****SPOILERS****
The first hours of the third installement of the Mass Effect series were very promising. I remember thinking to myself how far the game had come, it wasn't merely a 'do this then talk to this person'. There were tensions among the crew as one would expect. I ultimately felt that these characters had come so far. The graphics were great and the animation of the characters was amazing, no longer did they just 'stand and talk'. The missions are diverse and exciting, offering lots of different content. However by far my favourite part was how emotionally invested I found myself in this game, I had just seen the destruction of Earth, I could feel the weight on my FemShep, the toll this must have been taking. the game continued this trend and quickly became one of my favourite games of all time...that was until the ending.
For those of you who do not know the ending was not well received by fans, yes it is early days but I am seeing a trend occurring. It would appear that no matter the actions you take you are rewarded with the same ending with a small chance Shepard lives. You can reunite the Quarians and Geth and allow the quarians to return to their home world ...just for the Mass Effect relays to be destroyed and for them to be stranded in our solar system. However this was hardly the biggest issue, the crucible, the weapon was apparently an VI that was intent on watching the cycle reoccuer as synthetic life will always inevitably destroy organic life. You are then offered 3 choices, all which lead to the destruction of the Mass Effect relays, effectively ending relations between different aliens. Yes you heard that correct, you reunite a galaxy to have that mean nothing. Now you may be thinking 'but surely they could rebuild the Mass Effect relays', well this is where the game takes an even larger leap of shit cliff, supposedly in the future there is a grandfather telling his grandson about 'The Shepard' legend which hints to space travel no longer being a reality. Why should I be happy with this? Joker and the crew get stranded on a planet to supposedly die there, Shepard is he/she survives is left to die alone on the citadel, there is no mention of any of the other aliens. What are we supposed to make of this? Did any decisions matter? No, I am not asking for a happy disney ending, but I should have the choice, let me decide if Shepard lives. Most worlds were destroyed, many people died, how is that not bleak. all I ask is for a little hope, to maybe see Shepard destroy the reapers and for it to mean something. For there to be some sort of hope, maybe a few scenes of Shepard helping rebuild, a new life. Make there different endings, perhaps the best being Shepard lives and we get some sort of conclusion.
I feel like Bioware took the worst possible route, what motivation is there for me to go back and play when I know it means nothing? Why unite a universe that will be torn apart. And why was there no option to tell the VI that the cycle had broken, the geth and quarians were working together, proving the VI wrong. Why did I have to choose between 3 doomed choices? This left more questions than answers.
