With all of the contraversy surrounding Mass Effect 3's ending, I knew the outcome of the game before I ever played it. Having finally finished the game, I now wish that I would've waited until I'd finished it myself before seeing what all the fuss was about. The most consistent response that I kept seeing ahead of actually playing it myself was, "amazing game, but that last 20 minues suck". I mostly agree with this. Mostly.
Right before the game released I had the unpleasant surprise of realizing that I'd accidentally deleted my Mass Effect 2 save file, and considering I've been playing with my Shepard from the first game, I had to play through Mass Effect 2 again. I have to admit that it was nice playing through the Mass Effect 2 with all of the DLC from the start though. I mostly made all of the same decisions as I had in my original play through, but I did make some changes. Upon completing Mass Effect 2 again, and loving every second of it (and completing every single mission possible), I had to wonder if it was even possible for Mass Effect 3 to top it.
The short answer to that question is "YES!".
There are multiple areas where Mass Effect 3 trumps it's predecessor; graphics and shooting controls were two big ones for me. Going from Mass Effect 2 directly into 3, I immediately noticed how much better the game looks. The amount of detail in the character's faces is extraordinary. I kept finding myself waiting for the next time I ran into a former crew member just so I could see all of the extra definition in their faces. The lighting effects appear to be much improved over Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 as well.
The most welcome improvement to Mass Effect 3 for me personally are the shooting controls. Although Mass Effect 2's controls weren't bad by any means, but they could get a little cumbersome in tense firefights. Mass Effect 3 manages to alleviate this problem with subtle tweaks to the aiming mechanics that produce a shooting experience that could go toe to toe with more dedicated shooting games. The cover system can get frustrating in crowded areas, but that's something that most games that have a cover system suffer from.
But Mass Effect's bread and butter is it's story, something that I've been fully invested in since before the first game shipped. One of my absolute favorite things about Mass Effect 3 is the inclusion of characters and themes from the novels into the game. All three of the novels thus far have told a separate story from the games, with only mentions of Commander Shepard's exploits. It could be argued that the novels are the story of Kahlee Sanders as she is the only person to appear in each novel as a main character; though Anderson has predominant roles in "Revelation" and "Retribution".
Mass Effect 3 players will remember Kahlee Sanders from the Grissom Academy mission that saw Shepard meeting up with Jack again. Kahlee Sanders was the woman that ran the school and was mentioned as a possible love interest with Anderson. In one of the possible conversation branches with Anderson, a man named Grayson is mentioned, he too is from the novels. Kai leng is also from the novels and the part where Anderson talks about shooting him in both legs happened in the book "Retribution".
But the part that everybody seems to be so divided over is the ending. Now, the way I see it, the whole game can be considered "the ending", but it's the last 20 minutes or so that has everyone so riled up. Before I ever played the game I watched videos of the ending because I let my curiosity get the best of me. I was sure that the "indoctrination theory" was what was really going on and that it simply went over most player's heads. And I still believe that after finishing it myself....to an extent.
The part where Shepard is running toward the beam and gets shot by Harbinger, I believe that this is the part where it becomes a battle between Shepard's will and indoctrination. But where it gets weird is when the battle ends and reality sets back in. It seems to me that when Shepard lies down on the lift, right before the child scene, is when reality sets back in. But I'm not really sure because there are so many things happening afterward that don't seem to make sense. It's possible that the entire ending sequence following the point when Shepard is hit by the laser beam is in his mind, which is what I actually hope is the case. Otherwise there seems to be quite a few inconsistencies.
But overall Mass Effect 3 does an excellent job of bringing all of the stories that have evolved over the course of the series to a satisfying conclusion. And the fact that now, after three games of choices, the game could be so different from what I experienced, has me wanting to play the whole trilogy again. The feeling of despair and a galaxy at war is conveyed with master precision and not once did I ever feel like it was forced or fake. I've already started a second playthrough just so I can do things a little differently and see if I can get a better result than the first time I played it.
Bioware has crafted it's finest game yet in mass Effect 3, which is why it's such a shame that the final moments ended up being so confusing. Hopefully the upcoming "Mass effect 3: Extended Cut" DLC with shed some much needed clarification on the game's ending. But regardless of what the actual ending turns out to be, nothing can change the fact that Mass Effect 3 is an amazing game worthy of any self respecting gamer's time.
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