Saying goodbye to Mass Effect

[Matrix Dragon]

"Did you just wipe out all life in the galaxy?"

"Not on purpose!"

[dark seraph]

I love that in the clip, Shepard (both male and female) Face sums it all up.

Shepard: I... oh shit, I just did something really stupid didn't I?

Star Child: Ohhhhhhh Yeah.

[Logan Darklighter]

( LOL...  Was just about to post this thing and saw you'd posted while I was writing. Hell of an epitaph there! "My finger slipped!" )

I disagree. All through ME1 and ME2, and especially in ME2, there were pretty broad hints that there was something special about humanity, about our diversity. Remember what Mordin said in reference to the plague on Omega and why humans were immune to it? Why did the Reapers try to harvest us to create a human Reaper? What's so special about us they would do that? There were more hints about humans being special somehow, those are just a couple of the more obvious ones.

I think the main theme throughout ME1 and 2 was - "Unity in the face of differences, and respecting those differences, to overcome impossible odds." I was expecting ME3 to be like the last act of ME2, on a Galactic scale. And that, like ME2, there would be mistakes you could make that would make the ending less than ideal. Whole races could be killed off. But that there would be an entire range of possibilities from total failure and Reapers win, all the way over to Reapers are taken out and the various races all survive in some fashion (though with horrible losses of course.) 

Then ME3 pulls a switch in theme and it becomes "victory through sacrifice". That's a very different theme. But okay. I can buy that. War is hell and all. 

But even there, the endings did not come organically from the themes that were already being established. They come out of left field. Though the EC apparently does a lot to help smooth that out. 

And that brings me to the other point of disagreement. 

Actually - I'll start with an agreement. The Refusal ending as it stands is perfectly valid ending. But there should have been an alternate path. 

Refusal and Hard Victory. If your EMS is high enough - say - a PERFECT score or 99.9% of what's possible to get, then when you Refuse, the United Races keep going and outright defeat the Reapers through conventional means. I think that would have been awesome, and I've already said so in many ways multiple times and why. 

So why even put the "Refuse = Fail" thing in the game at all if you're not going to have it's opposite counterpart? Unless you're making a statement on something. I think they are. And the statement is that they still think the fans were wrong and they were right. Their entire PR campaign has hinged on them playing the victim but trying to be magnanimous about pleasing the un-pleasable fans. That still irks me. 

Anyway - there's another fact that pretty much nails my opinion that the addition of the Refusal Ending was at least partially a troll move on EAs part. And that's that they added in that bit about shooting Casper the Genocidal Ghost. ("My finger slipped!" I'm still laughing at that one. )  I mean c'mon! Tell me that's not a troll move! LOL

I think Casey Hudson was a little ticked off by how many youtube videos were showing nothing but Shepard shooting the kid over and over and over again. That visual has become a minor meme of their own, by now. It amuses me to think of him getting angry enough to order that feature put in. "I'll show THEM!"    Heh..

ALL THAT ASIDE... I'll repeat that I like the idea of there being a 4th choice. It's a bleak choice, but again - it's a valid one. 

And I'm still kinda "meh" myself at this time. 

But... Seeing a lot of surprisingly positive reviews on this is making me cautiously... hopeful a little bit, I guess. I've even thought about re-installing the first two games. Not today. Not even this month. But someday. 

Still not sure if I can be arsed to go buy ME3 or not. When I can find a good used copy for under 20 dollars, I might even consider it. 30 if it's the special edition. But that's a long way away if ever. 

[Matrix Dragon]

Or maybe it was an easter egg based off the meme that spawned?

[Dartz]

The 4th one. It's the choice all true Gainax fans will take.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?