild, who is grateful to Shepard for freeing it from Reaper domination, and wants to know what Shepard proposes be done... before the Reapers smash into the Crucible, turning it into space dust. Think fast, Shepard!
Anyway... Initially I picked Synthesis, but after watching it and Control this time through, I felt that Synthesis was too invasive. Control by a full-Paragon Shepard seems the best route. I picture my Shepard withdrawing from the galaxy after reconstruction of the Relays is complete, acting only to prevent species-level extinction and galactic disasters. The galaxy's races must be free to develop at their own pace, because in infinite diversity, there are infinite possibilities.
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well those endings were better, but whole "final choice the end" bit is still flawed to start with. i like that they fixed the whole ruining the Mass Effect universe bit by not making the relays explode, but several big flaws are still there. sure they tried to explain how your squadmates ended up on the Normandy, but they did it in a ridiculous way. the final run to the beam, reapers shooting everything in sight, but somehow the Normandy has enough time to land, collect your squad, and then sit there while you say a final goodbye. not even a potshot from a reaper even though they were mere feet away. you don't need to show the Normandy crash landing anywhere because it isn't needed, it serves no purpose in the ending. but instead of just fixing that whole bit by removing it, they make it even dumber
oh and i like how now that i've done both my renegade and paragon playthroughs, several "big" decisions had zero impact. blow up the collector base or keep it? doesn't matter, Cerberus recovers the human reaper anyways. kill or save the Rachni? again doesn't matter. kill or save the council? yep, doesn't matter. that's why ME3 fails so badly, not because it's a bad game or anything, but because it does a disservice to the entire franchise by making the first two games trivial. bah
well those endings were better, but whole "final choice the end" bit is still flawed to start with. i like that they fixed the whole ruining the Mass Effect universe bit by not making the relays explode, but several big flaws are still there. sure they tried to explain how your squadmates ended up on the Normandy, but they did it in a ridiculous way. the final run to the beam, reapers shooting everything in sight, but somehow the Normandy has enough time to land, collect your squad, and then sit there while you say a final goodbye. not even a potshot from a reaper even though they were mere feet away. you don't need to show the Normandy crash landing anywhere because it isn't needed, it serves no purpose in the ending. but instead of just fixing that whole bit by removing it, they make it even dumber
oh and i like how now that i've done both my renegade and paragon playthroughs, several "big" decisions had zero impact. blow up the collector base or keep it? doesn't matter, Cerberus recovers the human reaper anyways. kill or save the Rachni? again doesn't matter. kill or save the council? yep, doesn't matter. that's why ME3 fails so badly, not because it's a bad game or anything, but because it does a disservice to the entire franchise by making the first two games trivial. bah
I agree with this completely. I'm somewhat happier with the ending now that there's at least an element of explanation; however, the whole concept is still a bit dumb.
Also, a lot of the complaints were that the three endings were all the same cut-scene, so they fixed that by showing a series of stills with someone narrating over it. The SAME stills regardless of of the ending. Oh, on one ending there's some green painted on the stills.
all i want now is more stuff set in the Mass Effect universe. it's still one of the best and most fleshed out sci-fi universes ever made, but they need to get some better writers in. i don't think it's a coincidence that both ME3 and the last ME novel took a huge hit in the writing department after Drew Karpyshyn left Bioware. i just hope that they don't use the synthesis ending as canon, because having every character glowing green would be annoying
all i want now is more stuff set in the Mass Effect universe. it's still one of the best and most fleshed out sci-fi universes ever made, but they need to get some better writers in. i don't think it's a coincidence that both ME3 and the last ME novel took a huge hit in the writing department after Drew Karpyshyn left Bioware. i just hope that they don't use the synthesis ending as canon, because having every character glowing green would be annoying
I think it's far more likely that Control will be used as the default ending for any future games. With Control, you could have a situation where the Reapers helped reconstruct the Mass Relays and repair the damage they caused, but Shepard was ultimately unable to maintain control of them. Now our new hero has to defeat the Reaper threat fully. Plus, the other synthetic lifeforms (EDI, the Geth, etc.) would still be around, and they're really interesting aspects of the ME fiction that I doubt the writers want to completely abandon.
Synthesis just seems weird. Who wants to play a game where every character is an organic/machine hybrid with glowing green circuitry on their faces?
I think it's far more likely that Control will be used as the default ending for any future games. With Control, you could have a situation where the Reapers helped reconstruct the Mass Relays and repair the damage they caused, but Shepard was ultimately unable to maintain control of them. Now our new hero has to defeat the Reaper threat fully. Plus, the other synthetic lifeforms (EDI, the Geth, etc.) would still be around, and they're really interesting aspects of the ME fiction that I doubt the writers want to completely abandon.
Synthesis just seems weird. Who wants to play a game where every character is an organic/machine hybrid with glowing green circuitry on their faces?
i think control should/will be the "real" ending as well, but the reaper threat is done, they need to move on and do something else. the one thing i don't get now though is Shepherd being alive after the destroy ending. seeing him/her take a breath made sense if you bought the indoctrination theory, but now that Bioware has made it clear that there was no indoctrination why have Shepherd live in only one of the endings? i'd like to think that there's some bigger purpose for that final scene, but knowing Bioware it was probably just another half-thought idea they threw in with no real purpose or design behind it
i think control should/will be the "real" ending as well, but the reaper threat is done, they need to move on and do something else. the one thing i don't get now though is Shepherd being alive after the destroy ending. seeing him/her take a breath made sense if you bought the indoctrination theory, but now that Bioware has made it clear that there was no indoctrination why have Shepherd live in only one of the endings? i'd like to think that there's some bigger purpose for that final scene, but knowing Bioware it was probably just another half-thought idea they threw in with no real purpose or design behind it
The indoctrination theory HAS to be the case! Has Bioware actually said that Shepard isn't indoctrinated? The evidence is wayyyy too plentiful when it comes to Shepard being indoctrinated in the final Citadel/Catalyst scene... Throw in waking up amongst the ruins of London after the "destroy" ending (the only option available to decline/beat indoctrination) and it makes way too much sense!
Bioware will (should) release future downloadable content making Shepard's indoctrination the real ending, with an epic final battle scene shown thereafter; The Crucible blasting away reapers with ease. Your recruited war assets (and personnel choices throughout the 3 games) are shown aiding the battle and chipping away at the Reaper forces. The threat is defeated through conventional means.
You've all probably seen this, but I'll post it anyways (long, but a must-watch for any Mass Effect fan):
Bioware will (should) release future downloadable content making Shepard's indoctrination the real ending, with an epic final battle scene shown thereafter; The Crucible blasting away reapers with ease.
I hope not. Let's not forget that the Crucible has no specific weapons or targeting systems (noted by Admiral Hackett and in the codex as well I believe). It's basically a big battery to attach to the Catalyst (the Citadel). If it were to fire, it would likely be like the first Death Star where it would be too slow and overpowered to fire on Reapers, anyway. It's supposed to be a one-shot-kill-all solution.
Also, they've been toting the reapers as incredibly difficult to destroy. In the final fleet attack, it took a ton of ships focusing on one destroyer to take it down. I doubt the combined fleets of the galaxy (remembering that many of them have taken heavy losses before arriving at Earth) could take on the entire Reaper fleet and win, which is why the Refusal ending is correct in how they would lose and only little information capsules would be left to find by the next cycle's population.
They haven't explained where Shepard is or how he/she's alive in what appears to be London in the special Destroy ending, but I imagine they never will.
Regarding the Normandy being able to just float in front of Harbinger without a care in the world, isn't it possible that Harbinger "sees" things via sensors, and the Normandy's stealth systems allow it to be invisible to Reapers? It kinda was able to just fly away from Earth without being attacked at the beginning of ME3, and it weaved through the massive battle over Earth at the end with no problems as well. It also has the Reaper IFF from ME2 which would make it a friendly to Reapers? I imagine all this together should work in their favor, right?
Regarding the Normandy being able to just float in front of Harbinger without a care in the world, isn't it possible that Harbinger "sees" things via sensors, and the Normandy's stealth systems allow it to be invisible to Reapers? It kinda was able to just fly away from Earth without being attacked at the beginning of ME3, and it weaved through the massive battle over Earth at the end with no problems as well. It also has the Reaper IFF from ME2 which would make it a friendly to Reapers? I imagine all this together should work in their favor, right?
the collectors had no problem destroying the first stealth Normandy, and attacking the 2nd even with the reaper IFF. somehow i doubt the collectors having better sensor technology than the reapers themselves
The new multiplayer DLC "Earth" is out. It comes with 3 new maps, 3 new guns and a new Platinum difficulty. I've only managed to get to wave 2 on Platinum so far and holy god its ridiculous.
Edit: Ok, we got up to wave 4 on "Cerberus", **** that. By wave 3 of Cerberus you get Brutes, Ravengers, Atlas's out the ass. By wave 4 you get 5+ banshee's --> this is on Cerberus by the way. I imagine by wave 10 it's just Atlas's, Geth Primes, Banshee's, Brutes and Phantoms.
Last edited by 3 Justin 3; 07-17-2012 at 04:02 AM.
New endings are still pretty stupid. The Destroy ending isn't terrible I guess.
If they'd essentially taken the rejection ending but made it longer so you can watch everyone die, and have all other choices end in either indoctrination (control and synthesis), and have destroy be similarly phyrric, that would have worked for me. A horrifyingly bleak ending is at least a legitimate ending.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
I think it's far more likely that Control will be used as the default ending for any future games. With Control, you could have a situation where the Reapers helped reconstruct the Mass Relays and repair the damage they caused, but Shepard was ultimately unable to maintain control of them.
However, in the event of a sequel, I like the control one the best too. I don't like your story arc though. I would prefer that you fast forward 100 years and Shepard has become corrupted and the whole "benevolent controller" thing has morphed into a galactic oppressive state. The new protagonist has to free the galaxy from the crushing grip of an imposed but strictly controlled "utopia" created by the former hero.
The new multiplayer maps are super glitchy for me, and quite astonishingly boring. Vancouver especially. After Condor and Goddess, which at least give you some spatial challenges, we're given an intersection, a straight corridor, and a giant circle to run around in desperate search of something to shoot.
Too old for that ####. Vancouver must be a great map for freeloaders because it's a goddamn chore to get into contact with the enemy.
Sweet. I'm all for more single player DLC. I guess this might be why Starchild didn't want to say much about the Reaper origins. "Wait for the DLC, Shepard!"
I haven't touched ME3 since I completed it. Will I pick up this DLC? Probably. I've just had no desire to go back and play through the game again which is pretty sad. When I played the first 2 games I immediately started another game after I finished my initial playthroughs.
So apparently this DLC will change the end of the game. My first response is; I told you so. I knew Bioware/EA would "charge" people for endings. I am interested to see what the new content is like but this is some seriously ####ty buisness practice if you ask me. Big game companies could learn a thing or two from CD Projekt Red.
So apparently this DLC will change the end of the game. My first response is; I told you so. I knew Bioware/EA would "charge" people for endings. I am interested to see what the new content is like but this is some seriously ####ty buisness practice if you ask me. Big game companies could learn a thing or two from CD Projekt Red.
I didn't understand from the clip when this DLC is occurring during the time frame of Mass Effect 3. Can someone explain?
