Okay, so before we start, lets first give a BIG SPOILER WARNING
Before I get to my thoughts on the ending, let me start off with what I liked about the game (in stream of consciousness order :-) ):
The Reapers: To me, they were a big homage to Orson Well's "War of the Worlds", from the way they walked on the ground (why would flying sentient ships need to walk, anyway? :-)), to the way they bellowed before attacking, to their sometimes illogical preference for using a single Death Ray (when Shepard needed to take out the reaper by 'painting' its eye with a laser, couldn't it have killed her [yes, HER ;-)] much easier by lobbing bombs her way?).
The "Hard Science-Fiction" setting: with the exception of 'biotic powers', the Mass Effect universe felt very "Hard Science" to me, in the way you would see in a lot of Military themed science fiction novels (a friend of mine has often told me of the "Honor Harrington" series of novels, and from his descriptions it kind of reminds me of the ME Universe).
The various 'Side Stories': When wandering through the Citadel, you would sometimes come across people having a discussion that had nothing to do with your mission, but helped flesh out the setting. That being said, when you came to the last lines in a side story, they had a tendacy to repeat themselves from the beginning. This was particularly jarring with one Alliance Soldier who was trying to get her daughter to Thessia, AFTER I had completed the sad mission for the Asari Homeworld :-(
Getting to meet all of your old 'crew' from ME 2: As I said before, in my first playthrough of ME 2, I had Zaheed and Miranda die, not long after followed by my own X-Box :-(
For ME 3 I bought a version for the PC, and managed to find a site that had preplayed saves for ME 2, so I found one that most closely matched mine (seems no one was so bad a player as to lose anyone [even Zaheed, who it seemed was set up to die if you were playing a Paragon character]).
So I got to meet everyone (and see Miranda's ass again [yep, they set up another scene where the camera was centered on her ass, and as long as you didn't pick a dialogue choice you could view it to your heart's content :-) ). Jack's new appearance was interesting (she actually had on clothes! :-)), and Ashley was looking a lot hotter since 1 and 2, and EDI's had a nice shiny, metallic ass of her own (yeah, I'm focusing on the female crew, so sue me! :-) ).
The Bad:
"Fetch Quests": In addition to the 'Priority' quests, there were other minor quests you could do that were essentially go to Planet X, search it until you find something a person wants, and bring it back to the Citadel. Its these kind of quests I absolutely HATE in a MMO, and I wasn't fond of it here either.
The 'keyboard control scheme': After two games of getting used to using the X-Box controller, using the keyboard to play just felt wrong to me, and I was often either ordering squadmates places they shouldn't go, or not picking my power screen at the right time, and getting killed as a result. I only got used to the control scheme near the end.
Speaking of which, lets now talk about THE ENDING :-):
Now, I know how so many people have said how they hated the ending, but first, let me give you my choice:
I choose to Control the Reapers, which resulted in the destruction of the Mass Relays, and Shepard's apparent death.
Now, I fully expected Shepard to die in the end (heroes often die in some great sacrifice to stop a threat, like Sherlock Holmes, for instance), so I had no problem with that, nor did I have a problem with the ME Universe being drastically changed by the destruction of the Mass Relays.
The only other choice was to destroy all electronic technology in the galaxy, essentially reducing everyone to little better than Iron Age technology. This way at least the possibility exists that some race can recreate the Relay tech, and open the galaxy up to exploration again.
Yes, there were a lot of questions left unanswered, but on the whole, I've got to say I'm with the minority who, if I didn't fall in love with the ending, wasn't that dissapointed by it as well.
That being said, they should have included an ending where, if you completed absolutely EVERY minor quest (and maybe thrown a couple of very hard to find ones as well), you could get a 'Happily Ever After' ending where the Reapers are defeated and everyone survives.
I may update this entry later, but those are my initial thoughts, less after half an hour after finishing the game.
Edit: Okay, maybe my attitude towards the ending is starting to change, now that I've seen one reviewer in particular: Angry Joe.
Here is his "Top 10 Reasons why the Ending Sucks": Angry Joe Bad Ending
As I listened to it, I found I agreed with much he had to say, despite the fact that I'm still more or less satisfied with the ending I choose.
He also presented another interesting theory, though, that Shepard was actually Indoctrinated by the Reapers!!! 0_0: Shepard Indoctrinated!?!?
If this actually proves true, then I will be royally pissed, as there was really no indication that this was the 'wrong' choice that I made!!
Well, the 'new' ending will soon be available, and we'll all find out, I guess.
Before I get to my thoughts on the ending, let me start off with what I liked about the game (in stream of consciousness order :-) ):
The Reapers: To me, they were a big homage to Orson Well's "War of the Worlds", from the way they walked on the ground (why would flying sentient ships need to walk, anyway? :-)), to the way they bellowed before attacking, to their sometimes illogical preference for using a single Death Ray (when Shepard needed to take out the reaper by 'painting' its eye with a laser, couldn't it have killed her [yes, HER ;-)] much easier by lobbing bombs her way?).
The "Hard Science-Fiction" setting: with the exception of 'biotic powers', the Mass Effect universe felt very "Hard Science" to me, in the way you would see in a lot of Military themed science fiction novels (a friend of mine has often told me of the "Honor Harrington" series of novels, and from his descriptions it kind of reminds me of the ME Universe).
The various 'Side Stories': When wandering through the Citadel, you would sometimes come across people having a discussion that had nothing to do with your mission, but helped flesh out the setting. That being said, when you came to the last lines in a side story, they had a tendacy to repeat themselves from the beginning. This was particularly jarring with one Alliance Soldier who was trying to get her daughter to Thessia, AFTER I had completed the sad mission for the Asari Homeworld :-(
Getting to meet all of your old 'crew' from ME 2: As I said before, in my first playthrough of ME 2, I had Zaheed and Miranda die, not long after followed by my own X-Box :-(
For ME 3 I bought a version for the PC, and managed to find a site that had preplayed saves for ME 2, so I found one that most closely matched mine (seems no one was so bad a player as to lose anyone [even Zaheed, who it seemed was set up to die if you were playing a Paragon character]).
So I got to meet everyone (and see Miranda's ass again [yep, they set up another scene where the camera was centered on her ass, and as long as you didn't pick a dialogue choice you could view it to your heart's content :-) ). Jack's new appearance was interesting (she actually had on clothes! :-)), and Ashley was looking a lot hotter since 1 and 2, and EDI's had a nice shiny, metallic ass of her own (yeah, I'm focusing on the female crew, so sue me! :-) ).
The Bad:
"Fetch Quests": In addition to the 'Priority' quests, there were other minor quests you could do that were essentially go to Planet X, search it until you find something a person wants, and bring it back to the Citadel. Its these kind of quests I absolutely HATE in a MMO, and I wasn't fond of it here either.
The 'keyboard control scheme': After two games of getting used to using the X-Box controller, using the keyboard to play just felt wrong to me, and I was often either ordering squadmates places they shouldn't go, or not picking my power screen at the right time, and getting killed as a result. I only got used to the control scheme near the end.
Speaking of which, lets now talk about THE ENDING :-):
Now, I know how so many people have said how they hated the ending, but first, let me give you my choice:
I choose to Control the Reapers, which resulted in the destruction of the Mass Relays, and Shepard's apparent death.
Now, I fully expected Shepard to die in the end (heroes often die in some great sacrifice to stop a threat, like Sherlock Holmes, for instance), so I had no problem with that, nor did I have a problem with the ME Universe being drastically changed by the destruction of the Mass Relays.
The only other choice was to destroy all electronic technology in the galaxy, essentially reducing everyone to little better than Iron Age technology. This way at least the possibility exists that some race can recreate the Relay tech, and open the galaxy up to exploration again.
Yes, there were a lot of questions left unanswered, but on the whole, I've got to say I'm with the minority who, if I didn't fall in love with the ending, wasn't that dissapointed by it as well.
That being said, they should have included an ending where, if you completed absolutely EVERY minor quest (and maybe thrown a couple of very hard to find ones as well), you could get a 'Happily Ever After' ending where the Reapers are defeated and everyone survives.
I may update this entry later, but those are my initial thoughts, less after half an hour after finishing the game.
Edit: Okay, maybe my attitude towards the ending is starting to change, now that I've seen one reviewer in particular: Angry Joe.
Here is his "Top 10 Reasons why the Ending Sucks": Angry Joe Bad Ending
As I listened to it, I found I agreed with much he had to say, despite the fact that I'm still more or less satisfied with the ending I choose.
He also presented another interesting theory, though, that Shepard was actually Indoctrinated by the Reapers!!! 0_0: Shepard Indoctrinated!?!?
If this actually proves true, then I will be royally pissed, as there was really no indication that this was the 'wrong' choice that I made!!
Well, the 'new' ending will soon be available, and we'll all find out, I guess.
Comments