Mass Effect 3: The Esctacy and the..What? Really?

Warning: Spoilers

Because I avoided learning very much about Mass Effect 3’s ending controversy, I didn’t really know what to expect. Well for me it’s over now. Yikes.

On the surface, 3 isn’t much different than the previous game but there are hints of the catastrophic direction Bioware was about to turn. They deliberately made progressing towards the final mission more difficult for exclusive single play. They addressed this with an extended DLC but I still got frustrated with gathering war assets and cheated.

Regarding the Steam version performance issues, enough hate buckets have been tossed that EA has responded. There’s no solution yet but they claim to be investigating. As well they should considering their asking price. I started the game on normal difficulty but got frustrated with a boss, turned the difficulty down and tried using my Steam controller. That got me through the boss fight but made the fps drops all the more noticeable. I think it’s because I put more constant pressure on the toggle than the w key. One spin through Citadel and it was back to the keyboard. I left the difficulty alone.

So far in the series, I had only lost 3 squad mates and enjoyed reconnecting with all the survivors in the final instalment. The Citadel DLC is really worth it. Shepard avoided romance in Mass Effect 1 and connected with Jack in 2 after he blew it with Miranda. I was really happy with that decision after she gave Shepard a tattoo. Perfect. Seeing no fun Javik sprawled out on the bathroom floor in morning after confusion was great too.

For the final mission, I picked Kaiden and James because they are both Earth home boys and deserved the glory, right? Oh so wrong. At the very end, Shepard goes it alone. I should have seen that coming. Thanks to the Leviathan DLC, I was a bit prepared for Catalyst interaction but when he laid out all Shepard’s choices I picked none. At that point everything should have gone to hell but I picked the “You’re wrong” dialogue option. Catalyst said, “Do what you must” and then nothing. I had no idea what to do next. Injury had caused Shepard to move at the speed of a drunk witcher. Well a Witcher EE Geralt that is. I wasn’t inspired to wander around and check everything out so he just dragged himself down the middle platform until he abruptly triggered a cut scene that depicted him diving into a beam and dispersing himself and that was that. I had chosen synthesize. I was confused until EDI began explaining it all. Cut scenes began to flash by. I remember a cute little baby Krogan. The final scene made me groan quite loudly.

I’m trying to imagine playing through without all the DLC and I can’t. I get the impression that the writers had all these plot twists planned from the get go. (Update 11/26/2020: According to Mass Effect 1 and 2's lead writer they did not. Original 'Mass Effect' writer talks about the possible endings for 'Mass Effect 3'  and Drew Karpyshyn ). They probably thought that players would be amazed and if this was a series of movies or TV episodes we all might have been. However, this is a game and a game that consistently rewarded Paragon Shepard for being a good soldier. The only logical option for Shepard didn’t really seem like a good soldier reward. The other two options turned him into the “Chosen One” which caused me to opt for none of the above.

As for the original ending, I guess players were just supposed to infer that whatever had happened the Milky Way had turned out alright and they had just created the best galactic bed time story in history. The end.