The extended Mass Effect 3 ending is now out, and we can consider whether it was a good idea to complain about the original ending. Here is some of what the download gives us:
“Against all odds, and in the face of the greatest threat this galaxy has ever known, we survived.
We suffered many losses. The relays are severely damaged, but we won.
This victory belongs to each of us…every man, woman, and child. Every civilization…on every world.
Now, as we take our first steps towards restoring what we lost, we must remember what it took to win.
This wasn’t a victory by a single fleet, a single army, or even a single species.
If this war has taught us anything, it is that we are at our strongest when we work together.
And if we can put down our grievances long enough to stop something as powerful as the Reapers, imagine what we can achieve now that they are defeated.
It will take time, but we can rebuild everything that was destroyed. Our homes, our worlds, our fleets and defenses. All of this and more.
Together, we can build a future greater than any one of us can imagine.
A future paid for by the sacrifices of those who fought and died alongside us. A future that many will never see.
And while we still have many challenges ahead of us. We can face them together. And we will honor those who died to give us that future.”
Someone never bought into the whole “War Against Cliché” thing. And no further comment is necessary.
The extended ending makes me realize how much I disliked the long morale speeches in the game … can I say openly that the writing above is sort of terrible? Here, the extended ending has simply amplified the worst things about the game. And I have very little interest in having the fate of every single character spelled out for me. Did Grunt finally open the auto repair shop that he had always dreamt of? That belittles what I found interesting in the game. But again, this the Lost ending problem: how do you wrap up a work with broad appeal, given that the audience may have very different investments?
How do you wrap up a work with broad appeal? Maybe with a “write your own ending based on your previous choices” option, or how about simply the 16 distinct endings that were promised?
@Beaugrand_RTMC It’s a tad more complicated than that: I don’t want to hear a clichéed roundup like in the clip above, but other people do… So there is wide disagreement about what constitutes a well executed ending.
The root problem with the ending of Mass Effect 3 was it undercut the premise for the entire trilogy: decisions will have meaning. Bioware could have avoided the controversy by simply following the formula they used for the opening sequences of Dragon Age Origins… but in reverse. In DA:O, players started the game by playing a class specific opening sequence. There were six in total. They all began in different locations, all told a unique story, and all contained unique characters. Each sequence had a unique ending after which, all classes proceeded to the start point of the main story.
ME 3 should have followed this structure, but in reverse. The main story should have led players to a central end point after which, based on their past decisions they would branch off into one of several unique and distinctly different finales. Yes, this would have created much more work for Bioware but the reality is multiple and distinctly different endings weren’t optional, they were mandatory And there’s simply no way Bioware didn’t fully understand this. But they, meaning EA management, instead chose the least expensive option.
@David I think your design suggestion makes sense, but I also think that I personally accepted the ME3 ending because I felt that the ending was on such as vast galactic scale that I didn’t feel that every small decision I made would have to be reflected in this ending.